My Life Story, Part 1: How a Single-Parent Home and a Poor Childhood Shaped My View of Money

Childhood: growing strength in the dark, and learning to see the light

The show is now more than thirty episodes in, and I still haven't really talked about my own background or my investing experience.

Honestly, I've had my own demons about it.

My childhood left some shadows, and many memories I'd rather not face.

But in a Satir workshop, teacher Lee Chung-Yi said something I've never forgotten:

We have to face our shadows.

So in this episode, I decided to face my past self head-on.

I'd have to talk about it sooner or later anyway.

Childhood: poverty, loneliness and a Game Boy

I was born in 1982 in Qishan, Kaohsiung, and grew up in Meinong — I'm Hakka.

There were three of us brothers; I'm the middle one.

My parents divorced when I was about 10, and we boys lived with our father.

But Dad wasn't home much. He'd come back two or three times a week, leave money on the table for food, and go again.

Later he ran up debts gambling on an illegal lottery, and our house was auctioned off by the court.

I remember court summonses often taped to our front door.

After that came endless moving and running from creditors.

I remember moving at least seven times; I went to three different elementary schools.

During that time I slowly learned one thing:

your surroundings can change at any moment, and the only person you can rely on is yourself.

A home without grown-ups

The time I remember most clearly is going a whole week without bathing, brushing my teeth, washing my face or leaving the house.

Not out of rebellion — simply because no one was looking after me.

For a while I lived almost entirely on instant noodles.

Sometimes I'd stay at a friend's house for three days, come home, and no one had noticed I was gone.

Back then I hated my father and thought he was irresponsible.

Only as an adult did I slowly understand that he probably did love us; he just didn't know how to show it.

The scholar Tseng Chao-Hsu once said something I only truly understood later:

“Love can only be learned in love.”

Perhaps he had never been loved well himself, so his capacity to love was limited.

As an adult, my relationship with my father actually became very good. In recent years I've even taken him traveling abroad.

Luckily, I had a perfect mother.

She didn't earn much, but whatever we needed, she did everything she could to provide.

Scarcity, and a personality that has to get what it wants

Growing up poor in a single-parent family, I always felt I was a step below everyone else.

My allowance was NT$1,000 a week (about US$30),

to cover three meals a day, transport and fun.

If I wanted something, I had to find a way myself.

In junior high I loved the Game Boy and the Super Nintendo.

I'd save my lunch money to buy game cartridges.

So how did I eat?

I brought a pair of chopsticks, and at lunchtime

I'd collect the food my classmates couldn't finish and fill myself up.

As Hao Hsu-Lieh likes to say:

“As long as your mindset doesn't slip, there are more solutions than problems.”

Looking back, it wasn't cleverness;

it was a survival strategy a child was forced to develop in scarcity.

But that childhood also gave me a trait that would matter a great deal later:

once I want something, I'll find a way to get it.

Darkness, unexpectedly, became a source of strength

It was this seemingly deprived childhood

that unexpectedly trained me to face life on my own.

Perhaps it's as the German philosopher Nietzsche said:

“What does not kill me makes me stronger.”

A turning point: the power of friendship

In junior high I met a group of good friends.

They showed me that besides family, I had friendship.

I often slept, ate and talked at their homes,

and living alongside their families

let me feel what a “home” really was for the first time.

Looking back, those days were actually very happy.

School struggles: internet cafés, retaking exams and college

In high school I got hooked on internet cafés.

StarCraft, Counter-Strike, Ultima Online —

all games that need teamwork.

In the real world I lacked a sense of belonging;

in games, I found a sense of achievement.

The price was that my schoolwork completely collapsed.

On the university entrance exam, out of 700 points I scored just over 100,

and no university would take me.

I spent a year retaking the exam

and finally got into MingDao College of Management (later MingDao University).

When learning had a purpose, everything began to change

My English was once terrible — the first time, I scored 19 points.

But after I started working, I realized something:

95% of the world's knowledge is written in English.

Once I knew why I was learning,

I learned in a completely different way.

I taught myself English and later scored over 800 on the TOEIC.

My first “shock” lesson in business: sued for a million over online sales!

Don't think I spent college just playing games.

Even then, my instinct to make money was showing.

In college I tried selling online,

buying small appliances wholesale and selling them on auction sites.

Then I got hit hard.

I was sued for copyright infringement,

and the other side demanded NT$1 million in damages.

I was terrified.

Only then did I learn that using other people's product photos without permission is illegal.

In the end I settled for NT$30,000.

For a student, that was a fortune.

But because of it,

I learned something early:

in business, you need to know the law, not just how to make money.

From play to survival — and to turning my life around

Once I started working, I almost stopped playing games.

Not because games are bad,

but because I knew clearly:

I didn't have much time to waste.

I wanted to make money. I wanted to change my life.

A life that started in debt

After college I did my military service and chose to be a paratrooper.

The reason was simple: paratroopers got NT$2,200 more a month.

Less than a month after I was discharged, I went into the insurance industry — and stayed for 17 years.

At the time I had only NT$30,000 in savings

and nearly NT$500,000 in student loans.

My adult life began in debt.

And it was from that low point

that I set out on the road to my FIRE life.

Closing: my past became fuel for moving forward

Looking back, my life has never been smooth sailing.

But I learned one thing:

we can't change the past, but we can choose how we see it.

Those seemingly terrible experiences

became the most distinctive nourishment in my life.

In this part, I've explained how I grew up.

In the next, I'll share how, after I started working,

I turned “survival” into “choice,” step by step,

through work and investing.

Next: My Life Story, Part 2: From a Million in Debt to Eight Figures

Listen to the episode (in Mandarin): #31 Doug's life story, part 1: Childhood