Fearless Living
Do you ever wonder what’s holding you back? You have skills and you know what you want to do, so what is keeping you from achieving all you want in life?
In this book Fearless Living: 8 Life-Changing Values to Breakthrough Success, Princess House President and CEO Connie Tang spotlights eight key values that, when put into practice, enable you to navigate through virtually any business or personal situation with grace and without fear. Tang uses examples from her own life and successful career and folds in stories from other businesswomen that demonstrate the reality that goals can be reached and obstacles can be conquered by applying these values and living fearlessly.
Connie Tang
As the first woman President and CEO of Princess House, a premier direct selling company of housewares and home décor that has been helping women build their personal business success for 55 years, Connie Tang supports entrepreneurial-minded women who’ve discovered the opportunities they can find in a world of direct selling.
As a Chinese immigrant, Connie has seen it all, from working multiple odd jobs to self-financing her college education to now leading thousands of independent women entrepreneurs. Connie’s story revolves around living fearlessly in working her way up corporate ladders and turning her dreams and determination into action. Connie has witnessed first-hand the evolving, multi-cultural makeup of the U.S., and that’s led her to truly appreciate the power of Princess House to reach an increasingly diverse population.
Connie Tang’s core philosophy of overcoming fear and living the life you want enables her to inspire others and resonates with the 25,000+ business consultants she leads daily – most of whom are Latinas.
WOT: Tell us something about your book, describe your book, also something would not be able to find online.
CT: Published in both English and Spanish versions in the same volume, the book allows readers to uncover the secret behind eight key values – determination, accountability, drive for results, passion, collaboration, agility, respect and compassion – that when put into practice enable anyone to navigate through virtually any business or personal situation with grace and without fear. In addition to sharing my own personal story, I weave in real-life stories of women I’ve met from all walks of life, and the life-changing impact fearless living has when they start learning, growing and applying these principles.
WOT: What inspired you to write Fearless Living: 8 Life-Changing Values for Breakthrough Success?
CT: It all started from a dinner conversation almost two years ago with Tony Jeary, whom we had engaged to help us build a truly high-performing team at Princess House. He asked me how I ended up in direct selling, and I started my story at the beginning. I was born in Hong Kong and my family immigrated to the U.S. when I was young. A little way into my story, he said, “You should write a book. You could really help a lot of people.” At first, I thought, I’m not ready to write a book, but the more we talked and I thought about it, it started making sense. This would be the best way to reach, help and pay it forward by sharing my experiences and lessons learned!
WOT: What is the biggest example of your life experience that you have used for writing your book?
CT: When I was 10 months old my parents and I immigrated to the USA. My parents came for a “better life” and perhaps without clarity of what that meant. With a strong desire to work hard, save money, and by practicing frugality – we established our American life. With this very same grit, work ethic and even bigger aspirations to develop, grow, build and make a difference – my husband and I made the decision to seek out our “better life.” In 1994 we left everything behind in NYC, borrowed money from my brother-in-law in Taiwan and moved to the Dallas, TX area to start a new chapter of our life.
Challenges (and opportunities) came in all shapes, sizes and forms: networking, temp work, my husband (an adult immigrant) learning to speak English to get a job, living off credit cards until a full-time job was found, taking an opportunity to build international markets, which involved months away, abroad and alone, to all the other “life” moments like health, family and drama. Fast forward – I would not be who I am, do what I do and love what I love, without every one of those experiences. I learned, “What doesn’t kill you, makes you stronger.” Cliché AND true. Though sometimes, no less painful, when you’d living through challenges.
WOT: Tell us about your first entrepreneurial experience as a kid.
CT: I was an accidental entrepreneur and started my own business when I was in high school. I needed $100 for a leather jacket I wanted, so I decided to go to Koreatown to buy wholesale jewelry to sell. I punched them into mat boards and sold them to my friends in school. I didn’t know anything about margin or mark-up, I just thought, “somebody will pay $10 for this and I’ll make a profit and save it up.” But if I hadn’t read stories about entrepreneurs and people who overcame fears, I don’t think I would have had the courage to do that. Perhaps I was lucky that I wasn’t quite sure what to be afraid of either.
