VOA常速英语:Silicon Valley More Than a Place ... It’s a Culture(翻译)

Running a company with a treadmill inside, in the middle of Silicon Valley, is not what Monisha Perkash had imagined when she and her parents immigrated to the U.S. from Nepal.

“When I first moved out here, I got a call from my father, who was living in Texas, and he said, ‘You know, Monisha, I’ve looked all over the map and I can’t find the Silicon Valley anywhere.’”

Perkash says Silicon Valley is not just a region in California but a culture that embodies entrepreneurship. The culture is infectious, she says, and it touched her when she came to Silicon Valley.

“At first my parents were very confused. I had started out pre-med and I got into medical school, and when I chose not to go, they didn’t understand why.”

Perkash says she and her two co-founders wanted to form a startup using technology to improve the lives of people. Their answer was Lumo Bodytech, a company that developed wearable sensors to improve posture and help runners avoid injury.

“There are a lot of studies that show posture being highly correlated with back pain, back health.”

Charles Wang, whose parents are from Taiwan, started as a doctor but became an entrepreneur. He says this sensor called the Lumo Lift vibrates when the wearer slouches, as a reminder to sit up, reducing the risk of back pain. Another sensor can be worn while person is running and tracks runner’s movements. Paired with the mobile phone, it can provide personalized coaching to the runner.

Being a part of start-ups is similar to running, says another co-founder, Andrew Chang.

“You can’t even compare the speed that you move at, the speed at which you make decisions, in which things happen and so on and so forth, because there is a lot less bureaucracy.”

Wang says being a part of start-up means one has to learn quickly and meet new challenges every day.

“Super fun. I mean, I think I learned so many different things in the role that I’ve had here.”

Perkash says it’s fun because there is a spirit of collaboration throughout Silicon Valley and it’s fuelling the startup culture here. She says seeing the success of her startup has been a source of joy for her parents.

“I want to make them proud, and I want them to know that by giving us this opportunity to pursue anything we want, pursue our dreams, that I’m carrying that on. So in a lot of ways, it’s honoring them that I do what I do.”

For anyone who wants to follow in her footsteps, Perkash says do not fear failure, embrace it as an opportunity to learn.

Elizabeth Lee VOA NEWS Mountain View, California.