Put Your Mask on First

I wouldn’t mind sharing this, I spent a lot of money in therapy and coaching. I had major depression. I had trauma from a lot of the stuff that happened in 2020. And I think it’s because the world lacks empathy. I will say, it was that the public—it’s going to help no one by villainizing and antagonizing others.

And so, shutting down was hard, but what was harder was when you shut down, people make up narratives about why you shut down, about you having all this money. If it weren’t for the PPP money, honestly, the PPP was what saved Boba Guys. I was probably going to lose more than half my company, if it weren’t for the PPP.

And I built this over 10 years, and people don’t know, and I’ll say this in an interview, is I paid myself $65,000 for the first nine and a half years of Boba Guys. My wife was the one who said…my wife actually got mad on my behalf, she said, “People don’t…What they say on the internet, and people say, you’re the CEO that tries to keep everything for himself. If they only knew honey, you go, you deserve everything. You need to tell the world.”

And that’s actually why… I told my executive coach this, and she says, “You have to find the right forums for you to share this.” And actually, this is one of the first times I ever shared that, because I want other leaders who are watching, you have to take care of yourself.

People say, the whole airline analogy where you’ve got to put on your mask first, and then you put it on for your passenger and your kids next to you. I didn’t do that, and I think I got burned, and I had to re-build myself.