svtrip2017

[svtrip2017]

Iyad Uakoub

I personally believe that we cannot not have a blog just about this amazing person, Mr. Iyad Uakoub. Mentioning all his inspiring advices and reflecting on them will make this blog incredibly long, so I will just mention few.

One of my colleagues asked a question during the Hikayatna Q&A session, addressing the importance of networking and how can we improve our networking skills. All the gentlemen gave answers that I loved, but Mr. Iyad’s answer was my favorite. He said, “be present when you talk to people.” To me, this was the quote of the day, and I interpreted it as follows: networking is nothing but connecting to people, and connections cannot be real and meaningful unless both ends are fully present to build that connection. If you are partially present, the connection will be poor and you will not be able to get the best out of that conversation. In conversations, we are actively exchanging (receiving and giving), and hence, to be present you should mindfully listen, as well as, interact. If you miss the first part (being a good listener), then you will miss out on valuable learning opportunities, and following up will be hard. If you miss the second part (interacting), then you will not be able to leave an impression, and hence, all the efforts you put to make this conversation happen will be for naught since the other person won’t remember you. We live in a world filled with distractions, and hence, “be present” is a golden piece of advice that I will always try to maintain.

How will this leave an impression anyways?

Answering another question, Mr. Uakoub said another valuable advice, “Don’t impress, just express.” which was one of the points he talked about in his article, “Seven Things I Wish I Knew When I Was an Undergraduate Student.” As young people with less experience, we might feel partially less confident, and hence, it is just normal for us to feel the need of impressing other people, rather than expressing who we really are. This will make it easy for us to lose track of our inner voices and follow the outer noise. By doing so, we will make sure to smash every possibility of growing any potential great characteristic we have. In his article, Mr. Uakoub explained, “Original people are the ones who nurture their inner voices and filter the outside noise. They are the ones with ideas worth spreading and move the world forward.” People who are aware of this are the ones who will help you develop, reach your dreams, and make a change, and hence, when you find them, don’t miss out on this opportunity by trying to impress them. He continues: “To be original, know who you are, be consistent with your values, be brave, speak up, and learn how to freely but respectfully express your emotions, ideas, and concerns. You are unique, and there is a good reason why you are in a certain place in a certain time.”

And I believe that there was a very good reason why Mr. Uakoub was in Stanford hall when we were visiting. A young college kid here needed to hear all these treasured advices.

M.Anaya

References: “Seven Things I Wish I Knew When I Was an Undergraduate Student.”

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Google

How often do you get a chance to be in the Google HeadQuarters? How often do you get the opportunity to walk around this great company, to take pictures in their android lawn, to ride the Google bikes or to shop in the Google store? Not only that but also, to get a Googler care about you, listen to you, and to hear him whispering to your chaperone, “they have to stop shopping, there are much more important things to learn” when you are running late?

“There are much more important things to learn”. A short simple statement that made me wanna stop and think about this visit from a complete different point of view.

Put all the fanciness aside and take a moment and look at it from a different perspective. 21 years ago, two Ph.D students in Stanford noticed a problem and tried to solve it. The result of this simple process was Google. I got to realize that this simple process involved a path full of challenges and dark moments. A path that takes leadership, teamwork, trust and commitment to be crossed. This path is not impossible to cross, but it can be crossed only by people who understand and value that “there are much more important things to learn.” People who value the power of knowledge and how it can change the world.

When priorities are well arranged, every second will matter, every question will be valuable, and every conversation can be the beginning of a tremendous success like Google. All we need to do is to re-arrange our priorities and instead of riding the GBikes for the sake of it, we need to follow the inspirational lessons hidden beneath the breadcrumbs left by the successful entrepreneurs such as Larry and Sergey.

I was not even supposed to hear what our host said, but it made a huge difference such that I was able to ignore the distraction of the amazing great campus and focus on the real purpose of our visit.

