I came to America 10 years ago from Kyrgyzstan. It's a country in Central
Asia, a former republic of the Soviet Union. I was 11 years old when the
Soviet Union fell apart. It had a dramatic influence on me and how I saw life.
In Kyrgyzstan we have a deep culture of hospitality and there is this
tradition whereby if you have people over the oldest son always sits at the
table with the guests no matter how small the son is.
So since a young age because I was my dad's elder son I would be sitting at
tables with my father and his guests and constantly listen. Now that I look back
on it, I think it helps me relate to people of different ages, to people of
different perspectives. And so how does my bringing carry over into what I do now?
I love spending time with people, I love figuring out about them, their stories,
their lives. This course is a different one – its job is to inspire you and so
we'll provide you with incredible stories of entrepreneurs who are shooting for the
skies, seeing the challenges, and you'll also get analysis of how to do what
entrepreneurs are doing for you to do what you are trying to do in a rigorous
data-driven and systematic way. We've just gone through a recession in this
country, we've gone through a recession in many other parts of the world, many
other parts of the world are still in the recession, and yet despite the belief
that in difficult times people should be grasping for more stable, predictable
opportunities, entrepreneurship continues to rise in popularity. And when you come
to Cambridge from a country like Kyrgyzstan, within a day, like that, you
realize, wow, I cannot believe that only 30,000 students –
10,000 students at MIT, 20,000 students at Harvard, so 30,000 students in
Cambridge have access to the kind of knowledge that is being ng generated here.
In my book that is just not right. Something has to be done about it.
But the answer is not to just put a professor in front of a whiteboard, put a camera on, and off you go.
The answer has to be in thinking about
the story and thinking about the concepts and thinking about the
inspiration and thinking about making education actionable, so that you can take it
and improve and enrich your life. This is what we are doing here.
Thank You, MIT!