I was able to chill my heart out for the first month or so because I was still getting a paycheck. My last full paycheck was on October 21st and I got my last paycheck on November 21st (half a month's worth). So you could say that, for a while there, I was looking kinda like this:
But at the same time, I didn't wanna go broke like MC Hammer or become a leech and/or bum, so part of my time was spent trying to find a part-time tutoring gig(s) so that I can maintain some form of regular income to fund my various other intellectual pursuits, and thanks to a clutch referral from a friend, I was able to secure a very low-maintenance tutoring gig that pays me just a hair under $1000 a month, enough to keep my head above water. The best part is that I only have to work 6 hours a week to make that $1000, freeing up a whole lot of time to do what I actually want to do. This was one of the reasons I quit my job in the first place, so that I'd have more freedom and control over how much of my time is spent "making money" and how much is spent working towards what I'm really interested in.
And what I actually wanted to do, and one of the main reasons I quit my job, was to learn how to code, specifically web programming i.e. HTML, CSS, JavaScript, jQuery (Mobile), AJAX, etc. That might sound like complete gibberish to many people (it did to me too until fairly recently), but those are the building blocks of what we know as "the internet" aka the Web, whether it's checking your email, using Google Maps, viewing your favorite app or website, etc.
We've all seen how the internet and smartphones have changed the way we live, including the way we communicate with others, find information, make purchases, discover new and interesting content, etc. I love watching the world change so much and so quickly right before my eyes, but at a certain point I got sick of just watching all the time, and I wanted to start DOING. (I could make a perverted analogy here, but I will refrain from doing so). I used to be just a regular "user" of the internet just like everyone else I knew, but one day something changed within me and I suddenly wanted to become more than just a user - I wanted to help build and develop the Web, to be a part of its evolution and perhaps be someone who changes it for the better, making life easier for everyone who uses it.
We've all seen how the internet and smartphones have changed the way we live, including the way we communicate with others, find information, make purchases, discover new and interesting content, etc. I love watching the world change so much and so quickly right before my eyes, but at a certain point I got sick of just watching all the time, and I wanted to start DOING. (I could make a perverted analogy here, but I will refrain from doing so). I used to be just a regular "user" of the internet just like everyone else I knew, but one day something changed within me and I suddenly wanted to become more than just a user - I wanted to help build and develop the Web, to be a part of its evolution and perhaps be someone who changes it for the better, making life easier for everyone who uses it.
And so I came up with a plan for myself, which went something like this - I would spend about 6 months or so becoming proficient in web programming while in Korea (where rent and overall cost of living are much cheaper), move back to the States with about $15,000 in personal savings sometime in early 2013, and keep honing my coding skills by day while networking by night with other aspiring and current entrepreneurs, venture capitalists, lawyers, journalists, etc. Anything that could help me get a foot in the door of this new world.
That was the plan, but as the Joker once said, even the best laid plans of mice and men often go awry. (Just kidding, the Joker didn't actually say that)
Through some fortuitous networking, I was unexpectedly presented with a chance to play a major role at an early stage startup that is based in Korea but has very global ambitions. It looked something like this -
I'll be in charge of marketing, PR, and developing the business globally (specifically in the US and UK), which entails securing venture capital funding and finding the right customers for their core product, which is basically a mobile social networking app for amateur sports athletes.
This is a very different "start" from what I originally planned, and so you might be wondering, is this a good thing? Is this a bad thing?
In order to effectively answer this question, it's important to first ask WHY I had made those plans.
In my mind, I have a "Five-Year Plan" for how I want to build my new career. Originally, in "Year 1" I wanted to go back to the States early next year and network aggressively in the entrepreneurial community, then somewhere in Years 1~2 I would find work at a early-stage startup where I'd learn how to run a super-early-stage company, and then in Years 3~5 I would start my own company and depending on how successful or unsuccessful I was, at the 5-year mark I would make a decision on what to do for the next 5 years.
