Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Mingjie Zhai. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.
Mingjie, appreciate you joining us today. If you had a defining moment that you feel really changed the trajectory of your career, we’d love to hear the story and details.
There’s a saying, “Trust your guts.” Gut feelings can also be self-realized through expressive writing. It can inform when we pay attention to the details, when we document what we have observed so it is clear, and the truth becomes self-evident. It was through expressive writing that it became quite apparent that I have to pilot The Love Story’s expressive writing program in Los Angeles first, the city of Angels, the place I call home. I grew up in greater Los Angeles and lived through its many cities for the past twenty plus years. There came a time during Covid that I got sick of the traffic, gas prices, smog, and inflationary living expenses here, so I had thought moving to a smaller town in middle America could prove to be a new beginning. However, a series of micro-aggressions were occurring in this small town that made me conclude that the problem was actually systemic, and thus growing anything that could make a real impact and scale would be best served in a more diverse, inclusive, and forward-thinking city where I grew up from.
The kinds of microaggressions I had experienced in this small town were committed subtlety and were normalized within the subculture under the pretense of “law and order” that to address it to any one person in that town would run the risk of miscommunication, misunderstanding, and misguided efforts. The journaling I did was in the genre of journal-artism, a writing genre that fuses journaling, journalism, with the personal journey, informed me that the best option was to walk away, better yet, run away, an exodus, because the kind of sowing I wanted to do needed to be planted in fertile soil for it to grow to its fullest potential.
While I was writing in fiction, based on a true story, on a consistent basis, the timing gap between actual incident to the time I had written it was within 24-48 hours so the accounts were more vivid, from opening a door to an unexpected knock on a Friday evening with an ex-business partner and the dog agency attempting to take my newly adopted dog away, or the apartment manager asking me and my friend to leave the residential common’s area on a Sunday afternoon because my friend had been laying on the couch rather than sitting up straight, or the civil judge dismissing subpoenas that I had presented that were relevant to defending an unjust eviction (management had evicted me when I had used the word “hazardous to my health” in an email complaint that the carpeting needed changing after their negligence to change the carpeting months prior to agreeing that they would despite the fact that I was not a licensed health inspector to deem whether or not the place is in fact hazardous according to state law). These were only a few of the many incidences documented in my expressive writing sessions that had me appreciate the fertile soil of diversity, culture, music, creativity, and inclusion that is making waves in a broken but breaking open city. One of the last things, I told the authorities in that small town was that yes, LA still has racism, but at least we are openly addressing it rather than pretending that the elephant is not in the room. That is progress.
I realize that racism in 2023 is giving the benefit of the doubt to one group of people while doubting the benefit of a group to another group of people. Most racism in America today isn’t blatant, but hidden, and mostly hidden in the subconscious. Still, racism, like drunk driving, still produces real harm the way a drunk driver can still kill an innocent bystander while driving drunk. This only made me appreciate the resources I have in my hometown of Los Angeles, a growing population where more BIPOC are speaking up and speaking out against the very things you hear about in historical biographies and autobiographies. Yes, I had gotten accepted to their MBA program at the university; Yes, I had just secured a new and better townhome just miles down from the first management company that had evicted me for complaining (albeit a passionate complaint); Yes, I had a real friend I had made there (who I still keep in touch with and consider my sister from another mister), but it was Malcolm X’s autobiography and the things he was saying in the book, the psychology of white narcism and entitlement from a group of European-American settlers who immigrated to North America earlier than other X-Americans) that made me realize that staying in this small town of 75,000 people where 88.8% were majority white was like staying in a toxic relationship and expecting the abusive partner to change. The only change was going back to where I grew up, not because it was comfortable or safe (trust me traffic and smog is not comfortable and crime rates here aren’t better), but because this is the town where there is enough diversity in every few blocks and few miles turn that I can blend in as an entrepreneur that happens to be American rather than the “Asian” in America, which is how most middle Americans view anyone who is not “white” (whatever that even means cause if you really think about it, it’s European-Americans. It would be weird to call me “yellow.”).
