Success Manifesto

Yesterday, I wrote an acquaintance to tell him more about myself and my life so we could get to know each other better. After all, there is always more than meets the bio (ed note: play of words on 'more than meets the eyes'). Here is my view on an unfinished journey:

1. My dad is black; from Trenton, New Jersey; and grew up pretty poor. I was eight years old when he passed away. When my mom was eighteen, she and her family were kicked out of Poland for being Jewish. Their passport was taken away and they could only take very few belongings. As a teenager, her and her brother came to America by themselves.
   
2. My mom and dad met at Mercer Country Community College. They divorced when I was four.
   
3. Growing up I always felt different because I was an agglomeration of different classes, ethnicities, and races. I grew up in a small, suburban, middle-class town fifteen minutes from Princeton University. At the same time, both of my parents worked very hard for what they got. Consequently, they instilled in me a very strong work ethic and a belief in myself that I could accomplish anything I wanted to.
   
4. I grew up playing a ton of sports and was generally one of the best at each one I played. At the end of grade school, I decided to focus on tennis and played tournaments for the next six years and eventually played on the NYU tennis team where I was the MVP my freshman year. In eighth grade, I had a growth spurt of seven inches in six months. This gave me very weak knees and led to injuries that still plague me and limit my potential.
   
5. Academically, I did well. In grade school, I was always on the border line between "gifted and talented" classes and "average" classes. My mom, against my desire at the time, pushed for me to be moved up. I guess they realized it wasn't worth arguing with her and let me join the "gifted and talented" group. As such, I often felt like I was the least intelligent of my peers. To preserve my ego, I decided that I had to compete in other ways beyond academic intelligence. That's one of the reasons I think why I was open to starting a business.
   
6. Socially, I was rather quiet and nervous, perhaps because I was an only child. My small group of friends was in between a lot of groups in the social hierarchy so we were able to hang out with any other group by and large. In ninth grade, I decided that I wanted to be popular. So I started trying to be funny and developed a reputation for being a goof ball. In the end, it worked fairly well, but not as well as I would have hoped at the time. I started to let the popularity hunt go when my business partner and I would transition from having a meeting with a client for thousands of dollars and then going to Gym class. We realized that there was a lot more to life. Similarly, I keep perspective on the 'rat race' culture of selling out ones values for what's perceived by others as success.
   
7. My friend and I started our web development company when I was sixteen years old. We didn't know much of anything, but fortunately for us this ignorance gave us the balls to do what we did. We grew by partnering with a web development company that outsourced to us at $25/hr. This gave us the opportunity to build our client list and our skills. Our next growth spurt came when we went out on our own and outsourced our projects to India. At one point we were charging $75-$100/hour and outsourcing for $25/hour and sending a lot of projects through the pipe line. Alas, we made many mistakes and also realized that the market doesn't always throw clients at our feet that are willing to pay a lot of money. When the bubble burst, my partner and I were at college and we decided to stop doing the business. It was good while it lasted.
   
8. Running the business was difficult because of skepticism from my mom. She wanted me to succeed, but on her terms, which meant getting good grades at good schools and moving into a safe job as a computer programmer. She saw my interest in entrepreneurship as a direct threat to her dream for me. As such, she'd often ignore, discourage, or make fun of me when I talked about doing business. After crying a few times, I decided to simply not talk about it. However, things have changed a lot now and she has been there for me during times when I really needed it.
   
9. I didn't have any girl friends in high school. But, I met my current one my third day at NYU. We've lived together for about three years now and it has been an absolutely incredible relationship, no without its ups and downs though. We are partners on the business and our skills really complement each other. We still haven't gotten sick of seeing each other many hours every day. Miraculously, we still find interesting things to talk about.
   
10. At NYU, I've gotten very involved in youth entrepreneurship organizations, particularly the National Foundation for Teaching Entrepreneurship. I am an alumni, on the NY Metro advisory board, volunteer, and work for/shadow the president once a week.
    
11. While at NYU, I've spent quite a bit of time attending self-development/spirituality/creativity seminars and conferences. I also journal quite a bit. Keeping everything in perspective is extremely important to me.
    
12. I've also spent a lot of time networking. When I got to New York City, I didn't know anybody. Now, I have over 700 contacts in my personal database.
    
13. I didn't really enjoy NYU when I first came here. In retrospect, I think this was due to a combination of large required classes with hundreds of other students who didn't want to be there. It also was due to picking classes very poorly, having a lot of difficulty sitting in one place for an extended amount of time, and not giving school the chance I could've in terms of time. During my sophomore year I took a semester off to get away and to soul search. The experience really helped me grow and when I came back to NYU, I made the most of it! Overall, I've really enjoyed my NYU experience and am extremely happy that I chose it over the other schools I got into, including higher ranked ones. I would even call it a dream school. For me, it was definitely true that you don't really learn how to maximize school until its too late and you graduate. I may go back to school for a Phd some day.
    
14. I could talk about Extreme Entrepreneurship and The Student Success Manifesto, which have been a big part of my life the last two years, but you'll just have to read this blog to find out more.
    
15. My vision is to make a large, lasting, positive difference in the world by being the change I want to see in every moment.