The Day I Met Thach Nguyen of Seattle - In physics, the resistance of an object to any change in its path or velocity is called The Law of Inertia. Simply put an object traveling in space, whether at rest or in motion will forever stay its course unless a stronger outside force knocks it out of its trajectory or causes it to stop. Although that applies to the natural world I had no idea that it can also apply towards the realm of our beliefs - the realm of the mind & our consciousness. 
To me that force of nature was Thach Nguyen. I first met Thach while attending my freshman year at the University of Washington in Seattle. A long lost friend of mine who was attending business school serendipituosly invited me to a motivational seminar her sorority was organizing. And being the cynical, slightly jaded young adult that I was, I instantly hesitated to go. The event, being touted as "The Secrets of The Millionaires" made matters worse because I was prone to scrutinizing anything that had to do with "The Rich" or "The Elite". Needless to say growing up in a 3rd world country with a strong rebellious ethos, I had deep running preconceived notions. But boy, was I in for a life-changing event. Everything I knew up to that point on how to make a living was, go to college, get a job & live below your means. To become an entrepreneur, let alone to become wealthy wasn't even an inkling of possibility. My model of the world was that rich people were all stuck up, born with silver spoons in their mouths, & they were all out to get the poor. I didn't want anything to do with it because my belief was that it wasn't in my destiny to become one of them. I was sure to find out later that I was mistaken.
It was in that seminar where in one fell swoop, all of my major limiting beliefs were shattered & just like pieces of clay were remolded into something even more powerful & deeply astounding. Thach Nguyen began by distinguishing that there were two types of millionaires: First there were the Forceful millionaires, which were mainly your A-Type personalities, domineering, & intimidating. And then there were the ones that he called the Inspired Millionaires.
He said "if hard work was all it took in order to be wealthy & successful, then the whole world would be full of janitors, landscapers & construction workers who all lived in mansions & drove 8-Series BMW's." And that wasn't a statement to patronize hard working people; he said "I used to be one of those people. Because of the Vietnam War my family was forced to flee to America & we had a long challenging road ahead of us when we first got here.” It was then that he & his co-speaker, another great mentor of mine Matthew Ferry, started to talk about The Greatest Secret in the World.
They said Ancient Wisdom has long understood that "You could get everything that you want out of Life, if you help enough other people get what they want out of Life." Up to that point in my existence, all I was about was getting things done my own way - at school, at my job, & in my relationships. Now all of a sudden it made sense as to why getting things to my own liking always seemed like a struggle - it always felt like pulling teeth. And when I did finally get the things that I wanted, I would always feel guilty & find a way to get rid of it or self-sabotage my successes. He went on to explain that as a multi-millionaire real estate agent by the young age of 27, he knocked on 100 cold doors, 5 days a week for 10 years straight in the Seattle weather during his early days. Part of the reason why he had to work so hard was that he was so focused on speeding thru his deals that his customer service suffered & that he rarely got if any repeat referrals as a result. He added “I worked ten times harder than anybody I knew & yet it didn't give me the wealth as quickly as I'd hope for nor did it give me the satisfaction I initially thought that success would." As years went by he began to feel like his success became a sort of a living prison. He had to keep on keeping on & no matter how much more he made the novelty of success quickly waned. It wasn’t until a very challenging point in his life around 1997 when everything that he had worked so hard for was threatened to be destroyed that he realized, money is not the only path to happiness nor is it the only path that will lead you to freedom. I began to relate & ponder on his life story in more ways than one. Being an immigrant from the Philippines & having only $2 to my name upon arrival, my family & I however were not political refugees. My family wasn’t being chased down by Communists who after confiscating all of their assets were out to kill them & strip them of their last remaining human dignity. No. We landed in America - By Choice. He ended the seminar by saying now he has realized that it never really mattered that he drives a Rolls Royce Phantom or that he was wearing a Rolex watch (which to my friends & myself's huge astonishment, later discovered that night), but that the true meaning & "The level of your happiness and success in life is directly proportional to the number of people that you serve unconditionally." After three years & countless community projects later I’ve been fortunate enough to go from raving fan, to student apprentice, to coleague, to a younger brother of his. I began to realize that my respect & admiration for him continues to grow because he has stayed consistent with his mission & his message. That mission is to spread the word for another law which he has christened The Law of Contribution. Today Thach Nguyen is vying to get a shot on becoming a contender for Oprah's “Star Your OWN Show”. This refugee kid from Vietnam has definitely gone a long way. His vision is to inspire & empower billions of people around the world to go after their wildest boldest dreams & live a life full of service & inspiration. He believes that this message needs to be heard & exposed in the biggest way possible so that other people can enjoy the same success that he's been blessed with & that having a platform as loyal as Oprah's following would be the perfect avenue of doing so. Part of what makes my friend Thach Nguyen of Seattle's Gift truly remarkable stems from the fact that his life story is so relatable. Once you get to know him, you will understand that he is just like everybody else - except he took advantage of the opportunities that were given to him & that he allowed his dreams to come true. He MADE it! He is the real deal. He has demonstrated that the American Dream is possible for anyone who puts his or her minds to it & that freedom & happiness is available to anyone who makes it a point to share it with everybody else around them. Q13 Fox News Interview with Thach Nguyen & The Gift You can find out more about Thach Nguyen at his website: & you can vote for him at Thach’s Oprah Audition by clicking here.
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