Entrepreneurial Empire
Learn the fundamentals of where you are in business and how to scale with your host Jacqueline. Your business will go through many stages, and every stage will have it's own set of requirements. Let's unravel the journey ahead together and find strategic solutions that will help you conquer it all.
Entrepreneurial Empire
🚀 Shaping NextGen Success with Jason Ma 🌟
Unlock the leadership secrets that are transforming the next generation of entrepreneurs with our guest Jason Ma, an award-winning Chief Mentor of Next-Gen Leaders and Founder/CEO of ThreeEQ, in a discussion that's set to revolutionize how we mentor emerging business leaders. From Jason's strategic and tactical involvement with the progeny of global elite to his impact on shaping their success across family and corporate landscapes, this episode is brimming with transformative insights that go beyond the classroom and into the heart of visionary leadership.
Embark on an enlightening adventure as we navigate through the complexities of elite college admissions and personal development strategies that are critical for long-term joy and fulfillment. My conversation with Jason is a treasure trove of wisdom, drawing on his vast experiences at prestigious summits and with families tackling digital addiction and mental wellness. We reveal the power of emotional and social intelligence in crafting not just successful individuals but also harmonious family dynamics, setting the stage for legacies that flourish through generations.
This episode culminates with a deep dive into the societal shifts mentorship can create, particularly for disadvantaged communities. We share stories of overcoming the odds and how mentorship can alter the trajectory of lives, reinforcing the profound influence of strategic guidance. The sincerity of fatherhood, the ripple effect of mentorship, and the heart of philanthropy—these themes resonate throughout our discussion, leaving you with invaluable strategies for personal and professional growth. Tune in and be part of this journey, as Entrepreneurial Empire continues to empower our listeners with the tools and stories to build their own empires.
https://threeeq.com/
Welcome to the Entrepreneurial Empire podcast. This is the place where you can find business and career strategies, techniques and real life success journeys of individuals who have built businesses to the million dollar revenue mark and beyond. I'm Jacqueline Hernandez, life coach and business development consultant. I've worked with startups, fortune 100 companies, network marketing, direct sales organizations, churches, nonprofits and government agencies all to become the authority experts in their industry. Lead with people and scale their revenue. Let's get started. Hello everybody, and welcome back to Entrepreneurial Empire.
Speaker 1:Today we have a very special guest, somebody that I am really excited about. He is the CEO and founder of 3EQ. He has an award-winning authored book called Young Leaders 3.0, and he acts as the chief mentor who empowers the next-gen leaders for greatness, diving deep into family dynamics to actually really enhance that long-term interest in every family and every CEO legacy. So he serves an elite clientele that comprises of sons and daughters of top CEOs and family offices and billionaires worldwide. His expertise, it is, knows no boundaries. Now he is also notably known for his prestigious distinction of being one of the very, very few Americans appointed as a leading member of the B20 and G20. So this is where he actually gets to shape global economic growth, benefiting billions and businesses alike. So please welcome on the show. Today we have Jason. Ma Hi Jason.
Speaker 2:Hi, jacqueline, what an honor and I'm just grateful and excited to be with you again in this particular show now, which is cool.
Speaker 1:Yes, I'm really excited to have you here. So, okay, right now I just want to let our audience know what a trooper you are and how amazing of an entrepreneur you are, and just everything that you do. You excel at everything. But today you are in Aspen, so you're not even at home. You took on this episode totally last minute and you're like, why not, let's just do it. So you're in aspen. Tell us a little bit about why you're in aspen today I.
Speaker 2:I got invited by a friend of mine. He's a millennial, he's a next-gen leader. Uh, pierce dunhill. He's been putting together these family office retreats, this time in Aspen. I'm just having a blast here, so I'm going to go home tomorrow.
Speaker 1:Oh my gosh, this is so exciting. Okay, so I know we talked about in the introduction. I talked about you being the chief mentor, so let's talk about the chief mentor to NextGen. I really want to dive into what gave you that passion and that desire, because a lot of people are like running from their teenagers, you know, and they're running from the next generation and they're really diving into their work or you know, their companies, their family life, but they kind of tend to steer more towards the adults. So now tell us a little bit about that, that landscape that you're in. So the families, and then also what drove you to that, to that industry in that sector yeah, absolutely.
Speaker 2:One of the key questions I would ask anyone who I'd like to get more uh, get to know more about right is what drove you is. Why is it important to you? So what are your beliefs and what are what? What's your thought processes and why is it important to you? Correct? So what are your beliefs and what are, what's your thought processes and why is it important to you? Correct? I hate it when people say, hey, what do you do? It's like that's so trans. Why don't do that? If you're my student, I'll pull your side and coach you right, don't do that.
Speaker 2:I think, about 17 years ago I I was. You know I've been in tech fast forward to today since I got my Berkeley engineering degree in 1984. Of course, you know I've been in tech fast forward to today since I got my Berkeley engineering degree in 1984. Of course you know me. I joke around all the time. I look like I just graduated with my kids at 27. Happy girls doing well. 17 years ago.
Speaker 2:In my tech business career since Berkeley engineering, I realized that the education industry was already a multi-trillion dollar industry, but the multiple they're getting is real low compared to other tech sectors, et cetera. Number one number two. China was having a few day doing entrepreneurship, and all that. That was when politically, things were a lot more peaceful. I co-founded, restarted another company, which was a Chinese education SaaS education technology SaaS company. Later on I merged that with an American company that formed my previous education company. I brought in a bunch of Stanford professors and a former Stanford provost, a former Berkeley professor, and also Eric Yuan. In fact, we're using Zoom. I brought him in as the founder and CEO for Zoom. Oh, by the way, welcome to using Zoom. I've been working from home, and all that for 14 years. Oh my gosh. Yes, eric is a great guy. He's an epitome of a great compassionate leader. So, anyway, back then I realized that, hmm, you know what? There's still a dearth of next-gen leaders out there. A lot of teenagers, college kids and, in a 20-something, in a 30-something, and there's still a disproportionately low percentage of kids that I would deem to be smart, wise, compassionate, practical leaders. Right, I got to do something about it. So I dived into the education space. In my previous education company, we were lucky to have easily coached over, on average, 1,000 mostly affluent families across California, norcal, socal. So we have a bunch of learning centers. And then we're real big on college ED, college planning, application, admission process, guidance. You know it's super competitive and so complex, right? So even a lot of students we coach, they already go to top schools, private schools, public schools. They still come to us and they keep telling me that you know my counselor in my school, even a private school, just don't have your skills, mr Ma, right? So I got real good in college counseling, but I'm also an integrated life coach, career coach, mindset, soft skills, blah, blah, blah, that type of thing, right? So, fast forward to today. Did real well and fast forward to today.
