2/14/2014
“For me the most inspiring part of the trip wasn’t the rich startup culture which we felt temporarily a part of, the cutting edge technology we were exposed to, or the...
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By: Tiffany Priosoetanto
“For me the most inspiring part of the trip wasn’t the rich startup culture which we felt temporarily a part of, the cutting edge technology we were exposed to, or the beautiful state of California that we lived in. The best part of the trip was developing close relationships with a group of 32 sharp, like-minded, entrepreneurial, Illinois students with whom I can see myself being life-long friends.”– Ehsan Razfar, Junior in Computer Science.
#TECSV14. One symbol, five letters and two digits; together they symbolize something more than the 32 students could ever imagine to take away from this trip. It was really when each student looked back on the Technology Entrepreneur Center’s 2014 Silicon Valley Entrepreneurship Workshop did they fully recognized that they were a part of an absolutely unique and eye-opening experience.
A lesson learned from the trip was taught to us very early on in the adventure. A common phrase used throughout out the trip was that “you don’t know what you don’t know” and this speaks volumes because throughout the trip, the mind-set for excellence has been associated with failure and the unknown.
The failure portion can be seen in great companies such as Yelp, Optimizely and Bloc.io, to name a few, and they were the results of founders continuously ‘pivoting’ and pushing forward from mistakes.
As for the unknown, in hindsight a lot of us assumed that this would just be a great networking opportunity with the companies. And it was! However, when we got back to Champaign it was surprising not just how well we got along, but how much inspiration we got from each other.
Janna Eaves, a Junior in Materials Science and Engineering, best sums it up in her response, “My favorite part of the trip was being around people who had no doubt that one person could change the world, and were in fact certain that it could be them. Now I want to be next!”
Another huge takeaway we learnt was to always embrace the act of learning and thirst for knowledge. We have learnt that failures are inevitable but to take it in stride, or even get excited by it because you’ve gained new knowledge.
As K.R Sridhar, founder of Bloom Energy, put it “You always need to be curious. You always need to be learning. You always need to be asking.”
But what do we do with that curiosity?
Max Levchin, co-founder of PayPal and HVF, and Michael Callahan, cofounder of One, Inc., held speaker workshops where they honed in all our inspiration and curiosity and directed it into “fixing a need” or finding the solution to “what sucks”.
In addition to the many new start-up prospects, many of us have also gained a new sense of humor and camaraderie. There were a lot of goofy moments on the trip, with reoccurring jokes such as the hash tag dance that Matt Grimm, an MBA student, created and the invention of Velcro hooves when we saw cows standing on the very steep California hills, pointed out by our TEC Director Andrew Singer.
An analogy given by Mikio Ishimaru, founder of Ishimaru & Associates LLP, was a source of inspiration for many of us. Mikio explains how life is like a fishing rod; now, while we are young, we are the fishing line, with the ability to be flexible and the potential to go far, but as you get older you’ll eventually become the reeling mechanism, where it is less flexible and occurs in the same revolving motion.
Acknowledging and appreciating those words, the students came back from this trip with a newfound outlook on entrepreneurship and the role they could play in the world.
Together the students of #TECSV14 are ready to carry out all that they have learnt with the intent and drive to change the world for the better. 