Check Out Polli Hsu’s Story

Today we’d like to introduce you to Polli Hsu

Hi Polli, thanks for joining us today. We’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
I was born in Los Angeles and quickly whisked away to North Texas where I spent all of my childhood and adolescent years… for some reason. Looking back, as much as I wanted to say that I successfully assimilated into the culture around me, I’m happy to have grown up so immersed in my Taiwanese heritage at home regardless of how I tried to fight it. As the experience of many first-generation children goes, I found myself constantly at odds with my immigrant parents just trying to figure out how to raise their firstborn in a world so divergent from the one they grew up in. So, at 19, a disagreement with them resulted in me being unhoused, and I found my way back to Los Angeles. With no friends, no money, and only a few family members in California to help me along the way. It’s almost unbelievable to think that this all happened almost 12 years ago.

Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
When I moved here, I struggled immensely and became incredibly depressed, never eating or leaving my room if not for work or school. I even remember telling my aunt and uncle (who graciously took me in) that I was giving myself 1 year in California before making my swift return to Denton. I DON’T remember them laughing at me, although it would have 100% been warranted.

However, I’ve always found myself experiencing life changes in the form of a thorough upheaval of everything I know – a complete 180 from what was happening the day before. So eventually I crawled my way out of the hole I was in and explored all that Southern California had to offer. I also finally started to make some friends, friends that I still hold close to my heart to this day.

Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
Professionally, I work in the PropTech sphere as an Account Executive for a renovation marketplace called Realm. I found myself in this space because I am driven by the unique opportunity to help people in any capacity, and it continues to drive me every day when I think about my future and where life can take me.

Like most people in a Sales position, I have a laundry list of odd retail roles that I’ve assumed, starting when I was 15 selling Vans at Journeys. Pour one out for the Vista Ridge Mall and the staff I worked with who tried to give me a swirlie in the toilet once. I wish I was kidding.

In my free time, I have started a podcast with a friend called Your Gay Bestie (@yourgaybestiepod), and I have begun dabbling in post-production and editing. S/O continual learning!

Do you have any advice for those just starting out?
YOU CAN ALWAYS START OVER. I think about this every day, and I wish I had known this when I was trying to choose a major in college or the next company I wanted to join.

I used to let my fear of failure jail me. I was constantly tethered to what I thought I was “good at” – avoiding ever completely letting myself fail at something new, and now that I’m older, I wish I had conducted more “career experiments”, instead of continuing with only what I was comfortable with. I was using my past experiences as a crutch, and not a landing pad in case I crashed.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://pollihsu.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/pollihsu/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC0ougoVlPWT7KwV4dpFMmRA

Image Credits
Tom’s 1 Hour Photo