Amanda Chen

Transcript

I am not afraid of hard work I come from a family of hard workers we were Model employees especially my mom I honestly didn't even see her sit down even at the dinner table she'd be standing there serving food onto our plates there's always work to be done so five years ago when I was the first person in my family to start my own business I thought they would be so proud of me here I was working my way up towards the ultimate freedom at least my version of it my business was booming and I had the fancy condo downtown to prove it and yet

they still called me to say when are you going to settle down and get a real job so to appease them I got a job but I didn't quit my business I became a full-time employee and a full-time business owner I burned myself out from both ends when the pandemic dissolved my business I had the chance to see what life could look like not working with an open calendar and nothing left to lose I booked a one-way ticket to Mexico and said adios to The Hustle Life rather than sipping Margaritas poolside at an all-inclusive resort I found myself lugging my whole life in two suitcases

hitchhiking on dirt roads and sharing beds with total strangers I never felt more alive forget having my own business this was the ultimate freedom I had all the Time in the World to do anything I wanted and all I wanted now was to share this moment with the only person I missed from the old world my mom if she could just get a taste of freedom for herself she would see that there's more to life than just work in a few months Mama Chen jumped on a plane uh in the middle of the pandemic when she arrived I was living in a super remote Town

deep in the jungle there were more stray dogs on the streets than people I couldn't wait to show her my rustic little cabania look Mom I said they have a kettle here this is the first place I've been in that has one I opened a bottle of water and poured it into the kettle to make tea out of fruit peels I didn't even have tea bags she looked at me in my wrinkly clothes and my wild uncombed hair and said you left everything behind for this you have the ability to work hard and make money and instead you're wasting it here doing nothing it's like

you don't even care at that moment I felt like a complete failure losing my job having a pivot during the pandemic these were all out of my control but this this was all my doing we sat in silence while we waited for the water to boil I felt like I couldn't return home without a game plan my mistake was thinking that I had to trade my business for Freedom that I could only have one I could either choose to work or choose to live but I didn't want to choose so I did nothing Guess What Choosing nothing is still a choice I spent the last

two years aimlessly wandering around a foreign country escaping all responsibilities just to realize that feeling like a failure was my own choice I had to make a change Safety and Security come at the cost of our freedom we believe that things happen to us rather than for us because we feel like we're not involved in the decision and what chains us down is our fear of making a mistake that we can't get out of so instead we say we had no choice but to follow the decision made by somebody else it's time to take the power back make the mistake celebrate making choices for a

world you want to live in rather than finding the quickest way out of a bad situation freedom is not a place you get to as a reward for hard work freedom is a feeling from within when you finally take that risk and make a choice for yourself the next time life throws you a curveball don't tell yourself what am I going to do next instead remind yourself who am I now today my two worlds are colliding Mexico meets Toronto I'm not chasing Freedom anymore I'm bringing Freedom home

Transcript generated from the recording and lightly cleaned. Some names and wording may differ from the spoken speech.