00:16:31 · Henrique Dubugras, Jack Zhang
[00:16:31] S0: And, like, how did you... How did even the idea of starting a business come at, like, 13 for you? Like, did [00:16:36] S1: you Well, I didn't think it's a business. I was just, like, a thing to do is the project that we started and just went viral and went quite successful. [00:16:44] S0: Did you make any money? [00:16:45] S1: Yeah. We made over a 100,000 US Wow. From that. Mean, this is, like, late nineties in China. [00:16:50] S0: Which, like, was a lot of money in China. [00:16:52] S1: It a lot of money. Yeah. Yeah. Like, huge. But we didn't know what it is, so we we actually But is [00:16:55] S0: that profit or, like, revenue? Or It's profit. And then did [00:16:58] S1: Because we're not paying anybody. Did you distribute between We... But before I left China, I I tried to hand over the the thing to somebody, and no one wanted to take it over because everybody just wanted go to college and get a good academic result. So that just died. The we we donated to the school to build a basketball court. [00:17:19] S0: You donated the money Yeah. [00:17:20] S1: When you [00:17:20] S0: were 14, a $100,000? [00:17:22] S1: Yeah. More than [00:17:23] S0: that. Wow. That's crazy. Why? Did you want the money? [00:17:27] S1: I grew up in... My family is actually quite wealthy, you know, not relatively in a sense to, you know, compared to The US. Right? You know, my family maybe have, like, you know, a couple 100,000 US dollar, but that's considered very rich in China. Or it's in my in my town. Right? [00:17:44] S0: So it's like the time, you know, like in late nineties.
00:17:44 · Henrique Dubugras, Jack Zhang
[00:17:44] S0: So it's like the time, you know, like in late nineties. [00:17:47] S1: Yeah. Yeah. It's not like today. Right? Today is nothing. And I didn't really had spending money, like, when I grew up, so I don't really need money. I had... I don't... I can't really conceptualize money, I think, when I was 13, 14 years old. [00:17:59] S0: Wow. That's so good. [00:18:00] S1: And when I... I remember when I went to to Melbourne, afterwards, I I I lost financial support from my parents when I was 16. I couldn't even afford to buy a $2.50... $2.50 chocolate in seven Eleven. [00:18:13] S0: Why did you stop pushing financial support? [00:18:15] S1: You know, my my dad just lost his his job. I think it was a year before I went to to college in Melbourne, you know, they just lost all the money. [00:18:24] S0: So it was more because they actually couldn't afford it versus Yeah. [00:18:28] S1: Yeah. They they basically couldn't afford it. And my mom resigned from her full time job in a bank, which is a very good decent job, but not making enough money to become entrepreneur. So she started, like, a telecom business just to try to support me. [00:18:41] S0: Oh, wow. [00:18:42] S1: Yeah. So that was that was very tough. [00:18:44] S0: And how was the conversation? Was like, hey, Jack. Like, so we have no more money, so figure it out?
00:18:44 · Henrique Dubugras, Jack Zhang
[00:18:44] S0: And how was the conversation? Was like, hey, Jack. Like, so we have no more money, so figure it out? [00:18:49] S1: No. They actually never told me until the the school holiday after my year 12, and I basically just went back to China. I have, like, a driver from age of four. And all of a sudden, no one picking me up in the airport. And then when I went home, I just saw my dad is smoking, which my dad is not a smoker. And they just told me, like, they can't really support me anymore. [00:19:13] S0: And how did it feel? [00:19:15] S1: It feels a bit hopeless. It's like, how do I survive? I mean, you know, I'm an international student, so I'm paying $24,000 tuition for my college, and I have to pay, you know, living expenses. I pay around like a 50... You know, 40,000 to $50,000 a year Australian dollar. I mean, that's a lot of money. You know, I was like, how do I even figure out to pay for this stuff? [00:19:41] S0: So, like, you felt like, oh, fuck, what do I do? [00:19:44] S1: Yeah. I mean, like, I thought, oh, if I have to leave Australia, come back to China, I've already left China for more than two years at a time, and academically, I'm not able to compete anymore because you know, it's a very intensive competition And I couldn't get into the best college anymore, so what do I do? So the only way is to figure out a way to leave, I guess, myself in Australia and just work. [00:20:07] S0: And how did you do? What did you start doing?
