Last week, I returned to the Time 100 dinner at Lincoln Center in New York City thanks to the generosity of Jim Kelly and the folks at Time. The dinner puts words to shame; the only one with a fighting chance is: surreal.
The evening begins with a red carpet that whisks you off Columbus Circle into Lincoln Center and up an elevator to the palatial jazz room overlooking the city. Crowds line the carpet and scan ravenously for prey they recognize. And were it any other day, I’d have been right there alongside them, trying to bottle a genuine droplet of Jon Stewart sweat, asking Oprah to sign my chest or Condoleezza to sign my declaration of war.
When my turn came, the shouts were deafening: “Will! WILL!” Initially I assumed they were asking me for something—”WILL you marry me?” WILL you have my child?”—but in hindsight they were probably shouting at Will Smith, who was behind me, or perhaps “WILL you get out of the way so we can see Will Smith�” Of course, I didn’t have the benefit of hindsight. That’s the first rule of red carpet walking: always look straight ahead. Keep your cool, and pretend that you actually belong one step ahead of the guy you idolized on television every school day for six years.
I’ve spent the last two trying to make sense of the whirlwind absurdity that has become my life. Dinner with the Fresh Prince on Monday, coding object serialization on Tuesday, venture capital strategizing on Wednesday, Belgian interview on Thursday—dorm meeting on Friday. It has been exhilarating, intoxicating, exhausting and overwhelming. Most of all, it has been undeserved.
But things are what they are, and when life gives a stage, it also gives a choice: ride the red carpet, savor the wine and strike a pose. Or take the stage and make the biggest damn impact you can until the curtain falls. And that’s why I’m taking time off from Stanford, and that’s what this startup is about. I don’t know whether it will succeed or fail, but I will know that when the fates called my name, at least I stood up.
Twenty-four hours before leading Will Smith into a black tie dinner hosted by Paul Simon, toasted by Katie Couric and roasted by Stephen Colbert, with filet mignon and a glass of J-Lo, I straggled into the Men’s Wearhouse on 46th to upgrade my tomato-stained jeans to my 48-hour tuxedo rental. And when she gave it to me, the lady cocked her head, smiled wistfully and unwittingly nailed the last 552 days of incongruous lunacy far better than I ever could.
“Prom?”
May 16th, 2006 at 11:37 am
Congrats, sounds like you’re having a blast.
May 16th, 2006 at 11:43 am
Well written and nice to see you can still eat humble pie.
We are mere earthlings enjoying our temporary visit to this lovely plant; some of us greater than others!!
May 16th, 2006 at 12:06 pm
So did Will Smith or anyone else famous ask who you are or why you’re there? What did you tell them?
May 16th, 2006 at 12:21 pm
Mike: Will Smith asked me for a pen.
I did introduce myself to most of these people and said “I was involved with the Firefox browser, which you’ve probably never heard of.” But like Mitchell (see her latest blog post), I was surprised to find how many people were familiar with it. It’s a new world; Will was talking to someone about Yahoo when I approached him.
Will is a very nice guy, as is Colbert.
May 16th, 2006 at 12:47 pm
I’d have given you five bucks if you’d walked up to WIll, pointed at your tux, pointed at his tux, and said “You know what the difference is between you and me? …. I make this look good.”
May 16th, 2006 at 4:01 pm
Ok, Hyatt wins the internet.
Blake, you need to stop that startup, and start working on a time machine, so you can go back in time, and do as Hyatt says. And have a camera with you, so it can be part of a new Firefox Flick.
May 16th, 2006 at 5:43 pm
I love your writing. What an enchanting little story. Colbert could use you on his writing team.
Then again, keep up your great work. Hope to cross paths one day on our respective flows. It is a new world, indeed.
May 17th, 2006 at 2:03 am
Congrats, Blake. Why the heck we hear from you so little? What’s your current focus at, how your involvment into MoCo/MoFo tasks has changed? So famous, so mute…;-)
May 17th, 2006 at 7:46 am
This is just wonderful.
May 18th, 2006 at 9:52 am
Hey man. Sounds like the party was loads of fun. There’s nothing like getting dressed up, then walking around with a huge grin, saying “Hi, I’m Blake! Nice to meet you!” 928391 times :)
How does one get invited to such events?
May 18th, 2006 at 2:31 pm
@Dave Hyatt: Yeah, I’m sure Will Smith hasn’t heard that one a thousand times already :)
May 18th, 2006 at 9:11 pm
Congrats and hope you enjoyed a lot! If Will was talking about Yahoo that doesn’t mean that he is ignorant about Firefox. After all Firefox is a name in browser.
Lucky man i m feeling jealous!
May 19th, 2006 at 9:40 pm
I love reading your encounter with Will Smith. We r so thrilled to know about your experience,so much exciting it would be for you.Thats really cool!!
We all are proudly using Firefox!!!!!
May 20th, 2006 at 8:40 pm
Like several others, I also enjoy reading your pieces. I also purchased and read from cover to cover your Dummies book, Firefox for Dummies and would like to publically say thanks for responding to a personal question I asked of you. The fact that you took time with someone as unimportant as me was a real eye-opener. You deserve the acclamations you are now receiving. All the best.
May 21st, 2006 at 6:30 am
Hyatt:
Five? Wanna raise it to Ten?
Blake:
You met Will Smith and you did not offer him a job?
Regards,
Shri.
June 1st, 2006 at 4:06 pm
I met Will Smith about 15 years ago (I can’t believe it was that long ago — he was still the Fresh Prince of Bel Air at the time). He was filming Made in America up in Oakland and I was an extra. That dude is tall.
I would’ve given you $5 too per Hyatt’s suggestion. That would’ve been hilarious.
June 5th, 2006 at 10:29 am
Your writing is fantastic. While at times you do come across as a bit overconfident and opiniontated, this post puts all that to rest. A gorgeously balanced piece that combines humility with ambition and determination. Kudos, and hope you get more time to blog and write such posts.
June 5th, 2006 at 8:48 pm
I am never being so lucky to met any celebrity and that too Will Smith. Great fan of Smith!!
Congrats! Seems that you are having a really good time.