Meet Alan Li

We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Alan Li a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Alan, appreciate you sitting with us today to share your wisdom with our readers. So, let’s start with resilience – where do you get your resilience from?

My resilience comes from my parents. As first generation immigrants, they sacrificed so much for a new opportunity to come to the US. They left everything familiar behind—culture, language, community—to create a better life for our family. My dad first moved to New York City with less than $100 in his pocket before bringing my mom and sister 2 years later. He barely spoke any English too. When I think of hardships I have these days, it really pales in comparison to what my parents went through and I know that I can keep going.

Appreciate the insights and wisdom. Before we dig deeper and ask you about the skills that matter and more, maybe you can tell our readers about yourself?

I’m a photographer at FotoLab Studio and also a sign maker at Signs and Mirrors. I really enjoy helping people and businesses showcase themselves in the best light and making them feel confident and secure. At FotoLab, we allow customers to take self-portraits where they can capture professional quality photos for a fraction of the cost of traditional photography.

At Signs and Mirrors, we make beautiful sidewalk signage for premium retail businesses who are looking for something beyond the traditional plastic and chalk board A frame signs. We have a lot of exciting new product launches in the pipeline all centered around helping businesses put their best foot forward and attract customers.

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?

1. Mental Toughness
You need to go through hardship and get familiar with the mental roller coaster that comes with relationships, business, and life in general. Don’t shelter yourself. Allow yourself to feel and embrace the struggle, pain, and eventual beauty that comes with it.

2. Health
When you’re young, this is the last thing on your mind but all the little decisions you make compound over time. As I get older and see friends go through health challenges, I’m constantly reminded that without your health, you have nothing. Relationships, business, money, none of that matters if you’re in the hospital. Make sure you get good sleep, have a healthy diet and exercise. They are extremely basic, but do the basics well and you will reap the benefits.

3. Finding a Partner
Finding the right partner whether it be a cofounder, significant other, or close friend, can change your life. As social beings, we need thought partners and people who will push us to the next level. Synergies can be a real thing when you take two complementary people and put them together. I always think of the classic finance term 1+1 = 3 and that could not be more accurate to describe finding the right partner.

Looking back over the past 12 months or so, what do you think has been your biggest area of improvement or growth?

Photography has changed so much over the last few decades. From analog to digital and now Artificial Intellignece (AI). We have been tracking the latest AI generation models and playing around with them to stay familiar with how they work and how they can be improved. Over the last few months we created our own AI Headshot Generator www.fotolabstudio.ai which produces what we think is one of the highest quality AI headshots out there. Given our experience taking photos in a real photo studio, we’ve poured our learnings into our AI headshot generator to make it look as good and realistic as possible.

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