We were lucky to catch up with Henry Zhao recently and have shared our conversation below.
Henry, so great to have you with us and we want to jump right into a really important question. In recent years, it’s become so clear that we’re living through a time where so many folks are lacking self-confidence and self-esteem. So, we’d love to hear about your journey and how you developed your self-confidence and self-esteem.
I don’t know if practice makes perfect, but I do know that it’s really hard to not get better at something after you practice it for a decade. I think confidence and self esteem too are, in a way, something you practice, simply by putting yourself in certain environments and accepting small “failures” over and over again.
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I remember those math quizzes in third grade, where you have one minute to do as many multiplication problems as possible. I remember beads of sweat building on my forehead, and me desperately trying to avoid any mistake while still moving as fast as I could. I usually would do pretty well on the quizzes, but the experience was extremely uncomfortable.
When you spend a lot of time in that kind of environment, whether it is at school or at home, where the emphasis is on avoiding mistakes, it’s hard to build self esteem. And then there’s another additional layer to that for many first generation immigrant families who fled poverty or war, and understandably translate that survival, risk averse outlook to their kids.
So where does self esteem come from then? Here’s one:
It’s not a cool thing to say in Southern California in 2023, but I do think that things like integrity, dignity, and authenticity matter. I’m quite aware it’s not hip. But the truth is, when you have certain personal values you believe in, even things like peer pressure or financial disadvantage become relatively peripheral. Most importantly, though, when you have a strong sense of what you care about in terms of morals and character, you are willing to pay a massive price, once again either socially or financially. But the reward is, if you can get through that, people very quickly sense a decisiveness or strength in you when it comes to taking action, because you already are used to being willing to accept the costs of something very important to you, which is being true to your own values. You gotta pay that price first though.
Great, so let’s take a few minutes and cover your story. What should folks know about you and what you do?
I’m very proud to be working on a regular musical showcase, the Wild Peacock Preservation Showcase, with fellow alumni from Arcadia High School Jimmy Licata, Tony Licata, Daniel Markus and Edward Pan. I’ve been playing open mics and showcases around the LA area for a few years now, and we’ve finally found Jeweled Universe as a “home base” musically. The showcase features our group opening every month, followed by Mike Berman, another folk songwriter, who will bring in 3-4 really great artists. The idea is to give different curated artists a chance to get in front of a new audience and develop the community organically.
Many of these artists are solo folk/pop musicians, kind of like myself. The boys and I will be focused on playing lots of original “doubletime” folk ‘n roll songs, the type to get folks actually grooving along. In fact, I’ve been writing for 14 years, and with a little help from my friends, I’ve finally been able to create a sound that I’ve also wanted to hear myself.
On the side, I’ve also been working with Edward on a small recording business. We’ve helped a few artists record and mix their music, and we’ve been enjoying the process even through its ups and downs, and are very proud to be able to help artists get as close as possible to the sound they hear in their head.
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Wild Peacock Preservation Showcase, where we will always play a 45 minute set, is tentatively happening:
12/2 (Mike Berman featuring Cynthia Brando, Pi Jacobs, Kathleen Kelso)
1/13
3/2
4/6
We are also playing 12/9 for the downtown Arcadia Holiday Festival.
Finally, be on the lookout for lots of new songs by me (Henry Zhao), The Licata Brothers and Daniel Markus,.
There is so much advice out there about all the different skills and qualities folks need to develop in order to succeed in today’s highly competitive environment and often it can feel overwhelming. So, if we had to break it down to just the three that matter most, which three skills or qualities would you focus on?
Off the top of my head. a few of the most important qualities I’ve found are:
1. The ability to empathize with people around you. In almost any field, I’ve found, you are primarily working with people, as much as you are with numbers, ideas, tools, etc. If you don’t sincerely care about others, and don’t practice putting yourself in other people’s shoes, it’s really hard to get very far.
2. The willingness to accept risks and responsibility. As I mentioned in my piece on self esteem, I’m naturally very risk averse. That works well if you are trying to avoid making a mistake on a test, or avoid being yelled at by your parents, but if you want to do anything of real consequence, I’ve found the best thing is to have the idea, follow through on the risk, and accept the failure humbly. You’ll have lots of people around you who only see the failure, but you have to have the guts to say – I didn’t “fail” so much as I took the risk. “I failed this time, but the risk was reasonable” is I think the way to think about it. You often learn as much from the small failures as you do from the “successes” I think.
3. Possibly my favorite, is focusing on building systems and habits. It’s easy for me to become attached to outcomes and freak out when things go out of my control. That’s why I care very much about having a steady routine as a safe space, embedded with small steps towards my bigger goals. As long as I’m moving in the right direction, I can usually feel okay, and definitely much more okay than jumping between all or nothing thinking.
Alright, so before we go we want to ask you to take a moment to reflect and share what you think you would do if you somehow knew you only had a decade of life left?
I’ve got a few health challenges, like many artists I know, that pose a massive day to day challenge. For many artists I know it’s more purely mental health – ADHD, depression, etc. I also know many artists with more purely physical health challenges, whether it’s severe allergies or a whole host of rare syndromes.
For myself, a pretty severe case of OCD the nine-tailed fox inside me that I’m trying to tame. It’s real drag when one of your obsessive phobias is taking the typical prescribed medication. The truth is, though, (barely) surviving the perceived hellfire of the OCD and its related constant panic attacks, sleeplessness, etc. has taught me way more than my parents, school, etc. I guess when you’re presented with a deep river and there’s an army chasing you, you just jump in and hope you make it across. There’s no magic to it, you just accept that you’re at the mercy of the universe always, and for me at the mercy of my nervous system.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://wildpeacockpreservation.squarespace.com/
- Instagram: instagram.com/henryzhaosblues
Image Credits
Mengzi Han instagram.com/dewfall_mzh
