An Interview With Jake Frankel
I think it starts with the acknowledgement that the “American dream” is this wonderful but nebulous thing that can mean something different to everyone. It’s not necessarily a large house or two children and a dog. It might not be becoming a doctor or engineer. Whatever it is, make sure you aren’t chasing someone else’s dream, especially your parents’.
Is the American Dream still alive? If you speak to many of the immigrants we spoke to, who came to this country with nothing but grit, resilience, and a dream, they will tell you that it certainly is still alive.
As a part of our series about immigrant success stories, I had the pleasure of interviewing Phuong Mayer.
Phuong Mayer is a Partner and Chief Executive Officer at PP & Co and has been with the firm for over 15 years. She received her Bachelor of Science degree in Computer Engineering from the University of California at Santa Cruz. She began studying accounting while working as a software engineer and later earned her Master of Science degree in Accountancy from San Jose State University. As a PP&Co Partner, Phuong gained extensive experience on the production side, providing tax and finance consulting services to closely held businesses, their owners, and families. As a result of her transition to CEO, her focus has shifted towards strategy and operations, with an emphasis on serving and supporting PP&Co and its amazing team. Phuong has always been an advocate for the profession and is passionate about helping others create sustainable and fulfilling careers in public accounting. Throughout her career at PP&Co, she has served as a guide and mentor helping to expand and enhance the firm’s professional development programs. She operates with a vision towards providing opportunities to the highly engaged and talented individuals who are the firm’s professional staff, while simultaneously challenging them to reach their full potential. With a blended background in technology and finance, Phuong understands the importance of leveraging — and leading — digital transformation, which will enable the PP&Co team to provide the most innovative and effective solutions to meet clients’ complex and ever evolving needs.
Thank you so much for joining us in this interview series! Can you tell us the story of how you grew up?
It’s so exciting to be part of a series highlighting the American Dream! It’s a topic that is so dear to me. I grew up in the Bay Area in a large family. I’m one of five kids. Our first home in the US was in Olympia, Washington, and as you can imagine, my parents didn’t adjust well to the winters there. So soon after, we moved to San Francisco where our whole family lived in a studio apartment. My brother and I slept on the floor next to my parents’ bed and my two sisters slept in a closet. By the time I was in kindergarten, we had moved across the Bay to Oakland where we finally had a house with a backyard, which was amazing!
My parents chose the Bay Area because of the large Asian community here. They shopped at Asian grocery stores, cooked Chinese food, and insisted we speak Chinese at home so we wouldn’t forget how. My father was an auto mechanic, and my mother was a seamstress. They worked all the time and were constantly worried about money, but we always had enough to eat and a roof over our heads. My parents prioritized those things because both of them experienced constant hunger in their childhoods, and they didn’t want that for us. But that meant there was no money for sports, hobbies, or any extracurriculars that other kids enjoyed. My parents didn’t like us to leave the house other than to go to school because they were terrified we’d get caught up in drugs, gangs, or other bad stuff. As a kid, I was bored a lot and a little bitter, I suppose. Thank God I wasn’t an only child. My siblings and I played with and looked out for each other which I think is why we’re still close today. And in my boredom, I discovered my love for reading books! The public library is a wonderful thing. Throughout my childhood, there was one giant beacon: college. College represented freedom. Freedom from having to live under my parents’ roof, financial freedom, and the ability to finally give back to my parents for their years of scrimping and sacrifice to give us a better life.
Was there a particular trigger point that made you emigrate to the US? Can you tell us the story?
This is really the story of my parents because I was 40 days old when my family made the journey from Vietnam. Yes, 40 days old! My mother literally waited for me to pop out before they began their journey. Both my parents grew up in extreme poverty. From the time my dad was a young child, he was out on the streets daily finding a way to earn his next meal. He would approach adults and offer to do anything that seemed helpful, like washing dishes, delivering goods by foot, even helping in gambling rooms. A true entrepreneur, you might say! By the time my dad was in his twenties, and married with young kids, he was a business owner who was able to hire people to help in our household. After the fall of Saigon, my parents feared the threat of communism would take away everything they had worked so hard for. Although what would happen was ultimately a great unknown, business owners and anyone with perceived wealth were constantly being shaken down by corrupt government officials. The lack of stability is especially scary for anyone who wants to earn an honest living. And so they decided to take a leap of faith.
Can you tell us the story of how you came to the USA? What was that experience like?
Again, this is second-hand because I was a baby during our journey. My father raised money from 440 people to buy a boat and…let’s say incentivized government officials to look the other way. The boat was about 66 feet long, which is just enough room for shoulder-to-shoulder sitting. Soon after we set out, we discovered the man my dad hired to drive the boat was a fraud who lied about his maritime experience because he immediately became seasick and incapacitated. The journey from Vietnam lasted 5 days and one person died along the way. On the 5th day, the boat capsized off the shore of Malaysia. My parents had four children ages 9, 6, 3, and 1 month. Miraculously, everyone on our boat made it to shore, and we spent the next 18 months in a refugee camp. We lived under makeshift shelters and ate a lot of canned food. To this day, my mom is not a fan of canned sardines! I’ve been told that as the only baby in the camp, I got a lot of attention, so I probably had one of the better experiences of everyone there.
Is there a particular person who you are grateful towards who helped make the move more manageable? Can you share a story?
My family was sponsored to the US by people at a Lutheran Church in Olympia, Washington. I’m profoundly and forever grateful to that community for the help they extended to my family. We landed at the Seattle airport in the middle of winter wearing the same clothes we’d worn at the refugee camp in Malaysia. A van showed up to pick us up at the airport. They took one look at us and told us to wait. They came back an hour later with winter coats for the whole family. That says how little we knew about the land where we had landed. That first winter, the Church brought us clothing, toys, and even a turkey for our first Christmas in the US.