So what did I takeaway from my visit to Google? I can think of at least 21 personal takeaways from our visit. But if I was to put it all in one, I would say that the inspiration of the Silicon Valley trip is not limited to the places we visit and the inspirational talks we get to hear from the successful employees, but also the unspoken lessons we learn only by observing their mindset and way of thinking, which leads to more opportunities for a successful story.

M.Anaya

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CMUers ♥_♥

Shout out to all the CMUers in the Silicon Valley:  

Khoa DoBa - Software Architect at Zynga

The other person at Zynga

Afnan Fahim - Software Engineer at Google

Kim Martin at Youtube

Dilsher - Student at Stanford

Rukhsar Khan, Sabih bin Wasi, Jiyda El Moctar and Musab Popatia - Founders at Metis

You guys made me even more proud to be a CMU-Q Computer Science student, and I cannot help but aim to add my name to this list one day ♥

M.Anaya

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Don’t Stop!

“Don’t relay on the environment surrounding you telling you that you did enough” -Rami Al-Rfou

Coming from Qatar, I paused for a second when Mr. Al-Rfou said this statement.

Just a night earlier, I went for a walk with some of my friends near our hotel. While walking, we passed by two gentlemen who were jogging in their sport suits. As they came closer, we were able to hear what they were talking about. “What was the deal”, said the first gentleman, “$x million” replied the second, and then said the first: “Oh yea, selling the business for $x million is not the smartest thing to do.”

Unlike Qatar, Silicon Valley has a thriving entrepreneurial culture in which you are always surrounded by some of the smartest people and you meet wantrepreneurs on a daily basis. This culture will keep you motivated and will not give you the chance to feel like you’ve done enough. In Qatar, however, you will be surrounded by your family and friends who will always be nice enough to convince you that you did enough! relaying on this will stop you from moving forward and from achieving, and hence, we should always have a self-reminder of Mr. Rfou’s advice to be able to reach our goals and achieve our dreams.

M.Anaya

[svtrip2017]

Humbleness

After we were introduced to the Stanford Technology Ventures Program, we got the chance to ask few questions and I asked: “Some students end up being more successful than others, from your experience, what one common trait/characteristics do these successful students all share?” “humbleness” she answered.

To be honest, I was expecting something like handwork, passion, commitment or even emotional intelligence. Humbleness was a nice unexpected answer, but did not make so much sense to me, and hence, I asked a follow-up question: “So people who lack this characteristic are more likely to fail?” “No,” she said, “Mr. [x] is a very arrogant person but he is still very successful”. “..I wonder what you really mean by humbleness then”, I whispered. This short chat was not very convincing to me until later in the day.

We went for a dinner break after few gentlemen spoke at the Hikayatna event. Shortly after we were done eating, me and some of my friends started chatting with Mr. Farouk Dey. Later, another gentleman joined us but I didn’t really know who he was. He asked us about our names, majors and universities. We talked about things like the middle east and the sahara desert. He was the next speaker, and I came to know 15 minutes later that he is Prof. Belgacem Haba, one of the most successful researchers in field of electronics around the globe, he holds more than 1100 patents and he is classified as one of the top 100 researchers in terms of the number of patents, none of which I expected earlier, neither I expected him to be interested in knowing about my name and major.

After I met Prof. Haba, the answer I got for my question made so much more sense to me! As a result, both Mr. [x] and Prof. Haba are extremely successful, but as a journey, Prof. Haba’s humbleness clearly made a difference, and only by looking at his face, you will be able to feel the inner peace he has which you will probably not feel/see when you meet Mr. [x].