Speaker 2:I left that company about 12 years ago, something like that, because we had to work every weekend and I had only a couple of hours available to play with my family Saturday night. But every Saturday it was a good time, but it was gratifying work, helping families. But then again I got no life right. And then we decided okay, so I departed company and I found a 3EQ, my small little family business. My wife, my kids helped me as well, plus other external contractors. So I keep it real small. Oh my gosh, I love that. And so 3EQ now has built a brand name all over again, invited 3Q, this, 3q that. So it became a bit of a brand name, for which I'm very grateful.
Speaker 2:I'm much more focused now. I cannot take on too many client families and that's why I kind of go higher end in terms of the economics. I could take on less, like to take on a lot more, but I just cannot Take on a few families created and these are higher-end price points. I joke with people. I make people very dangerous in a very good way. I joke about it. What I mean by that is that okay, all right, you're in high school, you're in college, you're working. Those are different life stages. You're in high school.
Speaker 2:In most cases it's about college admissions, correct? Except for a tiny 0.001% of the kids are Thiel fellows. I was also a Thiel fellowship mentor, right, peter Thiel paid you $100,000. You drop out of Stanford, berkeley, harvard to become an entrepreneur. It was a fantastic experience, right. And some of those kids, I tell you it's amazing, some of those kids became billionaires and centimillionaires in the late 20s and around. So Teal Fellowship really produced some kids, right. So I was grateful to be a mentor, but the masses of the people, the absolute majority, are not like that. Okay, the absolute majority.
Speaker 2:It still benefits you to get a great education, but make sure to build practical, employable skills. I can assure you from a B20, g20, I see a lot. When I say something, when I write something, it could go into policy recommendations. Okay, one thing I noticed is that even a lot of Ivy League schools are producing what I call highly intellectual wimps. They lack the practical skills. A lot of them became too damn woke and that's not what the employers are looking for. Employers look for productive skills and you perform and your conduct is good, and your skills is a predictor of your future performance. You're measured by performance and a bit of future prediction of your performance as well, right, and then once you get older and older and older, then your connectivity connections matter. Ceos, vice versa, connect in addition to skills and reputation. So I'm just having a blast. I'm having a blast.
Speaker 1:This is awesome. I love it. Okay, I kind of want to dial it back a little bit because I really want to dive into who you are and really, what were those that transformative, like experience or milestone that really shaped this approach to grooming these next gen family members and, you know, looking towards building those enduring legacies, right?
Speaker 2:I've been so my students over the past 17 years the majority were with my previous company. Today I'm a bit more selective, so I've been overweighted with high school kids, with college kids, grad school kids and occasional kids that are I call them kids that are older as well, and sometimes I get even 40-year-olds that's on payroll still, right, that's on their parent payroll, but sometimes I do get 40-year-old, 50-year-old plus CEOs coming to me, female, male, right, all sorts of ethnicities, background. You know I'm very open-minded, right, and you know the life stages are different and the goals are different I talked about, so I like to define it by vertical goal achievement, but also horizontal honing of your 4S and 3EQ. So the 4S and 3EQ method. I found it to work extremely well again and again and again. It's kind of like Malcolm Gladwell wrote books about 10,000 rules, right, yeah, expert, I've been doing that for 20,000, 25,000 hours of success coaching, mentoring, writing, speaking and applied research.
Speaker 2:And I do applied research in addition to my practice on a daily basis, right, and I lost track how many thousands of hours where I apply research. So with that, with experience, with successes, with lessons learned, applied research, come wisdom and I see patterns that work, patterns that don't work. In fact, part of that is reflected on my book Young Leaders 3.0, Stories, insights and Tips for Next Generation Achievers. I wrote that got it out about nine years ago, so in that book I had 23 exemplary Gen Z and millennial young leaders and over half were my mentees right. So they all came from the top schools. All the eight Ivy League schools covered Harvard, yale, princeton Columbia, penn, donovan Brown, cornell, chicago, stanford, mit.
Speaker 1:All the good ones.
Speaker 2:Even Oxford in UK, et cetera. Wow, the point is that you don't have to go to top school to become a top performer, top performing executive in the future. In fact, a lot of kids that went to Ivy League schools, they worked for bosses that went. Some of them went to no-name schools because the bosses performed. It goes up the ranks right, eq et cetera separate topic so going back to my so you're about optimizing performance.
Speaker 2:I'm about optimizing the preparation and also maximizing the results, the outcomes and performance. At the meantime I raised your arc for long-term greater success, greater joy, greater happiness, greater relationships, greater peace of mind. So when you look at geometry, then the whole arc, the area goes higher, greater. So the net profits tangible, intangible is far, far, far greater, right. So that's why, even like, for example, these 50-year-old CEOs 40-year-old CEOs, you know where they got black hair, brown hair, blonde hair, got all the above right. You know they care more about the next level business, career, personal success, okay, because their goals are different, right. High school kids is about admissions. College kids is about career first job, maybe grad school or no grad school, about the current anxiety, stress management. I even joke that it's about boyfriend, girlfriend management, right, and and I literally teach, um, I just don't teach.
Speaker 2:I literally it's not just teaching. I literally, you know if those, if my students spend time with me. I literally spend the time to instill into you habits. I literally hone your habits. No one does I do that.
Speaker 2:I literally call them to hone your habits, because once you teach, you might you forget and and the bad habits come back. But I literally hold them accountable and hand hold them and I teach them, guide them, mentor them, coach them. It's a conditioning process, it's a j-smart process and then over time, their habits change. I see the skills change and I see them getting happier less effort, less stress, less anxiety. Their parents smile greater because their parents want to have peace of mind. Right, they're wealthy. They care about legacy, absolutely. In fact, I'm going to be speaking in your legacy builders conference where, for Groco, the privilege, along with Steve and you know, and that's it right. So, life stage goals when you're in your 20s, 30s, 40s, 50s, of course you progress and you rise, but it's more about your business, career, personal, family, once you become a parent, achievement right, because driven people, it's achievement oriented, it's normal, correct. You want to get the best results. Best results, right, I'm bickering, okay, I am oh, I know you are.
