A Painting that Changed My Life and Influenced Thousands in China

As I sit in San Francisco, the heart of Silicon Valley, I recall the same week 4 years ago. I had just hit a wall attempting to make a transition from Wall Street to Silicon Valley. After endless recruiter screening, Skype interviews and rejection letters. “We appreciate your passion but it is not a fit at the moment”, I turned my passions inward and used painting as a medium to tell the stories of tech entrepreneurs.

On Friday, Oct 5, 2013, I stayed up till 4am to revise a portrait for my first ever art exhibition at Sequoia Capital’s engineering conference in New York City. I did not know that painting changed my life and subsequently the lives of hundreds in China.

Everything in China does multiply by 100, especially if it's positive energy.

A girl with a Silicon Valley dream

I started working at Morgan Stanley after graduating from Princeton University in 2012. My life was on the right track: studied in a boarding school in New England, attended Princeton on scholarship, and graduated with a prestigious job on Wall Street. I was meeting society’s expectation of who I should become.

After one year as a financial analyst, my heart started to drift and my brain felt numb With no outlet for creativity at work, I faced spreadsheets and formatted power points all day.

During college graduation season, the inner student of me turned to commencement speeches to get a dose of inspiration. 

In June 2013, I listened to the Commencement Speech at MIT by Dropbox’s co-founder Drew Houston. Drew, standing on the stage with a smile, passed on a powerful message to the graduates:

“The hardest-working people don't work hard because they're disciplined. They work hard because working on an exciting problem is fun. I have some other friends who also work hard and get paid well in their jobs, but they complain as if they were shackled to a desk.”

I was that type of person shackled to a cubicle: eager to change but constrained by work visa. The life of a financial analyst was not what I wanted in five years.

“Surround yourself with people who inspire you is as important as being talented or working hard.”

I tried to remember who I was: that 17-year-old fearless girl, carrying 3 full size suitcases, flying alone from China to the suburb of Connecticut for high school. It took her half a year to overcome fear, loneliness and language barriers. She left everything familiar in China and was determined to embrace the United States with open arms. However, she has become someone she no longer recognizes.

“A tennis ball, circle of 5, and 30,000 days”

That is Drew's cheat sheet for life:

“A tennis ball” stands for passion. When a tennis ball is thrown, a dog will chase after it with crazy eyes. 

“Circle of 5” means that we are the average of the 5 people we spend the most time with. Who we hang out with on daily basis matters.

“30,000 days” represents the average life span of a human.

On average, we have 30,000 days in life. After finding your “tennis ball”, go for it because we will never be fully ready. It takes courage and determination to take action upon an idea.

I asked myself: what is my “tennis ball”?

Growing up, I have been an introvert who loves drawing. My parents sent me to art school to gain self-confidence.

At Hotchkiss, I studied German Expressionism and found art studio a natural habitat more than my dorm room. I learned that art is NOT copying master pieces, but a form of self expression and storytelling.

What makes me uniquely me? It is my passion for story-telling, obsession with innovation, and foundation in painting. At the time, Silicon Valley has produced billion dollar unicorns such as Dropbox, Twitter, Instagram, Airbnb and Uber, which changed the way we communicate, share files, and travel.

What if I can humanize these products by painting the founders and documenting their stories? These founders embody tenacity, creativity and vision to transform our society. I was fed up with virtual financial markets and selling my soul to make the rich richer.

I named the painting series “Tech Giants” -- to stand on the shoulder of the giants in the tech world.

For the next 100 days, I pursued this art project with pure devotion and turned down social invitations. I became “a dog” chasing after her “tennis ball”.

Everyday after work, I dashed to Grand Central Terminal, taking the green Line 6 to my tiny 3-person shared flat in East Village. I would gulp down a simple meal from Trader Joe’s, and put on earphones to indulge in the interviews of entrepreneurs. I have never met most of the entrepreneurs but their voices showed me enough of who they are.