M.Anaya

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Life-changing 180 hours

It was one hell of a trip. Well, undergrads, masters and phD students traveling together halfway across the world in the quest to see how their discipline, work ethic and drive could create a positive impact to the society that we live in today and the future generations. I could go on and on about the learnings from this trip, and about how awesome the people I traveled with and who hosted us are, but I believe to the reader, there is more value when it's about companies and lessons learnt. Some of the best takeaways from this trip: 1. Appreciate life: The essence of life is in giving back to the community. The founder/CEO of Quanergy was a special person, not because he took out 45 mins of time which was initially scheduled for various investor/client meetings, or not because he gave us an in-depth idea of how the company and its idea works. It's because he indirectly reminded us that time and again, we forget our place in community and more importantly the greater good. He said, "the most selfish you can get is by being selfless, because the (universal rule that people do experience throughout their lifetime but fail to acknowledge sometimes is that) more you give is the more you get. (#Al-lebnani pride) 2. Pace and opportunity go hand in hand - Facebook: walking through building 20 of Facebook's Menlo Park office was living the motto that Mark Zuckerberg set for Facebook, that of "work fast, break things". The special part of this walk through was that we could glance at so many engineers and designers working on their computers, hacking something or the other. Note to self: 48hour hackathons are a great way to test feasibility and viability of products. If you can work fast and break enough, sky is the limit to what we can achieve. This is very much in sync with the general mentality of everyone at Silicon Valley: break things and apologize instead of waiting for permission (as far as your intention is good). 3. Networking/Wasta is key: I started off by reaching out to Afnan Fahim, a senior who I admired immensely through my college years. Funny thing is after I told him to join our group my phones battery died. In that huuuge google campus, what are the odds that without knowing where we will be, he could join us on such short notice? Guess what? He made it. That's how the smartest people work. They know people, they get things done. Another Silicon Valley idiosyncrasy. But also, on meeting Rami, I realized that a lot of these smart folks have understood that there is a lot more to just work. This guy knew everyone through some mutual friend or met people through parties, shisha, Google, etc. man, he's cool. As a plus, he also gave us a crash course on machine learning. Wicked smart. I was just thinking how there would be a line of girls in india waiting for him for his intellect and connections, haha. In addition to all this, the warmth and hospitality of Rayman was heartwarming, because he ran us through the history of Google and how everything at google has a story behind it. You want to know what I'm talking about? How many of us know what the word google means? Or what all it's android versions are? Or why they even hire great chefs? Well, google it. 4. Risk management at its finest: 500 startups was a good business lesson. Simple business concept of diversifying risk and making sure greater risk means greater return. From the name itself, it is almost evident that they want to invest in 500 startups. Yes. But why? It's simple, even if one works out and grows big to the size and scale of google, Facebook, Tesla, etc, Dave and Sherif would have succeeded and achieved their goal. This doesn't mean leaving behind all the other startups they have invested in but gives them some sort of assurance that they can get a good nights sleep regardless of the consequences. 5. If you want to achieve something and put your mind to something, anything is possible, the whole world conspires make it happen. Let's take my own example in this case. I networked to meet some of the best people, companies in the industry. Of which one of them was a friend of my college counselor who I had a conversation regarding two years prior to the trip. I remembered that she had mentioned that a friend of hers, Kim, was at YouTube back then; before it got acquired by Google. So, I picked up the phone and ringed doha to ask my counselor if Kim still works at YouTube. Apparently, she did. So, I reached out to her on LinkedIn and said if possible we'd love to drop by her office. Next thing you know, that night we are having dinner 2 mins away from their headquarters! She says sure come on in and a group of 15 of us got an inside tour of the YouTube workspace. Fun fact: YouTube brings in 1/20th of google revenue. But what you have to be thankful for is that silicon valley has this culture of giving back, which was seen in Kim. This was a long week for her where she worked late nights everyday. But just because I insisted, she took an hour off to show us around, answer questions and bring a smile on our faces by enriching our experience. What an angel! "The coldest winter I've ever spent is a summer in San Francisco." - Mark Twain Thanks again Muyesser, Omar, Wadha, Johara, Michael, Dr Hakim and QSTP. That must be it. If i go on writing, no one will read anymore. #svtrip2017 #qstp

[svtrip2017]

We Can All Do It!!

