Alex Hung shares his journey from HR professional to Chief of Staff, offering insights on career advancement, financial management, and relationship wisdom gained through years of professional and personal experience.
• Starting in HR with an unrelated degree taught Alex the reality that your college major often doesn't matter for career success
• Changing jobs every two years can yield 15-20% salary increases compared to the typical 2-7% internal raises
• The "squeaky wheel gets the oil" - you must make your accomplishments known rather than silently working hard
• Alex's investment choices that have provided better returns than traditional S&P 500 investments
• Taking a year off from dating helped Alex reset his priorities and become comfortable with being alone
• Looking for a partner who aligns on future goals matters more than shared hobbies or interests
• Understanding emotional versus logical approaches helps navigate relationship dynamics
Guest bio:
Alex is the Chief of Staff at a start-up that provides back-office solutions for property managers, focusing on business enablement and strategy to grow the business, and unblock operational challenges. He loves debating with friends to challenge his ideas and opinions. His best friend is his white and grey shih tzu, Teddy.
- IG: @hungonlife / https://www.instagram.com/hungonlife/
LinkedIn: @AlexanderHung / https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexander-hung/
Links/resources:
- Kaba Modern @Vibe17 (dance performance - YouTube)
- Eye warmer / massager (Amazon - affiliate link)
- All-In Podcast (YouTube channel)
One Thousand Gurus Podcast:
Everyone has a compelling story to tell with insights we can all be inspired by. J.R. Yonocruz is a self-improvement blogger, relationship coach, and serial hobbyist with a passion for learning. He interviews unique guests from various fields to distill the strategies, habits, and mindsets we can use in our own lives. Each “guru” has a chance to give the audience a peek into a new world.
www.onethousandgurus.com
Instagram: @OneThousandGurus
TikTok: @onethousandgurus
YouTube: One Thousand Gurus Podcast
Email: onethousandgurus@gmail.com
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
J.R. (00:00):
Hello everyone and welcome back to another fun episode of
1000 Gurus with me, your host,jr Yonacruz.
Today's guest is Alex Hung.
Alex is the chief of staff at astartup that provides back
office solutions for propertymanagers, focusing on business
enablement and strategy to growthe business and unlock
operational challenges.
He loves debating with friendsto challenge his ideas and
(00:22):
opinions, and his best friend isa white and gray Shih Tzu Teddy
.
So this was another fun episodewith a fellow Kappa Modern
alumni dance teammate fromcollege, alex Hung and I don't
get to catch up much between theyears, but it was nice to chop
it up about his career journey,insider tips as someone who used
to work in HR and now worksmore in operations.
We also talk about moneymanagement tips and then finally
(00:45):
landed on the topic of datingand what he's learned over the
years about understanding women.
It was a very fun conversationand actually the last in my Cup
of Modern series before we doour special five-person reunion
episode with our class.
So, without further ado, hopeyou enjoyed this episode with
Alex Hung.
You enjoyed this episode withAlex Hung.
(01:10):
Hello everyone, and welcomeback to 1000 Gurus, please
welcome my guest.
Alex Hung, thanks for being here, man, I appreciate it.
Alex (01:15):
Yeah.
J.R. (01:16):
I know you are not too far , so I'm glad that we were able
to schedule this out.
Yeah, and then.
So for those of you who don'tknow Alex is, I was going over
the stats with him right beforerecording, but he is the third
Alex on my show.
He's the fourth person of myCobb Modern class and he's the
sixth person who I've had whowas on Cobb Modern and probably
(01:36):
like the 30th dancer, if I wereto take stats, so yeah.
So we have some good stats there.
So let me just go into how Iknow you.
So, just, similar to June, alex, christal and Ken we met during
our first year on Cabo Modernat UCI in 2010,.
Right, yeah, I was the firstyear, you were a second year, I
believe, and you were also afellow freestyler, you were
(01:58):
doing locking and I was like afreestyle popper, and so we
danced together for a coupleyears and we, similar to again
the other three we see eachother about like once a year for
our class socials, likechristmas or something june
related, like her going away,coming back, graduating, coming
back again, getting married.
So, yeah, and we live in buenapark, right, and you have your
(02:21):
own place and you have two carssuch a flex.
And you have a dog named such aflex.
And you have a dog named Teddy,right, yes, sir, and you're
also from the Bay Area, justlike myself, correct?
And again, I had to stalk youfor this.
So you have a degree in publichealth science, right?
So useful.
Alex (02:35):
Yeah, yeah, no, I mean same Poli sci I don't do
anything with that let's see.
J.R. (02:39):
And I know you used to work in HR but now your title
right now is chief of staff.
Is that?
Does that sound right?
Yeah, that's right, nice, cool.
So now that we have that out ofthe way, or sorry, any
clarifications?
You got it.
Anything else you're up to Bangon.
Alex (02:54):
No.
J.R. (02:54):
Okay, and you also went to Japan and Taiwan recently,
right?
Alex (02:58):
I did Just like everyone else.
J.R. (03:08):
Just like everyone else.
Yeah, yeah, I went lastseptember.
Alex (03:10):
Like I mentioned, I'm going back in september, october
, so we're all just basicfollowing the crowd, so gotta
take advantage before they raisethe the tourist prices.
J.R. (03:14):
Yeah, yeah and all the tariffs cool, let's go into the
first video.
Solomon, if you don't wear thewiggles so yes alex is the green
, I'm the blue.
This is from zoolanderjitterbug, alex's choreography.
Here's my butterfly and that'sit.
(03:36):
Yeah, that's it.
Thanks, solomon, all right,yeah, so so that was alex's
choreo, my butterfly twist, andI think I contributed like four
counts to that intro, like tothe jada bug something it was
probably that, something likethat, but anyways, that set was
super fun yeah, yeah, yeah, itwas super fun and like oh, and
(04:00):
there was another part, thewhacking part, later.
Alex (04:03):
who did that?
Can't remember right now, wasit Amy?
J.R. (04:07):
Yeah, probably, amy Probably, or Jenny, I forget,
it's okay.
Alex (04:13):
It's one of the whackers.
Yeah, that was fun yeah.
J.R. (04:16):
Just want to throw in our history lore there.
That was like what 13 years ago, 14, something like that.
Cool, all right, you ready forour first topic?
Yes, all right.
So, as usual, first topic isalways origin story.
So like where did you grow up,what was like your career path
and like main influences thatkind of led you to where you are
today?
(04:36):
I know it's like a big like 30plus years of life, but you
could point to the maininfluences that got you to where
you are today.
That's too broad.
Alex (04:45):
Okay, where'd you grow up?
Where'd I grow up?
I grew up mostly in NorCal.
J.R. (04:50):
Yeah.
What were your like aspirationswhen you were like younger?
Alex (04:53):
Truthfully, I didn't really know what I wanted to do.
I just I think I was verydriven by music.
When I was starting middleschool, I picked up drums and I
thought that drums were the wayto get girls because, music's
cool and the coolest instrument.
I probably should have pickedup guitar in hindsight, but
(05:16):
drums.
J.R. (05:17):
I thought was way cooler.
Yeah, hey girl, come here, youcan't carry it around.
Alex (05:21):
Let me pick you, it doesn't really work.
So I started the drum thing andthen that's where I think I put
a lot of my creative energy inmiddle school, and then I also
did it in high school withdrumline and then afterwards
there I went to uci and therewas no drumline because there's
(05:42):
no football team at UCI, whichwas bizarre.
So I didn't really know whereto take that and so I danced in
college with you.
J.R. (05:53):
So then, how did you choose public health sciences,
and what did your parents haveanything about what you should
be getting into?
Alex (05:59):
Okay, yes.
So in college the main thing iswhat should I major in so that
I have a career after this?
And truthfully, I didn't reallyknow or care.
I just knew I needed to makemoney and I needed to have a
life that I could afford thethings that I wanted.
So I think in college I didn'tget a lot of direction, because
(06:21):
no one went to college in myfamily previously a lot of
direction, because no one wentto college in my family
previously, if anything, maybelike a little bit of community
college is all.
But I thought that the hardestmajor or majors would be the
ones that also meant it would bea higher paying job, which now,
in hindsight, is not truewhatsoever.
Like what?
Like which one you would alwaysthink?
Well, I thought that bio, chem,computer science that's partly
(06:46):
true, computer science worked,uh, but bio and chem, those
types of degrees did not reallyyield a great job market after
you're either working in a labor research or something right,
it's kind of narrow.
So those are the harderquote-unquote harder majors.
It was very difficult.
I tried to go for bio initially, a biology major, because I
(07:08):
thought that was very hard.
I wanted to challenge myself,but it came to a point where I
had to switch in order tograduate on time because I spent
a little bit too much timedancing.
Yeah, as we all do, yeah so Ijust switched to whatever I
could to graduate on time andhonestly.
After college I realized thatthe major you have doesn't
(07:29):
matter at all, which is why yeahcollege is so useful.
J.R. (07:34):
Yeah, that's one of our later topics too.
So then you switched intopublic health sciences to
graduate on time, and then atthat point, well, I guess one
thing did your parents reallycare or what were their thoughts
on that at that point?
Well, I guess one thing didyour parents really care or what
were their thoughts on that atthat point?
Because I think people going tocollege at least asian
households, it's usually likethey tell us what to do, right,
I don't know if it was like thatfor you I think because they
(07:55):
don't have the experience theydidn't, they weren't able to
give an opinion okay, the
Alex (08:01):
main thing was make sure you graduate, make sure that the
money that I mean I wasfortunate enough that they were
supporting me through school.
I didn't have to pay for itmyself, so thank you the equity
from my house that they pulledout for that can't thank them
enough because debt is reallyrough, yeah.
But yeah, they just made surethat I graduate on time and
(08:21):
really it came after right.
Okay, just make sure you get ajob after and try to work on
your career.
I think they focus a lot moreon that.
J.R. (08:30):
Try to build a career, be successful, but just find your
own path.
Alex (08:34):
They weren't too nitpicky about.
You have to be a doctor or youhave to be a lawyer, I think at
one point I thought, oh, Ishould be a doctor.
It was a lot more than I thinkpeople usually anticipate.
It's just a very difficult road, and so I think my interest
level just wasn't high enoughfor me to get through it.
J.R. (08:52):
Okay, so you graduated public health sciences, then
what was the next step afterthat?
Alex (08:58):
So what job should I get out of college?
And then the crazy thing isright you go back to college and
you say what major should Ihave done for the job?
After I graduated I still hadno idea.
J.R. (09:09):
I just wanted to get a job and I had to pay rent right.
Alex (09:13):
So it actually took a little bit of time before I
could find anything.
It was tough to find a job outof college, at least for me.
Tough to find a job out ofcollege, at least for me and I
didn't.
I just ended up.
This is so embarrassing.
I did get the job because of anintroduction that my mom had
with a client of hers, so Ididn't even get the job myself
(09:35):
that's kind of how it is, though, like it's connections and
networking and some littlesprinkle, a little bit of
nepotism in there yeah, it was aterrible place oh, yeah, it
was a chinese company.
It was a very much butt in seat.
If you're not in your seat,you're not working.
The pay was horrible.
It was.
I felt like I didn't have to goto college for that job.
(09:59):
But the first job was an hrassociate okay, and I didn't
even know what hr was.
But at the time I just thoughtI'm good with people and I'm a
good problem solver.
I can mitigate, mediate sorry,not mitigate.
I can mediate conversations andat the time ai wasn't a thing.
(10:20):
But I thought, oh, there'slongevity in this, because if
you're an engineer, everyonewants to hire a younger and
younger engineer because they'rea lot faster at doing things
and as you age you slow down.
And I thought, okay, well, butwith HR and people, your
experience actually should helpyou as you age, not the other
(10:41):
way around.
So I thought it would be acareer with longevity.
But after eight years I feltlike that I wouldn't want to do
it anymore.
J.R. (10:49):
Actually, Okay, so then HR .
And then you felt like thatthere was some longevity there,
and so what was the next stepafter that?
Was it just you stayed there?
Did you move around?
What were your goals at thatpoint?
Well, the pay was terrible.
Yeah, I had to make more moneyyou move around.
Alex (11:05):
What were your goals at that point?
Well, the pay was terrible,yeah I the goal.
I had to make more money yeah,so early on in my first job.
I think I met some amazingpeople in my first job that
really shaped who I am today.
I think one takeaway was howcheap I was.
Okay, I'm kind of tan this is atangent Go for it but I was
(11:27):
super, super cheap because I wasso frugal, like in college.
My parents paid for college, soI didn't want to spend their
money.
I felt very responsible foreverything so I didn't want to
make their lives any harder thanit needed to be.
I was super frugal and when Istarted working I was hoping
(12:01):
that when I made my own money Icould be less frugal.
But maybe I could be that waywith myself, but it was hard to
do that for others.
So people who are less frugalwould say let me buy you a meal,
let me buy you a gift, let meshow my thanks in this way.
I really wasn't able to do thatbecause I was a penny pincher.
I wanted to make sure thateverything was split fairly
because I knew how hard it wasto make a dollar, because I was
also making no money.
But at my first job there wasthis guy named Andy who always
treated me out to lunch,probably more than once a week
(12:21):
and we'd always go out and hewasn't that much older than me
I'd say maybe he's like six toten years older than me, but not
a whole lot.
Yeah, at the time, and I knewhow much he made because I
processed payroll and he didn'tmake that much more.
But every single time I'm likewhy are you paying for me?
He said I know that I make morethan you and it makes me happy
(12:44):
to be able to provide this foryou.
If it makes me happy to be ableto provide this for you, if it
makes you happy and it was aconcept that I didn't understand
I was like what do you mean?
It makes you happy to spendyour money on me?
What is this People never donethat for me before.
And I think over time it rubbedoff on me, where I started to
try what he was doing and seeinghow I felt, and I would start
(13:06):
like showing my appreciation formy friends by treating them to
things every now and then, eventhough it was very difficult in
the beginning, but over timeit's become a lot more
commonplace and I think that'swhere it started.
So that was one tangent of athing, yeah, no, I like that.
J.R. (13:22):
So you're saying it was a good lesson that you learned
from someone who was older thanyou of like how to?
