Asking USC Parents What They Do For a Living (Part 2)

0:00 How do you raise a successful kid like that? How do you invest your money? What's something that the world needs more of? And who are you guys here to celebrate today? My son, Chuck White. He just got a job with TMZ. Oh, yeah. What advice do you have for aspiring entrepreneurs? If you could go back 20 years, what would you tell your younger self? Is college worth it? 100,000 a year. So, today we're at USC and I'm asking USC parents what they do for work.

0:20 Obviously, USC is extremely expensive and everyone knows that USC parents are some of the most financially successful people in the world. So, we'll be asking questions like what they do for work, how they raise successful kids, their advice for the younger generation, and a lot more questions like that. I'm really excited to talk to some parents. So, let's go. So, we're doing a video for my YouTube channel. Do you guys have a few minutes? No, I don't have I don't want to do it. I don't know if I have either.

0:41 I have a few minutes. So, after getting rejected a bunch and walking around for an hour, we finally got our first parent to talk to. I interview for a few minutes. So, what's your name and what do you do for work? My name is Michelle Summers and I'm currently a homemaker. Empty neester. Okay. I do a lot of volunteer work. And what is your kid graduating with a degree in? My son just graduated with a master's degree in architecture.

1:04 What do they plan to do? He plans to either stay here or move to New York to pursue his architecture career. He was interested in commercial, but now he's um focusing maybe on residential. Okay. And post fires. He's thinking Los Angeles might be a place to stay so that he has the opportunity to not only have consistent work but to listen to stories of people and really build um with his heart. Do you think college was worth it?

1:26 That's a really tough question. It's a very expensive thing to do, but um yes, it's worth it. It teaches you obviously it hones your skills and gives you the practice to be able to relate and work in the real world. Can I ask how much the tuition here is? I think it's north of $82,000. Okay. So, did you guys pay for your your kids tuition? Yes, he received a 50% scholarship, a really wonderful scholarship. He took out his own loans for his graduate school and um he also works part-time, so he's done a lot.

1:54 How do you raise a successful kid like that? I'm on my knees praying a lot. Okay. Well, our faith and our religion comes is central in our home. So, that's all um what carries us, but um you know, just my husband's a very hard worker and just believes in you know, putting your head down and working hard no matter what. Great leader in our household. Now, how did you meet your husband? We were set up a blind date.

2:15 No way. Yeah. Sometimes blind dates can work. And he went to Cal and he hated USC with a passion. So he did not want to date me. What does he do for work? He's a contractor. What advice do you have for younger people out there? You only have one life. Try to do something that really makes you happy. Try to live in a place that makes you happy. It's a tough world and there are many challenges to be faced. But if you are living in a place that you really enjoy and you're doing work that inspires you and and gives you hope, that to me would be what I would give them as advice.

2:41 Thank you so much. So what's your name? age and what do you do for work? Jeff Kesler just turned 59 last week. I know it's hard to believe. I am an orthopedic surgeon. So, how'd you get into that field? I don't know. I just love that field in in medical school. Now, is that journey worth it for students these days to to go through cuz it's pretty long, right? I felt like it was worth it and I still do, but I would say honestly a lot of sadly a lot of my partners feel like it may not be the return on the investment may not be there.

3:05 What's your daughter graduating with today? Lauren is graduating with a degree from Dorsite Health and Human Sciences PrePa. Are you proud? Of course, I was proud of her before she graduated. How do you raise a successful daughter? I don't care as much about the academics. Even though she was amazing academically, she's just an incredible person right from day one. I didn't have to do that much. What does the world need more of? Compassion. In this day and age, compassion. Yeah.

3:27 Kindness. So, did you pay for college for your daughter? Yes. Is college worth it? I think so. But boy, USC tuition was an extra hundred and something thousand. I don't know. Don't don't air this for USC, but I don't know if it's worth it. Thank you so much. While we were looking for the next person to interview, we actually got approached by a guy in a suit who appeared to work at the school. I don't know. I don't know what that means.

3:51 Definitely wasn't happy about us being there, but after interrogating us for 15 minutes, he decided to let us go. Just stay out of trouble. Oh, yeah. Yeah, it'll be great. That was crazy. What are your names and what do you guys do for work? Chuck and Rita White. I'm a general manager for Icelandic Glacial Water. Okay. And she is a volunteer. volunteer and preschool substitute. And who are you guys here to celebrate today? My son, Chuck White. He just got a job with TMZ.

