I think it’s a story that many Asian Americans will tell, which is that their families don’t really understand that a creative job or life is something you can even pursue. […] As a reaction to that, I actually shut myself off from the Chinese community and my family for a long time. I rejected it, because I didn’t feel like they accepted me for who I was—a creative person. On top of that, Americans didn’t really accept me as part of their society and culture because I was Asian.
— Shawna X in an interview with The Great Discontent
It’s official: 14 years of staring at a screen and scribbling in a notebook for a living. Starting a business is like taking flight without knowing if you’ll stay in the air. I can’t explain it, but I haven’t touched the ground yet. Thanks for your patience and support. The 17-year-old kid who skipped school to freelance could never have imagined any of this.
Now-a-days you hear people not going to college and starting businesses and it’s just kind of this sexy, understood concept. Be smart, work 24/7 on your start-up. It wasn’t like that when I was getting started; college was something that was pushed onto many kids in my particular generation. I didn’t have the money for college and it seemed better to take a year off and figure some things out. It was a big decision to not attend college, it was a decision out of necessity.
— Chuck Anderson in an interview with Chicago Creatives
Yes. I shared this exact experience and feeling.
“It looks like you’re a gangster trying to hack into something.” —Daisy’s 11-year-old sister seeing me work
Previously: Biography
Credibility lasts about two cycles of bad material, and then you’ll probably never get it back. If you let people down, that’s really hard to come back from— harder than climbing from nothing to something, even.
— Louis C.K. in an interview with Pitchfork
I would never have a five-year plan. If I’d stuck to my original five-year plan when I was 18, I would have missed every great thing that ever happened to me.
— Marissa Mayer in an interview with Bloomberg Businessweek
If it hasn’t [already] been done, and if it’s of value, there’s really good reasons it’s not being done. And so when you’re confronted with those reasons, you’ve got two choices: You can say, “Oh, that’s a very good reason. I’m sorry for bothering you.” Or you can say, “I don’t believe that. I’m going to find out more.”
— Jonathan Ive in an interview with Charlie Rose