Speaker 2:They are like, let's just say that they are in a fraction of 0.1%, and they're happy kids At the same time. One thing that I see all the time and I would love for you to help evangelize this is that I see a lot of parents being too short-sighted. I see that as a pattern everywhere, Everywhere, A lot of wealthy parents. Can I ask more about this?
Speaker 1:Dive into this In.
Speaker 2:Manhattan, okay. In Hong Kong, man, the kids are in high school. All they think about is college admissions. I want my kid to go to a top school. It's face, it's social currency, right. Yeah, I get it, no problem, absolutely, we are in that.
Speaker 2:But a lot of them lose track in terms of how important it is to build a strong foundation in your heart, in your soul, in your mind, in your skills, in your physiology right and that's why my framework is called 3EQ in your physiology right, and that's why my framework is called 3EQ Pragmatic, emotional, social and Leadership Intelligence, not just EQ. Notice the difference. 3eq Because EQ is so true, right. So emotion is an instant effect of your beliefs, your thought processes and your physiology. I literally take the time to hone my students in all the three interconnected parts over time. And then my 4S framework the visionary story. That means your visionary direction, okay, your character, some of our habits and choices. I hone them and then you know there's a bit more than that. And then your spiritual, emotional and mental state of mind management, because we are spiritual beings, right, and we're not just kind of eating dry. You know all scientific. Hey, listen, I love science and technology.
Speaker 2:I came from the background, right, but the spirit in within have to drive you. You know, like the warriors okay, I'm a big Dubs fan. They've been inconsistent because the spirit wasn't there, but they're absolutely talented, they're absolutely capable. Now the spirit's back. Hopefully they're gonna go through plans. They're gonna go playoffs. Do man, just apply your damn self. Okay, you have the capability. Get me there to coach you. Right, I'm even better than tony robbins is in there. It's like what a wimp man. Get me in there. Okay, all right, a next gengen leader, a coach. So I'm joking with you.
Speaker 2:And then the interconnected strategies correct. So you're in high school. It's about academics, it's about activities, school year, summers, it's about college planning, application and admission process hyper-competitive, super complex, super complex. And there are other elements as well. Everything's interconnected. So sometimes I feel like I come in and my student is the movie star. You're making your next movie. I'm your Christopher Nolan or Steven Spielberg or James Cameron, personalized. And the parents? Right, unless you're old enough. You write me a check, not the parents. Write me a check to coach or guide you, then you're the executive. You write me a check, not the parents. Write me a check to guide you, then you're the executive producer, because executive producers are like investors. Okay, they write a check, that's what they do. And then the parents are also co-producers and co-creators of the kit. Right, but you know the fact that your kids will never fully listen to you. That's Mother Nature. I went through the same struggle. Mother nature, you can't be a prophet in your own land.
Speaker 2:It is what it is. It's just mother nature. That's how God designed human beings. You ask him, okay, I don't know why you ask him, okay.
Speaker 2:So, twins, teenagers, and then, even though you are a centimillionaire CEO, very successful captain of industry, I work with these guys, right, but you know in your heart, in your mind, in your soul, you're not an expert as a parent, you're not an expert achievement for your children, even though you are the achievement in your company. Your staff comes to you, you mentor them, but your children, you also come from a different equation. I see that all the time, right, you know. That's why my private client parents they are powerful people you can imagine, right, fortune 500 CEOs, tech entrepreneurs, investors, single family office principals right, they're lovely people. What I realized about my curated clients is that they are humble enough to realize that you know what I'm not the expert, you're the expert, right, and I tell them that you are the expert in your business, right, you're a captain of industry. I learned from you and sometimes they even invite me in to help them with a project separately, right, Because they trust me so much and I'm even invested in my own tech company. So it's kind of fun.
Speaker 2:So, going back, the framework is really vertical goal achievement and horizontal 3Q and 4S and the horizontal part. That's a differentiation where, imagine, your arc is not like this. All right, you go to MIT, mit, suddenly a kid. Get all my anxiety stress out. I said I can't take this anymore. But you do what you want to go for that route. Or would you like to have a higher arc where your kid's more skillful, the mindset is better and and and? Better relationships everywhere, right, better skills?
Speaker 2:You talk to my own two daughters. I'm just foundationally grounded, but you talk to my own two daughters a bunch of my. I have a small army of former students, right, these are some kids are doing some amazing things. You talk to some of them, my daughters included. You realize that, damn, these kids could communicate. They rock right, top performance. They're leaders as well, right, and they apply themselves. My own daughters I don't have to coach them that much anymore. They've heard enough of me over the past, whatever over a decade, but I still coach them and mentor them. Sometimes, if they apply themselves, they're going to end up making a lot more money, even than their driven peers. Of course, I coach them. Don't compare yourself with other people. Compare yourself with your future best self. It's healthier that way, so be with yourself.
Speaker 1:I love this.
Speaker 2:Right.
Speaker 1:Awesome, well, okay. So on that note, how do you recommend families approach strategic planning of their you know, the kids futures and and how do you align that planning? Because I feel like, as parents, we have our own goals for our kids, but then sometimes we fail to bring them in on that plan, bring the kids in on that plan. So how do you align that? And do you see that often where the parents have a better plan and the kids have a different plan.
Speaker 2:So how do you?
Speaker 1:align it in order to bring it all centric to the family legacy and the trajectory of that.
Speaker 2:Right, it's all over the map. I'm into this all the time. Right and based on life stages, based on the family values, the parents, the kids as well. And that's why I get inside the family. Right, I work directly within a family and I know I know it so well. Right, I help guide them and help them maximize, optimize. And sometimes parents grab me, Jason, coach us to be better parents, to communicate better.
Speaker 1:Oh, okay, so it's a double. It's a double coaching.
Speaker 2:Oh, I spend most of the time with the students or my mentees, okay, but sometimes parents pull me aside coach us because we're struggling communicating with our kids here, right, and because what the parents are, my parent, your parent as well? Right, parents, we want relationships, end of story. Right, we want peace of mind. Right, you know health, wealth, happiness within that? Um, let's say that you got hit by a truck, you got a billion dollars, but you're not. Your kids hate you. Why, why, seriously, why.
