Our guest is Stanley Lam, Senior Technical Product Manager at Amazon. Stanley is an experienced business and technology professional with experience in engineering and product management. At Haas, Stanley was a Dean’s Fellow and the VP of Careers for the Haas Technology Club.
Stanley was born in Hong Kong and moved to the US alone when he was only 15 to study high school in a boarding school in Missouri. Here, he learned how to be independent, and he considers this experience one of his life’s pivotal moments.
In this episode, Stanley shares his journey of moving from a small town to a big city, his experiences studying in every major college in California, and his career pivots.
Stanley also tells us why he decided to pursue an MBA, commuting experience, the importance of networking, and the value of jumping out of comfort zones and challenging the status quo.
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Episode Quotes:
On moving from a small town to a big city for college
“That was challenging for me actually, just getting myself out there. Although I have everything that I learned from college, you just have to throw yourself out there, knowing that you probably don’t know what you’re getting yourself into, but you just have to believe in your gut feeling that this is what you want to do and where you want to be and just do it. Just that experience of jumping out of my comfort zone is something I’d take with me.”
Transitioning from being a student to a professional right after grad school
“It’s definitely different. There’s a lot of responsibility that, as a student, you don’t have to deal with. Getting yourself situated with all the financial stuff, just one thing, and then just getting to be responsible. It’s not late for homework anymore, or late for an exam. This is actual business. There’s actually a business impact for you not living up to your expectations or doing what you’re supposed to do. So, that’s a big change. But I think, again, going back to my high school experience, just being independent, that helped me a lot in transitioning to the real world pretty quickly. Especially, getting exposed to very diverse people really early in my life helped me. It’s just easy for me to get along with a lot of other people. That helped me a lot at work, honestly. Just to understand different cultures really quickly in my life is pretty good.”
A piece of advice for everyone
“Don’t be afraid to step out of your comfort zone. You only have a finite amount of time. And everyone dies. You just got to get out of your comfort zone. You will always remember when you get out of your comfort zone. You probably won’t remember when you are in the comfort zone.”
Show Links:
Transcript:
(Transcripts may contain a few typographical errors due to audio quality during the podcast recording.)
[00:00] Chris: Welcome to the OneHaas Podcast. I’m Chris Kim. Today, we have Stanley Lam, Berkeley Haas MBA and Senior Technical Product Manager at Amazon. Stanley is an experienced business and technology professional, with experience in engineering and product management. At Haas, Stanley was a Dean’s Fellow, as well as the VP of Careers for the Haas Technology Club. Stanley, welcome, and great to have you on the show.
[00:28] Stanley: Thank you. I’m super excited to be here.
[00:30] Chris: Stanley, I’m super excited. We were classmates in the MBA program, Evening & Weekend. And really interested to hear your story, just so many awesome parts of it. We’d love to start with, maybe, your background. You studied mechanical engineering in undergrad and grad school. And then you came to Haas for the MBA program. Could you share, where did you grow up and how did you, pretty much, graduate from every major college in the state of California?
[00:53] Stanley: Yeah. So, that’s interesting. My wife has always joked about I’m just collecting diplomas across California. So, I’ll start with, actually, I was born and raised in Hong Kong. And when I was 15, I moved to the United States by myself. So, I actually moved to a high school in Missouri in the middle of nowhere. I still couldn’t figure out why that decision was made to go through Missouri, out of everywhere. I would say that was a pivotal moment. I was super young, and I was only 15. And I moved from a major city in Hong Kong that has everything in your fingertips and moved to a place, literally, in the middle of a cornfield.
[01:44] Chris: Oh, wow.
[01:45] Stanley: And it’s interesting, they actually have a boarding high school there, about maybe 200 to 300 people, the whole school. And almost one third or half of it is international students. So, I got exposed to just people that’s born and grew up everywhere in the world, like in Africa, Europe, Asia. And that was one of the experiences I had. And I spent four years there. That’s four-year high school. And that changed me from really independent and just doing… because my family is still in Hong Kong, even until today. And then college I got admitted to UCLA. And then I thought that’s time for a change, enough for all this rural area without good internet and all that kind of stuff. So, I moved to UCLA for my bachelor, mechanical engineering.
