VOA常速英语:如何面对挑战与失败：看硅谷与亚洲的不同

Ed Ow has worked for tech startups in China (Taiwan), and now he’s at a virtual reality startup in Silicon Valley.He says trying to start a business in Asia was much tougher than in Silicon Valley.

It’s a lot harder getting investors, and they are a lot more real in terms of, you know,Hey, you have to generate a business model very early on and make money early on in order to support yourself.’“Ow says investors are more comfortable with risk in Silicon Valley.”

You know, you have a great idea, great! Go and push it out.We’ll invest money into it and figure out the business model along the way."

Silicon Valley investor Tuoc Luong had worked in a Chinese Internet company.He says the big reason behind the difference is how risk and failure are viewed.

“Asia has put too much weight on how other people view the perception of you.So when you fail, there’s a perception of “you didn’t succeed”; but it’s worse than that.Because then it affects the parents that say, ’Oh my son didn’t succeed.’"

In Silicon Valley, failure is not viewed negatively among the investors.

They don’t avoid people who have failed because they see, okay, they’ve learned something from that.

Entrepreneur Ben Tran says even though failure is viewed more positively here, it’s still tough when it happens.

There’s been a lot of people who go into depression - people who potentially commit suicide.

There’s a tremendous amount of pressure when it comes to starting your own company.You’re tied to something with your ego and your identity."

But Tran says entrepreneurs from around the world just keep coming to Silicon Valley,dreaming of becoming the next Google or Facebook.

You read about it in the press and that has generated a lot of folks who do want to strike it rich, people who have a gold rush mentality.

Many of the entrepreneurs from overseas come with a strong technical knowledge but they may not have the soft skills.

It’s your ability to recruit top talent, your ability to get top talent to work together well,your ability to communicate your vision in a way that inspires them."

Silicon Valley investors are not only looking for these skills in the US but also overseas.

There are parts of the world that are developing outside of Silicon Valley that are matching it in terms of drive and innovation,and we’re starting to see that in parts of China."

Investors from China also are involving.

They come to the States, and they invest a lot around this area and they bring it back to China,and they encourage people in China to actually innovate also."

And innovation is not just happening in China, but throughout Southeast Asia as the use of technology spreads.

Elizabeth Lee, VOA news, San Francisco.