thanks so much for having me I’m really
looking forward to sharing some of what
I’ve learned with you some of my
experience and I hope that uh I hope the
idea here is that it’s gonna stretch
your brain just even a little bit and
we’ll have some fun with it so my name
again is Adam von guqin I’m a lifelong
entrepreneur and I’m an entrepreneur
really less because I intended to be one
and more because I had no other choice I
failed out of college miserably I had no
money no job prospects of any kind I had
really no opportunities happening for me
and so that’s where I really discovered
my love or really the necessity for
creation from scratch without a whole
lot of a leg up and I think that through
that process I was able to learn lots of
lessons along the way that I think speak
well to what success really means my
financial success or accomplishments on
paper but but success in like a holistic
kind of way like success from like a
what family really means or what your
personal health means I now I have to
say I feel really fulfilled in my work
I’m having a blast I’m surrounded by the
most amazing people we’re creating
products that are fun we’re creating
some products that are really changing
lives
so I co-founded an experience company
which is here in Connecticut but
distillery is only about a mile or two
away from here we produce Connecticut’s
first whisky and onyx moonshine I don’t
know if any of you’ve had that before
good memories rough mornings I don’t
know we just recently I co-founded with
my good friend Nicholas Melillo a
world-renowned cigar blender Highclere
Castle cigar company with my partner the
eighth Earl of Carnarvon who owns
Highclere Castle which some of you may
know as the site of Downton Abbey and
we’re planning to build the distillery
there next year using grains from the
land kind of like we do in Connecticut
and then finally on the CEO of movia
robotics movi robotics is a fantastic
company that’s innovated solutions
therapeutic curriculums to help children
with autism and special needs by using
robots so some really frontier
innovative artificial intelligence that
other
that are changing these children’s and
parents and teachers lives and so well
some of the stuff we have fun with I
guess you could call it lifestyle or
luxury things other things we do we try
to impact lives in kind of vaster ways
and so what I’ve decided to do was to
kind of relate success and my life story
and kind of how we’ve accomplished these
things with a perhaps more poignant tale
about experience that I recently had
that struck me so powerfully but I had
to gotta get home put all my meetings on
hold and and write this I get kind of
get out of my heart and I feel like this
group is a fantastic opportunity for me
to share that so 40 years ago my aunt
Charlene brought my uncle Bob home for
Thanksgiving dinner for the very first
time to meet my family my grandfather
stood up from the table and without
saying a word he left the house he left
my family at the table because my Uncle
Bob is a black man I think it’s
important to note my grandfather wasn’t
a KKK member or a Nazi or some white
nationalist his name was Howard he was
an average grandfather guy many of you
have the same Howard grandfather he was
a good American he fought for us in
World War two yet
societal norms of racism came natural to
him a few months ago my wife and I
joined Uncle Bob for his 45th family
reunion in Charleston South Carolina
Uncle Bob was raised in a small rural
town called Holly Hill where he was
adopted because his parents couldn’t
afford to keep him there was no
paperwork there was no agreement one day
he was shipped away and nothing else was
ever said of it that’s kind of how it
was done back then and I was among four
white folks at the event of over 150
people and for the first time in my life
I found myself in the minority and I
wouldn’t say I was uncomfortable with
this I feel quite fortunate actually to
have been born into a multiracial family
the very fact that my family’s diverse
has instilled in me a certain ignorance
in terms of seeing color or race
I don’t really think abouts color skin
color also I suppose because I’m white
and recently I’ve been vexed disgusted
really to see comments aggressive and
passive on both sides of my social media
feed and also verbally people I know and
friends comments from many different
ethnicities and races by the way friends
I respect of all shades and colors but
have said things that are making me
start to question the sanity of our
nation and I will circle this into how
that’s affecting our organizations the
business that we’re doing and the
responsibilities we have as people as
entrepreneurs I’m increasingly aware and
concerned about a division between our
people that I haven’t witnessed at least
in my 34 years like ten of which are
being conscious sure but 34 years
nonetheless I recognize it’s always been
there I’m seeing stuff bubbling that’s a
real concern it’s worth talking about to
be honest I’ve never really been
comfortable using the term black and
white my family doesn’t really talk
about race we’re just family as a matter
of fact ogre bob has been like a father
to me
single mom my father wasn’t overly
engaged
we had some family issues there so he
was a lot like a father to me he taught
me the importance of family he taught me
what it means to be a man and that even
though I didn’t come from wealth I could
