JunHo and I met after 4 years since high school graduation. Since we weren't close friends, I do not have clear memory spent with him. However, what I do remember is a person with an endless amount of energy on what he loves to do. When we met again, he asked me to join his team for a presentation competition, so I decided to join him without any hesitation. Even though we weren't able to get any prizes, we still made it to the finals and since then, we went on to do a lot of other projects.
During the first semester of 2015, he asked me to join him in starting a new tech company. Since the idea was also attractive to me, I signed to join the Android mobile application development part. The company was small starting with 5 people, and only now it became opened to public, but for me it seemed like to be a good opportunity to know about this young entrepreneur.
When it was time to finish my job to continue on with my academic curriculum, JunHo and I had an interview time. JunHo also had some academic issues to deal with, but he was planning to handle both responsibly. When I asked him about the future of his company, he said "Since increasing the speed is not up to my decision, I'm at least trying to settle its direction".
What I concern about this kind of interview is the power it has to glamorize the beauty and conceal the difficulties. Especially due to the current startup boom, I feared that it might give false impression about the industry. Despite the concerns, I asked the first question in the hope that the interview can help those without any plans.
"To be brutally honest, enthusiasm and hard work is a necessity, not an extra-curricular thing. After the basics are fulfilled, you still need diverse amount of abilities and trustworthy networks" said JunHo. His answers somewhat gave me a smile on my face. The speech was a mixture of truth and compliment.
JunHo himself is currently majoring in both Business Administration and Computer Science. Apart from the university curriculum, he is taking care of most of the things at work, from management to web development. While it seemed like an excessive amount of work, his hunger for a new challenge proceeded him further.
"Startups are usually small and when the company lacks human resources, an employee has to take at least 2 positions simultaneously. Entrepreneurs must at least understand every part of their company."
During the last few months the company had undergone a lot of issues. It was a hill after hill. When we first started, we had to devote 24 hours a day to make the product on schedule. For JunHo, he also had to find a way to squeeze 72 hours of work into 24 hours.
"I can do this because it's what I love to do. Actually this is the message I wanted to tell everyone about. I know that there is a trend in starting a new company, but just don't start it as a way to earn lots of money. The company itself becomes a living hell if the first button is done wrong."
JunHo truly loved what he did. Even though we weren't making Google or Facebook, he was always filled with confidence, and evangelized his sanguine thoughts to the teammates. Even though the lack of funding always led us to eat at the building cafeteria, this never dampened our young CEO's ardor. Instead, his legs moved faster to find new investment sources.
"To be brutally honest, funding was not the biggest problem until now. Since there are a lot government and private organizations related supporting businesses, money is not always the issue. The most difficult part is human relations. Even from a company this small we encounter opinion differences and disputes every day." What he said was absolutely true. Whenever something went wrong, it was his job to become the middleman in order to solve it quickly and fairly.
When I asked if he had any last words, he cried out "Don't do it!". We burst into laughter and our laughter was filling the whole office floor.
Though I ended my contract after finishing the Android application development, JunHo is still working day and night. Towards the end of the year the climate is getting colder along with sky falling snow. Nevertheless, he heated up the office on the ground that he can do what he loves without anyone's interference. After a fairly long interview, I came back to school, and JunHo lighted up the office room. While testing completed product in the library, I once again dreamt about starting a new project with this young pioneer with a smile on my face.
Hi, this is Dana Eun.
ReplyDelete1. What i liked about your essay was the topic and the interviewee. I haven't seen much young startup CEOs and it was fascinating to read the interview.
2. The third paragraph was somewhat unclear to me. You had an interview time after finishing your contract with the company? or was it a recent event done for this assignment? I do not get what your intention is for the paragraph.
3. A thesis statement seems to be missing. The two points that I found important are - don't be afraid of following your dream and startup businesses are hard to succeed but it's worth it.
4. "Don't do it!"
5. I feel that a few more quotations could be used in your essay. Compared to how long your essay is, quotations only take few parts and more content about the interview could be used.
6. One suggestion for the improvement of your essay would be adding more details about the interview itself. It feels like your essay consists of too much additional stories. So it's hard to catch what the thesis is. But if you include more interviews, I think it could be better.
Hi Mingu, this is Mihyeon. I enjoyed your writing! (1) It was the story of people of my age, so I could relate more to it. (2) but I could not understand whem you said 'Junho was going through some academic issues to deal with but was planning to handle both responsibly'. (3) For the thesis statement, I think the thesis is "To be brutally honest, enthusiasm and hard work is a necessity, not an extra-curricular thing. After the basics are fulfilled, you still need diverse amount of abilities and trustworthy networks" (4) and the most effective quotations was "increasing the speed is not up to my decision, so I'm at least trying to settle its direction". (5) I think it would have been better if you had more direct quotations. (6) Lastly, in order to improve, I think it would be better to how the business had difficulties.
ReplyDelete(From MinGu) Author's plan in revising the essay
ReplyDelete1. Conducting the interview was very easy since I knew the person very well. I don't have any plans to revise the interview itself.
2. 'When I asked if he had any last words, he cried out "Don't do it!"' was the part I liked the most because it entailed the overall atmosphere of the interview.
3. Some thoughts about the interview was not included in the first draft of the essay. For example, statements like 'While his face was talking about all the pain he had to go under, his voice was explaining the responsibilities he had to bear' is planned to be included in the final version of the essay.