Peek Behind the Fly By Curtain
There is so much more that goes into a book than just the words that fill the pages. Prior to becoming an author, I never thought about what inspired a piece of writing, what thoughts or ideas didn’t make the cut, or what the author’s thought process was.
As a new author, there’s so much that I want to share.
Article Series
This will be my articles series for my new book Fly By. I’ll share blurbs of the book, my writing journey, deep dives into the 7 companies that I highlight, and the behind-the-scenes production process for anyone looking to write their own books.
Let’s start with some questions and answers about myself and Fly By.
Who is Grace Huang?
I am a graduate of UC-Berkeley Haas School of Business and part of the inaugural class of the Global Management Program. Over the last three years, I have taken numerous international business classes and studied abroad for one semester in London. My personal experiences, learning in the classroom, and deep conversations (and interviews) with professors have guided me to write this book. Just like a Ph.D. student who has to complete a thesis before he or she graduates, you can think of Fly By as my senior thesis. A culmination of years of thought and a profound passion, Fly By is my cry to the world that international business is just business. But, I can get into this thought later.
Outside of school, I am an avid writer who has a column called Haas to be Business on Poets & Quants for Undergrads, a fervent traveler who cannot wait for travel restrictions to be lifted, a decent home cook who is slowly elevating her skills by watching Masterchef, and an incoming law student who wants to dig into corporate law or intellectual property.
What is Fly By about?
Fly By is a book on international business and entrepreneurship. It’s a look at 7 different founder CEOs of massively successful companies in a variety of industries and how they started their internationally inspired businesses. With each of these 7 companies, I also identify one concept that I believe to be crucial to the startup’s success.
Most business books structure their content in the form of concepts with stories to prove the concepts. I wanted to flip the script. Why?
- Stories of success are much more compelling and exciting to read than definitions and theory.
- I believe in learning through experience. I want to know what entrepreneurial success looks like and how to get there, and the only way for me to find out those secrets is to look at the journeys of people who started and scaled their own entrepreneurial ventures.
- Entrepreneurship isn’t one thing, it’s a million things at once. There’s no better way to showcase the realities of entrepreneurship than to look at how entrepreneurial giants like Howard Schultz, CEO of Starbucks, or Vicky Tsai, Founder of Tatcha stumbled through the problems to reach success.
What makes Fly By different from any other book you’ll read is that it looks at concepts that don’t usually get discussed in business schools but proved to be key in each respective company’s success like the democratization of goods or the beauty of uni-brands. I want this book to be as practical for readers, students, current entrepreneurs, and aspiring entrepreneurs as it is entertaining.
What Inspired You to Write Fly By?
People tease study abroad students for always claiming that study abroad was a life-changing experience. I don’t care. My study abroad experience in London changed the way that I look at and moved in the world. Here’s the example I give in the book.
Prior to London, my family bought all of their groceries from H-Mart and Costco on Saturdays. Grocery shopping was a once-a-week affair and everything we ever needed could be found in these two stores. This grocery shopping model works for my family and many others in the United States because people have cars and fridges large enough to hold a week’s worth of groceries. And, most importantly, this model works because it’s convenient.
I quickly found out in London that what works in one part of the world might not work in a different part of the world. I spent my first month in London struggling with grocery shopping because I didn’t have a car to transport my whole week’s worth of groceries. At one point, I decided this grocery shopping model might have to change because my arms just weren’t built to hold up that kind of weight.
I decided to do something I’ve never done before but witnessed my neighbors doing each week. Go to the grocery shop multiple times a week and get a smaller amount each trip. This small shift in actions changed my life because it changed the way I think. At that moment, I realized that there are a million different ways to live a life that didn’t look like what I spent my first 18 years doing. In fact, there are plenty of things I could be using and ways of doing things that I learned about abroad that elevated my life.
As a business student, I immediately thought about how this could be monetized. After all, in our capitalist society, things that solve problems are highly valued and compensated for. The first company that popped up in my mind was Starbucks because I knew that Howard Schultz got the concept of coffeehouses from Italy. This snowballed into an interest in other companies that got started a plane ride away. This is the foundation of my book. I wanted to share these stories and companies to show aspiring entrepreneurs that inspiration is literally everywhere.
Join me on this international journey!
In the next few weeks, I’ll be sharing more articles, excerpts from the Book, and other stories from my book Fly By, which launches at the end of April 2021 on Amazon! If you want to read more stories and articles or get updates on the launch of Fly By, you can fill out this link. If you want to connect, you can reach me here via email or connect with me on social: @gracehuang_author on Instagram and this link on Linkedin.
