Overcoming Poverty to Gain an Abundance Mindset: Alice Tsang #169

Highlights

• Alice’s childhood in abject poverty (3:32)
• How her uncle helped her through high school (13:42)
• Her education continues (15:27)
• The unlikeliness of college (20:19)
• Launching her finance education and career (26:29)
• Facing discrimination in the workplace… and overcoming it (30:28)
• Turning her talents to teaching (39:46)
• Her passion for passing along financial literacy to underserved communities (42:53)
• Alice’s message of hope for listeners (47:47)

Transcript

Warwick Fairfax:

Welcome to Beyond the Crucible. I’m Warwick Fairfax, the founder of Beyond the Crucible.

Alice Tsang:

My uncle was generous enough to promise me that he would give me the equivalent of a US quarter every day so that I can use it to pay for public transportation and lunch money during my high school years.

Alice Tsang:

I remember growing up in the tiny little apartment with 15 people squeezed in and at the time I had to go to bed very early after dinner, 8:30 or so because it was too noisy. So I would just get up at midnight when everybody’s asleep and I would do my homework and probably spend a couple hours finishing my homework. By the time I was done, it would be 3:30ish and then I would catch a few hours of sleep and then get up at 6 something and then took the public transportation. It was a long distance to travel to go to high school.

Gary Schneeberger:

We’ve heard some remarkable stories on this podcast, but Alice Tsang’s might be the most remarkable and triumphant because from the crucible of that abject poverty she just described, she gained an unlikely education that she’s put to use in a pair of successful careers. First as a successful fixed-income analyst on Wall Street and now as a college finance professor.

Gary Schneeberger:

Hi, I’m Gary Schneeberger. Co-host of the show. Warwick talks with saying this week about what her hard scrabble upbringing in Hong Kong taught her about what’s truly important in life. Lessons she now aims to teach her students so they understand how to cope with, and overcome the challenges they will inevitably face. “We do not have the ability to be perfect,” she says, “but we can control how much effort we put into a better future for ourselves.”

Warwick Fairfax:

Well Alice, thank you so much for being here. It really is an honor to have you. We first met a few months ago at a Taylor event, so Taylor University in Indiana. As listeners probably know by now, I had three kids, all of whom went there. So I was inspired when I heard Alice’s story at that Taylor event. I thought, we’ve got to have her on the podcast because she has a message, and a message and a life that really can teach us a lot.

Warwick Fairfax:

So Alice, again, thank you for coming and being here. I want to start with your backstory, it’s different than a lot of folks we’ve had. I mean, you grew up in Hong Kong as, I don’t know if the word is abject poverty. It was pretty poor. But talk about that upbringing. ‘Cause I understand your parents were somewhat affluent but then they had some challenges. Just talk about what life was growing up in Hong Kong and your parents, and just your growing up.

Alice Tsang:

Okay, Warwick and Gary, thank you for having me. It is a privilege to be able to talk to you both.

Alice Tsang:

Yeah, I grew up in a family that had experienced a lot of changes, probably turn of fortune, you could say, my grandparents were actually quite affluent, but by the time my dad and my uncle, they were twin brothers, inherited their assets, most of that was squandered away. And my mom ended up having to raise three young children after the death of my father when I was five. So in those days, not having the support of a man and just a woman with very little education, she had to resort to doing menial jobs and it was constantly being interrupted by loss of employment because it’s not steady work that she was able to find. So it ended up challenging for my mom to put food on the table and I grew up helping her and in her way somehow and she was able to find resources to at least not have a starve.

Alice Tsang:

And I learned how to manage things by working very hard and having a purpose. So the purpose that drove me for a long time was to be able to get a good education so that I could get a decent job to support her and I grew up. So that was the driving force for a lot of the things that I was doing. It motivated me to work very hard in my studies in spite of the fact that I was not supposed to even go to college or probably not even finish a high school, let alone going to college. If not for the fact that my uncle was generous enough to promise me that he would give me the equivalent of a US quarter every day so that I can use it to pay for public transportation and lunch money during my high school years.

Alice Tsang:

I remember growing up in the tiny little apartment with 15 people squeezed in and at the time I had to go to bed very early after dinner, 8:30 or so because it was too noisy. So I would just get up at midnight when everybody’s asleep and I would do my homework probably spend a couple hours finishing my homework. By the time I was done it would be 3:30ish and then I would catch a few hours of sleep and then get up at 6 something and then took the public transportation. It was a long distance to travel to go to high school.

