Today we’d like to introduce you to Eric Gee
Hi Eric, we’re thrilled to have a chance to learn your story today. So, before we get into specifics, maybe you can briefly walk us through how you got to where you are today?
A question like this is always hard to answer without sounding like I’m just reciting my CV. I was tempted to use one of those “how it started/how it’s going” memes. You know, the ones where you start off with a ripped Michael B. Jordan and end up with a homeless Delonte West.
For brevity’s sake, I can say that I started as an aspiring paleontologist (up until I reached middle school) and now I’m an author, life & writing coach, and founder (having reached middle age—yikes!). In between, I studied English Literature and Screenwriting at UCLA, worked as a starter on a golf course, coached high school basketball, was an assistant scoutmaster for a Boy Scout troop, co-hosted a radio show from a dilapidated studio in East Hollywood, lectured on personality types at businesses and universities, and owned an education company that served 40+ school districts and 1000+ students a year…I guess I am just reciting my CV!
But like any story, the WHAT is less important than the WHY. Why did I do the things above?
Honestly, I was tired of doing whatever everyone else was doing. I was tired of being whoever everyone else was being. I wanted to be myself, even if that meant being lots of things. Why not eschew the linear path? Archimedes taught us that a straight line is the shortest path between two points—though technically, a brachistochrone curve will get you there faster—but if our lives are to be defined by the bookends of birth and death, why on Earth would we want our story to be short or happen faster?
That’s the beauty of being both a writing and life coach. I get to help people write their own story, find their own voice, and most importantly, not rush the ending. And that’s the part of MY story (to date) that makes me the most grateful.
I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
Nope.
It’s easy for me to say, “Be yourself.” It’s another thing to walk that path. We can be our own worst obstacles, our feelings of inadequacy often causing us to overcompensate with faux certainty of the direction we’re heading, whether it’s school, career, or relationships. Ironically, they also leave us susceptible to a society of backseat drivers who love to tell us exactly where we should be going and how to get there.
My adolescence was a decade-long road trip of insecurity, cynicism, and hypocrisy. I skipped my high school prom because I didn’t want to attend, in my words at the time, “a dog and pony show where kids pretend to be adults.” I didn’t care about what other people thought—which, of course, I said to anyone I could!
My father first gave me the “poseur” tag when I was thirteen. It was the early to mid-nineties, well-known for fashion trends like flannel, Cross Colours, and Guess or Gap jeans worn ten sizes too big and sagged down so far below your waist that the risk of tripping was a literal fashion hazard. And I was no different. I rocked Reebok Pumps AND British Knights. I even sported a Starter Jacket and hat combo for the San Jose Sharks, a team I didn’t root for that played a sport I didn’t watch.
So yeah, junior high me was a poseur, and high school me was a self-important hypocrite. But there was a silver lining, one tiny seed of potential redemption: I’m not sure I ever believed any of it.
Deep down inside, I knew there was another path I had to find. I’ve always loved the way Holden Caulfield would refer to everyone in The Catcher in the Rye as “phonies,” but there’s a reason why I prefer Salinger’s Franny and Zooey. Zooey teaches us that it’s okay to be angry and distance ourselves from society’s more conformist aspects, but at a certain point, we need to learn to live with everyone, if only to learn to live with ourselves. If we don’t, we’ll be so filled with resentment, self-loathing, and everything in between that we’ll become ignorant to detours of serendipitous epiphany.
My dad once told me not to worry about what people think because “at the end of the day, no one gives a shit anyway, so you might as well do what you want to do.”
The road’s been bumpy, and it took me a while to find the off-ramp, but I’m glad I did.
Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
As an author, life & writing coach, and founder (in reverse order):
– I own Youtopia Creative, a shared workspace in Culver City, Los Angeles (think warmer than WeWork, more social than Starbucks, and more productive than those Meet Ups where a bunch of randos try to get you to read their script).
– I have administered personality-based life coaching and writing coaching for over twenty years.
– My book on personality types, The Power of Personality: Unlock the Secrets to Understanding Everyone In Your Life—Including Yourself! was published this year by Prometheus Books/Rowman & Littlefield.
