track consistent with, you know, finding probably burnout at some point. And certainly you're not going to be very happy living up to your true potential professionally. So I encourage people to find meaning, satisfaction in whatever they do professionally. And those are the four tenets. And if we focus on those things, as you can imagine, there's plenty of opportunity every day to find happiness and feel like we're making progress. Corey Andrew Powell (03:44): I couldn't agree more with Steve because, you know, it's like they say, if you love what you do for a living, you never work a day in your life. Next up is Janet T. Phan. She is the founder and executive director of Thriving Elements, a nonprofit organization that creates access and opportunities for underserved and underrepresented girls in the stem research fields. Now Janet is first generation Vietnamese American, and in this next clip she shared with me her personal reflection, her early years trying to navigate living life between two very different cultures. A big part of your story is of course, anchored in your ethnicity. So I would love for you to share what is your, um, your heritage or ethnic background? Janet T. Phan (04:27): Um, my ethnicity, I'm Vietnamese, and then I was born here, um, in Seattle. And so I will identify as Vietnamese-American. Corey Andrew Powell (04:35): Okay. Yes, yes. And I know that's such a big part of your story too, is the first generation Vietnamese, um, I guess parents who are here in America, raising a now an American daughter, right? And having this sort of conflict, a little bit of, um, I guess the cultural conflict as far as maybe what life would've been like raising you in Vietnam versus America. So can you talk a little bit about some of that experience and, and the dif mm-hmm. difficulties you had with that? Janet T. Phan (05:01): Yeah, absolutely. I thought it was just me as I was growing up, but later on in life I realized, uh, there are others who are straddling this line between two cultures being, uh, where their parents came from and their ethnicity and then being American. And so for my parents, uh, they were refugees from Vietnam because of the war. And so coming here and raising me, it was just difficult for them as they didn't know how to navigate the American education system, the, um, the American professional system. And then also, especially when you're going through grade school, middle school, high school, you see all of your Americans doing X and then your parents telling you you can't do X because they don't understand what that is. Or me wanting to do community service or having the opportunity to compete in future business leaders of America at the state level where I have to travel all the way across the state. And they challenge me on, well, is that helping you make money? Is it helping you for college? Like, you should be staying at home because all they knew knew was staying at home and studying and doing well in school and your schoolwork is gonna get you far. And so they didn't know all of these extra stuff. Corey Andrew Powell (06:28): Yes, yes. And would you say then, um, those are sort of cultural norms then within your cul Vietnam, the Vietnamese culture would be that that would pretty much be the path, right? That your parents would expect in general.