be highly successful in life if I worked
hard from it he’s been incredibly
successful in his career I’m traveling
the world meeting people from all over
the place and building a very big
business when I suspect it’s not too
common a successful self-made black man
born very poor in the rural South
teaching a white kid from New England
what it means to live a rewarding
fulfilling life and I’ve never really
thought about it until now because it’s
just Uncle Bob the irony of Uncle Bob’s
position who is now kind of like our
family patriarch is that my grandfather
left the table that Thanksgiving so many
years ago because of him he left my aunt
and uncle at the table my aunt and uncle
that helped me go to a better school
to college even though I failed out
after one semester and who took me
around the world to broaden my views see
other cultures try other foods see
people of all different shades he
exposed me to those things my aunt and
uncle who were first in line to support
my businesses the ones I mentioned my
uncle who’s called my uncle Bob by more
people than I can count
regardless by the way of race our family
connection because he’s been there for
them and backed them up when no one else
would and I’d like to think if my
grandfather was alive today he would say
I’m truly sorry at this reunion Uncle
Bob’s family welcomed us with open arms
genuine smiles we ate together we drank
together drink a lot of moonshine and
sweet tea actually that’s their thing
down south we laugh together at one
point the room broke into a massive
group hug and the experience touched my
soul intensely they welcomed me as a
person and my skin color was entirely
irrelevant and they embraced me as a
family and I embrace them when I asked a
lot of questions on this adventure to
South Carolina my curiosity of the
family and of black history in general
was sparked really for the first time in
my life I started to think about how can
I make sense of this make some decisions
and integrate it into the activities at
least the world I’m comfortable in which
is business entrepreneurship I’ve always
known about the challenges of African
Americans obviously on a cerebral level
or academic level but until now I didn’t
really realize how much it impacted the
people I love you know friends included
a few things struck me while I was there
I learned that mulatto a term that my
aunt and uncle never allowed to call my
cousin’s it’s a degrading old Spanish
word for mule even though I’ve used it
myself it’s commonly understood to be a
person of white and black ancestry
I learned it took a federal court case
loving versus Virginia in 1967 for our
Supreme Court to rule that a ban on
interracial marriage was
unconstitutional and even though it was
ruled unconstitutional South Carolina we
were we celebrating the reunion didn’t
remove the ban until 1998 I was still in
school
Alabama left it on the books until the
year 2000 with 40% of the people not
wanting to have it removed I mean that
really kind of pulls at your heart like
when you think about the fact that
people still kind of aren’t getting it
this past summer for my uncle’s 70th
birthday we actually had a vow renewal
ceremony for him in my aunt they married
in 1983 most people I know over forty
five by the way her divorced and they’re
still they’re still kicking but I had no
idea whatsoever that at that event we
were incidentally celebrating the fact
that a white person and a black person
could be married at all
clueless I learned what Uncle Bob was a
little boy picked cotton and was paid 20
cents for every hundred pounds he picked
and he recalled to me he wasn’t very
good at it and I sat there in the car
and quietly thought I wonder what would
have happened to his grandfather great
grandfather had he not been good at it
perhaps most importantly I learned that
we like we are all one family like our
destinies are as a people as a tribe
like as Americans are intertwined our
pain our suffering our success in
abundance will always balance and the
yin-yang of the universe and as one
people we share the same faith and
there’s much about my family I’m proud
of I’m proud we’re diverse I’m proud of
my own ancestry but the other branch of
my family settled much of Connecticut
and Rhode Island I’m proud of Who I am
that includes being white by the way
because it’s Who I am with my own ethnic
set of roots but it’s not what I am
rather I feel a pride in what we’ve
accomplished within I feel most
especially the pride that we accomplish
within our little family reverses the
thinking behind my grandfather leave at
the table that day because no children
of ours will ever do the same I have a
nine year old a nine week old little boy
named Octavian because I have been
sleeping very much he’s not going to be
doing that we’re not going to be doing
that and I’m really proud of all my
American people I’m proud of who we are
even though I’m not always proud of what
we as a country do and what I know now
is that I have an obligation like we
have an obligation as we continue to
kind of design this world around us and
that’s what entrepreneurs think of it
all we design all this stuff this matrix
coding the TVs the tables all this
this is entrepreneurship we have visions
we execute on the visions with good
teams reality is born but we have a
bigger obligation than just business we
gotta start tying in these other factors
and figure out how do we entrepreneur
