Getting Another Chance on Life

Yoky Matsuoka
1 min readMay 8, 2015

I have decided not to take the VP position at Twitter. This has nothing to do with the company or the job, both of which are amazing and full of promise and opportunity.

A couple of months ago I was diagnosed with a life-threatening illness. Suddenly, my future — a hectic schedule with a full and loving family and a challenging new job — felt essentially erased.

Before I started work at Twitter full time, I took some time to get treatment and spend time with my family. The treatments have worked so far and the doctors have given me a thumbs up. A new future has begun to fill my mind again. When you get another chance at life, there’s an opportunity to start from scratch and I feel so lucky to have this.

I have not decided what to do next. I am spending time with my family and working on some personal projects. But I can’t imagine leaving the world of technology and what has been a passion for me. I want to work again, but also want to take time to construct this new life I have been so blessed to be given.

--

--

Yoky Matsuoka

Mom of 4, building technology to enhance well-being for families, CEO of PanasonicWELL, Founder & CEO of Yohana, MacArthur Fellow, former @ Google, Nest, Apple