5 Life lessons from 10 years in China

now two weeks prior to my graduation

from florida state university

i was invited to participate in an exit

study with nine

other university students that afternoon

we were invited to meet the dean of the

college of business

and we were invited into his office and

we were asked

one simple question what are your plans

after graduating

university now one by one we went around

the room answering this question

and the girl seated right in front of me

told the story of how she was born and

raised in florida

and for the first time in her life she

was moving all the way

to texas now she was extremely nervous

about this journey

she was filled with anxiety and also

excitement and as everybody in the room

you know gave her encouragement and some

sympathy

the dean looked at me and said cyrus

what are your plans after graduation

and i dropped a bomb on everybody when i

said i bought a one-way ticket to

shanghai

i’m moving to china now 14 years ago at

the age of 22

i made a very bold move i decided to

start my professional career

in china now originally i went to china

on a one-year work contract

and that one-year contract ended up

being 10.

now along the way i’ve learned many

lessons from living in china for this

time

and in today’s speech to the youth here

today i really want to sum up my 10

years in china

with five big lessons that have really

shaped who i am today

and have really helped me become the man

that i am

and i really want to share these lessons

because i think if you apply them to

your life

they can also help you as you start off

your journey

now china is one of the most amazing

places in the world

its history unparalleled it’s beauty

unmatched

it’s energy uncontainable

working there as an expat truly was one

of the most exhilarating experiences of

my life

now when you start working in china

you’ll quickly realize

that the chinese people are actually

some of the hardest working people

that you’ll ever meet there’s a phrase

that has been trending

in chinese internet over the last two

years and that is nine

nine six what this refers to is working

from nine in the morning

until nine in the evening six days a

week

now this 72 hour work week which is very

common in the chinese tech industry

and nearly double what we are used to

here in the west

just gives an insight and a testament to

why

the chinese economy is growing so fast

and rapidly these past few decades

the chinese work incredibly hard they

work

51 straight weeks out of the year and

they get one single holiday per year

seven days off during chinese new year

or spring festival

as we call it in china and being in

china during spring festival truly is

an absolutely amazing event because it

is the largest urban migration

in the entire world you have hundreds of

millions of people

crowding into buses into trains planes

automobiles whatever they can and

traveling 20 30 sometimes

40 hours to make it home so they can

spend

china’s most important holiday with

their family

and that is the first lesson is that no

matter what you achieve in life

whether it is financial success career

success or maybe

international fame nothing is more

important than your family

now this principle i applied directly to

my life

you know as an american expat that was

living in china

i went home once a year back to florida

my hometown

but along the way i would make it a

point to go to a very small town in iowa

to visit my grandmother

and this was really one of the most

rewarding experiences of my life because

my grandmother and i didn’t see each

other a lot when i was living in america

but all of a sudden when i lived in

china it now became an annual visit

ironically out of all of our

grandchildren i was the only one

that made an annual visit to iowa to see

her and ironically i was living 7 000

miles away

on the other side of the world but no

matter what you do in this life never

forget your family

now the other thing that’s really

interesting with working with chinese

people is that

all chinese have an amazing ability to

save money

and this is truly one of the most

incredible things and it really doesn’t

really matter

where you are on the pecking order for

example you could be a ceo

earning millions of dollars a year or

you could be an entry-level employee

earning a few hundred dollars a month

but almost everybody is able to save a

large portion of their salary

and they really have this savings

culture ingrained into the culture

now in the west instant gratification

really is

you know our way of life if you want

something go put it on a credit card

enjoy it now

you don’t have to work hard first but in

china

up until 2012 85 percent of all

transactions in china

were done with cash the chinese prefer

to not have debt and this is really a

great habit that you can establish at a

young age

learn to save money learn to invest if

you do it will benefit you for the rest

of your life

now a person of my age someone in my

mid-30s it would not be uncommon for me

to send

a very large portion of my salary home

every month to my family back home

if i was a chinese person these are

great habits to get into

now working in china truly is one of the

most amazing experiences

and to really understand the culture and

to really

form these relationships it’s important

to start learning chinese

and learning chinese is one of the most

amazing endeavors that i’ve ever

gone on in my life i’ve been learning

chinese for 14 years now and it is

something that i will continuously

learn chinese is an incredibly complex

language

some people say it is the hardest

language in the world to learn

that is because chinese is a tonal

language so the same word

said a different tone can actually have

