We recently connected with Tony Pu and have shared our conversation below.
Hi Tony, so happy to have you on the platform with us today and excited to chat about your lessons and insights. Our ability to make good decisions can massively impact our lives, careers and relationships and so it would be very helpful to hear about how you built your decision-making skills.
To me, making a decision is about understanding the problem from its root, and evaluating the risks and rewards of different options. I’m gonna use an exmaple to illustrate. Nowadays, thanks to the rise of the creator economy, many people around me have consulted me on whether they should become a content creator as well. To make this decision, let’s break it down into the above two aspects.
First, I always ask them why they want to be a creator in the first place — the “problem”. Do they want to do it for money, for recognition, for fun, or for some other reasons? Once we understand the why, we could tackle this decision with more purpose.
Then, let’s say the “problem” is about money, so time to evaluate if being a creator, from a risk & reward standpoint, makes sense to solve the money problem. In this case, the reward is obvious as everyone knows now that influencers make a lot of money. The risks would include a lot of time invested but ending up making no money at all. Of course different people have different comfort levels for risks and rewards, but in our example, the risks could already be too much for risk-averse ones, and easily the decision should be not to pursue the creator route.
Of course this is an over-simplified example, but this thought process should apply to many different scenarios of decision making, whether it’s for investment, purchase, or even creative decisions. The better you could identify and understand the problem, the more comprehensive you can evaluate the risks and rewards, the better decision maker you’ll become!
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?
Currently, I am running the creator program in one of the most popular short-video platforms. What’s special about what I do is I used to be a creative producer myself, so I could guide creators to not only create great-quality content, but also help them learn to best leverage the platform for their success in the program.
Looking back, what do you think were the three qualities, skills, or areas of knowledge that were most impactful in your journey? What advice do you have for folks who are early in their journey in terms of how they can best develop or improve on these?
Being genuine is the quality that has helped me the most. At my work, I am definitely not the “nicest” person to creators or clients, but most of them I have interacted with find me the most helpful, and eventually want to hear more from me. That’s because I don’t try to “sell” them anything by being super nice and welcoming, but instead I provide transparency, which sometimes could sound harsh, but end up actually helping. Being “nice” and sounding “supportive” are important of course, but I think being genuine is the key to convincing others to “buy” without you “selling”.
What was the most impactful thing your parents did for you?
It has to be allowing me to study abroad in the US on my own when I was 17. Adolescence is a wonderful period where our worldviews and mindsets are shaping, and coming to the US for school at that age was definitely one of the most significant moments that have made me who I am today. I also had to learn to be independent and accountable. To them, it was also a big sacrifice as they would miss the presence of their only child a lot, and I can also imagine the worries and concerns about my safety and wellness. I’m grateful for what they have done, and hopefully I can make them proud after all this time.
Contact Info:
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tpu0817/
