I cannot believe it’s been 4 years since i last blogged… I recently left Google after 3 years as an iOS/Android Engineer, so i thought it’d be interesting to post my last email I sent out:
On Wed, Mar 30, 2016 at 10:47 AM Jon Chui <jonchui@google.com> wrote:
Greetings google family & previous co-workers/teams/google-groups-i-loved (this means YOU [REDACTED, private internal email groups, but basically ppl i’ve worked with])
TL;DR – Jon’s gone through a radical transformation this last year, & is now leaving google & selling/donating everything they have so he & his family can go serve the poor & marginalized with Jesus’ love. Come hear him share how this happened & say goodbye @ 12 today in [REDACTED]. BAM. how’s that?
Wow..
I never thought this day would come, but my last day is this Friday, April 1!
I’ll be leaving our continent with just a our suitcases, taking my wife & two boys (jordan 4 & lucas 2 – see below) for a 5 month mission/philanthropy trip with christian non-profit Youth With A Mission (ywam.org) to help & serve the poor/marginalized around the world with the love of Jesus.
you must be asking… wait, what?1?! did he just say Jesus?!!
Believe me, for a man who just a year ago had dreams of owning a private jet & never having to work another day in my life (but of course, working on whatever i wanted to work on, lol), i’m the most surprised one here.
I think Henry David Thoreau best described my life a year ago:
“The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation, and go to the grave with the song still in them.”
Though my quiet desperation was outwardly a noisy one, and looked great (two beautiful boys, my dream job @ Google, working on great products like Inbox by Gmail, Google Maps, go/sound-search, etc., playing beach volleyball, enjoying the dream life) – if you could look inside, i was wasting away: pride, selfishness, arrogance, ego, lust, my marriage was falling apart, i hit 190lb from my college low of 160, career blockages, etc..
Last year, through the hardest trial of my life (i’ll share more in person below) i experienced an inward change last year that blows everything else away. It’s finally given me a hope, a peace a love and an excitement i’ve never known before.
I think Jesus said it best:
“Whoever finds their life will lose it, and whoever loses their life for my sake will find it.”
and again
“The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field. When a man found it, he hid it again, and then in his joy went and sold all he had and bought that field.”
So… before i get too carried away (if you’ve read this far, good for you!! i would’ve stopped @ the beginning before, lol):
At first, i was just going to share with a few friends but have been encouraged to send this out to a wider audience in case there’s anyone, even just one person, who can relate & wants this hope too: It’s worth it for me getting meme’gened up 😉
[ REDACTED – info on my sharing that was intended for my Googler family/friends/co-workers. But if you’re interested in hearing, please give me an email or comment on this post!]
FULL DISCLOSURE: it totally has to do with Jesus, but ironically nothing to do with religion – in fact, religion was the thing that almost kept me from seeing it! 😉
Jon Chui 