00:03:49 · Joubin Mirzadegan, Jack Zhang
[00:03:49] S1: As a kid. And you're like, well, I don't need the money. I come from money, so I'll give it away. I mean, to [00:03:57] S0: be fair, I didn't know what money is at that time. Like, I... It just don't have a concept of, you know, rich or poor or, like, you know, it just because I never need to struggle with money. Right? I never need to buy anything. So it's a it's a... I don't have a very good concept. The first time I actually understand what money is is actually when I don't have it. So that when I lost everything, I was trying to buy a a dollar 50 chocolate and I couldn't afford it. And that is the first time I was like, wow. I need to make money. [00:04:26] S1: Right. That's crazy. At 14, life is good. Your family says, go to Canada, build the basketball courts, spend the money you just made. And so then you go to Canada for what? [00:04:40] S0: For a a basketball tournament. [00:04:42] S1: Okay. For a tournament. Yeah. You So built the basketball courts in China in your town. [00:04:45] S0: In my school. In your school? [00:04:47] S1: Yeah. Yeah. You spent all the money on that? [00:04:49] S0: Yeah. It's It's an expensive basketball course. Six, like, you know, for the best basketballs you can you can do. Right? [00:04:56] S1: Like indoor courts? Outdoor. Okay. [00:04:59] S0: Yeah. It's
00:04:59 · Jack Zhang, Joubin Mirzadegan
[00:04:59] S0: Yeah. It's [00:05:00] S1: expensive. K. LL. And then you go to Canada to... For a tournament. At this point, you'd spent your money. And your family is obviously, like, paying for you to travel around the world and play basketball. Life's good. Then you... Why did you leave Canada after a year? I was... Not not less than a year. [00:05:26] S0: I was staying with my relatives, my my uncle, and, you know, I just didn't get along super well. And and I wanted freedom. I I don't wanna to, you know, be restricted on what what I can and cannot do. And and I told my parents I wanna, you know, go somewhere that I have completely freedom. [00:05:50] S1: So you went to Australia? Yeah. Were they there? [00:05:54] S0: No. I went there with... By myself. And I live in a Aussie Navy family for for a couple years before I went to college. With who? Like a Aussie family. [00:06:04] S1: You just... How'd you find them? [00:06:06] S0: The the school recommended. [00:06:08] S1: So you found a school there? [00:06:10] S0: Yeah. Found a school there, and the Australian couple become my legal guardian. And, you know, the the guy is a navy. He's he's, like, not at home every day, and I'm just hanging out with his two kids and his his wife. You know? And And going to school. Yeah. And going to school, and they are taking care of me. At, like, fifteen fifteen years old. [00:06:34] S1: Yeah. At this point, your parents are [00:06:37] S0: Still in China.
00:06:37 · Jack Zhang, Joubin Mirzadegan
[00:06:37] S0: Still in China. [00:06:38] S1: Still in China, sending you money. Yeah. Like helping pay for your school. Yeah. I assume paying the Yeah. The people that are taking care of you in Australia. [00:06:48] S0: Yeah. Then what? Then I just sort of lost everything when I was 16, 17. I laughed after year and a half. And [00:06:58] S1: In Australia? [00:06:59] S0: Yeah. When I went back to China and, you know, I realized, you know, there's no driver picking me up in the airport. And I went home and, like, you know, the the place we live is different. So I just realized we lost everything. [00:07:15] S1: What do like a different house? Yeah. Your parents didn't tell you that they lost everything? You just started to see signals? [00:07:23] S0: Well, they intentionally didn't tell me because I was... You know, they just didn't wanna sort of creating issues for my for my study or, like, mentally give me burden. [00:07:35] S1: So you get to the airport and you're like, wait. Where's the driver? [00:07:38] S0: Yeah. And then I I I literally have to figure out get a taxi to [00:07:43] S1: Which you've never done in your life. [00:07:45] S0: Yeah. And and when I got home, it's, you know, like, we always own that place, but it was... You know, we didn't live there for, a decade, and just all of a sudden, you know, my parents told me to go there, and and I was there, and my dad was smoking, and, you know, he's not a smoker. And I realized, you know, something happened. You know? [00:08:09] S1: And you were 17 at the time? Yeah. What happened?
