Simu Liu, star of Marvel’s blockbuster film ‘Shang-Chi And The Legend Of The Ten Rings’ says he owes his life to the company that laid him off ten years ago.
In a recent Instagram post he explains:
“Ten years ago to the day, I was lead into my managing partner’s office at Deloitte and told that they were terminating my employment effective immediately.
A lady from HR and a security guard escorted me back onto the floor in front of the entire open concept office. It was so quiet you could hear a pin drop.
Nobody moved, offered a whisper of encouragement or even looked in my direction.
I fought back tears of humiliation, grabbed my things, and never looked back.
Ten years ago I thought my life was over.
I had wasted countless time and money that my family had invested in me. Years of schooling, gifted programs, trying to live up to my parents’ expectations. It all came crashing down in an instant.
Every April 12th I get really funny and introspective, but this is the TEN YEAR marker… which means I’m REALLY in my feels. I know some of you have read Gladwell, and man was his prediction on point. Ten years or 10,000 hours. My goodness, what an incredible journey it’s been.
I spent four of those years running around like a headless chicken trying to figure out how to break into the industry, struggling with credit card debt and taking any job I could.
Another three years were spent trying to break into Hollywood, sinking my precious life savings into something many would call a pipe dream. It’s really only been these past three years that anything I’ve done has begun to bear any fruit.
I know luck has played a substantial role in my successes but I am sure that if I hadn’t been cast in two life-changing roles, I’d still find purpose and meaning in the pursuit of success on my own terms. Not my parents’ definition — MINE.
I don’t know who needs to hear this right now, but no amount of money is worth compromising your vision for yourself. The pursuit of a dream- YOUR dream- against all odds… that’s what life is all about.
To Paul Gibbon and the offices of Deloitte Toronto; sincerely, honestly, THANK YOU.
You did for me what I never had the courage to do myself; you destroyed a life that I was building for someone else, so that I could finally begin to build a life for me.”