a different meaning

for example with a falling and rising

tone

means water but shui pronounced with a

short

fast descending tone can mean either tax

or sleep so it’s confusing but as you

start learning

you can get along you you start learning

this language

you can really start to adapt and you

can really start to make

amazing meaningful relationships

now i would encourage everybody to go

out and learn a foreign language

it doesn’t have to be chinese it can be

any language in the world because by

learning a foreign language you’re going

to start cultivating your mind

you’re going to have a challenge that is

going to give you confidence to tackle

many other things in this world but my

motivation for learning a language

really came from a quote from nelson

mandela

when he said when you speak to a man in

a language that he understands

it goes to his head but when you speak

to a man

in his mother tongue it goes to his

heart

challenge yourself by learning a foreign

language you’re going to make some

amazing

relationships as a result now probably

the most important

skill set for a foreigner to go to china

or really anywhere in the world

is to have an open mind you see we live

in a world that is very polarized and

very divided

unfortunately many people today form

their opinions by looking at headlines

and reading social media posts

i’m a father of three young children and

a lot of times when we go to a

restaurant and try new food my children

will say dad i don’t like that

and i always tell them try it first

it’s okay to not like it but you must

first experience it for yourself

as a young child we’re taught this but

unfortunately

adults we lose this ability and it’s

really important to go out and make sure

that you keep an open mindset

for example if i listen to the naysayers

who said that china was bad it was

dangerous

you shouldn’t go there i might not have

never gone to china in the first place

but because i approached this with an

open mind i went to a beautiful

country lived there for 10 years learned

so much about myself

that country other cultures that it

really helped make me a more

well-balanced and rounded world citizen

now ironically the most important lesson

that i ever learned in china

came during my very first year in china

now it became at the end of a very long

work week like i mentioned we had a six

day work week

and at the end of the six day work week

three young chinese colleagues came up

to me and they said cyrus will you join

us tonight for dinner

now for many companies in china it’s

actually standard practice to have a

staff

dormitory on site and to provide meal

and housing for your employees

and this was the case for our company in

shanghai and these three young gentlemen

who were just over the age of 20

they had all come from a very small

village in china together

all friends and they came to shanghai

and what they would do

every saturday evening at the end of

their work week they would put some

money together and they would go down to

the market

they would buy a big fish some pieces of

meat

some vegetables and a case of beer and

they would go on the third floor

of the rooftop and they would cook an

amazing meal

using a single element stove and a

single frying pan

and i went up with them to the third

floor rooftop

and we sat down and they said cyrus

we’re so excited that you would come and

eat with us

you know we’re so excited about being

here in shanghai

all of us left this small village we all

came here to get a better job to have a

better life

we’re so excited about our future and

this is the first time that we’ve ever

had a meal with an american

tell us what america is like tell us

about you

and as i digested what they told me i

really thought to myself

you know i’m not much different than

these people here than these three young

men

i too also came to shanghai because of a

job opportunity

i also want better things in my life i

also

want to work hard and achieve success

sure we look different we have different

skin colors we have a different language

different religion but at the end of the

day

we’re more similar than we are different

and this is a really important point

that i think everybody needs to realize

you can go out in the world and you can

experience different cultures

but at the end of the day all of our

cultures teach us things that are very

similar

for example every culture teaches us to

respect your elders

every culture teaches you to work hard

advance your career try to be the best

that you can

every culture wants a better life for

their children

these are all universal things now our

world right now is very polarized it’s

very divided

there’s a tremendous amount of hate and

what we need to do right now is we need

to build bridges

so as you’re going out and getting ready

to experience the real world

remember these five lessons find

something that you’re passionate about

and go out and work hard while you’re

working very hard

cultivate the habit of saving money and

investing at a very young age

it will literally pay you dividends

later in your life

challenge yourself by learning a new

language

not only will you improve yourself but

when you find somebody that speaks that

language you’ll be able to

build a lasting relationship that will

last forever

always approach things with an open mind

this has been the one

thing that i think has really helped me

achieve success on the international

level

and number five never forget that we are

more similar than we are different

now it’s really important to remember

that you don’t change the world with

your opinion

you change it with your actions so go

out there

and be the change that you want to see

in the world today thank you