What Can First-Generation Immigrants Teach Us About Entrepreneurial Success? - Amy Lau is RightOffTrack

my dad had a lot of trouble finding a job
he went from being a neurosurgeon
and the head of the hospital in Guangzhou
China to being a garbage man
and then eventually he couldn't find a job
and my mother went
and she was an economics major in college
went to clean hospitals for a living for over 30 years
in order to support us and put food on the table
and so seeing my parents do that
and we keep from pretty much nothing
we have very little so when you have very little
you have very little to lose
and I call this the immigrant diet right
you become your parents protector
and you translate for them
you take them to the doctors
even help them to buy a house
or negotiate to get a good deal on a car
and those are skills that people don't get to learn
when they're that age
I got to learn them and I got to master those
and it created this whole entrepreneurial spirit in me
that I didn't know yet
to me came naturally
but it was really the environment that I was put in
that shaped me and I have to be grateful for that
hey friends
I'm your host Anya Smith
Today we're zeroing in on
the magic of turning hurdles into victories
in the vital role of sales
and crafting successful entrepreneur journey
deep dive with us into a story of resilient
strategic growth and
the art of building
genuine connections that fuel sustainable business
success from navigating
the challenges of being a first generation immigrant
to making waves in the tech world of giants like IBM
and Oracle
our guest brings a treasure trove of insights
on transforming entrepreneur
dreams into reality with a unique blend of expertise
in a 3 pound strategy for success
get ready for conversation
fact of actionable advice and aspiring tales
let's warmly welcome Amy Lau
so excited to have you here
oh so excited to be here with you Anya
thanks for having me great to see you
it is great to see you as well
I know we've been planning for a little bit
but our schedules were a little bit conflicting
so we're making it happen which is fantastic
so you are somebody who is
who has been in this space for a while
you have so many experiences of
you know be is creating your success
and for somebody who's
maybe starting out in the digital landscape
how do you approach successful relationships
that also drive sales
go successful relationship
well um
I as an immigrant uh
coming to America when I was 8 years old
I had to learn to adapt um
very quickly and make friends and learn English
and just really change
and adapt to a brand new culture
and so that has taught me a lot from an early age on
how to build relationships and um
you know not only that it made me into uh
I I felt like I was a people pleaser however
um people pleasing
um you know
after you
you grow up and you learn to set your boundaries um
it has a benefit of like
really helping you to build relationships with people
and earn their trust and I say earn their trust
because when you first meet someone
it takes a little bit of time of getting to know you
who you are and I just love to uh
get to know people's stories and what they're about
because uh
I came from a completely different background
everybody has an amazing story that uh
that they can tell
and when I teach people to build relationships
uh that's where you start
do not have an agenda when you go and meet someone
uh just be genuine
be authentic
be yourself and everything will turn out great and
and it could be that
you're just connecting with somebody
they made
uh not need your services at all or they made love it
uh but your job at that point is to
to find that out and if you don't have an agenda
when you're meeting them um
you just building the relationship
that could turn into a lifelong friendship
that could turn into a lifelong client uh
or somebody that can connect you with someone
you never know who you're going to meet
that's beautiful
and of course for somebody who may be listening
maybe that sounds too easy
too good to be true that it's just about
you know having their relationships what
what advice would you give people about being
not being gullible perceived as gullible
when you're just coming in of the soft approach
or be put another way have you seen things go wrong
like in people's common mistakes in the sales approach
that don't help you
have those productive relationships
yes absolutely
um what I've seen and also
you know I Learned through failure
I've made a lot of mistakes myself
and when you first get into sales
and they teach you sales 1:01
or nobody's taught you
you got to go out there and just trial and error uh
you make the mistake sometimes of
you know
you're so excited about your product or solution
you're telling people all about it
but you're not listening
you're not listening to what they have to say
and what they really want
and so over the years
what I've Learned for myself is to really
truly listen to their stories
and see if that's a good fit
not everybody is the right fit and as a salesperson uh
one of the best things you can do for yourself
is to find out all the knows
like how every rejection that you can find and
and rule those out the people don't need you
but other people do and so when one door closes
another one opens you've heard the phrase
if you're talking to somebody
that does not really want to buy your services