Speaker 2:Because the relationship's not there, you're six foot under right. So your legacy, your legacy should be you know, you want to achieve that peace of mind, right, you want to have, have built a great relationships, intergenerational and and, of course, with strategy and, and sometimes I even coach parents to back off a little bit here. And you know, I got, I got zillions of happy stories, right, my client base. But I tell you one, they're a scary story. I hate it. Okay, one kid wasn't my student. It's a dramatic thing on things, what not to do.
Speaker 2:Okay, so you know, I speak to family office investor summits quite a bit. And then he, you know, a Caucasian kid in his thirties, right, he's always sitting in front, pull his iPhone out, videotaping me. And after I speak, I said, dude, how come he's videotaping me? Multiple, like New York and Miami. Right, I said, jason, it's for me, you're so inspiring, it's for me. I said, just become my student.
Speaker 2:And he's a billionaire's grandson, he's a billionaire's grandson in New York City and he was actually interested to become my student. I said, hey, let me help you, let me guide you, let me help you, Let me guide you, let me mentor you, coach you and optimize and maximize you. Right, you know your achievement, your joy, your happiness, make a lot more money as well. And he was interested and he even referred a friend to me, but he never pulled the trigger and about a year or two later you know what happened. I have no idea, but I could keep track of this. Something's not right with him, right? Happy kid, people liked him, but he never pulled the trigger, so he never decided to become my student. You know what happened afterwards, a year or two later. What happened? He committed suicide. What happened? He committed suicide there was.
Speaker 1:There was some things that he couldn't work out on his own okay, now, now he might have some weaknesses.
Speaker 2:and when people tell me that, oh, my kid has hdh, ad a how to say adhd, right, my response is that, yeah, I got hd82, it's digital, okay, bullshit, okay, my, my, my, uh. My younger daughter, when she was 11 years old, read my Forbes article. Why to prepare for college in sixth grade? Right, especially, it depends. My kids are on medication. I said I roll my eyes, don't do that. Okay, you're getting them into the wrong path. Okay, and it's because the habits are bad. So in the Forbes article I wrote about habits.
Speaker 2:I wrote about my own two daughters as anecdotes struggles, right, because my younger daughter was struggling. She was spending like dozens and dozens of hours per week on what I call digital device addiction, social media addiction. It's like holy, if I don't step in now, at age 11, my own kid's going to become a damn vegetable, right, that's not good, oh my gosh. Yes, at the time my wife and I kind of talked about at age 13,. Then I'm going to kind of officially get her into my one-on-one mentorship process. But at age 11, sixth grade was it fifth grade? I said, honey, it's not working. And my wife goes all right, honey, yeah, I see that too. Get her into your program. So I helped her convert a bad habit ADHD, digital addiction, social media addiction in a neutral. We totally could do that. I had changed a lot of habits right A weakness to be a neutral, a neutral to be a strength to be a neutral, a neutral to be a strength and a strength to be super strength.
Speaker 2:By the time she was in high school she 12 APs, all as by valedictorian graduation, and I helped her prepare for, apply for colleges here applied to a whole bunch right, you know reach school is probable safeties as well. She applied early decision to Penn Wharton, the number one business school got admitted. In fact, got admitted 10 days after the clock at Harvard Business School Association. Oh my gosh, harvard Business School Association was so excited. They pulled in Harvard, they pulled in Wharton, they pulled in Berkeley Haas, they pulled in Stanford, gsb, all of the alumni clubs in Northern California, which is really the Bay Area. Post-sponsored a talk featuring only myself they wanted me to talk about. Spend only an hour and a half talking about preparing your kids for middle school, high school, college admissions, college life, career, personal success, home run, right In Silicon Valley you pay for it.
Speaker 1:Hold on really quick, Jason. What were three key takeaways from that talk that you did in Harvard?
Speaker 2:At Harvard Business School Association, the alumni club in Palo Alto. So I talked about, yes, three takeaways. I started by going through the horizontal, the importance of honing your force and 3EQ. I literally went through that. Okay, Because a lot of parents don't think like that. All they thought about was college admissions or internship or job or career right or my kid's happy. It's kind of. They don't think through it so horizontal. And then I slice and dice it.
Speaker 2:I went through the motion of middle school it's pre-high school, and I went through what it takes to be successful with well-being in high school all the components right Academics activities, college planning, applications here, and also home force and 3Q right, and it's like the different sub-components that are interconnected. And then, once you're in college, okay, of course, elite college admissions, and then, once you're in college, then, and then, once you're in college, then the academics activities, stress, anxiety, management, internship, blah, blah, blah, and then force and 3Q homely. Then, once you're working, it's about your job, your performance, your conduct, and then your force and 3Q, et cetera, and then your personal success. It's all force and 3Q right. And then some additional tips for parents and some additional tips for parents and some additional tips for employers. And boom, an hour went by and a half an hour of Q&A. The audience was 100% there. They don't even want to leave the room right.
Speaker 1:So hungry for the answers. So that brings me to my next question for you is how do you recommend that families approach that strategic planning Like, when's the ideal time to start that process? So you're saying sixth grade.
Speaker 2:Okay, to answer the rest of your question. I forgot to answer. It too is that I see some parents, especially the tiger moms and dads, right, and some parents they try to do a lot themselves on guiding a kid. Oh, my kid goes to a private school, it's pretty good, they're taken care of. Oh, my kid goes to a great public right, I'm going to guide them because I went to Harvard, blah, blah, blah. And then a bunch of my private clients, kind of parents, right, they went to Harvard, they went to Stanford, they went to Penn, they went to Berkeley. They know that they're way, way, way, way outdated. They're not delusional.
Speaker 2:A lot of parents out there are totally delusional. I'm telling you, some kids as well. There are a lot of delusional adults out there. I see it, I keep my mouth shut. It's like man, you're operating from limiting beliefs. It's delusion at work, right.
Speaker 2:And then I get so many parents, in fact, a friend of mine in New York, in fact, just last week, I hear all the time friends of mine come to me a couple of years later say, jason, I could see in the eyes. They said I wish I would have gotten my kid under your coaching, mentorship. Now some of them are flippant, but some of them are sincere. I could read right through the eyes, right, it's like they really mean it, because it's opportunity losses. The opportunity loss is the greatest cost of all of anything like investors. Investors hate a big miss. They hate it, right. They miss investing X to get 100X or something like that. They hate that it. They miss investing X to get 100X or something like that. They hate that. It's like they look back. Why didn't I go for the deal?
