interviewee #2
Transcript
What made you choose to pursue entrepreneurship as opposed to working for someone else?
I think it’s in my blood. My parents are entrepreneurs, and they really taught me and my brother the value of working for yourself at a really young age. They started in the restaurant business. As my brother and I were growing up, we were always in the restaurant, due to there being limited outside child support outside of that. As I grew older, and I got more experienced, I realized that there is a lot more excitement that I get from entrepreneurship, and owning and running my own business. It is much more than what I get from working for a large corporation; I have worked with many large corporations in the past, and while they have their pros and cons, I truly feel that my heart and passion is in working for myself.
What aspects of growing up in the united states have impacted this pursuit?
We are a hotel investment and management company. We buy and sell hotels, and we also operate them. I really fell into this business because of my family. In the year 2000, they decided to go into hotels; at that point, they were in restaurants, but they had begun to get into residential real estate, and subsequently got into hotel real estate. Like any good immigrant child, I helped them a lot with translation. As their business grew, things got hard for them and they needed me to help them understand the language a lot more, because English is their second language. By that point I was a senior in high school, so because I began becoming more aware of the world, I found myself helping them with conference calls, emails, understanding contracts, and forming negotiations. So that is really how I discovered the hotel management world.
Throughout my college years, I helped my parents build their first hotel, which I found really exciting. What was really cool is that I went to school for hotel development. I was able to learn, and immediately apply everything I was learning in real life. So that was really exciting for me and how I got into business. As I got more experience, I eventually realized that I wanted to continue to grow my parents’ business, but I wanted to make it a lot more institutionalized and sophisticated.
What were some of the biggest challenges you faced in the startup process?
You don’t really know what to expect. You can prepare for a lot of situations, but there will always be surprises and sometimes risks that you don’t/didn’t expect. So one of the biggest lessons of entrepreneurship is that you must become comfortable with knowing that there will always be uncertainty. Starting your own business has a ton of risks, and it will be nearly impossible to make sure you have everything covered. So it is really important to have a good team.
On the “people” side, surround yourself with strong players who can help you during those difficult times to get through them and help you resolve a situation in the most thoughtful and logical way. That would be the biggest lesson that I think many entrepreneurs sometimes learn the hard way.
You mentioned that you took classes at Cornell’s Hospitality School for hotel management. Were there any other tools/resources/advice that you utilized in approaching this process?
Yes, my education was a big contributor. All of the tools, resources, and connections I made came through that. On the work side, my heavy involvement in the family business allowed me to meet people in the industry, so I was really lucky to have that opportunity. I also made sure to take initiative–no is going to hand you anything on a silver platter. Thus, it is important that I seek out the support and resources that I need. If I realize that I am missing something, let’s call it a tool, I make sure I go ask people for advice or mentorship. I believe that this is an important part of any career, not just hospitality or entrepreneurship.
Have you, or your parents, faced any discrimination in the business world, and if so, how did you address that as you ran your business?
I think that in the construction space, there is a little bit of overt discrimination, like racism. However, I think that the upside is that we were always the owners in charge, which tempered it. As I got older, I was much more aware of unequal treatment, and I would speak up more about those situations. Then again, I was in a position of power, where I could.
I would say, luckily, in the branded hotel world, referring to Hilton, Hyatt, etc, there is enough professionalism in those companies that flow to the property level, even if those brands don’t directly operate those hotels. As I own my company, part of my value proposition is based on diversity, and making sure that there is no unfair or unequal treatment to anyone based on any characteristic.
My parents definitely faced an uphill battle, as they got to their adulthood at a very different time in the US. In the 80’s, racism wasn’t necessarily “accepted,” but still very apparent no one would bat an eye. Now, because of the major equality movements across all spectrums, Asians, blacks, latinos, whatever it is, there is a lot more voice in these underrepresented communities. I just think that it is a very different time that we are in currently.
You mentioned that you did a lot of translation when helping your parents run their business. What were some of the biggest language and cultural barriers that you all faced? How did you navigate them?
It’s really tough. Luckily, numbers are universal, which I guess is a positive side. At the end of the day, you can boil any investment down to numbers. That made it a little bit easier. I also made a concerted effort to make sure that I could at least communicate with them in our language, which is Cantonese. I know a lot of people that lost the language growing up, but because I was inserted into the family business at a really young age, that forced me to retain Cantonese at a very conversational level, but enough so that I could translate for my parents. Was it perfect? Absolutely not. It was efficient. Were there things that I may have skipped over because they were difficult to describe conceptually? Yeah, definitely. For example, if we are talking about racism, there were moments where I ignored and did not translate racist comments to them, because I didn’t think they needed to hear that. Business-wise, those things were a lot easier to translate.
What other advice would you offer to any other immigrants or Asian-Americans who are considering starting their own business in the US?
Find people you trust. Both partners and capital providers that you trust; people that understand you, and are aligned with your values and your culture. When I say culture, I don’t necessarily mean they must align with you because you are Chinese, but more like, if you value a family connection type of environment, they should also value that, otherwise you are not speaking the same language to begin with.
Even before then, try to understand what you are looking to do; what are your ultimate goals. These days, especially with tech startups, people are trying to build something and quickly sell it or IPO or whatever. However, at the same time, there are other people who want to build something that they can hold long-term. So I think it is really important to try to understand what you want out of this venture. In addition, finding good attorneys is another important part of the process.
Lastly, being okay with failure. Being an entrepreneur means that you will come across many failures. And so being okay with that, building a tough skin when it comes to failures, will be an important lesson.