Empowered by Will

[Applause]

imagine yourself as an immigrant child

living in a foreign land

you struggle to speak its language by

the time you’re six your father abandons

the family

you live in a gang-infested neighborhood

where drugs plague the streets

with no formal education or skills your

single mother works three jobs

to support the family of your younger

sister and you

but she makes just enough money to live

in a garage

and call the ragged carpet floor a bit

that was my reality our family didn’t

have a lot but we had enough

my sister and i were quickly exposed to

life as our mother knew it

society labeled us as poor uneducated

ghetto vietnamese immigrants

we were treated as second-class citizens

and all we had were core values to live

by

there are three core values that shaped

me pride

courage and strength as i share my story

i’ll define these values that allow me

to live a life

empowered by my will when i was seven i

had a dream of receiving a golden ticket

out of the streets

a full-ride athletic scholarship and

from that point through high school i

trained like a maniac to achieve that

dream

and one of the most important lessons my

mother taught me growing up is that once

you begin something

you finish it you never stop halfway

so i took that lesson to heart and i

traded the local park where gangsters

try to recruit me

but i stayed focused on training for

basketball by doing sprints

drills and practicing to be the best i

could be and as i trained i recalled

moments of my mom coming home

exhausted from work and still mustering

the energy to make a home-cooked meal

for my sister and me

my mom is the epitome of what hard work

and sacrifice looks like

so when i trained i developed the first

value of pride

and knowing that receiving this golden

ticket was much greater than myself

it was for my family it was to alleviate

my mother’s worries

and be an example for my sister that

pride empowered me to push harder

dig deeper and go further for when i

thought i was tired during my training

but how often do we see people quit when

things start to get too hard

or when they’re too tired or when it’s

too early in the morning

see many people stop halfway and quit

because they don’t have pride in what

they do

they quit because their purpose is only

about themselves

and that’s selfish because at a certain

point in your life you have to

understand that life is not just

about you if every choice and decision

that you make is just about you

one day you’re going to cross paths with

something much tougher than you it will

knock you down and make you quit

because you don’t have a driving force

for your purpose

i believe that when you take pride and a

purpose that is greater than yourself

you must honor the sacrifices that

others have made for you

then there’s nothing that’s too hard you

push through exhaustion you bounce out

of bed before the sun even rises

adversity becomes nothing and the moment

you understand that life isn’t just

about you it’s about taking pride in the

things that you do as an individual

for the people around you so that every

day you can look in the mirror

and know you gave everything you had to

achieve your dream pride becomes your

driving force

when i was 12 the city evicted us from a

garage home

and throughout those years we live in

homes of the same nature

when i got to middle school my sister

and i were transferred to a wealthier

school district

using the address from extended family

on our father’s side

see i wasn’t performing well

academically at this time so my sister

and i were being tutored after school at

their house by our uncle

this resulted in us being physically

beaten and verbally abused

i was angry be down and belittle more

importantly i was afraid

but i didn’t tell my mom because i

didn’t want to worry so i lived in fear

and doubt

but when i got to high school i made the

basketball team my freshman year

which was another step closer to my

dream becoming a reality but i was

benched most this season

and that’s that season the head

basketball coach said will you’re behind

the curb anyway you need to come back

next year

my dream was shattered i was distraught

and during this time a campus supervisor

a very large and distinguished man

pulled me aside and he said will you’re

not a basketball player

you’re gonna go play football i was

struck with awe

and respect because this man saw

something in me and he told me what to

do

and i want you to understand that

football never crossed my mind so

naturally i was scared to ask my mom

and how i was raised is that many

immigrant families don’t raise their

children to play sports

those families come to this country to

give their children opportunities they

never could imagine for themselves

so my mom raised me to focus on my

studies get good grades

and with the idea that asian boys don’t

play football

so i went home and asked my mom mama can

i please play football next year and

guess what she said

hell no so i convinced her to join track

to throw shot put in discus

for the football coach and after much

persistence and nagging

she finally played football for the

upcoming season

and throughout my high school years i

