When I went into the café, I saw Farzad seating in the café, patiently waiting. He was extremely punctual even though he had a busy schedule for the week. I got some cappuccino and the mentorship session started and shared with Farzad about an project where I spent a lot of time and effort on, but the results did not turn up well.

The incident had upset me quite a little and my confidence hit a new low during my days here in the Silicon Valley. Farzad shared with us how he nearly lost a startup which he spent a few years of his life working on because the VCs pulled out their funding just after the 9/11 incident. As a result, the business could not afford to pay so many employees and he was forced to layoff some of his employees.

His advice was to not look back, but to do whatever it takes to get through the barriers that are hindering us. We can either detour around the barrier, or to even cut a hole through the barrier if circumstances force us to.

What Farzad did was enlightening. He not only explained to every single person whom he layoff - He also found jobs for most of these employees. When the CEO truly cares for his employees and let them know that whatever decision he makes is for their benefit, he is likely to gain the trust and respect of his employees. I am sure that if Farzad is going to ask these employees back to work for him, they would gladly do that anytime.

I felt the setback that I had experienced paled in comparison to what he had went through. In fact, there is no failure in life, there are only results and feedback to whatever we do.

As more mentees joined the mentorship session, Farzad decided to ring his friend to hold the session in a conference room in a shop along University Ave. We moved out of Starbucks and continued to ask him questions as we walked towards his friend’s shop.

I asked Farzad how an individual can build his manager’s trust in him. His reply was to constantly meet deadlines and to ask for more work when you have the ability to do so. Eventually the manager would be convinced by your sincerity. Also frequent communication with your manager such as through lunch meetings implies that one had made the effort to build a good relationship with his employer.

His tips were particularly relevant to us as we are all interning in startup companies in the Valley. Farzad always made sure that he got to know all the people who are working in his starup and he spends time to truly understand his employees in LiteScape.

He found it particularly important that employees enjoy working in the company because they spend a huge portion of our time working. If an employee is not passionate about his work, he is likely to be unhappy in his life. As a founder of a company which has gone IPO, Farzad is so sincere and humble. In my mind, he is someone who gives without expecting something in return, a man of true greatness and integrity. I certainly look forward to the next mentorship session with Farzad.

Upon reaching the Sun Microsystems headquarters, we saw many interesting new technologies that were show casing around us. Fred, the Senior Group Manager and Strategic Account Development for Asia Pacific Sun Microsystems brought us to the briefing room and gave us a welcome speech. Next, Andrew Barty, the Finance IT Director, gave us some insight about Sun’s Corporate Vision and Strategy. He wants this to be an interactive session and many of us asked him interesting questions regarding Sun’s strategy and business model. I was particularly interested in how Sun Microsystems make money by giving away free software. When Vipul Gupta, the Distinguished Engineer in Sun Microsystems explained and demonstrated to us the upcoming technologies of Sun, it intrigued many technology enthusiasts among our NUSEA members and caught all our attention.

A loud applause followed when Scott McNealy, dressed in casual jeans and a shirt, entered the discussion room. It was amazing to get to see Scott McNealy, someone whom we studied in our Global Entrepreneurial Leadership course at Stanford in person.

Scott wanted the topic to be of interest to the audience, and he chose not to give a talk but to conduct an interactive Q&A session. I learnt from him how insecurity could lead someone to work hard and not let our goals stop us as our goals would change over time.

I have learned that very good ideas are controversial but correct. They are controversial so that not many people could think of it and differentiation leads to price difference. Instead of crushing the competitors, we saw how Sun could benefit by partnering with them instead.

He then shared with us his involvement in the Global Education and Learning Community (GELC). Curriki, a non-profit organization, aims to provide open source textbook and classroom experience to poor families who were not able to afford K-12 education for their kids. It was an awesome discussion and at the end of the session, we gave Scott a souvenir from Singapore, as a token of sincere appreciation for his passion and willingness to share with us.

What happens next?

Our president Mohan told a story which ended with him asking our ex-president Chin San this question. What will happen next then to the 9^th batch after they return home? It is a difficult yet simple question to answer. Difficult because everyone has their unique path in life and simple because the answer is simply that they are all about to embark on a new life journey – one that has been shaped and molded by the NCSV experience.

The dinner was held at the Mediterranean Ballroom at the Crowne Plaza Cabana in Palo Alto which sits nicely at the end of a stretch of hotels which probably sprung up to serve visitors to Stanford. The partitioned ballroom was small yet cozy and just enough for the friends of NUSEA who kindly turned up and all NUSEA members.

