Its been a couple of weeks since my Hack Day win, and I'm currently waiting for pitch day to come. Pitch day is where you present your idea, and try to attract funding from the Product Leadership Team and the Catalyst Group (incubator) to make your idea a reality. The interesting thing is, there are risks associated with project failure (much like in real life business), it could even be a one-way ticket. There's also a leadership reorganizing going on right now, so the future is quite cloudy. I've been debating this internally for quite some time, and reading a lot of different sources to find direction and inspiration.
There are moments in our lives when we summon the courage to make choices that go against reason, against common sense and the wise counsel of people we trust. But we lean forward nonetheless because, despite all risks and rational argument, we believe that the path we are choosing is the right and the best thing to do. We refuse to be bystanders, even if we do not know exactly where our actions will lead.
This is the kind of passionate conviction that sparks romances, wins battles, and drives people to pursue dreams others wouldn't dare. Belief in ourselves and in what is right catapults us over hurdles, and our lives unfold.
"Life is a sum of all your choices," wrote Albert Camus. Large or small, our actions forge our futures, hopefully inspiring others along the way.
Was listening to this song while reading the above quote which made it even more epic.
I also had the pleasure to attend a talk by Adam Lashinsky, author of "Inside Apple: How America's Most Admired and Secretive Company Really Works." He talked about how when Steve Jobs came back, he bet the whole company on a radically new design for the iMac. Michael Dell (CEO of Dell Computers) in 1997 suggested that Apple should "shut it down and give the money back to the shareholders." In an alternate universe, the new iMac could have failed and Apple would have been finished, and there would be no iTunes, iPhone, iPad, Apple TV, etc. What a remarkable risk that Steve Jobs took going all-in on the iMac. What a pivotal turning point in history.
I was talking to one of my co-workers at dinner about this potential one-way ticket to ride to ruin or glory. I asked him, am I crazy for pursuing this given the risk? His answer was... mmm, nope sounds like something you'd do.
