Applying to Stanford, Harvard, Columbia, NYU and a few others. Just finishing up my common app essay:
In seventh grade, I bought an iPod touch, just after Christmas. But as the screen lit up, I noticed this one icon - the Settings icon, I think - and I hated it. I even went so far as to call Apple. It looked like someone gave up halfway through the design. So I decided to fix it on my own. I'd always had an eye for design; all I needed was a Photoshop skill set.
When I was fourteen, I built my first iPhone application. I met an iPhone developer online, Emilio Peláez - a Computer Science major from Mexico City - whom I quickly befriended. We spent hours, endless nights, discussing ideas for the perfect cocktail of design and functionality. And then we found it. And it was staring us in the face the entire time: we would bring back the classic iPod click wheel - but on the iPhone.
We spent a few months designing and developing iClassic, which would later accrue upwards of 50,000 downloads. Within a week of its release, I was able to purchase a MacBook Pro, which soon became the hub of my entrepreneurial endeavors.
From there, I decided to build a website, a personal portfolio. A couple of weeks later, I had a working knowledge of HTML, CSS, and a bit of JavaScript. Another week or two passed, and I had settled on a design. When I finally published the website, there was this massive influx of e-mails. I remember someone had tweeted about the website's launch - someone with a few hundred thousand followers - and I was receiving something like ten job offers an hour.
The first project I accepted was with Kettle, a design firm based in lower Manhattan. I worked on the iPad application for Christie's Real Estate. Eventually, I began receiving e-mails from some larger companies:
"I noticed your work, and I am very impressed. I was wondering if you'd like to talk about coming to work for Apple."
"I just stumbled across your website, and really enjoyed looking through your portfolio. I was hoping you might be interested in a position at Google Ventures."
Unfortunately, most required a relocation. In early 2011, I accepted a job offer from Microsoft. We worked out a remote employment deal, and by June, I had started working thirty-hour weeks. And what was great about this was that I could travel, which I love like nothing else. That summer, I had flown to Switzerland for a two-week snowboarding trip, and amidst hurtling down the Alps, I was building the next Microsoft Office, and designing Windows 8.
Now, I'm doing more than I've ever done. I'm building three companies, working for Microsoft, mastering Cinema 4D. Hell, I'm even teaching myself piano and three languages, and I'm relatively proficient in the culinary realm. But what I really want to do, what I'm determined to do - in the words of Jony Ive, I want to enjoy the celebration of making something great, for everyone.
