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

My relationship with money

Published: Monday, 25 February 2013

You don't need that much money.  Just enough to pay the rent, utilities and food.

My plan I created for myself post-uni when I was in 3rd year uni was to not get a job.  Live very simply.  Save my money.

The more money I saved, the bigger my runway to fail.  And then work my hardest to build a company.

Bury the ego.

I was born into a poor family, and I never had any luxuries.  So I trained myself from an early age not to care about what other people have or be affected by that.

You don't need all of life's little luxuries.  If you live cheaply, you'll have the time, headspace and energy to create your dream company.

When viewed in that context, none of life's luxuries can hold a candle to being able to do the work you love.

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

  • No overnight success: Geoffrey Rush

    When I was touring schools with Geoffrey Rush and we were answering questions in front of hundreds of kids, lots of them said, "I really what to be...

  • Officeworks

    Officeworks got in touch to film this short content editorial piece. They filmed a Robogals workshop in Melbourne, our Jevaroo robot in action and an...

  • Singularity University Reunion

    Great to go back to San Francisco in August for our Singularity University’s Graduate Studies Program Reunion. So proud of my classmates, their...

  • Losing focus

    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...

  • YouthActionNet Global Fellowship Day 6: Succession

      We spoke about our succession plans today.  We did a great activity:  if I were to leave Robogals on November 6, one month from now, what would I...

  • Choose Maths

    Choose Maths is an exciting 5 year, national project designed to empower and encourage Australian students (in particular girls) to pursue...

  • The most successful students become university professors

    When kids are in diapers, their parents enroll them into primary school. If all goes right, the right primary school could mean the right high...

  • 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...

  • Who says yes?

    I think it's important to have one person that says the final 'yes' to all the decisions in a start-up. That one person should be the visionary...

  • Burnout

    I think that burnout happens when you set a goal, you work really, really hard to achieve the goal, and then the deadline comes and you haven’t...

Enter your email address to receive my latest blog posts: 

 

Scroll to Top