Alice Tsang:

I did that for seven years just because I had to go to prep school in order to go to university. So that was how I grew up and there was no childhood, but I did learn a lot of things because I had to help my aunt and my grandmother to cook for the family. We have extended family living in the same apartment. And so as a result I learned some cooking skills, learned how to take care of others. And so to me, serving others is just, it is nothing, right? So I’m used to it and I get joy out of it. If I was able to cook a good meal, everybody kind of liked it, it actually gave me joy. And so that was how I grew up and I never had imagined where I am today. But I did have opportunities one way or the other, whether it was not because I chose it or it was required of me, somehow it turned out to be beneficial in the future.

Warwick Fairfax:

So as you look at your childhood, I mean you grew up extremely poor. It’s growing up in poverty is one thing, it’s tough when you have family or grandparents that were wealthy and then became poor. It’s like sometimes you don’t know any different, but when you do know different, it makes it worse. Your dad dying when you were five and I think you mentioned to us, wasn’t the greatest role model in the world, and it’s not like you had this great role model of ethics, and faith, and hard work maybe, but you didn’t grow up with this role model of this is how I should be. Maybe you grew up in some sense with this is how you shouldn’t be. So talk about some of that because that just feels just a bit different.

Alice Tsang:

Yeah, absolutely. No, I think the interesting thing is that, well, I mean in Chinese culture, especially during my years, women were definitely second class citizens and the dependency of women to men for a living, I mean that kind of put them in their places. And so that was that, and me being a girl was not expected to be able to contribute much.

Alice Tsang:

So looking back, the fact that I was able to get so much education, I mean that was not expected and that was not too easy. Particularly now when I see my friends, and colleagues and so on and students, sometimes I almost felt envious that they had an intact family with good parents. And I also realized growing up without a father figure that is a good role model is it hurts a lot. Culturally I already felt that I was kind of somewhat inferior. Without a father figure to kind of guide me, give me advice, protect me. It’s particularly challenging. I thank God that I didn’t deviate and end up doing things that could have destroyed my future.

Alice Tsang:

So this somehow is a motivator for me to end up teaching now in college, because not only will I be able to encourage my female students, “No, you could be professionals and don’t be afraid of this or that. We can talk about it later.” And for the male students, I also encourage them to definitely see their responsibility of being a good sort responsible citizen as well as a father, a great husband in preparation. And if they can do that, the world will be much better.

Warwick Fairfax:

You’re looking for a world in which kids grow up in families that are different than yours, with a loving father who can guide, support wonderful mother, a good marriage, a sense of partnership. Totally makes sense. I mean, your story is remarkable because as you said culturally, for girls growing up in maybe Asian culture, certainly where you were in Hong Kong, the expectations were low. That’s probably, maybe they were lower than low, but it wasn’t high.

Alice Tsang:

It wasn’t high, I mean unless you grow up in a more traditional family, your parents are caring just because having parents doesn’t mean that the kids are being well taken care of, right? So there are different things that we see both in Western and Eastern culture, Chinese culture. But I did grow up in a somewhat broken family, you know you could say that because that’s only a single parent. And my mom was like, she needed to work all the time. And one thing that I was also worried was, while she’s constantly concerned about potential unemployment, she also had epilepsy-

Warwick Fairfax:

Oh my gosh.

Alice Tsang:

…When I was growing up, I, because we were squeezed in a tiny little apartment, my youngest brother, myself and my mom, we occupied the same bed and I was like eight, nine years old and sometimes she would have seizures and I would be terrified because we didn’t know what to do with her and it was pretty serious. And so we had to get others to revive her. And I constantly worry about when she would be experiencing seizures, at night particularly. So that kind of adds another dimension to the traumatic experience I would say at some point.

Warwick Fairfax:

Amidst all that, what’s remarkable, just to unpack the next part of your story, is the level of education. I mean, you now will get to where you worked on Wall Street and now teach at a university level. For some, that’s not remarkable, but for you, it’s unbelievably remarkable. I mean, you mentioned to us that you know you squeezed by graduating from primary school, and it wasn’t like it was so easy. And then you mentioned you went to public school. This was in Hong Kong back when it was I think still a British protector. So they had O levels and A levels and was in British education. And yes, you mentioned your uncle giving you lunch money, but it’s funny, high school wasn’t easy. I think you mentioned you flunked high school math and I believe graduated. I think you majored in, I don’t know, what was it, pottery and something else. If you looked at Alice Tsang in high school and says, “She’s going to be a finance wiz, and a finance professor.” The teachers would be like, “Really? I don’t know.”