was challenged with negativity from

teammates coaches even my family i was

always told will you’re too small you’re

not strong enough you’re not fast enough

you’re stupid you’re worthless you’re

nothing

so the theme was i was never enough one

night my mom told me to quit stop

wasting my time because

i wasn’t doing the family any favors but

i was empowered by my will to persevere

i cried myself to sleep that night and i

knew that she didn’t understand

but she didn’t have to because i did i

persevered with action and used their

negativity

to fuel my drive i was empowered by my

will

to amplify my mind and body beyond

physiological limits

to break a strength record and become

one of the strongest athletes in school

history

in that process i achieved multiple

athletic titles in both track

and football yet

i still haven’t received that golden

ticket i was uncertain and afraid

the outcome and all that fear and doubt

that i lived with brought me back into

the headspace of that battered 12 year

old boy

at that point it questioned it made me

question as to whether i should

continue pursuing my dream

at that critical moment i could have

quit but i knew if i quit

that would have made all those people

write about me i would have lived that

regret

but i was determined to prove to myself

i was right about myself

that’s when i learned the second value

of courage to believe in me

especially when i was challenged by

negativity

because regardless of anyone believes in

you or not

you must have the courage to believe in

yourself otherwise is meaningless

so i ask you have you ever had that

gut-wrenching fear of taking a risk in

anything

but you still did it anyway that’s

called courage

you can’t have courage without fear and

when you have the courage to believe in

yourself to face your fear

that fear no longer controls you it no

longer controls your actions

or dictates your decisions courage comes

from those moments you look fear in his

face and you say try me

now each of those moments become a

reminder as another success

or what you have mentally endured and

overcome you will always have fears in

his life

so you must have the courage to believe

in yourself to face your fears so

there’ll be no room left for doubt

in the spring of my senior year halfway

through track season

i received a phone call from west point

the united states military academy

offered that golden ticket

on top of that they said well we want

you to come out here to play football

and throwing track for a son

i was so excited i said coach what i

signed sir

and he laughed and he said well you

gotta come visit the campus first

unfortunately i was sponsored to fly out

to new york with a teammate to visit

that campus

that campus was beautifully green

spacious and the air was

crisp with honor and tradition we toured

that magnificent campus and got to the

athletic office

sat down the coach presented me that

letter of intent

and as you can imagine at this moment

i’m physically trembling with excitement

and when i signed that letter my dream

came true

i did it mama now all i need to do is

finish track and be ready after

graduation i finished track with the

best shot put throw in my life to

receive

third place in the state of california i

was invincible nothing could have

stopped me

three days before high school graduation

i attempted to do a back flip on a

trampoline

i landed on the back of my head my

forehead touched my chest i heard a snap

immediately my body seized and slowly

sank into

the trampoline i laid there and felt as

if all the breath was snatched from my

body

the pain felt as if i was being stabbed

by millions of needles as a hot frying

pan

was searing the surface of my skin that

radiated from my neck

through the tips of my fingers and toes

i realized that i broke my neck

i couldn’t wiggle my fingers on my toes

i couldn’t lift my arms or my legs

i was completely paralyzed from the neck

down

wide awake and gasping for life i

thought to myself surely this won’t

change the course of my life

i will persevere but little did i know

that this would be the most physically

and mentally intense journey of my life

i was rushed to the hospital and what

the doctor said is that here’s my c5

vertebra

this rubber band will represent my

spinal cord and beneath that’s the c6

i suffered a compression fracture that

stretched my spinal cord to its absolute

maximum and it got stuck under the c6

he said if i had moved another quarter

inch i would have

snapped my spinal cord and lost my life

and before surgery i was put into the

halo traction device fixed to the side

of my head

so we had to drill into the side of my

head with every turn that drill i could

hear a crunch

and feel it carving deeper into my skull

they added 80 pounds of force against my

head over the span of eight hours

realign my spine

that pain was so immense it would cause

me to pass out

and i woke up to relive the pain of my

mistake

but what hurt most was looking to to my

mom’s and sister’s eyes to

subconsciously tell them that i failed

after surgery the doctor told my family

to be a quadriplegic for the rest of my

life

it was my personal health at that moment

the only dialogue in my mind was no