-Ammar Saed Aldien Our trip has been very exciting, yet very tiring. It has been fun meeting so many students and inspirational speakers, while jet lagged. The companies we’ve visited have left us all amazed. While we all understood how important it is to have some technological background in order to launch a successful a start up, I have also realized that without us lawyers, these start ups and companies won’t go anywhere. It’s an amazing feeling to be able to apply what I studied in class to the real world! That being said, we can all work in Silicon Valley no matter what our background is! We just have to put in the effort, make connections and get out of our comfort zone at the right place and time. The employees we’ve meet in Google and Facebook are just like us; they all took risks, made mistake and went through university and majored in different fields. We must all strive to be like them, if not any better

[svtrip2017]

Bay is Bae

This was my first time at the Bay area. I simply loved this place. It has everything anyone would ever want. It’s got a beautiful landscape with nice views and a great city!

The program was truly a success. I learned more useful information/skills in this week than I would probably learn in a whole academic year at school. It wasn’t only about teaching us where to begin our startup or how to start it, it was also about inspiring us and teaching us how commitment, persistence, and a strong will can get you where you want to be. You can achieve something and get to places you never would’ve imagined you’d be. We witnessed this ourselves. We saw people from the same region we’re from who made it to SV. Some of them had a rough childhood and went to public schools but that didn’t discourage them at all. In fact, their previous situations and backgrounds pushed them even more to achieve and shine in what they do. We learned that networking is one of the most essential skills you need if you live in the bay area and you want to start a startup. Actually, you need be good at networking everywhere, no matter where you stay. You can be a really smart and technical person but you still need to know how to network and communicate with people to be a successful entrepreneur.

The group was awesome. Honestly...everyone on this trip was special and interesting in a way. I loved getting to know everyone of you guys. Such talented, smart, and cool people to be with. I personally made really good friends in a short period of time and I’m sure everyone did the same. We all had an “eye opening experience” (the way Muyesser put it lol. I promised her to include this phrase in my blog). AGAIN, thanks Muyesser and Omar for everything, and shout out to the coolest bus drivers in existence.

Bilal El Assadi

[svtrip2017]

My New Found Friends

To my SV Tour 2017 family, congratulations on completing a grueling and intense yet inspirational week of company visits and panels. When Muyesser and I picked you up at the airport on Saturday it was very clear to us that you were 5 very distinct groups of students who had little or no interaction with one another. We knew we really had our work cut out for us to bring you together as a family unit in the next week. But we also knew that you were up to the challenge of breaking through barriers as you are some of Qatar's smartest students and your individual countries brightest ambassadors. From our first day out of touring San Francisco and dinner that evening, we could see that you weren't taking advantage of many opportunities to get to know one another. However on our first full day together while we were waiting for Dave McClure at 500 Startups, we could see a glimmer of hope of meaningful connections as you shared your funny and embarrassing stories with one another. Ok the truth is we forced many of you to do it by picking on you but nonetheless you could see you were starting to warm to one another. Over the next few days we would be inspired together, laugh with one another, share meals together, cry to each other and yell at one one another (ok so only one yelled over and over to get on the vans, LOL). And by the end of the sixth day together, we could see true interactions and a sense of community forming. Whether it was lobbying for an activity with one another, or sticking up for a fellow student who had perhaps not fulfilled their obligation on a task or even those who shared startup ideas with one another, we were thrilled that a family unit truly had formed. Though not all of you joined us for our 6 am hikes those were truly some of the best times I spent with those who participated. Not only did they give us the opportunity to connect on a more personal level, they also served as a comprehensive synopsis of our trip. Meaning we had to sacrifice (sleep and rest); navigate various terrains (hills, waterfalls and bridges); lean on one another (due to keeping various walking paces); reap the rewards (friendships and laughter); as well as ensure that our outside activities never intruded on our collective obligations to the greater team who were waiting for us at the hotel to get the day started. That in a nutshell encompasses how projects are delivered here in the Valley. On our visits to the various companies our esteemed hosts told us over and over again what made things work in the Valley is the sense of community, networking and the true desire to help one another succeed. Take those lessons that you've learned and apply them today in your universities and tomorrow in your corporate jobs or in the startups you create. Look to one another to drive real and meaningful change to the region by being the examples that we saw in our hosts. I have no doubt that one day soon it will be you on the other side of the table inspiring the students when they ask, 'how did we get our own Silicon Valley in Qatar?' Be the change agents that the region so desperately needs, without a doubt you're up to the challenge! I wish you all the best of luck and hope to stay in touch with you all. OR