In this "Year 1" of my post-Finance entrepreneurial career, the three things I'm seeking are 1) Knowledge, 2) Experience, and 3) Networking. "Knowledge" as in a better knowledge of IT and building/managing a software product, how to work daily with tech people (which is a first for me), and how to get a new company started and off the ground. "Experience" as in seeing firsthand how difficult and unpredictable working at an early-stage startup can be, being there for the highs and lows, building a quality product and then trying to find the right audience for it, etc. And "Networking" as in meeting lots and lots of people in the industry who might one day become my co-founder(s), my employees, my investor(s), my lawyer, adviser, etc.
Notice that "Money" was not on my list. To be honest, at this stage in my new career, gaining knowledge, experience and a strong entrepreneurial network are more valuable than anything else, even money, and I would literally be willing to work for free to obtain those things, and figure out some other way to make money on the side. Fortunately though, I will be getting paid enough by this startup to live comfortably (though not lavishly by any means), and given how good an opportunity this could be, any money I do get paid is pure gravy.
So how does this new position fulfill these three criteria that I mentioned above?
1. KNOWLEDGE
First off, the reason I wanted to learn coding in my free time is NOT because I plan on becoming a professional, full-time software engineer one day. That was probably the most common and annoying misconception people had whenever I told them I was learning how to code. People would often ask me "Why do you need to learn how to code? Can't you just outsource that to someone? Even if you start learning now, you'll never get as good as people who have been doing that their whole life." And that's partially true but at the same time also very shortsighted, in my humble opinion.
The real reason I want to learn how to code is because I believe that in the very very near future, knowledge of software and the internet will go from being a "nice-to-know" to an absolute prerequisite in almost every industry. Marc Andreessen is one of the most respected innovators and venture capitalists in the world today, and he probably expressed it better than I ever could when he said a year ago that "...we are in the middle of a dramatic and broad technological and economic shift in which software companies are poised to take over large swathes of the economy."
People from "business" often think it's good enough to be "the business guy" or "the idea guy" who tells developers what to do and what to make. But the longstanding gap between the "business guy who knows nothing about tech" and the "tech guy who knows nothing about business" is quickly closing, and overwhelmingly in favor of the tech guys.
Why is that? It's because while everyone in the world is exposed to business and business concepts on an everyday basis, computer science and engineering is a "hard/technical" science and is not something you just randomly come across in your daily life. It's something you have to take time to study and practice for years, even decades, to get really good at. I read somewhere that it generally takes about 2~3 years for a smart tech guy who knows nothing about business to become business-savvy, but it can take anywhere from 5 to 10 years for a smart business guy to become truly tech-savvy. I belong to the latter category, and so the reason I am learning how to code is so that I can start my 5 to 10 years of learning now, so that I won't be left behind in the dust when I'm in my 30s and 40s. It's funny, when I was in high school and college, everyone was saying that we should learn Mandarin Chinese because it was the language of the future, but in fact the real language that we all should've been learning was an altogether different type of language (but a language nonetheless) - computer programming languages.
So that is why I am learning to code. So that whether I am a startup founder or a senior manager at a large company in the future, even if I never write a single line of code, I will be able to communicate effectively with the technology guys and girls whom I work with, and I will be able to attract highly talented engineers and/or co-founders who respect me for my willingness to learn and understand their craft, despite being a "business guy."
The one downside to working full-time at this startup is that I won't have nearly as much time to teach myself how to code as I did before. But on the flip side, I'll be working alongside some very talented engineers, and will be able to ask them lots of questions and learn about the technical side of a startup better than I ever could through a Google search.
2. EXPERIENCE
In terms of gaining valuable experience, I think this is as good an opportunity as I could have hoped for, whether in Korea or the US. We hear a lot about super-successful startups in the news, but the harsh reality is that the vast majority (more than 90%) of startups go nowhere, often due to inexperience and/or a dysfunctional team. Fortunately though, this startup that I'm about to join does not seem to have either of those problems and seems to have as good a chance as you could hope for in a startup.
The Founder/CEO is a guy in his mid-30s who previously led an IT company through a successful IPO and grew it from a few dozen employees to over 200 during his tenure. Despite being Korean, he has a very Western working style and style of leadership which is great news for me, the American. And while most startups outside Silicon Valley struggle to find and hire talented full-time engineers, the CTO (Chief Technology Officer), iOS/Android developers, and lead designer at this startup are as talented as you can find, and they are all forgoing much more "lucrative" career options for the opportunity to make something new and great that could possibly change the world.