[02:35] Chris: Stanley, it’s an amazing experience for a lot of people who come to the MBA program. Even just picking where to go to school and how to study is a big thing as a young person. How did you figure out that you wanted to study mechanical engineering? And how did you pick UCLA? It’s a great school, but it’s probably really far from Missouri. So, we’d love to understand what you were going through and what you were thinking about at that part of your life.
[02:59] Stanley: In terms of mechanical engineering, I got influenced a lot by, actually, my grandfather. He was a mechanic himself. And growing up, he was still working when I was 10, eight years old. And I went there and usually just watched him working on all these CNC machines and lathes and all this stuff, and just got really interested. And then one of his things that he always talked to me about is he regretted not having a mechanical type of college degree. He never went to college. So, I’m the first one out of my family going to college. And I want to represent him. And I picked that major. Didn’t really know exactly what I liked a lot, but that was one thing that stood out, hey, I really want to do that. And that’s why I picked mechanical engineering going into college.
In terms of UCLA, I think LA is one of the things that motivated me to move here. I would just say I suffered a lot on the extreme weather in the Midwest for four years. So, I want to move into somewhere that doesn’t have a lot of snow. So, that East Coast, that ruled out, and UCLA is just in a perfect spot of Los Angeles, it’s just a great place to be.
[04:09] Chris: Yeah, that’s awesome. What was it like when you got on campus and coming from Missouri and going to a boarding school and now you’re a college student in probably one of the biggest Metro areas in LA? What was that like?
[04:20] Stanley: I think I got really overwhelmed by the whole different—the natural vibe of UCLA. And it’s just a big school. It’s just thousands of people, versus back in high school I knew almost everyone at school. And I also knew a lot of people in town. It’s a super small town, so everyone knows everyone else. So, that was challenging for me going through to college, actually, just getting myself out there. And that’s something that I learned, and I took it with me. Although I have everything that I learned from college, you just have to throw yourself out there, knowing that you probably don’t know what you’re getting yourself into, but you just have to believe in your gut feeling that this is what you want to do and where you want to be and just do it. So, honestly, I don’t think I did pretty well in college in terms of academics, but just that experience of jumping out of my comfort zone is something I’d take with me. Even to Haas, honestly, the reason I go into Haas is I’m just getting out of my comfort zone constantly.
[05:28] Chris: Well, Stanley, I know you’re being a little bit modest because you did well enough to go to grad school. But you didn’t stay at UCLA, you decided to go somewhere else. What was that decision like? And you went to grad school right after undergrad. So, maybe, could you explain a bit of how you were thinking and why you ended up making that decision?
[05:44] Stanley: Yeah. So, I went to USC to get my Master in Mechanical Engineering. I think part of the reason was timing. I think at that time when I graduated, that was when the job market was difficult. And I was an international student. So, honestly, that got me into thinking that, hey, it may be a good idea to just get the master degree to just get better in the whole mechanical engineering skill sets and all that kind of stuff. And why I made that decision to just jump right into the grad school. And it worked out. During the grad school, I started an internship at a company called GameFly, just to get myself out there and eventually get my first job at manufacturing right after grad school.
[06:30] Chris: Could you share a bit about what was that experience like, transitioning after grad school? You said you ended up going into work. And what was that like, transitioning from being a student and then now being a business professional every day you’re going to work, stuff like that?
