"Try harder and be more humble. Keep going, have confidence, and believe in yourself. You can achieve way more than you know."
Xingyu Yang established and operates the private equity fund T&J Brothers Group, LLC in Los Angeles. He specialized in private equity fund investment and public transaction, financial advisory, planning, and strategic asset allocation.
He was involved in the IPO (initial public offering) of IMMUNE Bio (biotech) and the merging of Armo company. They are keeping their IPO strategy to investing in more companies that not just profit, but also help the world. He is a follower of value investing and is focused on future growth and enhancement of private equity in the industry. Xingyu is also currently one of the youngest fund managers in Los Angeles.
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Table of Contents
You are a successful entrepreneur, so we’d like your view point, do you believe entrepreneurs are born or made? Explain.
Xingyu Yang: Honest, driven, passion and commitment.
If you were asked to describe yourself as an entrepreneur in a few words, what would you say?
Xingyu Yang: Driven, passionate, mistake maker and self learner.
Tell us about what your company does and how did it change over the years?
Xingyu Yang: We run a private equity firm in California. We start from nothing and no capital from our family. We starting go seek projects and find investor for the project and made several successful investment. It was very hard in first two years.
Thank you for all that. Now for the main focus of this interview. With close to 11.000 new businesses registered daily in the US, what must an entrepreneur assume when starting a business?
Xingyu Yang: Passion! Passion! And passion!
Did you make any wrong assumptions before starting a business that you ended up paying dearly for?
Xingyu Yang: I started an LLC before my second company. I failed because the partner I had had a very different prospect than me. In every business, the partner in your company is very important to value because they are the closest person in the company with you.
If you could go back in time to when you first started your business, what advice would you give yourself and why? Explain
Xingyu Yang: Try harder and be more humble. Keep going, have confidence, and believe in yourself. You can achieve way more than you know.
What is the worst advice you received regarding running a business and what lesson would you like others to learn from your experience?
Xingyu Yang: You’ll fail. Other people have tried similar things, and they’ve failed. If it were possible to get women to invest, one of those other guys would’ve succeeded already. It’s true that the failure rate for startups is high, but self-defeating logic like this would put an end to innovation itself if every would-be entrepreneur followed it.
In your opinion, how has COVID-19 changed what entrepreneurs should assume before starting a business? What hasn’t changed?
Xingyu Yang: We’re doing more meetings online than in person. But people still love to meet in person before the deal.
What is a common myth about entrepreneurship that aspiring entrepreneurs and would-be business owners believe in? What advice would you give them?
Xingyu Yang: Lots of people think that entrepreneurs work 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. Working nonstop means that you won’t have time for your family, friends, and leisure activities. While it’s true that entrepreneurship can take grueling hours and commitment, it’s not true that you can’t have a personal life. Part of being your own boss means that you can schedule your own hours – to some extent.
I’m not saying you can take time off whenever you want, but there’s still enough time for family and social activities. One of the keys to being a successful entrepreneur is mastering your time management skills. Do what you want to do and keep doing it!
What traits, qualities, and assumptions do you believe are most important to have before starting a business?
Xingyu Yang: Honesty and passion.
How can aspiring leaders prepare themselves for the future challenges of entrepreneurship? Are there any books, websites, or even movies to learn from?
Xingyu Yang: Wolf of Wall Street, Big short, Too big too fail, Margin call.
You have shared quite a bit of your wisdom and our readers thank you for your generosity but would also love to know: If you could choose any job other than being an entrepreneur, what would it be?
Xingyu Yang: I don’t think I will. Being an entrepreneur is a thing that you wanted to do in your life.
Thank you so much for your time, I believe I speak for all of our readers when I say that this has been incredibly insightful. We do have one more question: If you could add anyone to Mount Rushmore, but not a politician, who would it be; why?
Xingyu Yang: Tommy Chen: he is my partner and master of real estate investing.
Jed Morley, VIP Contributor to ValiantCEO and the host of this interview would like to thank Xingyu Yang for taking the time to do this interview and share his knowledge and experience with our readers.
If you would like to get in touch with Xingyu Yangor his company, you can do it through his – Linkedin Page
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