Growing up, my parents always told me about a woman who was so kind and provided our family so much in our first year, and she had the same name as me! It was not until recently, having tried to find her on the Internet, that I learned her name was Fern, not Phuong. (We still get a chuckle out of that.) Fern Powers was instrumental in helping thousands of families like ours build new lives in this country. She did things like collect and sort donated goods, organize English classes, helped arrange transportation, make medical appointments, and help people find jobs. In 2015, Fern was recognized for her work with refugees in a special event in Seattle that was attended by the Governor and Secretary of State of Washington. Sadly, she passed away in 2019 and I regret that I didn’t find her in time to thank her in person for the direction she set my family’s lives in. I think she is truly an angel.
So how are things going today?
I could not be more proud of my family today. My siblings are all educated and well-adjusted contributors to society and my parents are retired and happily watching four grandchildren grow and thrive. We remain a close family who celebrate birthdays and holidays together all the time.
How have you used your success to bring goodness to the world?
‘Goodness’ is in the eye of the beholder, so I’m not sure I can say definitively that I have brought a lot of goodness to the world, but I do try! I have been and will continue to be involved with organizations that provide resources and education to groups in this country that have a greater hurdle than most. This includes not only immigrants and refugees but foster children, youth in the juvenile justice system, and those impacted by human trafficking. These groups have terrible odds stacked against them, but if you can change the trajectory of one person’s life for the better, that is an incredible success story.
You have first-hand experience with the US immigration system. If you had the power, which three things would you suggest to improve the system?
Because my family immigrated so long ago, I don’t know much about the legalities and processes of immigration today other than it seems very complicated, so I guess that is the first thing I would change. From a societal standpoint, we have to stop politicizing immigration and using it to create fear or anxiety. There needs to be more transparency regarding the realities of what’s happening and how the system really works. We shouldn’t flippantly change the process every few years. I support legal immigration but like any important system, it needs to be well managed to be effective. That may mean compromising and making hard choices. But if we let the entire system break down, everyone loses.
From my family’s experiences, the resources provided to immigrants in their first few years is also critical. Coming to this country is the first hurdle, but we also want these families to become well-adjusted members of society and be able to pursue their own happiness. Staying informed and not living in fear is one of the biggest challenges for immigrant families. So we should provide resources to keep them informed and allow them to work toward things like higher education and a safe place to live.
Can you share “5 keys to achieving the American dream” that others can learn from you? Please share a story or example for each.
I think it starts with the acknowledgement that the “American dream” is this wonderful but nebulous thing that can mean something different to everyone. It’s not necessarily a large house or two children and a dog. It might not be becoming a doctor or engineer. Whatever it is, make sure you aren’t chasing someone else’s dream, especially your parents’.
Education = freedom. It’s that simple. I can’t emphasize enough how important education is. It’s like a hundred doors being opened at once. It doesn’t necessarily have to be a college degree. It might be a trade or some other way of learning practical skills but having skills that someone is willing to pay you for is the key to independence. Welfare programs exist to help people create stability. They are wonderful programs built upon compassion. But in the long-term, they can also be like a drug that enslaves you. I think it’s important to see the potential trap.
The culture clash between first-generation immigrants and their kids can put a tremendous amount of pressure on a family who is already going through difficult times. As a youth, I thought my parents were terribly mean and unreasonable because they wouldn’t let me go to camp or sleepovers. In my mind, anything fun or cool was forbidden. I felt like a prisoner in our home. I was horrified at the thought of being seen at the grocery store using food stamps. As an adult, I now realize how hard it was for my parents to get by and how frightening it must have been for them to raise children in a culture they did not know or trust. I have so much respect for them now, and I wish that as a child, I could have had more empathy. To first-generation parents, I would suggest doing your best to not let fear drive your actions. And to the children, I would say be proud of your heritage. Speak your first language with pride and learn your family’s traditions. Someday, you’ll be glad you did.
We know that the US needs improvement. But are there 3 things that make you optimistic about the US’s future?
Great question. These days, we are constantly reminded of what is wrong and rarely have time to appreciate all the things that — while imperfect — are still right. The things that brought my family to the US — the things that were worth taking a huge risk for — those things still exist. The US has incredible systems in place — education, medical, public services. We hear a lot that “the system is broken” but the fact is, these systems still exist. They aren’t gone and that is a wonderful thing. Free public education for the first eighteen years of your life is mind-blowing in many parts of the world but we get that. If I’m in a car accident, someone will show up and take me to an emergency room where they will make sure I’m not in pain. These are things I will never take for granted.
I also believe this country was built upon great values — values such as the individual’s right to pursue their own happiness, and concepts such as paying it forward. I see tremendous acts of generosity and philanthropy all the time. In some of our darkest times, we see the most generosity and compassion, and that certainly makes me feel optimistic.
Pursuit of happiness is something I think about all the time, and it is rooted in the founding of this country. There is no greater freedom than the right to pursue happiness. I don’t think the strength of that should be taken for granted — this concept that you get to define your own joy and you can relentlessly pursue it. As long as that freedom continues to exist, I can be optimistic about the future.
We are very blessed that some of the biggest names in Business, VC funding, Sports, and Entertainment read this column. Is there a person in the world, or in the US whom you would love to have a private breakfast or lunch with, and why? He or she might see this, especially if we tag them.
What is the best way our readers can further follow your work online?
https://www.linkedin.com/in/phuong-mayer/
This was very inspiring. Thank you so much for joining us!
Phuong Mayer Of PP & Co: I Am Living Proof Of The American Dream was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.