My hope and expectation is that by working with these people, I will learn far more than I ever could have on my own or from books and online. There are some great resources online but at the end of the day, learning in person from an expert is always the fastest and best way to learn anything. Sometimes there just aren't enough experts to go around for everyone, but I am one of the lucky few who gets that chance.
3. NETWORKING
Personally, I was really looking forward to moving back to the NYC area. Silicon Valley is the mecca of innovation and dwarfs every other entrepreneurial community in the world, and Boston is also pretty strong in its own right, but I wanted to go to NYC because A) it has a still-small but very fast-growing entrepreneurial community and B) that is where I grew up, where my personal network is strongest, and where many of my friends are living and working.
That's the only real downside to this new position. Although I will have opportunities to go on business trips to Silicon Valley, network with influential "movers and shakers" there, and help set up the US arm of the company, it's hard to predict how much of my time I'll be spending in the US.
To be totally honest, I really do miss the US and I have been itching to leave Korea after four and a half years here. Korea is a great country in many respects - It's amazingly safe, clean, and convenient, and has possibly the world's best technological infrastructure. However, when it comes to anything creativity-related, Korea can be a very disappointing place, to say the least. Part of the reason Korea is such an efficient and well-educated society is because its education system is built around rote memorization and standardized exams. This is great for producing productive employees who can efficiently perform complicated but well-defined tasks, but it's not very good for fostering entrepreneurship.
The reason Silicon Valley is such an amazing ecosystem for entrepreneurship is not because they have a lot of talented engineers or because a lot of tech companies are headquartered there. Korea has lots of engineers and is home to Samsung Electronics and LG Electronics, but is still a terribly ecosystem for entrepreneurship because the culture is very risk-averse, image-conscious, and pragmatic. A healthy entrepreneurial ecosystem encourages irrationally optimistic and idealistic young people to take big, bold risks to try to change the world and encourage them to try again even if they fail. But in Korea, a failed venture can essentially brand you with a scarlet letter that follows you around for your entire career. Korea has a long way to go before it can become a true center for entrepreneurship. Although I will be working at a Korean startup, I'm working there under the assumption that I will be working and networking a lot with investors and entrepreneurs in the US. If it turns out that I am working too much out of Korea or if the product fails to get adopted in the US, then I will have to re-evaluate my options at that time.
In conclusion, I am very (cautiously) optimistic about this new opportunity. Founding a startup is essentially gambling and "going all-in" with your life and your career. It's a risk that you might never be able to recover from, so what I'm most grateful for is that for the next several months, I will be able to learn on someone else's dime BEFORE I myself go all-in. I am coming from an industry (Banking & Finance) that could not be more different than entrepreneurship, and I am basically starting from scratch. I still have a lot to learn before I'm ready to start my own company, but I hope that this startup can offer me a clear path toward that goal.
That was the plan, but as the Joker once said, even the best laid plans of mice and men often go awry. (Just kidding, the Joker didn't actually say that)
Through some fortuitous networking, I was unexpectedly presented with a chance to play a major role at an early stage startup that is based in Korea but has very global ambitions. It looked something like this -
(No, I am not joining the League of Shadows)I'm happy to say that I accepted the offer and I will be working there (as Employee #6) starting this Monday December 10th.
I'll be in charge of marketing, PR, and developing the business globally (specifically in the US and UK), which entails securing venture capital funding and finding the right customers for their core product, which is basically a mobile social networking app for amateur sports athletes.
This is a very different "start" from what I originally planned, and so you might be wondering, is this a good thing? Is this a bad thing?
In order to effectively answer this question, it's important to first ask WHY I had made those plans.
In my mind, I have a "Five-Year Plan" for how I want to build my new career. Originally, in "Year 1" I wanted to go back to the States early next year and network aggressively in the entrepreneurial community, then somewhere in Years 1~2 I would find work at a early-stage startup where I'd learn how to run a super-early-stage company, and then in Years 3~5 I would start my own company and depending on how successful or unsuccessful I was, at the 5-year mark I would make a decision on what to do for the next 5 years.