How do I say this?
Not necessarily I don't want tosay just generosity, but like
how to approach money in adifferent way that you were used
to.
Alex (13:35):
Yeah, my view of money was very different.
I thought it was for yourself.
Money is for yourself.
It's meant to be kept, it'smeant to be saved, it's meant to
be cherished.
But giving, not giving in a way.
J.R. (13:54):
But sharing it, yeah, brings you joy as well, and that
was really odd at the time.
Yeah, I get that because it'snot intuitive at the surface
level of that.
Giving necessarily has apositive roi, because it's like
the math is basically yousubtract money, right, yeah, but
and money equals happiness?
Exactly, yeah, money thishappens.
But then when you go down theroute that you were saying, you
learn this new perspective.
I also subscribe to that thatdon't discount the amount of
(14:16):
actual, like soft ROI that hason you, your networks, the
people around you, of thatabundance, generosity mindset.
I found that, whether or not Ihave a lot of money or a little
bit, the act of giving or themindset of giving, it creates
more in that act for you and forthe people around you, and then
that could have a ripple effect.
Like I have, like friends whoare younger than me, who I treat
(14:37):
out to, and it's that yourstory where I'm happy to give
and I'm at a point where, like Ihave a budget to give and I
know that that not only makes mehappy but it makes them happy
and I tell them like I don'tneed anything from you.
But if you ever find yourselfin the same situation as I am
feel free to pass that along tothe next person, like that
person to someone else, and Ifeel like that has a bigger ROI
(14:59):
than maybe I should just savethis $20 for myself.
Yeah.
Alex (15:03):
So I like that.
J.R. (15:04):
Yeah.
So what else did you learn onthat journey?
So I know you seem like youenjoy your career now, but from
there, from your low paying jobthat you hated, and then you met
this coworker.
What were the points that kindof got you to where you are now?
Or like the lessons that you'velearned along the way?
Alex (15:20):
Yeah, so very early on I knew that your money, how much
money, how do I put this?
There's some sort of velocityinvolved where the faster you
make more money, the more it'sworth it.
If you think about compoundinginterest, you obviously want
more early, and it equals a lotmore later.
(15:41):
You don't want to spread it outand have it compound slowly,
and it equals a lot more later.
You don't want to spread it outand have it compound slowly.
So very early on in my career,I tried to get as many raises as
I could, as fast as I could,and so I would switch jobs every
two years on average.
This is probably the longestI've had a job, and I've been at
this current job for a littleover three years.
(16:02):
Wow.
J.R. (16:03):
So, yeah, upr.
Alex (16:04):
Yeah, I'm not telling everyone to job switch, but I
think there's definitely truthto it there's inherent value.
Right, if you stay within thesame company, you're going to
get, on the low end, no raise tomaybe 2% annual raise, and then
on the higher end, if you don'tget a promotion, you'll maybe
get 7%.
And so if you think about that,over time, how many years does
(16:26):
it take you to get to 20% in araise?
Whereas if you switch jobs, onaverage you get 15 to 20%.
So if you switch jobs enoughtimes, then your pay just jumps
over and over again and thereare times when it jumps like 40%
from one job to the next,probably because I was just way
too low before, right.
(16:47):
But yeah, that's what I triedto do really early on, and I
can't say that I've been verysuccessful, but I think I've
been successful enough where itworked for me.
I do think that loyalty in acompany is sort of dead.
I think if they take care ofyou, then yes, but if they don't
(17:08):
take care of you, if you don'thave opportunities.
J.R. (17:09):
I would suggest that you probably look elsewhere.
Yeah, yeah, I like that a lot.
That math is probably prettyeye-opening for some people
Because, like you said, you canmaybe max out a 2%, 3% raise
each year and all this otherstuff.
But even for me and a guest ofmine that I've had too is like
when we switch jobs to like asimilar but new title, our pay
basically doubled.
(17:30):
And so it's like you can dothat when you go to different
companies.
And I agree with your sentimentof the whole, like company
loyalty, that's the thing of thepast and it's unfortunate.
It'd be nice if we still hadthat in pensions and stuff.
But the new economy of what weare today is that, like you have
to look out for yourself andyou have to be able to get those
pay increases.
(17:50):
So I think that insightful.
The math is really insightful.
Yeah, okay, so you were gettingraises and pay increases and
then what was after that?
Like you were staying in HR,right?
Alex (18:06):
The idea was to build my career in HR and take it as high
as I possibly can, to say aC-level HR officer right.
But while I was on my way there, I think I just didn't.
I just realized how much Ididn't enjoy the work.
It was a lot of peoplecomplaining.
It was a lot of me feeling likeI couldn't make the difference
that I wanted to make In HR.
A lot of me feeling like Icouldn't make the difference
that I wanted to make in hr.
A lot of the times when you'rein a higher position, what you
(18:30):
end up doing is you're justmanaging layoffs all the time,
and that's no fun.
It's not fun for anybody justfiring people yeah, granted, you
shouldn't be the one firingthem, but you're the one
facilitating the process, andreally that's worse in some ways
because the volume rightthere's.
So many years I just spentlaying people off, giving people
(18:51):
their paperwork, telling themwhat the off-boarding process is
and seeing people cry or seeingpeople get pissed.
I don't want to surround myselfwith that negative energy all
the time.
I understand that it is anecessity for the company, but
you don't want to spend all yourtime there.
So yeah, so that's where it went.
(19:13):
And then now and I do see theother side of it now so
currently, as a chief of staff,I do focus more on the overall
health of the business, and sowhen you look at numbers, it's
hard not to just say, oh, we'reoverspending in that department
(19:34):
and it's because it's too manypeople.
And then you also ask yourselfall the time, how productive are
these people?
And I do want to just say thatthe current company that I'm
working, at we're fully remoteglobally.
There's no office, no one'sthere checking to see if you're
doing your work.
It's more so.
Are we getting complaints fromcustomers?
(19:54):
Are you getting what weassigned you done in a manner
that we think is acceptable?
So it's a lot ofself-motivation, self-management
, and if people aren't doingthat, then I have to think of
okay, well how long do we wantto pay?
For someone to not do whatthey're supposed to do yeah.
J.R. (20:13):
So then what's your?
Maybe it's not clear to me.
So what's your like?
Function I get you said youlook at the overall health of
the company yeah, so it's hardto describe.
Alex (20:24):
I do manage the hr side of things at the company still so
managing the day-to-day benefits, the payroll, the hiring
process, that sort of stuff.
But the other side of it is howprofitable is the company?
What are the areas that we needto improve on?
Do we need to make cuts incertain areas or do we need to
(20:46):
invest in certain areas?
These are all things that Ilook into more in detail through
a bunch of spreadsheets andthen I tried to come up with a
strategy and then implementstrategy after Okay.
So it sounds like a lot ofcorporate mumbo jumbo Right,
right, no, I get it.
J.R. (21:02):
So it's like you're allocating or kind of seeing the
health in terms like financesand where you guys can improve
and whatnot, or make moreefficient cuts or whatnot.
So then I guess my question isin your role as going through HR
, and then now what you do nowas like chief of staff, what are
some of the biggest takeawaysthat you've learned in your
career, I guess in the functionsthat you've served, or maybe
(21:23):
advice you would give yourselfAdvice I would give myself, like
someone going through okay, I'mcurious about HR or pursuing a
similar career path as Alex HungMaybe.
What would you give that personlike advice?
Alex (21:37):
I don't really have great advice, because I do feel like
if you do do HR, you could ofcourse, take that career path
and go where you want it to go.
There's a natural progression.
When you're in the corporateladder the way that I ended up
where I'm at I think someone hasto take a flyer on you because
(21:57):
when you work in hr, you're whenyou work at a lower level sort
of independent contributor role,or even if you're a low-level
manager, you're just not exposedto the same topics and ways of
thinking that maybe a ceo or seesomeone like the vp level would
think of.
(22:18):
So in order for you to make thatjump, someone kind of needs to
just give you the chance.
I've seen a lot of managersthat I'm thinking about
something and I'm trying tofigure out a solution and
they're just not giving me whatI need from them and at the end
of the day, it's because theyjust don't think that way yet
and so it's not really advice.
(22:39):
I think people just need togive people the chance to take
that leap if you want to go upto upper management, and then
for me I think I got luckybecause I was managing my
current employer as a client andthey just wanted to hire me
(23:00):
because they felt like I workedreally well with them back when
I was like a third-party HRmanager for them.
J.R. (23:08):
Oh, okay, okay.
Alex (23:09):
Yeah, and then I started managing a service team at a
SaaS company, which was a slightchange from just the day-to-day
HR stuff.
It was more operational, it wasmore managerial, and then
that's when I was able to makethe jump to chief of staff,
which is more operational andless HR focused.
J.R. (23:28):
Yeah, I see Okay.
So then I guess my lastquestion on that is were you
just the level that you're atnow of skill, were you just
always like that, or how did youdevelop that skill?
I imagine I couldn't just jumpinto that role, or anyone else,
right?
Alex (23:45):
at the end of the day, what I do is not that technical,
it's all just problem solving,because it was even hard to
answer your question earlierwhen you said what are you doing
every day?
Yeah, it's just whateverproblems that are most prevalent
for the business at thatparticular moment, and if no one
is there to take care of it,I'm whatever problems that are
most prevalent for the businessat that particular moment, and
if no one is there to take careof it, I'm the one that has to
go and figure it out.
And if I don't know how tosolve for the problem, I have to
(24:08):
find someone.
J.R. (24:10):
Dang.
So you really like the one ofthe last.
Bucks of the problems go to you, or something like that?
Alex (24:16):
Yeah, I would say that I take all the shit.
Wow, that's why they that's whythey pay you all the money for
it, right?
J.R. (24:25):
No, you're like not enough , not enough, yeah, not enough.
Nice, okay, let's switch overthen.
So now we talked about, we'retalking about career and
colleges, but there's this onething that you mentioned in the
pre-show form, which was, quoteunquote college isn't necessary
and is a waste of money.
Would you like to elaborate onthat?
Yeah, not that I don't disagree, I just like to know, yeah, of
course.
Alex (24:42):
So I majored in public health science and my career has
nothing to do with publichealth science.
And when we had the wholecoronavirus thing, I didn't help
.
I didn't help at all I didn'tdo anything.
J.R. (24:56):
My public health science did not science anything.
Yeah, I didn't science a singlething.
Alex (25:00):
So I think the biggest problem is what you learn, at
least in undergrad.
And even I mean I don't have aneducational background right,
I'm not a teacher or anythinglike that but when you think of
what you remember that youlearned in middle school, high
school, college, how much do youremember that you learned high
school college?
(25:21):
How much do you remember thatyou learned?
And for me, not very much,because I also have a terrible
memory.
But what I wish I learned isthe practical things that I do
every day and the things thatmatter for life.
So, in terms of life, I wouldsay money management, I think,
is extremely important andrelevant to every single person
(25:42):
that is, at least in thiseconomy, in this culture, right,
you need to manage your moneyand you need to be able to do it
successfully, or else itdoesn't matter how much money
you make, you're going to end uppoor.
So I wish that we learned aboutmoney and taxes and about how
to maximize your return onanything that you have.
(26:04):
So that's an interest that Ihave on the side, because you
don't learn in school.
So that's what I like to learnon my free time, and then you
feel the reward from it in yourbank account.
Exactly, yeah.
J.R. (26:15):
Okay, quick, tangent because I put a call out to
action.
I always want to talk tosomeone about personal finance.
Okay, quick, tangent, because Iput a call out to action.
I always want to talk tosomeone about personal finance.
What are some TLDR quicktakeaways about personal finance
and financial literacy that youcan give to the audience, about
what you've learned about money?
Alex (26:30):
The one you probably hear a lot.
I don't know if people say thisjust start as early as you can,
because time is what makes youmoney.
It's not because you're anamazing investor or anything
like that.
Just for me, it was aboutpicking stocks and other
investments that I felt likecould stand the test of time
that are solid enough.
(26:52):
I was a bit in a rush, soinstead of people always say, oh
, just put in the S&P, put inthe S&P, okay, yeah, but the S&P
put in the S&P okay, yeah, butthe S&P is too slow for me, so I
don't do S&P sorry for all theS&P lovers out there, I go blue
chip.
Blue chip always helped me.
What blue chip is is yourAmazon's, your Apple's, your
Tesla's.
Not saying you should buy allof them, but there's certain
(27:15):
ones out of those that I preferand I feel like will stand the
test of time, at least for theforeseeable future, and those
are the ones that gave me thebest return.
J.R. (27:26):
So invest in the stock market for you as blue chip and
do it early, early.
Anything else on money thatlet's say not necessarily
investing, but I guess likepersonal financial literacy.
Alex (27:40):
Personal financial literacy.
I think it's important to tryand maximize the money that you
already make.
I kind of mentioned that.
Take advantage of thehigh-yield checking accounts
it's such a no-brainer thing.
Take advantage of credit cardprograms.
I mean, don't open up like 30credit cards if you can't manage
(28:04):
it, but there's some rewardsthat are very much worth it and
you can pull them and use themfor different things instead of
spending your cash and also,yeah, don't spend above your
means unless you really love thething, yeah unless you enjoy
being poor yeah, unless youenjoy enjoy being poor, yeah,
(28:27):
okay, oh, and buy.
If you're a guy, yeah, and youlike cars, buy the car you want
before you settle down.
Oh, it's to enjoy it so thatyou can buy it, because you
might not be allowed to buy ohbecause of being married or if
(28:47):
you have other responsibilitiesin the future oh, I see, yeah,
like it's better to buy early ifyou can afford it, than to wait
.
Just buy your dream car, okay Iget that.
J.R. (28:58):
Yeah, see for me, I don't disagree with that.
But for me, my dream car, okay,I get that.
See for me, I don't disagreewith that.
But for me my dream car is aLamborghini.
So I have to save for that, butalso-.
I mean you can't afford that.
Right, I know, I know.
But also, like they say, howwealth is money you don't spend.