I started in the direct selling industry in 1995, and since then I’ve opened over 13 countries with various companies. I’ve lived in many different places, working primarily with women building their own businesses—and there are a lot of lessons learned from working with people in general.
WOT: Can you describe the women who would read Fearless Living: 8 Life-Changing Values for Breakthrough Success?
CT: I wrote the book to reach women who are looking for personal development, empowerment, entrepreneurship and business development. We want to help them find a community where they can support one another, have open conversations about challenges and lift one another up while sharing “how.”
The women I’ve heard from who’ve read the book appreciate that it gives them practical advice to make small changes in the way they do things every day, and those small changes lead to big results.
WOT: How can one find Fearless Living: 8 Life-Changing Values for Breakthrough Success?
To purchase your own copy of Fearless Living: 8 Life-Changing Values for Breakthrough Success or to join the Fearless Living movement, visit www.8fearlessvalues.com. To connect with me, LIKE my page on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/ConnieTangCEO/
- 45% Off the retail price of the book
- Enter the following promotion code during checkout: fearless
- Regular price for the book on the site is $16.99
The code is active now and we will keep the promotion code open through the end of August.
WOT: What are Fearless Living: 8 Life-Changing Values for Breakthrough Success goals currently?
CT: I wrote the book to reach people who are looking for personal development, empowerment, entrepreneurship and business development. The purpose of the book is to inspire and engage readers about what’s holding them back and how to overcome those obstacles. We want to help them find a community where they can support one another, have open conversations about challenges and lift one another up while sharing “how.”
As a member of an immigrant family from Hong Kong trying to discover the American Dream, I’ve been through some very challenging and even scary moments. I hope that sharing those moments and including other stories will be an inspiration to others to overcome obstacles in their own lives.
‘’If you let fear stop you from entering into collaboration, you may miss out on generating a level of unity, strength, and creativity that you cannot achieve alone.’’
WOT: How can you enter into collaboration without fear?
CT: Here are three of the most common fears that trick us into avoiding collaboration and ways to turn collaboration into one of the best treats of having a home business:
- Fear of Working with Others: Don’t let fear prevent you from collaborating with others. Collaboration allows you to maximize their knowledge and expertise, in addition to your own. It is a fact that working collaboratively helps you work smarter and makes amazing things happen.
- Fear of Getting Hurt: Don’t be afraid to expand your community, support network and your worldview because you fear trusting others. Develop a mindset that allows you to offer respect and accept the differences of others. You’ll find that your respect will be returned in kind and garner greater opportunities to learn and grow.
- Fear of Being Compassionate: We’ve all heard “It’s a dog-eat-dog world,” and we might fear that compassion will make us less competitive. That simply isn’t true because doing good and being able to relate to people makes you a more effective communicator, collaborator and leader, and it breeds respect. And most importantly, it leads you to do things for the greater good.
WOT: If you could tell your younger writing self-anything, what would it be?
CT: I would tell my younger self that growth is not linear and development is more than a series of progressive title changes. Don’t measure your own value against what you think others want or expect. And finally, as cliché as it sounds, “what doesn’t kill you, makes you stronger,” if you let it.
WOT: How would you describe your work style during the days?
CT: It’s essential to be disciplined by establishing good solid daily habits and making good use of every hour of the day. I practice discipline every day because I live on the west coast and my business is on the east coast. Each morning, I get fully dressed, including doing my hair and make up, before 5:00 a.m. Pacific Time. It would be easy to say, “I’m tired; it’s too early,” but I don’t because this daily discipline is so important. Think of yourself as having “discipline muscles.” It doesn’t’ hurt anymore when you’re used to stretching them.
WOT: Tell us about your proudest achievement?
CT: One of my favorite childhood memories is from junior high school. I loved playing saxophone for the jazz band and the regular band, but I needed to practice every single day. I got permission to take home my saxophone on the weekends to practice, but it weighed at least ten pounds – a heavy burden for my 4’6” twelve-year old self to carry on New York City buses. But carry it I did, no matter what the weather. All that discipline earned me an opportunity to create one of the greatest memories of my young life: participating in the Brooklyn Borough-Wide Band and performing at Carnegie Hall.