Meet James Siyuan He

We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful James Siyuan He. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with James Siyuan below.

James Siyuan, thank you so much for joining us today and appreciate you talking about a sensitive topic. It’s unfortunately relevant to so many in the community as layoffs have been on the rise recently, and so we’d appreciate hearing your story and how you overcame being let go?

Two years ago I had the job of my dreams and then I was fired.

I grew up in a tech-oriented family, my brother is a startup founder in Silicon Valley and now works in venture studio, both my parents were the most senior Oracle database architects and serviced the worlds largest telecom and utilities companies. My father became the head of Alibaba cloud in North America before retiring. I was always the odd one out. I studied about cannabis in undergrad, became so engulfed that I was suspended from my MBA program at Babson for alleged distribution. I ended up returning to Babson to finish, hosting a symposium to showcase the legal cannabis industry before relocating to California to actually join it. After a wild journey from intern-to-executive with one of the early investment firms out of Newport Beach that went on to become an operating company holding many licenses across the supply chain in California, to going public as Manifest7 (MSVN) and eventual delisting – I finally landed a job in tech when the CEO/Founder of Blaze, a top ERP solutions provider who I was a client of invited me onboard to be the Head of their Insights Product.

As the cannabis industry deteriorated over the coming years post hype – over regulated and taxed competing with the black market my job became obsolete as reporting streamlined and the rise of AI and natural language queries made my role obsolete, I was let go.

Devastated not just by the loss of income and employment but more so the lack of control over my destiny, time and identity, I decided to invest the savings and everything I could borrow from the bank and credit cards into starting my own business, one based on complete freedom.

My goal was to set up my own micro-grid to do Bitcoin mining off of solar. This way as long as the sun came up, I would make money, and real money at that although at the time it was a gamble. The only problem was that it takes money to make money and I didn’t have half a million dollars laying around to build a solar farm.

I started my search for land in the high desert and narrowed in on Lancaster, CA a city committed to becoming the first net zero city in the US. I ended up meeting an old master Carpenter Tom who lived on the outskirts in Lake Los Angeles, a forgotten town with a dried-up Lake that doubles as Hollywood’s best kept secret for desert scenery. Tom had listed his ranch, lost his son to opioids and was back to take care of his parents where he grew up, but the loneliness of the desert compared to the city was wearing on him and he was ready to head back to Pittsburgh where he had made a life – we became fast friends and a mentor-mentee relationship formed, he offered to let me use his five acre plot to build my project instead of selling it if I can cover the expenses probably thinking it would be entertaining to watch me try.

We end up signing a 99-year lease and finding a solar decommissioning company that had access to thousands used panels coming down from large solar farms that were upgrading their systems. We traded them space on the property to store them in exchange for payment in solar panels. It was the perfect storm.

From there we got the equipment needed for next to nothing and used our labor to put together custom off-grid microgrid using recycled materials. The solar farm is now built and we mine enough to keep the lights on and participate in the future of money but a business formed from the plan to overcome unemployment and that was reselling solar panels and off grid equipment bypassing solar installers who cheat you and the power company so that they too can afford to exit the system and control their own destiny as well.

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 am focused now on health and regenerative farming, overcoming my addiction to cannabis and tobacco and expanding my business beyond reselling solar panels to incorporate all aspects of off-grid and independent living from energy storage, water to affordable housing.

Going through the challenges that I did in losing a job and then choosing to not return to employment but to find a way in the desert has taught me a lot in self sufficiency and it is not as far off as it may seem for the average person to attain. I want to pay it forward because without the unexpected people like Tom to teach me and share with me, I wouldn’t have survived. I want to make freeing yourself more accessible to others and also share what I’ve learned that may be of use to others on their journey.

If you had to pick three qualities that are most important to develop, which three would you say matter most?

Leverage and confidence. You need a little confidence to try, to ask and then you get a little leverage, experience, capital, favor, even a failure levers you. It’s a flywheel.

My father always said to me the doors in the hallway do not reveal themselves until you walk down the hall. If there’s anything I would share with folks early on in their journey is that you will be surprised what is in store for you if you take the leap of faith. For those that need a little more to hang onto I recommend the mechanics of leverage and confidence to navigate the unknown.

One of our goals is to help like-minded folks with similar goals connect and so before we go we want to ask if you are looking to partner or collab with others – and if so, what would make the ideal collaborator or partner?

Yes I am looking for folks who are interested in building off grid communities, experiences and resorts to build with. Please reach out to me if you are looking to have energy independence or develop in the desert!

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.wilsonagardens.com
• Other: Silentpartnerholdings@gmail.com