In this "Year 1" of my post-Finance entrepreneurial career, the three things I'm seeking are 1) Knowledge, 2) Experience, and 3) Networking. "Knowledge" as in a better knowledge of IT and building/managing a software product, how to work daily with tech people (which is a first for me), and how to get a new company started and off the ground. "Experience" as in seeing firsthand how difficult and unpredictable working at an early-stage startup can be, being there for the highs and lows, building a quality product and then trying to find the right audience for it, etc. And "Networking" as in meeting lots and lots of people in the industry who might one day become my co-founder(s), my employees, my investor(s), my lawyer, adviser, etc.
Notice that "Money" was not on my list. To be honest, at this stage in my new career, gaining knowledge, experience and a strong entrepreneurial network are more valuable than anything else, even money, and I would literally be willing to work for free to obtain those things, and figure out some other way to make money on the side. Fortunately though, I will be getting paid enough by this startup to live comfortably (though not lavishly by any means), and given how good an opportunity this could be, any money I do get paid is pure gravy.
So how does this new position fulfill these three criteria that I mentioned above?
1. KNOWLEDGE
First off, the reason I wanted to learn coding in my free time is NOT because I plan on becoming a professional, full-time software engineer one day. That was probably the most common and annoying misconception people had whenever I told them I was learning how to code. People would often ask me "Why do you need to learn how to code? Can't you just outsource that to someone? Even if you start learning now, you'll never get as good as people who have been doing that their whole life." And that's partially true but at the same time also very shortsighted, in my humble opinion.
The real reason I want to learn how to code is because I believe that in the very very near future, knowledge of software and the internet will go from being a "nice-to-know" to an absolute prerequisite in almost every industry. Marc Andreessen is one of the most respected innovators and venture capitalists in the world today, and he probably expressed it better than I ever could when he said a year ago that "...we are in the middle of a dramatic and broad technological and economic shift in which software companies are poised to take over large swathes of the economy."
"More and more major businesses and industries are being run on software and delivered as online services—from movies to agriculture to national defense. Many of the winners are Silicon Valley-style entrepreneurial technology companies that are invading and overturning established industry structures. Over the next 10 years, I expect many more industries to be disrupted by software, with new world-beating Silicon Valley companies doing the disruption in more cases than not."We've all heard the maxim that "Knowledge is Power," but I believe that over the next 10~20 years, it will be the knowledge of technology and the Web that offers the greatest power. People have been talking about how the Internet will transform the world and create a "new economy" for a long time, ever since the Internet became a thing, and the dot-com boom in the late 1990's definitely put a damper on those expectations. But I believe that time has finally come, thanks in large part to the widespread, everyday use of smartphones (essentially hand-held computers), which in turn can be attributed to Apple turning the smartphone into a cool, easy-to-use, and "must-have" consumer product. The Internet used to be a Wild, Wild West that was ventured into only by the most daring of people and businesses, but it's now become an established and secure territory full of possibilities that is essentially another "world" or "dimension" we live in which complements our physical world, and it is software engineers who will become the unquestioned masters and architects of this new world.
People from "business" often think it's good enough to be "the business guy" or "the idea guy" who tells developers what to do and what to make. But the longstanding gap between the "business guy who knows nothing about tech" and the "tech guy who knows nothing about business" is quickly closing, and overwhelmingly in favor of the tech guys.
Why is that? It's because while everyone in the world is exposed to business and business concepts on an everyday basis, computer science and engineering is a "hard/technical" science and is not something you just randomly come across in your daily life. It's something you have to take time to study and practice for years, even decades, to get really good at. I read somewhere that it generally takes about 2~3 years for a smart tech guy who knows nothing about business to become business-savvy, but it can take anywhere from 5 to 10 years for a smart business guy to become truly tech-savvy. I belong to the latter category, and so the reason I am learning how to code is so that I can start my 5 to 10 years of learning now, so that I won't be left behind in the dust when I'm in my 30s and 40s. It's funny, when I was in high school and college, everyone was saying that we should learn Mandarin Chinese because it was the language of the future, but in fact the real language that we all should've been learning was an altogether different type of language (but a language nonetheless) - computer programming languages.