Warwick Fairfax:

So talk about high school and it wasn’t like you were on this fast track from first grade. Even graduating high school was probably unexpected from where you grew up. So just talk about flunking high school math, and I think you majored in pottery and shorthand and I think your goal was to be a personal secretary. So that for some people that might not seem a high goal. For where you grew up, that might have been a fairly high goal. So people need to understand the context of how you grew up. So talk about just those high school years.

Alice Tsang:

Yeah, sure. So the kind of some hurdles to overcome. So financially I now got some support from my uncle. So I was able to attend high school. Teaching was switched to, I mean that was pretty common then from Chinese to English. And of course in my immediate family, I was the first to go to secondary school. My cousin, I think she was a year younger than me, we live in the same apartment. I would have done the same thing as she had. I was destined to be a factory worker after graduating from primary school, but somehow I was able to pass the secondary school entrance exam, that’s a public test, public exam, screening students so that those who did fairly well could go to a public school. The British system in the old days, public schools actually were government funded. They tend to be better quality schools.

Alice Tsang:

So somehow I was able to get into one of them. My school was a vocational school, so people looking at me going to… They would be dismissive of that because that’s not a traditional school. People graduating from those, we just learned some work skills and then they wouldn’t be expected to go to college. But for me it’s fine. That’s exactly what I wanted to do because I wanted to find a job after graduation to support my mother. Lo and behold, it was not as easy. The first two years, first two grades were not easy for me because while I did well in other subjects, I was not too good in math. And in fact, like I said to you, it would’ve pulled me down. I wouldn’t have finished high school. Well if not for the fact that in that particular school they have three different streams.

Alice Tsang:

So the girl is a girl school. So the girls that were doing well will be going to the math/accounting stream, and other two streams. One would be domestic science and embroidery, and the third one is pottery and stenography. I don’t know why pottery, but in any case, they did have an expert in making pottery and somehow she was an important teacher in the school. So I ended up doing that. But as I related to people later on, now that I’m more familiar with the Bible, see God is the potter and the clay. So I know the process and in a way the shaping, the molding, and the cutting, it resonates with me.

Alice Tsang:

When I was streamed into that class I started to thrive and we had to take a lot of dictation, and do typing, and whatnot. So that actually helped my English ability because listening to correspondence, business correspondence that I have to take shorthand and transcribe, that definitely helped me in written English and in some way kind of know grammar better.

Alice Tsang:

That ended up being very helpful when later on in life I became a financial analyst. You need to write a lot and very quickly. So like I said, things that we might not think anything of, maybe even find it tedious or useless, irrelevant, no time is wasted if you put your heart to learning it well, because somehow God will use your skills later and maybe for a higher purpose. So that’s how I see it. So as a result of being quite good in English, I was able to do well in my exams later on the public exam and eventually being able to get into college and major in English.

Warwick Fairfax:

How did you go to college and what did your family think? Because that seems like a notion hard to comprehend from your family. So talk about that was a massive shift.

Alice Tsang:

Yeah, well I mean all along the plan was I feel like we do one thing, one step at a time. Don’t think too far. We couldn’t afford to, so let’s finish high school, you get a job. And I was looking at the possibility, okay, there’s an exam to take for me to see if I can get to the next step. If I could, then let’s think about it. So this is why I think you said my experience had been remarkable. The remarkable thing is, things that are so unlikely to happen actually did because now looking back, there’s a guiding hand there to open the doors for me, in spite of my kind of short vision, really nearsightedness in a way by necessity we couldn’t think too far down the road. The fact that I was able to get into University of Hong Kong, which was not easy in those days.

Alice Tsang:

Most of the students going in came from upper middle class families, especially the discipline that I went into. I was having classmates that graduated from schools that where they attended, they were taught by foreigners, many nuns, and reverends, and so on, westerners. I had to compete with them, and the fact that I almost fail sometimes, that’s kind of a, not so much a scarlet letter you know something like a P on my forehead. When people see me, I mean they already know that I’m from a very poor family, I don’t belong.