[06:44] Stanley: Yeah. It’s definitely different. There’s a lot of responsibility that, as a student, you don’t have to deal with. Getting yourself situated with all the financial stuff, just one thing, and then just getting to be responsible. It’s not late for homework anymore, like late for an exam. This is actual business. There’s actually a business impact for you not living up to your expectations or doing what you’re supposed to do. So, that’s a big change. But I think, again, going back to my high school experience, just being independent, that helped me a lot in transitioning to the real world pretty quickly. Especially, getting exposed to very diverse people really early in my life just helped me to get really… It’s just easy for me to get along with a lot of other people. That helped me a lot at work, honestly. Just to understand different cultures really quickly in my life is pretty good.
[07:43] Chris: Stanley, one of the questions I got—and I think we have very similar experiences—by the time you decided to do the MBA program, you already had a job and a career and a lot of success even academically. You have a family. And for you, you were living in SoCal, a great place to live. Why even go for the MBA? What were you thinking about? And what was going through your mind as you were going through the application process?
[08:08] Stanley: One thing maybe—it’s something I mentioned already—is I constantly want to get out of my comfort zone and I constantly assess if I’m just getting too comfortable in one place. That’s how I made the switch early in my professional career. I started off in a medical device company called STAAR. And I worked there for two years. And two things that I made a decision to change my job to manufacturing. The first thing is there’s too many regulations in the pharmaceutical field. I don’t know if other people agree with me, but I just don’t feel like I can do what I want to do, given that the FDA is always watching my back. And the second thing is, really, I felt comfortable at work, knowing that you try to be safe rather than risk a lot, which is totally understandable in terms of pharmaceuticals, you want to always make sure that your product is as safe as possible for patients or for anyone that can use them. But at one point, I also feel like I’m just getting too comfortable. I would be able to just do my job and I will be able to get by day. And when I questioned myself, should I go somewhere having more freedom? And that’s why I switched jobs.
And that goes into why I want to go to get an MBA at Haas, is I spent about six, seven years in the same company in manufacturing, and I just got too comfortable, and I had to question myself, like, hey, can I do something different? And that’s when I want to try the high technology industry. And I was like, MBA is one way to do it, and why not try it? And that’s how I picked that role.
[09:48] Chris: What was the decision to go to Haas? You had already gone to UCLA and USC that have huge networks in SoCal. What was your mind thinking about when you’re going to apply to Haas? And what were some of the things that drew you to the program, versus maybe applying somewhere else?
[10:03] Stanley: I think one thing is I have my mindsets on pivoting to technology, the tech industry. That was before the pandemic. So, obviously, I was thinking about location a lot—location, location. So, just being in the center of the tech industry is going to help me a lot in just networking and doing all the kind of stuff that’s going to help me career-wise. And I think one of the guiding principles that has challenged the status quo is, actually—I think I probably wrote that in my essay as well—just tied back to I just always want to challenge my own status quo—am I just being too comfortable at where I am right now? I resonated a lot with that. And that’s why I picked Haas. But another thing, again, is location. That was before the pandemic. So, after the pandemic I was like, maybe that was not a super major one anymore. But no one knows a pandemic is going to happen.
[11:00] Chris: That’s awesome. What did it feel like, Stanley, when you got accepted? I remember our first orientation at Haas. But what was that like for you? And you stayed in SoCal, so you ended up commuting. What was that like when you got off the plane or when you stepped on campus? What was that experience like, the first time?
[11:18] Stanley: I think I felt like an outsider. I guess I had always had that kind of feeling all the time. So, it was like one side is I got used to it. And then the other side is, oh, my God, they’re a new environment for me. It was the same thing when I go to high school. It was like, it was a totally different environment, the same thing when I go to UCLA, I was a guy from the Midwest. And then going to Haas, I’m just going there. And everyone is super overachieved. And then when I talked to people, they were like, “Oh, my God, why am I even here?” And that’s one of my thoughts going through.
But one really great thing, and I think that lasts in hard three years, is that everyone seems very down to earth. And I think Haas probably did a good job in just finding the people that’s down to earth, just great people to be with.
