As the youngest son of an immigrant family, there was immense pressure on me to achieve and accomplish great things. My father was a military man and he instilled in me discipline, focus, and work ethic. He made sure that I didn't show weakness or emotions and made sure that I would grow up to be a successful, strong leader.

I ended up going to UCLA and after graduating, I decided to go to law school. After just one week of law school, I knew it wasn't for me and I dropped out and got into tech. I had an amazing tech career where all 5 companies I worked for had a successful exit. Each time we IPO'd or got acquired, I thought I would feel this amazing sense of purpose, but that feeling never came.

Don't get me wrong, I was happy but I imagined that I would be feeling a sense of fulfillment but instead, I felt empty inside. After experiencing 5 exits, my conclusion that the people that felt fulfilled were the founders of the company so I decided that it was time to start my own company. The timing was perfect, I loved cannabis and cannabis legalization was sweeping the nation.

I started my first company in 2013 and had immediate success. We won Best Product at the Cannabis Cup and all of sudden I was being interviewed by Forbes, Business Insider, Gizmodo, and many other publications that I used to read. I was consuming cannabis with Snoop Dogg, Mike Tyson, B-Real, and many of my childhood idols. I met professional athletes from the NFL, MLB, NBA, NHL, and the UFC.

I should have been enjoying myself but I was under so much pressure to perform as a CEO, a father, and as a husband that I was having a mental breakdown. My father told me that leaders don't show weakness so when I was struggling with various business challenges, I began isolating myself and trying to figure things out on my own. When people asked me if anything was wrong, I would always tell them I was "living my best life" to try and throw them off.

In 2020, I couldn't handle it anymore. I had started two other companies and juggling all three companies was taking its toll on me. We had just hit our highest revenue numbers but I fell into a deep depression because it was not a pace that I could keep up. I stepped down as CEO, I started going to therapy, hired coaches to help me with inner work, began meditating, and most importantly, started to feel more comfortable showing the world the "real me", not just the parts that I was proud about.

I began really connecting and understanding myself and that allowed me to better connect with other people. I knew how to behave socially but I was never really myself and because of that, I never felt that I was my true, authentic self. Now, my goal is to help other Asian men like me, those who have a lot of achievement but don't quite feel aligned or fulfilled with their live. If my story resonates with you, set up a discovery call with me and let's see if I can help you achieve both success and joy in your life.