And so I'm just playing thelong game so that at that point
a Lamborghini is just a drop inthe bucket, like I'm not trying
to, I'm not trying to have it bethe whole bucket, like even
(29:19):
when I get there I want to havethe lake and then just then a
bucket for the Lamborghini, butanyways, some of us have smaller
.
Alex (29:26):
No, I agree, my pond is much smaller than your
Lamborghini.
J.R. (29:35):
Exactly, exactly, and it's .
I have probably the longer,bigger threshold for delayed
gratification than most otherpeople, but that's just me.
I hope you do get your librarygame.
I will.
I have faith It'll happen.
I'm not worried.
Okay, I want to go back tocareer really quick.
There's some things maybe wewon't touch on this, but you
mentioned a few things of notbeing promoted, being stuck, not
getting raises, getting laidoff systems in place.
(29:55):
What do you think are some?
If you want to elaborate on anyof those points, my question is
really what traps do you thinkpeople fall in or what do you
think people get wrong aboutnavigating the career game?
Alex (30:07):
for myself.
Maybe it's because I'm asian,but at least my parents would
just say just do a good job andpeople will notice and they'll
reward you for the good job thatyou do.
That's very false in my opinion.
I don't think that works in theUS corporate economy.
Maybe it does in Asia, maybe inTaiwan, I don't know.
(30:28):
But here, if you keep your headdown and you do your job well,
then yeah, you might get somepromotions, but you'll just get
more work, most likely, and themoney won't keep up with how
much you're contributing.
If you just do a good job butyou don't say anything, likely
you won't get anything andthey'll just keep you where you
(30:51):
are and nothing extravagant isgoing to happen.
The truth, at least in my world, from my experience, is the
squeaky wheel gets the oil.
Truth, at least in my world,from my experience, is what is
it?
The squeaky wheel gets the oilright.
The more people talk about howgreat they are or what they
accomplished, the more people donotice, even if people aren't
(31:12):
doing a great job.
If they say they're doing agreat job, some people will
believe them, and sometimes it'sthe decision makers that
believe them.
So, from my experience, it'snot just about doing a good job
at work.
You kind of have to make itknown.
And if you're an introvert andyou don't like to brag, it's not
really about bragging, but youneed to make it known so that
(31:34):
you take credit for the thingsthat you've done.
And you do also have to putyourself out there, even it is
uncomfortable, and say I wantthis.
Of course you could try andmake it reasonable, but you do
need to ask if that's what youwant, because people don't just
give you stuff like they knowwhat you want at least, yeah,
(31:55):
that's my take that makes sense.
J.R. (31:57):
So it's almost like it's half marketing, essentially,
like you can do a good job, butif you don't promote yourself or
I mean promoting, like meaning,like communicate, like the work
that you're actually doing, andit just slides under the radar
they could take advantage of youand be like oh yeah, they're
doing good work, but you know,the squeaky wheel is not getting
the grease right yeah, thesilent hard worker does not get
(32:21):
the reward Right.
Great for the CEO and great forthe owners.
Alex (32:25):
Ceos love the silent, non-complaining worker, it is
the best.
I would hire a thousand of them, Right, right.
And then you have the great.
Okay, if you have a greatperformer who's also loud loud
as in they'll just keep askingfor more.
Yeah, yeah, sure, you'll giveit to them, but at some point
it's too much, like it's notworth?
Yeah, it's not worth it which?
(32:46):
Is why you switch jobs everytwo years.
J.R. (32:50):
So alex is the complainer who switches jobs gets.
Alex (32:52):
No, I don't, I don't complain, but I, I do
consistently look for additionalopportunity and when it's not
there, they're not going to giveit to me, because they probably
felt like they gave me a lotalready.
J.R. (33:02):
Yeah, yeah, yeah no, I like that and I subscribe to
that too.
I don't.
I recommend that because I didthis.
I did the same thing, which waslike I was always looking for
the next opportunity.
Obviously, I was trying to growand get better at stuff yeah
but still keeping my eyes openfor the next door.
And then when you make that jump, it sets you up for the next
one, and so being intentionalabout that career path or
(33:24):
journey or hops, I feel is veryimportant.
That would set you apart.
Yeah, yeah, okay, I think thatshould be it for the career
stuff.
Any last thoughts on that thatyou think would be valuable to
the audience?
Alex (33:36):
I think comes to mind yeah .
J.R. (33:38):
No, that was solid, honestly, guys, just repeat that
if you're curious about how toleapfrog the career game,
because that's actually reallypractical tactical advice, all
right.
Last topic is relationships anddating insights.
So we don't have to covereverything here, but my first
question is to give us somecontext on your relationship
dating journey thus far, becauseyou mentioned this is one of
(33:59):
the topics you want to talkabout yeah, I think there's a
lot of people that this isrelevant to, because dating in
this day and age is kind oftough.
Alex (34:09):
Yeah, for me, I was in a relationship starting in college
.
It was pretty long term six anda half years ended with no
engagement or anything, eventhough that's where I was hoping
to take it and then just manyyears of being single and
chasing the feeling again, right, chasing the feeling of being
(34:30):
wanted, chasing the feeling ofbeing in a relationship,
wondering if I'm going to end upbeing alone.
And I guess I'll just summarizeit where there was a good chunk
of time where I was activelydating and looking and not
really focusing on lookinginward.
And then there was one yearwhere I said I'm not dating at
(34:51):
all, I'm not gonna do any dating, I'm not gonna look at anyone
like that at all and I'm justgonna focus on being alone and
trying to come to terms withbeing okay with it.
I think what was happening atthe time was since I was such an
extrovert.
Maybe the extrovertedness camefrom not wanting to be alone,
(35:13):
but I always looked foropportunities to hang out with
people or to be in arelationship, and even though I
was still, everyone has theircriteria.
It's not like I was datinganyone, but I was definitely
looking for a certain somethingand worried that I might not
find it.
So that year that I took off, Ithink, really helped me.
Center Sounds so cliche.
(35:36):
I centered myself.
J.R. (35:38):
Center myself.
Yeah, I found myself, centeredmyself, I found myself, I found
myself within myself.
Ew.
Alex (35:42):
But I got to the point where I thought to myself if I
don't find anyone, this isactually not bad, and I think
it's.
That was really what I waslooking for, to get to that
point and I hope that everyonegets there at some point too.
J.R. (36:01):
I like that.
For me, how I interpret thatsort of mode of figuring out how
to be alone and sendingyourself so that that's your
default is like a detox fromneeding to get validation from
someone you know wanting to bewith you right.
Alex (36:17):
Yeah.
J.R. (36:17):
I feel like that's very important to understand.
I think we talked about that onAlex Cristal's episode as well,
which is kind of like the powerof solitude, like being on your
own.
And that can reveal to you yourown self-awareness of what you
really want to do, because nowit's an unfiltered version of
yourself that's not influencedby your desire to be with
someone.
Does that make sense?
Alex (36:38):
Yeah, yeah, so I like that a lot, I guess.
J.R. (36:41):
how has?
Well, my next question was howhas your perspective of being
alone changed over time and whatdo you think people, what
should people think about whilebeing in this phase of being
single?
I don't know if that questionmakes sense.
Can you ask?
Alex (36:56):
it again, yeah.
J.R. (36:57):
I guess for someone who wants to get to that point where
they're like okay, I'm good ifI'm alone, if I'm by myself,
like I'm chill with this.
How, how would you advisesomeone get to that point?
I guess especially forextroverts, right?
Alex (37:09):
yeah, I think I started to look at what my motivators were
for doing things, thinking am Itrying to hang out with people
because I just don't want to beby myself?
Or am I hanging out with peoplebecause I think it's fun?
There's nothing wrong withgoing out, having drinks, doing
things because you think it'senjoyable but are you doing it
(37:31):
just because you're trying toavoid something else?
And so for me, I think it wasmaybe like a small percentage
was I'm just trying to not belonely and, of course, like part
of it was, let me put myselfout there because I am single.
So I need to put forth theeffort and put myself out there,
at least be out in the world,so that I could give myself a
(37:52):
chance.
No one's going to break into myhouse and tell me they want to
date me, right, so I have to beoutside.
J.R. (37:57):
You never know that could happen.
I mean, alex, date me, you'reso attractive, I broke into a
hot chick.
Don't arrest me, but we shoulddate.
Alex (38:07):
I mean that'd be cool, right?
It doesn't work like that.
So, yeah, I was trying to putmyself out there, but at the
same time I did think, okay,well, is it for the right
reasons?
And so I had to think aboutthat.
And so I had to think aboutthat, and then I think part of
(38:27):
it was also just thinking aboutwho I really valued.
When you do that reset,everyone has a list of what type
of person that they want to bewith.
I think it was just hitting areset and you put your building
blocks back of the top thingsthat you really find to be the
most important.
And then what I realized is thatlist was still not right.
(38:49):
I'm actually happily in arelationship right now, which is
great, very, very lucky.
But yeah, I realized that Ithink the thing that I was
looking for is still differentfrom what I ended up with, and
it's still great, right.
It's not like I neededeverything on that list.
I think the list was still toolong.
J.R. (39:10):
So do you have any examples of?
Okay, so you're saying the listyou reset.
You made a list but it stillwasn't right.
Maybe could you give examplesof what wasn't right about that
list.
And or what do you think thecorrect quote unquote correct
list is?
Alex (39:24):
I'm sure it's personal right, but yeah, I am tempted to
say that there is no correctlist, because how did you know
what's wrong then?
Because there was a list.
I think that the list wasalready wrong, because having
the list, yeah, or likeexpecting everything to be
checked off on the list, isalready wrong, because no matter
how you build the list, it'snot going to be what you end up
(39:46):
with, I think at least themajority, so it's having like
having this long list ofexpectations is likely not going
to work out right.
I think it's fine to say theseare things that are very
important to me, that arenon-negotiables, but it can't be
more than three like.
You need to calm down and justknow that there and there are
some things that you think arenon-negotiables that should
(40:07):
absolutely be negotiables,because I think some people put
in the wrong category you havesome examples of those things,
yes.
So one for me was as as more ofan extroverted person who really
loves concerts, live music andfestive-type environments, I
always wanted to be with someonethat could enjoy those with me,
(40:30):
and my current girlfriend isquite introverted and so it's
not like she won't go to thosethings, but there's a limit to
how long she could be in thatenvironment before she gets kind
of tired and she can't hang.
But I'm always the type that'slet's go to the end, right,
let's have fun all the way.
(40:50):
Maybe I take a little too farand I have one too many drinks
and I'm getting old, so I shouldstop doing that anyway.
But I thought that I wanted toshare that sort of life with
somebody.
But yeah, that's definitely nota non-negotiable.
I think there's a lot thatpeople can offer in terms of
value if they don't necessarilyshare all the same interests as
you, even if it's an interestthat you find to be very
(41:12):
important to you.
There's still other ways thatpeople can provide value to you
that you probably haven't evenplaced that high on your list.
You that you probably haven'teven placed that high on your
list.
So that's what I mean by youmight be surprised at what you
swap out from your tops list.
J.R. (41:30):
Do you have an example of, in your opinion, two or three
really solid things that youthink are good to have on that
list?
Alex (41:38):
I think the top.
I mean I'm a little bit older,so I'm not in my twenties
anymore.
I definitely dated quitedifferently at the time.
But in my thirties, the mainthing is how do you see your
future?
Right, not even who do you wantto date right now.
It's not who do you want todate right now, it's who do you
want to be with later.
And so I think being aligned onthe future that you're going to
(42:00):
have is really important, ofcourse, like the question of
kids is very important.
Do you want to have kids or nothave kids?
Religion is usually a big topic.
If people are very religiousand someone's not very religious
, then does the not veryreligious person feel like
there's pressure to be religiousas well?
So those are the values that Ithink are pretty important.
J.R. (42:24):
Yeah.
I like that, I feel like minewould probably be similar to
that too.
What are your long-term goals?
Are ours aligned Like, what doyou see for yourself at our age?
Right and yeah, religion.
And for me, I guess I don't know, I feel like I really highly
value health or taking care ofyourself yes because if I want
(42:45):
to marry this person and havekids with them and they're going
to be the mother of my childrenI would want them to also have
the same values of likelongevity and taking care of
ourselves, so that we can be thebest versions of ourselves for
our family.
So, yeah, I agree with that.
I feel like thinking those longterms is different than if
you're just younger, in your 20sor whatever, and you're just
like I just want to eat someonewho have vibes and chemistry and
yeah, vibes like feelingsexactly or we love to like an
(43:09):
alex cristal's episode, likeplaymates right, someone you can
have fun with, go to raves withor whatever.
Maybe at that time of your lifethat's what you want.
You want someone to have funwith, but then, at different
stages, you want someone elsefor different reasons I think I
heard this.
Alex (43:23):
Maybe it was on another podcast, somewhere, a radio show
or something.
Radio show wait, hold on.
I just dated myself.
It's too late.
No, no, it wasn't from a radioshow, uh from the 60s my radio
show, uh, but I almost lost mytrain of thought.
It was crap.
(43:43):
It was, oh, the idea where yoursignificant other has to be
everything for you, right?
It has to be your playmate ithas to be your lover.
It has to be your care.
Take, I don't know the personthat you love and do all the
things with.
So for me, I learned over timethat that's not necessarily it.
(44:05):
They're your partner and youcan still have friends.
It sounds weird Friends thatare playmates.
J.R. (44:12):
Right, yeah, yeah.
Alex (44:13):
Like your yeah, your friends.
You could play with yourfriends.
Your friends are there to helpyou have a good time and to
explore the interests that youhave, and that's why you have
different types of friends.
And then your partner is therefor life.
J.R. (44:30):
It's more life stuff and hopefully you can still have fun
.
It's not all business, right,but yeah, that's almost exactly
what we're talking about on alexalex cristal show alex's thing
yeah, the alex's think alike,they're all about those well.
so I was joking around with himbecause he's, like it was, he's
looking for a girl to have funwith, like a playmate, right.
And then I was like, yeah, girl, he's not looking for an
intelligent girl, he's notlooking for a mind mate, he's
looking for a girl to play withand just shut up, don't talk and
(44:52):
let's just have fun, just laughwith me, just laugh with me.
I don't want to hear you speak,no, but like, because he was
talking about how he like goesto disneyland and movies and all
that stuff.
