During my childhood, the entrance to my house was a revolving door, with a seemingly endless stream of visitors from Thailand coming into and out of our family’s lives. Some of these visitors remained for the briefest of visits, whereas others became fixtures in my life. I didn’t know it at the time, but a single thread tied each of these visitors together: they came to America to pursue education. At times the visitors were high school students learning English, at other times graduate students studying for an engineering degree. What made each of their endeavors possible was my family in New York. My parents and my aunts hosted and took care of dozens of these visitors during their visits to America. This willingness to take in others and show hospitality was my first lesson in service; that lesson remains core to my values today. Indeed, the example of my family was so inspiring that from the time I was young, I’ve had a strong desire to serve others.
As the son of immigrants from Thailand, I grew up in a culture that celebrated kindness and hospitality and that shunned actions that could be viewed as taking advantage of others. My family taught me that helping others – be they friends, family members, or colleagues – was a central activity in our lives. As I grew older and became more independent, I acquired greater abilities to serve others. As a teen, I was fortunate to advance quickly in my studies and was able to tutor other students. I also served in student government and led other students as team captain of several sports.
As I began adulthood – moving away from home, attending college, beginning my first professional training – I sought out ever more ways to serve. More importantly, I came to understand the motivation for my desire to serve: I felt immense gratitude for the good fortune of having grown up with a loving family and of having received an education that was second to none. As a military history buff and former student athlete, I decided on military service as the way to express my appreciation for all I had been given. When I raised my right hand and swore an oath to defend the Constitution, I did so out of gratitude. I wanted to be of service because of how thankful I was for the community where I grew up, the opportunities I received, and the country that made it all possible. Most importantly, I felt grateful for the people in my life who helped me every step of the way.
My time in the Army was a privilege. Of course, like most soldiers, I complained from time to time about the hardships that we suffered and the frustrations of military life. But I knew those complaints were temporary, whereas I felt immense, lasting satisfaction from knowing that I was doing some small part in helping to defend our nation while also taking care of the soldiers that I led. Each day that I put on the uniform, I was proud to be engaged in a professional pursuit that allowed me to express the importance of service in my life.
My time in the Army also exposed me to another important and ultimately indispensable part of my identity – personal finance and investing. My knowledge of and love for personal finance and investing came from a very practical place; I realized after I received my first Army paycheck that I had to study how to properly manage my own finances. From this humble beginning, I expanded my knowledge as much as I could while in the service (picture a soldier in his camouflage uniform reading Warren Buffett’s annual letters to Berkshire Hathaway shareholders while on his lunch break). I knew then that after my time in the Army was up, I would work in the world of professional investing.
I pursued finance roles after the Army, but my first job in the field didn’t work out as expected. Working as a credit analyst for the investment arm of a large insurance company, I loved how much I learned in my job and enjoyed the team of top-notch professionals that I worked with. Yet, there was something missing for me in that role: service to individuals. In the military, we thought about the mission and our country, but we remained most devoted to those individuals standing to our left and our right because we knew they would be there for us too when it counted. I deeply missed that sense of service, so no matter how many large investments I worked on, I knew I wouldn’t be fulfilled until I could serve individuals again.
Luckily for me, my old friend from college, Wei Wang, felt the same way towards his career in institutional asset management and was looking for a change at the same time I was. Since our values were already aligned and we had complementary skill sets, we decided to launch a financial planning and investment advisory business together. With that, Triple Summit Advisors was born, and we haven’t looked back since. Today, we focus on helping clients who have hit their professional stride and who are engaging financial planners and investment advisors for the first time. We help our clients to flourish, and help them to grow their first hundred thousand dollars into their first million dollars over time. I feel immense gratitude that I get to combine my passion for service and investing to help our clients, to whom I feel deep devotion. Through Triple Summit Advisors, I am proud to serve again.
