We were lucky to catch up with Wen Zhang recently and have shared our conversation below.

Wen , looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Risking taking is a huge part of most people’s story but too often society overlooks those risks and only focuses on where you are today. Can you talk to us about a risk you’ve taken – it could be a big risk or a small one – but walk us through the backstory.

Starting a business is a risk. As for any business owners/entrepreneurs, pivoting is the name of the game. No one can guarantee 100% success before reaching product-market fit. As leaders, it is our job to continue innovating and serving our clients. As a result, we’ve pivoted the business multiple times, which is a huge risk. Going into new markets and launching new products, these activities are massive risks we all have taken. In Chinese, we have a saying: ‘Only if we love the game, then we have a chance to win.’ In other words, if we don’t play (in court), we won’t have a chance of winning. And the name of the game is truly serving our customers. It is up to us to put ourselves out there, to play those ‘risky’ games; only then can we win.

What else should we know about how you took your side hustle and scaled it up into what it is today?

My very first client worked with me in 2018 when I was working full-time in corporate. I mentioned helping him on the side, and it turns out I really enjoyed it. And I was able to see a huge impact on what we created for him and that was really fulfilling for me. As a result of that engagement, more people started reaching out to me to ask if I could support them in a similar way. And things started growing from there – once I got three to four projects a month, I thought, wow, I really like this and this could totally work. That’s when I really decided to start a business.

My thoughts about how to start to change that into a full time job and how to scale? Well, can you start and I found a lot of that was actually pretty easy, but scaling is not easy. So I have had to get really clear on the processes, think about the workflows, the sales, the time management and the team management. All that is something that I don’t feel like I ever anticipated, and it was really difficult.

I started my business with my love and passion with the startup ecosystem for storytelling for investors raising capital, but managing a business is something that I think you just kind of have to learn on the job in a way.
I imagine it’s like many other things in life, you figure it out as you go. For us as a company, that process took a year to really get the process down and to get growing. But I do feel very grateful for the journey and thankful for the support I’ve surrounded myself with. I have really smart and dedicated people on my team who really helped me, starting on day one. And something that I’ve found is it’s not about HOW, sometimes it’s about WHO we are connecting with.

We often hear about learning lessons – but just as important is unlearning lessons. Have you ever had to unlearn a lesson?

I’m Asian, so if you’ve ever of like Asian tiger moms, I grew up in that environment so I’m like this trained soldier. We have a big population so you really have to compete to win. So I grew up with this mentality that working hard is truly important for any success and that is fundamental to who I am today. I’m very blessed because of that mentality, I worked really hard and got the chance to come to America to achieve my dream. Because of that I was able to go to top business schools and then start my business and be able to grow and scale it.

But I realized at one point that I had unlearned that lesson, and I’ll give you an example. Last year we were at a critical moment of scaling my company, but I realized this is not really about me anymore. We have a whole team of support so there are bigger responsibilities. And naturally my instinct is to work harder – and I did. I think I averaged 12-14 hours a day working. It’s almost like this is your baby, you love her so much and you will do whatever you have to to take care of her. So it would be 9 or 10 o’clock at night and I didn’t even where the time was going – I wouldn’t even remember to eat lunch or dinner, I just truly didn’t remember.

And of course that came with a big price. I really overlooked my health and I wasn’t walking or exercising or even eating. And because of that I endured some really bad pain, which was a very excruciating physical experience. And for me to recognize that while I LOVE to serve well, there’s a point for us to bring the right people together and when we all come together to focus on the mission and the right way to do things. And that can’t just be on me.

There’s a Chinese proverb that talks about how we can spare half of effort and achieve twice the result instead of using twice the effort to achieve half the result – that’s where I was last year. I really had to re-examine things and look inwards and really get clear on what’s important and what I want to accomplish and determine how do I get there.
That’s the moment I had to face the biggest enemy of all, which is myself and recognizing the strengths and the virtue I had all along working extremely hard, where it had no value. But I think there’s a point now to understand there’s a balance because I think that to lead a good business is not about working 1000 hours a day. It’s about truly creating a win win win scenario for all parties involved, whether it is the company, the employees, the customers, the shareholders, etc.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.ifnotnowwen.com/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/wenzhangdukemba/
• Other: INNW linkedin https://www.linkedin.com/company/71547072/admin/