So he's, and he's looking forsomeone to do those fun things
with, right, but you don'tnecessarily need to have your
partner also be your mind mateor your help mate or whatever,
or something like that.
Obviously, soulmate is ideal,right, like the romantic,
(45:12):
intimate side, but they don'tnecessarily need to be the other
three.
What you're?
saying too like they don't haveto be everything soulmate
interesting concept yeah, thatwas a, so guys listen to it if
you haven't.
But it was the four matessoulmate, playmate, mind mate
and help me.
Alex (45:28):
And so that's how he conceptualized he learned from
someone in culture shock orsomething like that interesting.
J.R. (45:32):
Yeah, so it was really good.
I was thinking about that sincethe christmas party that we had
.
Because he told me about that,I was like dang rent free in my
head.
Okay, anything else on thattopic.
We are just about time.
I have one more question, but Idon't know if you had any other
thoughts on datingrelationships and what they
should think about well, that'sgood for now did you have
(45:53):
anything that you learned in therealm of quote-unquote
understanding women?
Alex (45:58):
yeah, the main thing was, in my 20s I really thought that
men and women weren't thatdifferent, like, oh, we're all
humans, we all have interests,we all have the same motivators,
we all eat, we all.
Yeah, I thought it.
I thought we weren't thatdifferent and so I approached
women more like how I approachedeverybody.
(46:18):
That was in my life, which Ilearned in my 30s that it's not
the right way to do it.
Could you clarify on that?
It's hard to specify what it is, but women are very different
in the way that they think.
One specific thing now that Ithink about it is men are
typically more logical, and youcan't really logic your way out
(46:41):
of things with most people ifthey're more emotional, and so I
think women tend to be moreemotional and less logical in
certain situations, and so thatwas something that, and also the
appeal right For men.
The appeal for us is verylogical.
Why do you like that?
Oh, I like it because X, y, z Iwill tell you exactly why I
(47:02):
like it.
For women, they're like oh, Idon't know, I just it's a vibe,
it's just yeah, I just feel itjust feels good and you're like
what do you mean?
Explain it to me.
And they're like I can't really.
It's just how I feel.
J.R. (47:26):
And so you have, you appeal to that.
Then what did you learn?
I still don't know.
Oh, I mean, as someone who nowhas a girlfriend, how do you
tend to appeal in that situationwhere your logic and she's like
more emotion-based?
Alex (47:33):
okay, you just have to do things that appeal to their
emotions a little bit more, andthat sounds very, very broad.
But you do things that you knowthat they'll like, okay, and
even if it's something that's alittle bit out of the way for
you or a little bit inconvenientfor you, but you do it because
you know that it'll make themfeel happy.
And for guys, I feel like wedon't need that sometimes.
(47:57):
Oh yeah, just do somethingsimple and that's fine.
But if they have a particularthing that makes them happy,
that it goes a lot longer, itgoes a lot further yeah, I like
that.
J.R. (48:09):
I think we ended on that.
It's more just like.
You don't need to approach itin a logical way sometimes, for
it's generalization right, butfor women or maybe more
emotional based people, you haveto approach it in a way that
you're trying to.
The outcome is to get them tofeel a certain way, and that's
more influential than saying,well, a one plus one is two, so
therefore that's what it isRight.
Alex (48:31):
Yeah, I like that.
J.R. (48:32):
Yeah, cool, you ready for rapid fire questions, let's go.
Yes, first question billboardquestion the most famous one.
Alex (48:47):
if you could have a sign for millions of people to see,
what would it say?
It's not that serious.
I'll elaborate.
I don't know if there should bemore on the sign, but I think
most people are frustrated withthings and what I remind myself
is it's not that serious.
And most of the time, whateveryou're upset with is not that
serious.
I like it.
J.R. (48:57):
What is one of the hardest challenges you face in your
life and what'd you learn fromit?
Hardest challenge Skip Nice.
What is a self-inflicted wound?
Alex (49:10):
What's a story about something that's gone wrong in
your life.
That was your own fault and youcan't blame anyone else.
I think it was maybe withdating.
I liked a girl a little tooquickly and I was too expressive
about how I felt too quicklyand she wasn't ready for it, and
then that's what caused the oneyear of me being date free.
So good, learning lesson there.
(49:32):
But yeah, don't.
Oh, that is part of it.
Is logically, you think, if Ilike a girl, then I will tell
her how I feel and she willreturn how I feel, with how she
feels, obviously.
J.R. (49:44):
But yeah, this doesn't work like that.
Alex (49:46):
Going back to the previous topic, right Appealing to their
emotions, is you need to meetthem where they are, not where?
J.R. (49:52):
you are.
I like that.
I could go on a whole tangentfor five minutes about that
topic, but maybe next time.
Alex (49:57):
Maybe part two, all right, If you could redo one thing,
what would you do differently?
I'm pretty happy witheverything as a thought
experiment.
Uh, something, there wassomething I would redo.
Oh, after I bought my house, Iwas trying to mount my tv.
I heard the story and littledid I know.
(50:18):
The wall that you're supposedto mount the TV on had water
pipes right in the smack dabcenter.
Who?
J.R. (50:27):
put those pipes there?
Alex (50:28):
Yeah, who put them there?
That's just bad engineering.
And so I drilled right into itand couldn't turn it off,
because it wasn't a domesticwater line, it was a sprinkler
system water line that was in alocked room, so it was going off
for over an hour and no one hada key to that room.
No one knew how to turn it off.
(50:48):
The fire department couldn'teven turn it off because they
couldn't get into that room.
So, yeah, ruined my house Lessthan a month after I moved in.
So, yeah, don't drill into yourwalls, don't drill into your
walls.
Haphazard, haphazard, haphazard.
J.R. (51:02):
Check for pipes.
Yeah, yeah, I like it.
Yeah, that's a good one.
If you could give your youngerself advice, what would you say?
Alex (51:10):
Don't compare yourself to other people.
Some people just get luckierthan you and they might make
more money than you, faster thanyou, even though they're not
smarter than you.
It's fine, it's okay.
Yeah, I like it.
J.R. (51:23):
In the last few years, what new belief, behavior or
habit has changed your life themost?
Alex (51:33):
I think it was a combination of some of the stuff
we talked about, but it wasabout being alone and focusing
on being with yourself, and Ithink that attracts people
naturally, and so the result ofthat is I'm in a happy
relationship, nice.
J.R. (51:44):
I like it.
If you knew you couldn't fail,what would you be doing right
now?
Alex (51:48):
Ooh, gambling Really.
J.R. (51:51):
Just kidding.
Alex (51:51):
No, it's like money.
Give me money faster, yeah, butif you couldn't fail, why
wouldn't you?
Sure Lotto, let's go.
That's a good answer.
J.R. (52:02):
Yeah, good answer yeah sure I'll go.
Alex (52:03):
If you knew you would fail absolutely, what would you do
anyway?
I think back in college, beingon that dance team, I definitely
almost failed physics I think Idid.
I mean, I got a d or something.
This is the lowest grade I'veever gotten in my life, I think.
But I'd do it again, becausecollege grades don't matter
unless you're going to gradschool and the experiences last
(52:23):
forever.
J.R. (52:24):
I like it.
Is there anything you've beenpondering recently or something
that you often think aboutdeeply?
Alex (52:31):
I think it's just how do I get to my next goal?
How do I attain what I want?
What is your next goal?
Bigger house, okay, well, yeah,like how to make more money.
It's the thing that everyone'ssure.
J.R. (52:45):
Yeah, it's not actually very interesting, but yeah, it's
what everyone deals with, it'sall good.
Do you have a favorite hot takeor something that you think
most people won't agree with?
Besides the whole college thingoh, that's not contentious
enough?
I don't think so, At least notfor my podcast guests.
Nothing's coming to mind.
What is one of the best or mostworthwhile investments you've
(53:06):
ever made in either time, moneyor energy, etc.
Time, money or energy.
Alex (53:13):
I want to avoid the cliche health is wealth thing, but I
do think that taking care ofyour body is very important.
Yeah, can I switch it a littlebit and say these are the things
that I bought?
Sure that saved me time yeah, Ilove them yeah, okay one.
I bought this thing that youattach in your toilet where you
(53:33):
wave your hand and it flushesfor you, and it is life-changing
.
I really hate pressing.
Yeah, the thing to flush thetoilet now, and coupled with
that is, of course, a bidet.
J.R. (53:45):
Everyone needs a bidet.
Alex (53:46):
If you go bidet, you can't go back to not bidet, so yeah,
I like that.
J.R. (53:52):
When Alex was first still building out his house and
getting all this stuff, I wasfollowing his Instagram stories
and he showed the toilet thing,the automatic flush you just
wave your hand over it.
Alex (54:06):
I'm like, oh, that's so cool, that is so useful yeah,
you don't know how helpfulbecause you think, oh, it's just
, yeah, just do that, why is itso hard?
J.R. (54:10):
but when you just wave your hand instead, wow, you're a
wizard, harry yeah I like itwell, I guess, on that note,
favorite recent purchase underor in 50 to 100 range that has
impacted your life the most inthe last six months so I I have
a friend who's an optometristshout out, janine who are
aspiring as optometrists inschool right now, but everyone
(54:31):
looks at screens all the time.
Alex (54:33):
Your eyes get really dry and her suggestion was to get a
like a eye warmer thing so youcan buy.
It looks like goggles, okay,and it's like it heats up a
little bit so that it helps withthe oils in your eyelids and it
unblocks your ducts oh yeah,that's pretty helpful and you
(54:54):
just use it a little bit, evenin massages if you get different
ones.
That's been pretty helpful tohelp with dry eyes.
J.R. (55:01):
Oh okay, dry eyes, oh interesting, that's cool.
I've never heard of that before.
Alex (55:04):
Yeah, I massage your mask warmer.
J.R. (55:08):
Well, I mean, that sounds lovely.
Alex (55:09):
Yeah, I can imagine that.
J.R. (55:11):
It's great, All right.
Last rapid fire questionFavorite books, movies, videos
the most.
Alex (55:26):
There's a podcast that I listen to a lot.
It's called All In it's, whereI get a lot of my political news
, even though I'm not superinterested in that part, but
they do a lot of startup newsand stuff that's happening in
tech, and so when I was startingin the company that I am at
right now, I think I wanted tobetter understand the language
that they speak in, alwaystalking about ROI and COGS and
(55:47):
gross margins and all that youknow, whatever.
So I wanted to better be ableto speak like them, or at least
understand what the heck they'resaying, and when I first
started listening to theirpodcast, I feel like I
understood half of what they'resaying, and now it's gotten a
little bit better.
So that's one that I do quitelike.
I think it's full of very smartpeople that are influential in
(56:10):
just corporate America and evenin politics.
So that's yeah, that's one Allin Okay.
J.R. (56:14):
Anything else Media recommendations across the board
.
Anything else Media.
Alex (56:22):
Nothing that's edifying, just entertaining.
Yeah, did you have any come tomind?
I watch too much Netflix andanime.
It's too many, okay.
J.R. (56:31):
Top anime.
Top anime right now Top animerec Forever that you would give
right now.
Alex (56:38):
It's hard to think because I'm in the middle of watching
black clover.
It's, I think it's okay, okay,it's good, it's getting there,
yeah, but some of the tops I Iliked solo leveling a lot.
The pace of it it's actuallyalmost not okay.
What do you mean if every anime, if every anime, was that well
(57:02):
animated and paced that quickly?
It's almost like we have thisissue with too much dopamine
already.
I get what you're saying.
Right, we don't have thepatience.
It's too much.
It's great, but it might be toomuch.
We don't have the patience forany other anime after that
Because we think, oh, let's-.
J.R. (57:17):
You're breaking the standards too much.
Alex (57:18):
Yeah, let's hurry up, let's get to the fight, yeah.
And then I don't want to listento this backstory.
J.R. (57:24):
Right, soul leveling, they don't care, no backstory, yeah
yeah, yeah, I'm just going tostab this next monster and level
up.
Alex (57:30):
Yeah, let me just punch him through this wall, yeah yeah
, yeah, I love it.
J.R. (57:33):
It's a good rec, I like for our questions.
Then we'll go to endingquestions, so gratitude, we like
to end with gratitude.
Shout out to my mom, alex, whatare you grateful for?
Alex (57:45):
I am so grateful for the people that support me, the
people who care about me, thepeople who ask me how I'm doing.
I hope that I could keep thosepeople around as long as I
possibly can, even though, youknow, people kind of have their
own things, that they have tofocus on different stages of
their life.
So for them and my family.
(58:07):
Nice.
J.R. (58:09):
Not your girlfriend.
I'm a girlfriend.
I'm just kidding.
I'm just throwing under the busAny final ask from the audience
or takeaways that you wouldlike them to have from this
conversation them to have fromthis conversation.
Alex (58:25):
I just hope that I hope everyone has some sort of
takeaway from this that there'sa lot of stress happening in the
world all the time and it goesback to the billboard thing,
which is it's probably not thatserious.
So hopefully everyone justfocuses on being happy and
focusing on the things thathonestly make them happy, not
just the superficial things thatmake them happy, and try to
(58:47):
keep those as close tothemselves as possible I love it
, yeah, so not the superficialcars I like, yeah, I mean yeah,
that's not what makes me happyah, okay, yeah not, not really.
It's nice to have.
It's a nice to have.
Yeah, it's a nice I get youcool.
J.R. (59:03):
All right, alex, where can we find you if people want to
connect or see what you're up toor whatnot?
Alex (59:08):
any social media handles websites, emails, etc yeah, my
social media is hung on life.
Yes, sir, it is a privateprofile, but if you dm me I will
respond.
If you're not crazy, we're notcrazy.
You can also find me onLinkedIn and I will have a very
outdated photo of myself, justlike the title card of this
episode is a very outdated photoof myself, because I don't take
(59:29):
pictures myself it's okay, Idon't either yeah, it's not good
, we'll link his socials.
J.R. (59:33):
You can go hit him up if you want to break into his house
and ask to date him.
We'll see how that goes I don'tneed that anymore.
He doesn't need it anymore, butit would surprise him.