Speaker 2:Then look at your own force and 3Q. Look at your own belief system. Was there a fixed mindset? Was there a big ego and pride involved? Was there some insecurity, right? Was it fixed mindset? I see a lot of fixed mindsets out there'm telling you, even in circundality, it's all the time, right? You know the growth mindset versus fixed mindset, right that it's a great book mindset. So my advice is not to put myself on the shoulder. It's just that I've seen it work so well. Get some damn third party, trusted, top-notch mentorship for your kid. End of story. Don't't do it yourself.
Speaker 2:Even though you're in top private schools, like you read about Dalton or some top private schools in Manhattan, right? Or Exeter Phillips Academy. On that, it's like oh, one third of the kids go to Ivy schools and all that I said. Okay, have you looked into the numbers? A lot of them are super wealthy parents got super hooks. A lot of them are super wealthy parents got super hooks. A lot of them are athletes. Some parents donated like $30 million to these schools, these elite schools. A lot of our parents have donated millions.
Speaker 2:The kids still get rejected because a gap between what they admit and you get a little bit of discount right, it's still a gap. And then Stanford, harvard, they're so you know, powerful. They say that thank you so much for your donation, but we just cannot admit your kid. It's supply and demand you see, so like for me, 99 plus percent of my students got in based on merit, without a big hook like a division one athlete or your daddy donated $50 million. You hang the name on the building. Or a real strong flute player that the orchestra needs, plus backed up by some academics or by the hooks. Or it may be a kid of a trustee that's so powerful, or a kid or favorite nephew of a very powerful professors. The professors are very influential to the star professors, right? Because the mission office has to satisfy the professors. It's very intricate, you see. So that's for universities.
Speaker 1:Oh, I never thought of it.
Speaker 2:Oh, I can tell it's so much insights as well. Okay, and things haven't changed much at all, except you know SAT plus optional now that it's digital SAT but it's a lot of complexities that parents tend to know about but don't quite know, right. So that's why I say parents, please be humble. I mean, you're very successful, but don't be delusional. Get some damn help, okay. Third-party, trusted third-party, top mentorship. I tell my students right, and even kids already go to top private high schools.
Speaker 2:My requirement is that, and the parents as well, don't make any decisions based on just advice from your counselors. Okay, here's why Because I found over the years a lot of those advice they gave you, they gave them were shitty. I'm telling you, yeah, they advise you that. Don't do that. That's why bounce it off me first, then I excuse my French, then I help my clients make decisions all the time. On average, every year, they have to make dozens of decisions, big and small, every year. Some of them they don't even know they have to make until I tell them. And you have to allow some time to prepare. See, the worst situation is that you come in late and then you think you're doing well, right, you think you're hot stuff, and then you discover that, oh my God, okay, it's actually not that hot, okay, but that's reality for you. Okay, that's for colleges.
Speaker 2:That's the delusion If you want to go into Google. Have you any idea? I'm so blessed my older daughter she's a senior software engineer at Google. You know how hard it is to get in there. 0.25% hiring rate.
Speaker 2:The former senior VP of HR or people operations we know each other right. The guy says in his book he wrote a book about it it's like it's 25 times harder to get into Google than to get into Harvard. He wasn't kidding you, because Harvard back then was about 6% at mid-late. Now it's about 3% or 4% and Google only 0.25%. One out of 400 applications. Do the math right. And then you have to go through hoops and hoops and hoops of interviews and my daughter went wants thousands of hours of preparation just to go through there. I coach a little bit and then, of course, you leverage on others resources as well and I guide my students, whether you are 15 years old, 20 years old or 55 years old, to be resourceful with the resources around you, so you to optimize the whole equation and it's a small part of your preparation. I'm also an executive or CEO coach, right?
Speaker 1:A regular person just doesn't stand a chance getting into Google, unless they're pretty prepared.
Speaker 2:Unless you might be, you know, maybe some hip. You know, I don't know. Unless you're Jason Ma's client. Well, unless you're your favorite nephew or some powerful people there or something exactly.
Speaker 1:Oh my gosh. Okay, let's talk about insights. So fostering that positive family dynamics, right, what does that? Like? I know you said you do coaching for the parents and they often come to you like coach us, teach us. Yeah, so what is that positive? Um reinforcement that you do teach them on how to, you know, really allow that that child of theirs that's being coached by you to develop into their own self and be confident and comfortable within themselves very good question question.
Speaker 2:You know that I got into faith very deeply in the past couple of years, right, and I've learned that my own gifts are seven gifts, right, he blessed me with that Leadership, encouragement, discernment, hospitality, kind of shepherding, teaching and wisdom. So I'm very encouraging, right, I'm very playful. So some of my friends, my CEO friends, especially some of my friends, I said I'm being serious and factual and playful at the same time with you, right, and I heard a heck out of them and I celebrate with them their strengths and keep compounding over that. It's like investment compound interest. But now, whenever I meet with my students, right, and it's a strategic series of meetings, it's all personalized, based on their needs. I'm actually very short-term focused, like short-term goal achievement, but with a long vision. Instill in them that they believe it. Right. If they believe in it in their soul and mind and then reverse, engineer that to the present, then you're short-term progress, right. The best thing is to make progress incrementally correct. So make them, you know, tell them like what's the most important thing to achieve in the short term.
Speaker 2:So, for example, just a few days ago I coached one of my students. She's a college junior and now it's about kind of shaping her grad school list because she's going to apply to certain type of grad school. I'll keep it confidential, so it's like reach power and all that but the activity. So I help her finalize the summer activity plan and also help her get into the next terms courses, curriculum, want to make sure that she's going to be meeting those curriculum requirements. A lot of kids get rejected because they're ignorant, they don't know, they don't even know that they do not even meet the requisites right. As well as the test prep optimization, she's going to retake GRE to get the numbers up right. She's a very wealthy family, conservative in the Midwest Caucasian, so different demographics, different things might be perceived a bit differently. Nothing is fair. Okay, Don't buy into what the media, what the mission officers say, what the consultants tell you. A lot of them they bullshit you, frankly speaking. Yes, definitely. And plus I've been honing her confidence, her communications and every kid's different right. So real big on communication, like conversation skills. It's a honing process because I want to confer her to be like real introverted not good, but my older daughter, she grew up introverted but now she's a great communicator, that I want her to become a great conversationist, a great speaker and, of course, a good essay writer when it comes to leadership.
