At the risk of appearing a bit new agey, I thought i'd share a bit of today's horoscope:
What is the definition of a failure?
It is a person who has stopped trying to succeed.
When should you stop trying?
Never.
Love it. ^_^
Catching up at lunch yesterday I was telling my insanely smart friend Kevin about this frustration of mine.
He said I was a Tummler.
So now I feel much better going into the new year feeling like there's a place for me at the big kids table.
But I'm still not sure how to answer the "what do you do" question.
this year, i'm going to start giving shout outs to people who influence and inspire me in the hopes that you'll get to know who they are and the work they do too.
meet isaac mao. if you don't know who he is, you should. especially his thoughts on what he calls "sharism" -- it resonates with me.
i'm honored to be able to call him a friend and always appreciate the time he's taken from his insanely busy schedule the past few years to catch up for a late night coffee here or a lunch there when our paths cross in shanghai. he is truly inspiring.
also super grateful that he's set aside time and confirmed to speak at [re]think : shanghai in may. he'll be sharing his insights about "cloud intelligence"
in the meantime, have a read of his most recent article in the guardian. it gives a nice glimpse into what's on his mind lately.
you can follow him on twitter at @isaac and say hello. he's a really nice guy.
it's 2010.
wow. where'd the decade go.
i spent much of new years eve on a flight from boston to los angeles looking back on the past ten years. a little out of character for me because i am perpetually moving forward trying to outrun myself and i hate looking back. but a 6 hour flight across the country on new years eve will do that to a person i guess.
ten years ago i was living in shanghai. 23 years old who refused to spend her post college years climbing a corporate ladder within the confines of an office cubicle. china dotcom bubble was in full swing. i had to be in shanghai. it was my first failed startup. and i was hooked. drive fast, take chances my friend jd used to say in our early days in china. lots of crazy drunken nights at bonne sante with jeff, weaver, miyuki, sok, sam, michelle...
i spent 5 fast paced years in shanghai. new york on crack people sometimes say. i loved it most of the times. i hated it towards the end. the money was good. the work hard, drink hard took its toll. you worked hard to try and keep up with the pace of the city. a city constantly torn down and rebuilt while you were living in it. you drank hard because at times it seemed the only thing left to do at the end of the day. i dated a nice australian guy for much of those years. he wanted to marry me. it took me one question about where i wanted to live in sydney to realize i didn't feel the same. i was 27. i missed the states. my parents were aging. my marketing director position was getting localized. a new version of shanghai was emerging. one that didn't need me anymore i felt. it was time to head home.
i looked to hawaii as a transition in 2003. i met joe and can honestly say i know what it feels like to fall madly -- and blindly -- in love with someone. i knew i was going to marry him. i even told miyuki nine months before he asked me. he was a naval officer. a navy diver. and a nuclear engineer. we eloped in hawaii. we were so happy. that was half a decade ago. it sounds more dramatic when you can say it that way. i'm a drama queen at times so indulge me for the duration of the blog post.
life. seriously, you can't script this stuff. because if you could, i certainly wouldn't have written the next chapter the following way.
my sister susie committed suicide 3 days after joe and i got our marriage certificate. i became pregnant with my son a month after. 4 months after he was born, joe deployed to iraq on an aircraft carrier. 6 months after that we were trying to piece our marriage back together. 6 months later the bush administration got the idea to do a surge deployment. off he went again. 3 months later we were trying to piece our marriage back together - again. 6 months after that he left us. 6 months after that the divorce was finalized.
as downward spirals go, we never stood a chance.
...
the past ten years of my life. exhausting at best. depressing at worst. but absolutely necessary in lessons learned about myself.
so what do you do when you find yourself afraid of standing still for fear that you'll stop dreaming.
so here i am. moving forward into the new decade simplifying my life with three lessons i'm carrying over from the last one.
...
stay resilient.
surround myself with good people.
don't stop dreaming.
...and do it all from hawaii. i can't wait.
...
happy new decade.
