Hello. For those of you who don’t know me yet my name is Andrew Dickinson. I am the head of the artificial intellect department and one of the founders of our company. To let you in a secret, it was my idea to name it “Mnemosoft”. The whole thing started in 2001, when I was 23 and was about to graduate from IT Department of the University of Toronto. My friend, a young manager and me, an enthusiastic programmer, decided to start a software company. We had our business plan composed, I was sure of my development skills and my companion defined a new market niche where our products would be much in demand. I came up to my father for advice and told him about our plans. I still recall his countenance, when he replied: “Drew, it is impossible”. I remembered those words for the rest of my life. They drove me to a corner, and for the first time I thought that our radiant hopes can fail. I had no right to a defeat, for my starting capital was too little to have a second try. I thought it over and over again till late into night. In the morning I decided to make an attempt. The name of the company came by itself – “Mnemosoft”, from the Greek word “mnemo” meaning memory. I remembered father’s words very well, yet I also believed in the impossible. I gambled on the incredible – and today I am here with you, giving an inspirational speech to our new team before commencement of a new project. We are to develop a new search engine, and I know that at first glance this idea seems impossible, for no other searcher can stand competition with Google and other whales of the Internet information management. But let us believe in the impossible – that a team of young energetic professionals can create another whale by hard work, cooperation and confidence in success. Most of you are IT-people: programmers, developers, testers, web-designers, network administrators or maintenance engineers. However, you will also work side by side with linguists, journalists and database specialists. Your team is quite diverse, but it should and will function as one single body, where every organ fulfills its vital function. Your ultimate goal lies within our reach. All you have to do is to believe that you can do it. Remember that nothing is impossible – and everything will work out. Believe in the impossible, as I risked too four years ago, for it is the only way to achieve anything. I will finish my small speech by one of my favorite quotations. It is taken from the book written by a brilliant mathematician who dared to believe in the incredible. You must have read it in your childhood, but I want you to recall, re-evaluate and remember it. “There is no use trying, said Alice; one can’t believe impossible things. I dare say you haven’t had much practice, said the Queen. When I was your age, I always did it for half an hour a day. Why, sometimes I’ve believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast” (Lewis Carroll) (3). The future of this project depends on each of you, and on your belief. Thank you.
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