Here’s a great quote from Jim Carrey and the inspiration for my post.
Jim Carrey Quote
My dad came to America after college in Taiwan. He did EE at USC and went on to work at JPL doing rocket stuff, but it wasn’t what he wanted to do. After I was born, he quit and bought a Mexican fast-food restaurant at the local mall.
Rockets to quesadillas? There weren’t too many options open to new immigrants and he needed a way to quickly build up cash to do what he loved — building things. I basically lived in the back of the kitchen, doing my homework, reading, and creating big blocks of ice so I could cut them with the hot water from the dish cleaning stations.
I also saw my parents work their fingers to the bone.
Years later, when my dad had enough, he just up and built a 4-unit condo. To this day I still have no idea how he managed to build a multi-unit project as his first endeavor. And this was before you could look up everything on the internet.
My take away was realizing the immigrant gift of my parents. Their sacrifices allowed me a great base level to do whatever I wanted to do in my life, without the ordeals of working in a restaurant. It also showed me that sometimes you just got to take a chance.
