Posted: January 13th, 2012 | Author: Christian | Filed under: Inspiration, Life | Tags: banker, change, china, chris fong, christian parsons, hong kong, idea drunk, life | 1 Comment »
You have friends of friends. You have friends. You have best friends. And then you have life long friends. This story is about one of my oldest friends – Chris. We’ve been buddies for almost 20 years, which is amazing.
Over the course of two decades, I’ve learned a lot from him. But after a week of drinking scotch together in Hong Kong, it was apparent that we are still teaching each other things. And not just about expensive scotches.
Four years ago, Chris was working as an investment banker in New York. He was busting his ass, working crazy 80 hour weeks for some rich assholes. And then the markets crashed. The whole industry was thrown in a tailspin. He was in a situation where he wasn’t sure that his company was going to be able to pay him. So, he bounced.
He moved from New York to Beijing to learn Chinese. After a couple in Beijing, he connected with a guy that he knew in college. Together, they started their own private equity firm. After a couple of years and a stint in Shanghai, he’s now in Hong Kong running their company.
Let’s take stock. Four years ago, his world went to shit. But instead of sitting around trying desperately to hold onto his old lifestyle, he let go. He got the fuck out of there and made his own opportunities. He now speaks fluent Mandarin and pretty good Cantonese. He’s the boss instead of the employee. And (best of all) he makes his own hours.
What I love about Chris’s story is that he took lemons and making fucking awesome lemonade. At some point in our lives, we will all find ourselves in a situation that sucks. It can be school, a job, a relationship, an apartment or even a city. You think, fuck it. I’m out of here. I can do better somewhere else. But it takes balls to leave. It doesn’t take any courage to hang around and complain, trying to get your old life back. It takes courage to let go. To move on and actively search out your next opportunity.
The courage to embrace change - that is what’s cool. And that is what Chris taught me.
- Christian
Posted: January 11th, 2012 | Author: Christian | Filed under: Life | Tags: asia, backpacking, hong kong, Inspiration, travelling | 2 Comments »
My greatest fear is to wake up 20 years from now and hate my life. To be so complacent and risk averse that I keep on suffering through the same boring life for decades. I call this the fear of the same. Last week in Hong Kong, I was able to reconnect with an old friend who had done the “unthinkable” by Chinese standards. She had quit her stable job and went backpacking around Asia.
For people who haven’t caught the travel bug, this may sound insane. Why would you leave your high paying job and air conditioned condo in Canada to go sleep in hostels all over Asia, only to collect bug bites and bruises? It doesn’t make sense. You put your career on pause. You’re leaving all of your friends and family behind. You’re messing up the pattern that we’re supposed to follow (go to school, get a job, buy a house, find a partner, get married, have babies). So, why would you do it?
You do it because it’s an adventure. Because it’s the unknown. Because it’s exciting. You do it because normal life is boring. You do it because you’re curious and you want to know what it would be like. Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn’t do than by the ones you did do.
Over the course a couple of Hong Kong beers and some sketchy peanuts, my friend said something that stuck with me:
“I look back at the past five months and I talk to people whose lives are exactly the same. That scares me. I don’t want to go back to being like that.”
Every day, she woke up and did something different. She learned something new. She saw something that she had never seen before. She was inspired. And she came to the stark realization that some of her friends living “normal” lives were boring. What did you do this week? I watched Breaking Bad. Fuck, well I guess that doesn’t compare to being one of the first Western tourists to backpack through Burma.
So, what does this mean? If you want to be inspired and live an interesting life, you’ve got to take risks. You don’t need to quit your job and backpack around the world. Take a dance class. Learn the guitar. Read a book. Stay up drinking wine with friends until you see the sun rise. Just do something to shake up your routine. Don’t do the same thing every day.
- Christian