One of our first assignments yesterday was to set up a blog.  Throughout the semester, I will be writing eight blog postings relating to the course.

We were told to watch this video below and react:

I am in total agreement with what Dr. Goldberg says.  There is a stereotypical engineer that Dr. Goldberg describes.  It’s an engineer that has mastered the basics – math, science, and design.  If this is all that you are good at, in today’s world, it will be tough for you to succeed.  You must master the missing basics, which is what iFoundry is attempting to teach their engineers.

Here are a few missing basics that were described in the video:

1) The inability to ask great questions.

2) The inability to model conceptually (they know how to model equations).

3) The inability to decompose a large problem into a set of smaller problems.

4) The inability to communicate.

I have worked with many engineers over the past few years.  The most fundamental missing basic I have seen is described in number four – the inability to communicate.   Let me give you an example: A few years ago I was  working on a side project, and I needed an engineer to help.  Through a friend, I was introduced to a stereotypical engineer.  He graduated from the top of his class at a great engineering school.  He was interested in starting a company, but had no social skills and could not communicate.  This may sound harsh, but I felt like I was speaking to a shy elementary school student.  Long story short, the potential partnership fell through.  This was a guy who had mastered the basics of engineering education.  Because it is tough for him to communicate, it will be hard to succeed as a founder of a company.

Throughout this semester, I want to further develop my communication skills, question asking skills, and the ability to model conceptually.  The best way to learn is to actually do. So, I plan to start today.  I am putting myself in a position where I have to use these skills.  I recently joined a startup company (more to come in a future post).  Later this afternoon, I am meeting with an student entrepreneur in the computer science department who wants to learn more about my startup.  I plan to use at least two of the skills listed above during the meeting.  I need to be able to ask appropriate questions and communicate what my company does during the meeting.  I know I need to use all of these missing basic skills in order for me to learn, grow, and succeed at this startup company.

Thursday, July 22nd:

My shoulder after being hit by a rock

I have been in Aspen for a week.  It is my best friend’s last day here with me. His flight left around noon. We decided to wake up earlier than usual, so his day would not be wasted.  We wanted to do one of the most physically challenging hikes in Aspen that I know of – the Ute Trail.  This trail is 2.2 miles straight up hill (1300 feet in elevation). On our way down the trail a big rock came tumbling down the mountain.  It hit me right in the shoulder.   I was a bit in shock that I almost got knocked off a mountain 1,300 feet in elevation. I then hear a scream, “watch out!”. I looked up and saw another rock tumbling down heading my way. I quickly dodged that rock. As I was in a little pain, I continued to walk down the mountain.  Good news is that we made it down without dodging or getting hit by another rock.

After my friend left for the airport, I walked to the pharmacy to get Hydrogen Peroxide cream for my shoulder. On my way back from the store, I saw a bunch of Infiniti cars with signs saying Fortune Brainstorm Tech Conference.  “This looks interesting,” I said to myself. I Google’d it on my phone and recognized a few speakers. I looked at the agenda, and I knew I had to attend. I ran back to the place I am staying at to change into nicer cloths.

I then walked back towards the Infiniti cars and hopped in a convertible Infiniti G37S. The driver said, “wanna drive?”  I opted out and said, “No thanks – I’ll let you drive”.  I show up to the conference and jump in the registration line.  After a few minutes of waiting, it was my turn in line.  I step up and said, “I am an 18 year-old entrepreneur from Houston.  I am here with my family in Aspen and just found out about this conference.  I Google’d it, recognized a few speakers, and I was wondering if I could sit in on one session”.  I was hoping to hear a “Yes, of course!”  But, I heard quite the opposite: “This is an invitational only conference – admission is $3500. We are sorry but we can not just let you in.”  I walk outside to call Larry Chiang.  He is a pro at “crashing events”.   He gave me some advice, and I walk back into registration asking to speak with the Head of PR.  He wasn’t there, but two other people who worked in PR were.   So, I spoke to them.  I gave her my website and two minute background.  From her language, I knew it wasn’t looking good: “Please wait over there while I see what I can do”. Hoping for the best to simply sit in one session, she comes back saying “We are sorry but the press contact us weeks before the event, we can’t just let you in the day of the event”.  I walked out and asked Infiniti for a ride back to my place.  They happily did.  I was talking to my driver and told him what happened.  I asked if Infiniti, a gold sponsor of the conference, might be able to get me into one session.  I called the head Infiniti guy who then gave me the email address of the Head of PR for the conference.  I sent an email to Daniel Kile, and then called his office.  Someone in his office who works for him said he would flag it.  No response.  I sent a cold text to Scott Raymond, who is a founder of Gowalla. The Founders Fund (a VC firm that I interned for last summer) invested in Gowalla.  I texted him saying I had an externship at the Founders Fund last summer.  He is speaking tomorrow morning, and I was hoping he would be able to get me in to watch his session.  After a few back in forth texts, he told me about an after party / meet up that was happening at 10:30 P.M.

I showed up early to an already packed room.  Before walking in, I was in the lobby emailing Keith Rabois (he spoke at my conference back in November) to see if he was there.  Scott went to bed early as he had an early morning session tomorrow.  I was hoping to at least know one person.  Keith responded saying he wasn’t planning on going.  As I was about to walk in, the person who “kicked me out” earlier in the day ran right into me.  She said something like this, “you found the after party – I’m impressed”.

