Yu-kai Chou, renown gamification expert and regular guest lecturer at Stanford University, talks about his upbringing as a Skeptic and how he became a Christian, Entrepreneur, and Gamification Professional.

1. FailingYour Way into
God
AKA:The Life ofYu-kai Chou

2. That’s Me:Yu-kai Chou

3. Serial (but not successful) Entrepreneur
Earlier Pioneer in Gamification Since 2003
Partner of Enterprise Gamification Consultancy;
President of Chou Force & Octalysis Group
Regular Keynote Speaker/Lecturer at Stanford
University,Accenture,TEDx, SxSW
Rated #1 Gamification Guru in the world by World
Gamification Congress (and leaderboarded.com)

4. Things To Look For
• Struggles that led to Strengths
• Failures that led to (relative) Humbleness
• Journey from Skeptic to Christian
• Blessings in Disguise

5. Born in Taiwan (agnostic parents)

6. Taiwan has traditional rituals with
lots of idols in Taoism

7. Moved to South Africa from 2-8

8. I was in schools that required prayers

9. I was gullible, and It was fun.

10. I was gullible, and It was fun.

11. Those were the purest
happy days of my life

12. Moved Back to Taiwan from 8-13

13. Massively Behind in Everything
Struggling Academically and Socially

14. Was not very confident
Always tried to fit in

15. Often writing punishment
assignments till 3AM as 3rd Grader

16. I caught up to everyone
in Middle School
N O T E : I A M N O T I N T H I S P I C T U R E

17. But I also became a Skeptic

18. Mom would encourage me to visit
church to learn about other cultures
I thought they were phony and
manipulative. People actually believe in
this stuff beyond myth???

19. I would ask tough
questions
And they couldn’t
answer

20. • God says “Do not get angry/jealous/murderous” but gets
angry/jealous/murderous himself. Is God hypocritical?
• God is all powerful/knowing and sees the beginning to the
end.Why does he create/allow evil? Couldn’t he create Satan
a bit differently? Did he screw up? (Also with pre-Noah)
• Why would God leave naive infants by themselves at the
Garden of Eden with a professional trickster and instead of
protecting, hold the infants responsible?
• If Jesus is God, what’s the big deal of dying for people?
Couldn’t he just die and come back to life 50 times a day if
he wanted? Doesn’t seem like a real sacrifice.
• Do the Pharisees that killed Jesus have a choice? They were
prophesied to do so. Do they have free will?

21. Worse Circular Logic
How is this more believable than
Zeus in Greek Mythology?

22. The churches didn’t like me
I didn’t like them either
Y O U H AV E N O
FA I T H ! !

23. Lived in Kansas from
13-17

24. Massively Behind in Everything
Struggling Academically and Socially

25. Was not very confident
Always tried to fit in

26. Took ESL, Honors English, and Joined
Debate Team at the same time

27. (Got Slaughtered)

28. People said I looked EXACTLY like
Jackie Chan & Jet Li!

29. People said I looked EXACTLY like
Jackie Chan & Jet Li!

30. Started a Chess Club
Made Friends

31. Chris Schedler
I said No.
WA N T T O
G O T O M Y
C H U R C H T H I S
S U N D AY ?

32. Asked for 6 weeks in a row
WA N T T O
G O T O M Y
C H U R C H T H I S
S U N D AY ?
I agreed after rejecting 5 times. Goal:
“I didn’t like it. Please stop asking”

33. Instant in the building - felt touched by
Holy Spirit (weird).
Youth Pastor was Knowledgable
Answered many questions with
historical records, archaeology, etc.

34. Epiphany: maybe there are
more answers that make sense
Started doing my own research and
investigation

35. Eventually, I became convinced
that it was true
No reason to pretend I was not
convince

36. Received Jesus Christ in 10th Grade

37. And then I’m like,“Oh crap. If this
is true.Then it comes with a hefty
package. I’d actually need to change
the way I lived, make sacrifices, and
compromise.

38. The path of a Christian is
not sweet or easy
Many of the best Christians in the
Bible lived terrible (but joyful) lives

39. I caught up to everyone
in High School
N O T E : I A M N O T I N T H I S P I C T U R E

40. B Student
“Okay” in extracurricular activities
Follower
Very good at computer games
Year I received Christ
A+ (98%) 4.0 Student
Chess State Champion
State Competition Varsity Swimming
State Orchestra Competition in Violin
Forensics highest rating in State Competition
Varsity in Debate Team
Wrote string quartet music/novel
Confident Leader
Discovered Gamification
(Note: no empirical proof that this is causal
or even correlated)

41. Last Semester of High School
South Pasadena, CA

42. Massively Behind in School (different
graduation requirements)
By far hardest academic semester
in my life (even today)

43. Skills so far obtained
(order of importance):
!
Persistence while struggling
Empathy
Confidence
Worldly Perspective
Analytical Skills

44. UCLA
17-20

45. I was NOT behind in anything
But, I was bored of not
struggling, so…

46. I started a company first
year of college

47. REWARDME.COM
Eventually led to bigger things
• FDWorld ->
• FDCareer ->
• Viralogy: Social Media Ranking ->
• Viralogy: Recommendation Engine ->
• RewardMe: QR Code Loyalty ->
• RewardMe: Gamified CRM Platform ->
• Gamification/Octalysis Consulting

