My Journey to Becoming a Professional Golfer

Discuss an accomplishment, event, or realization that sparked a period of personal growth and a new understanding of yourself or others.

            I grew up in a family of entrepreneurs where both my parents were adept business owners and managers. Due to the nature of their jobs, my parents were extremely busy and as such, I was not able to see them on a regular basis. One of their closest friend, who was in fact my godmother, was one of the most famous actress/directors in China. She suggested that my parents put me in a performance school, where I could learn both acting and dancing, during my after-school hours and weekends. With proper training, she wanted me to start to appear in her movies and become a professional actor. I became a very busy little girl training and began performing all over Beijing City. Due to my parents’ busy schedule and my own busy schedule of school and training, we barely had time to see each other. I did well in performing arts, so well in fact, that I got the part to play the leading girl opposite of   Jaden Smith in Karate Kid 2. Knowing I was going to be away for the entire summer shooting the movie, I turned it down.

            I longed to spend more time with my parents so I asked them to relocate to the United States with me, they sent me to my grandma’s house, with the promise to join me soon. My parents later decided to switch their focus from operations to investments. That way, they could relocate to the US and work remotely from home. They bought a house on a golf course, and I fell in love with the game. I became interested in golf and discovered that I was learning the game fast. I put more effort and started to work on the game every day and a few months later, I started to compete in tournaments. This was a nice surprise for my parents, because for the first time, I had discovered something I liked and was good at. It is notable that I did not leave performing arts completely, I continued to dance. I performed at the Orlando Magic halftime show and was part of a promotional gig for Universal Studios as a dancer.

            One day, during a conversation with my dance group friends, they asked me what it is like to live in China. I replied that it is very hard to describe and instead suggested that they join me for a trip, to see for themselves what the nation is like. I soon realized that my suggestion to my friends was not a small project and decided that I want to make this trip a lifetime experience for my friends and myself. I contacted my godmother in China and told her that I would like an opportunity to bring my dance group to China for a dance performance. She explained that it would be tough and we have to go through an audition. I was 15 years old then, but my age did not compromise my resolve to achieve my goal. We went by ourselves, accompanied by the director of our dance group, who also knew nothing about China.

            Due to my knowledge and experience of China, I was the leader of the group and in fact directed the planning, contacting, registering and performing activities. Planning was especially critical to ensure that were ready for the audition performance and the devil was in the details. I had to orchestrate the whole experience too, which involved organizing and controlling of my team as well as motivating them to do their best given the one-time opportunity . We successfully went through the auditions and qualified to perform on national television. The stage for our performance was huge, with approximately 10,000 people in the live audience, and the show being viewed by over 7 million people on TV. This was my final performance in arts, which turned out to be a significant experience for my dance team and myself and in fact, paved way for some of the team members to pursue dancing on a professional level. Not only did the experience challenge my leadership and management skills, it was also a test of my courage and organizational skills. I committed to the golfing sport soon after the experience and I have been developing my skills to become a professional golfer at the highest level.

            Even though we were never the kind of family with lots of quality time together, I really appreciate the sense of entrepreneurship that my parents instilled in me. They taught me to always lead with courage, plan diligently and set challenging but achievable objectives. The choices we make often come with a lot of complexity and uncertainty. However, making informed choices with courage and following them up with proper planning can increase one’s ability to make set and achieve goals.

            My desire to become a professional golfer is one that I intend to pursue with courage. Beyond my passion for the sport, my choice to study humanity will prepare me to become a transformational and compassionate leader capable of influencing and promoting world peace. The kind of world peace I envision and want to co-create orients towards the development of high levels of empathy and respect, in which people from different races, cultures, religions and demographics come together, establish an environment in which communities can grow develop, thus molding a future in which we all may thrive.