Alice Tsang:

So this sense of not belonging to the university and then later on when I entered the various firms that I worked in persists and persisted until more recent years. And so this is what I want to encourage others that, yeah, okay so you need to be able to have someone that you can always trust and you believe that He’s the almighty and He’s guiding you and He will help you overcome. Now whatever background you are coming from, whether it is likely or not likely that you get into those institutions, if you are there, you belong, right? You have the ability to contribute to the success of those organizations as long as you do well. And don’t worry about whether you came from the circles that do not mingle with those who are already populating those organizations and do not waste time.

Gary Schneeberger:

This is a perfect time for me to jump in because we’re not too far past your childhood and we’re about to transition into your professional career. But there was something you said when we talked before the recorders were turned on, a quote you said that I want listeners to hear because it applies to their own crucible experiences. You said this about your childhood. “My childhood ended up not being a bad thing.” You told us, “Perspective is very important. I learned a one day at a time mentality.” You’ve just described what that is, how that worked for you as you were going through your education. And that is something that Warwick stresses all the time. This do the next right thing, take one small step at a time. That’s how you get beyond the crucible. And your crucible certainly was difficult, you’ve just described it.

Gary Schneeberger:

But now we’re moving into that transition period where things, I don’t know if they get easier, that’s the wrong word. Things begin to, you begin to achieve some things that put you on the path to your life of significance. And that’s what we talk about here all the time. So I just wanted listeners to hear that idea, that Alice, you heard her talk about her childhood and she says, “It ended up not being a bad thing.” That’s not far off. Guests who have said to us on this very show, “My crucible was a gift.” Right? Alice is saying sort of the same thing. It wasn’t that bad of a situation. It taught her how to take a one day at a time approach to things. That’s what we try to do here too. So I just wanted to drop that in Warwick, before we get too far through her story. It seems like we’re right in the middle of Alice’s story here. So I wanted to get that in.

Warwick Fairfax:

I mean that’s such a good point, Gary, that Alice has such a great perspective on how she grew up and didn’t let those experiences define her. She just kept one, right? What’s the next right step each time? Just not being limited by other people’s limiting expectations, be it a family or the middle class, upper middle class. In all cultures, unfortunately on the planet, there’s tends to be class structure and I don’t know, just the nature of human beings I guess. But again, graduating from university is remarkable. But then the remarkable with Alice saying doesn’t stop. There’s another, there’s always one more step of remarkable, one more step. What’s the next, right, remarkable step. So you ended up moving to the US getting an MBA in finance at New York University, NYU, and working on Wall Street. I mean for somebody that said I flunked math and it was at one point majoring in English, how in the world did you get to NYU and finance, and Wall Street? That seemed like a remarkable transition. How’d that happen?

Alice Tsang:

Okay, so this is the thing about doing things one thing at a time, not being able to think too far ahead. At some point, I ended up teaching high school English in Hong Kong for a few years before thinking about getting a higher education so that I can progress in my career. The goal was to get a degree in education, but at the time I had a mentor, he advised me that, “Well, maybe you should consider getting an MBA.” And I say, “Are you kidding me? I can’t even 1 and 1, add to 3.” I know that’s probably what I could do. And so he said, “Yeah, why don’t you give it a try? And you can take some classes and so on.” So I did and I went to some community college and later on enrolled in a state university to take the business classes and I found out that I actually was able to learn and I was able to do fairly well.

Alice Tsang:

So eventually, I took the GMAT and then applied to NYU and got in, Hey, why not, right? It was good. NYU was pretty strong in finance, so I ended up majoring in finance and got a degree there and did pretty well. The transition, right? You know from being a student to working on Wall Street. Now that was a lot more difficult. I would consider that almost a fairly short period, not too long, probably the wilderness years because I was not able to find something that will recognize my MBA degree in finance, making very little money in the beginning. And so it was tough, but eventually, because I still try to excel in whatever I did and learned from what I was doing, I ended up being introduced to my boss’s friend who was the director of research at EF Hutton at the time, EF Hutton was a pretty reputable firm.

Alice Tsang:

I think it was second only to Merrill Lynch in those days. So I was able to get in as a junior analyst, and before long I made a name for myself. Even though at the time I went in to the firm, I barely know the abbreviation of the 50 states of America. But by the time I left, I was already quite known to my clients and eventually I actually got some awards for what I did later on.

