Sky News
A few weeks ago I had the honour of being invited to join Peter Switzer on his TV show Sky news! It was so fun, the best part of it was because I had to opportunity to do the two things I love most in life; business and magic! It was such a thrilling experience, I never thought that one day I would be asked to go on a show like this to share with everyone my ideas and thoughts on life and business. It was only just 5 years ago when it felt like I had a team of dedicated “negative Nancy’s” (this is what I call them ha ha), these people would always put me down for having dreams and tell me not to “go to far” is exactly what they used to say. I feel very lucky that I have the most amazing family, I remember coming home to my dad and consulting him about what these people had said, “Dad, do you think they are right? Should I stop trying to go “too far” with my ideas?”. I remember my dads words so clearly on that evening, he said to me the PERFECT quote at the perfect time in my life.
“Son, if you never go too far in life than how are you supposed to know how far you can actually go?”
Just like that I was totally and completely inspired! My father shared a wonderful piece of our family history with me that evening. He told me about all the wonderful things we had when we was young in Vietnam, our family was quite wealthy back in the 1960’s we had large noodle factories and many properties etc but after the Vietnam war broke out we lost everything. It was in the moment that my grandfather made the decision that we had to leave everything behind and I mean 4 generations of sweat blood and tears, they were about to leave it all in search for a new home. The craziest thing about this is that my grandfather made this decision because of his grandchildren and what’s even more crazy is that we weren’t even born yet and the thought of us… When my grandfather made this decision to leave, everyone in the community called my grandfather crazy, they said he was going to die and that he would never survive the journey. Regardless of what others said my grandfather assembled his 7 sons, got them to carry a bag each and the 2 year journey began. Long story short my family have faced hardship time and time again even once we got to Australia and my father and his brothers wanted to build businesses. Again people would say it’s too dangerous, what if you fail? etc. But time and time again my family would push through and achieve success. Today my father and his brothers own multiple businesses together. Looking at my father and his life, going from working on a farm in a remote village in a war torn country to being the owner of many multimillion dollar businesses is a miracle.. It proves two things to me:
“Our past does not dictate our future.”
&
“Anything is possible.”
My family have been my inspiration, my motivation and my success is purely a product of their love. I just wanted to write this post to remind myself and others that no matter where we go in life and what we achieve alwaysremember and appreciate your roots, where you come from, all those who have made sacrifices for you to be where you are today and family.
To my grandfather Luong Giang,
I know you are resting in peace now in Heaven, I just wanted to share with people a glimpse of your life. You have given me everything that I have in my life today, without you the rest of the family would simply not exist. I promise to be a good person in my life and help as many people as I can, you’ve always said that Australia is Heaven on earth and the people here are like Angels. I remember the analogy you told me when I asked you why the Australian people allowed us to come to their country. You told me to imagine a stranger walked up to my home right now and knocked on the door and asked to stay with me forever, what would I say? I remember saying “No! They might be a bad person”. You told me that when our family arrived in this country it was the same situation, we arrived at the front door of someones home and asked if we could stay and the Australian people said Yes… It takes a very special kind of person to do such thing in life and you have to always remember and appreciate our new home and always give back.
Grandpa you are no longer here with us but you will live on forever in my heart and mind. You’re lessons will be passed onto the next generations of the Giang family. If there’s a God up there I know he’d say to you “Well done”.