it's not a really good fit for them
just move on as fast as you can
so that you can get to the people who actually
really need this
so and if we talk about relationships
and how important they are
and you mentioned a little bit earlier
that so much of your experience
as a first generation immigrant
has shaped like how you approach relationships
you know there's some things that um
maybe weren't working for us and reflect on the end
for full transparency I was also first
I'm also a first generation immigrant
my mom came to the US when I was 7
8 something like that
and I remember learning English from TV
like
going into first grade and not speaking the language
um and then in my situation
I actually my
my parents moved to Spain couple years later
so I was again learning a different language
and then they sent me back to school in Russia
where I didn't speak
I didn't read the language at 5th grade
but I had to like catch up really quickly
um but
I can really sense and relate to the sentiment of
wanting to please others especially when you come into
in surroundings where you're new
you're foreign right
and you have to make connections
like there's a sense of survival
for me
it's also maybe a sense like when you are somewhere
with just your parents
you want
you feel like the Protection depends on you pleasing
keeping peace within the surrounding that you have
um and I know for me also
I had to read a book like not nice
which is about like
not pleasing people to start re electing
where this habit was not serving me uh
but can you talk about the subject of again
like where
like what important themes
as being a first generation immigrant taught you
and how can you apply that to business
yeah absolutely
absolutely and
and I value that
you're an immigrant that came when you were 7 or 8
around the same age that I came to America
uh when I was young
I thought life was just amazing because I was born into
um a family where the entire family lived together
my mommy my uh
baba uncle which is my grandma
um uncles
aunts all cousins
all live under one roof and
and I came from a culture
where conformity was a key to survival
and then um
and in fact standing out can be dangerous in
in that particular culture
and so when we came to the US um
the survival really depends on your independence right
and in the freedom like you
all of a sudden
we had all this freedom to be who we are
and individually express ourselves
and so I'm sorry
what was the question again
in terms of the
how is this experience like
what are some of the important things that
maybe have taught you that
what are some important learnings from this experience
of being a person I know
it's an ongoing thing that you can apply to business
or your entrepreneur journey
thank you thank you
uh well
basically as a as a first generation American
uh we developed at a young age
uh I had a role reversal with my parents
because suddenly
from them being my protector and taking care of me
we came to this country and I had to learn English
so did they in their late thirties
and when I what I had to learn in study in school
they couldn't help me with homework
maybe math a little bit but that's it
and so they
they had to learn a brand new culture and an older age
so to me I'm grateful that I came when I was so young
my parents came so
that they could create opportunities for my brother
and I
and we came when we were very young
so we had your mass is adaptability
and we grew a lot of resilience
because we had to learn to make friends
and build relationships at a young age
in order to survive and survive eventually
and then we had to pull our parents up um
with us my dad had a lot of trouble um
finding a job he was
he went from being a neurosurgeon
and the head of the hospital in Guangzhou
China to be a garbage man
he was a salesperson of trying to sell jewelry
he did Amway and then eventually he couldn't find a job
and my mother uh
went and she was an economics major in college uh
she went to clean hospitals for a living
for over 30 years
in order to support us and put food on the table
and so seeing my parents do that um
and we came from pretty much nothing
we have very little so when you have very little
you have very little to lose
and everything is up from there
so uh
it teaches you to be grateful
for all of the things that you're given or um
and and I was tremendously lucky because at the time
when I was young uh
I was considered a minority in Seattle
and there were so many programs at school that were
an opportunity for a minority
who is really good at academia
and so
I got a lot of scholarships and opportunities to go to
um you know
really great
exploratory programs that really elevated me
and set me up for success in the future
so I appreciate that um
being in this country um
and and I call this kind of like the
the immigrant diet right
like you um
become your parents protector
and you translate for them
you take them to the doctors um
you even help them to buy a house or negotiate to
get a good deal on a car uh
for them
and those are skills that people don't get to learn
when they're that age um
but I got to learn them and I got to master those
and it created this whole entrepreneurial spirit in me
that I didn't know you know
that to me came naturally
but it was really the environment that I was put in
that shaped me and I have to be grateful for that