Alice Tsang:

So it’s not any big deal, but looking back at where I came from, totally not even expecting going to high school, finishing high school or college and then now having a job on Wall Street. And that was a dream come true. And eventually I have to say that my family and I were able to live the American dream. So that is something that I just want to point out why I feel very grateful for what I had been given and I want to be able to give back in many ways.

Warwick Fairfax:

Talk a bit about those years because this was, I think back in the eighties and life wasn’t easy, and you faced setbacks, frankly, discrimination, if not racism. Being a woman from Asia, you have a very interesting perspective. You acknowledge it, you don’t sugarcoat it, but yet you found a way to push back and overcome. So just talk about those years because that was a crucible of its own, just the blatant discrimination, sexism you faced. So talk about what happened and how you dealt with it, pushback and overcame it.

Alice Tsang:

Sure, yes. Yeah, I think discrimination in those years in the eighties, definitely… First I told you already, right? Because I grew up somewhere else. I spoke English with an accent. I’m still speaking with an accent and I was not well-connected. I don’t, and I didn’t play golf. I had no clue about sports. In those days, and then that’s all the traders and promoting managers, and most people I work with, they would be bending, using their own language.

Alice Tsang:

So I don’t really feel I belong in the way that you would expect when you work in some place, you know you become part of the community. So I always feel like somewhat of an outsider, but instead of feeling upset about not being included, I learned how to focus my time. So one thing that I found out is just spend your time well, be productive, concentrate on the positive because the learning opportunities were precious and I did learn a lot of things during my time working wherever I work, there are so many things that I could learn. And what I learned make me a better person because then I can share my knowledge with others. So that’s how I see myself being a better person. Not so much I’m superior to anybody else, but I do have something to share with others. So that is what I consider improvement or being better. So by being able to focus on what I could do better, I could do more. I ended up making a name for myself and I didn’t set out doing so, but that was the outcome.

Alice Tsang:

So that was positive and as a result I was able to move to other places as well. Very interesting, different experiences also. That’s what I found, not just being pigeonholed into one particular sector. I was able to learn different sectors. Even though I was a fixed income analyst, the things I learned, I picked up over time, helped me a lot. And especially looking back, I become a better investor. And that is something that God was preparing me for down the road because we ended up having a few dollars to invest. And the skills that I picked up while I was working in the financial sector was very helpful. And this is something that I also was able to share with my students, with people that I encounter who are having financial challenges to encourage them.

Warwick Fairfax:

One of the things you mentioned to us before, which I thought was really fascinating is because of, it’s the eighties discrimination, you may not have got paid as much as you should given the work you were doing, but you mentioned you found a way around that because you were just a good investor and so maybe you made more than some. So it’s like, okay fine, they don’t want to pay me as much as they should. I’ll find a way around this, I’ll just be a smart investor. And you knew fixed income and other things. So I just found that fascinating. You found a way around that obstacle, it didn’t hold you back, you found a way to make money somewhere else. So talk about the attitude that’s behind that, because that’s a really intriguing attitude you have to life. That’s just one example. That’s sort of an Alice Tsang way of doing things, right? There’s an obstacle? Great, I’ll find a way around it.

Alice Tsang:

Yes, yes. So thank you for bringing this up. So one thing that I am quite sure, usually you don’t know, but I’m not the kind that would file lawsuit against people because I’m kind of mistreated or unfairly treated. Even though I believe, I strongly believe if there is something to discover how the pay scale works and whatnot in the organizations where I have served, that could potentially be the truth. But that doesn’t bother me at all. For one thing, remember where I came from. So having a job in those organizations to me is already such a blessing. I was not paid poorly. I mean I made good money, did I get pay as well as my colleagues? Maybe not, but doesn’t matter. You know you focus your time in doing constructive things and somehow if you don’t get the money in here, there are opportunities for you to get your compensation somewhere else.

Alice Tsang:

So there were opportunities for me to invest and I just save good money, and invest, and to me is even better because my investment is under my control. The pay is not so much under my control, if you get my drift? So by recognizing that I actually feel more empowered and that’s what I would share with folks who are feeling bitter or just upset. Okay, so look through what you are experiencing, but there are ways you create opportunities for yourselves. And this is what I really want to come across over the years I probably could have, if I were not Asian, woman, no connections and so on, I probably would have had a lot more opportunities if I had been another race and so on. But it doesn’t matter. The important thing is somehow you are empowered and you create opportunities for yourself and you can do it.

