Dan Lok wasn’t always a boss. In this touching tale, he recounts his suffering at the hands of bullies, and how he overcame the harrowing experience to win the day.
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😹
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00:00 That was the door I was buying, just lining up for lunch.
00:03 They grabbed me out, dragged me all the way to here.
00:07 Like just two, three guys, big guys,
00:10 dragged me all the way here,
00:11 and they beat the (beep) out of me, right at this spot.
00:15 And that happened multiple times, multiple times.
00:19 I didn't tell my mom about it,
00:20 but actually I had nightmares.
00:22 I would wake up in the morning sweating.
00:26 This fear, this panic, 'cause then it's so unpredictable.
00:29 You don't know when you go to school,
00:31 when and where you're gonna get attacked.
00:33 At the time, my mom bought me
00:38 one of these English electronic dictionary.
00:43 They were very expensive.
00:46 It was like few hundred dollar US,
00:48 money that we didn't have.
00:49 My mom sacrificed so much for me, so much,
00:53 that she decided to immigrate to Canada
00:56 so that I have a better environment to learn my English,
00:59 to have a better future for myself.
01:01 And in class, because I couldn't understand
01:04 what the teacher was saying,
01:05 I would bring this dictionary out,
01:07 and I would open it up, it's got a little pen,
01:09 and I would write on it, and I would check
01:11 what the teacher was saying, I was reading the book,
01:13 I didn't understand what she was saying.
01:15 And the kids, they were just trashing me.
01:19 They were like, "What is this,
01:21 "some fancy computer, you Asian kid?
01:24 "What do you think you bring this stuff,
01:25 "electronics, and you're so (beep)?"
01:27 And then I was like, I'm sorry,
01:29 first I didn't understand what they're saying,
01:31 I said, "That's not what I meant,
01:33 "it's just what my mom bought for me."
01:35 And then they grab it, and they were running around with it.
01:38 I was trying to chase it to get it back,
01:40 because I didn't want anything to happen
01:42 to that electronic dictionary.
01:44 The damn kid took the dictionary,
01:46 the window was open, he threw it out the window,
01:50 it landed on the pavement, and broke the damn thing.
01:55 I didn't let that stop me, though.
01:57 I was acting like the dictionary worked,
02:00 but I actually had one of those old paper dictionary,
02:03 and I was memorizing five to 10 words every day.
02:08 Every day I'm learning, because I didn't want my mom
02:11 to find out that the dictionary didn't work,
02:14 and the best way to hide that incident
02:17 is actually by improving my English.
02:19 So I had one of those big dictionary,
02:21 I mean, it's all dog-ear, I mean,
02:23 I flip through it, highlight it,
02:25 write down and memorize each word.
02:28 I will pronunciate, pronunciate, pronunciate.
02:31 I will read through it, I will read it a hundred times,
02:34 just to get one word right.
02:36 I think every incident, even this,
02:39 you can see I'm a little bit,
02:42 even thinking about it, a little bit angry at it,
02:44 but it shaped who I am today,
02:47 and it trains me not to make excuse.
02:50 It's whatever I can use it, whatever I can make out of it.
02:55 There's some good that could come out of that.
02:57 From that kid to who I am today,
03:01 from the kid who couldn't speak a word of English,
03:03 who didn't have the electronic dictionary,
03:05 to now writing a dozen books,
03:07 and impacting millions of people,
03:09 but it started here.
03:11 There's no excuse.
03:12 It doesn't matter where you came from,
03:13 doesn't matter the roles you've been down,
03:15 it doesn't matter your background,
03:16 it doesn't matter your race, it doesn't matter.
03:18 You could do it.
03:19 (upbeat music)
03:22 (thunder rumbling)
03:25 (gentle music)
03:30 (gentle music)
03:33 (gentle music)
03:36 (gentle music)
03:38 [BLANK_AUDIO]