Stark contrast with New York Times pieces about struggling liberal arts majors with $120K in debt and no hope.
Given what I feel like is a growing class war in modern America, I wish more could embrace stories like this, and not the culture of putting down others' hard work in the name of "equalization." Some accomplished people (such as Asian immigrants or refugees, in this case) have worked really really hard to get where they are.
There is a lot of luck involved in life. Maybe this guy dies on the boat like a lot of other people. I think silicon valley has a very skewed view of the world.
Well the difference is these stories are really really rare where as stories of struggling college graduates with mountains of debt are pretty commonplace.
Might as well tell people to gather inspiration from tales of lottery winners.
I have a particular interest in truly disruptive start-ups, especially ones thats really flout the law like Uber does. I'm under the impression that conventional entrepeneurial wisdom says "Go ahead and break the rules, by the time they catch up with you or you've gained their attention, you'll have the money or support needed to fight for real change". Of course, all you have to do is look at Zenefits to see this isn't always going to be the case. It makes you wonder what type of person it takes to run a company like that. I relize Thuan isn't the CEO/founder, but when I think about a disruptive business, I weight up the threat of serious fines/jail time against a relatively cushy life with a stable 9 to 5. It's really eye-opening to see what type of person it takes to drive a busines like Uber forward.
>when I think about a disruptive business, I weight up the threat of serious fines/jail time
that is the point to Uber's (and the likes) success - they don't bear the risk of personal fines/jail time, it is the drivers who do. Similar setup to the one which prompted RICO.
Helping your employees to cheat on exams versus openly breaking the law because you disagree with it or feel that a law should be changed is of a different taste though.
>I have a particular interest in truly disruptive start-ups, especially ones thats really flout the law like Uber does.
Sorry if I sound ignorant but I don't see how Uber (or 99% of startups) are disruptive at all. I never used it because I prefer other modes of transportation, but it is basically a cab service, right? They just changed the packaging. To my knowledge here they charge exactly the same for a ride, without paying the fees cab companies are due.
The hard problem is to convince (or scam - not talking about Uber here) people to perceive your service as quality over competitors, regardless of what you offer in reality. If you are successful, you can brag and call it disruption.
As a Vietnamese American working in San Francisco this fills me with pride in the strength of our Vietnamese people to persevere. My mother nearly died trying to escape Vietnam and through a successive string of luck ended up immigrating to America and opening a small business in our home state of Virginia.
The article unfortunately skips from Vietnam -> Indonesia ->Maryland in a few short paragraphs. There is likely some amazing depth to this story that is not being surfaced here. I would love for a more in depth interview to be done al la Kevin Rose style.
My college roommate for a few years was also Vietnamese, born in a refugee camp. He went on to a top medical school and today is a specialist doctor.
I often think about how I slacked my way through college, and how hard my friend worked. For me, I figured people were hiring programmers without college degrees, and I could always fall back on my middle class parents; for him and the sacrifices his family made, failure was not an option.
Ugh, another capitalist feel-good story about someone that worked hard and got to the top from rock bottom. It totally ignores that most of the people at the top were born into upper class and it ignores the billion of hardworking people that are still extremely poor.
This is a terrible complaint, should we not celebrate the victories of those who survived tragedy and made it through?
I mean it's terrible that Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders have this model minority myth about it. There are still droves of Vietnamese American immigrants and second generation people who struggle to make ends meet daily but I don't think that should distract from this article.
Many qualities required for someone to flee their home country in a refugee boat seem to be pretty useful for a CXO too.
(I mean things like taking calculated risks, learning to navigate new cultures -- and just the cold blood you need to face those pirate ships. Pretty impressive.)
I agree there is an immigrant "gene" or advantage, but Thuan was 10 at the time. And people didn't need to be adventurous to see they needed to leave Vietnam in the 70s. Especially if they were American allies.
[+] [-] lpsz|10 years ago|reply
Given what I feel like is a growing class war in modern America, I wish more could embrace stories like this, and not the culture of putting down others' hard work in the name of "equalization." Some accomplished people (such as Asian immigrants or refugees, in this case) have worked really really hard to get where they are.
[+] [-] magic_man|10 years ago|reply
http://articles.economictimes.indiatimes.com/2013-06-18/news...
There is a lot of luck involved in life. Maybe this guy dies on the boat like a lot of other people. I think silicon valley has a very skewed view of the world.
[+] [-] akilism|10 years ago|reply
Might as well tell people to gather inspiration from tales of lottery winners.
[+] [-] violentvinyl|10 years ago|reply
[+] [-] trhway|10 years ago|reply
that is the point to Uber's (and the likes) success - they don't bear the risk of personal fines/jail time, it is the drivers who do. Similar setup to the one which prompted RICO.
[+] [-] jacquesm|10 years ago|reply
[+] [-] unknown|10 years ago|reply
[deleted]
[+] [-] a_imho|10 years ago|reply
Sorry if I sound ignorant but I don't see how Uber (or 99% of startups) are disruptive at all. I never used it because I prefer other modes of transportation, but it is basically a cab service, right? They just changed the packaging. To my knowledge here they charge exactly the same for a ride, without paying the fees cab companies are due.
The hard problem is to convince (or scam - not talking about Uber here) people to perceive your service as quality over competitors, regardless of what you offer in reality. If you are successful, you can brag and call it disruption.
[+] [-] stephenitis|10 years ago|reply
The article unfortunately skips from Vietnam -> Indonesia ->Maryland in a few short paragraphs. There is likely some amazing depth to this story that is not being surfaced here. I would love for a more in depth interview to be done al la Kevin Rose style.
[+] [-] evmar|10 years ago|reply
I often think about how I slacked my way through college, and how hard my friend worked. For me, I figured people were hiring programmers without college degrees, and I could always fall back on my middle class parents; for him and the sacrifices his family made, failure was not an option.
It's a real reminder of what privilege means.
[+] [-] legulere|10 years ago|reply
[+] [-] stephenitis|10 years ago|reply
I mean it's terrible that Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders have this model minority myth about it. There are still droves of Vietnamese American immigrants and second generation people who struggle to make ends meet daily but I don't think that should distract from this article.
[+] [-] wimagguc|10 years ago|reply
(I mean things like taking calculated risks, learning to navigate new cultures -- and just the cold blood you need to face those pirate ships. Pretty impressive.)
[+] [-] kelukelugames|10 years ago|reply
[+] [-] iwwr|10 years ago|reply
[+] [-] ptaipale|10 years ago|reply
2nd from the right:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/pakistan/8487...
[+] [-] staunch|10 years ago|reply
[+] [-] cbeach|10 years ago|reply
[+] [-] _navaneethan|10 years ago|reply
Most of the people(engineers) are struggling to overcome this one
[+] [-] rogersmith|10 years ago|reply