Vince Chan
speaker
6,989 appearances
347 recordings
1 series
first heard Nov 2024
last heard Jun 2025
Vince Chan’s voice in public audio — every appearance, attributed to the second.
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What made you want to combine the two?
Yeah, Yale. This episode might feel a little Yale-biased since we're both alums, but it is really known for its liberal arts education. It gives us that freedom to explore, to try different things, and figure out what turns us on. No one at Yale ever said, you have to choose either the arts or the sciences. You are someone who's strong in both music and economics. That's rare.
So truly, I applaud you for that. Now, I know you started learning music at a young age, and that love for music stayed with you. But I also see how studying economics gave you another toolkit, especially helpful when thinking about career planning, job options, and maybe even the practical side of life. That's probably why you ended up in banking and hedge funds. You knew how to hedge your risk.
But your heart, it kept pointing you back to music. Still, four years later, as a graduating student, you had to make a decision. Stay in the US, go back to Hong Kong, maybe take part in campus recruiting. So what was your thinking back then? you chose to go into finance and what led you to pick the more realistic path at that moment, instead of diving straight into your passion,
Yeah, it was a tough choice.
The site on Bonnet, the whole package, it was all very attractive. And back then, investment banks really knew how to treat young talent. Whether you were fresh out of undergrad or coming from an MBA, they invested seriously and extensively in people, including time, training, and yes, money. And let's be real, money matters.
It pays the bills, pays off your student loans, gives you security, and let you dream a little. Maybe even a house with a grand piano, like you said. So of course, when a place like Morgan Stanley or Goldman Sachs makes you an offer, who would say no? I also call this the Hong Kong factor. I grew up in Hong Kong too. And everyone here, literally everyone, is talking about the financial markets.
Stocks, real estate, investment, and even housewives are day trading. That's just the environment we were raised in. So naturally, there's also this peer pressure. You see your classmate joining top banks, getting promoted, earning six, seven or eight figures. That stuff gets into your head. So it makes total sense that you followed the practical path and you did well.
You build a successful finance career over 10 years. But then what changed? What happened around 2020, 2021? that made you stop and finally listen to your heart? For the last 10, 20, even 30 years, it sounds like your head was in charge. What triggered you to finally make that ambitious change?
The way I see it, for a period of time, Your head led the way. You let your heart stay in the background, not ignored, but quieter, still beating, still alive. You didn't silence it, but you asked it to wait while you focused on logic, on what made sense at the time. And then as life changed,
Maybe your heart changed too, and you decided it was the time to let it lead a little more, to let it take center stage. You are still the same Nora with sharp analytical skills, skills you developed in finance, skills you will still need as you undertake new endeavors. You are just choosing to use those skills differently now to support something more personal, more meaningful.
So while you've shifted into using your artistic side to help transform lives, I see it as you finally giving your heart the spotlight, but your head is still right there backing it up.
That's it for part one. We followed Nora's journey from mathematics and music to Morgan Stanley and back again. But the story's just getting good. In part two, we dig into how she's using music to challenge the status quo. Why classical doesn't mean stiff. and how her new album is both a personal statement and a public invitation. See you there. Thank you so much for joining us today.
If you like what you heard, don't forget, subscribe to our show, leave us top rated reviews, check out our website, and follow me on social media. I'm Vince Shen, your ambitious human host. Until next time, take care.
Hi, everyone. Welcome to our show, Chief Change Officer. I'm Vince Chen, your ambitious human host. Our show is a modernist humility for change progressives in organizational and human transformation from around the world. What happens when your shiny successful career starts to feel like a trap? Helen Henderson has the answer. She went from board level PR executive to career coach.
after realizing that the ladder she was climbing was leaning on the wrong wall. In this two-part series, Helen shares how she hit pause, got unstuck, and built a career that actually fits. We'll talk about career detour, tough choices, and why midlife isn't a crisis. is a chance to redesign. If your job looks great on paper but feels like sandpaper, this one is for you. Let's get into it.
Let's dig into the boat now. You structure it into three acts. Act one, alignment. Act two, career redesign. And act three, transformation. First, why did you choose these three as the core structure? Why start with alignment? Why follow that with career redesign and then end with transformation?
And second, for each of these acts, what are the key takeaways or core messages you would want readers to walk away with?
Yes. For this podcast, I always say it's about walk the walk, talk the talk leadership. I like to talk to guests. who have gone through real change themselves, not just sharing advice, but lived experience. That's the kind of value I want to bring here. Now, when I skimmed through your book, one word really stood out, which is hope map. What is it? Can you walk us through the idea?
Yeah, as you were explaining, it reminded me of something a career coach asked me years ago. He said, Vince, what would you do if you couldn't fail? I remember being younger and not really knowing how to answer that question. But it stuck with me. Change is always hard. It comes with risk, uncertainty, setbacks. And like you said, once you've made the decision, don't stop. Think ahead.
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