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Sunday, 21 June 2009
A Lesson in a Runway Crash
WILLIAM WANG CEO of Vizio, a consumer electronics company in Irvine, Calif. AGE 45 BIRTHPLACE Taipei, Taiwan FAVORITE QUOTE “If you build it, they will come.”
My ex-boss... when we were selling to Gateway 2000 faster than the factory could make.
I left Taiwan when I was about 12. My uncle was teaching oceanography at the University of Hawaii and brought my family — parents, sister and brother — to Oahu. My parents, who left China when the Communists came to power, believed that education would be better in the United States.
I didn’t know any English when I arrived. I watched a lot of television. “Charlie’s Angels” was my favorite. I was placed in regular classes, but spent a lot of time pretending I understood. My best subject was math.
It was a difficult transition socially. I had been pretty popular in Taiwan, but if you can’t communicate with other kids it’s hard. Within two years we moved to California. My parents, who had friends there, had begun investing in real estate.
After high school, I went to the University of Southern California to study electrical engineering. My parents believed that it would be a good career choice. I wanted to be an architect, but in the early 1980s electrical engineers could start at $30,000 a year. I listened to my parents.
After I graduated, I took further classes at California State University at Long Beach, focusing on integrated circuits. I answered a newspaper ad and found a technical support job in a computer monitor company for $1,650 a month. I loved it because I got to meet a lot of people. I kept going to school at night but dropped out when I was promoted and the job took more of my time.
I worked for the same company for about four years, becoming a manager and then director of sales and marketing before I decided I would start my own computer monitor business. I wanted the freedom and believed that I could make a better product.
I borrowed $50,000 from my parents. Another $300,000 came from my ex-boss and overseas manufacturing partner. I started a company, MAG Innovision, to sell computer monitors. One of our early accounts was Gateway Computer.
I was 26 years old and made a lot of mistakes. At first the business ran smoothly. I thought it was supposed to be easy. I was doing the hiring and made mistakes. By 1998, our revenue had reached $470 million, but I ended up liquidating assets to pay debts and sold the company to our manufacturer.
Two years earlier, I had started another computer monitor company, Princeton Graphic Systems. On Halloween night of 2000 I was in Taiwan talking to a supplier. My flight home to Los Angeles was scheduled for 4:30 p.m., but the person I needed to see was available only at 3 p.m. I switched to the next flight out, which was , at 11 p.m. By late afternoon, it was raining hard and I wasn’t sure the airplane was going to take off.
I was the last person to board the plane. During takeoff, I heard two popping noises. Part of the aircraft broke up and burst into flames. My first reaction was that I was going to die. Then my thoughts flashed to my family. I unbuckled my seat belt and started running to the door while the plane was still traveling. I jumped out.
I later learned that my flight had tried to take off from the wrong runway, hit concrete barriers and crashed back on the runway. Eighty-three out of 179 people had died.
The experience made me more optimistic. I thought, “We’re all going to die someday; I might as well enjoy the process of living.” I sold off the company and said, “I’ve got to do something; I need a job.”
It was 2002. I had contacts in the television industry and some credibility from working in computer displays. The American government was turning to a digital television transmission format. Flat-screen televisions were becoming affordable. I wanted one, but my wife wouldn’t let me pay $10,000 for a television. I knew that I could make one for one-third the price. We are now the No. 1 brand of LCD televisions shipped in North America.
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A Lesson in a Runway Crash
WILLIAM WANG
21 June 2009
I left Taiwan when I was about 12. My uncle was teaching oceanography at the University of Hawaii and brought my family — parents, sister and brother — to Oahu. My parents, who left China when the Communists came to power, believed that education would be better in the United States.
I didn’t know any English when I arrived. I watched a lot of television. “Charlie’s Angels” was my favorite. I was placed in regular classes, but spent a lot of time pretending I understood. My best subject was math.
It was a difficult transition socially. I had been pretty popular in Taiwan, but if you can’t communicate with other kids it’s hard. Within two years we moved to California. My parents, who had friends there, had begun investing in real estate.
After high school, I went to the University of Southern California to study electrical engineering. My parents believed that it would be a good career choice. I wanted to be an architect, but in the early 1980s electrical engineers could start at $30,000 a year. I listened to my parents.
After I graduated, I took further classes at California State University at Long Beach, focusing on integrated circuits. I answered a newspaper ad and found a technical support job in a computer monitor company for $1,650 a month. I loved it because I got to meet a lot of people. I kept going to school at night but dropped out when I was promoted and the job took more of my time.
I worked for the same company for about four years, becoming a manager and then director of sales and marketing before I decided I would start my own computer monitor business. I wanted the freedom and believed that I could make a better product.
I borrowed $50,000 from my parents. Another $300,000 came from my ex-boss and overseas manufacturing partner. I started a company, MAG Innovision, to sell computer monitors. One of our early accounts was Gateway Computer.
I was 26 years old and made a lot of mistakes. At first the business ran smoothly. I thought it was supposed to be easy. I was doing the hiring and made mistakes. By 1998, our revenue had reached $470 million, but I ended up liquidating assets to pay debts and sold the company to our manufacturer.
Two years earlier, I had started another computer monitor company, Princeton Graphic Systems. On Halloween night of 2000 I was in Taiwan talking to a supplier. My flight home to Los Angeles was scheduled for 4:30 p.m., but the person I needed to see was available only at 3 p.m. I switched to the next flight out, which was , at 11 p.m. By late afternoon, it was raining hard and I wasn’t sure the airplane was going to take off.
I was the last person to board the plane. During takeoff, I heard two popping noises. Part of the aircraft broke up and burst into flames. My first reaction was that I was going to die. Then my thoughts flashed to my family. I unbuckled my seat belt and started running to the door while the plane was still traveling. I jumped out.
I later learned that my flight had tried to take off from the wrong runway, hit concrete barriers and crashed back on the runway. Eighty-three out of 179 people had died.
The experience made me more optimistic. I thought, “We’re all going to die someday; I might as well enjoy the process of living.” I sold off the company and said, “I’ve got to do something; I need a job.”
It was 2002. I had contacts in the television industry and some credibility from working in computer displays. The American government was turning to a digital television transmission format. Flat-screen televisions were becoming affordable. I wanted one, but my wife wouldn’t let me pay $10,000 for a television. I knew that I could make one for one-third the price. We are now the No. 1 brand of LCD televisions shipped in North America.
As told to Amy Zipkin.
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