4:17 Oh, yeah. So, what degree did he graduate with? Journalism. How do you guys raise a successful kid? Well, it took a village because we have five other daughters. Oh, wow. And he was the baby boy. So, he actually had six mothers and he spoiled rotten. We love him to death. I would say if you lay out expectations for the kids, they tend to want to live up to them, even exceed them. So, I think that's a key.

4:40 And so, our expectations, like she said, we kind of put it on the first few and then they drove it down to the rest of the family. Does it get easier and easier? It gets harder and harder to let them go. You get, you know, like this, we know the court's it's over. Now, we're into grandkids, but I mean, it's like this is the last our children to get through school. So, he was the first one to leave Oklahoma, Texas area. Oh, it's been exciting to come to California.

5:02 Wow. What's the most important trait that people should learn today? There's more than one. You got to be kind. You got to be humble. And you need some really good work ethic and faith. What has been the best advice you guys have ever received in your life? There's a little saying, worry ends where faith begins. And that's what I've lived by. What advice would you give someone that wants to start a business today? Build it on solid ground. Don't get in too big of a hurry to make a lot of money. Just build it like you want it to last for 100 years. There's too much going on right now where everybody's building it to sell or go public. You know, it's kind of messing up everything for a lot of people right now.

5:33 Is USC worth it? Absolutely. This is expensive, right? It's expensive, but he did his work to get here. Compared to the other five children, it's been a I don't want to say much better education, but more rounded. What's something that you guys wish you did earlier in your life? Probably started saving for college for the kids. Oh, okay. Would have been one. I think the other piece I think at least for me and I think probably for her too is if we would have focused more on heavenly things instead of earthly things at at a younger age I think it would have helped our children and everyone that was around us. I think it would have made us better people.

6:08 What's your best money advice like if someone wants to get rich today? What would you tell them? Keep your money in perspective because you definitely don't need to chase the dollar because once you start doing that you're chasing the wrong things. I mean, it's hard to tell people that, but you really are. When I was growing up, it was like that's how a man's almost his worth was measured by how much money he made. And then you find out, you know, it's doesn't matter. It's the things you can do for other people. And that kind of thing is what's going to bring you happiness. You're not You can't ever buy love and can't ever buy happiness. You know, you got it comes from inside.

6:41 How do you guys invest your money? Not very wisely. Oh, we did. We invested it in our children just like everybody else. little 401k, but it's all in mutual funds and that type of stuff. We've never played, you know, went out and bought stocks or No, we tried to be a landlord once. We weren't mean enough, so we got out of that. He's worked hard so that I could stay home and raise our kids. We're just your average middle class family.

7:04 Thank you so much. So, guys, you know, the whole purpose of my channel is to help you live a financially successful life. And so, whenever there are resources or tools that you can use to make more money, you know that I'm going to be talking about it, right? I think one of the most important things that I wish I started doing earlier was building a website. Marketing is the most important skill that you can learn these days, at least when it comes to like making money or building a business. And so, if you don't yet already have a website, I really encourage you guys build a website today. Showcase your skills, showcase your portfolio, build a side hustle, and pair it with a website. I use Hostinger to build and host all of my own websites. It's super cheap. It's like $3 or $4 if you guys use the link down below. You also save some more with my code, Charlie Chang. Yeah, seriously guys, go out there and market yourself.

7:45 Make a website, build a business here with a website because if you're watching this and you want to become an entrepreneur or you want to be financially successful, I think that is so important to do. And yeah, most people they're just taking their sweet time with it and you guys should just go out and do their now. I know that you are action takers. So yeah, I'll have that link down below. I also have a bunch of links to other free resources and yeah, my whole goal is to just help you guys as much as I can and yeah, let's get on with the rest of the video.

8:07 So what's your name and age and what do you do for work? Manurage. I'm a professor of international affair at Texas Christian University. How long have you been a professor for? 36 years. So being in the education space for so long. What changes have you seen over the last few decades? Huge changes. Automation, computer technology, now with artificial intelligence. We're wondering how long we're going to remain relevant when you can have Jack GPT or Deep Seek do a lot of work for you or write the papers for you. But there's something that was said last night. Human understanding and human touch is only what we can bring in. We can transit what we learned from previous generation generations that we stand on their shoulders to the future and current generation. That is done through human transition. So our relevance will continue as academics.

8:53 What's your kid graduating with a degree and say art? She wants to be a musician now. So how are you going to support her on that journey? Well, I'll be supportive as I can be but the journey is something that she should take by herself. I can be only supportive figure on the sideline. She has beautiful voice and she's very talented and so I have a lot of hope for her. How do you raise a successful kid?