The event was as much a farewell dinner for the 9^th batch as it is for our manager Yu Ling who is leaving to take over as the manager at Bio Valley, our sister program over at Philadelphia. It was a night of mixed feelings – sad to see our beloved seniors and manager go and yet happy for them as they take on new directions in life. The dinner ended in true Singaporean style with 3 ‘Yam Sengs’ not to the newlyweds but to the people who have impacted everyone present in a very special way.

To the 9^th batch and Yu Ling, here’s to leaving on a jet plane with well wishes and inner butterflies from the 10^th batch. We will miss you all!

Weijin just introduced me to the AIESEC community in San Jose State University - How exciting! After some email correspondence, they’ve invited me to join in their gathering tonight (after the 9th farewell dinner) at Christmas in the Park (over at San Jose).

Apparently only Sharan was interested in meeting them, and the 2 of us set off while the rest of the NUSEA members were busy taking pictures. We had some difficulty finding our way there, but when we did - The journey was well worth it!

One common trait among AIESECers worldwide is that they are really a bunch of crazy, friendly people at heart. And this group of AIESECers were also pretty friendly. Their examinations end next week, and this is really the crunch time period where everybody should be mugging. Despite that, a group of them still continued to meet the San Jose High School students for mentorship sessions - which was really admirable.

I’ve learnt of a new sport from Cody (one of the AIESEC members) - It’s called Fris-Golf. Basically it is like a game of golf and played on a golf course - Just that instead of using a golf club/balls - you use a frisbee instead. Pretty cool~~

There are lots of cops at downtown San Jose though - Pretty scary when you are in a car cos you don’t know for what reason they can pull you over even though you are minding your own business. But San Jose is a beautiful place, and so was Christmas in the Park.

Looking forward to having more meetups with the AIESECers around here! I heard there’s still AIESEC at Berkeley, and AIESEC at San Francisco State University - Can’t wait to see them!!

“I opened my eyes this morning and I was just stunned for a moment..”

“when i opened my eyes this morning, i still felt like going back to bed!!”

“I didn’t have to rush to my laptop to check out my business plan..”

“I didn’t have to pour over pages and pages of finance and still have no idea what all those numbers meant..”

“I didn’t have to sit and worry about unfair advantages, business models and a whole lot of other crap..”

“anyways, somehow i still feel nostalgic. i was still thinking about it on my drive to work…i guess it’s how it works when u feel really passionate about something..”

Quotes from some of our email threads. I believe that best describe what some of us are feeling right now. The past 3 weeks has been gruelling. For me personally, it’s like completing the 24km route march or running the 21km Army Half Marathon (21km). NVC + GEL is officially over, and we will be having our farewell dinner + “after-course” celebration on Thursday (tomorrow). Looking forward to it!!

Dear all,

The observant may have noticed this, but for those uninitiated - The 10th NUSEA committee has officially took over!

The 10th executive committee, headed by President Mohan Belani, consists of:

* Vice President, Information Technology: Sharan Makhija
* Vice President, Internal Affairs: David Ding
* Vice President, Media & Publications: Vincent Woon
* Vice President, Mentorship: Wee Li, Phua
* Vice President, Special Projects: Harville Tan
* Vice President, Strategic Development: Wei-Chong, Khor
* Vice President, Ventures: Christine Giam

More details on our plans and vision in time to come!!

Isabelle from SABA has kindly organized an appreciation session for the NUSEA committee last night at Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati in Palo Alto.

We got to interact with a brillant man - William Chang , VP R&D and CTO of Stryker Endoscopy, the keynote speaker for the night. His talent in innovating has also opened him to many startup opportunities - Steve Jobs and Wozniak from Apple have even interviewed him personally and offered him a job after that. At age 14, he won the Most Ingenious Creation of Technology competition despite pitting himself against university students.

Each of the committee members in the 9th batch also gave their parting/thank you speech to SABA. Their emotions was expressed in their own unique distinct style - As they share their thoughts on how intangibly enriching the entire NOC program (and interaction with SABA) has transformed them.

Peng-Huat (the VP of SABA) and Isabelle was really appreciative of the work NUSEA had done so far. They were generous with their compliments and they offered their tokens of appreciation to Alan (the slavedriver), Chin San (Reality Distortion Field welder), Weijin (the talented pianist), Justin (the phantom singer with an amazing voice), Harville (the smooth Emcee) and Christine (the lovely co-ordinator).

All the NUSEA members who worked with SABA can attest that with all the network, support and experience, SABA had been a very strong pillar of support of NUSEA. NUSEA 9th has ended their term officially, but the 10th batch will continue working to build up this relationship further.