Vivian Tu | "You Deserve a Seat at the Table"
Vivian Tu was 22 and sitting on a filing cabinet at JP Morgan, in a room where the senior traders had chairs. Her manager, Jean Mah, told her to stop — she deserved a seat at the table and shouldn't perch there like a lackey. Jean was the first rich Asian woman Vivian had ever met, and she came to work in limited-edition Chanel and Gucci stilettos. What she taught her, over drinks at a dive bar in the meatpacking district, was that life is not a meritocracy, and that the rules Vivian thought she was obligated to follow were not the rules everyone else was playing by.
A different manager later reassigned her, said she was too girly for finance, and called her cardigan a kimono. She is, in hindsight, thankful he was such a jerk — it's what pushed her out of the bank and toward the audience she has now. In this conversation with David Begnaud, she talks about leaving a $600,000 job at BuzzFeed to work for herself, the $100,000 safety net she built and never touched, and what it means to buy cars and vacations for parents who immigrated from China so she could be here. She also talks about a woman at the University of Delaware who used one of her videos to negotiate $5,000 off a hospital bill. And about the fact that some of the drive is plain spite — the man who doubted her can't walk past a bookstore without seeing her face in the window.
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Chapters ☀️
ABOUT THIS PODCAST:
The Person Who Believed In Me is hosted by David Begnaud, founder and CEO of Do Good Crew and often called "America's storyteller." In each episode, David sits down with world-class guests to ask one simple question: Who believed in you before the world did? Big names. Honest stories.
David is also a CBS News contributor and host of the weekly segment Beg Knows America, which airs every Monday morning.
Host: David Begnaud
Guest: Vivian Tu
Executive Producer: David Begnaud, Olivier Delfosse, Justin McGoldrick
Booker: Sully Bloch
Director of Photography: Foster Parks
Live Production Technician: Joseph Gabay & Will Whitley (Statik Creative)
Social: Kylee Anderson, Maxim Trofimenko, Gracie Pekrul
Theme Music: Slipstream
Post-Production: Longwave Digital & David & Luana Co.
CONNECT WITH US:
The Person Who Believed In Me:
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/believedpodcast
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Vivian Tu was 22 and sitting on a filing cabinet at JP Morgan, in a room where the senior traders had chairs. Her manager, Jean Mah, told her to stop — she deserved a seat at the table and shouldn't perch there like a lackey. Jean was the first rich Asian woman Vivian had ever met, and she came to work in limited-edition Chanel and Gucci stilettos. What she taught her, over drinks at a dive bar in the meatpacking district, was that life is not a meritocracy, and that the rules Vivian thought she was obligated to follow were not the rules everyone else was playing by.
A different manager later reassigned her, said she was too girly for finance, and called her cardigan a kimono. She is, in hindsight, thankful he was such a jerk — it's what pushed her out of the bank and toward the audience she has now. In this conversation with David Begnaud, she talks about leaving a $600,000 job at BuzzFeed to work for herself, the $100,000 safety net she built and never touched, and what it means to buy cars and vacations for parents who immigrated from China so she could be here. She also talks about a woman at the University of Delaware who used one of her videos to negotiate $5,000 off a hospital bill. And about the fact that some of the drive is plain spite — the man who doubted her can't walk past a bookstore without seeing her face in the window.
Get more stories that remind you the world is still good. Sign up for our free newsletter: https://www.thedogoodcrew.com
Chapters ☀️
ABOUT THIS PODCAST:
The Person Who Believed In Me is hosted by David Begnaud, founder and CEO of Do Good Crew and often called "America's storyteller." In each episode, David sits down with world-class guests to ask one simple question: Who believed in you before the world did? Big names. Honest stories.
David is also a CBS News contributor and host of the weekly segment Beg Knows America, which airs every Monday morning.
Host: David Begnaud
Guest: Vivian Tu
Executive Producer: David Begnaud, Olivier Delfosse, Justin McGoldrick
Booker: Sully Bloch
Director of Photography: Foster Parks
Live Production Technician: Joseph Gabay & Will Whitley (Statik Creative)
Social: Kylee Anderson, Maxim Trofimenko, Gracie Pekrul
Theme Music: Slipstream
Post-Production: Longwave Digital & David & Luana Co.
CONNECT WITH US:
The Person Who Believed In Me:
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/believedpodcast
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