A Tale from Silicon Valley
Welcome to the future!
Google. Facebook. Uber. Airbnb. I bet you heard about those companies before. I actually bet you use their services frequently or even in every single day of your life right now.
Am I right?
Those companies have a lot of things in common, but I would like to shed light in one of them: they were founded in this amazing place called Silicon Valley.
I came to Silicon Valley five months ago and was amazed with everything I saw and experienced here.
Let me tell you why.
- Exponential Technology
Blockchain. This was literally one of the first words I heard when I came here. Block-what? I had no idea what that could possibly mean. Amazing, right? Yes, but it's just everyday life here. Virtual Reality, Augmented Reality, Blockchain, Bitcoin, Artificial Intelligence, Internet of Things and so on. Those are the exponential technologies that became the entrepreneur's tools towards making change and impacting the world.
What about travelling without leaving your house? Virtual Reality. And making a payment without a bank in the middle? Blockchain and bitcoin. And then everything is going to be connected, yeah, right. Internet of Things.
It's all possible. It's all happening already. Just imagine and you can do it.
2. Entrepreneurs
Everyone you meet here has an incredible story to tell. The bar is actually set really (really) high. You meet 18-year-olds working with gene testing and providing electricity to rural areas in developing countries; children around the age of 10 that already have more than five apps in the App Store and are already impacting their surroundings... The list is long!
Larry Page. Sergey Brin. Mark Zuckerberg. Travis Kalanick. Brian Chesky. Those are the big names of the companies mentioned before. The so called "entrepreneurs", the type of people that isn't just satisfied with the current status and is willing to work really hard to completely disrupt an industry and make it better.
Sleeping in a stranger's house? Entering a stranger's car? Looking for all the information online with a single click? Connecting with all your friends? We never thought any of those things would be possible. We might even laugh after hearing the idea… But it's not only possible, it's real!
How great is an environment where everyone you encounter has an amazing story to tell? Where everyone is doing something great?
Which leads me to my next point…
3. "Get Things Done"
As an action oriented person, that is my favourite thing about this place. It's all about making things happen and getting things done. You think, you start, you finish.
Here, it's not really about talking, but about doing. Silicon Valley is the epicentre for doers, achievers and makers. (And I love it!)
4. The Future
This place is not about History or the past. You've learned that in school already. Silicon Valley is about the future and what is going to be big in the next 10, 20, 30… 100 years! Think about space, colonizing mars, mining meteors, emotionally intelligent robots, unhackable systems, highly accessible and trackable information, living for 500 years…
“The best way to predict the future is to create it yourself.” — Peter Diamandis, co-founder of Singularity University, personal motto
So now hop on and enjoy the ride on this fast-paced rocket.
Destination: Silicon Valley!