Not having an art studio was not in my "excuse" list. I converted the living room wardrobe into my easel and pinned the canvas to the door. Every stroke carried my interpretation of the entrepreneurs.

The first painting was Drew Houston.

In order to “understand” Drew, I rewinded his 21’46” MIT commencement speech over 20 times, to a point that I could almost recite it.

Minimal Viable Painting (MVP) method

Every day, I painted from 10pm till 3 to 4 o’clock in the morning. That was the afternoon in China. With a demanding full time job, time was a luxury. I had to find a solution: “What if I apply the popular product management MVP (Minimal Viable Product) method to painting? ” It would involve painting a draft, getting feedback from the WeChat community, and iterate.

I posted drafts in Wechat Moments (similar to Facebook Timeline) and went straight to bed. By the next morning, I would receive more than 10 comments from friends in China. The next night, I came back from work and started to iterate on my draft accordingly.

I named this painting method “Minimal Viable Painting” , which proudly shares the same abbreviation as “Minimal Viable Product”.

Besides my passion and drive, an opportunity to display the work added a deadline to finish 15 paintings. Sequoia Capital was putting on an engineering conference in NYC on October 5th 2013. Among the speakers were Drew Houston of Dropbox and Nate Blecharczyk of Airbnb, who I have painted.

My lean paintings with "startup mentality”could be a funky yet refreshing addition to the evening reception. I pitched the idea to the conference organizer. Before they had a chance to ask questions, I added

“I am self sufficient - paintings are small, non-fragile and portable, and I can bring easels if necessary.”

“It is not just paintings, but quotes from each of the entrepreneurs. I even got QR codes to scan that link to their stories.”

In my mind, entrepreneurship does not have to be a startup. A painting project can be entrepreneurial at heart.

The organizers said YES!!

Friends inside Silicon Valley may laugh at my excitement. For the 24 year old me who found Silicon Valley hard to be a part of with a non-engineering background and a need for visa sponsorship, it meant the world to me.

I tested the water by displaying the paintings on the High line Park for 10 consecutive weeks. It was nerve-wracking to be a street artist on the weekend, and a suit and tie banker on the weekdays.

Surprisingly, people of all ages and origins stopped by. A gentleman suggested “What if you auction these paintings to the founders and donate to causes they support?” Another said “You should give a TED talk.”

“Me?” I marveled.

Encouragement from strangers could bring a challenging project to cross the finish line.

Meeting the inspiration

As a perfectionist, I struggle with the “completeness” of a painting. The night before the exhibition, I stared at the painting of Drew, “It looks a bit too abstract.” At midnight, I decided to revise the painting to present my best work in front of over 300 attendees. I stayed up till 4am and missed 3 alarm clocks the next morning.

The result was cruel - I missed his keynote and a chance to thank him in person. I went to another Dropbox seminar led by engineer Albert.

I sat down on the back right corner, next to a boy with blue eyes. A few minutes later, a familiar figure walked into the room. Isn’t that Drew? What are the chances? From my past conference experiences, keynote speakers often make an appearance and hop on the next plane.

My heart was pounding with his portrait in my bag, and I had prepared a signing pen - just in case. My face was burning with embarrassment and fear so I turned to the boy next to me. "Should I show him?" He tapped on my shoulder and said: “of course”. I quietly handed the painting to Drew.

His face turned red, “Thank you. You paint very well.”

As Drew was holding the painting, the boy stood up and took a few snaps with his professional Canon camera. He turned out to be the photographer of the event. After the lecture, he signed at the bottom corner.

A Christmas gift in advance

At 8 o’clock that night, I carefully put out the 15 paintings in the art deco exhibition hall of Grand Hyatt Hotel a in New York City. More than 300 people mingled in the room, appreciating the paintings and the quotes from each of the #Techgiants. I teared up again, but with joy this time.

This was the best reward for my efforts in the past 100 days.

