Her Story
About Meggie
I've been crossing several industries over the past decade. I started self-employed about 10 years ago with an auction company, and because of that auction business, I got into real estate where we do investment and help others. Then 2-3 years ago, I started investing in retail business, specifically family entertainment concept businesses, and most recently manufacturing line business. I'm an active investor, not a passive one, operating these businesses directly. My typical day starts really early - the moment I open my eyes, I spend at least half an hour going through emails because I'm crossing a couple of different businesses. The skill I apply every day is allocating 2-3 hours to one particular business and then moving on to the next one. I'm responsible for operations in three businesses, pretty much running three businesses at the same time. I manage these three businesses with support from employees, but I've become their support, helping them out, because we're all self-driven. I wasn't coming from a business background - I was an immigrant who came to the U.S. as a graduate student with a different background and even worked in the government sector. Due to personal issues with my ex-husband, my life changed. I supported him and we moved, but after a while it didn't end up too well, and I ended up somewhere that I really had no roots, no connection. I had to start my career again after 7-8 years of supporting his career. I consulted with my dad who lives in China about what kind of small business I could do. Based on his suggestion, I got into the auction business, even though I didn't realize the significant difference between U.S. and China business models. I got forced into that route and couldn't quit because I was already invested, so I kept moving, learning from other people, looking at how people do business, and gaining experience dealing with clients and customers. I realized I should be my own investor - that was the only thing that inspired me. There was so much pain dealing with life over so many years, and I decided to use all the experience, knowledge, and resources on myself. I wanted to be the investor instead of helping other people. Once opportunities come my way, I just take them. That's why I've been crossing different industries - as an investor, it doesn't matter which industry I'm in. I apply the same knowledge and experience, and as long as I'm willing to work, open to learn, and leverage other people, I think I can grow bigger.
Her Interview
Ten minutes with Meggie
01What do you attribute your success to?
I attribute my success to my willingness to keep pushing myself out of my comfort zone. Coming from a totally different academic-focused background where my family expected me to be a doctor, lawyer, or professor, I've had to constantly challenge myself. Even though I dislike sales and would rather stay behind the computer doing details and coordination, all my businesses require sales skills. That's been my biggest struggle and challenge, but it's also my motivation - I don't like the idea of quitting. Since I'm already in this sales business, I might as well move forward. I deal with all kinds of people and get exhausted and burned out, but I understand that's what I have to deal with. I talk to myself every day to keep moving and be positive. What really inspired me was realizing that after so much pain dealing with life over so many years, I should use all my experience, knowledge, and resources on myself. I wanted to be the investor instead of helping other people. If I have to go through the same amount of pain, time, and effort, I'm going to help myself first. Once opportunities come my way, I just take them. As an investor, it doesn't matter which industry I'm in - I apply the same knowledge and experience, and as long as I'm willing to work, open to learn, evaluate the same way, and leverage other people, I think I can grow bigger.
02What advice would you give to young women entering your industry?
I would say we have to believe in ourselves. In commercial real estate, for example, there are a lot of male brokers - it's a heavily male-dominated industry, and there's nothing wrong with that, it just happened to be like that. But it can be very scary to female brokers because when you step into meetings or networking events, you only find a few women and everyone else is different. They network differently, and it could be really scary. I tell my female agents to just ignore those superficial things. We have to believe in ourselves because what makes us stand out is our professionalism, our knowledge, and experience. We cannot see ourselves as female brokers below the male brokers - we have to feel like we're equal, even better. We're better at customer relationships than male brokers. They don't spend a lot of time on that - they network in a man way. We tend to be very sentimental and sensitive, and we can sometimes understand our client's needs better than males. We have a lot of advantages as women. I would say believe in yourself, take advantage of our Mother Nature, the best qualities that we have, and utilize that. Just ignore those negative elements - don't even think or look at it. All it does is burn out energy and it's really not worth it.
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