I love how beautiful the story is for many reasons
but the
the theme of you looking at it as this adversity
with gratitude
that's beautiful so like people
you know people can have the same experience
but their interpretation of it
their internalization of it can be very different
and you are so clearly leads to that resilience
where you're saying hey
like I realize the reality of this challenge
and I'm gonna do everything I can
to make the most of it to grow from it
to be appreciative of the challenges
that I had to overcome because in a way
they also served me to where you are now
and how did you then find this path to like
this natural path of entrepreneurship
you know as a as a kid growing up and then
you know being this high achiever
how did you find this entrepreneur path
because I think the challenge also for high achievers
like ourselves is to dance like okay
I know I know I'm smart and I can do a lot
but that is easy to get on this track of like
what I should be doing how would you navigate that
when the the importance of education
and excelling at school was Paramount to my culture
uh so the way that we advanced uh
to my parents to my grandpa
like when I got my degree in college
my grandpa that my grandfather asked me uh
why didn't you get your PhD
ha ha so
there's always this education that was very important
and that's the way out of the slums
out of the way you know um
where we where we grew up
that you can advance in your professional life
and so that was always instilled in me
I had it in my mind
I was a straight a student growing up
because it was what was expected and um
and then I follow the path of what my parents thought
um as immigrants
you're a doctor or you're a lawyer um
but you're never a salesperson right
um you gotta get
you're an engineer um
so that's that's what was instilled to me
and so I always um
follow that corporate America path where um
I went and got a job
and then I was hoping to be promoted and
and continue up this track of corporate
but I hid up a lot of obstacles along the way
because of my personality
because I learn all of these things and
and develop some grit when I was young
and I was very independent because I have to learn um
you know to send for myself and so forth
and when you are in a corporate environment
what I Learned was that it doesn't fit everybody
and it didn't fit me because when I had ideas
some people would squash them and say
well that's uh
you know that's nice but we do things this way here
and so you have to train to do things this way
and so I hit up against that one
maybe one too many times where I thought
you know what
I don't know if this is the right fit for me
and that started me on my entrepreneurial journey
because it's not that I didn't have a choice but uh
all of the situations like
when you get a nudge from the universe
of things that did not go right
and you fail at it that is the nudge for me that okay
we need to pivot now and go in a different direction
and being an immigrant um
it helped me to adapt in that way and very quickly
so fail and fail fast and fail often
because you never learn from your successes
if you're always successful
how would you ever learn from it
it's only when I failed that I had to go
you know I fell down
had to go and get myself back up somehow
and I had to move on and and ascend
and even in my entrepreneurial journey
I also had a few iterations of that
when I first started I wanted to uh
coach people
I thought I could do sales training because I am
you know good in in sales but when I went to companies
I found out that small business
they don't have the budget
to be able to afford an outside sales team
so you end up having to work for the company
in order to get there
and so this is the third iteration of entrepreneurship
and I would like to say thank you that people uh
it's a very romantic story you know
perpetuate a late and and you know uh
go after your dreams and and follow your passion
if that's a very romantic story
but the reality of it is
that when you go after your dreams
and you follow that path um
you had one job before you came
and then all of a sudden you have all of the jobs
like you're your secretary
you have you also have to um
make sure that you're charging enough
to pay your bills um
especially your medical um
in this country you have to pay your medical insurance
and in factor
all of that into the client
relationships that you have
and so you sort of have to look backwards at um
the structure and then
how to make sure that you are paying yourself enough to
live and being able to reinvest back in your business
and then how do you scale from there
so um
all of those things I Learned from trial and error
and a couple of iterations of that
while it's romantic to start your own business and
and follow your dreams um
take the calculate risk be prepared
take a year salary and have that ready and going
and a lot of people if you can do it um
I know a lot of entrepreneurs who hold 9 to five jobs
and then from five to 9
they're working on their own business and
and that's while holding a family
so that's a lot
you know and so
be prepared for having to go through some of these
fertiles and overcoming obstacles
adapt to them and then at the end you can um
really not the end in the middle of it
you can start
enjoying some of the fruits of your labor
but it is hard work
absolutely
