Growth & Failure

This is the story of Lu Zhang, an entrepreneur, venture capitalist, and avid learner. On this episode, you'll hear about Lu's journey from Inner Mongolia to Stanford University where she created a medical device for early-stage diagnosis in Type II Diabetes to becoming a venture capitalist and launching her own venture capital firm, Fusion Fund.Like what you hear? Be sure to subscribe to the podcast and leave a review!Thanks for listening - Yinh

In this episode - you'll hear from Shabnam Koirala-Azad, the first female Dean for the School of Education at the University of San Francisco. Another fun fact about Shabnam - she is the FIRST person from Nepal (male or female) to be Dean at ANY university in the United States!We discuss her unique upbringing in Kathmandu - being raised by a Nepalese father and an Iranian mother and how her parents' focus on helping others stayed with her. We discuss some hardships she faced early on including her mother passing away when she was just 10 years old. Her father raised her and her brother to think of others and to be mindful of life’s significance and purpose in connecting and helping others. Despite her position of great responsibility and influence, Shabnam retains the same sense of humility from her upbringing in Nepal with a deep focus on elevating education to the masses.I found Shabnam to be an inspiring teacher in more ways than one.Enjoy!Like what you hear? Be sure to subscribe to the podcast and leave a review!Thanks for listening - Yinh

In this episode - you'll hear from Elizabeth Shaughnessy - Founder of the Berkeley Chess School. Elizabeth is 81 years YOUNG and has no plans on dying...Elizabeth was Women's Chess Champion in Ireland. She has played in seven international chess Olympiads and is active in chess tournaments around the world. She served as President of CalChess and is on the US Chess Executive Board.She cites two main failures in her life relating to playing piano (but not at the level of Beethoven or Mozart) and architecture (a career she held for decades but didn't think she was particularly good at it). And then in 1982....Elizabeth opened the Berkeley Chess School.With nearly 40 years of success at the Berkeley Chess School, Elizabeth has amassed incredible knowledge and insight on how children play the game of chess (and life) differently. You'll hear why she believes chess is so important for kids and adults outside of the game. I have no doubt you'll enjoy this conversation with Elizabeth - the Mies Van Der Rohe of chess....Like what you hear? Be sure to subscribe to the podcast and leave a review!Thanks for listening - Yinh

In this episode - you'll hear from Ellen Chen - co-founder of Mendocino Farms Restaurant, the incredibly popular neighborhood sandwich restaurant and how it all started. It is clear that Ellen and her team want to make a difference in their journey to "Selling Happy" - a difference for Mendocino Farms employees, for the farms and farmers that they partnered up with and for each neighborhood they open a location in. And their guests are eating it up...Mendocino Farms really does sell happy.... but it wasn't always sunshine and rainbows.Ellen and I talk about the struggles - with her start in the restaurant business, about her in-laws taking a second mortgage on their home and loaning them the money and to cleaning bathrooms. Her professional failure included a restaurant in Southern CA and the personal failure she mentions at the end of the show is one that everyone can learn from....Enjoy!Like what you hear? Be sure to subscribe to the podcast and leave a review!Thanks for listening - Yinh

In this episode, you'll hear how Yinh came up with idea for the podcast. And what her goal for the show is...Like what you hear? Be sure to subscribe to the podcast and leave a review!Thanks for listening - YinhYou can connect with Yinh and subscribe to the show at GrowthandFailure.com or email yinh@growthandfailure.com