So I would be very surprised.
Anyone has the same sense ofhumor as I do.
Go for it, alright, alex.
Well, that is it.
Thank you so much for beinghere.
I really appreciate it.
Like I mentioned, hopefully wecan do a part two sometime with
the whole gang in the otherstudio.
(59:55):
That's my.
That was my dream goal six.
We'll see if that happens.
I appreciate it, man.
Thanks for having me.
Yeah, this is cool.
Yeah, yeah, all right.
So my final sign off for theaudience.
This is where the music plays.
Thank you guys for being here.
I really appreciate it.
Be sure to like, subscribe,whatever you guys do, whatever
platform you're listening tothis.
I really appreciate it.
Yeah, just share it out if youenjoyed this and let me know
what you liked about it and I'llrespond.
(01:00:16):
And then just a reminder to bekind to other people, especially
yourself, and reminder that youcan always learn something from
someone if you take the time tolisten.
So thanks for being here.
Thanks for listening.
Hello everyone and welcome back to another fun episode of
1000 Gurus with me, your host,jr Yonacruz.
Today's guest is Alex Hung.
Alex is the chief of staff at astartup that provides back
office solutions for propertymanagers, focusing on business
enablement and strategy to growthe business and unlock
operational challenges.
He loves debating with friendsto challenge his ideas and
(00:22):
opinions, and his best friend isa white and gray Shih Tzu Teddy
.
So this was another fun episodewith a fellow Kappa Modern
alumni dance teammate fromcollege, alex Hung and I don't
get to catch up much between theyears, but it was nice to chop
it up about his career journey,insider tips as someone who used
to work in HR and now worksmore in operations.
We also talk about moneymanagement tips and then finally
(00:45):
landed on the topic of datingand what he's learned over the
years about understanding women.
It was a very fun conversationand actually the last in my Cup
of Modern series before we doour special five-person reunion
episode with our class.
So, without further ado, hopeyou enjoyed this episode with
Alex Hung.
You enjoyed this episode withAlex Hung.
(01:10):
Hello everyone, and welcomeback to 1000 Gurus, please
welcome my guest.
Alex Hung, thanks for being here, man, I appreciate it.
Alex (01:15):
Yeah.
J.R. (01:16):
I know you are not too far , so I'm glad that we were able
to schedule this out.
Yeah, and then.
So for those of you who don'tknow Alex is, I was going over
the stats with him right beforerecording, but he is the third
Alex on my show.
He's the fourth person of myCobb Modern class and he's the
sixth person who I've had whowas on Cobb Modern and probably
(01:36):
like the 30th dancer, if I wereto take stats, so yeah.
So we have some good stats there.
So let me just go into how Iknow you.
So, just, similar to June, alex, christal and Ken we met during
our first year on Cabo Modernat UCI in 2010,.
Right, yeah, I was the firstyear, you were a second year, I
believe, and you were also afellow freestyler, you were
(01:58):
doing locking and I was like afreestyle popper, and so we
danced together for a coupleyears and we, similar to again
the other three we see eachother about like once a year for
our class socials, likechristmas or something june
related, like her going away,coming back, graduating, coming
back again, getting married.
So, yeah, and we live in buenapark, right, and you have your
(02:21):
own place and you have two carssuch a flex.
And you have a dog named such aflex.
And you have a dog named Teddy,right, yes, sir, and you're
also from the Bay Area, justlike myself, correct?
And again, I had to stalk youfor this.
So you have a degree in publichealth science, right?
So useful.
Alex (02:35):
Yeah, yeah, no, I mean same Poli sci I don't do
anything with that let's see.
J.R. (02:39):
And I know you used to work in HR but now your title
right now is chief of staff.
Is that?
Does that sound right?
Yeah, that's right, nice, cool.
So now that we have that out ofthe way, or sorry, any
clarifications?
You got it.
Anything else you're up to Bangon.
Alex (02:54):
No.
J.R. (02:54):
Okay, and you also went to Japan and Taiwan recently,
right?
Alex (02:58):
I did Just like everyone else.
J.R. (03:08):
Just like everyone else.
Yeah, yeah, I went lastseptember.
Alex (03:10):
Like I mentioned, I'm going back in september, october
, so we're all just basicfollowing the crowd, so gotta
take advantage before they raisethe the tourist prices.
J.R. (03:14):
Yeah, yeah and all the tariffs cool, let's go into the
first video.
Solomon, if you don't wear thewiggles so yes alex is the green
, I'm the blue.
This is from zoolanderjitterbug, alex's choreography.
Here's my butterfly and that'sit.
(03:36):
Yeah, that's it.
Thanks, solomon, all right,yeah, so so that was alex's
choreo, my butterfly twist, andI think I contributed like four
counts to that intro, like tothe jada bug something it was
probably that, something likethat, but anyways, that set was
super fun yeah, yeah, yeah, itwas super fun and like oh, and
(04:00):
there was another part, thewhacking part, later.
Alex (04:03):
who did that?
Can't remember right now, wasit Amy?
J.R. (04:07):
Yeah, probably, amy Probably, or Jenny, I forget,
it's okay.
Alex (04:13):
It's one of the whackers.
Yeah, that was fun yeah.
J.R. (04:16):
Just want to throw in our history lore there.
That was like what 13 years ago, 14, something like that.
Cool, all right, you ready forour first topic?
Yes, all right.
So, as usual, first topic isalways origin story.
So like where did you grow up,what was like your career path
and like main influences thatkind of led you to where you are
today?
(04:36):
I know it's like a big like 30plus years of life, but you
could point to the maininfluences that got you to where
you are today.
That's too broad.
Alex (04:45):
Okay, where'd you grow up?
Where'd I grow up?
I grew up mostly in NorCal.
J.R. (04:50):
Yeah.
What were your like aspirationswhen you were like younger?
Alex (04:53):
Truthfully, I didn't really know what I wanted to do.
I just I think I was verydriven by music.
When I was starting middleschool, I picked up drums and I
thought that drums were the wayto get girls because, music's
cool and the coolest instrument.
I probably should have pickedup guitar in hindsight, but
(05:16):
drums.
J.R. (05:17):
I thought was way cooler.
Yeah, hey girl, come here, youcan't carry it around.
Alex (05:21):
Let me pick you, it doesn't really work.
So I started the drum thing andthen that's where I think I put
a lot of my creative energy inmiddle school, and then I also
did it in high school withdrumline and then afterwards
there I went to uci and therewas no drumline because there's
(05:42):
no football team at UCI, whichwas bizarre.
So I didn't really know whereto take that and so I danced in
college with you.
J.R. (05:53):
So then, how did you choose public health sciences,
and what did your parents haveanything about what you should
be getting into?
Alex (05:59):
Okay, yes.
So in college the main thing iswhat should I major in so that
I have a career after this?
And truthfully, I didn't reallyknow or care.
I just knew I needed to makemoney and I needed to have a
life that I could afford thethings that I wanted.
So I think in college I didn'tget a lot of direction, because
(06:21):
no one went to college in myfamily previously a lot of
direction, because no one wentto college in my family
previously, if anything, maybelike a little bit of community
college is all.
But I thought that the hardestmajor or majors would be the
ones that also meant it would bea higher paying job, which now,
in hindsight, is not truewhatsoever.
Like what?
Like which one you would alwaysthink?
Well, I thought that bio, chem,computer science that's partly
(06:46):
true, computer science worked,uh, but bio and chem, those
types of degrees did not reallyyield a great job market after
you're either working in a labor research or something right,
it's kind of narrow.
So those are the harderquote-unquote harder majors.
It was very difficult.
I tried to go for bio initially, a biology major, because I
(07:08):
thought that was very hard.
I wanted to challenge myself,but it came to a point where I
had to switch in order tograduate on time because I spent
a little bit too much timedancing.
Yeah, as we all do, yeah so Ijust switched to whatever I
could to graduate on time andhonestly.
After college I realized thatthe major you have doesn't
(07:29):
matter at all, which is why yeahcollege is so useful.
J.R. (07:34):
Yeah, that's one of our later topics too.
So then you switched intopublic health sciences to
graduate on time, and then atthat point, well, I guess one
thing did your parents reallycare or what were their thoughts
on that at that point?
Well, I guess one thing didyour parents really care or what
were their thoughts on that atthat point?
Because I think people going tocollege at least asian
households, it's usually likethey tell us what to do, right,
I don't know if it was like thatfor you I think because they
(07:55):
don't have the experience theydidn't, they weren't able to
give an opinion okay, the
Alex (08:01):
main thing was make sure you graduate, make sure that the
money that I mean I wasfortunate enough that they were
supporting me through school.
I didn't have to pay for itmyself, so thank you the equity
from my house that they pulledout for that can't thank them
enough because debt is reallyrough, yeah.
But yeah, they just made surethat I graduate on time and
(08:21):
really it came after right.
Okay, just make sure you get ajob after and try to work on
your career.
I think they focus a lot moreon that.
J.R. (08:30):
Try to build a career, be successful, but just find your
own path.
Alex (08:34):
They weren't too nitpicky about.
You have to be a doctor or youhave to be a lawyer, I think at
one point I thought, oh, Ishould be a doctor.
It was a lot more than I thinkpeople usually anticipate.
It's just a very difficult road, and so I think my interest
level just wasn't high enoughfor me to get through it.
J.R. (08:52):
Okay, so you graduated public health sciences, then
what was the next step afterthat?
Alex (08:58):
So what job should I get out of college?
And then the crazy thing isright you go back to college and
you say what major should Ihave done for the job?
After I graduated I still hadno idea.
J.R. (09:09):
I just wanted to get a job and I had to pay rent right.
Alex (09:13):
So it actually took a little bit of time before I
could find anything.
It was tough to find a job outof college, at least for me.
Tough to find a job out ofcollege, at least for me and I
didn't.
I just ended up.
This is so embarrassing.
I did get the job because of anintroduction that my mom had
with a client of hers, so Ididn't even get the job myself
(09:35):
that's kind of how it is, though, like it's connections and
networking and some littlesprinkle, a little bit of
nepotism in there yeah, it was aterrible place oh, yeah, it
was a chinese company.
It was a very much butt in seat.
If you're not in your seat,you're not working.
The pay was horrible.
It was.
I felt like I didn't have to goto college for that job.
(09:59):
But the first job was an hrassociate okay, and I didn't
even know what hr was.
But at the time I just thoughtI'm good with people and I'm a
good problem solver.
I can mitigate, mediate sorry,not mitigate.
I can mediate conversations andat the time ai wasn't a thing.
(10:20):
But I thought, oh, there'slongevity in this, because if
you're an engineer, everyonewants to hire a younger and
younger engineer because they'rea lot faster at doing things
and as you age you slow down.
And I thought, okay, well, butwith HR and people, your
experience actually should helpyou as you age, not the other
(10:41):
way around.
So I thought it would be acareer with longevity.
But after eight years I feltlike that I wouldn't want to do
it anymore.
J.R. (10:49):
Actually, Okay, so then HR .
And then you felt like thatthere was some longevity there,
and so what was the next stepafter that?
Was it just you stayed there?
Did you move around?
What were your goals at thatpoint?
Well, the pay was terrible.
Yeah, I had to make more moneyyou move around.
Alex (11:05):
What were your goals at that point?
Well, the pay was terrible,yeah I the goal.
I had to make more money yeah,so early on in my first job.
I think I met some amazingpeople in my first job that
really shaped who I am today.
I think one takeaway was howcheap I was.
Okay, I'm kind of tan this is atangent Go for it but I was
(11:27):
super, super cheap because I wasso frugal, like in college.
My parents paid for college, soI didn't want to spend their
money.
I felt very responsible foreverything so I didn't want to
make their lives any harder thanit needed to be.
I was super frugal and when Istarted working I was hoping
(12:01):
that when I made my own money Icould be less frugal.
But maybe I could be that waywith myself, but it was hard to
do that for others.
So people who are less frugalwould say let me buy you a meal,
let me buy you a gift, let meshow my thanks in this way.
I really wasn't able to do thatbecause I was a penny pincher.
I wanted to make sure thateverything was split fairly
because I knew how hard it wasto make a dollar, because I was
also making no money.
But at my first job there wasthis guy named Andy who always
treated me out to lunch,probably more than once a week
(12:21):
and we'd always go out and hewasn't that much older than me
I'd say maybe he's like six toten years older than me, but not
a whole lot.
Yeah, at the time, and I knewhow much he made because I
processed payroll and he didn'tmake that much more.
But every single time I'm likewhy are you paying for me?
He said I know that I make morethan you and it makes me happy
(12:44):
to be able to provide this foryou.
If it makes me happy to be ableto provide this for you, if it
makes you happy and it was aconcept that I didn't understand
I was like what do you mean?
It makes you happy to spendyour money on me?
What is this People never donethat for me before.
And I think over time it rubbedoff on me, where I started to
try what he was doing and seeinghow I felt, and I would start
(13:06):
like showing my appreciation formy friends by treating them to
things every now and then, eventhough it was very difficult in
the beginning, but over timeit's become a lot more
commonplace and I think that'swhere it started.
So that was one tangent of athing, yeah, no, I like that.
J.R. (13:22):
So you're saying it was a good lesson that you learned
from someone who was older thanyou of like how to?
How do I say this?
Not necessarily I don't want tosay just generosity, but like
how to approach money in adifferent way that you were used
to.
Alex (13:35):
Yeah, my view of money was very different.
I thought it was for yourself.
Money is for yourself.
It's meant to be kept, it'smeant to be saved, it's meant to
be cherished.
But giving, not giving in a way.
J.R. (13:54):
But sharing it, yeah, brings you joy as well, and that
was really odd at the time.
Yeah, I get that because it'snot intuitive at the surface
level of that.
Giving necessarily has apositive roi, because it's like
the math is basically yousubtract money, right, yeah, but
and money equals happiness?
Exactly, yeah, money thishappens.
But then when you go down theroute that you were saying, you
learn this new perspective.
I also subscribe to that thatdon't discount the amount of
(14:16):
actual, like soft ROI that hason you, your networks, the
people around you, of thatabundance, generosity mindset.