it is not quite as pretty on the inside haha
there's a lot more behind that
and we talked about expectations about your family
and being immigrant
that there are certain half that said like okay
this is what we value this is what we see you know
this is what we want you to do and conform to
and you definitely went off
so I'm curious
what were some of the biggest challenges
you had to overcome whether it's internal or
external on this entrepreneur journey
I'm making the Assumption that
there would be some cultural ones
as well with like being a first generation immigrant
but would love to hear from you
yes um
and in fact I did go to law school and I
because you know
you're a lawyer
you're a doctor or you're an engineer in my culture
and those are the meters of success
and so nobody understands
like to this day
I have a hard time explaining to my parents
what I am doing
in terms of my profession
it's not categorized and so yes
we run into a lot of the cultural obstacles
from the older generation of my parents
where they don't understand it
and they they think security is the key coming here
uh job security is the number one key to survival
and being happy and uh
and so uh
when you are not a lawyer
doctor and engineer
um then they
my parents worry about me quite a bit
I get a call like oh
what are you doing these days oh
and I'm also a divorcee so when I was single
my parents also called me and said
you know do you have a partner
because in their mind
you have somebody taking care of you
do you have
you know job security
um is your life all set
so that's what they want to see
but um
and I explained to them that
you know this is actually okay
because I can take care of myself
and in terms of a job or having your own business
money can come from anywhere
abundance can come from anywhere
and you never know when you help somebody uh
it could lead to another opportunity
and so I have been very fortunate to be
inviting opportunities wherever I go
people ask me what's your job search strategy
and my job search strategy has been
I don't have a job search strategy
the strategy is to really be yourself and
and understand who you are
and what your value is that you can deliver
and be true to that
because then you're going to automatically invite you
the people who are aligned with that value
and we're looking for that
and so all my life
I found that when I was unstable
like I didn't have a job ah
opportunities always found themselves to me
and I could pick and choose
I chose a lot of the wrong opportunities as well
and it was only and I'm grateful for that
because it was only in choosing the wrong path
that I could get to where I am today
finding the right path and the right family situation
and and just being happy
happiness is an action it's a choice
absolutely now you're
you're leading the wild factor
and here's what kept you going
so here you know
you talk about that everything's happening for you
and there's a sense of resilience
but I'm sure there are really hard moments right
you said this is your third
third entrepreneur journey
you're also going in some way
against cultural expectations
your parents are reaching out to you of those calls
you know loving but concerned
what keeps you going on this journey
well what motivates me and keeps me going everyday
is just life itself
like everyday you never know what to expect
and if when you're comfortable with changing
and you know that you can adapt and that you can
you have the ability to figure things out um
no matter what situation you're in
when you fell down as many times as I have
and you had to get back up
you learn that it's not so hard to get back up
and it's just part of life
and we all go through it everybody has their challenges
um and
and there are times when you win
and so nothing is ever the same
and if you can accept that and
and just flow with it um
then you are I would consider myself to be in the flow
um and just really listening to people sales
uh which I believe is my most important life skill
um was developed
my sale skills
were developed with my skills of learning people
and understanding people's stories
and in them telling me their stories
I Learned who they are what drives people
and then I also uh
reflected on that and
and learn who I was and I think that is you know
building resilience is about
knowing the foundation of who you are
and staying with that instinct
you to yourself
it feels beautiful
and can you give any practical advice
that could be
one or two piece of advice that work for you
to help like being true to yourself
or even identify what is true to myself
yes um I actually wrote this
down give me give me start
you're good you're there's no rush okay
okay so what the question is what is true to yourself
yeah what is true to yourself
and any advice for somebody to practically do
I'll even figure out what is true to them
um well
so what is true to myself is that I'm a person who uh
tried for many years into this corporate uh
lifestyle and corporate journey and
and then discover that that is not for me
and that I am an entrepreneur
with my own ideas and innovation
and I have to follow my own path
and so I resisted that for many years
which made me very unhappy
and and then finally I accepted who I was
and so self acceptance is a key to that
and once you accept who you are
and once you learn who you are
and you accept who you are
then you can go on that path of um