So that is why I am learning to code. So that whether I am a startup founder or a senior manager at a large company in the future, even if I never write a single line of code, I will be able to communicate effectively with the technology guys and girls whom I work with, and I will be able to attract highly talented engineers and/or co-founders who respect me for my willingness to learn and understand their craft, despite being a "business guy."
The one downside to working full-time at this startup is that I won't have nearly as much time to teach myself how to code as I did before. But on the flip side, I'll be working alongside some very talented engineers, and will be able to ask them lots of questions and learn about the technical side of a startup better than I ever could through a Google search.
2. EXPERIENCE
In terms of gaining valuable experience, I think this is as good an opportunity as I could have hoped for, whether in Korea or the US. We hear a lot about super-successful startups in the news, but the harsh reality is that the vast majority (more than 90%) of startups go nowhere, often due to inexperience and/or a dysfunctional team. Fortunately though, this startup that I'm about to join does not seem to have either of those problems and seems to have as good a chance as you could hope for in a startup.
The Founder/CEO is a guy in his mid-30s who previously led an IT company through a successful IPO and grew it from a few dozen employees to over 200 during his tenure. Despite being Korean, he has a very Western working style and style of leadership which is great news for me, the American. And while most startups outside Silicon Valley struggle to find and hire talented full-time engineers, the CTO (Chief Technology Officer), iOS/Android developers, and lead designer at this startup are as talented as you can find, and they are all forgoing much more "lucrative" career options for the opportunity to make something new and great that could possibly change the world.
My hope and expectation is that by working with these people, I will learn far more than I ever could have on my own or from books and online. There are some great resources online but at the end of the day, learning in person from an expert is always the fastest and best way to learn anything. Sometimes there just aren't enough experts to go around for everyone, but I am one of the lucky few who gets that chance.
3. NETWORKING
Personally, I was really looking forward to moving back to the NYC area. Silicon Valley is the mecca of innovation and dwarfs every other entrepreneurial community in the world, and Boston is also pretty strong in its own right, but I wanted to go to NYC because A) it has a still-small but very fast-growing entrepreneurial community and B) that is where I grew up, where my personal network is strongest, and where many of my friends are living and working.
That's the only real downside to this new position. Although I will have opportunities to go on business trips to Silicon Valley, network with influential "movers and shakers" there, and help set up the US arm of the company, it's hard to predict how much of my time I'll be spending in the US.
To be totally honest, I really do miss the US and I have been itching to leave Korea after four and a half years here. Korea is a great country in many respects - It's amazingly safe, clean, and convenient, and has possibly the world's best technological infrastructure. However, when it comes to anything creativity-related, Korea can be a very disappointing place, to say the least. Part of the reason Korea is such an efficient and well-educated society is because its education system is built around rote memorization and standardized exams. This is great for producing productive employees who can efficiently perform complicated but well-defined tasks, but it's not very good for fostering entrepreneurship.
The reason Silicon Valley is such an amazing ecosystem for entrepreneurship is not because they have a lot of talented engineers or because a lot of tech companies are headquartered there. Korea has lots of engineers and is home to Samsung Electronics and LG Electronics, but is still a terribly ecosystem for entrepreneurship because the culture is very risk-averse, image-conscious, and pragmatic. A healthy entrepreneurial ecosystem encourages irrationally optimistic and idealistic young people to take big, bold risks to try to change the world and encourage them to try again even if they fail. But in Korea, a failed venture can essentially brand you with a scarlet letter that follows you around for your entire career. Korea has a long way to go before it can become a true center for entrepreneurship. Although I will be working at a Korean startup, I'm working there under the assumption that I will be working and networking a lot with investors and entrepreneurs in the US. If it turns out that I am working too much out of Korea or if the product fails to get adopted in the US, then I will have to re-evaluate my options at that time.
In conclusion, I am very (cautiously) optimistic about this new opportunity. Founding a startup is essentially gambling and "going all-in" with your life and your career. It's a risk that you might never be able to recover from, so what I'm most grateful for is that for the next several months, I will be able to learn on someone else's dime BEFORE I myself go all-in. I am coming from an industry (Banking & Finance) that could not be more different than entrepreneurship, and I am basically starting from scratch. I still have a lot to learn before I'm ready to start my own company, but I hope that this startup can offer me a clear path toward that goal.
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