"Just Try, Who Cares?"
A soliloquy on eloquence and entrepreneurship
In my latest NEATWORKING conversation, I got a chance to spend time with serial entrepreneur and all around great guy, Arthur Wang (CEO and Founder, Fud), discussing his family’s journey as immigrants and small business owners in America, growing up hustling in restaurants to make spare cash, and how success may not be about where you end, but instead about the steps you take along the way (we also completely decompiled the rise and fall of myspace, unearthed my own latent issues with law school and our state bar system, and discussed my potential pivot away from the tech world into Hollywood celebrity (his idea, not mine) - really crammed a lot into the hour, tbh)
But what I loved most about my conversation with Arthur was his belief in himself, his enduring vision of the “American Dream”, and his ambition to enable all to achieve it, whatever those dreams may be.
I left my conversation with Arthur ready to change the world, ready to make an impact - mainly, due to the slew of eloquent and prolific motivational quotes, idioms, and “what have yous”, that Arthur (whether intentionally or unintentionally) dropped throughout the hour - and which I’ll now use to frame our conversation for you throughout this post
(Just hope I do them justice.)
And most importantly, I hope you leave here with similar excitement and passion for your dreams that I felt from Arthur, and that I also now feel for my own.
So with that, allow me to kick off our idiomatic, motivational quote-filled adventure without further adieu….
(First I spelled it “Adieu”, but a quick google search reminded me its “Ado”…
Ado means “fuss” “hubbub” or “trivial chaos”. First off, I love the word hubbub, and “trivial chaos” sounds like an unsuccessful Sonic the Hedgehog Jeopardy spinoff for Sega Genesis back in the day…(Sega call me if you want to make this game a reality)
Adieu means “goodbye” in French. Which, even if not the right phrase here, sounds like a great way to leave one of those parties where you feel like you spend half an hour just saying goodbye to everyone. So tiring. Maybe next time in the middle of saying goodbye I’ll just be like “without further adieu” and promptly walk out the door. Leaving everyone very confused “did Evan just use an idiom incorrectly and then leave without saying goodbye?”.)
ANYWAYS…without further ADO
“Hustle Luck”
One of the key quotes (phrases, whatever we’re calling these things) Arthur used to describe himself, his family, his dreams, is “Hustle Luck”.
Now, this is a much cooler and hipper phrase than the old adage (which is somehow attributed to both Thomas Jefferson and Gary Player…lets just say it was Jefferson for the sake of legitimacy and temporal common sense here): “I find that the harder I work, the more luck I seem to have”.
Work hard --> good things happen.
Hustle Luck.
Arthur attributes this belief in Hustle Luck to his family, his parents, who as immigrants to America became entrepreneurs themselves, opening up Chinese restaurants, overcoming obstacles, hurdles, and setbacks - to achieve success in the food industry and further capitalizing on that success, branching out into launching their own sauces, franchises, etc. as a result of this continued hard work, this Hustle Luck, as Arthur puts it (in reality, I think there’s no luck to it at all, sounds like just a lot of hustle to me!)
He looks at their success, and his success, as the American dream. “You keep working hard, and good things come of it” says Arthur, adding “…as long as you’re in there, the hard work is the success.”
I think that last qualification, as to what success truly is, is most important.
Sure, good things come to those that work hard. But we need to remember, those good things don’t necessarily (or ever do) come at the end of the journey, they are recognized (if we’re paying attention) throughout the journey itself. The lessons learned, the work done, the people met along the way. That is the success.
We hear all the time that its about the journey, not the destination - well, maybe that’s also where the success is, in the journey. Not the destination.
“I’m still gonna better myself because I’m dope”
One of my favorite words that I still haven’t ever felt cool enough (more on this and why I shouldn’t feel this way later) to say is “dope”. But man, I love when other people use it.
Arthur, much like all his other quotational gems, used this in a phrase that I think wraps up the mindset we all must have to ensure we continue to grow, achieve, and succeed, even in the face of adversity, of competition, of potential defeat:
“I’m still gonna better myself because I’m dope”
Believe in yourself. Because you’re dope.
Regardless of what happens, what speed bumps, road blocks, or other infrastructure-related parallels you run into: keep going. Keep growing. Because you’re dope.
Arthur drew this feeling back to his childhood, and his father’s sentiments around competitive restaurants cropping up, sometimes right next door, to his family’s establishment. I asked Arthur if they saw this an impediment to success, if it made success harder.
His answer? Nope.
In fact, his father saw competition as a benefit.
You’ve heard the phrase “a rising tide lifts all ships?” well, Arthur refers to this as an “Abundance Mindset” (despite my enjoyment of sailing I like the latter phrase better than the former)
Abundance Mindset is a re-engineering of our minds, hardwired to be scared, to “fight” or “flight” from situations, to a place where we’re confident in our skills, where we know we’re dope, and we welcome new restaurants, welcome new competition.
You learn, together.
You grow, together.
You attract crowds, together.
(But you better make some “really dope food”, as Arthur says)
Don’t fight. Don’t f(l)ight.
Have an abundance mindset. Lift all ships. Welcome the competition.
Remember, you’re still gonna better yourself. Because you’re dope.
