• Blog
  • Archives
  • Bio
  • Awards
  • Speaking
  • Book
  • Contact

Losing focus

Published: Wednesday, 30 January 2013

From an organisational point of view, it's better to focus on doing a small number of things right, than a large number of things wrong.

In September 2009, I held a Guinness World Record attempt for the Largest Robot Dance.  About 350 people attended.  In September 2010, I held the Robots Are Coming robotics art exhibition in the middle of Wynyard Park.  Over 100,000 people saw the exhibition during the course of that week.

Both these events were followed by 3-day conferences that I organised and ran.  That was tiring.

In October 2010, I was exhausted, and I decided I would not hold an event like that again.  I decided Robogals Global would focus on running robotics workshops very well and to only run large projects that directly achieved our aim of getting girls interested in engineering.  Instead, we would encourage Robogals chapters to hold community events like the Robot Dance and Robotic Art Exhibition if they were interested in doing so in their communities.

By doing that, Robogals is able to develop up a core number of programs, while Robogals chapters around the world are given the freedom and support to do amazing things around the world, such as Robogals Caltech consulting with Disney Pixar on a movie about "Tinkerbell:  the engineer", tea parties held by Robogals Western Australia, Robogals Girls in Robotics Days by Robogals University of Queensland, and Robogals London's collaborations with the London Science Museum holding themed robotics holiday workshops.

Focus on getting a small number of things right, and it will enable you to grow into doing a larger number of things right.

About Me

Marita ChengForbes named me a world's top 50 woman in tech & 30 Under 30. I founded Robogals and Aipoly and was Young Australian of the Year 2012. Currently working on robotics company Aubot. I'm the youngest Member of the Order of Australia (AM) and I give speeches around the world.

I tweet @maritacheng and I'm on Facebook.

Subscribe

Enter your email address to receive my latest blog posts: 

 

Random Articles

  • Aurukun Advance Queensland

    As part of my Advance Queensland Hot Desq tenure, I was granted the unique opportunity to visit a remote Aboriginal community, Aurukun, to encourage kids into...

  • Jevaroo’s base

    Jevaroo’s base dual plates are weighted with three heavy batteries, two large stepper motors for the neck’s linear actuators and its own two steel...

  • Don't focus: search for something that sticks

    During my second to fourth years of university, I worked on Nudge, mew and Robogals.  I did various projects with all those initiatives over that...

  • Fetch Robotics

    I visited Fetch Robotics as part of a field trip for a Stanford course I took. Fetch Robotics sold to Zebra Technologies for $290 million in 2021....

  • Chinese History Museum

    The Chinese History Museum invited me to be part of their exhibition on notable Chinese Australians. In February, over Chinese New Year, my mum came to...

  • Teleport In Action Video

    After months of careful, hard work by the team, we have launched a new Aubot website!  Have a look at our new website here! In addition to that -...

  • Lifetime goals

    Don't be scared of achieving your lifetime goals.  You can always make up new goals after you've achieved these.

  • Choose

    When I was in my final year of high school, my family couldn't afford to send me to university, so I looked for scholarships that would enable me to...

  • Don't kid yourself on your priorities

    What are your priorities?  Work?  Family?  Relationship?  Start-up?  9-5?  Non-profit?  Volunteering?  Watching television?  Reading blogs?  Eating?  Meetings? Don't...

  • Why everyone dolls out the same advice

    "Follow your passions." "Dream bigger." "Focus." "You can get there with hard work." "Do what you love because then you'll never have to work a day in...

Enter your email address to receive my latest blog posts: 

 

Scroll to Top