9:14 You give them love. You give them a basic value to live by and that gives them a foundation and self-confidence to make good decisions. You've seen so many students. You've interacted with so many of them. What separates the best students from those that don't do those who are I would call it discipline of mind that you can focus sharply under all sorts of distraction. Current generation has short span of attention. How much is tuition here? Almost 90,000 tuition and fees altogether. Is college worth that how much? Well, it depends. For many, it's not just getting a degree and what degree might be worth in the marketplace. Is what you learn about yourself, about life, and it makes you a better human being. That education allows you to perceive and understand everything deeper and get more out of life. That's the bottom line. What's something that the world needs more of?

10:01 love, compassion, understanding in that order. Thank you so much. So, what's your name, age, and what do you do for work? Kamul Jahal, and I'm actually a USC alumni. I work in healthcare. I manage a large team in a hospital in Northern California. So, how did you get into that line of work? From my mom, and she inspired it and uh just love helping people. Who are you here to celebrate today? My son. And what's he graduating with?

10:21 Long title. Economics, data science, computer programming, AI. I don't know what else. I think I I think that should cover. What's your degree? Economics and data science. Okay. Can you show off your son for a sec? He's a very kind, humble, very organized, very accountable, exceptionally disciplined, and makes me very proud. Is college worth it? Oh my goodness. Absolutely. You know, the fact that I'm a USC alumni, he's a USC alumni. I think this is set in stone. I would encourage it. The USC experience has totally shaped him. I left a child perhaps and I'm taking home an adult.

10:52 If you could go back 20 years, what would you tell your younger self? to believe in myself and not to doubt and uh to continue to pursue the path that makes me happy and not worry about money. And how do you find your passion in life? For me, I was very fortunate my mom in the healthcare. So, I followed her first steps. And I feel that uh once you find something that makes you want to get up every single morning and not have to worry about, oh my goodness, it's Monday, I have to go to work. Find something that truly you're passionate about.

11:16 And what advice would you give someone that wants to get into the healthcare field? If you love helping people and you are very empathetic person and you're very compassionate and you don't care what illnesses they are conflicted with and you really really just want to help them go in the healthcare. It's a very rewarding career. Yes. Are very tireless and uh requires a lot of grit but it pays off a lot at the end. And what's something you did raising your kid that helped him grow up to be a successful young adult?

11:44 You know I never sheltered him. all the challenges that I was enduring. He was very much part of it and uh I exposed him to everything that was happening in life. There was no no sheltering. Thank you so much. So, unfortunately, none of the parents wanted to answer any financial questions. How much can an orthopedic surgeon make? It's I'm not telling a number, but it's very wide ranging. But I think it's safe to say the parents I talked to next are super successful and doing well for themselves. So, what are your names and what do you guys do for work?

12:10 Hi, I'm Mark. I'm Eileen Gilbride and I'm a lawyer. I do civil appeals and I'm retired. What did you do before? Oh, I was a business owner. That's a martial arts business owner. Oh, way. What is your kid graduating with today? Theater emphasis in acting. And what's she going to do after? Hopefully theater emphasis in acting. There you have it. Okay. Okay. Show off your kids for a sec. She's never given up on anything. This was her first school of choice and she didn't get in right away. So, she had to spend one year at an alternate school and she kept appealing appealing and so she's been here since a sophomore and she's just thrived.

12:39 How's the tuition? The tuition is uh expensive. It's expensive. The quality is good, but again, you know, you have to put it on a baseline. And we were very fortunate to be able to give her exactly what she wanted when she wanted it. So, you guys both seem very successful. Do you have any advice for the younger generation on how to be a successful person? Find a mentor. If you're early, you're on time. If you're on time, you're late.

13:01 And if you're late, you're unacceptable. Don't give up. Don't take no for an answer at first. And if that's not the way to do it, then find an alternate way and keep going towards the destination cuz life is full of obstacles. Well, there's some very important traits that people should try to build. If you have your integrity and you stick by that, then that will see you through. Even if it's not going to be the best paying or the right path, you have to decide what type of person you're going to be and stick to that.

13:28 And everything you do, do it out of love and not some other emotion like competition or ego. Is college worth it these days? Heck yes. Unless it's not for you. If it's not for you, then it's absolutely fine not to do college. Can you give me like a law tip? Yeah. Something that a lawyer would know that most people don't know. Follow the law. Follow the law. You follow the law. What about business advice? If you're just in it for the the quick buck and a turnaround and a and a machining, you need to make an attachment and make yourself in a community. My businesses were in the same spot for over 25 years and it was very successful and generational.

