Priceless legacy projects

A dozen year ago, I proposed to my dad to write his autobiography with my mom.   Dad resisted saying he has had a “plain life” and not much to say.   Nonsense, my brothers and I insisted – while our folks came from modest means in China, dad was the chief engineer in a “town” of 6 million people in China, building billion dollar dams to enhance lives.  Mom also had a successful career.   They gave EVERYTHING up, incurred massive debt, toiled for decades, in order for the kids to pursue the American Dream.  Pursue we did and dreams achieved.   Thanks to their sacrifices.

Dad relented and over two years, he penned his and mom’s life story: “My Family and I 我和我的家” and I am proud to have been the editor and helped translate to the full bilingual version.  The book is limited to only family member and each of the kids got autographed copies, as reminder of where our roots are.

At the onset of COVID, I took on my second legacy project and co-authored over the book “Ten Commandments of Investing” (#10Cs) with my nephew Timmy (a senior in college at time) and my eldest girl Oia (a senior in high school at time).  We wrote #10Cs having been inspired by Time Ferris’s “10 Hour Workweek: and Robert Kiyosaki’s “Rich Dad, Poor Dad” with the ambitious goal of making #10Cs the third book to read to inspire and help others achieve financial freedom.   While we have giant shoes to fill, we are humbled that #10Cs became Wall Street Journal, USA Today and Amazon best-seller in multiple categories and is being translated to Portuguese this year and Chinese, Korean and Spanish as well in near future.

This year, I aim to complete a third legacy project, with my second daughter, a junior in high school.   Chloe and I are brainstorming a fun, learning project that will make an impact – stay tune and happy to hear your suggestions!