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Believing in the power of your dreams

If I have to sum up the days in my life from 4th to 10th March 2017, I would say I discovered the power of dreams, I discovered the power of positive energy, I discovered madness and I discovered how important it is to surround yourself with such people.

I met real life examples of “living the dream” and I travelled with 28 others in the making to a life changing trip to Silicon Valley.

The life stories of all the people I met and the work I saw at 500 startups, Google , Autodesk, Facebook, Zynga, Quanergy, Youtube and Stanford made me realize that it takes courage, focus, falling seven times and standing up eight to realize your dreams. I also learnt that the people who are with u in your hard times are often the ones who stand with you when u succeed. The bond and respect all these people had for each other was something that moved me to the core. It got me thinking about the possibilities of collaboration in our group. I was with people whom I have never met in my life and when we all came together for the program, it was like a small family agreeing, disagreeing, enjoying but above all supporting everyone and enjoying the good vibes.  

I can not thank enough all the amazing and genuine people we met for their time and support for students halfway across the globe. Despite achieving so much in life, they were humble and poured their hearts out in order to assure us that believing is the key to achieving.  Above all I thank Muyesser, Wadha and Omar for working hard to put together this program, welcoming us to their home, giving us immense hospitality, taking us to best 5am hikes and for treating us a family. I miss u all

Wajiha Pervez

#svtrip2017

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QUANERGY

Our visit to Quanergy was fun because we got to meet the founder of a double-unicorn company!! He was a very humble and welcoming man who took the time to explain how his invention works and show us around his space. I asked him how he felt and what his attitude towards life was before he became very successful and he said, “I never imagined I would be where I am today. Whenever I saw a successful person I would think to myself, I’m never going to be that!”. For that reason, he urged us to believe in ourselves and to pursue our interests.

-Asma Al Khulaifi

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STANFORD visit

We visited Stanford University and the campus was mesmerising. It almost felt like a dream!

I think its safe to say that it was my favourite visit of the whole trip. A few entrepreneurs came and spoke to us about their stories and I was really inspired. The Vice Provost of Stanford said something that stuck with me and that is: more important than being lucky enough to get the opportunity, is recognising that it is an opportunity worth pursuing…

In the end, each one of them was asked to give some final advice and this is what they said:

-Pursue your passion.

-Be confident but humble.

-Become an expert about at least one thing and let the networks know about it. 

-You live only once, so do it!

-You’re not going to be the smartest or most important person in the room, but always try to be the most prepared.

-Great minds talk about ideas, average minds talk about events, and small minds talk about people.

Asma Al Khulaifi

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500 Startups

There were a few people I met whom I will not forget… One of them is Sharif El-Badawi.

 Sharif was very articulate and vibrant. The way he was telling us his story was captivating. It was beautiful to see how one thing led to another and, in the end, he became quite successful. His hard work and determination inspired me because there were many instances in his journey where he could’ve easily given up, yet he kept going. He highlighted the importance of networking and making good connections. I was personally amused when he mentioned the importance of having legal knowledge as he messed up badly when he gave his cofounders leading roles in his company. He also talked about how to build up an impressive CV. During the Q&A session, I couldn’t help but raise my hand and say, “I don’t have any questions, I just wanted to say that your amazing!” : )

-Asma Al Khulaifi

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I left my heart in San Francisco!

