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Bend, Not Break
Ping Fu
A Life in Two Worlds
Portfolio
January 2013
On Sale: January 1, 2013
288 pages ISBN: 1591845521 EAN: 9781591845522 Kindle: B008EKOSRY Hardcover / e-Book
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Non-Fiction Memoir
"Bamboo is flexible, bending with the wind but never
breaking, capable of adapting to any circumstance. It
suggests resilience, meaning that we have the ability to
bounce back even from the most difficult times. . . . Your
ability to thrive depends, in the end, on your attitude to
your life circumstances. Take everything in stride with
grace, putting forth energy when it is needed, yet always
staying calm inwardly." —Ping Fu's "Shanghai Papa" Ping Fu knows what it's like to be a child soldier, a
factory worker, and a political prisoner. To be beaten and
raped for the crime of being born into a well-educated
family. To be deported with barely enough money for a plane
ticket to a bewildering new land. To start all over, without
family or friends, as a maid, waitress, and student. Ping Fu also knows what it's like to be a pioneering
software programmer, an innovator, a CEO, and Inc.
magazine's Entrepreneur of the Year. To be a friend and
mentor to some of the best-known names in technology. To
build some of the coolest new products in the world. To give
speeches that inspire huge crowds. To meet and advise the
president of the United States. It sounds too unbelievable for fiction, but this is the true
story of a life in two worlds. Born on the eve of China's Cultural Revolution, Ping was
separated from her family at the age of eight. She grew up
fighting hunger and humiliation and shielding her younger
sister from the teenagers in Mao's Red Guard. At
twenty-five, she found her way to the United States; her
only resources were $80 in traveler's checks and three
phrases of English: thank you, hello, and help. Yet Ping persevered, and the hard-won lessons of her
childhood guided her to success in her new homeland. Aided
by her well-honed survival instincts, a few good friends,
and the kindness of strangers, she grew into someone she
never thought she'd be—a strong, independent,
entrepreneurial leader. A love of problem solving led her to
computer science, and Ping became part of the team that
created NCSA Mosaic, which became Netscape, the Web browser
that forever changed how we access information. She then
started a company, Geomagic, that has literally reshaped the
world, from personalizing prosthetic limbs to repairing
NASA spaceships. Bend, Not Break depicts a journey from imprisonment
to freedom, and from the dogmatic anticapitalism of Mao's
China to the high-stakes, take-no-prisoners world of
technology start-ups in the United States. It is a tribute
to one woman's courage in the face of cruelty and a valuable
lesson on the enduring power of resilience.
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