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Careers Start by Peeling Potatoes

Steve Blank

When I got to my first airbase my job was lugging electronics boxes on and off fighter planes under the broiling hot Thailand sun, to bring them into the technicians inside the air-conditioned shop, to troubleshoot and fix. Filed under: Air Force , Customer Development , Family/Career/Culture. Solutions From Hands On.

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The Secret History of Silicon Valley Part V: Happy 100th Birthday.

Steve Blank

Berkeley Haas Business School was courageous enough to give me a forum teach the Customer Development Methodology. This wave of 1950′s/’60′s startups (Watkins-Johnson, Varian, Huggins Labs, MEC, Stewart Engineering, etc.) And these microwave engineers were working at startups – not large companies.

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The Secret History of Silicon Valley Part VI: Every World War II.

Steve Blank

—————- The next piece of the Secret History of Silicon Valley puzzle came together when Tom Byers , Tina Selig and Mark Leslie invited me to teach entrepreneurship in the Stanford Technology Ventures Program ( STVP ) in Stanford’s School of Engineering. My office is in the Terman Engineering Building.

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Philadelphia University Commencement Speech – May 15th 2011

Steve Blank

My first week on the base… our shop chief announced: “We’re looking for some volunteers to go to Thailand.” Two weeks later I was lugging heavy boxes across the runway under the broiling Thailand sun. Eighteen months after arriving in Thailand, I was managing a group of 15 electronics technicians. You get to make your own luck.

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The Story Behind the Secret History Part II. Getting B-52s through.

Steve Blank

After been stationed at three fighter bases in Thailand ( Ubon , Udorn and Korat ) and working on Electronic Warfare suites on F-4’s, A-7’s, F-105’s and AC-130’s, I got orders to report to a Strategic Air Command (SAC) B-52 bomber base in Alpena Michigan. Imagine how hot, humid and unbearable the weather was in Thailand.