Alice Tsang:

And I find it doable and we have done that. And so right now, while I never had imagined, so we may be getting to this later, being a college professor, when I should be long retired. Somehow this is an opportunity that God prepared for me and I feel like the calling is something that I should accept and just go through that door. And also, as a result of the ability to invest, we have started a small business which again, was not anticipated. And so we are doing pretty well, having a recurring source of income that help me be able to teach as a volunteer.

Alice Tsang:

So I think that is something to celebrate. And I want to emphasize the fact that I had nothing growing up and now we do have quite a bit and I feel so grateful. There’s no bitterness that I feel, no matter what experience I had, could that have been better? It does not matter, because what matters is I have so much more than what I was growing up with and I feel extremely grateful and that actually gives me peace of mind because now I can be encouraging others and helping others in a substantive way.

Warwick Fairfax:

So let’s talk about that transition because you were doing well on Wall Street. I think as you mentioned, fixed income analyst, you could have stayed there and probably continued to, well hopefully despite the barriers rise up, do well, well even better than you did, which you did very well. But you made a decision to teach first at Gordon College, a Christian College in Massachusetts for a number of years and now and Taylor University in Indiana another Christian college. What made you feel led that the next right step and your remarkable journey if you will, what led you to shift from Wall Street to teaching?

Alice Tsang:

One thing that was health, I retired from Fidelity in 2008, and that all hell broke loose right now because of my work. The company is a huge investor in the market. So we were, all of us working there had witnessed a lot of developments and I was one of the analysts analyzing the firms that were experiencing huge problems. And truth be told, we were analyzing the unanalyzable. If you look at the actions or the lack of solutions, even at the Fed level, Federal Reserve level, know who will we right to be able to analyze and predict what’s going to happen? So the stress of the work and just a lot of pressure and so on. And there’s also this people who work for retirement, right? Early retirement. And there was this thought about, “Okay, so how much is enough for you to retire comfortably?”

Alice Tsang:

And at the time when I retired, we had more than, so the health issue was something that was bothering me and the need to stay at work for till very late every evening. So eventually, I think that was the right thing to do. And after I retired, I was trying to find something to share my experience that can enable me to share my experience with others. This teaching opportunity came up also very unexpectedly when I was visiting a former colleague of Fidelity who was teaching at Gordon. And so he invited me to one of his classes as a speaker and we started talking and then later on the department chair of Gordon, like economics and business invited me to apply for an adjunct professorship and I started teaching as an adjunct professor and then the following year they made me full-time.

Warwick Fairfax:

You have a passion for financial literacy in particular to financial literacy for underserved communities. Talk a bit about what that is and why it’s your passion?

Alice Tsang:

So coming back to my own background, one thing that is somehow to me is a misconception is, a lot of minority groups that in a low income families, they don’t see the need for financial literacy or knowing about finance. Several things. One is, well I don’t have money so I don’t need to know about financial planning. There’s nothing to plan. So since I don’t have money, why do I need to know about financial planning? Now that cannot be further from the truth. The less you have, the more important it’s to plan well, right? Because you know you want to get from nothing to having a little, a little bit more, and then more, and more, and more so that you can achieve financial security. So that’s very important.

Alice Tsang:

So if I’m in this group, then I would spend $4 or $5 on the coffee every day. Why not? I don’t have too much money, but this is a treat for me. And then even if I save it doesn’t amount to much. Like yes, listen to me. Small things when you accumulate, it can grow, and then you would end up having a decent amount to start investing. So that is something very important to share with people in that group.

Alice Tsang:

Underserved communities tend to get scammed if they don’t have financial literacy because they don’t have much. And someone usually would come along and say, “Hey, you know what? I can help you get rich quickly.” “I’m in.” So whatever little that they would kind of flock over and then they end up losing whatever little they have. And so knowing more about finance, how to avoid fraud, scam, learning to do things patiently, doing real investing instead of succumbing to all the get rich quick schemes, that would end up serving them much better than having them be convinced that they can actually cut corners. The only people that will get rich quick from the whole transaction is the people who scam them.