Speaker 2:Takeaway here is that three most important skills about being a leader is really critical thinking, strategic problem solving. Critical thinking. There's a lot of linear thinkers out there where they're not very strong in lateral thinking, there where they just kind of they're not very strong in lateral thinking, the world is more like this, but they cannot see these. They're just linear thinking, right, yeah. So, yeah, critical thinking is very important.
Speaker 2:Number two is communication skills. Got to communicate. We want you younger daughter. She's 23 years old, a top performer. She graduated a warden, sumo kumla, but also an activity leader in the Wharton FinTech Club, right, but she's not doing FinTech Tiny little 4'11 thing, the only female, the shortest female ever president for the Wharton FinTech Club, and she was able to invite a bunch of tycoons and billionaires to be speakers. I helped her a little bit initially, I kind of sent her one of the billionaire friends of mine and then. But when you talk to her the first 10 seconds, you realize that, damn, this kid could communicate. She's a dynamo, she's inspiring and she's also funny at the same time, you see, and so it's a skill, it's very important. So, overall leadership skill.
Speaker 2:So I would say critical thinking, communication, and that includes collaboration, team skills, a bit of curiosity. You got to be quick. Your updates are important, so I'm hyper curious. I love to learn all the time. I spend dozens of hours on applied research every week, right, because it's so much fun. I need to do that. I need to do that. You have to be a curious person. I'm giving edge. And then, overall your leadership skills, right. So it's like when I walk into a room, you know Alan Olson, like who knows me? Now, peter, well, I know how to light up the room like this, you see, but it's not about me, it's never about me, it's about you. It's about you, the audience. I'm here to love and serve you. You see, oh my gosh of you. You see, that's, that's well, you're amazing. That's ingrained, plus a bunch of concentric circles of what I call soft skills and mindset. We could go through that if you like.
Speaker 1:So yeah, no, I love.
Speaker 2:I want to hear about the soft skills, so definitely enlighten us please sure, um, I do that with every single one of my clients, right, and I know there's there's a lot, there's some copycats out there. I know there's some life coaches and executive coaches in your audience here. That's fine, but some of them cannot. They do a part of what I do, but not to that depth with that how I deliver, correct, so it's kind of like you speak, it's not only content, it's your delivery as well. It is how impactful and influential, how deep do you really get with the people you help that, you're really galvanizing them. You're really transforming them with depth, with incredible results. Right, I'm very good at doing that. I would say.
Speaker 2:You know, even in the B20, g20, we talked about this over the years as well it's kind of a war thing over time, right, it's like even through since the G20, australia, and then Turkey, china, germany, argentina, italy, saudi Arabia, indonesia, india, this year's Brazil, in fact, we just finished our first task force meeting Future of Work, employment, skills Education Task Force. Brazil calls it employment education. Every country, every host, every host country kind of you kind of have their own style and you know we go through. You know, um, upskilling, reskilling, uh, supporting entrepreneurship, innovation, uh, make it more inclusive in a good way. Right and make. Make it more diverse. But I'm very careful. I advise people, make sure you don't go overly woke. I'm going to be against that. I'm going to right Because there's so much greenwashing bullshit out there. There's so much, a lot of DEI, especially the middle. I'm going to be very frank with the audience here.
Speaker 1:Be very careful, be frank. Talent, give it to us all.
Speaker 2:The middle E is equity, and what I see all the time everywhere is that it gets so political. The people, the leaders that do that. They do it for themselves. They build their own freedom. They do it for their own political gain, for their own power, for their own. More money, more thing. They say one thing, they do something else. Okay, and that's why the wokeism backlash began big time.
Speaker 2:Harvard president got fired. For God's sakes, she wasn't even that skillful because she may be black or woman, but she actually doesn't have the skills right. So it's an intricate thing and Harvard's finally getting asked real bad about time, right? I send so many kids to Harvard. I tell you, I send so many kids to Harvard.
Speaker 2:I got a bunch of my former students that are Harvard alumni. Some of them are doing some amazing things right. Some of them are 10 years later. They're still onto the same track that I advised them on since high school. Right, I got a small army out there, but a lot of Ivy League schools are great. I really love them. I really appreciate them. The endowments, taking care of the, especially the poor students, and all that. I really appreciate that.
Speaker 2:You see, it's a great thing, but there's some things where they hold on too much to power, where some of the professors are getting rolled out of hand. The world doesn't work like that. At a B20, g20, we, a lot of us, recognize that there's a gap between what the higher education before that, k-12 education systems okay, and higher education, including any schools of producing, is not what the employer is looking for. What's wrong with a picture? Right, and that's one reason that Jason likes it. Right, and that's one reason it exists here. So it's good. It's good, it's a good awakening. I'm so glad that happened, honestly speaking, you see, so let's, let's get on with the program. Okay, that the world doesn't work, so separate, separate issue here oh no, it was great I love that, though, huh
Speaker 2:I forgot your initial question. It gets gets me fired up. I just care, man. We're benefiting billions of people mostly disadvantaged people, okay, and sometimes I feel like it's almost like philanthropy in some ways, because the policy wrecks that we influence through the presidents and prime ministers and the governments, and a good portion of them get implemented. Some of them don't. I don't fully agree with everything that we do, but I do try to kind of sit back and kind of help move, steer it in a better direction. Right, it's a process. There's a lot of opportunities for improvement out there.
Speaker 1:So I love it and I love how you are looking at ways to close those gaps and, to you know, really create reinforcement in the areas of taking action, but not only just taking action, but accomplishing, you know, and helping these students, clients and just even people with the G20, helping them all achieve success with that and implementing it in policy. So amazing Good.
Speaker 2:So see, with my French, because your audience is a mature audience.
Speaker 1:So I saw some French in here. We love the French. We love it Okay.
Speaker 2:Okay, well, the next question, yeah.
Speaker 1:Yeah. So my next question would be how can okay, so now you roll out these strategies for the families how easily is it for them to adapt to the strategies and also really, um, become resilient to the change of behaviors that they? I mean, obviously, these families are going to have to change their behaviors a little bit, right?
Speaker 2:so here's, here's what I do. That's different, right? Unlike McKinsey BCG, right? You know Bain, right, accenture, these are management consultants. Right, you'll pay them a million dollars, they'll get your strategy, write your report, and some of them don't even implement fully, some of them is done for political reasons, et cetera.