I found that, whether or not Ihave a lot of money or a little
bit, the act of giving or themindset of giving, it creates
more in that act for you and forthe people around you, and then
that could have a ripple effect.
Like I have, like friends whoare younger than me, who I treat
(14:37):
out to, and it's that yourstory where I'm happy to give
and I'm at a point where, like Ihave a budget to give and I
know that that not only makes mehappy but it makes them happy
and I tell them like I don'tneed anything from you.
But if you ever find yourselfin the same situation as I am
feel free to pass that along tothe next person, like that
person to someone else, and Ifeel like that has a bigger ROI
(14:59):
than maybe I should just savethis $20 for myself.
Yeah.
Alex (15:03):
So I like that.
J.R. (15:04):
Yeah.
So what else did you learn onthat journey?
So I know you seem like youenjoy your career now, but from
there, from your low paying jobthat you hated, and then you met
this coworker.
What were the points that kindof got you to where you are now?
Or like the lessons that you'velearned along the way?
Alex (15:20):
Yeah, so very early on I knew that your money, how much
money, how do I put this?
There's some sort of velocityinvolved where the faster you
make more money, the more it'sworth it.
If you think about compoundinginterest, you obviously want
more early, and it equals a lotmore later.
(15:41):
You don't want to spread it outand have it compound slowly,
and it equals a lot more later.
You don't want to spread it outand have it compound slowly.
So very early on in my career,I tried to get as many raises as
I could, as fast as I could,and so I would switch jobs every
two years on average.
This is probably the longestI've had a job, and I've been at
this current job for a littleover three years.
(16:02):
Wow.
J.R. (16:03):
So, yeah, upr.
Alex (16:04):
Yeah, I'm not telling everyone to job switch, but I
think there's definitely truthto it there's inherent value.
Right, if you stay within thesame company, you're going to
get, on the low end, no raise tomaybe 2% annual raise, and then
on the higher end, if you don'tget a promotion, you'll maybe
get 7%.
And so if you think about that,over time, how many years does
(16:26):
it take you to get to 20% in araise?
Whereas if you switch jobs, onaverage you get 15 to 20%.
So if you switch jobs enoughtimes, then your pay just jumps
over and over again and thereare times when it jumps like 40%
from one job to the next,probably because I was just way
too low before, right.
(16:47):
But yeah, that's what I triedto do really early on, and I
can't say that I've been verysuccessful, but I think I've
been successful enough where itworked for me.
I do think that loyalty in acompany is sort of dead.
I think if they take care ofyou, then yes, but if they don't
(17:08):
take care of you, if you don'thave opportunities.
J.R. (17:09):
I would suggest that you probably look elsewhere.
Yeah, yeah, I like that a lot.
That math is probably prettyeye-opening for some people
Because, like you said, you canmaybe max out a 2%, 3% raise
each year and all this otherstuff.
But even for me and a guest ofmine that I've had too is like
when we switch jobs to like asimilar but new title, our pay
basically doubled.
(17:30):
And so it's like you can dothat when you go to different
companies.
And I agree with your sentimentof the whole, like company
loyalty, that's the thing of thepast and it's unfortunate.
It'd be nice if we still hadthat in pensions and stuff.
But the new economy of what weare today is that, like you have
to look out for yourself andyou have to be able to get those
pay increases.
(17:50):
So I think that insightful.
The math is really insightful.
Yeah, okay, so you were gettingraises and pay increases and
then what was after that?
Like you were staying in HR,right?
Alex (18:06):
The idea was to build my career in HR and take it as high
as I possibly can, to say aC-level HR officer right.
But while I was on my way there, I think I just didn't.
I just realized how much Ididn't enjoy the work.
It was a lot of peoplecomplaining.
It was a lot of me feeling likeI couldn't make the difference
that I wanted to make In HR.
A lot of me feeling like Icouldn't make the difference
that I wanted to make in hr.
A lot of the times when you'rein a higher position, what you
(18:30):
end up doing is you're justmanaging layoffs all the time,
and that's no fun.
It's not fun for anybody justfiring people yeah, granted, you
shouldn't be the one firingthem, but you're the one
facilitating the process, andreally that's worse in some ways
because the volume rightthere's.
So many years I just spentlaying people off, giving people
(18:51):
their paperwork, telling themwhat the off-boarding process is
and seeing people cry or seeingpeople get pissed.
I don't want to surround myselfwith that negative energy all
the time.
I understand that it is anecessity for the company, but
you don't want to spend all yourtime there.
So yeah, so that's where it went.
(19:13):
And then now and I do see theother side of it now so
currently, as a chief of staff,I do focus more on the overall
health of the business, and sowhen you look at numbers, it's
hard not to just say, oh, we'reoverspending in that department
(19:34):
and it's because it's too manypeople.
And then you also ask yourselfall the time, how productive are
these people?
And I do want to just say thatthe current company that I'm
working, at we're fully remoteglobally.
There's no office, no one'sthere checking to see if you're
doing your work.
It's more so.
Are we getting complaints fromcustomers?
(19:54):
Are you getting what weassigned you done in a manner
that we think is acceptable?
So it's a lot ofself-motivation, self-management
, and if people aren't doingthat, then I have to think of
okay, well how long do we wantto pay?
For someone to not do whatthey're supposed to do yeah.
J.R. (20:13):
So then what's your?
Maybe it's not clear to me.
So what's your like?
Function I get you said youlook at the overall health of
the company yeah, so it's hardto describe.
Alex (20:24):
I do manage the hr side of things at the company still so
managing the day-to-day benefits, the payroll, the hiring
process, that sort of stuff.
But the other side of it is howprofitable is the company?
What are the areas that we needto improve on?
Do we need to make cuts incertain areas or do we need to
(20:46):
invest in certain areas?
These are all things that Ilook into more in detail through
a bunch of spreadsheets andthen I tried to come up with a
strategy and then implementstrategy after Okay.
So it sounds like a lot ofcorporate mumbo jumbo Right,
right, no, I get it.
J.R. (21:02):
So it's like you're allocating or kind of seeing the
health in terms like financesand where you guys can improve
and whatnot, or make moreefficient cuts or whatnot.
So then I guess my question isin your role as going through HR
, and then now what you do nowas like chief of staff, what are
some of the biggest takeawaysthat you've learned in your
career, I guess in the functionsthat you've served, or maybe
(21:23):
advice you would give yourselfAdvice I would give myself, like
someone going through okay, I'mcurious about HR or pursuing a
similar career path as Alex HungMaybe.
What would you give that personlike advice?
Alex (21:37):
I don't really have great advice, because I do feel like
if you do do HR, you could ofcourse, take that career path
and go where you want it to go.
There's a natural progression.
When you're in the corporateladder the way that I ended up
where I'm at I think someone hasto take a flyer on you because
(21:57):
when you work in hr, you're whenyou work at a lower level sort
of independent contributor role,or even if you're a low-level
manager, you're just not exposedto the same topics and ways of
thinking that maybe a ceo or seesomeone like the vp level would
think of.
(22:18):
So in order for you to make thatjump, someone kind of needs to
just give you the chance.
I've seen a lot of managersthat I'm thinking about
something and I'm trying tofigure out a solution and
they're just not giving me whatI need from them and at the end
of the day, it's because theyjust don't think that way yet
and so it's not really advice.
(22:39):
I think people just need togive people the chance to take
that leap if you want to go upto upper management, and then
for me I think I got luckybecause I was managing my
current employer as a client andthey just wanted to hire me
(23:00):
because they felt like I workedreally well with them back when
I was like a third-party HRmanager for them.
J.R. (23:08):
Oh, okay, okay.
Alex (23:09):
Yeah, and then I started managing a service team at a
SaaS company, which was a slightchange from just the day-to-day
HR stuff.
It was more operational, it wasmore managerial, and then
that's when I was able to makethe jump to chief of staff,
which is more operational andless HR focused.
J.R. (23:28):
Yeah, I see Okay.
So then I guess my lastquestion on that is were you
just the level that you're atnow of skill, were you just
always like that, or how did youdevelop that skill?
I imagine I couldn't just jumpinto that role, or anyone else,
right?
Alex (23:45):
at the end of the day, what I do is not that technical,
it's all just problem solving,because it was even hard to
answer your question earlierwhen you said what are you doing
every day?
Yeah, it's just whateverproblems that are most prevalent
for the business at thatparticular moment, and if no one
is there to take care of it,I'm whatever problems that are
most prevalent for the businessat that particular moment, and
if no one is there to take careof it, I'm the one that has to
go and figure it out.
And if I don't know how tosolve for the problem, I have to
(24:08):
find someone.
J.R. (24:10):
Dang.
So you really like the one ofthe last.
Bucks of the problems go to you, or something like that?
Alex (24:16):
Yeah, I would say that I take all the shit.
Wow, that's why they that's whythey pay you all the money for
it, right?
J.R. (24:25):
No, you're like not enough , not enough, yeah, not enough.
Nice, okay, let's switch overthen.
So now we talked about, we'retalking about career and
colleges, but there's this onething that you mentioned in the
pre-show form, which was, quoteunquote college isn't necessary
and is a waste of money.
Would you like to elaborate onthat?
Yeah, not that I don't disagree, I just like to know, yeah, of
course.
Alex (24:42):
So I majored in public health science and my career has
nothing to do with publichealth science.
And when we had the wholecoronavirus thing, I didn't help
.
I didn't help at all I didn'tdo anything.
J.R. (24:56):
My public health science did not science anything.
Yeah, I didn't science a singlething.
Alex (25:00):
So I think the biggest problem is what you learn, at
least in undergrad.
And even I mean I don't have aneducational background right,
I'm not a teacher or anythinglike that but when you think of
what you remember that youlearned in middle school, high
school, college, how much do youremember that you learned high
school college?
(25:21):
How much do you remember thatyou learned?
And for me, not very much,because I also have a terrible
memory.
But what I wish I learned isthe practical things that I do
every day and the things thatmatter for life.
So, in terms of life, I wouldsay money management, I think,
is extremely important andrelevant to every single person
(25:42):
that is, at least in thiseconomy, in this culture, right,
you need to manage your moneyand you need to be able to do it
successfully, or else itdoesn't matter how much money
you make, you're going to end uppoor.
So I wish that we learned aboutmoney and taxes and about how
to maximize your return onanything that you have.
(26:04):
So that's an interest that Ihave on the side, because you
don't learn in school.
So that's what I like to learnon my free time, and then you
feel the reward from it in yourbank account.
Exactly, yeah.
J.R. (26:15):
Okay, quick, tangent because I put a call out to
action.
I always want to talk tosomeone about personal finance.
Okay, quick, tangent, because Iput a call out to action.
I always want to talk tosomeone about personal finance.
What are some TLDR quicktakeaways about personal finance
and financial literacy that youcan give to the audience, about
what you've learned about money?
Alex (26:30):
The one you probably hear a lot.
I don't know if people say thisjust start as early as you can,
because time is what makes youmoney.
It's not because you're anamazing investor or anything
like that.
Just for me, it was aboutpicking stocks and other
investments that I felt likecould stand the test of time
that are solid enough.
(26:52):
I was a bit in a rush, soinstead of people always say, oh
, just put in the S&P, put inthe S&P, okay, yeah, but the S&P
put in the S&P okay, yeah, butthe S&P is too slow for me, so I
don't do S&P sorry for all theS&P lovers out there, I go blue
chip.
Blue chip always helped me.
What blue chip is is yourAmazon's, your Apple's, your
Tesla's.
Not saying you should buy allof them, but there's certain
(27:15):
ones out of those that I preferand I feel like will stand the
test of time, at least for theforeseeable future, and those
are the ones that gave me thebest return.
J.R. (27:26):
So invest in the stock market for you as blue chip and
do it early, early.
Anything else on money thatlet's say not necessarily
investing, but I guess likepersonal financial literacy.
Alex (27:40):
Personal financial literacy.
I think it's important to tryand maximize the money that you
already make.
I kind of mentioned that.
Take advantage of thehigh-yield checking accounts
it's such a no-brainer thing.
Take advantage of credit cardprograms.
I mean, don't open up like 30credit cards if you can't manage
(28:04):
it, but there's some rewardsthat are very much worth it and
you can pull them and use themfor different things instead of
spending your cash and also,yeah, don't spend above your
means unless you really love thething, yeah unless you enjoy
being poor yeah, unless youenjoy enjoy being poor, yeah,
(28:27):
okay, oh, and buy.
If you're a guy, yeah, and youlike cars, buy the car you want
before you settle down.
Oh, it's to enjoy it so thatyou can buy it, because you
might not be allowed to buy ohbecause of being married or if
(28:47):
you have other responsibilitiesin the future oh, I see, yeah,
like it's better to buy early ifyou can afford it, than to wait
.
Just buy your dream car, okay Iget that.
J.R. (28:58):
Yeah, see for me, I don't disagree with that.
But for me, my dream car, okay,I get that.
See for me, I don't disagreewith that.
But for me my dream car is aLamborghini.
So I have to save for that, butalso-.
I mean you can't afford that.
Right, I know, I know.
But also, like they say, howwealth is money you don't spend.
And so I'm just playing thelong game so that at that point
a Lamborghini is just a drop inthe bucket, like I'm not trying
to, I'm not trying to have it bethe whole bucket, like even
(29:19):
when I get there I want to havethe lake and then just then a
bucket for the Lamborghini, butanyways, some of us have smaller
.
Alex (29:26):
No, I agree, my pond is much smaller than your
Lamborghini.
J.R. (29:35):
Exactly, exactly, and it's .
I have probably the longer,bigger threshold for delayed
gratification than most otherpeople, but that's just me.
I hope you do get your librarygame.
I will.
I have faith It'll happen.
I'm not worried.
Okay, I want to go back tocareer really quick.
There's some things maybe wewon't touch on this, but you
mentioned a few things of notbeing promoted, being stuck, not
getting raises, getting laidoff systems in place.
(29:55):
What do you think are some?
If you want to elaborate on anyof those points, my question is
really what traps do you thinkpeople fall in or what do you
think people get wrong aboutnavigating the career game?
Alex (30:07):
for myself.
