Plus League
I want to first talk about why I love basketball and why all of us love basketball, whether playing it or watching people play.
I think beyond the team work, the leadership, the athleticism, I think it touches upon us something deeper.
And that is that people are equal and on the basketball court, and this game allows for us to be equal on the court.
It doesn’t matter if you’re aboriginal or if you’re local, it doesn’t matter if you’re rich or poor.
If you have a pair of sneakers you can go out and compete.
Work to get better, and understand your place within the context of team.
And so much of basketball teaches us about life. The game of life. How life works.
Show me how a person plays the game of basketball, and I’ll show you how they live, how they negotiate at work, and how they treat people, their friends and their family.
But today is about plus league and my friend and brother blackie.
My background is in venture capital. I primarily invest in Silicon Valley. And previously I was in HK working for Lee Kai Shing and his venture capital fund.
I got the chance to meet the best entrepreneurs in the world, including the founders of zoom which Horizons invested in back in 2015 I believe.
Blackie often jokes among us that he is from 體育班
He’s sort of making fun of himself as someone who is not good with books or academics, something Taiwan culture puts a huge premium on.
But in venture capital, in innovation and entrepreneurship, we talk a lot about what makes someone successful. often it’s not what university they went to.
There are so many difficulties in life to do something big and great, that the tests and university context doesn’t prepare you for.
what I’ve seen blackie do, is that he has the wisdom from the streets. He knows how to work with the corporate, the government, and also just the kid off the street with no background that just wants to play basketball and even the hater that continues to attack him on social media.
The other thing people ask me about what i see in an entrepreneur when i make a decision about investing or not, is what i call the persistence index.
I look at entrepreneur when they’re pitching this dream they have. And i ask myself, at what point, when the shit hits the fan, will this person give up.
I see blackie and the conviction in his eyes and the difficulties he faced in life. And i say to myself, I’m scared for whoever is trying to stop him because this guy will never give up.
This line 二十年磨一劍 means he’s worked for the past 20 years to do this.
I think all of us here that invested. Chris wang, sold his company to disney. Jameson, sold his company to facebook. Steve, who is not here, sold his company to google. Kai, sold his company to Activision all get really excited when we meet an entrepreneur that can execute, that has deep domain knowledge, and finally, has the opportunity to go beyond Taiwan.
Taiwan has so many things to share to this world. And watching blackie how he works with people from corporate, to government, and also through his experience at ABL able to work with people from other countries, show how much of a team player he is on both the basketball court and also in the game of life.
I’m excited to be a part of this journey. I think there will be many difficulties ahead. But Blackie has this cross tattooed on his leg, which means he’s ready for a lot of suffering and challenges ahead. And while he faces these challenges ahead, I’ll be right there with him on this road.
Thank you. Phil Chen P.League+ #是時候了
