the bảohouse

bảo52

In planning for that wedding day for my future daughter, I knew that I would need 52 people to fund an endowment or provide the legwork for a Vietnamese American Community Center, something that the community, of which I am a part of, has always wanted. I am determined to select those whose aspirations are beautiful, for my future daughter is my aspiration, a dream as livid as building the Sistine Chapel.

Mindy Chu is one of my muses. She just emanates with all kinds of opinions and thoughts, energy, and ambition. And it’s not annoying at all. It’s fascinating really. She wants to make great impact and find her own way in the world. Part of me feels sad that such opportunities would be better afforded elsewhere, outside of what I do. But with her strangely magnetic personality and penchant for conversations on just about any topic, it makes me think that if I had to have someone of importance be entertained, I’d introduce Mindy. Because I think such important people will bring her up to those opportunities for great societal impact.

Jessica Do has a dream to “take over the world”, but with an attention span of a goldfish, it seems rather unlikely. She is a sampler, a person whose bucket list is about as big as the ocean blue: trying new food, traveling to new places, trying different activities, etc. And I’m usually one who has to finish up whatever food she leaves behind. Jessica likes to create áo dài and we like to look at different ones and see where the trends are going. She has become my agent, a comptroller to curb my tendency to leave a trail of unfinished projects.

Huy Duong tagged along with a friend and randomly walked into a meeting not knowing what it was about. That was the day I met Huy, while planning to build an organization. At the time, I only had a dream. And since then, he has take on challenges, which while not all succeeded, he has felt more at peace with his humanity since then. His experiences remind me of the need for a professionalized donor relations among Vietnamese American institutions, as well as methods for teaching better knowledge management. But above all, the greatest project he and I can work on together, is understanding the importance of camaraderie or companionship. It is steering away from shotgun approaches to solving social issues by reconnecting people to other people on a deeper level.

Tony Lam, living out in Massachusetts, has been a creative entrepreneur. He is passionate about organizing the youths in the New England states, though his nature is one to forge new paths. He also does web design on the side, though I’ve been working with him to make it a main career path. While he’s not doing that, he’s doing photography as well. Sometimes I think he’s a pretty shy guy. But for someone with over a thousand Facebook friends, appearances can be rather deceptive.

Quyen Mai founded his own company and has started a marketing firm, a radio station, and engaged in business ventures elsewhere. It is his personality that makes him a kind of character in the community. He approaches the difficult issues in the community with a candid sense of humor, knowing that what people want is to enjoy life, not to toil in it. I foresee that he will be an instrumental person in the formation of a community development corporation, and especially be the man behind a kind of social venture incubator.

Huong Nguyen is one of my muses and a fashion stylist who aspires to have her own event design business and artist cafe. She has a great heart for nonprofit work and working with youth. She helped me with reshaping the Mid-Autumn Festival Vietnamese tradition. Although there were setbacks with the event, we both knew that we had to excel in our current endeavors first. I show my gratitude by helping her establish her business.

Minh Nguyen founded his own Vietnamese youth organization in New Orleans, believing that youth can change the world. Committed to that vision, he also thinks that our role as professionals is to support the development of youth to achieve their dream of making an impact on the world. I feel that he is on the cusp of that role change, but once he enters the world of business, he will be a unstoppable force. For there is nothing that can stop a man on a mission, whose trust in the community is built by his dedication to their well-being.

Tam Phan has been a business partner for Vietlicious apparel company. It’s pretty clear that he aspires to be an industry mover. Whether we ought to tackle the distribution problem, or build our customer base online, he still likes apparel. That and tech gadgets. And he seems to like to mobilize people. Our weakness in working with each other is that neither of us are very good with administrative paperwork. We’d need a third person in that arena to help us succeed.

Thuy-Dung Phan is a people-person, who inspires others through her dedication to work. But beyond that, she cares a lot for children and supports healthy childhood development. She is a driven person, and believes in leveraging existing resources to get things done.

Anh Tran and her twin sister Yen grew up working with Vietnamese American elders. She is one of the rare youths who care about them and also serves them in a public way: she has been a Youth Commissioner for the City of San Jose, and has also served as an aide to Councilmember Kansen Chu. I see her as a kind of quiet, public servant, but I will do my best to support the development of her people skills, which while she tends to be matter-of-factly, I think her steadfast devotion to the elders is a remarkable trait. She loves the Vietnamese American community. I will have to show her what happens when she herself becomes part of a group of inspiring people. Her dream, however, is to travel the world and eat all kinds of food.

Huy Tran is a man of strong sense of justice. He aspires to be a lawyer in the area of labor. Although still making sense of his future, I see him as a person who will inspire other Vietnamese Americans to pursue law and politics. It is the noble sense where we need common sense approaches to the difficult issues that face our communities. A cohort in the Vietnamese American community, his leadership style is flat (that is to say, he prefers structures that are flat where decision makers are equals), whereas mine is hilly (because I recognize differences among people). We complement each other, because I operate with the aspiration of equalizing the disparities of power among people, but knowing that we’re not there yet.

Lily Tran is an aspiring music producer. She started her steps towards building her music empire, espousing contemporary jazz and latin music, vintage art, and a passion for serving the community. In addition to pursuing her career in entrepreneurship, she has taken up singing, playing the piano, and dancing as well. Ironically, she being the earthbound Taurus and I being the malleable Pisces, it seems as though I am the one who is the calm oasis in her sea of anxiety.

Mike Le Vo is an aspiring entrepreneur, and I foresee he will inspire others to become entrepreneurs. He is very bright with topics regarding leadership, management, organizational development, and team-building. Although he comes off as an observant fellow, his passion is to tackle global economic challenges. But he needs a friendly nudge to make sure his back is against the wall, so that the only direction to move is forward.

Kim Vu lit my fire when she ran for elections for UNAVSA: what motivates people? From there I embarked on a personal journey of searching for the answer to that question. She has become my confidante on matters of the heart. When I first met her, she had a certain swag about her. When I asked her why she was drawn to UNAVSA, it was being able to meet inspiring women who buck the stereotypes and traditions. She’s no exception; she wants to be my best man at my wedding. We’ll see how that goes. I think I’ll have to clear that with my bride-to-be first.