00:20:07 · Henrique Dubugras, Jack Zhang
[00:20:07] S0: And how did you do? What did you start doing? [00:20:09] S1: I initially started in the kitchen, so working in a Chinese restaurant and just washing dishes and stuff, but I just hated that Chinese restaurant. I quit it in a week. Then I started working in an Aussie restaurant, just like the kitchen hand and washing dishes Oh, wow. From like four p. M. To 11:30 p. M. [00:20:27] S0: But that doesn't seem like enough money, right, like washing dishes? [00:20:29] S1: No. So I then, during the holiday, I went to work in this lemon factory. [00:20:34] S0: Lemon factory? [00:20:35] S1: Yeah, in a far sort of the countryside of Victoria in Melbourne. [00:20:41] S0: How much were you making at this point? [00:20:43] S1: I was making $14 an hour, but I... Because the job I did was not 100% legal because, you know, I only can work twenty hours a day, so it's like basically... [00:20:54] S0: A day or a week? [00:20:55] S1: A week on sort of... You know, that's sort of taxable hours, and that's what my visa allowed, but I can't survive with that. So I worked this cash job in this lemon factory. So I basically wake up at five in the morning every day to take the earliest trend from like 05:30 to this countryside and take a bus at 07:30 and then work for another thirty minutes to get to work about 08:30. But then where is school on this? This is holiday. It's during a holiday. [00:21:25] S0: Oh, this is during [00:21:25] S1: a holiday? Like a a three three and a half months holiday. [00:21:28] S0: And then during your school?
00:21:28 · Henrique Dubugras, Jack Zhang
[00:21:28] S0: And then during your school? [00:21:28] S1: I basically just work, like, twelve hours a day in the lemon factory and every day. [00:21:32] S0: So you were able to make enough money from that to pay for, like, living expenses? [00:21:35] S1: A bit of that. And and, obviously, my my mom still, you know, like, he's... He should start a company, so she's still supporting me for part of my my my tuition and expenses, and I was making that. I was working in a computer shop, assembling computers. I work in a supermarket, like a petrol stationsupermarket, do like a night shift. So I work till between sort of 12AM to 8AM. So I get, like, $34 an hour. [00:22:04] S0: Oh, because it's a night shift? [00:22:05] S1: Yeah. It's a night shift. [00:22:06] S0: Oh, wow. [00:22:06] S1: And then between sort of four to 11:30, I work in... Later on... I mean, it was started, like, as a kitchen hand, but then later on, I upgraded my job, so I become a bartender in in Westing Hotel. [00:22:18] S0: And when you're, like, going through this, did you think, like, fuck. I just need to get out of this thing?
00:22:18 · Henrique Dubugras, Jack Zhang
[00:22:18] S0: And when you're, like, going through this, did you think, like, fuck. I just need to get out of this thing? [00:22:22] S1: Or Yeah. That's all all I'm thinking. I'm like, I I just need to really get out of this thing. And I remember I was in work... Working at Westing, and people were, like, getting married there, and they probably threw in, you know, $500,000 or whatever, like this ultra luxury wedding. And I saw these conferences, like, you know, Goldman's conferences or PwC's conferences. Everybody wore a suit and stuff. I'm like, I really need to get a real job. And that's for the first time. I was like, okay, maybe work in banking is... You know, it doesn't matter. I don't really care what job I do as long as I get paid the most. [00:22:55] S0: And as long as I get paid and I can get out of this, like, eighteen hour shifts of, like, restaurant work or, like [00:23:01] S1: Yeah. Like, sixteen hours. Yeah. And then you have to study, you know, this all that work in sixteen hours. [00:23:06] S0: And then you got into college in Australia. Yeah. Was it hard to get into college or no? [00:23:11] S1: For me, it was no. I I didn't really study that much in Australia because I accumulated so much academic kind of, you know, skill set of doing exams and stuff in China. [00:23:21] S0: Oh, okay. So for you, it was, like, easy to, like, go Australia and stuff? [00:23:23] S1: Very easy. And [00:23:25] S0: And the English didn't matter. I got into [00:23:27] S1: I got into Colombia in The US as well, but I couldn't afford it, so I didn't go.