My experience at the 2017 Silicon Valley trip is truly unforgettable. I came back home feeling energised, inspired, happy, and grateful. I made some great friends and met some impressive entrepreneurs. It was my first time seeing the West side of the US and, I must say, I am in love. I think I left my heart in San Francisco!! -Asma Al Khulaifi

The loveliness of Paris  seems somehow sadly gay  The glory that was Rome  is of another day  I’ve been terribly alone and forgotten in Manhattan  I’m going home to my city by the bay.  I left my heart …in San Francisco  High on a hill, it calls to me.  To be where little cable cars  climb halfway to the stars!  The morning fog may chill the air  I don’t care!  My love waits there… in San Francisco  Above the blue and windy sea  When I come home to you, San Francisco,  your golden sun will shine for me!

[svtrip2017]

My Networking is not Working

 If I had taken away one thing during this trip, it’s the magic of genuine networking. For some reason, networking has always been a burden. I’ve tried to analyze why I feel like that, but in vain. This trip though gave me an argument I can make about it.

 It was surprising during the trip that whenever I talk after a session to one of the entrepreneurs, I’d find a flow of words and ideas coming out naturally. I thought that was one lucky conversation as usual, but amazingly this remained the trend throughout the trip.

 This has not always been the case, because usually, I got used to whenever talking to entrepreneurs, to always be given this stance that their time is limited and that what they’re sharing is so valuable and that they know it all. This always created a subconscious burden on me. It’s also in my nature to do two things whenever I approach networking, (1) I feel the aim of networking is to be able to click and connect with everyone you meet (2) If there’s no click, I feel the burden that the networking is not working!

 The trip showed me that part of that burden was because I believed in the negative cultural connotation of the word “networking”; that says you approach a person because you want to use this connection one day. This made me feel I’m exploiting people. It also made me become more conscious not to be interpreted that way, and therefore I felt my networking is again not working!

 If I would describe the people we’ve met in Silicon Valley, I’d say they are truly genuine people. They’ve challenged the odds, moved mountains, grew distinctly in their careers, nevertheless, they talk from their hearts, lend you their ears, share more than ever expected, and never make you feel they’ve got it all figured out. In short, they’re truly humble and down to earth people.

So I learnt three things in this trip;

(1)   the aim of networking is not to make use of your connections later, the main aim is to genuinely connect with people through a conversation. It might come in as a result that this connection could be of help to you in the future, but it’s not the aim.

(2)   Genuine networking is not only talking about your work but more about personal storytelling. I suppose the storytelling session we had with the entrepreneurs on the trip was one session that made us connect and relate to the entrepreneurs even before we speak to them. This paved a smooth entry to the one to one networking.

(3)   realizing from the beginning the nature of the person in front of you could save you a lot of time and struggle. If he is genuine, gives you his ears and is humble about what he knows, he’s worth knowing as a person in the first place. But if not, then in my opinion, connection cannot be forced.

 I appreciate the effort of Muyesser, Omar and Wadha in choosing not any people but the truly genuine and caring ones we could relate to and who show that you could be the holder of a thousand patents but still be humble enough to hold value in giving your time, knowledge and experience without returns to a group of students you might never see again in your life.

 HAG.

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The trip has given me firsthand exposure to what perseverance can do for you. If you have a vision and take action to achieve your dream it showed why the recipe of persistence is important. The best of the entrepreneurial US was offered to me in a week where my pencil never let go of the paper from all the note-taking. 

The 500 Start Up was so far the most auspicious presentation I've had where the entrepreneurs have shared with us their life experiences and the mistakes they made along their ways. 

