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I grew up in Hong Kong with enough money supplied by my Dad to always have $100 in my pocket. I had zero ambition. I was not interested in success. But my parents divorced when I was 16, and everything changed.
My mom and I immigrated to a bad neighborhood in Vancouver and a low-rent, one-room apartment. My bed was a sleeping bag. And suddenly, no more money in my pocket!
At 17, I hear my mom in her room talking on the phone. Then she comes out crying. “Mom, is everything okay?” I ask. “Your Dad just told me he went bankrupt. He can’t send us money anymore, we are on our own” she says with tears streaming down her face.
“What am I going to do?” (Mom scraped by with the little money dad supplied. She did not have a paying job).
My mom was an angel for me. It was so painful to see her feeling afraid and hopeless. I never wanted to see that look on her face again. At that moment, I vowed to myself to do whatever it takes to protect her. No excuses.
Overnight, self-help books become my thing; me, the kid that hates school and can barely speak or read English, start going to the library! I have to use a little dictionary to translate as I read English. But I desire to upgrade my mindset and skills, so I think to myself,
No excuses.
Next, I see the Bruce Lee movie, Return of the Dragon. He instantly became my hero! (In the movie, he was looked down upon and out of place in Rome unable to speak the language. In school I was bullied and I felt out of place). So I begin taking Martial Arts courses to make myself strong and confident like Bruce Lee!
And then I begin side-hustles. Mowing lawns, fixing computers, stocking supermarket shelves (the only time I was ever an employee), flipping textbooks – anything to make a buck.
My side hustles evolve quickly into business ideas. The problem is that I am overconfident and inexperienced, the worst combination.
To fund my crazy business ideas, I borrow money from relatives. I fail 13 times in 3 years, and by my 21st birthday, I owe $150,000. This is especially bad in Asian culture. It puts a lot of pressure on my mom by bringing her shame. In her family’s eyes, she is a failure as a mom because I am a failure.
I am broke. Deep in debt. And a college dropout. Trust me, no one believed in me. Not even me. But now I felt desperate to make something work.
