One of the personality traits that I admire in the entrepreneurs I’ve interviewed on Mixergy is their determination.

Watch this clip (or read the transcript below) and see how Chris MacAskill, co-founder of SmugMug, used fierce determination to go from being a student who hid from writing to becoming an inspiring storyteller.

The clip

I use my sponsor Wistia‘s video hosting platform because no one else gives me the stats they do.

(Can’t see video? Go to Mixergy.com)

The transcript

[My advisor at Stanford] had reading glasses on because he was looking at my file. He took them off, set my file down, and looked at me for a minute.

I thought time would stand still, and that I would wet my pants. He said, “Well, I have some very bad news for you.”

What I thought he was going to say is, “We can’t accept you to Stanford after all.” Or, “We made a mistake.” Or, “We didn’t notice this.” Or, something like that.

What he said is, “in order to become a great scientist, which is what you come here to become, you have to become a great writer, because it won’t do you any good to become a great scientist if no one knows about your science. You have to write great in order to get your writing accepted.

“And you’re here for two years. You have to write your own master’s thesis. No one can write it for you. And I have to grade it. And if it’s not great writing, I’m not going to pass you.”

That was it. I thought about telling him about my mentally ill mom and the communists, but he didn’t seem like the man who would understand. I never really told that story before.

I thought about running, like I used to do, when I started elementary school and I just didn’t understand what they were saying in there. I’d get scared, and I’d just run out of the classroom. I didn’t know what to do, but he had me trapped.

So, the only thing I could do was decide to make a 3-hour a day study of English. I’m going to, whatever it takes, read “The Elements of Style.” I’m just going to go to the same place everyday and study for 3 hours and do this.

I picked writers who weren’t trained to be writers, Abraham Lincoln and Winston Churchill and Mark Twain, and decided I was going to learn it on my own terms, not on the terms of some English Literature class that taught Shakespeare. And it was just survival. It was desperation, it was street instincts kicking in, and it’s paid off for me ever since.

One of the greatest writers I know is Steve Jobs. I don’t know how he got so good. But if you watch his Stanford Commencement Address, you could see how good he is. And he used to have me write some things for him.

I’d think, “Oh if you only knew. I’m the retard kid who got Ds in English in high school, and got expelled from UC Santa Barbara my freshman year because I couldn’t pass bonehead English. English 1A, I couldn’t pass it in three attempts. And here I am writing some press releases for you. This is crazy.”

But now I love it, and I study it, and everything else. But it just took fierce determination.

Continue to the full interview >>