Softly, Slowly and Sentimentally

I was a very little kid when I saw computer for the first time. The ugly little box had a black screen with green characters on it. The teacher was teaching BASIC at that time, softly, slowly and sentimentally. Soon I found some guy called Bill Gates, who started from BASIC and finally became to one of the most successful business people. He was not a pretty boy in school, but he did what he loved and he was smart. Now we all use what he invented 20 years ago. In this way, he changed the world.

I deadly wanted to have a PC in 1990s, which my family couldn't afford. I don't know whom to thank, but in 1997, I had a $2000 white box, which has been sent to my cousin as a gift after several upgrades. I spent thousands of hours in front of it and never became tired or bored, from Windows 95 to Windows XP, learning various types of software, trying to overclock and adding new hardware. I can still remember the first time I touched it, softly, slowly and sentimentally.

As I grew up, I realized that there would be the next big things. I was excited about the first boom of Internet but also soon heard the bang. I used to compare which was better, ATI, 3dfx or S3, but now they are all sold. I still remember the change on HP logo, from "Hewlett-Packard" to "invent". I deadly love the word and love the saying "invention inspires invention". I used to put it in my MSN signature, softly, slowly and sentimentally.

Soon Google became the next big thing. Google has cool technologies which I may never understand, but they promise they will make money without doing evil and they only hire nice and smart people. I still remember when I asked the question "Wall Street or Google" to Kaifu Lee. That was the first time I met a real Googler. The answer is not important now. What I can remember is how he answered me softly, slowly and sentimentally.

Later I joined the battle to become someone's apprentice and was selected by General Electric. After the 10-week internship, the company kept me waiting for 3 months for a job offering. During the 3 months, I suffered all the way of wearing black suits and pretending to be passionate towards jobs I never like. But I also thanked all these suffering, which helped me figure out what I love in the lifetime. I love to help solve some of the world's toughest problems, invent new things that benefit the rest and always sustain integrity while doing business. I am not regretted to sacrifice all the good salary, fancy clothing, five-star hotel and first-class air ticket if I lose any of the values above. Many people remember what Steve Jobs said in Stanford last year, "stay foolish, stay hungry" and they become that aggressive. But there is another sentence which is almost forgotten but more important, "you've got to find what you love". I can imagine, at this point of time, Steve read it softly, slowly and sentimentally.