[12:12] Chris: One of the things, Stanley, you have a lot of different aspects to your experience we’d love to talk through. One of them probably, the most obvious, is probably the commuting. For folks who don’t know, for the Evening & Weekend, especially the Weekend MBA, a lot of students commute from out of town from the Bay Area—from Seattle or from SoCal or Arizona or Colorado, a lot of different places. And what was that experience like for you? Could you maybe just share what were you thinking about when you decided to go through the program, and maybe what were some of the logistics that you had to manage on top of the program in terms of commuting in and out of the Bay Area?
[12:48] Stanley: So, I think in terms of commuting, the good thing is it’s only an hour flight from LA to Berkeley. So, that was an easy in and out, like morning and night. And when you’re just doing it yourself, you get used to it week-in and week-out. I would say, to those that don’t know listening to this podcast right now, I have a family. I have a wife. I have two daughters right now. So, before I started the program, I only had my older one. My wife was pregnant already. So, my wife actually knew about the news of me getting into Haas while she was probably early in her pregnancy.
So, I think I just want to point out that was the biggest thing that I have to manage. The commute itself for me, getting on the plane and getting to campus, is actually the easiest part of the commute. The most difficult part is how to manage the family part, people that, I would say, left behind, especially from my wife that she had a newborn by the time I actually had to go… Well, by the time I went to orientation, she was in her last month or two in her pregnancy. So, every time I was out there, I was nervous that maybe something happened.
And what’s interesting was I actually still went to class the day before her due date. Her due date was Sunday, and I went to class on Saturday. And then everyone in the class was asking, “Why are you here, Stanley? Are you serious?” And my wife was actually the one that’s telling me to go. She was healthy. Everything was good. And I was the one that’s asking her, “Are you sure? I should be here. I’m super nervous.” And then she just told me, “What are you going to do? You’re not really helping much.” “At least I can give you emotional support.” And then she was like, “I think the doctor gives me better support.” So, that was the whole conversation that, eventually, I was like, “Okay, fine, I will just go.”
And luckily, everything works out. Nothing happened. But besides all these jokes and funny moments, we did have a lot of tension, just because there’s a newborn. Pandemic actually helped me a lot on the commute. There’s a year or so that I didn’t have to commute. So, she was grateful for that for a good reason. But there’s a lot of you just have to manage expectations. I did a lot just to make sure she knows what I’m doing. I would tell her when I’m doing class, when I’m doing for school. I would even print out my schedule, my flight schedule, just so she visibly knows what is coming in the coming weeks. Sometimes, she disregards it, but at least that’s something that I just have to do to manage expectations. But I will say it again, managing your family, friends, whoever close to you, I would call them left behind while you’re doing your thing at Haas is the most difficult thing ever.
[15:45] Chris: Yeah, definitely had a similar experience, schedule printing and setting your expectations. I feel it definitely resonates. If it’s any encouragement, it’s definitely possible. It is definitely some tension. So, it’s good to think about, but absolutely a lot of positives, even with a lot of the difficulties. Stanley, in the program, you were pretty involved. You were in a club. And then you also decided even beforehand to do career pivoting. What was that like for you tangibly when you got to Haas? What kind of resources did you try to use? And you ended up actually pivoting and going to Amazon. What was that experience like going through that process of trying to discover what you wanted to do and then eventually actually getting a final job offer? What was that process like?
[16:26] Stanley: It’s actually interesting because I would say, probably the first semester, I was just focused to make sure that I know I can pass the class. So, I didn’t use a lot of career service besides attending the typical workshop. I think they made us go through [inaudible 00:16:43]. But I would point out that I have my mindset. I know a lot of people don’t really know. So, I may be different in terms of, well, I had my mindset… I want to get into the tech industry. But it’s interesting I actually did another pivot without probably… people don’t know, because I was really passionate about finance and FinTech. I am still very interested in all this FinTech product, like all the credit card means, personal capital, all these different FinTech. It is super interesting. I thought that was something I’d use on a daily basis and impact people’s lives a lot, try to make things easier for people to manage their finances well.
