Ep. 14: 🇺🇸 Crypto CEO Stephen Tse on community-development, culture-building, nongreedy parenting

Stephen Tse is the founder and CEO of a Blockchain project named Harmony. For those new to Crypto and Blockchain, Harmony is a protocol that allows trustless smart contracts. Think of it as a new technology stack on the internet that allows users of computer programs to verify the results by themselves, instead of trusting whoever is serving these programs to the users. At the time of recording, Harmony ranks top 100 in terms of market capitalization for all Cryptos.

Stephen also runs a weekly get-together for entrepreneurs in Silicon Valley. Participants are mostly Crypto-centric founders, although not exclusively so. The organization is run a bit like a Christian fellowship, except that people don't get up and take turns to describe their relationship with God. Instead, they take turns to talk about their journey in entrepreneurship. And instead of reading scriptures when they get together, they pitch their businesses, ask for help and share best practices as well as past failures in business.

Every time I leave one of these events, I feel thoroughly rejuvenated, and this is all thanks to Steven's leadership. He has a way of making sure everyone feels included and inspired at these events. And I believe he applies this to the way he runs his organization.

Stephen and I covered a lot of ground in our chat today.

We talked about him being raised on a pig farm in Hong Kong, where he had a free-spirited childhood, how he decided to start this weekly entrepreneurial get-together and why he felt it was important for him to be this extreme matchmaker for these events, and how he sees culture building for startups.

He was very open about his past struggles with aimlessness in his career and bumpy personal relationships.

We covered how he saw China's rise in its startup scene from the lens of a Silicon Valley entrepreneur and lastly why he felt it was important to give your kids freedom to explore so that they don't peak too early.

In the end, we also had some fun speaking Cantonese. Enjoy!

As usual, don't forget to like, subscribe and ring the bell on our YouTube channel. Thank you.

YouTube: https://youtu.be/eqYzbcvZXbI

0:00 Intro

3:23 Growing up in a pig farm in Hong Kong: Parents immigration story, Starting to read outside textbooks at 10 years

8:24 Moving to Vancouver: Trying to fit in in school, self-consciousness, lacking in specific school skills

10:42 Watershed age at ten years of age

11:32 Happy-go-lucky vs a hyper tracked childhood

13:57 Learning from the example of grounded yet free-spirited parents on kindness and hard work

15:05 What influenced his path, having no "guiding light," to getting his PhD and becoming a founder

16:59 Useful vs destructive obsession with computers for kids

19:37Leadership experience and challenges running TGI (entrepreneur social gathering) pre-pandemic and during the pandemic

24:00 The importance of authentic culture building and Stephen's strong attachment to the number "1"

30:27 Downtime: the "walkabout" periods of Stephen - Uncertainties in career, challenges finding a compatible partner, and physical discomforts

36:13 The benefits of bootstrapping community to set up a business: Isolation is the dream killer

40:24 Inevitable feeling of comparing oneself to others

42:11 The inspiration from China's startup scene: Speed of Shenzhen - a sense of hunger and foolishness

44:16 Thoughts on Silicon Valley lagging behind in terms of dreamer mentality and work ethic compared to China

46:52 The pros and cons of the possibility of doing business in China in the future especially in FinTech and Blockchain

48:11 Thoughts on keeping up with China's developments and innovations in FinTech eg CBDC

51:21 Family & parenting: How to replicate rewarding elements of an immigrant child to a generation that hasn't experienced and won't experience the immigration story

52:45 Un-schooling and un-parenting: Not peaking too early, the benefits of exploration and unstructured time

57:23 Discussion in Cantonese: Stephen doesn't think he's peaked; how he improved his game of tweeting/writing in English

1:00:23 Summary of the discussion in Cantonese: Treating everyday as Day 1, setting a good example for your children and learning English

1:01:11 Final words on always having the mindset of everyday being "Day 1"