Speaker 2:See, I don't just advise you strategy, I literally instill into you actual decisions and actions made and over time you see the result. And sometimes no pain, no gain. Sometimes it may be some pain first, but it's good pain, but sometimes like pleasure, okay. So you know, I advise, I even advise some of these guys. I even advise some of these. Uh, you know wall street, you know big names, right, I cannot say that it's confidential and and they, they maybe about an hour, do that. And and you know, because they want insights from me.
Speaker 2:Now, my thing is that, as a chief mentor, one-on-one, it it's a very private one-on-one, it's just like you know, okay, okay, without a great coach, without a great coach, does a coach tell the team only strategies? No, the coach get in there, dive right in with the team. At the moment, here's what you need to do right now, Okay, plus strategy tactics right now, and also short-term, medium-term and long-term and we need to adapt right, resilient, adapt tenacious, move in the right direction with compassion and skills. It's like honing Jonathan Kuminga, right, you think Steph Curry, the greatest shooter God has ever created. You think he? You know he kept training, he got multiple coaches.
Speaker 2:Okay, tiger Woods, one swing. Okay, you go to a golf course. Right, jacqueline? You see it all the time People in kind of doing a practice thing, golf courses, they did buy a boss, but I guarantee you a lot of them are reinforcing bad habits. Unlike Tiger Woods, one swing. You know what happens in the past Six coaches given feedback, then he takes the next swing. So he ingrained it, tweaked everything right Mindset, psychology, angles, strategy, tactics, right Fine-tuning, optimization.
Speaker 1:Oh my gosh.
Speaker 2:That was gold right there, Dude right.
Speaker 1:Reinforcing bad habits. Oh, that's what you said Reinforcing bad habits. That's crazy.
Speaker 2:Absolutely right, people do that all the time, right, and I reverse that, right, and sometimes, you know, some of my parents in the past, um, were a little bit, uh, maybe, you know, kind of ignorant. But sometimes sometimes, besides the kids, right, they come to me hey, jason, coach us. But sometimes I have to say, hey, hey, dude, hey, do that. Okay, let's spend some time with you and me one-on-one. Here's what's happening with your kid. Okay, how you doing that with them or her or him, is not working so well. Here's what's really happening.
Speaker 2:Because the I know this, I know the kids, right, because the kids sometimes they don't tell their parents. That it's kind of like, do you tell your husband everything? No, do I tell my wife every single day about my life? It's just mother nature. Things don't work like that, correct? But I'm the trusted third party. They tell me all sorts of crazy stuff, right? But my intention, my love for them is so deep because I'm simply there to absolutely to bring out the best in them and sell them. Because they know that I love them so much, they know that I'm there to optimize and maximize them, including the joy and the results, right? So I'm invited in. So it's like a mutual opt-in process. Right, make sense. So if you're not mutual opt-in, it'll never work. It's like your kid is going to, I guarantee once your kid gets older, yeah, it's going to fight too. Fa, fa, fa. I said all the time. Absolutely. There's a lot of fun too. What do you think?
Speaker 1:let me ask you this what do you think the biggest challenges that you've seen within kids that don't get the guidance versus the kids that do get guidance from mentorship?
Speaker 2:You know, what do you?
Speaker 2:think the biggest challenges are One big guidance from mentorship, you know what? Oh, I think the biggest challenges. One one big concern right, and luckily there are uh more and more of good non-profits out there. There's a lot of uh crappy bsc non-profits out there, but they're awesome, pretty good non-profits, for example, helping uh inner city black kids okay, and I know a bunch of my friends, african-americans leaders. They do good things, it's a good thing, and they're a bit ahead of the curve in fact.
Speaker 2:And when you look at the numbers, when you look at the kids, teenagers, young adults mostly male incarcerated, disproportionately are African-Americans. And when you look at their history, their backgrounds, most of them don't have a father figure and that's why I wrote a post, an article on LinkedIn, about it in points of fatherhood and even though for I mean, I'm not just talking about African-Americans, other ethnicities as well and I do know of young people that are young leaders that are doing real well without, technically, a father, right, because a father left them when they were real young or whatever, but they did have father figures in their lives, in them, even though they're not biological fathers. But without that father figure, then the criminal kids, then the streets become their idol, become the father kids. Then the streets become their idol, become the father. Then they get into trouble, they join gangs. Part of that is a sense of significance, identity, connection, the family feeling Got it. It's just human nature Human beings need. Like Tom Robbins mentioned, we need certainty, variety, significance, including identity connection, love Love is a greater part of connection. And then contribution and growth.
Speaker 2:Those are six basic human needs here and my wife and I, we're different people, we're overweighted with these components of our needs. For you, I'm sure that you're very individual. No one's like you, right, we all need needs, but you're kind of maybe overweighted with these and that you see. So it's like. So I'm kind of overweighted in certain things, but that's how I am right. So it's very personalized. It really depends on the person I think. So I will never generalize anything.
Speaker 1:You definitely brought up a good point there thing. You definitely brought up a good point there and it you know, mentorship, all of that. It takes a village to raise one child, especially if you have three kids, four kids. I mean you need four villages right there. You know, you need four villages of jason ma they.
Speaker 2:They are and you know, like, like, in my own imperfect ways, I'm just trying trying to figure it out because I'm limited by time constraints. I'm building another very high impact, super exciting, high flying tech company. That thing's going to take off like a rocket ship and I got my family business right. So Bitcoin, one of my coaching and mentoring. We're select, mostly high net worth, actually mostly ultra high net worth, families or individuals included, and people look at me as like, oh my God, jason, you speak so much in all these top places and events. I tell them it's only a very minor part of my time. It actually doesn't take them much time they perceive it to take up. No, it doesn't. I still get my eight hours of sleep net. I schedule my work around my sleep because with age and experience come wisdom. I'm very efficient, right. So today I could get things done like that with much less time than before, because before I was less mature, if you will, less skilled. It takes me more resources. The most important resource is time and energy, right To get one unit work done. Today it takes me less time and energy to get one unit work done because I'm more skilled and my mind and spirit is better, right, and I teach it all the time. State insurance as well. Your 4S, 3q, blah, blah, blah, right. So for the disadvantaged kids here, the B20 is huge. You know me? I'm also a St Jude LSEC leading advisory council member and I kind of guide them because it's a beautiful cause. I'm saying, jude, over $2 billion outbacks per year is mostly from generous donors. Okay, so if God's not behind that, I don't know what is. So it's a cost Helping them. In fact, christine, the head of the Western region, which grew to be probably the most fastest growing big region we're going to catch up again this coming week, christina Ackerman and it's a great cause, right, those help these disadvantaged parents.
