Yu credits his moms and dads, who at the moment reside in Taipei, with instilling the values that have propelled his achievement. “I’m so grateful for their assist,” he suggests. “Without my mothers and fathers, I wouldn’t be the human being I am right now.” Yu’s mom released him to the arts at an early age, educating him how to draw and play the piano. And his father influenced his do the job ethic, emphasizing the relevance of persistence and a beneficial perspective. “My dad encouraged my personal motto, which is ‘Keep Pushin,’” Yu clarifies. “It’s a reminder to be stubborn in all the right strategies, to never give up even when people today rain on your working day.”
Yet another pivotal piece of fatherly guidance, Yu says, was “to stay open up-minded and constantly try new matters.” As a initially-12 months Bentley college student, Yu participated in the MOSAIC Experience, a software intended to enable BIPOC (Black, Indigenous and folks of shade) pupils acclimate to higher education existence. As a result of MOSAIC, he claims, “I designed a terrific group of pals, and learned so a lot about other communities and cultures.” Those exact pals — just about all of whom he stays shut to these days — encouraged Yu to take a look at his really like of songs, equally by curating personal playlists and deejaying at campus get-togethers. His innate musical expertise shortly led to paid out gigs spinning original tunes in Boston clubs.
About the exact time, Yu was approached by a expertise scout for a modeling company although he and his pals had been out shopping. Conscious of his father’s phrases, he embraced the chance, and shortly was showing in ad campaigns for identified brands like Converse, Puma and Reebok. As a product, Yu was able to join with and master from many others in the amusement industry by 2019, just after graduating from Bentley with a master’s diploma in Marketing Analytics (now Small business Analytics), he’d cultivated his particular and expert networks to a degree the place he felt assured moving to Los Angeles to pursue a tunes profession.
Yu is fast to admit the collective ability of these seemingly disparate selections. He states getting open to new experiences — collaborating in MOSAIC, making an attempt his hand as a DJ, stating sure to modeling jobs — served him detect his passions and become much more self-confident about pursuing them. It is also what led him to choose up a paintbrush for the first time, in March 2020. Not able to bring his tunes to venues shut by COVID lockdowns, Yu sought yet another creative outlet and turned to canvas. It was a spontaneous — and serendipitous — determination, pushed by a motivation to check his individual limitations as he notes, “I didn’t know I could paint until finally I did it.”
