‘Eureka!’

April 14th, 2021

When I was an elementary student, I naturally loved tinkering with technologies on top of playing games (goes the saying “once a gamer, always a gamer”). My parents would try to restrict my computer usage to prevent me from playing games by hiding the keyboard. However, they did not realize that I wasn’t really interested in playing games but rather interested in finding ways to play games in god-mode. So, I did what any third-grade student would do and used a virtual on-screen keyboard instead. Gamers would know that hacking a game is initially fun but the fun also dies off really quickly making the hack meaningless. However, it wasn’t a matter of playing the game but the sensation of having beaten the game.

I also loved building and programming a small Lego vehicle in robotics extracurricular class around the same age. These were the things that I enjoyed rather than typical things like … actually, what do normal kids like? I am not so sure, haha. Anyways, the point is that I loved tinkering and loved implementing novel ideas. In fact, my childhood admiration was Thomas Edison, in hopes of becoming an inventor.

For a long time, I didn’t know what I wanted to do in life. Inventor isn’t a typical option they advise in career counselling either. For a short year during 8th grade, I was really into playing the alto saxophone playing in school concerts. I spent the majority of my high school sleeping in class and during lunchtime.

When my friends were worried about employment, I was worried about being employable but not about being employed. The desire to learn the skills presided the desire for stability. When given two employment offers with the same pay, I took the offer of an unknown company in hopes of learning rather than a public company. In hindsight, it was a stupid mistake as the company didn’t want to continue with the project and laid my friend and me off after a few weeks.

In recent years, I’ve been invested in learning about businesses and what makes a good founder. Something I’ve been pondering about was what kind of business owner I want to be. During today’s shower, I had my own eureka moment of who I am and the type of entrepreneur I want to become. I am an inventor at heart. I need to create something new that’s not just another cafe or a fashion brand. I need to invent and that’s my style.