So, initially, I actually thought about maybe I can just go into FinTech. That will be super ideal. I still want to get into FinTech right now. But one thing I did was, half into my second semester, I started going into getting help from the CMG Coaches. And I did a lot of networking. So, when I went to the CMG Coaches, I just laid out, this is what I want to do, what do they think? They gave me a lot of encouragement, went through resumes and interview prep and things like that.
But it was really the networking that got me to pivot. It was when I tried to… The CMG Coaches encouraged me to just go and talk to the alumni within the FinTech space. And I think I talked to maybe five to 10 people in the FinTech space, someone from Nova Credit, different people that have been two years or five, six, seven years in the industry after Haas. They gave me a lot of good insights about what the industry looks like. But one of the alumni that I talked to really helped me to pivot. He was like, “Stanley, just to be honest with you, just because you’re from Haas… One-on-one I want to be honest with you. When we hire people in FinTech, we’re looking for people with technology background or someone with finance background, or some sort of mix or something like that. And you don’t have any.” And he said, “There’s no reason you just have to jump here.”
And that got me thinking a lot, do I always have to pivot directly to something I want to do 10, 20 years down the road? Or is there always something that I could go to? And that gave me a chance to step back and say, do I want to risk everything to get to the ultimate goal? Or is there something in between that I can do? And that drew me back into maybe I can go to big tech first. And big tech has a lot of different things within their arm. Apple has FinTech. Amazon has their payment. Google has their payment. All these different companies may be a stepping stone for me to go to the next step. Actually, for me to test out if I really have that thing with FinTech, is it really what I want to do? So, I actually did another internal just within myself pivot, maybe I shouldn’t do FinTech. That happened within the later part of my first year, and then going into the second year.
[19:48] Chris: That’s awesome. What was it like… So, you pivoted, and internally you were saying, “Now, I want to go to a big tech firm.” What was it like actually going through that process, doing recruiting and going through interviews and resume preps and all of those things? What was that experience like? You ended up being successful at Amazon. What was that experience like for you going through that process? And do you have any recommendations for folks as they’re going through that process or thinking about doing something similar?
[20:15] Stanley: Yeah. I think once I determined that, after my first year during the summer I started going back to the CMG Coaches. And I was like, “Hey, initially, that’s what I think. And now, after talking to alumni, this is what I’m thinking right now. I just want to be at big tech.” I ended up having a lot of changes in my resumes and all that kind of stuff because you just always have to tailor to exactly what you want to do. And at that point, there are two things that I guess lead to CMG Coaches or the industry people at CMG tell me, is there are two routes you can take. You can always go for full time, or you can also do an internship after your second year and then transition to a full-time after you actually finish your MBA in three years.
So, that was actually a debate for me and for my family, because of course, pivoting to a full-time role directly is good because there’s no gap in between. You’re really just… But the part is it’s just because you’re pivoting directly, so they’re not going to see you as a student but as your background and your skill. And I don’t want to say it’s not possible because I think I’ve seen people that could do it. But at that time, I actually had to make a decision myself, is that what I want to do? Or is it I want a different risk? Also, there’s a risk because, if I go for an internship, there’s no guarantee for return offer. And there could be a loss of income in between. And for people like me that have family and have two kids, that they still have to eat and do everything they need to do, just a lot of risks I have to think about.
So, I actually take quite a couple months just to go through that and talk to my wife. What’s the worst case scenario? Do we think we can do it? And then of course there’s a lot of discussion. I would even say there could be, probably, arguments and just what should I do. I think, eventually, I decided to wait more of my time to internship route versus just going directly to full-time, taking the risk that there could be loss of income and things like that in between.