being that in the world needs that from you
it needs you to express yourself as truly who you are
and that actually is your contribution or to me that's
that's my contribution into the world is being myself
and um
and then
once you have that contribution into the world
then people can you know
really benefit from that contribution
and then maybe they can be inspired to be who they are
um so adapting two things
and really listening for the signs
if something isn't working out
try like
don't push
and enforce yourself into a situation where you think
that is the path there is no script
there is no written way of how to be in this world um
we each can you know
create our own path of happiness
and so it's very important to follow that individually
um
beautiful it it's funny um
right now throughout this whole entrepreneur journey
I never realized what an inner journey
entrepreneurship is
into your description like the tides and the waves
like when you are in a company
you're somewhat somewhat shielded from that right
you kind of assume like
this is kind of the current I'm gonna be on because I
you know somebody else is laying down the ground rules
but in a way
like your current that has a very set direction
and you can't really go outside of that
but then when you're afraid
you kind of like come out to the ocean
and now you have all of these tides in ways right
but you also have this vaster
vaster space where you can decide
the direction of where you wanna go
but you also have to be mindful of you know
like listening to the tides and waves
and some of the natural things that are happening
so so
you're not forcing yourself against the current
all the time and exhausting yourself
so like them the analogy of water and it's interesting
I'm teaching this accelerated course for entrepreneurs
and a lot of it is internal focus
because I think people underestimate how much internal
how internal the work of entrepreneurship is again
like things that get you to succeed or not
are not gonna be just what your strategy is
or having the best pitch
or it's gonna be about like what's inside you
what are you telling yourself that's limiting you
are you able to listen to your inner guidance
and some people may say that's voodoo
but that's really the case
like so much of what we achieve in life
is based on our beliefs our inner work
our our relationship to the higher things
that we believe in
that drive us or give us inspiration and resilience
so um
I love that you bring it up about like
what keeps you going is that the inner understanding
that
the reflection that you have with yourself of like
what's serving me
what's not serving me this environment
this role you know
like my own inner practices and being true to that
and I'm curious now that you know you
you had you know
your third effort what are you most excited about
about the wow factor
like what's unique and what are you most proud of it
of The Wow factor
oh thank you
um I mean
going back to the the inner journey that you describe
I want to add that I had a lot of help
um from people that
and um
a lot of friendships and experiences
and people guiding me enemies are also um
very welcome because you know
you don't get through life without making a few enemies
and and they actually teach you a lot as well
and so I appreciate all of those um
in in that
you know the interaction with the outside world um
put me into an inner journey that um
I had to go through this trial
um by fire that I
and in fact I did walk on hot coals and
and challenge myself
beyond what I thought was possible for me
and I felt super empowered
um from that
so every once in a while I would say
challenge yourself to do something that is hard
something that you scared of and
but do safely of course
so what am I most excited about
while the wow factor has evolved
to include my husband and partner
so what my our business model is the three legged uh
the the three legged approach to business
which is innovation sales and financial strategy
so to start a business you need a good idea
which is innovation
and then a plan for selling that idea right
so you need innovation in sales
but then you need to make sure that it's profitable
and in so that you can earn a living
and reinvest back into your business
to grow and and to scale etc
so we're very excited
to bring on the new iteration of the Wild Factor uh
with my husband Ego Goldberg um
and uh
together we're really fortunate
to have clients that are looking to us um
to help them to grow their business and to uh
in in
in this day and age with AI
and all of the new technologies um
I I truly believe that
you know we chose to be here um
and and live here in the time of innovation
and so much in technological advancement
that we can really take advantage of that
and harness those tools in order to help us to grow and
and be more and and
and contribute more in the world and
and um
and live together um
more peacefully and so I love good business and um
people who are out there you know
adding value in the world
we wanna help them to add more value in the world
we wanna help them live a life of joy um
contributing uh who they are
I love that there's a balance
I love that there's a balance
to post it because to your point
like you can be excited about something
you can have a strategy
but it also has to be something that sustainable right
so there's
