Chieh’s a great guy and a great leader.
Chieh Huang from BOXED.com gets his inspiration as co-founder and CEO from the source: his own mother. He grew up watching how hard she worked to get where she got, and he applies all that wisdom to how he nurtures his company culture.
That was the main takeaway from his interview at the NJ TECH event on December 5, 2017, at Stevens Institute for Technology in Hoboken, NJ.
Over a friendly “fireside” chat with Aaron Price, CEO of Propelify, Chieh shared stories that inspired those in attendance to focus on humble leadership in our everyday lives and the many ways we can change a person’s life.
Check this video recap of some more takeaways and we hope you enjoy!
1) The merit of making connections.
When Chieh initially left college, he did some teaching in a remote village in Japan. He felt insecure about that decision while all his friends were getting promotions and raises with big companies. But years later, when he was building BOXED, a funder wanted to invest $1MIL and that person happened to have lived in that very same remote village where he taught years ago! We never know who we’ll meet when we’re pursuing our passions and how those relationships come back around in our lives.
2) COMMITMENT is the key to success.
Chieh believes we earn our success by grinding away every day especially when we don’t know how things will work out. Aaron chimed in with a quote about commitment and how essential it is to achieving success. You can read that quote here.
3) Successful negotiation is…Life.
Chieh needed the boxed.com domain name. Some person had it and wasn’t using it but wasn’t giving it up easy, either. Successful negotiation and patience go a long way, however, and eventually, he snagged the domain for a cool 35K. And is obviously worth every penny.
4) Identify your WHY?
Chieh’s why is about supporting people in his company based on his upbringing and he brought a tear to many an eye as he recounted this story of one of his workers. This man started as a box-loader, as every employee does. Turns out this man confessed at a holiday party that he’d been laid off as a paralegal and feared his age would be a barrier to another good job. At a holiday party, he candidly expressed gratitude for the chance Chieh gave him and said it was a game-changer for him and his life.
Yeah, I know. Great story, right?!
Those are some of the great things Chieh Huang shared that make us big fans of him as a company leader. Which one is your favorite? Or can you relate to any of the takeaways in your own life?
Feel free to share in the comments below.