00:08:09 · Joubin Mirzadegan, Jack Zhang
[00:08:09] S1: And you were 17 at the time? Yeah. What happened? [00:08:17] S0: My dad just sort of, you know, was managing the bank, and they... The bank lost a lot of money, and he got investigated for many years. And all the asset got frozen, and, you know, lucky he didn't go to jail. You know, this Wow. [00:08:34] S1: Yeah. And are... Do you have any siblings? No. Just you? Yeah. And so they were very protective of how you felt? Yeah. Especially my mom. And was he, like, in the news? Like, was [00:08:45] S0: it No. I mean, it's it's not like it's small it's a small town. Right? It's not like a big city. You know, we were wealthy in, you know, in a very sort of absolute sense from that that city perspective. Right? [00:08:57] S1: It's, you [00:08:58] S0: know, it's a 8,000,000 people city. This is not a... It's a it's a second tier or third tier city in in China, but it's but it's not Beijing or Shanghai or Hong Kong. [00:09:06] S1: You know? It's not that small. [00:09:08] S0: Well, I mean, there's a lot of cities with 8,000,000 people in China. It's it's not a... You know, he's not a very... You know, you know, in a kind of... From a country perspective, he's [00:09:18] S1: Because of San Francisco. Yeah. But it's it's very different. You know what I mean? Yeah. Yeah. Know what mean. [00:09:22] S0: Yeah. Well, it's... Especially Capital per capita probably, like, I don't know, 1% of San Francisco back then. [00:09:27] S1: You know? Yeah. Yeah. And did you care?
00:09:27 · Joubin Mirzadegan, Jack Zhang
[00:09:27] S1: You know? Yeah. Yeah. And did you care? [00:09:34] S0: Of of course. I mean, like, I would literally need to figure out what do I do to finish my high school and go to college and because they [00:09:41] S1: couldn't pay for it? Like, you didn't go from a lot of money to less money. Yeah. Went from a lot of money To zero. To no money. [00:09:47] S0: Yeah. Zero money. [00:09:49] S1: They had to sell the house that you lived in. [00:09:52] S0: Well, this... The... Everything got frozen, it's not even sell. [00:09:54] S1: Everything.
00:09:54 · Joubin Mirzadegan, Jack Zhang
[00:09:54] S1: Everything. [00:09:55] S0: Yeah. So we kind of just had, like, a few houses we bought, like, over ten years before that happened in, you know, very old places, and we kinda lived there. And and my mom also was working for the bank, she had to resign from her job to become entrepreneur to help to pay for my stuff. And and, obviously, I have to figure out how to pay as well. And because I already left the China education system, that's a very competitive system, and it's extremely hard once you, you know, leave... Left for for, like, two years almost and then try to come back into that system. It's you got no chance of competing with the guys who were studying fifteen hours a day. Right? And I basically had to figure out how to survive by myself in Australia and pay for my tuition. And my mom obviously become entrepreneur. She kinda helped as well, but it's still not enough. Right? So we have to work fifteen hours a day. Initially, I was washing dishes in in a restaurant between 4PM to to midnight after after high school. And after I went to uni, I was doing bartender from, like, four to midnight, and then I work overnight in a petrol station from midnight to eight in the morning. Where? Like a petrol station, like a cashier. [00:11:06] S1: Oh, like a gas station? [00:11:08] S0: Yeah. So you basically do, like, from 4PM to 8AM, you know, sixteen hours a day. [00:11:16] S1: And why didn't you, at that point, just stay in China where it's like a little bit more familiar, your mom's there, your dad's there?