Rob Cheng's Blog
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20Nov
2024
We’re Just Growing Old.

Shortly after my friend Mike Hammond died in 2015, I wrote this song. Once I stop working, I want to properly record the song, but here are my lyrics. The image in my head is that we are growing old together, and yes, then we die individually.

Running down the ragged road of life
No time to think of where it goes
I got some money in the bank.
What it all means, nobody knows.

No one knows how this life works
No secrets to be told
Let’s keep on praying and saying
We’re just growing old
Together
We’ll keep on playing

Booze has taken some friends of mine
I guess that death is part of it all
Are there lessons to be learned?
Or memories we can’t recall?

Every year, the seasons change
Summers heat to winters cold
Ain’t no reason to complain
We’re just growing old
Together
We’ll keep on playing

Darling, put your hands in mine
And look up to the sky
Everything will be just fine
For you and I.
We’ll keep on playing.
27Oct
2024
Steve Jobs’s Last Words


In our crazy American society, we measure people by money. Rich people supposedly are smarter, live better happier lives, and role models for the rest of us. I have never believed this mantra. Although Jobs, perhaps one of the nation’s most successful, wealthiest businessman, wanted us to know his apathy towards his own wealth on his death bed. It is not the money, but the people you meet along the way and how we treat them.

I have reached the pinnacle of success in business. In other people’s eyes my life is a success.
However, aside from work, I’ve had little joy.
At the end of the day, wealth is just a fact I’ve gotten used to.
Right now, lying on my hospital bed, reminiscing all my life, I realize that all the recognition and wealth I took so much pride in, has faded and become meaningless in the face of imminent death.
You can hire someone to drive your car or make money for you, but you can’t hire someone to stand sick and die for you.
Material things lost can be found again. But there is one thing that can never be found when it is lost: Life.
Whatever stage of life we are currently at, in time we will face the day the curtain closes.
Love your family, spouse, children and friends… Treat them right .
Cherish them.
As we get older, and wiser, we slowly realize that wearing a $300 or $30 watch both give the same time
Whether we have a $300 or $30 wallet or purse, the amount inside is the same.
Whether we drive a $150,000 car or a $30,000 car, the road and the distance are the same, and we reach the same destination.
Whether we drink a $1000 or $10 bottle of wine, the hangover is the same.
Whether the house in which we live is 100 or 1000 square meters, loneliness is the same.
You will realize that your true inner happiness does not come from material things of this world.
Whether you travel first class or economy class, if the plane crashes, you go down with it…
Therefore, I hope you realize, when you have friends, brothers and sisters, with whom you discuss, laugh, talk, sing, talk about north-south-east or heaven and earth,… this is the real happiness!!
An indisputable fact of life:
Don’t raise your children to be rich.
Educate them to be happy.
When they grow up, they will know the value of things and not the price.
4Jun
2017
Are Humans on the Road to Extinction?

My first cousin is a world renowned sociologist. A few years ago in a chic NY City restaurant, over a nice bottle of wine, he shared a concerning conclusion, “In the decade of 2010, the human population for the first time in our history is declining.” In the first book of the Bible, God plainly commands, “Be fruitful and multiply.” Well, we’re not multiplying any more. At least not at the same rate. Sorry God.

I was born in 1959, which is considered to be the end of the Baby Boomer generation. Baby Boomers, some theorize, is the greatest generation. I believe the reason is because of our parents instincts to multiply. That is have lots of kids.

Our societal governmental structures, such as Social Security and Medicare, assume a new generation of young people to pay for these programs. With the American reproduction rate in decline, these programs are now in decline. Worse yet, baby boomers, are living longer than ever, which is good for replacement rates, but worse for these social programs.

How did we get here? China is certainly to blame by their draconian mandate of one child per family. This is not too bad because the mandate can be undone, and it has. They are now up to two children per family. There is something else in play. It is not abortion. It is birth control. In the late 60s, birth control went into mass production, and it is the only feasible explanation on why family sizes have fallen dramatically in less than two generations.

Birth control is a choice, and we believe in choice. But we must take care or humans might be choosing extinction.
16Apr
2016
Embrace Rejection

2014 was a great year for me and PC Pitstop. Profits flew as we established that we had the best security software in the marketplace. At the end of that year, full of confidence from our market validation, I thought wouldn’t it be great if we were in Best Buy? I had some contacts that got me in contact with the exact right person at Best Buy. I was stoked and I made what I thought to be a killer presentation. I sent it on, and then a week later we had the teleconference where I would walk them through why we were a great fit.

When I got on the teleconference, I was almost antsy to start, but the head guy didn’t want to hear it. He told me that he had already looked at the presentation, therefore there was no need for me to review it. He then took control of the meeting and asked a few questions, and then explained that Best Buy already had a strategy and their partners were set. Worse yet, he almost seemed to take pleasure in popping my bubble. Best Buy had rejected me.

It was a horrible feeling I definitely was sad. It didn’t seem fair that I never had the chance to present the PowerPoint presentation. But then I figured something out. This horrible feeling that I was experiencing was so bad that I realized that many people spend their entire lives trying to avoid this feeling.

I realized that my whole life I have been rejected. But for some reason, I have been able to get back up so that I can be rejected time again, until that magic moment when you are not. And then it makes it all worthwhile. The problem is that most people never get that far. Sure, there are probably some successful people that have not faced rejection. My belief is that the path to success is full of rejection. To the extent that one can embrace rejection, ultimately you will be successful. It is the people that avoid rejection at all costs that will never reach their full potential.