To my mother

The first founder I ever knew

On June 4, 1989, a little incident happened that would rock the world.

In China, hundreds of thousands of students had been protesting in Beijing’s Tiananmen Square for weeks, driven by political upheaval, socioeconomic crises, and cries for reform. Martial law had been imposed since May 20, but tensions mounted unabated. Japan and the rest of the Asian Tigers had been threatening America’s economic dominance, and the world teetered with anxiety about what identity China would choose in the international community.

On June 4, China woke up and chose violence. The resulting Tiananmen Square Massacre claimed the lives of thousands of unarmed civilians, gave the world shocking and iconic moments like Tank Man, and sent seismic shock waves throughout the world, especially among Western democracies.

One month later, Ruby Chen gave birth to me at the National Taiwan University Hospital in Taipei, Taiwan.

Today, on Mother’s Day 2023, I write this article to honor her incredible journey as an immigrant, mother, and entrepreneur. She is the first founder I ever knew, and she embodies tenacity, resourcefulness, and love. Her story truly exemplifies the American Dream.

My mother gave me the first name 政 - meaning “government” in Chinese. Government. No small coincidence for her first-born child, considering the dramatic political tensions in Taiwan, just 110 miles away from China across the Taiwan Strait.

A few months later, she and I immigrated to the United States, fleeing the dual threats of political violence and a bad marriage.

Motherhood is one of the hardest challenges anyone can take on, but my mother was truly playing the Game of Life on hard mode. To this day, I have no idea how she pulled off the series of moves which resulted in us going from immigrants with nothing to the lives we have today. She had no more than a high school diploma, no family wealth, and barely spoke English. She couldn’t even get a normal job because of her student visa status. Nevertheless, my mother persisted and started several businesses, remarried, and pushed me to get the best education I could.

When we first arrived in America, my mother couldn’t get a job while on her student visa, so she started a tour business and created relationships from scratch with the Taiwanese embassy. She also couldn’t afford a babysitter (still a loaded topic today), so she simply put a cheap plastic chair in the space between the driver and front passenger seats of our 15-passenger shuttle. I sat in that chair all day, every day while she ferried Chinese businessmen between the airport and metro Houston. Tough constraints for sure, but one thing that mothers and entrepreneurs have in common is grit. They will do anything for their baby.

To this day, my mother embodies the entrepreneurial spirit. On top of shaping my personal values, she influenced me to pursue entrepreneurship. She is the reason why I am a lifelong entrepreneur and started my first business when I was eight years old. It’s perhaps because we had nothing that my mother turned to entrepreneurship - which paid my way through life, from diapers to diploma. But more importantly, she did the best she could as a mother.

Happy Mother’s Day. And give your mom a hug if you can.

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As an aside, Mother’s Day is a holiday of mixed emotions for many people, especially those who are mum on the subject due to family conflicts. Acknowledging that, my mother is far from perfect, and we fought incessantly while I growing up. I feel as if everybody speaks in euphemisms about family foibles, but I truly struggled with how my mother showed up in my life.

Still, the gift of maturity has given me much-needed perspective. These days, I feel gratitude and admiration when I think about her story. When I get bogged down, I remember my mom’s determination and boldness, and I get fired up.