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November 13, 2013 10:00 pm GMT
Ever since Karen X. Cheng was young, she exhibited a kind of bull-headed determination to reach any goal. First, it was learning how to spin notebooks on the tip of her index finger, like all the cool boys in junior high school. Then there was a ridiculous resignation video where she quit her job as a program manager at Microsoft with a YouTube rendition of Bye, Bye Miss American Pie.” She had taught herself UI design while working full-time on the job, eventually landing a job at Justin Kan’s Uber-for-cleaning-and-errands startup Exec. Then a little over a year ago, she picked up dance. It became an obsession, with practice sessions sometimes for several hours a day and lessons with professional vogue and robot dancers. At first, it was awkward and painful, but she got better. She wrote: “People who watch me dance today sometimes assume Ive been dancing for many years. I made this video so you could see the awkward body that started just one year ago. Heres my secret: I practiced everywhere. At bus stops. In line at the grocery store. At work Using the mouse with my right hand and practicing drills with my left hand. You dont have to train hardcore for years to become a dancer. But you must be willing to practice and you better be hungry.” With that, she released a video called “Girl Learns To Dance In A Year,” that showed her journey and development as a dancer from day one. It quickly went viral, accumulating 3.5 million video views. Hundreds of e-mails poured in. A woman in her 50s named Cynthia from Chicago wrote about her own personal struggle to walk again after the onset of multiple sclerosis. That created a germ of an idea. What if there was a way for everyone to show their learning process honestly and transparently? A way to see that even great artists and dancers all begin from somewhere? Cheng had resisted the idea of doing a startup for years after watching mentors and friends deal with the ups and downs running a company. “I’ve always said I never wanted to start a company. It seemed too stressful and it didn’t seem like fun. But when I had this idea, I was like, ‘Oh crap. I have to start a company now,’” she said. So she teamed up with another engineer Finbarr Taylor from
Original Link: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/Dri4UTyT-SA/
The Dance In A Year Video Becomes A Platform For Anyone To Learn A Skill In 100 Days
Ever since Karen X. Cheng was young, she exhibited a kind of bull-headed determination to reach any goal. First, it was learning how to spin notebooks on the tip of her index finger, like all the cool boys in junior high school. Then there was a ridiculous resignation video where she quit her job as a program manager at Microsoft with a YouTube rendition of Bye, Bye Miss American Pie.” She had taught herself UI design while working full-time on the job, eventually landing a job at Justin Kan’s Uber-for-cleaning-and-errands startup Exec. Then a little over a year ago, she picked up dance. It became an obsession, with practice sessions sometimes for several hours a day and lessons with professional vogue and robot dancers. At first, it was awkward and painful, but she got better. She wrote: “People who watch me dance today sometimes assume Ive been dancing for many years. I made this video so you could see the awkward body that started just one year ago. Heres my secret: I practiced everywhere. At bus stops. In line at the grocery store. At work Using the mouse with my right hand and practicing drills with my left hand. You dont have to train hardcore for years to become a dancer. But you must be willing to practice and you better be hungry.” With that, she released a video called “Girl Learns To Dance In A Year,” that showed her journey and development as a dancer from day one. It quickly went viral, accumulating 3.5 million video views. Hundreds of e-mails poured in. A woman in her 50s named Cynthia from Chicago wrote about her own personal struggle to walk again after the onset of multiple sclerosis. That created a germ of an idea. What if there was a way for everyone to show their learning process honestly and transparently? A way to see that even great artists and dancers all begin from somewhere? Cheng had resisted the idea of doing a startup for years after watching mentors and friends deal with the ups and downs running a company. “I’ve always said I never wanted to start a company. It seemed too stressful and it didn’t seem like fun. But when I had this idea, I was like, ‘Oh crap. I have to start a company now,’” she said. So she teamed up with another engineer Finbarr Taylor fromOriginal Link: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/Dri4UTyT-SA/
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