responsibly I don’t even got to preneur
as a verb but a speech given at the
reunion to celebrate the family elders
president was entitled I am Who I am
because of the people that came before
me our American family is one of people
that against all odds have survived
prosper to continue to try to make the
world a better place and I propose that
we try to lessen the grip on what the
system tells us we should think be or
feel let’s ignore the message of the
afraid and angry and boring and dare to
be brave adamantly sticking to our
principles especially in business
especially every day especially in the
office open our minds to the fact that
we’re one people like we’re a family and
achieving that I think is probably the
only thing that’s going to hold this
great experiment together I have kind of
three lessons that I extracted from this
story that I’m implementing into my
companies now and I encourage you to
think of different ways you can do it to
your own one is openness that means
having a genuine ability to change to
evolve in your life as I’m attempting to
do relating this experience into mine
openness is also staying humble as each
of us has a lot of growing to do to
prescribe ourselves a regular self
check-in and ask am I being open can I
do better am i accepting people do what
am I getting it in my patient number two
is trust you’ll have to do this but I’m
choosing to trust that the vast majority
of the people out there in the world
that the news puts on TV actually have
the best intentions in mind that we’re
all working towards the same goal of
happiness and finally leading by example
we’ve all heard that phrase a million
times I know and I’m not sure we always
do it I was originally was going to be
speaking today to inspire would-be
entrepreneurs I love that topic I do it
all the time
we’re gonna talk about companies and
startups and all these setting
adventures call me if you want to talk
about it or I’ll be at the bar after the
event
but I chose this topic because I felt
like it would be more impactful to share
this perspective even if it’s just a
little one I know a lot of what I’m
saying is not a whole lot different from
what you know but every day we have
opportunities to lead by example if
we’re cognizant of them to lead by
example with our families our employees
our teams again we are who we are
because of the people that came before
us as you know Octavian’s nine weeks old
and this message is more important to me
than ever our children will be because
who they are because of how we live our
actions and the things that we say we
are we are because of the people that
came before us we must celebrate that
but it’s up to us to improve on it
thanks guys
[Applause]
looking forward to sharing some of what
I’ve learned with you some of my
experience and I hope that uh I hope the
idea here is that it’s gonna stretch
your brain just even a little bit and
we’ll have some fun with it so my name
again is Adam von guqin I’m a lifelong
entrepreneur and I’m an entrepreneur
really less because I intended to be one
and more because I had no other choice I
failed out of college miserably I had no
money no job prospects of any kind I had
really no opportunities happening for me
and so that’s where I really discovered
my love or really the necessity for
creation from scratch without a whole
lot of a leg up and I think that through
that process I was able to learn lots of
lessons along the way that I think speak
well to what success really means my
financial success or accomplishments on
paper but but success in like a holistic
kind of way like success from like a
what family really means or what your
personal health means I now I have to
say I feel really fulfilled in my work
I’m having a blast I’m surrounded by the
most amazing people we’re creating
products that are fun we’re creating
some products that are really changing
lives
so I co-founded an experience company
which is here in Connecticut but
distillery is only about a mile or two
away from here we produce Connecticut’s
first whisky and onyx moonshine I don’t
know if any of you’ve had that before
good memories rough mornings I don’t
know we just recently I co-founded with
my good friend Nicholas Melillo a
world-renowned cigar blender Highclere
Castle cigar company with my partner the
eighth Earl of Carnarvon who owns
Highclere Castle which some of you may
know as the site of Downton Abbey and
we’re planning to build the distillery
there next year using grains from the
land kind of like we do in Connecticut
and then finally on the CEO of movia
robotics movi robotics is a fantastic
company that’s innovated solutions
therapeutic curriculums to help children
with autism and special needs by using
robots so some really frontier
innovative artificial intelligence that
other
that are changing these children’s and
parents and teachers lives and so well
some of the stuff we have fun with I
guess you could call it lifestyle or
luxury things other things we do we try
to impact lives in kind of vaster ways
and so what I’ve decided to do was to
kind of relate success and my life story
and kind of how we’ve accomplished these
things with a perhaps more poignant tale
about experience that I recently had
that struck me so powerfully but I had
to gotta get home put all my meetings on
hold and and write this I get kind of
get out of my heart and I feel like this
group is a fantastic opportunity for me