Facebook, Google and Uber were geared towards implementing entrepreneurship on an employee level rather than a self running business. But these were nevertheless worthwhile to gain insight on what one entrepreneurial skills boosts your career and makes you more resilient and irreplaceable. What is remarkable is that these corporations foster an environment for their employees to think creatively, and although individualism is cheered upon, it should nevertheless keep you humbled in a flat managerial environment rather than a top-down style if you want to go far.  We were fortunate enough to meet with Youtube, where it opened the door on the importance of Intellectual Property rights and patent rights that occur for companies. 

The Autodesk showroom presented the beauty of design creativity in their various software, whether its in the building construction industry in promoting sustainability or in intelligent design solutions of everyday products. A careful look in the library at Autodesk gives you some interesting reading material to change your mindset to think more creatively in devising solutions to everyday problems.

We then went to Stanford University and met with several Arab entrepreneurs. They all wore their hearts on their sleeves to explain the realities that they went through to become who they are. A gentleman from Syria showed the beauty of social entrepreneurship when his goal was to open a company that centered around improving employees careers both professionally and psychologically, and he shared with us some interesting points on psychological pitfalls that people have that need to be tackled.  I was really humbled by the company Quanergy and its self-made CEO Louay Eldada. He was a principled man and started from scratch from applying himself from an academia background to opening a ~$1 Billion business-a testament to what it means to stick to your vision and persevere to become successful 

I cannot stress enough how great the organizing team Muyeser, Wadha and Omar are and how much effort they were putting into allowing us students to see the best that Silicon Valley can offer. Their dedication and efforts to break the barriers between us as students from various disciplines and various age groups enabled synergy among ourselves and learn from one another in engaging conversations. I’ve gained several friends in this trip and admired many of their cool characters and personalities. 

For anyone doing this trip next year, be prepared to ask the people you meet as many questions as you can in the mistakes they made along their journeys, the skills that are important to have, what to do when you hit rock bottom, and how to keep aspiring to improve oneself. 

Ayman Raouf

#QSTP #SVTrip2017 

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City Where Dreams Become Reality

After the 20 hour-long multiple journeys, we finally reach our destination, San Francisco, and my God, what a city. When people say, that New York never sleeps, I guess they haven’t visited the Silicon Valley yet. From the magnificent views of the golden gate bridge to the richness of modernization in the tech industry has made San Francisco, one of the top cities that I have ever visited. 

However, one of the most important reasons that this trip was a successful learning experience for me is because of these three people; Wadha, Muyesser, and Omar. I cannot think of any other individuals who could’ve done what these guys did for us. The continuous efforts they put in, shows how much they really care for us to learn and have a good experience from this trip. From getting everybody’s plane tickets ready to making sure everyone is on one of the vans every morning to even making sure that we got what we all as students demanded whether it be dining at In & Out, or shopping at the outlets malls, they gave us everything one could ask for. I personally cannot thank these guys enough, for all their efforts, and hopefully if you’re reading this, I just wanted to show my appreciation towards all your tireless efforts that you put in to make this trip one of the most memorable trip of all time. 

Secondly, what made this trip extremely wonderful were the students I met from different Universities. These students go toUniversities in Education city. If it weren’t for this trip, I would’ve probably not met them at all. Amazing people, each and every one of them, I’m glad I met these people as these friendships will be one that lasts for long.

Aaah, Silicon Valley. What a place to be. From Google to Facebook to Uber to Zynga to Stanford. What an experience this has been.  Met these extra ordinary people. The word greatness doesn’t do justification to them, from not having electricity until the age of 14 to having 1000 patents in your name, from not knowing a single word of English to being the best in sales in one of the largest tech companies in the world. One of the most important things I learned from this trip wasn’t that I want to start my own startup, or work in one of the top companies in the world, I learned that you can achieve whatever you want in this world if you’re willing to put in the hard work. All these great people that I met, did not achieve what they did, overnight, it took them years and years of hard work to get where they are now. This is the most important aspect I take away from this trip. And hopefully one day, I’ll be back there, to fulfill my own dream.

  #SV #SVTrip2017 #QSTP #SF

-Sulaiman Mahmood