Give yourself some f*cking permission.

Harvard, McKinsey and 7-fig, bootstrapped companies will be waiting.

But that’s only scratching the surface of Stephen Turban’s life.

By giving himself permission, rather than waiting for it, Stephen has:

🎭 Convinced Vietnam’s #1 Comedy group ‘Saigon Teu’ to let him join. He’s now the #1 white guy doing stand-up in fluent Vietnamese (40M views, I’ll link it in comments).

🇨🇳 Become an internet celebrity in China while at Harvard University (yes, he also speaks fluent Chinese and did this way before everyone was flocking to Rednote).

📖 Authored a #1 Amazon bestseller in Friendship called “Your Relationship GPA”.

🍜 Acted in an advertisement for Nissin Foods (shoutout to my Asian brothers and sisters who grew up on these instant noodles).

Okay, so what does all of this have to do with permission?

Well 90% of people never do what they truly want to because their parents, teachers, employers or VCs didn’t give them the “permission” to do so.

In response, most people never learn to give themselves permission.

But Stephen’s life is a case study for everything amazing that happens when you say “f*ck it” to permission.

In high school, he was kicked out of class 64 times before he gave himself permission to drop out and live in Taiwan for a year.

He returned with a completely different attitude towards academics and landed at Harvard.

I’d love to tell you the full story but I think you’ll enjoy hearing it more from Stephen himself on the latest episode of ex-vicarious.

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Timestamps

00:00 Introduction to Stephen Turban

02:29 How to get into Harvard after being Kicked out of Class 64 times

04:07 Dropping out of School in the US to live in Taipei for 1 year

05:37 How Stephen became the “#1 White Guy Doing Stand-up Comedy in Vietnamese”

12:53 Organising an International Flashmob for Malaria Awareness

15:41 Balancing TWO 7-Figure Startups

20:09 Bootstrapping vs going out of business after raising $20M+

24:42 How Sam Parr’s “Hampton” community reveals the Illusion of Success and Prestige

25:52 Diverse Paths to Entrepreneurship

27:16 The Joy of Language Learning (Chinese, Spanish, Vietnamese, Hindi)

29:18 Embracing the Underdog Mindset, Going through the Side Door

35:48 Finding Time for Hobbies

40:50 Quickfire Questions and Reflections

45:39 Final Thoughts and Contact Information

You can connect with Stephen here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/stephenturban/details/experience/

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