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to them. It was time. With nothing except for two tied-up plastic bags filled with old discarded tennis balls and a hollow bamboo stick, my dad and his friends began their long and dangerous swim to freedom.
    To prevent themselves from cutting their feet on the oyster shells, they would have to swim without stopping for about an hour across the channel separating Shenzhen, China and the New Territories of Hong Kong. And they had to do all of this while fighting the currents that could wash them into the open ocean and while avoiding the sharks that prowled those waters.
    While swimming through the treacherous waters in the dark, he and his friends would occasionally have to stay underwater to avoid being seen by the coast guards. Using the bamboo sticks, they were able to stay underwater for long periods of time. This, combined with the darkness of the night, caused them to lose sight of each other during the journey. That was the last time my father would see his friends again.
    Once they reached the shore, they were on their own. My father would later find out that all of the friends he was with made it across safely. Hong Kong wasn’t very populated at the time and welcomed all refugees. The government of Hong Kong saw Chinese refugees as sources of cheap labor and gave all of them citizenship.
    The first thing my father did in Hong Kong was head to the nearest police station and register as a refugee hoping to gain citizenship to Hong Kong. Because my father never received a birth certificate, he actually never knew his real birthday. Since he arrived in Hong Kong on September 7 th , 1966, he called September 7 th , 1946 his birthday. He figured that he was starting a new life in Hong Kong anyway, so he might as well call that day his birthday.
    After he got his papers, he rang up his older sister who was already in Hong Kong. She helped him find a place to live and a job as a Chinese herbalist. His older sister was also a refugee. Together, they thrived in Hong Kong, and my father became a great herbalist while reading herbalist books and studying under his boss. He eventually saved enough money from working to buy a plane ticket to the United States.
     
    Lifehack #1: Be ambitious in the face of doubt.
    These refugees were some of the bravest and most ambitious people in China. Their cheap labor and ambitions brought about Hong Kong's economic success in the late 20 th century. Several of them even went on to becoming millionaires. Chen estimated in his book that 40 of the 100 richest men in Hong Kong were refugees from China.
    This was no coincidence. One of the most important lifehacks that I had learned was to be ambitious even when doubt starts to flood your mind.
    When I was younger, I used to be very afraid of roller coasters. The very first roller coaster that I had been on was Space Mountain, an indoor roller coaster that took place completely in dark at Disneyland. My cousin had brought me there when I was around 7.
    Throughout the two-hour wait on the line, I was extremely nervous of riding it. I had an imaginative mind, so I thought of all the possible ways in which the ride could go wrong. My cousin, who was around my age, had no fears at all. I was baffled by his courage and felt inferior and embarrassed by my own cowardice. I wanted to go on the ride to show my bravery, but my body refused to cooperate.
    When I finally got on the ride, my cousin was laughing and having blast, while I was clinging onto the handle bar as if it was my only friend in the world. But in the middle of the ride, things changed. My anxiety turned into excitement. When the ride was finally over, I no longer had a fear of roller coasters. I still got body chills and shaky nerves, but this time I embraced them. I didn’t fight those sensations. I let those sensations intensify and I played with them. They made me feel alive.
    Later in life, I would go on many other thrilling adventures, such as water-powered jetpacking, skydiving,