Maybe it's because I'm asian,but at least my parents would
just say just do a good job andpeople will notice and they'll
reward you for the good job thatyou do.
That's very false in my opinion.
I don't think that works in theUS corporate economy.
Maybe it does in Asia, maybe inTaiwan, I don't know.
(30:28):
But here, if you keep your headdown and you do your job well,
then yeah, you might get somepromotions, but you'll just get
more work, most likely, and themoney won't keep up with how
much you're contributing.
If you just do a good job butyou don't say anything, likely
you won't get anything andthey'll just keep you where you
(30:51):
are and nothing extravagant isgoing to happen.
The truth, at least in my world, from my experience, is the
squeaky wheel gets the oil.
Truth, at least in my world,from my experience, is what is
it?
The squeaky wheel gets the oilright.
The more people talk about howgreat they are or what they
accomplished, the more people donotice, even if people aren't
(31:12):
doing a great job.
If they say they're doing agreat job, some people will
believe them, and sometimes it'sthe decision makers that
believe them.
So, from my experience, it'snot just about doing a good job
at work.
You kind of have to make itknown.
And if you're an introvert andyou don't like to brag, it's not
really about bragging, but youneed to make it known so that
(31:34):
you take credit for the thingsthat you've done.
And you do also have to putyourself out there, even it is
uncomfortable, and say I wantthis.
Of course you could try andmake it reasonable, but you do
need to ask if that's what youwant, because people don't just
give you stuff like they knowwhat you want at least, yeah,
(31:55):
that's my take that makes sense.
J.R. (31:57):
So it's almost like it's half marketing, essentially,
like you can do a good job, butif you don't promote yourself or
I mean promoting, like meaning,like communicate, like the work
that you're actually doing, andit just slides under the radar
they could take advantage of youand be like oh yeah, they're
doing good work, but you know,the squeaky wheel is not getting
the grease right yeah, thesilent hard worker does not get
(32:21):
the reward Right.
Great for the CEO and great forthe owners.
Alex (32:25):
Ceos love the silent, non-complaining worker, it is
the best.
I would hire a thousand of them, Right, right.
And then you have the great.
Okay, if you have a greatperformer who's also loud loud
as in they'll just keep askingfor more.
Yeah, yeah, sure, you'll giveit to them, but at some point
it's too much, like it's notworth?
Yeah, it's not worth it which?
(32:46):
Is why you switch jobs everytwo years.
J.R. (32:50):
So alex is the complainer who switches jobs gets.
Alex (32:52):
No, I don't, I don't complain, but I, I do
consistently look for additionalopportunity and when it's not
there, they're not going to giveit to me, because they probably
felt like they gave me a lotalready.
J.R. (33:02):
Yeah, yeah, yeah no, I like that and I subscribe to
that too.
I don't.
I recommend that because I didthis.
I did the same thing, which waslike I was always looking for
the next opportunity.
Obviously, I was trying to growand get better at stuff yeah
but still keeping my eyes openfor the next door.
And then when you make that jump, it sets you up for the next
one, and so being intentionalabout that career path or
(33:24):
journey or hops, I feel is veryimportant.
That would set you apart.
Yeah, yeah, okay, I think thatshould be it for the career
stuff.
Any last thoughts on that thatyou think would be valuable to
the audience?
Alex (33:36):
I think comes to mind yeah .
J.R. (33:38):
No, that was solid, honestly, guys, just repeat that
if you're curious about how toleapfrog the career game,
because that's actually reallypractical tactical advice, all
right.
Last topic is relationships anddating insights.
So we don't have to covereverything here, but my first
question is to give us somecontext on your relationship
dating journey thus far, becauseyou mentioned this is one of
(33:59):
the topics you want to talkabout yeah, I think there's a
lot of people that this isrelevant to, because dating in
this day and age is kind oftough.
Alex (34:09):
Yeah, for me, I was in a relationship starting in college
.
It was pretty long term six anda half years ended with no
engagement or anything, eventhough that's where I was hoping
to take it and then just manyyears of being single and
chasing the feeling again, right, chasing the feeling of being
(34:30):
wanted, chasing the feeling ofbeing in a relationship,
wondering if I'm going to end upbeing alone.
And I guess I'll just summarizeit where there was a good chunk
of time where I was activelydating and looking and not
really focusing on lookinginward.
And then there was one yearwhere I said I'm not dating at
(34:51):
all, I'm not gonna do any dating, I'm not gonna look at anyone
like that at all and I'm justgonna focus on being alone and
trying to come to terms withbeing okay with it.
I think what was happening atthe time was since I was such an
extrovert.
Maybe the extrovertedness camefrom not wanting to be alone,
(35:13):
but I always looked foropportunities to hang out with
people or to be in arelationship, and even though I
was still, everyone has theircriteria.
It's not like I was datinganyone, but I was definitely
looking for a certain somethingand worried that I might not
find it.
So that year that I took off, Ithink, really helped me.
Center Sounds so cliche.
(35:36):
I centered myself.
J.R. (35:38):
Center myself.
Yeah, I found myself, centeredmyself, I found myself, I found
myself within myself.
Ew.
Alex (35:42):
But I got to the point where I thought to myself if I
don't find anyone, this isactually not bad, and I think
it's.
That was really what I waslooking for, to get to that
point and I hope that everyonegets there at some point too.
J.R. (36:01):
I like that.
For me, how I interpret thatsort of mode of figuring out how
to be alone and sendingyourself so that that's your
default is like a detox fromneeding to get validation from
someone you know wanting to bewith you right.
Alex (36:17):
Yeah.
J.R. (36:17):
I feel like that's very important to understand.
I think we talked about that onAlex Cristal's episode as well,
which is kind of like the powerof solitude, like being on your
own.
And that can reveal to you yourown self-awareness of what you
really want to do, because nowit's an unfiltered version of
yourself that's not influencedby your desire to be with
someone.
Does that make sense?
Alex (36:38):
Yeah, yeah, so I like that a lot, I guess.
J.R. (36:41):
how has?
Well, my next question was howhas your perspective of being
alone changed over time and whatdo you think people, what
should people think about whilebeing in this phase of being
single?
I don't know if that questionmakes sense.
Can you ask?
Alex (36:56):
it again, yeah.
J.R. (36:57):
I guess for someone who wants to get to that point where
they're like okay, I'm good ifI'm alone, if I'm by myself,
like I'm chill with this.
How, how would you advisesomeone get to that point?
I guess especially forextroverts, right?
Alex (37:09):
yeah, I think I started to look at what my motivators were
for doing things, thinking am Itrying to hang out with people
because I just don't want to beby myself?
Or am I hanging out with peoplebecause I think it's fun?
There's nothing wrong withgoing out, having drinks, doing
things because you think it'senjoyable but are you doing it
(37:31):
just because you're trying toavoid something else?
And so for me, I think it wasmaybe like a small percentage
was I'm just trying to not belonely and, of course, like part
of it was, let me put myselfout there because I am single.
So I need to put forth theeffort and put myself out there,
at least be out in the world,so that I could give myself a
(37:52):
chance.
No one's going to break into myhouse and tell me they want to
date me, right, so I have to beoutside.
J.R. (37:57):
You never know that could happen.
I mean, alex, date me, you'reso attractive, I broke into a
hot chick.
Don't arrest me, but we shoulddate.
Alex (38:07):
I mean that'd be cool, right?
It doesn't work like that.
So, yeah, I was trying to putmyself out there, but at the
same time I did think, okay,well, is it for the right
reasons?
And so I had to think aboutthat.
And so I had to think aboutthat, and then I think part of
(38:27):
it was also just thinking aboutwho I really valued.
When you do that reset,everyone has a list of what type
of person that they want to bewith.
I think it was just hitting areset and you put your building
blocks back of the top thingsthat you really find to be the
most important.
And then what I realized is thatlist was still not right.
(38:49):
I'm actually happily in arelationship right now, which is
great, very, very lucky.
But yeah, I realized that Ithink the thing that I was
looking for is still differentfrom what I ended up with, and
it's still great, right.
It's not like I neededeverything on that list.
I think the list was still toolong.
J.R. (39:10):
So do you have any examples of?
Okay, so you're saying the listyou reset.
You made a list but it stillwasn't right.
Maybe could you give examplesof what wasn't right about that
list.
And or what do you think thecorrect quote unquote correct
list is?
Alex (39:24):
I'm sure it's personal right, but yeah, I am tempted to
say that there is no correctlist, because how did you know
what's wrong then?
Because there was a list.
I think that the list wasalready wrong, because having
the list, yeah, or likeexpecting everything to be
checked off on the list, isalready wrong, because no matter
how you build the list, it'snot going to be what you end up
(39:46):
with, I think at least themajority, so it's having like
having this long list ofexpectations is likely not going
to work out right.
I think it's fine to say theseare things that are very
important to me, that arenon-negotiables, but it can't be
more than three like.
You need to calm down and justknow that there and there are
some things that you think arenon-negotiables that should
(40:07):
absolutely be negotiables,because I think some people put
in the wrong category you havesome examples of those things,
yes.
So one for me was as as more ofan extroverted person who really
loves concerts, live music andfestive-type environments, I
always wanted to be with someonethat could enjoy those with me,
(40:30):
and my current girlfriend isquite introverted and so it's
not like she won't go to thosethings, but there's a limit to
how long she could be in thatenvironment before she gets kind
of tired and she can't hang.
But I'm always the type that'slet's go to the end, right,
let's have fun all the way.
(40:50):
Maybe I take a little too farand I have one too many drinks
and I'm getting old, so I shouldstop doing that anyway.
But I thought that I wanted toshare that sort of life with
somebody.
But yeah, that's definitely nota non-negotiable.
I think there's a lot thatpeople can offer in terms of
value if they don't necessarilyshare all the same interests as
you, even if it's an interestthat you find to be very
(41:12):
important to you.
There's still other ways thatpeople can provide value to you
that you probably haven't evenplaced that high on your list.
You that you probably haven'teven placed that high on your
list.
So that's what I mean by youmight be surprised at what you
swap out from your tops list.
J.R. (41:30):
Do you have an example of, in your opinion, two or three
really solid things that youthink are good to have on that
list?
Alex (41:38):
I think the top.
I mean I'm a little bit older,so I'm not in my twenties
anymore.
I definitely dated quitedifferently at the time.
But in my thirties, the mainthing is how do you see your
future?
Right, not even who do you wantto date right now.
It's not who do you want todate right now, it's who do you
want to be with later.
And so I think being aligned onthe future that you're going to
(42:00):
have is really important, ofcourse, like the question of
kids is very important.
Do you want to have kids or nothave kids?
Religion is usually a big topic.
If people are very religiousand someone's not very religious
, then does the not veryreligious person feel like
there's pressure to be religiousas well?
So those are the values that Ithink are pretty important.
J.R. (42:24):
Yeah.
I like that, I feel like minewould probably be similar to
that too.
What are your long-term goals?
Are ours aligned Like, what doyou see for yourself at our age?
Right and yeah, religion.
And for me, I guess I don't know, I feel like I really highly
value health or taking care ofyourself yes because if I want
(42:45):
to marry this person and havekids with them and they're going
to be the mother of my childrenI would want them to also have
the same values of likelongevity and taking care of
ourselves, so that we can be thebest versions of ourselves for
our family.
So, yeah, I agree with that.
I feel like thinking those longterms is different than if
you're just younger, in your 20sor whatever, and you're just
like I just want to eat someonewho have vibes and chemistry and
yeah, vibes like feelingsexactly or we love to like an
(43:09):
alex cristal's episode, likeplaymates right, someone you can
have fun with, go to raves withor whatever.
Maybe at that time of your lifethat's what you want.
You want someone to have funwith, but then, at different
stages, you want someone elsefor different reasons I think I
heard this.
Alex (43:23):
Maybe it was on another podcast, somewhere, a radio show
or something.
Radio show wait, hold on.
I just dated myself.
It's too late.
No, no, it wasn't from a radioshow, uh from the 60s my radio
show, uh, but I almost lost mytrain of thought.
It was crap.
(43:43):
It was, oh, the idea where yoursignificant other has to be
everything for you, right?
It has to be your playmate ithas to be your lover.
It has to be your care.
Take, I don't know the personthat you love and do all the
things with.
So for me, I learned over timethat that's not necessarily it.
(44:05):
They're your partner and youcan still have friends.
It sounds weird Friends thatare playmates.
J.R. (44:12):
Right, yeah, yeah.
Alex (44:13):
Like your yeah, your friends.
You could play with yourfriends.
Your friends are there to helpyou have a good time and to
explore the interests that youhave, and that's why you have
different types of friends.
And then your partner is therefor life.
J.R. (44:30):
It's more life stuff and hopefully you can still have fun
.
It's not all business, right,but yeah, that's almost exactly
what we're talking about on alexalex cristal show alex's thing
yeah, the alex's think alike,they're all about those well.
so I was joking around with himbecause he's, like it was, he's
looking for a girl to have funwith, like a playmate, right.
And then I was like, yeah, girl, he's not looking for an
intelligent girl, he's notlooking for a mind mate, he's
looking for a girl to play withand just shut up, don't talk and
(44:52):
let's just have fun, just laughwith me, just laugh with me.
I don't want to hear you speak,no, but like, because he was
talking about how he like goesto disneyland and movies and all
that stuff.
So he's, and he's looking forsomeone to do those fun things
with, right, but you don'tnecessarily need to have your
partner also be your mind mateor your help mate or whatever,
or something like that.
Obviously, soulmate is ideal,right, like the romantic,
(45:12):
intimate side, but they don'tnecessarily need to be the other
three.
What you're?
saying too like they don't haveto be everything soulmate
interesting concept yeah, thatwas a, so guys listen to it if
you haven't.
But it was the four matessoulmate, playmate, mind mate
and help me.
Alex (45:28):
And so that's how he conceptualized he learned from
someone in culture shock orsomething like that interesting.
J.R. (45:32):
Yeah, so it was really good.
I was thinking about that sincethe christmas party that we had
.
Because he told me about that,I was like dang rent free in my
head.
Okay, anything else on thattopic.
We are just about time.
