In 2001 summer, the start up that I cofounded was sold for a profit. I spent two years thinking about what to do next. One of the thoughts was to go to film school. 9/11 made me think that one should do everything they dream of now because one never knows what will happen tomorrow. So, I returned to China (I had lived there and studied Chinese language and area studies at Columbia earlier and had started going to China in 1990). I turned down multiple tech jobs and instead worked on my Chinese until I was fluent enough to apply to the top film school in China, Beijing Film Academy, and became the first American accepted into the graduate directing program there. It was tough to find work after I finished bc Chinese favored Chinese directors but CAA started reading my Chinese language screenplays and they started selling them. I returned to California six years ago and now I am about to direct a medium sized budgeted Hollywood film that I wrote 20% in Chinese and have a production company and producer that wants to make my next three films. It took longer than I expected but I am finally about to direct my first film.
What others called a foolish decision.... I gave up a well-paying corporate programming job 2 years after college to focus full-time on my own business. I created a metric in Aug 1992 that I'd quit when my side hustle generated 1.5times my salary in revenue. There was no logic behind the metric - just emotion. The metric was achieved on Nov 30, 1994. I quit on Dec 1. Best Decision Ever
In the lousy job market of 2002 I had just graduated with an MBA. I was offered a job on Wall Street to run digital learning for a big name company at a pretty great salary. With no other offers…I turned down the job. It just didn’t “feel right”. I later took a part time job at my Alma mater which barely made ends meet.
The company was AIG and my part time job turned into a full time faculty appointment…which launched a 20 plus career as an educator (and still counting).
In 2001 summer, the start up that I cofounded was sold for a profit. I spent two years thinking about what to do next. One of the thoughts was to go to film school. 9/11 made me think that one should do everything they dream of now because one never knows what will happen tomorrow. So, I returned to China (I had lived there and studied Chinese language and area studies at Columbia earlier and had started going to China in 1990). I turned down multiple tech jobs and instead worked on my Chinese until I was fluent enough to apply to the top film school in China, Beijing Film Academy, and became the first American accepted into the graduate directing program there. It was tough to find work after I finished bc Chinese favored Chinese directors but CAA started reading my Chinese language screenplays and they started selling them. I returned to California six years ago and now I am about to direct a medium sized budgeted Hollywood film that I wrote 20% in Chinese and have a production company and producer that wants to make my next three films. It took longer than I expected but I am finally about to direct my first film.
What others called a foolish decision.... I gave up a well-paying corporate programming job 2 years after college to focus full-time on my own business. I created a metric in Aug 1992 that I'd quit when my side hustle generated 1.5times my salary in revenue. There was no logic behind the metric - just emotion. The metric was achieved on Nov 30, 1994. I quit on Dec 1. Best Decision Ever
In the lousy job market of 2002 I had just graduated with an MBA. I was offered a job on Wall Street to run digital learning for a big name company at a pretty great salary. With no other offers…I turned down the job. It just didn’t “feel right”. I later took a part time job at my Alma mater which barely made ends meet.
The company was AIG and my part time job turned into a full time faculty appointment…which launched a 20 plus career as an educator (and still counting).
I’m glad I trusted my gut.
💜💜💜merci💜💜💜
The Canva part is so inspiring! Making me want to take on more "big bets" ✨