for the 11 years I have been with the company. I will surely miss my mentors who have helped shape me to who I am today.
I remember back 5 years ago, when we were about to certify the release of a new product but during the assembly of the first ones, we encountered a showstopper with units failing our tests. We had to determine what the failure was, why it occured and how to fix it in less than twenty four hours. The atmosphere was like that in the movie Apollo13 where all the NASA ground team would squeeze their brains out to get the solution. We needed to ship those products out. Ravi was my manager then, he is a physicist. While we were sitting down late at night, in the lab, exhausted from hours of brainstorming, after a long silence, he just quipped -- "Guys, really if you look at history, if you trace down where ALL brilliant ideas originate, you will find that all brilliant ideas form and germinate from a single mind and NOT from several minds. The team is there to provide information and build up the discussion which could lead to that idea but that idea will have to come from a single mind." He was always the one where when you are wriggling your way in the tiniest details, in a second, he'd fly you up a million miles above and show you how it looks like from the galaxy's perspective. I remember his words and it has influenced how I had worked. To this day, I have a lot of meetings and discussions but I always make sure I spend time away from everyone, to digest all those discussions, for me to get to that space where I could think for myself and reach into my idea bank which is unique (and hopefully brilliant :).
I also remember an advice that Scott, who is one of the coolest manager I have ever had, have given me some time ago. He told me that what is holding us back sometimes is the lack of belief in our own capabilities. We are not really fully sold out with the idea that we are brilliant, gorgeous, talented and fabulous (as Nelson Mandela have said in his 1994 inaugural speech). We have moments of insecurity specially when we face people of higher status or higher percieved capabilities as we are. That sometimes we play small so that other people will not feel insecure around us or we would not be given bigger responsibilities or power, because deep down, we may fear that we are not worthy of that power.
I find this somewhat true for me and I think for most Filipinos, where it is deeply ingrained in me/us that we should always be humble, and humility really is a virtue. And pride is not a good thing. I remember a talk from one of the leaders in this country, she mentioned an incident where she was invited to a middle class house, and as they enter the doorway, the owner pointed out to her that the stairs had some holes and it still needs to be fixed and then moved on to apologize for the shabby wall painting and then for the old furniture and so on. The leader had said, "Why do we tend to notice the negative things about our house instead of mentioning the positives to our foreign visitor friends and letting them feel our sense of pride for who we are and what we have?"
From Scott, I learned that all I needed to do is to embrace it. To embrace my greatness. To embrace my brillliance. To embrace my light. I have done a lot of embracing since.
I have other several great learnings that I could share maybe in other days as this blog entry is getting long. What I could leave for now is a site by another one of my previous managers, Anand. Anand has been one of my elder mentors and his main influence on me has been to think outside the box. To question my current beliefs and to keep pounding that wall that we often unconscoiusly build around ourselves and our minds over time that makes us think the way we have always thought. A qoute from Einstein: " A problem cannot be solved by the same minds that created it".
Anand has a blog,
where he shares inspiring stories to busy professionals and people working in companies.
Needless to say, I feel proud for my stay here in this company. And as I take a step out into the "outside" world, I bring with me what one of the company's founders have ingrained in us - " Do not be encumbered by the past. Go out and do something wonderful". (Nowadays this qoute has already morphed into - Go out and do something ridiculous). Maybe going to Canada is ridiculous, but I am going anyway.
As I watch the soon to be released TV commercials that showcase the impact of our future products, I am filled with pride for having been a part of delivering the microprocessors, which have become a huge part of our lives today. (I wouldn't even be blogging now without it.)
A person had said of the microprocessor-- "this little thing is my lifeline to the world"..technology really has changed our lives. And to qoute the ad - "as the microprocessors continue to evolve, with more capabilities and more ingenuity, everyone has a chance to dream big dreams and do great things by finding their genius inside."
This small thumbsize microprocessor (picture below is just slightly larger than the real chip size) continues to change the world..and I will continue to watch it from the outside.
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