I have one more question, but Idon't know if you had any other
thoughts on datingrelationships and what they
should think about well, that'sgood for now did you have
(45:53):
anything that you learned in therealm of quote-unquote
understanding women?
Alex (45:58):
yeah, the main thing was, in my 20s I really thought that
men and women weren't thatdifferent, like, oh, we're all
humans, we all have interests,we all have the same motivators,
we all eat, we all.
Yeah, I thought it.
I thought we weren't thatdifferent and so I approached
women more like how I approachedeverybody.
(46:18):
That was in my life, which Ilearned in my 30s that it's not
the right way to do it.
Could you clarify on that?
It's hard to specify what it is, but women are very different
in the way that they think.
One specific thing now that Ithink about it is men are
typically more logical, and youcan't really logic your way out
(46:41):
of things with most people ifthey're more emotional, and so I
think women tend to be moreemotional and less logical in
certain situations, and so thatwas something that, and also the
appeal right For men.
The appeal for us is verylogical.
Why do you like that?
Oh, I like it because X, y, z Iwill tell you exactly why I
(47:02):
like it.
For women, they're like oh, Idon't know, I just it's a vibe,
it's just yeah, I just feel itjust feels good and you're like
what do you mean?
Explain it to me.
And they're like I can't really.
It's just how I feel.
J.R. (47:26):
And so you have, you appeal to that.
Then what did you learn?
I still don't know.
Oh, I mean, as someone who nowhas a girlfriend, how do you
tend to appeal in that situationwhere your logic and she's like
more emotion-based?
Alex (47:33):
okay, you just have to do things that appeal to their
emotions a little bit more, andthat sounds very, very broad.
But you do things that you knowthat they'll like, okay, and
even if it's something that's alittle bit out of the way for
you or a little bit inconvenientfor you, but you do it because
you know that it'll make themfeel happy.
And for guys, I feel like wedon't need that sometimes.
(47:57):
Oh yeah, just do somethingsimple and that's fine.
But if they have a particularthing that makes them happy,
that it goes a lot longer, itgoes a lot further yeah, I like
that.
J.R. (48:09):
I think we ended on that.
It's more just like.
You don't need to approach itin a logical way sometimes, for
it's generalization right, butfor women or maybe more
emotional based people, you haveto approach it in a way that
you're trying to.
The outcome is to get them tofeel a certain way, and that's
more influential than saying,well, a one plus one is two, so
therefore that's what it isRight.
Alex (48:31):
Yeah, I like that.
J.R. (48:32):
Yeah, cool, you ready for rapid fire questions, let's go.
Yes, first question billboardquestion the most famous one.
Alex (48:47):
if you could have a sign for millions of people to see,
what would it say?
It's not that serious.
I'll elaborate.
I don't know if there should bemore on the sign, but I think
most people are frustrated withthings and what I remind myself
is it's not that serious.
And most of the time, whateveryou're upset with is not that
serious.
I like it.
J.R. (48:57):
What is one of the hardest challenges you face in your
life and what'd you learn fromit?
Hardest challenge Skip Nice.
What is a self-inflicted wound?
Alex (49:10):
What's a story about something that's gone wrong in
your life.
That was your own fault and youcan't blame anyone else.
I think it was maybe withdating.
I liked a girl a little tooquickly and I was too expressive
about how I felt too quicklyand she wasn't ready for it, and
then that's what caused the oneyear of me being date free.
So good, learning lesson there.
(49:32):
But yeah, don't.
Oh, that is part of it.
Is logically, you think, if Ilike a girl, then I will tell
her how I feel and she willreturn how I feel, with how she
feels, obviously.
J.R. (49:44):
But yeah, this doesn't work like that.
Alex (49:46):
Going back to the previous topic, right Appealing to their
emotions, is you need to meetthem where they are, not where?
J.R. (49:52):
you are.
I like that.
I could go on a whole tangentfor five minutes about that
topic, but maybe next time.
Alex (49:57):
Maybe part two, all right, If you could redo one thing,
what would you do differently?
I'm pretty happy witheverything as a thought
experiment.
Uh, something, there wassomething I would redo.
Oh, after I bought my house, Iwas trying to mount my tv.
I heard the story and littledid I know.
(50:18):
The wall that you're supposedto mount the TV on had water
pipes right in the smack dabcenter.
Who?
J.R. (50:27):
put those pipes there?
Alex (50:28):
Yeah, who put them there?
That's just bad engineering.
And so I drilled right into itand couldn't turn it off,
because it wasn't a domesticwater line, it was a sprinkler
system water line that was in alocked room, so it was going off
for over an hour and no one hada key to that room.
No one knew how to turn it off.
(50:48):
The fire department couldn'teven turn it off because they
couldn't get into that room.
So, yeah, ruined my house Lessthan a month after I moved in.
So, yeah, don't drill into yourwalls, don't drill into your
walls.
Haphazard, haphazard, haphazard.
J.R. (51:02):
Check for pipes.
Yeah, yeah, I like it.
Yeah, that's a good one.
If you could give your youngerself advice, what would you say?
Alex (51:10):
Don't compare yourself to other people.
Some people just get luckierthan you and they might make
more money than you, faster thanyou, even though they're not
smarter than you.
It's fine, it's okay.
Yeah, I like it.
J.R. (51:23):
In the last few years, what new belief, behavior or
habit has changed your life themost?
Alex (51:33):
I think it was a combination of some of the stuff
we talked about, but it wasabout being alone and focusing
on being with yourself, and Ithink that attracts people
naturally, and so the result ofthat is I'm in a happy
relationship, nice.
J.R. (51:44):
I like it.
If you knew you couldn't fail,what would you be doing right
now?
Alex (51:48):
Ooh, gambling Really.
J.R. (51:51):
Just kidding.
Alex (51:51):
No, it's like money.
Give me money faster, yeah, butif you couldn't fail, why
wouldn't you?
Sure Lotto, let's go.
That's a good answer.
J.R. (52:02):
Yeah, good answer yeah sure I'll go.
Alex (52:03):
If you knew you would fail absolutely, what would you do
anyway?
I think back in college, beingon that dance team, I definitely
almost failed physics I think Idid.
I mean, I got a d or something.
This is the lowest grade I'veever gotten in my life, I think.
But I'd do it again, becausecollege grades don't matter
unless you're going to gradschool and the experiences last
(52:23):
forever.
J.R. (52:24):
I like it.
Is there anything you've beenpondering recently or something
that you often think aboutdeeply?
Alex (52:31):
I think it's just how do I get to my next goal?
How do I attain what I want?
What is your next goal?
Bigger house, okay, well, yeah,like how to make more money.
It's the thing that everyone'ssure.
J.R. (52:45):
Yeah, it's not actually very interesting, but yeah, it's
what everyone deals with, it'sall good.
Do you have a favorite hot takeor something that you think
most people won't agree with?
Besides the whole college thingoh, that's not contentious
enough?
I don't think so, At least notfor my podcast guests.
Nothing's coming to mind.
What is one of the best or mostworthwhile investments you've
(53:06):
ever made in either time, moneyor energy, etc.
Time, money or energy.
Alex (53:13):
I want to avoid the cliche health is wealth thing, but I
do think that taking care ofyour body is very important.
Yeah, can I switch it a littlebit and say these are the things
that I bought?
Sure that saved me time yeah, Ilove them yeah, okay one.
I bought this thing that youattach in your toilet where you
(53:33):
wave your hand and it flushesfor you, and it is life-changing
.
I really hate pressing.
Yeah, the thing to flush thetoilet now, and coupled with
that is, of course, a bidet.
J.R. (53:45):
Everyone needs a bidet.
Alex (53:46):
If you go bidet, you can't go back to not bidet, so yeah,
I like that.
J.R. (53:52):
When Alex was first still building out his house and
getting all this stuff, I wasfollowing his Instagram stories
and he showed the toilet thing,the automatic flush you just
wave your hand over it.
Alex (54:06):
I'm like, oh, that's so cool, that is so useful yeah,
you don't know how helpfulbecause you think, oh, it's just
, yeah, just do that, why is itso hard?
J.R. (54:10):
but when you just wave your hand instead, wow, you're a
wizard, harry yeah I like itwell, I guess, on that note,
favorite recent purchase underor in 50 to 100 range that has
impacted your life the most inthe last six months so I I have
a friend who's an optometristshout out, janine who are
aspiring as optometrists inschool right now, but everyone
(54:31):
looks at screens all the time.
Alex (54:33):
Your eyes get really dry and her suggestion was to get a
like a eye warmer thing so youcan buy.
It looks like goggles, okay,and it's like it heats up a
little bit so that it helps withthe oils in your eyelids and it
unblocks your ducts oh yeah,that's pretty helpful and you
(54:54):
just use it a little bit, evenin massages if you get different
ones.
That's been pretty helpful tohelp with dry eyes.
J.R. (55:01):
Oh okay, dry eyes, oh interesting, that's cool.
I've never heard of that before.
Alex (55:04):
Yeah, I massage your mask warmer.
J.R. (55:08):
Well, I mean, that sounds lovely.
Alex (55:09):
Yeah, I can imagine that.
J.R. (55:11):
It's great, All right.
Last rapid fire questionFavorite books, movies, videos
the most.
Alex (55:26):
There's a podcast that I listen to a lot.
It's called All In it's, whereI get a lot of my political news
, even though I'm not superinterested in that part, but
they do a lot of startup newsand stuff that's happening in
tech, and so when I was startingin the company that I am at
right now, I think I wanted tobetter understand the language
that they speak in, alwaystalking about ROI and COGS and
(55:47):
gross margins and all that youknow, whatever.
So I wanted to better be ableto speak like them, or at least
understand what the heck they'resaying, and when I first
started listening to theirpodcast, I feel like I
understood half of what they'resaying, and now it's gotten a
little bit better.
So that's one that I do quitelike.
I think it's full of very smartpeople that are influential in
(56:10):
just corporate America and evenin politics.
So that's yeah, that's one Allin Okay.
J.R. (56:14):
Anything else Media recommendations across the board
.
Anything else Media.
Alex (56:22):
Nothing that's edifying, just entertaining.
Yeah, did you have any come tomind?
I watch too much Netflix andanime.
It's too many, okay.
J.R. (56:31):
Top anime.
Top anime right now Top animerec Forever that you would give
right now.
Alex (56:38):
It's hard to think because I'm in the middle of watching
black clover.
It's, I think it's okay, okay,it's good, it's getting there,
yeah, but some of the tops I Iliked solo leveling a lot.
The pace of it it's actuallyalmost not okay.
What do you mean if every anime, if every anime, was that well
(57:02):
animated and paced that quickly?
It's almost like we have thisissue with too much dopamine
already.
I get what you're saying.
Right, we don't have thepatience.
It's too much.
It's great, but it might be toomuch.
We don't have the patience forany other anime after that
Because we think, oh, let's-.
J.R. (57:17):
You're breaking the standards too much.
Alex (57:18):
Yeah, let's hurry up, let's get to the fight, yeah.
And then I don't want to listento this backstory.
J.R. (57:24):
Right, soul leveling, they don't care, no backstory, yeah
yeah, yeah, I'm just going tostab this next monster and level
up.
Alex (57:30):
Yeah, let me just punch him through this wall, yeah yeah
, yeah, I love it.
J.R. (57:33):
It's a good rec, I like for our questions.
Then we'll go to endingquestions, so gratitude, we like
to end with gratitude.
Shout out to my mom, alex, whatare you grateful for?
Alex (57:45):
I am so grateful for the people that support me, the
people who care about me, thepeople who ask me how I'm doing.
I hope that I could keep thosepeople around as long as I
possibly can, even though, youknow, people kind of have their
own things, that they have tofocus on different stages of
their life.
So for them and my family.
(58:07):
Nice.
J.R. (58:09):
Not your girlfriend.
I'm a girlfriend.
I'm just kidding.
I'm just throwing under the busAny final ask from the audience
or takeaways that you wouldlike them to have from this
conversation them to have fromthis conversation.
Alex (58:25):
I just hope that I hope everyone has some sort of
takeaway from this that there'sa lot of stress happening in the
world all the time and it goesback to the billboard thing,
which is it's probably not thatserious.
So hopefully everyone justfocuses on being happy and
focusing on the things thathonestly make them happy, not
just the superficial things thatmake them happy, and try to
(58:47):
keep those as close tothemselves as possible I love it
, yeah, so not the superficialcars I like, yeah, I mean yeah,
that's not what makes me happyah, okay, yeah not, not really.
It's nice to have.
It's a nice to have.
Yeah, it's a nice I get youcool.
J.R. (59:03):
All right, alex, where can we find you if people want to
connect or see what you're up toor whatnot?
Alex (59:08):
any social media handles websites, emails, etc yeah, my
social media is hung on life.
Yes, sir, it is a privateprofile, but if you dm me I will
respond.
If you're not crazy, we're notcrazy.
You can also find me onLinkedIn and I will have a very
outdated photo of myself, justlike the title card of this
episode is a very outdated photoof myself, because I don't take
(59:29):
pictures myself it's okay, Idon't either yeah, it's not good
, we'll link his socials.
J.R. (59:33):
You can go hit him up if you want to break into his house
and ask to date him.
We'll see how that goes I don'tneed that anymore.
He doesn't need it anymore, butit would surprise him.
So I would be very surprised.
Anyone has the same sense ofhumor as I do.
Go for it, alright, alex.
Well, that is it.
Thank you so much for beinghere.
I really appreciate it.
Like I mentioned, hopefully wecan do a part two sometime with
the whole gang in the otherstudio.
(59:55):
That's my.
That was my dream goal six.
We'll see if that happens.
I appreciate it, man.
Thanks for having me.
Yeah, this is cool.
Yeah, yeah, all right.
So my final sign off for theaudience.
This is where the music plays.
Thank you guys for being here.
I really appreciate it.
Be sure to like, subscribe,whatever you guys do, whatever
platform you're listening tothis.
I really appreciate it.
Yeah, just share it out if youenjoyed this and let me know
what you liked about it and I'llrespond.
(01:00:16):
And then just a reminder to bekind to other people, especially
yourself, and reminder that youcan always learn something from
someone if you take the time tolisten.
So thanks for being here.
Thanks for listening.
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