And I think the reason was that I also want to test out if it is really what I want to do. So, that’s why I took that internship route. And so, once I set that in stone, I’m just going to focus on that. That’s when I go through the whole recruiting process, apply through the CMG career websites, the job posts, and then go to a lot of CMG coaches to do my resume, and also do a lot of networking. So, that was a big thing. You just had to do a lot of networking to understand if the role is what you want to do or if the company is what you want to go into. And then we talk about… I think you mentioned that I was involved in the Tech Club.
[23:07] Chris: Mm-hmm.
[23:07] Stanley: That’s when I made a decision that I should be getting even more involved, especially in the career part of it, just so that I can get myself out there. I just want to get myself out there. I always tell myself the worst case is a status quo, I’m just doing what I’m doing, nothing happened. It’s pretty much the worst case. Nothing that you have done would make it even worse, you haven’t done anything. So, that’s why I always just tried to throw myself out there and get involved in the club, organized some workshops. And I also focused on going into product management, just because I have the taste of that in the manufacturing industry as a product manager. But I knew it was different in the tech industry. The product manager role is defined very broadly and loosely across different industries. And even within the tech industry, it’s defined based on whoever the company thinks as best. It’s not always a one-to-one direct translation, I guess. So, I did a lot of just talk to a lot of people.
I think networking is a key thing. I end up recruiting interview and get the internship role at a data backup company called Veritas. And I think part of the reason was I network and talk to some of the alumni that actually went to the internship. And then I think once the manager knew that I talked to that person that he actually hired before, the conversation just went very smooth. It was like just changed very quickly to more a conversation of interview, then the hardcore interview. He never told me if that was the reason, but I felt like that was… The moment I felt like the conversation actually went really well after I told him all the things I learned from the other one. So, I definitely encourage, networking is one big thing.
And actually, it’s interesting because during the internship, recruiting process, I actually interviewed for Amazon as well. But I did not… It was timing issues were both of them, I had the interview for the internship I took eventually first. And then I think one or two weeks later, I had my Amazon interview. And then my first interview, actually the company that eventually hired me was like, “You have to make a decision. If you want to just reject our offer and go to Amazon, that’s fine, or you take our offer.” And I just took their offer because I also felt I wanted to try something different first. I felt like the big tech opportunity is always coming around. But something different from the big tech to smaller private tech companies is it’s not always there, taking that offer.
And actually, I’m really grateful that I took that chance. Just to get an internship will serve going along with Amazon because I passed the first round of interview. So, I guess there was a 50% chance of me getting the internship. But that internship helped me to make up my mind that I want to go to the big tech. That was one of the reasons. And then going into the third year is when I go all-in and go into the full-time recruiting, just go through submit my resumes and then go through the interviews and continuously still practice interviews with CMG.
And then one thing I just want to mention is one thing really great about EWMBA is you have a lot of classmates that actually work at companies that you want. I think I heard some jokes about everyone just wants to take everyone else’s job.
[26:44] Chris: That’s so true.
[26:44] Stanley: [inaudible 00:26:45] honestly because that’s what people… like for me, “You’re working at Amazon. That’s actually what I want to do.” And then the Amazon guy was like, “Oh, I actually want to work for your company.”
[26:55] Chris: Feel like full of switch.
[26:57] Stanley: I’ve heard a lot of these conversations going around. Yeah, you should just do an open, I don’t know, audition or something. It’s, okay, here’s open positions, and just switch jobs and be done with it, rather than going through all that. But one thing I want to point out is that means that you have a lot of people in your disposal to go talk to them and get tips and get information about what you do.
One thing, I felt like I contributed a lot of my success in getting that offer from Amazon to all my friends and all my classmates at Amazon, because I have actually went to them and said, “Can you interview me?” So, I went through trial interviews with people actually working at Amazon for 10 minutes, 20 minutes, whatever time that they can give. I just took them. And then that helped me a lot when I went into the interview. And I would say it’s difficult. If you think about it, it will be difficult when you do that not at school, because at school, I could even ask them after the project meeting,
“Can you stay for another 10 minutes?” That’s something that you wouldn’t be able to do after five, six years when everyone just deep-dives into what they’re doing at work.