has to be like this balance of what you put in
you get out and that
there's sustainable relationship between those areas so
uh yes
and um I want to also just wrap up and ask
if somebody wants to work with you
where should like what resources should they explore
where can they find you and if you also wanna mention
you have an upcoming Ted talk coming up
so let me know about that okay
thank you thank you
yes if somebody wants to work with me
absolutely I'd be delighted to have a conversation um
on my website
I think you're gonna include in this the wow factor
spelled w a u factor USA dot com and uh
I can also be reached on Lincoln um as well and uh
my upcoming Ted talk is going to be Wilmington
Delaware April 27th um yeah
I'd love for you to come if you can and um
it's going to be I'm gonna talk about um
going from conformity to individual purpose
which is uh if
there was one thing that I would love to share
in the world and that is if everybody can find and
and live in their individual purpose
that is going to really delight the world
and help us to all be elevated
so beautiful beautiful
I cannot wait this gonna be amazing
and so aligns with what we're doing here
right off track where people want people to inspire
to pursue their own purpose
especially through entrepreneurship
so we are we're way aligned on that
and I love that our paths are crossing around this okay
so here right off track
we wrap up with three rapid 5 questions
so whenever you're ready let me know
sure
okay so best advice received from a mentor
best advice received from a mentor wow um
listen
the best advice that I've received from a mentor
is to really listen to people uh
and listen to their stories
and in that you find the magic
and you build that relationship
that could turn into something really meaningful
and magical for everyone
just to listen
good advice for all of us okay
the most surprising lesson Learned from a failure
um
well
when I was uh
when I was young I had an opportunity to go um
back to China and work in Beijing and I was negotiating
uh for a little bit of higher salary
just a few thousand dollars
not much and uh I was turned down after I was chosen
because there was a line of people
waiting for that opportunity
that would take it as is and I was um
it gets seen as I'm not grateful for
for the salary that was that
that was trying to negotiate
I didn't know how to negotiate at that time
and I was I actually really was crying for days
cause I really wanted this opportunity to go um
to
to China and and work there but now looking back on it
I'm glad I stayed in the US
and I had a lot more in the past for me uh
in the US uh and
and I don't think
I would have really enjoyed that experience
I think it was rejection as Protection
and I really truly believe that
and so the path that I'm on is the right path for me
and the mistakes that I made
um those are gold because they are the
the learning ground for me to really grow
and develop as the human being that I am
so as I said earlier you don't learn from successes
you learn from your failures and it's the
that's the most surprising lesson
is that you just have to fail and fail often
and I look to my higher being and I asked when I
you know even before this talk uh
how can I serve uh this community
what what message needs to come from me
that maybe somebody out there needs to hear
and so um
so to me I'm just a vehicle that is here
for messages to come through me
um into the world and if I can serve
I'm like makes me so happy to be that
it's beautiful and I love the example cause it again
shows that you were never conforming even that example
when you're young you're like no
the natural size is like nope
I'm not gonna do it even though you were upset
you know logically
there was an internal just vehicle inside
you already kind of like no
I'm gonna do things my way
so love it okay
last but not least in the positive sense
going off track is
so going off track to me
is following the beat of your own drum
and don't let people tell you who you are
find out for yourself get curious
when something hits up that doesn't sound right
get curious don't get angry
I was telling my friend don't get mad
get even and to me
get even is he
if somebody is like beating you down and
and you don't like it or bullying you
then stand back up
and show them what you're really made of
and that's really getting even is
is like being who you are
I love it Amy
thank you so much for this
beautiful reminder for us to be ourselves
no matter if you are a first generation immigrant
or not at all but you are in a path
where maybe it doesn't feel like it's right for you
so I hope this could be an inspiration
for all of our listeners and myself
to reflect on like
what is serving us what's not what's truly us
and how can we also genuinely serve
the people in the best way possible
and that were only way
we can show up in our unique capacity
and again like be true to yourself
listen to the guidance inside you
and don't let the guidance externally
overpower that voice so
so many beautiful lessons that I took away
and as a listener
please let me know what's it up to you
shares with a friend who might benefit from as well
and as always thank you so much for coming off track
and let's take over the world together
right off track until next time and thank you
it is such a pleasure
thank you so much of a pleasure working with you