to share that so 40 years ago my aunt
Charlene brought my uncle Bob home for
Thanksgiving dinner for the very first
time to meet my family my grandfather
stood up from the table and without
saying a word he left the house he left
my family at the table because my Uncle
Bob is a black man I think it’s
important to note my grandfather wasn’t
a KKK member or a Nazi or some white
nationalist his name was Howard he was
an average grandfather guy many of you
have the same Howard grandfather he was
a good American he fought for us in
World War two yet
societal norms of racism came natural to
him a few months ago my wife and I
joined Uncle Bob for his 45th family
reunion in Charleston South Carolina
Uncle Bob was raised in a small rural
town called Holly Hill where he was
adopted because his parents couldn’t
afford to keep him there was no
paperwork there was no agreement one day
he was shipped away and nothing else was
ever said of it that’s kind of how it
was done back then and I was among four
white folks at the event of over 150
people and for the first time in my life
I found myself in the minority and I
wouldn’t say I was uncomfortable with
this I feel quite fortunate actually to
have been born into a multiracial family
the very fact that my family’s diverse
has instilled in me a certain ignorance
in terms of seeing color or race
I don’t really think abouts color skin
color also I suppose because I’m white
and recently I’ve been vexed disgusted
really to see comments aggressive and
passive on both sides of my social media
feed and also verbally people I know and
friends comments from many different
ethnicities and races by the way friends
I respect of all shades and colors but
have said things that are making me
start to question the sanity of our
nation and I will circle this into how
that’s affecting our organizations the
business that we’re doing and the
responsibilities we have as people as
entrepreneurs I’m increasingly aware and
concerned about a division between our
people that I haven’t witnessed at least
in my 34 years like ten of which are
being conscious sure but 34 years
nonetheless I recognize it’s always been
there I’m seeing stuff bubbling that’s a
real concern it’s worth talking about to
be honest I’ve never really been
comfortable using the term black and
white my family doesn’t really talk
about race we’re just family as a matter
of fact ogre bob has been like a father
to me
single mom my father wasn’t overly
engaged
we had some family issues there so he
was a lot like a father to me he taught
me the importance of family he taught me
what it means to be a man and that even
though I didn’t come from wealth I could
be highly successful in life if I worked
hard from it he’s been incredibly
successful in his career I’m traveling
the world meeting people from all over
the place and building a very big
business when I suspect it’s not too
common a successful self-made black man
born very poor in the rural South
teaching a white kid from New England
what it means to live a rewarding
fulfilling life and I’ve never really
thought about it until now because it’s
just Uncle Bob the irony of Uncle Bob’s
position who is now kind of like our
family patriarch is that my grandfather
left the table that Thanksgiving so many
years ago because of him he left my aunt
and uncle at the table my aunt and uncle
that helped me go to a better school
to college even though I failed out
after one semester and who took me
around the world to broaden my views see
other cultures try other foods see
people of all different shades he
exposed me to those things my aunt and
uncle who were first in line to support
my businesses the ones I mentioned my
uncle who’s called my uncle Bob by more
people than I can count
regardless by the way of race our family
connection because he’s been there for
them and backed them up when no one else
would and I’d like to think if my
grandfather was alive today he would say
I’m truly sorry at this reunion Uncle
Bob’s family welcomed us with open arms
genuine smiles we ate together we drank
together drink a lot of moonshine and
sweet tea actually that’s their thing
down south we laugh together at one
point the room broke into a massive
group hug and the experience touched my
soul intensely they welcomed me as a
person and my skin color was entirely
irrelevant and they embraced me as a
family and I embrace them when I asked a
lot of questions on this adventure to
South Carolina my curiosity of the
family and of black history in general
was sparked really for the first time in
my life I started to think about how can
I make sense of this make some decisions
and integrate it into the activities at
least the world I’m comfortable in which
is business entrepreneurship I’ve always
known about the challenges of African
Americans obviously on a cerebral level
or academic level but until now I didn’t
really realize how much it impacted the
people I love you know friends included
a few things struck me while I was there
I learned that mulatto a term that my
aunt and uncle never allowed to call my
cousin’s it’s a degrading old Spanish
word for mule even though I’ve used it
myself it’s commonly understood to be a
person of white and black ancestry
I learned it took a federal court case
loving versus Virginia in 1967 for our
Supreme Court to rule that a ban on
interracial marriage was
unconstitutional and even though it was
ruled unconstitutional South Carolina we