“You need a greater purpose”
In all my Neatworking articles (Click here to read them all!) one key theme keeps popping up, the theme of purpose. It’s becoming clear purpose is a shared pursuit among all entrepreneurs, builders, high performing individuals, everyone I’ve spoken with - the passion and excitement surrounding, and finding, one’s purpose.
Whether you’ve found it, or are actively pursuing it, purpose permeates across my Neatworking ecosystem and if you’re doing it right, to yours, I’m sure.
But remember, all you purpose seekers - that purpose is often confused with its important yet not as life defining partner: Ambition.
Ambition may drive us, but purpose defines us.
Arthur notes that his purpose has become clearer as he’s progressed along his journey - where his early career was spent chasing “ambition”, through investment banking, marketing, even starting his own mortgage/finance support platform, but never truly finding his “purpose” until his current pursuit, Fud, where he uses his platform to educate, and empower individuals to be their own bosses and learn skills they need to be successful as entrepreneurs and small business owners online and beyond.
“You need a greater purpose”, notes Arthur.
We spoke at length around the idea of making money (pursuit of one’s own ambition) vs. the idea of finding purpose (pursuit of one’s own humanity).
“You can make money doing anything” - says Arthur.
But is that your purpose? Or simply an ambition?
Arthur started as an investment banker, a career where all he needed to do was sit back, fix REF’s on excel, move .png’s on slides, climb the corporate ladder and let his bank accounts fill (there’s of course more to it than that, but its not nearly as fun to describe the job with complete realism) but even with all that prestige, all that monetary upside, something was missing.
He had found ambition.
He hadn’t found purpose.
“You can be successful at stuff you hate, but then why do it?”
Arthur and I spoke on this kind of “success”, success of ambition, wealth - being able to buy a nice car, a new pair of shoes - and came to the conclusion that these things are all cool - but are not substantive to your enjoyment of life.
If you don’t love what you do, it doesn’t’ matter what pair of shoes are on your feet. What car is in the driveway.
And as a car guy, this hit me hard.
But I (somewhat begrudgingly) couldn’t agree more.
Hitting financial targets?
Won’t sustain you as an individual.
Growing your bank account?
Won’t sustain you as an individual.
But, pursuing your passion? Finding your purpose?
Sustenance, in abundance (mindset).
“Just try, who cares?”
I’ve saved my favorite of the “Arthur Wang’s eloquent motivational quotes for work and life” collection for last. The one that struck me the hardest, and the one that (candidly) haunts many decisions left unmade in my past:
Just try. Who cares?
Four of the most powerful words I may have heard in my professional journey, and ones that are now extending like webs into all aspects of my life, all crossroads I’ve stood at - the idea of just trying.
Putting yourself out there.
And the absolute frightening potential of failing. Of being embarrassed in doing so. Wondering if anyone would see. If anyone would care.
Growing up - I was terrified of failing. Of doing something embarrassing. It was a constant struggle - to try and stay ahead of the “cool” curve. Making sure I looked cool, sounded cool, acted cool. Certainly never (intentionally) doing anything that could turn out poorly, let people see that I failed, make me seem less cool, less accomplished, whatever it may be. At least, until I realized - just how much trying to avoid failure was holding me back. How much trying to be cool was making me anything but.
I’m just going to do it. I’m just going to try. Because I’m dope (see?).
Who cares.
Once I stopped focusing on the potential of failure, on what everyone else thought, and started just being me - TRYING to be who I really was - and doing all those things I was previously afraid of (publicly) failing at - all of a sudden - I had never felt cooler.
Now adays if you ask any of my friends (and most professional colleagues, actually) I have absolutely no problem embarrassing myself. No problem failing publicly. I try basically everything - believe I can do basically anything - and I don’t fear embarrassment, to a certain extent, I expect it. I enjoy it. Some of my favorite stories end in a great moment of my own embarrassment (and I have many more that don’t, they’re just not as fun to tell).
It means I’m putting myself out there. Who cares what anyone else thinks.
Just try. Who cares?
Of course, this may be easier to do in our personal lives - summoning up the courage (and bracing for the embarrassment…the failure) to ask that person out, to launch yourself over a cliffside skiing, to sing a song, tell a joke, dance at the party, whatever it may be, stakes somehow feel lower (at least to me) away from our desks. Outside of our paychecks. Hidden from resumes.
But in front of the people I want to respect me as a professional? Hire me to do a job for them? Think of me highly when my name is brought up?
What if they laugh as they scroll over my name on their Linkedin feed?
What if they think I’m a failure?
Just try. Who cares.
The venues may change, but the lesson stays the same.
Think someone may laugh at your passion?
Just try. Who cares.
Think everyone may think you’re crazy for ditching your job to start your own company?
Just try. Who cares.
Think you don’t deserve that promotion, or wouldn’t get that dream job you just saw posted online?
Just try. Who cares.
It’s quickly becoming one of my favorite quotes of all time (and although I don’t have any tattoos, may be a front runner for that face tattoo when I finally decide to go get one (actually this may be one instance where “Just try, who cares” doesn’t fully apply now that I’m thinking about it…)) and one that despite having learned it (somewhat) personally, is a lesson that I must continue to teach myself, and push myself towards, professionally.
It doesn’t matter what people think.
It doesn’t even matter what the outcome is.
What matters is the journey.
What matters is your purpose.
That’s true success.
Just try. Who cares.