[28:06] Chris: Yeah, absolutely. Stanley, love to touch base on, just now that you and I are both done with the MBA program, we have officially graduated, and you’ve walked, so you experienced that, what does it feel like to be on the other side now and going to be starting this new life at a huge—probably one of the biggest—global companies now? What does that feel like?
[28:26] Stanley: I think that felt like the same feeling of starting the MBA program, like, you don’t know what you’re getting yourself into, all that. And it was a totally different set of people, I guess, at work, different company. Same thing as going to the MBA program, the first orientation day. I think that would be my day one at Amazon. That’s how I think they’re going to feel.
But I also miss the days I was at Haas for those three years. I guess there’s a lot of privilege and just super fun to be a student. I guess we talk a lot about students always, but it’s just hard to replicate the fact that you are a student, you’re in a protected environment to do whatever you want, you have a lot of leeway to fail and are super okay with it. The first is when you’re in the real world, that’s a lot of risk when you do that. So, this mixed feeling. I’m also excited about… I feel super lucky and really thankful for all the help from the CMG and also my classmates and friends that I made at Haas. I actually get what I plan to get going to the program. I’m super thankful about it.
[29:36] Chris: Well, Stanley, we have a tradition on the podcast. We have a lightening where we just ask some fun short questions at the end of a podcast interview. If you’re up for it, I’d love to go through a lightning round. And then we’ll be at the end of our podcast.
[29:48] Stanley: Okay, yeah. I didn’t know that, but yes (laughs).
[29:53] Chris: So, maybe an interesting question. Number one, my personal favorite question, what was one of your favorite places to eat at when you were in Berkeley?
[30:01] Stanley: It’s actually the… Oh, I forgot the name, but it’s like what they call the Asian Slum, at the Lower Plaza?
[30:06] Chris: I think it’s called Asian Ghetto.
[30:10] Stanley: Asian Ghetto.
[30:09] Chris: Yeah.
[30:11] Stanley: And then there’s Italian restaurants that are also good.
[30:13] Chris: Oh, a good one. That’s a Berkeley staple. Another question, Stanley. What’s one of your favorite memories from the MBA program?
[30:22] Stanley: WE Lead, it’s one of my favorite retreats that we had. Honestly, I would say, now that I graduated, it was not the best event at school. And I can probably also say that I ditched the scheduled events that they’ve planned out. I was late for dinner and party, but it was probably the best thing I have done with a lot of friends, just doing random things around the retreat.
[30:48] Chris: Absolutely. Next question, what’s one piece of advice, personal or professional, that you’d give to someone else?
[30:55] Stanley: Don’t be afraid to step out of your comfort zone. That’s what you really meant to be. You only have a finite amount of time. And everyone dies. You just got to get out of your comfort zone. You will always remember when you get out of your comfort zone. You probably don’t remember when you are in the comfort zone.
[31:13] Chris: That’s great advice. And last question, Stanley. What’s one thing that gets you excited about the future?
[31:20] Stanley: I guess my new job. But I’m actually really excited about my kids in Seattle, the whole nature things that they have. They have a lot of trees. I’m actually super excited about them just having fun. Hopefully, it’s not my wishful thinking, but that’s what I’m really excited about, just seeing them growing up there.
[31:40] Chris: Well, Stanley, it’s been great to have you on the podcast. Again, congratulations. I’m super excited for you.
[31:46] Stanley: Thank you.
[31:46] Chris: Great to have you. And we wish you all the best in the future.
[31:49] Stanley: Thank you. It was awesome to be here. Thank you, Chris.
[31:51] Outro: Thanks again for tuning in to this episode of the OneHaas Podcast. Enjoyed our show today? Please remember to hit that Subscribe or Follow button on your favorite podcast player. We’d also really appreciate you giving us a five-star rating and review.
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