were we celebrating the reunion didn’t
remove the ban until 1998 I was still in
school
Alabama left it on the books until the
year 2000 with 40% of the people not
wanting to have it removed I mean that
really kind of pulls at your heart like
when you think about the fact that
people still kind of aren’t getting it
this past summer for my uncle’s 70th
birthday we actually had a vow renewal
ceremony for him in my aunt they married
in 1983 most people I know over forty
five by the way her divorced and they’re
still they’re still kicking but I had no
idea whatsoever that at that event we
were incidentally celebrating the fact
that a white person and a black person
could be married at all
clueless I learned what Uncle Bob was a
little boy picked cotton and was paid 20
cents for every hundred pounds he picked
and he recalled to me he wasn’t very
good at it and I sat there in the car
and quietly thought I wonder what would
have happened to his grandfather great
grandfather had he not been good at it
perhaps most importantly I learned that
we like we are all one family like our
destinies are as a people as a tribe
like as Americans are intertwined our
pain our suffering our success in
abundance will always balance and the
yin-yang of the universe and as one
people we share the same faith and
there’s much about my family I’m proud
of I’m proud we’re diverse I’m proud of
my own ancestry but the other branch of
my family settled much of Connecticut
and Rhode Island I’m proud of Who I am
that includes being white by the way
because it’s Who I am with my own ethnic
set of roots but it’s not what I am
rather I feel a pride in what we’ve
accomplished within I feel most
especially the pride that we accomplish
within our little family reverses the
thinking behind my grandfather leave at
the table that day because no children
of ours will ever do the same I have a
nine year old a nine week old little boy
named Octavian because I have been
sleeping very much he’s not going to be
doing that we’re not going to be doing
that and I’m really proud of all my
American people I’m proud of who we are
even though I’m not always proud of what
we as a country do and what I know now
is that I have an obligation like we
have an obligation as we continue to
kind of design this world around us and
that’s what entrepreneurs think of it
all we design all this stuff this matrix
coding the TVs the tables all this
this is entrepreneurship we have visions
we execute on the visions with good
teams reality is born but we have a
bigger obligation than just business we
gotta start tying in these other factors
and figure out how do we entrepreneur
responsibly I don’t even got to preneur
as a verb but a speech given at the
reunion to celebrate the family elders
president was entitled I am Who I am
because of the people that came before
me our American family is one of people
that against all odds have survived
prosper to continue to try to make the
world a better place and I propose that
we try to lessen the grip on what the
system tells us we should think be or
feel let’s ignore the message of the
afraid and angry and boring and dare to
be brave adamantly sticking to our
principles especially in business
especially every day especially in the
office open our minds to the fact that
we’re one people like we’re a family and
achieving that I think is probably the
only thing that’s going to hold this
great experiment together I have kind of
three lessons that I extracted from this
story that I’m implementing into my
companies now and I encourage you to
think of different ways you can do it to
your own one is openness that means
having a genuine ability to change to
evolve in your life as I’m attempting to
do relating this experience into mine
openness is also staying humble as each
of us has a lot of growing to do to
prescribe ourselves a regular self
check-in and ask am I being open can I
do better am i accepting people do what
am I getting it in my patient number two
is trust you’ll have to do this but I’m
choosing to trust that the vast majority
of the people out there in the world
that the news puts on TV actually have
the best intentions in mind that we’re
all working towards the same goal of
happiness and finally leading by example
we’ve all heard that phrase a million
times I know and I’m not sure we always
do it I was originally was going to be
speaking today to inspire would-be
entrepreneurs I love that topic I do it
all the time
we’re gonna talk about companies and
startups and all these setting
adventures call me if you want to talk
about it or I’ll be at the bar after the
event
but I chose this topic because I felt
like it would be more impactful to share
this perspective even if it’s just a
little one I know a lot of what I’m
saying is not a whole lot different from
what you know but every day we have
opportunities to lead by example if
we’re cognizant of them to lead by
example with our families our employees
our teams again we are who we are
because of the people that came before
us as you know Octavian’s nine weeks old
and this message is more important to me
than ever our children will be because
who they are because of how we live our
actions and the things that we say we
are we are because of the people that
came before us we must celebrate that
but it’s up to us to improve on it
thanks guys
[Applause]
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