At the age of 24, Drew got his first investment from Sequoia Capital and watched his bank account go from zero to 6 digits. He took a screenshot as a souvenir, as if he had received a Christmas gift in advance. Similarly for me, at the age of 24, displaying my artwork in front of an audience of 300 and meeting Drew was an early arrival of Christmas gift.

The moral of the story is that once we find passion, take action instead of waiting for the perfect timing. Once you put down the first strokes on a blank canvas, feedback can help improve and iterate. You may even receive courage and kind help from friends and strangers, but after all, it is important to show up and do your best work.

A mentor once told me, “one of your strengths is to play in the traffic. You show up at occasions that interest you regardless of outcomes. Because of this attitude, you are more likely to come across people who may collaborate with you. Just get out there.”

Move from New York to Los Angeles

Afterwards, of course there was an afterward.

I attended Sequoia partner Roelof Botha’s talk. He is an investor of Evernote and I waited in line to show him a research paper on Evernote’s China strategy and wanted to share my findings.

I was the last one in line. Roelof was intrigued by my findings and gave me his phone to email the full article on the spot.

After the brief meeting with Roelof, two guys stopped me, one with big green eyes and the other one as tall as a basketball player.

“We noticed your paintings last night.” the young man with green eyes said, “Would you like to join us? We’d like to put a flag in China.” His name is Michael.

What？

"Are you offering me a job?”

“Yes.”

My body started to shake as every prior opportunity came with hours of preparation and interview.  With a desire to break into Silicon Valley, I saved up vacation days to volunteer for Techcrunch Disrupt to stay tuned with tech. Every lunch break was my secret interview hour - stepping into a conference room at the nearby Princeton Club to take recruiter calls. Getting a marketing job with visa sponsorship requirement and English as a second language was as hard as winning a lottery. 

I couldn’t believe my eyes. Am I getting a job offer because of these paintings?

“If you can get yourself displayed at a Sequoia event as an artist, you can get anywhere.” Michael told me.

Michael trusted me.

He is the CEO of an anonymous social network that was capturing the eyeballs of Venture Capitalists and millennial users in late 2013 and 2014, and the tall guy was the CTO.

I joined Whisper and together with a colleague, we set up a China entity , built a team from 2 to 30 and worked closely with Tencent on operational level. That fearless girl went back to China after studying abroad for 8 years, and adapted herself fully to the local entrepreneurial scene from setting up moderation centers in Chengdu to going to nail salons for user research.

A household story in China

My personal transformation was only the tip of the iceberg. This painting went on to inspire and empower hundreds of readers in China.

A year after the painting exhibition, I published a story in 36kr, the equivalent of Techcrunch in China. The article was pushed to all 36kr users on Oct 5th, 2014. That day, my WeChat flooded with messages

“I am a police woman in a small town. Your story made my heart shake across the screen.” 

“How can I join your startup?”

I experienced first hand how everything in China multiplies by 100. Hundreds of millennials in China were ignited by Drew’s passage of “a tennis ball, a circle, and the number 30,000” and my story of pursuing a dream with passion and hard work.

Later, this story made to the stage of TEDx and Tencent, Alibaba, Baidu, and other major tech companies in China. I found myself deeply weaved into China’s tech scene and speaking in front of top product managers and designers across China, recounting the stories of Dropbox, Airbnb, Rent The Runway in Mandarin.

At Tencent HQ,

Fudan University

Guangzhou University Auditorium

Summer Camp with 500 students

I toured around 50 universities in China. A senior in college came to me after the talk, holding Elon Musk’s portrait, saying “Elon has been my hero since childhood. I may never meet him in person, but holding his painting is empowering. “

4 years later, I have gone to the heart of Silicon Valley as a marketing manager and left. I found my calling to empower and inspire the next generation of Chinese youth.

Silicon Valley has an ultra high concentration of talent, which may make us under-appreciate our ideas. To my friends in Silicon Valley: never stop innovating because the rest of the world is watching and your seemingly small act could have a domino effect on another person’s life. Just like how my life was transformed by one Commencement Speech.

Thank you Stephanie Lu for helping proofread.