Yiming: Taking a risk and betting on yourself

“wow, I’m jealous of you!”  I smiled to my former colleague, Yiming, over dinner a few months back.
 
“I’m so impressed with how you’ve taken your goal and just gone for it.”

 Yiming left our team at Pearson in 2014 and set off to explore creative writing in Bali before heading to business school. 

Before departure, he started to post some writing online on a blog called Kandisnky’s Quill.  And, it all sounded a little crazy. But, good crazy. Find yourself and make space for your ‘passion’ before business-school sort of crazy. And, I was, you know, sort of jealous of him then. For taking the time. For knowing what he wanted. And then going for it. We’ll see how long it lasts once at business school, we all thought, sensibly.
 

Writing and creation are personal endeavors.

It’s particularly hard for those who have demonstrated such skill in the business world. Yiming had been the first hire out of McKinsey for the Pearson Ventures team. He had built many an elegant financial model and diligent financial analysis of our portfolio companies. Many portfolio CEO sought his assistance. He was great at his job. He could have done anything.
 
Two years later, The Guardian announced that Yiming had won their short story prize, beating out 300 others, for his story Swimmer of Yangtze. Last fall the New York Times published My Invisible Brother.  I’m showing this accomplishment is not to minimize all the work, pressure, and drive it took to produce final creative work.
 

It’s also a lesson for us with early success in well-paying management and finance jobs.

We should not be afraid to bet on ourselves for finding accomplishment in the realm of creation.  The initial gates are intimidating. The investments we’ve made in our former careers and accomplishments are substantial. It feels like a huge step back and there are fewer guide rails and broken paths.
 

Yiming is now working on the rotational program at Bertelsmann Random House and attends many a writers’ workshops and book launch in New York City. He’s doing all the right things to push further and deeper. I’ve always felt that the core of venture investing is spotting unique talent and drive before most people believe. That doesn’t have to be purely tech. It can and is personal and human.

I'll say it here: this won’t be the last we see of Yiming.