Oh the Things We'll See in Silicon Valley
Tell the truth. When you hear the words “Silicon Valley” you probably think of the HBO series that pretty much spot-on depicts the Valley’s noteworthy personalities. Some might recall it as the birthplace of transistors and semiconductors, or before that, the “Prune Capital of the World.” No question that today it is ground zero for computer technology and design, apps and smartphones and a haven for “what-if” technology. But it’s known for other things too, some old and some new.
Old Start Ups
Did you know that Silicon Valley has some pretty famous car garages?
The Hewlett-Packard Garage. This is really what kicked things off from prunes to PCs in the Valley. This garage is now an historic landmark designated in bronze as the “Birthplace of Silicon Valley.”
Steve Jobs’ Garage. Attached to his childhood home, this is where Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak built the first 50 Apple computers. It’s also a national historic site.
The Google Garage. Sergey Brin and Larry Page rented the blue-carpeted garage to start Google and designated it as its worldwide headquarters.
The Valley is full of wunderkinds who code their way to the top. There is also a thriving HTML (how to meet ladies) culture. And yes, hovering fleece vested venture capitalists run rampant. But there is a whole lot more to it than that. Silicon Valley is really less of a place than a “culture.” It is best described by words like open-mindedness, discovery, learning and not knowing, a spirit of originating and initiating, pragmatic unreasonableness, disruption and grit. It’s where the improbable is probably important. Steve Jobs best summed this up its mantra in his 2005 Stanford Commencement speech when he advised: “Stay hungry. Stay foolish.”
New Start Up
Here’s another secret. There’s yet another startup putting its roots smack in the middle of old prunedom: The Turek Clinic Silicon Valley. Yep, we are officially open for business in the 3rd largest concentration of peeps in California and ready to deliver care as innovative and edgy and disruptive as you would expect from a Valley startup. And although we’re not starting out in a garage, I sure hope that our beginnings in the Valley will be as historic as those that did!
