I found out not long ago that my good friend and college housemate Jerry Tam had made the cut and would be appearing on Season 5 of Bravo TV’s Project Runway. I’m currently in Europe right now so I went looking to find some details about the season premiere last night. Knowing Jerry as well as I do, he was either going to win it all or get kicked off the first episode and unfortunately it was the latter.

Tam has an incredible amount of talent and vision wound up into a 150 beats-per-minute kind of frenetic energy. This is a guy who went from growing up in Montana bussing tables in his dad’s Chinese Restaurant to start his own fashion label in Manhattan, FORM. That was not the shortest path between two points.

People think succeeding in business just requires a great idea but ideas don’t blossom on their own. Success takes hard work, long nights, persistence and an undying conviction that you can do it better than everyone else. While he may have lost out on Project Runway, I know Jerry has those qualities required to succeed.

You’re still 1 of 16 buddy and we’re all proud of you here on the left coast!