• 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

  • Short Black | Sandra Sully podcast

    The lovely Sandra Sully invited me to appear on her podcast, Short Black, after we spoke at Vogue Codes together in 2018.  Check out our conversation here: ...

  • Variety of media

    Myself and Teleport (with my business partner Alberto Rizzoli appearing on Teleport) got a really awesome page 2-3 spread in The Age. It looks rad!...

  • Tune out everyone

    Being concerned with what people think about you makes you unable to contribute your best work to the world.

  • How to choose your projects

    Ask yourself: 1.  What do I want to learn? 2. What do I already know? Then: 3.  Devise a project you’re interested in that involves others - Create a...

  • City of Darwin Robotics Workshop

    I was invited to Darwin for National Science Week on 19 August where I ran a robotics workshop for the kids.  The next day, I gave a speech to 400...

  • YouthActionNet Global Fellowship Day 3: A lot of heart

    Today, the most interesting part of the day was a session called "Open Space", where some people wrote topics they were interested in discussing on...

  • Future is fuzzy

    I used to get anxious about the future.  Whether I could get a good job, where I would live, if I would have enough money to survive. But then I...

  • 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...

  • Dianne's Garage

    This is how I spend the majority of my time:  Hanging out with my mentor Dianne in her awesome workshop.

  • Forbes World's Top 50 Women In Tech

    I was pretty chuffed and surprised to learn that I was named a top 50 women in tech globally by Forbes magazine!  OMG! See the full list here.  And my...

Enter your email address to receive my latest blog posts: 

 

Scroll to Top