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

I've done what I've done

Published: Saturday, 26 January 2013

When I became Young Australian of the Year a year ago, I wanted to give as many speeches as I physically could, I wanted to contribute to the national curriculum, and I wanted to contribute to the national conversation in Australia by writing op-ed and opinion pieces.

With Robogals, I wanted all our programs from the previous year to run again and to be even more successful, I wanted Robogals to be financially sustainable and I wanted to hand over my role as the CEO onto a successor.

With university, I wanted to pass all my subjects.

Before being Young Australian of the Year, I'd done high school public speaking, high school public debating, and given only a few public speeches before.  I'd never contributed to the national curriculum before.  And I'd never written anything to be published in a major newspaper before.  In 2012, over 8 months I gave 134 speeches to 30,000 people, including 10,000 schoolgirls.  I contributed to the national curriculum.  And I submitted an op-ed for a major Australian newspaper.

With Robogals, all our programs ran again, we became financially sustainable and I handed on the role of CEO to a successor.

And I passed all my subjects at university.

A week before handing over the title of "Current Young Australian of the Year", was a week of pure contentment.

I think when you do things to the best of your ability, regardless of the result that you achieve, then you can look back on what you've done and be proud of yourself.

At the end of every project, no matter what the outcome, I like to say to myself, "I've done what I've done.  I haven't done what I haven't done.  And that's that."

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

  • Insights from another student entrepreneur…

    Kieran O’Neill started up holylemon.com, a sight that shows funny videos, funny movies and funny videoclips when he was 14, and sold it for US$1.25...

  • Robot repairs

    Robot troubleshooting on the fly in Sydney.

  • Manufacturing Leadership Summit, Grand Rapids Michigan

    After a long pandemic hiatus from giving speeches in person, I was invited to be the in-person keynote speaker at The Right Place’s Manufacturing...

  • How successful are you?

    “I go to Imperial College”, “I’m applying to MIT”, “I play bowls for my county”, or “I’m a pro-series gamer” means nothing to the person who doesn’t know...

  • Australian of the Year Award winners video

    The Australian Department of Home Affairs decided to celebrate the Australian of the Year awards with this short animated video of past award...

  • Robogals 10-Year Anniversary Gala

    On 14 July 2008, I founded Robogals. At the Robogals 10-year anniversary gala in Melbourne, I gave a speech alongside Mark Parncutt, co-founder of...

  • Non-profit founder critics

    Why are people so critical when young people start non-profits? Time and time again, I hear people say, "there are enough non-profits out there....

  • 200 Women

    I was invited to participate in a book, "200 Women: Who Will Change The Way You See The World" earlier this year.  The result is this beautiful...

  • How I won my battle against procrastination

    Just in the past 2.5 weeks, I've seen my productivity shoot through the roof, I have more energy and I feel great about myself (who wouldn't?)   No,...

  • Nexus Impact Accelerator Fellow

    I spent the last few days of February in Washington DC attending the Nexus Global Summit as a Nexus Impact Accelerator Fellow. NEXUS is a global...

Enter your email address to receive my latest blog posts: 

 

Scroll to Top