A description of the book from my site (I’m not being lazy! I’m being efficient!):
All the fun of zodiac signs and all the empiricism of Joseph Campbell, The Power of Personality introduces readers to a step-by-step guide on how to personality type based on 16 easy-to-remember animal archetypes:
THE GATHERERS: the Stag, the Beaver, the Elephant, the Bear
THE HUNTERS: the Fox, the Shark, the Peacock, the Butterfly
THE SHAMANS: the Dolphin, the Giant Panda, the Baboon, the Humpback Whale
THE SMITHS: the Killer Whale, the Spider, the Chimpanzee, the Owl
This book is for romantics and pragmatists. It will take you on a journey that re-examines, clarifies, and sometimes debunks previously held assumptions on personality (birth order, cultural stereotypes, extroversion vs. introversion, type-A personalities).
Most books consist of a simplistic, often inaccurate test followed by descriptions and prescriptions. However, treatment can be damaging if the diagnosis is wrong. The Power of Personality is unique in that it trains you to be the test. No more arbitrary questions. No more mistyping. No more damage.
The Power of Personality…
DISMANTLES the widely accepted yet antiquated dichotomy of the MBTI family tree, introducing an intuitive typing method the author has developed over a decade of real-world experience working with actual people, not abstract theories.
POPULARIZES personality typing with fun, easy-to-remember animal archetypes that immediately evoke emotions in the reader, differing vastly from the cold, forgettable letter combinations and number designations featured in MBTI and the comparable Enneagram.
REJECTS the crude, cookie-cutter assessment that other personality systems center their prescriptions around——treatments are only as good as the diagnosis, and no one should be diagnosed by checklist. The Power of Personality teaches the reader to be the test.
ENTERTAINS with cultural allusions, ranging from Outkast’s Idlewild to Carl Sagan’s theory on interdimensional perception, and professional and personal anecdotes, told with an intellectually breezy, self-effacing voice.
We’d be interested to hear your thoughts on luck and what role, if any, you feel it’s played for you?
The topic of luck is a tricky one. No one wants to hear about how good you had it, but reveal too much hardship, and you’ll be accused of whining, or worse, find yourself in a grievance competition with the very worst college application essay.
For starters, I was born in America, so, I had it better than most. I was also born into a middle-class, Chinese American family in Los Angeles, which meant aside from being blessed with great weather, proximity to beaches, and avocados, I was around enough people who looked like me that it didn’t feel like total crap growing up as a minority in the 80s. That doesn’t mean it was perfect.
Has someone ever complimented me on how good my English is? Yep. Do people sometimes assume that I primarily teach math? Absolutely. Have I ever had the “slanty eyes” done right to my face? Of course—the last time was during Junior Lifeguard camp at Lake Puddingstone, circa 1994, by an obnoxious Joffrey Baratheon look-alike.
Growing up, I used to think how unlucky I was to be Chinese (funny, considering how luck-obsessed Chinese culture can be). I’ve been playing in pick-up basketball games for more than twenty years with a good friend of mine, and he thinks it’s hilarious that no matter how great I’m playing, if our team loses and the next team needs to pick up one of our players, he’ll always be chosen first. In his words, “The black thing works again!” Of course, this is also the same friend who refuses to say anything if a white woman accidentally cuts in front of him in line, for fear of where that situation might lead. Chris Rock was right; I’m not trading places.
I guess when it comes down to it, it’s not that I don’t believe in luck, it’s that I’m an agnostic (and pragmatist). It’s far more useful to focus on what we can control than dwell on the nature of providence or lack thereof. The same people who become St. Paddy’s Day green with envy over your good fortune will also get a schadenfreude-induced orgasm over your misfortune. In business and life, it’s best not to expect anyone to feel sorry for you. Because even those people who do, will tell you not to feel sorry for yourself.
We all have problems. We can either let ourselves be defined by them or punch those problems right in the face——which is, not coincidentally, what happened to that entitled kid in 1994.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.projectyoutopia.com/university
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/the_power_of_personality
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/eric.c.gee/
