From Mopping Floors to Lunching with CEOs: What I Wish I Knew in High School
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Before I went to Stanford, I worked at a cafe mopping floors and cleaning toilets.
But when I got to college, I met other freshmen who had spent their summers working at Microsoft and eating lunch with Bill Gates.
As a child of immigrants, I didn't know opportunities like those even existed.
That gap—between what’s possible and what you know is possible—changes everything.
That's a huge reason why I coach teens today: to share wisdom, access, and valuable shortcuts I wish I had as a high schooler.
Both of my parents went to top high schools and colleges in Taiwan. As the highest achieving students in their country, they came to the US to earn a master’s degree and PhD.
Despite their sterling credentials, my parents never reached their full professional potential.
While my mother's peers were the CEOs of banks in Taiwan, she ended up working as an auditor for the U.S. government. She won performance awards every year but was constantly passed over for promotions.
My father also worked for the federal government, as a research scientist. Although he had a PhD and dozens of publications, his boss was decades younger with just a B.S..
My father finally got a promotion when he walked into his boss' office and said, "I’d like a promotion. How about we both take a test to compare our skills?"
My parents raised me to believe that those who studied the hardest and "obeyed" their teachers (and bosses) would get ahead.
But through their own lives, they showed me that absolutely is not the case.
It works, to a certain extent, to get you into college.
But the skills to succeed in school, like memorization, regurgitation and making your "boss" happy, aren't what get you ahead at work -- or life.
And finding a rewarding career and life are very important.
After all, isn't that why parents want their teens to go to college?
So the coaching I bring to my students today goes far beyond college.
I teach them how to create careers -- and lives -- they love.
I’ve achieved it and see how wonderful it is, so I want that for all of my students.
My coaching is a culmination of everything I've learned over 50 years on this planet and I impart the same strategies I teach my own daughters every day.
What did it take for me to get into Stanford as a math major, transition to pre-med and eventually become a history major?
How did I parlay a history degree (can there be anything more “unmarketable”) into a job in the hyper-competitive world of TV news where I became a reporter and anchor? (I decided on journalism late in college, spring of senior year, yet still won an opportunity at the #1 TV station in Boston right after graduation.)
After I left journalism to raise my kids and spend most of my time at home, how did I transition to building my own business — without any formal entrepreneurial training — that attracts highly accomplished families from across the globe?
Every day I am learning and taking strategic action to create my ideal career and life -- and I teach my students the same principles.
I’ve gleaned so much from decades of navigating elite circles, reinventing myself and creating opportunities when there seem to be none.
And now?
My students, who generally come to me unaware of their own potential, leverage my guidance to win internships at Ivy League labs, work directly with startup CEOs, and publish books -- all while they're still in high school.
I have accelerated my students' successes.
It took me decades to learn these lessons, and hours for my students to start benefiting.
I've saved my students years of time — and stress — so they can greatly impact the world starting at a young age, without facing the barriers I encountered.
I also teach my students financial lessons, helping them see their value and advocate for what they're worth.
Over time, these mindsets, skills and actions will compound, helping my students achieve — and earn — exponentially more than peers who don't discover their mission and value until later in life... or ever.
The specific strategies I guide each student with are carefully tailored to each teen’s interests and personality — and the impacts are immediate and concrete.
Not only do 92% of them end up winning admission to Ivy-level schools or UCB / UCLA, my students' lives are on a completely different trajectory than before they met me.
That, to me, is success.
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Do you want your teen to uncover hidden opportunities or better yet, create their own ventures? Apply now to join Alice’s college admissions coaching practice. Only one spot is open for each of the Classes of 2027 and 2028. Set your teen on a trajectory few will ever experience.