Alice Tsang:

The other thing is, we want to have more harmony in society. So the income inequality and so forth. You have the underserved constantly having nothing or very little, while the other people who knows better more about finance, financial planning. Then you have the gap widen. So we really need to do something constructive to bring the two groups together, not necessarily through income distribution, but by sharing the knowledge, like promoting financial literacy among the underserved, you empower them so they learn how to create opportunities for themselves, and they feel a lot more fulfilled. And that’s what I think your website is trying to advocate, right? To espouse, to give people the ability, the power to look beyond their current challenges and see better things ahead. And they can do it because they already have the ability endowed in them. They just need the vision to pursue that.

Gary Schneeberger:

That sound you just heard, listener, was the captain of our plane here turning down the fastened seatbelt sign indicating it’s about time to begin our descent to end this episode of Beyond the Crucible, but we’re not there yet. So you can hang out of your peanut bags for a little while longer. And Warwick, I’ll flip it back to you to ask the last question or two to Alice. Alice, one of the things I want to do for you in the show notes, I noticed that you’re very active on LinkedIn, so I’m going to put your LinkedIn address in there for people who can engage with some of the wisdom that you’ve been sharing here. So we’ll make sure people can find you there.

Warwick Fairfax:

So Alice, thank you so much for being here. We asked this kind of question a reasonable amount. So I think in this case I’m thinking there could be maybe a young person, maybe they’re from an immigrant, maybe different background, maybe they’ve grown up without the advantages of stable family life, maybe they’ve suffered even as a young kid, maybe racism, sexism, discrimination, maybe their sights are pretty low. What would a word of hope be to that young person who thinks, “People like me never amount to much because life is not fair and kind of why bother? Because the deck is stacked against me. It’s just nobody I know has succeeded. Nobody I know has got any degree of financial, not even wealth, just financial stability.” What would a word of hope be? Maybe to that young person that doesn’t see too much hope or future, or positive future in their lives?

Alice Tsang:

Okay, so allow me to provide a few points here. Okay, so you are growing up in a poor family, never amount to much or it is not possible to do anything. I see you being able to be the leader that can be the one who break through the barriers for your family, for your community, so you can inspire people in your community. So this is one thing that I really strongly encourage. We do not have the ability to be perfect, but we can control how much effort we put into a better future for ourselves. And if you already have the abilities but you don’t see the possibility of realizing your dreams, that might be because you haven’t started doing something using your ability. So a dream is a dream and you will never become reality unless you take action using your ability to do more, and more, and more.

Alice Tsang:

And as you see the results, you’ll be encouraged and you will dare to do more and aspire higher. So that’s what I hope will be an encouragement to someone who grew up like myself, never even in my wildest dream. And it is not just something that I say this, my mom also said to me before she passed away, she would never have dreamt. And that’s like where we would have become what we would have become.

Alice Tsang:

The other thing is, we are not doing it alone. I am a believer, so God has been helping me. We also want to look around. There are people around us. If we associate with the right people who are supportive, who are encouraging, we encourage one another and support one another so that we can all move forward. And rather than saying, “Why bother?” My question is, why not give it a try?

Gary Schneeberger:

I have been in the communication business long enough to know when the last words have been spoken at a subject and Alice Tsang just spoke it. Why not try? Indeed. So listener until the next time that we are together. Remember this, we do know that your crucible experiences are difficult.

Gary Schneeberger:

My goodness, you heard Alice talk about her growing up years and some of the challenges that she faced, but she did it with a positivity that speaks to the way that she’s navigated beyond that, as she said, perspective is very important. And she learned much perspective from what she went through, the challenges that she went through. And that’s what we hope, not just this episode, certainly this episode, but every episode of Beyond the Crucible helps you to do. So, we do know that your crucibles are difficult, but we also know that on the other side of those crucibles, as you learn the lessons of them, and apply them, and begin to walk out your journey, that journey can be the most rewarding one of your life, the most exciting one of your life, because where it leads is to a life of significance.

Gary Schneeberger:

If you enjoyed this episode, learned something from it, we invite you to engage more deeply with those of us at Beyond The Crucible. Visit our website beyondthecrucible.com to explore a plethora of offerings to help you transform what’s been broken into breakthrough. A great place to start, our free online assessment, which will help you pinpoint where you are on your journey beyond your crucible, and to chart a course forward. See you next week.