disrespect doc but you don’t know me

i’ve been working for my moment since i

was seven years old

you didn’t come up live in a garage

sleeping on the floor

you were physically beaten and verbally

attacked yet stay focused and never made

an excuse

i was completely paralyzed for nine days

a prison of my own body

and in those nine days i lost 40 pounds

like that

i was a skeleton of who i was i was

angry with myself

i felt sorry for myself i cursed the

skies and asked why me

until i realized that my tears were

going to make me walk again

so i shifted my focus and energy to

trying to move

instead of asking why me i said try me

the next day i moved my finger

and i lifted my arms then i was

transferred to a rehab center to learn

how to move again

everything that i was prior to this

injury was obsolete

learning how to move eclipsed all the

records and titles i held

the only things that remained the same

were my name the support from the people

who saw something in me

and being empowered by my will

when i got to the rehab center i trained

for two times a day for four weeks

and here’s a video of the process of my

[Laughter]

recovery

good job

the process was excruciatingly painful

and

frustrating to relearn basic movements

it felt like the exhaustion

of running a marathon just to lift my

leg

it felt like being winded from 100

meters

just to curl my arms and the pain never

subsided because my nerves were still

haywire

but as i trained i recalled as i trained

my

pride shifted to honoring the people who

saw something in me when i couldn’t

possibly see it in myself

i reminded myself of the courage i had

from with standing past pain

negativity and exhaustion which gave me

the courage to believe myself to move

again

my pride and courage gave me the

strength to endure

and fight this battle to free my body

from his own prison

that’s when i discovered the final value

of strength

it wasn’t because of looking big or

being physically stronger but my

strength came from the power of my will

i believe strength can only be developed

by having pride and courage

so i want you to think of your mind as a

muscle that you want to grow

your pride is your driving force your

why your courage to believe in yourself

to endure the process and persevere and

a muscle can only grow through

resistance

that causes to suffer struggle and break

down before it can come back stronger to

withstand future much tougher challenges

the same as your mind

strength is found through adversity and

if you have pride and courage

you will develop the strength to

overcome that adversity

and after 40 days of the most physically

mentally and psychologically intense

training of my life

i learn how to hold a pencil sit in a

chair

to stand and walk again

they call me the walking miracle and i’m

blessed to be here today

the majority of my recovery took another

two years of consistent hard work

now six years later i still strive to

improve myself every day

there are many things that weren’t

supposed to happen for me

i wasn’t supposed to make it out the

ghetto i made it out and here i am to

speak with you

i wasn’t supposed to be a football

player i became one of the strongest

athletes in my school history

i wasn’t supposed to get a scholarship

or go to college

i received a full-ride football

scholarship to west point even though i

decided not to go to west point still

i’m the first person in my family to

graduate from right here

at cal state long beach with a bachelor

of science degree kinesiology for

physical education

you heard that right

[Applause]

when i broke my neck i wasn’t supposed

to walk again

i battled through now i can run and it

revealed my true purpose to educate

inspire

and share my story so i decided to build

a brand for people to represent a symbol

that they can be proud of

i was inspired by my core values to use

a trident to represent pride

courage and strength to live an

empowered life achieve success and give

back to the community

not that’s when empowered by will was

born

now i’m partnering with the nazi school

program too mentor children underserved

communities and i plan on traveling

throughout the country to inspire hope

teach lessons and build those programs

as an inspirational speaker

and i share my story

not to brag about my accomplishments

the true purpose in sharing my story is

to

inspire you to have pride in what you do

to hold your head high

for you to have the courage to believe

in yourself and stand tall

for you to have the strength to overcome

your adversity and walk

strong i want you to use my story

as an example of how the power of your

will can control your reality and change

what is supposed to happen

because the reality is that there’ll

always be struggle and challenges

but instead of being victim to it and

using that as an excuse use the

adversity to change your reality

also whatever adversity you may face

does not mean you’re permanently trapped

there

it may seem like a reality but you don’t

have to let it be your reality

remember this if you have pride courage

and strength that means you’re empowered

by will if you’re empowered by will then

you will be unstoppable

[Applause]

thank you

[Applause]