Speaker 2:If I have time like, I'm volunteering to get me in to speak pro bono in some schools now, right, but in a very limited time. I tell people I'll be happy to do pro bono in some schools now, right, but in a very limited time. I tell people I'll be happy to do pro bono in cases here. But if a corporation invites me to speak, okay, five figures speaking fees because I'm a professional speaker, right, but for certain things here I do pro bono.
Speaker 2:It's pay it forward, right? You care first, and I'm going to tone it down a bit. I'm not going to speak like crazy super high-tech. It depends on the audience as well, you see. So I'm just trying to figure out how to do a better job in that, but with time efficiency, because I'm already kind of full in my extracurricular financial bucket and it's not like I can take on more because I got my tech company to account for. I have my family business to account for. I already have a philanthropy bucket and I do it mostly by giving pro bono services or connections and guidance, and so that Occasional I write a chat as well. But I wanna focus my resources on the other thing.
Speaker 1:I feel like that's more impactful is providing your pro bono services as a way of philanthropy, versus just writing a check, because you're going to right yeah because I tell them exactly what we talked about not reinforcing already.
Speaker 2:I, first thing, dude, I, I helped them. Since we on this conversation you asked me the question I would usually keep it kind of, keep it, it, keep it kind of. You know you never want to trumpet what you do. Okay, sometimes you want to keep right hand. Don't let your left hand know what your right hand is doing. That's financially. But since we are here, I tell you For St Jude, my philosophy is that if I could help make the leaders better, everything gets better.
Speaker 2:Okay, it did get better. Everything gets more productive. The whole company gets better, right, powerfully. And and rather than say for me to write a, I mean, I mean, there's only a handful of advisory council members. There's not that many. I'm one of them, so I'm speaking from that perspective. So, rather than say for me, jason Ma, I'm focusing on my tech company. I have to direct my resources to my tech company. Rather than say for me to write a $100,000 check. But what if my help for you could result in millions, or tens of millions or a hundred million donation in the future? You know, kind of initiate a strategy, helping you lead development. I gave them a bunch of high-level connections as well. Blah, blah, blah. That's more powerful, more impactful. So based on more impactful yes, based on the situation like b20, g20 I actually don't have to do much. I'm I'm one of the very few old-timers there, so I kind of talk and watch the whole right and kind of jump in as needed.
Speaker 1:I love it. Well, thank you so much, Jason, for being on with us today. As we wrap up today's episode, I just want to ask you one more thing. If there's anything that you would like to leave for advice for any parent, business owner, CEO, entrepreneur that is listening here right now, what would that advice be?
Speaker 2:Once again, I'm not here to pat myself on the shoulder, I'm just speaking from pattern recognition. Yes, I'm downhill. Don't do everything yourself. Ceos are lonely at the top. They are the CEOs. Will never tell the board everything. Ceos, right, ceos are lonely at the top. They are the CEOs. Would never tell the board everything the CEO would never tell the spouse, or everything the CEO would never tell their you know staff or fellow leaders, every single thing. They do have to communicate real well and clear, but sometimes they're lonely at the top. I see it all the time. Okay, and then when you, when you go all the way down to the teenagers, to the college students, to the high school kids and college students here, right, then get some help, get the best invest in this audience. And most people are not investment-minded and that's why they stay poor. How is that?
Speaker 1:But you got to be investment-minded, oh, my gosh Wait, hold on, say that again. Most people that are not invested in mind of it are.
Speaker 2:Most people, you know. You know the masses, right, which is part of the equation that we get into, which is part of our loving serving in my tech company. But the subject topic here, where you know where most people are, just cost shopping around, that's it. They're not investment-minded. So, as an investor, you want to pick the best deal, you want to have the highest probability for success. You want your MOIC, your multiple over-invested capital, to be huge, right, not just like a couple of X, which is still good.
Speaker 2:It's called base hit and in Silicon Valley, 10x is called home run. You get 50X or more. That's called grand slam, right, like for me. It's like, routinely, I help produce grand slams. You write checks to get the best trusted third party, top mentorship or coaching. Okay, in different functional areas of deed, like, for example, groco, you guys are like a renowned MFO out there. Cpa, your CPA firm out there, right, you come in as a kind of a powerful, top-notch, outsourced CFO, if you will, for a family office, right, Like your legacies. Builders, companies, like mostly centimillionaires, right, and it's like you guys are-.
Speaker 1:Yes no, all centimillionaires, I know.
Speaker 2:I know your teammates told me is that, yeah, there's only a very few ultra high net worth, but I think they're going to become centimillionaires, right? So that tells you that they are astute already in being investment-minded. They want to get even better, right? It's a never-ending thing. So, in summary, of course, keep self-learning, but don't rely on yourself. Only. Don't do it yourself. Only. It's stupid, it's really stupid. Don't do that. I see so many parents out there talk to me. I call it with. It breaks my heart. It's like they talk to me with what I call eyes of regret, because some of them I offer to help them. They did not take my offer to be their coach, right? Then they come to me a couple years later. They tell me Jason, we regret that decision. What can I say? What can I say? Wow, opportunity loss is the biggest loss, right, and I can be very respectful too, right? But since you asked me the question, I'm being very frank with you.
Speaker 1:So, no, I love it. Thank you so much. All right, everybody, thank you. You heard it here from Jason Ma, who is the chief mentor to the next gen and Legacy Builders, so we're going to be having him here at our conference coming up shortly May 15th Legacy Builders in Silicon Valley. He will be one of our keynote speakers and we are so excited to have him as a speaker. Out of all the speakers that are going to be there, they're all equally famous and celebrities in their own right, but Jason Ma is one of the top speakers that I cannot wait to hear. I will be holding onto my seat. Put my seatbelt on, because I know that I'm going to fly off my seat with the information that he's going to provide at that conference. So thank you so much, jason, for being on with us.
Speaker 2:Thank you so much for inviting, and we're going to have so much fun.
Speaker 1:Thank you so much for listening to the Entrepreneurial Empire podcast. If you enjoyed this episode, do me two solids Subscribe to the show so that you never miss an episode and leave us a review so that others can find this life changing content that we provide here. This show can be the very difference for someone you might know struggling in their business, and we need your help to bring us together. And thank you again for being a part of our entrepreneurial community and for tuning in each and every single week Until next time. Bye for now.