48. REWARDME.COM
Our Startup Team

49. REWARDME.COM
Very smart people

52. Future Delivery
• First gamified platform for career development
& recruitment
• Partnership with Disney Interactive Media
Group, Bed Bath & Beyond etc.
• Rated a “Top 10 Social Network for Gen-Ys”
by mashable.com
• But…

53. Failure
• We were inexperienced
• We were young and couldn’t raise money
• The economic crisis of 2007-2008
• Companies are laying off.Tool to help
hiring = not useful
• We switched directions

55. Viralogy
• One of the earliest Social Media Ranking Sites
• Popular among bloggers
• Our code embedded on hundreds of blog
websites
• Over 200,000Visitors
• But…couldn’t monetize in bad economy
• We needed to live.We switched directions

56. Key Observation
• Most of my brilliant teammates never struggled
growing up
• Did not know how to cope with failure and stay
persistent
• Did not need to acquire upgraded social skills
and empathy
• Had harder time seeings new creative visions
• My struggles growing up were blessings in
disguise

58. Viralogy II
• Social Recommendation Engine that made
eCommerce sites smarter
• One of the best technologies in the industry
• We raised $75K over 8 months
• Generated some revenue
• But…we weren’t passionate about it
• Couldn’t raise more money

59. Legal Status Issues
• Didn’t have legal status after graduating
UCLA
• Went back to community college - Full
Time, International Tuition, Illegal to make
income
• I could pay employees, but couldn’t pay
myself
• Couldn’t raise funding due to deportation
risk

60. Legal Status Issues
• Was interviewed by NewYork Mayor
Office, PBS, documentaries on why US
needs a StartupVisa
• Community College Student for 4Years!
• Eventually savings ran out
• Moved toVancouver, CA, where parents
lived
• Fairly depressed

61. The Right Prayer
• Never prayed “Keep me in the US” but
“Wherever you know is best.”
• Established a bond with my father first time
in my life
• Possibly prevented a divorce between
parents
• Became easier to raise money
• Being forced out of the US was a blessing in
disguise!

62. RewardMe

64. RewardMe

65. RewardMe
• First digital loyalty program (not counting
FourSquare’s Mayor System)
• Raised $1,100,000
• Product performed 11x better than
competitors
• Rated a Top 10 Companies to Watch
(AlwaysOn)
• Closed a $1.5M deal with national chain.

66. Fasting to Funding!?
• Previously did everything I could to raise
$75K over a year. Extremely difficult.
• Fiancee proposed to fast for this issue, so
did 40 Day one-meal vegetarian fast.
• Random people showed up and wrote
checks for $200K, $200K, $250K! Helped
close the round (before traction).
• Completely humbled…nothing I can do can
compare to money just showing up

67. RewardMe Failure
• Personnel/Cash Issues
• Ethical judgement: Protect Investors
• Stepped down as CEO
• Acquisition offers on the table - ethical judgements
• Dark dark days - Depleted my spirited
• Soul Searched

68. Kevon Saber:
In all trials and failures, ask:
1. Does this increase my maturity
2. Does it bring me closer to God
3. Does it increase in my fruitfulness

69. Octalysis
Avoidance
Ownership
Empowerment
Meaning
Unpredictability
Accomplishment
Scarcity
Social
Influence
-Narrative
-Elitism
-Humanity Hero
-Higher Meaning
-Beginners Luck
-Free Lunch
-Destiny Child
-CoCreator
-Points
-Badges (Achievement Symbols)
-Fixed Action Rewards
-Leaderboard
-Progress Bar
-Quest Lists
-Win Prize
-High-Five
-Crowning
-LevelUp Symphony
-Aura Effect
-Step-by-Step Tutorial
-Boss Fights
-Milestone Unlock
-Evergreen Mechanics
-General’s Carrot
-Real-Time Control
-Chain Combos
-Instant feedback
-Boosters
-Blank Fills
-Voluntary Autonomy
-Choice Perception
-Virtual Goods
-Build from Scratch
-Collection Set
-Avatar
-Earned Lunch
-Learning Curve
-Protection
-Recruitment
-Monitoring
-Bragging
-Water Cooler
-Thank-You Economy
-Mentorship
-Social Prod
-Friending
-Social Treasure/Gifting
-SeeSaw Bump
-Group Quest
-Touting
-Appointment Dynamics
-Fixed Intervals
-Dangling
-Prize Pacing
-Options Pacing
-Patient Feedback
-Count Down
-Throttles
-Moats
-Glowing Choice
-MiniQuests
-Visual Storytelling
-Easter Eggs
-Random Rewards
-Obvious Wonder
-Rolling Rewards
-Mischief
-Sudden Rewards
-Oracle Effect
-Sunk-Cost Tragedy
-Progress Loss
-FOMO
-Evanescence Opportunity
-Status Quo Sloth
-Scarlet Letter
-Visual Grave
-Weep Tune

70. Silver Lining
• Started writing on Gamification - became really
famous/successful in industry
• Started teaching chess to a bunch of kids in
school
• Extremely happy these days
• Still resolving RewardMe
• Blessing in Disguise? I don’t know. But so far
EVERY worst occurrence in my life turned out
to be a blessing in disguise.Time will tell.

71. ThankYou.
Truly.
yukai@yukaichou.com