On July 27th and 28th July, 2011, my son Prithvi Prabahar, a sophomore in Duke University, and I attended the Mobility InnoJam in SAP Labs, Palo Alto, Ca. In my opinion, it was a life-changing event for my son. Why? Here is a list of the Top-10 reasons:
10 Fail Often, Fail Fast, Fail Cheap
"It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat".
- Excerpt from the speech "Citizenship In A Republic", delivered at the Sorbonne, in Paris, France on 23 April, 1910 by Theodore Roosevelt
In less than 36 hours, he truly learned the joy of failing fast, failing cheap. And he learned that the failure didn't matter. What would matter - he learned - is "how he is going to use the knowledge and experience acquired during the event".
9 Thinking Outside The Box
He knew JavaScript. He learned how to use that knowledge in an enterprise application. Theoretical knowledge is good; but knowing how to apply that knowledge in real world is more critical than that. That requires "thinking outside the box". His "thinking outside the box" helped implement "nested MBOs" of SUP in JavaScript.
8 Career in Programming or Not...
He didn't start programming when he was in High School. He started last year in Duke. He joined Newspaper team and started helping. He learned the programming languages and databases on the job. As a result of that experience, a non-profit organization hired him as a paid intern this summer. There he expanded his programming/hardware knowledge. During Mobility InnoJam event, he learned what corporate programming environment would look like. The rich experience he had as an intern and Palo Alto, Ca participant would help him decide how he could use his programming experience/knowledge in Biomedical engineering he is planning to major.
7 The Value of Perseverance
Since the Sybase Unwired Platform (SUP) we used was a new release, everything was not in black and white. In order to implement our idea, he had to show a lot of perseverance. I know from my experience that perseverance played a critical role in shaping my career.
6 The Power of Collaboration
He learned he didn't need to know everything to be successful. He knew firsthand no one in that room knew everything. Everyone in the hosting team tried to help us with what they knew; they didn't hesitate to seek help from others when they ran into an issue. In order to be successful, one should know how to leverage the knowledge/experience of others. He learned that.
5 Communication/Presentation
We had 6 minutes to demonstrate the mobile application we developed in 30+ hours. The technology we used, the skills we applied, the perseverance we showed, the collaborative attitude we exhibited - they mattered from our standpoint. However the judges didn't know any of that. What equally mattered - he learned - was how we presented our app. He learned the judges judged our application solely based on our 6-minutes presentation.
4 Corporate Culture
He had a chance to work with the best and brightest of employees working for software companies in SV area. I guess he experienced a chaotic corporate day minus politics. He was nervous when we were driving from the hotel in SF to SAP Labs. He was nervous because he presumed he was the only one college kid attending the event (That presumption turned out to be a fact). And he was not sure how others would receive him. I was not sure as well. However soon after our arrival, he felt home.
3 Resume
30+ long hours he spent in Palo Alto, Ca would be - needless to say - helpful in creating a very strong resume.
2 Silicon Valley(SV)
He loved SV. He is already planning to do his next internship in SV area in Summer 2012. He has started collaborating with his cousin(my nephew) to find his next employer. His cousin lives in San Jose, Ca. He didn't have any idea about SV before this visit. Some people say "you don't know what you're missing until it arrives". It seems he is missing SV now. Based on InnoJam experience, he now knows he is a good fit for SV lifestyle.
1 Knowledge is Power
As explained, he gained a lot of knowledge/experience in several areas in less than 36 hours. It was very rich and diverse knowledge/experience. As a result of that knowledge, he looks very confident. My wife says our son is a lot happier ever since he returned from Palo Alto, Ca.
Conclusion
We had fun attending Mobility InnoJam. We would like to thank Anne Hardy, Gigi Read, Stan Stadelman, Juergen Schmerder, Ingo and others in InnoJam team for hosting a memorable event.
Note: The pictures below were uploaded by InnoJam team to http://www.flickr.com/photos/sapinnojam/sets/72157627311768766/with/5988742719/
Women behind Mobility InnoJam: Anne Hardy, Flavia Cheng (participant) and Gigi Reed. I hope more women - including my daughter - would participate in future.
Picture Courtesy: SAP InnoJam Team
Father, Son and HP's Lester Martin
Picture Courtesy: SAP InnoJam Team
Receiving iPad2 after winning in the raffle
Picture Courtesy: SAP InnoJam Team
Father and Son at SAP Labs, Palo Alto, Ca.
Last but not the least, The winning team
Picture Courtesy: SAP InnoJam Team
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