I soon ran into Jessi Hempel, and I introduced myself to her as she interviewed me when I was 14! After meeting a bunch of people including a ton of people who worked for Fortune, I weaved my way into the conference. I ended up meeting Daniel Kile.  My goal at the beginning of the day was to sit in on one session.  Fortune exceeded my expectations.  The following morning, I had my conference pass and was able to attend the entire conference on Friday and Saturday. This is the best conference I have ever attended! The people I met were brilliant, the speakers were engaging, and I had an all around amazing time. Pictures and interviews to come!

I always enjoy chatting with young entrepreneurs. I recently spoke to and interviewed Benjamin Lang, a sixteen year-old entrepreneur living in New York.

Can you introduce yourself in a few sentences?

I am Benjamin Lang, a 16 year old entrepreneur living in New York. I’ve started a few businesses, been interviewed in many places and continue to gain more knowledge online. My goal in my business life is to become a successful entrepreneur on a large scale.

How do you define an entrepreneur?

In my opinion, an entrepreneur is someone that goes through the process of establishing a new business and running it.

Why do you choose to be an entrepreneur?

It’s simply forfilling for me. I enjoy the process and running several businesses. I think that’s a main factor that drives my success.

Tell me about your blog.  Why did you start it?  How did you attract your audience?

I started my blog 6 months ago in order to share all that I’ve learned through my entrepreneurship. With all of the mistakes that I’ve made, and everything that I learned from them I figured it would be valuable to share. I think many people agree which is why readership has been consistently going up in the past few months.

What advice do you have for fellow young entrepreneurs?

Be patient and persistent. Something that I’ve learned is that entrepreneurship takes time, you have to be patient with everything that you do, but at the same time you must be persistent. As long as you keep trying you will have the greatest chance of succeeding.

Please describe your biggest failure.  What lessons did you learn from this failure?

My biggest failure was a site called TeenBizStarter. I bought the domain and set up the blog at the same time that I set up my main blog on www.Ben-Lang.com so I was split between the two. I decided to concentrate on my main blog and let go of TeenBizStarter. I had wanted it to be a blog for teen entrepreneurs to share their stories but I soon learned that concentrating on one venture was the best way to go.

What are your plans after high school?

I plan on joining the Israeli Army after high school. Maybe after that I’ll attend college. Who knows maybe I’ll start some more businesses instead of going to college.

Where do you see yourself in ten years?

I hope to see myself as the CEO and founder of a prosperous high tech company.

What are your other interests aside from business?

My other interests include, running, swimming, biking, travel, tennis and internet.

I am looking forward to:

1) studying Computer Science at the U of I

2) getting involved in iFoundry and iEFX as a U of I student

3) meeting awesome people

AND MUCH MORE!  :)

The main reason I was there was for this Kaplan SAT course. I did not do as well as I would have liked on the practice tests. Because the actual SAT was months away, I did not put as much focus into the program as I should have. Anyways, following the Summer Study, I knew that I had a ton of prepping to do before the “real” SAT. I do not do extraordinary on standardized tests. As a matter of fact, I very much dislike the ACT and SAT. You cannot fairly test one’s academic ability (or one’s chances of success in college) on this four-hour test. After months of prepping, I ended up taking the SAT. I took this test three times. To sum it up, I was not too excited for colleges to see my standardize test scores.

My high school grades are above average. My school does not rank, but I have an A average. Throughout high school, I did not take many advanced courses. I took a total of four advanced courses (one my sophomore year and three my senior year).

I would not be able to do what I am passionate about (tennis and entrepreneurship) if I were to take more advanced (or as admission directors like to call it, “challenging”) courses in high school. I had to make choices, and I was fully aware that these choices had consequences. If I could go back in time, I would not do anything differently.

I had a unique high school profile (average testing scores, good grades, and phenomenal extra-curriculars). That being said, I was not sure how college admission counselors would respond. So, I applied to MANY schools. I applied early decision to Stanford. I hosted a conference there in November, and a professor wrote a letter of recommendation for me…but that didn’t get me in. After Stanford, I had three top college choices – Duke, University of Texas, and University of Illinois. I did not get into Duke, but I was offered admission to the University of Texas and to the University of Illinois. For months, I was split 50/50 between the two schools. Within the next few days, I will make and announce my final decision.

Thanks to Twitter, I found Santiago Leon with sleon productions to assist me with web development.

I hope you like the new design! Leave a comment or send me an email with your thoughts. Thanks!

Today, Abi Noda and I are officially launching HackerTees.com!

Karen Hyman forwarded my name and email address over to Abi a couple of weeks ago.  Considering that we have similar interests, I thought it would be best to jump on a telephone call.  Long story short, we kicked it off.  After much discussion, we thought it would be a great idea to work on a side project together.

Inspired by Andrew Hyde’s VC Wear, we created Hacker Tees, t-shirts only programmers could understand.  10% of the profits will go to a 2010 TechStars company (more details to come – there will be a contest)!

Please check out our site and buy a shirt before they all run out!  Thanks!