Silicon Valley's 'Give Back' Culture

 

Silicon valley Self-made  billionaires 'giving back' culture.

One of the strengths of American society is that even a penniless young man can become a billionaire if he is capable and works hard.

Bill Gates (#1), Warren Buffett (#2), Larry Ellison (#3), Jeff Bezos (#6), Mark Zuckerberg (#7), Michael Bloomberg (#8) are A typical self-made rich man.

So, did they get rich purely on their own? It is not.

I got a lot of help from the so-called 'Pay it forward' culture until I was successful.

Giving back here means giving the grace you received to a third party, not the other party.

This forms a kind of virtuous cycle structure, creating more success stories.

It is evident in Silicon Valley, the land of creativity and innovation.

Silicon Valley's oldest brother, Robert Noyce

Robert Noyce is an indispensable person in discussing the history of the IT industry and Silicon Valley.

He is the creator of integrated circuits and microchips, and the co-founder of Intel.

In fact, the word Silicon Valley comes from his application of silicon materials to the development of transistors.

Robert Noyce was just as good in character as he was in his skills.

It is said that his house was always crowded with young engineers thinking about starting a business.

Robert Noyce gave them warm advice, of course, because he invested heavily in the business.

He said he couldn't count how many investment contracts he had.

His warmth remains strong in Silicon Valley today.

When the founder succeeds, he returns the accumulated experience, knowledge, and capital to another founder, and another founder repeats it.

Apple, Google, and Microsoft, which can be said to be representative IT companies, also benefited from the culture of giving back to the startups.

Apple's case

Steve Jobs was 12 years old. To make a frequency counter, I made a phone call to David Packard, president of HP, and asked, "If you have any spare parts, please."

Steve Jobs also had a relationship with the aforementioned Robert Noyce.

He stopped by his house for advice and even went on family trips.

If so, did Steve Jobs practice giving back? That's right. Contrary to the public perception that he was stingy in philanthropy, he made a donation to the establishment of a hospital and the fight against AIDS.

The advice was about 'choice and focus'.

Interestingly, Miss Jerry did not, and Larry Page did. So did the fortunes of Yahoo and Google diverged?

Google's case

This was when Larry Page and Sergey Brin had just finished developing their search engine.

I met Andy Bechtolsheim, co-founder of Sun Microsystems, who happened to visit Stanford University.

Andy Bechtolsheim listened to their vision for a long time, and immediately cut a check for $100,000 without any paperwork.

Of course, this became seed money.

Currently, Google is investing 1.5 trillion won in startups around the world through Google Ventures.

Microsoft's case

One day in 1974, Bill Gates and Paul Allen were on a rush trip to New Mexico.

It was to meet Edward Roberts, the creator of the world's first personal computer 'Altair 8800'.

The two saw the potential of personal computers and wanted to be associated with Edward Roberts in some way.

So they offered to make their own computer operating system.

Edward Roberts was absurd, but he was fascinated by his youthful spirit and willingly bought their software.

Bill Gates and Paul Allen left school and work immediately upon returning home to start their own business.

That's how Microsoft was born.

Bill Gates' philanthropic work is so famous that we will omit it.

learn to learn

What Mark Zuckerberg said while donating a while ago is quite impressive.
He said, "He does it himself because all his seniors did it."

This shows how deeply the culture of giving back is deeply entrenched in Silicon Valley.

I see it as a very desirable phenomenon.
I hope to see more examples in the future.