Today, I am piloting The Love Story program inside one of the LAUSD schools. Why? because it’s important to tell stories from all diverse cultures and ethnic backgrounds. Los Angeles is still a melting pot of people and with that their food, hobbies, innovations, and dreams. No wonder the gas prices and property here are so high. Who doesn’t want to come this city and be welcomed for one’s pursuit rather than one’s physical appearance? Journaling my experience living in middle America for the past 14 months only gave me more appreciation for what opportunities are available from the city I call home. I’ll take the smog, the traffic, and the gas prices here over the microaggressions and a town of white polites who backbites and overreact out of their own fears and frights. Journaling only accelerated this gut feeling. Prior to my experience in this small town, I was like most right-winged thinkers (self-determination, don’t be a victim, stop making excuses, etc. etc.), but until it actually happens on a systemic level, the terms, “systemic racism,” and “microaggressions” are elusive as ghosts. It’s only real when it shows up to the person experiencing it. To those who do not experience it, it doesn’t exist to them. At least that was the case for me. Again, expressive writing gave me the double down I needed to stake my time, talent, and resources that I proudly call home.
Mingjie, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?
The Love Story is at the intersection of Edtech and Healthtech. The organization helps those experiencing heartbreak, grief, and trauma through journal-artism, a writing gentre that helps one express painful experiences in a series of journal entries, presented as fiction, based on a true story. It specifically fuses the craft of creative writing with the habit of journaling, transforming patients experiencing depression into journal-artists in the process of breaking their hearts open. The design of the journaling program is to discern one’s true desire, design, and destiny from the false one. Psychologically, the writing program is based on Jungian’s shadow integration; Spiritually, it is based on Abrahamic covenants of God’s grace; Creativity, it is based on Joseph Campbell’s Hero’s journey. When the Journal-Artist is expressing past experiences in fiction, based on a true story, journal-entry by journal-entry, the Journal-Artist is also paying attention to signs, synchronisities, and situations that inform the writer of one’s true and false pursuits. It is based on the premise that when one can identify the false pursuit (the shadow self’s desire), then one is able to transform it (be able to take non-action towards the shadow pursuit). It is also based on the premise that when one is acting on one’s true pursuit (the choice chosen by one’s spirit), then the true purpose will be experienced, revealed, and amplified. This is how we transform a tragedy into a divine comedy, which is the aim of our writing program.
Putting training and knowledge aside, what else do you think really matters in terms of succeeding in your field?
There’s a saying: if you want to go fast, go alone, but if you want to go far, go with a team. We need a team to thrive and survive. To achieve product market fit, start with the market you aim to make a difference for and begin asking more questions rather than preaching from a platform. I found my team through the market. In other words, the day ones of the organization happened to be the very people that I started implementing the first iterations of the program for. They became fans first before then became committed to the cause. They became committed because for whatever reason, the program had been working for them, so the lights went on and they had the same desires I had in helping others. It’s like discovering a new coffee shop and wanting your friends to show up there with you.
The other secret sauce to succeeding in the field is conviction. When things fall apart (and inevitably they do), people may leave, but staying power and the ability to take the baby out of the bath water and into a nice comfy bed, then dumping out the bath water is key to succeeding. In other words, true failure is giving up faith and hope. Failure in the entrepreneurship sense is a setback that gives the entrepreneur a learning moment to pivot and try again, but different and hopefully better.
Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?
After a business partnership failed at the small town I was staying at; after my dog, Foxy, had died which further demoralized me and threatened my emotional sobriety; after the rude-awakening that I had to become financially literate, fiscally focused, and operationally organized, I had to go back to the drawing board and pivot my energy and investments into growing a fundraising operating team that happens to also be creative writers who could wear a second hat of writer/educator. Luckily, I had found more people like me. Trust in the energy of attraction. It works!
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.thelovestory.org
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mjzhai
- Other: https://www.mingjiezhai.com
Image Credits
These were all selfies believe it or not.