14:03 Everybody knows you. You have one chance to make a good impression. If it goes wrong, then everybody will know. How long have you guys been married? We're not married. We're divorced. Oh, no way. Yeah. And how do you navigate? Like, it's great. It really is. You know, we're better friends than spouses. Okay. It works out fine. It's not anybody's fault if you can just get over that hump and not blame anybody, but just recognize if you're going in different directions, go in different directions. And never ever put your kids in the middle.

14:31 Yeah. The thing is our parenting to our daughter takes precedence over everything. Thank you guys so much. So what's your name, age, and what do you do for work? Lalit Serene, 52, and I'm a assistant chief engineer over in New York. What is your daughter graduating with today? Uh, she's graduating design. Are you proud? Oh, very proud. She was a transfer student and she was still able to finish the college in the same amount of time.

14:51 So, she kind of saved one year of tion. Yeah, it's expensive here, right? Yeah, it is very. Is it worth it? I would say it's worth it cuz our son just graduated two years ago and uh he was able to land a good job. The thing is that the alumni uh association is uh very big. You know, they help each other. As you graduate, you stay friends with them and you reach out to alumni, they're very receptive of helping you with jobs and other problems that you go through. Yeah.

15:15 Now, if you could go back to when you were 20 years old, what would you tell yourself? I just feel the life is like water and it flows and you flow with it. more you try to uh hold on this portions of your life, you're kind of holding yourself back. If you flow with life, you'll learn a lot. Talk to people, you'll learn a lot. What trait has allowed you to become successful? I would say adaptability. You don't adapt, you get thrown out.

15:36 Can you tell us about a time in your life where something was difficult and then how you got out of it and what you learned from it? There's many difficult parts of my life, but what really got me to be the way I am, I feel, is when I was younger, I learned to speak to people. I was an immigrant to this country and I came here when I was only 17. 17. Wow. The only way I learned was uh by talking to every single person. The more you hold on to your problems, you can't solve them. The more you share your problems with the world, the world helps you solve them.

16:04 Can you give me a communication tip? I don't ever think of me as a communicator, but I always ask questions. Should people take risks? And how do they take risks? The risk is very important in life. You should not be ever afraid of risk. The way to take risk in my book is to take good assessment of the situation and then take that risk. How do you invest your money? The S&P 500 is always the best. QQQ is always the best. You know, in long-term American economy has always been moving up at least beating the inflation. So rather than keeping your money in the bank where they're only giving you 1%, you have a chance to make 10.

16:37 Thank you so much. So what's your name, age, and what do you do for work? My name is Miriam Wah and I'm here to celebrate the graduation of my grandson JT W. I just turned 80 years old and I'm an artist. I paint. Are you proud? I am so proud. Do you know what type of job he's going to get after school? I'm sure that he wants to be a producer. He wants to be an actor and now he's found a new uh passion. He does voiceover acting.

17:01 Your career as an artist. How did that come to be? You know, all my life I've been very good with my hands. I didn't pursue painting formally until I retired. I work at a high school. I retired and then I start taking classes and now I'm blossoming with my painting. What type of art? I do everything. Portraits, landscape. If you want a commission, you can call me. How do you live a great life? Try to make lemonade out of lemon because life is too short to hold grudges and being upset. I mean, there's no need to do that. Just look at the positive things in life and just take that. And my religion, too. My faith helps me every day to deal with anything that comes into my life. What's been the best decade of your life?

17:43 Actually, all of it. But right now that I'm 80, I'm really enjoying just being alive. How do you raise a great family? By loving them so much and teaching them just the right things, make the right choices, and be gentle with people, being caring to each other. Love should never hurt. Thank you so much. So, what's your name, age, and what do you do for work? My name is Gustavo Monko. Coming from Mecuador, South America. I was into the automotive business.

18:08 Oh. I used to be a dealership for Porsche, Jeep, and Jawar in Ecuador. How much was tuition for USC? Oh, a lot. A lot. Is it worth it? It is worth it. Every penny. What does your daughter hope to do in the future? She wants to go to New York for the first years. We have a a joint relationship with Penny Farina in Italy. So, I hope she becomes a very successful architect. Being an entrepreneur yourself, what advice do you have for aspiring entrepreneurs?

18:34 Consistency. Make every single effort you can and at the end you will have results. So what trait allowed you to become successful? My passion was my work. If you put your five or six senses into what you do, you will be successful. What's the most important skill that people should learn today? Today you have to be related to the artificial intelligence. I think if you're not into electronics, you will be having trouble in the future. What's the best advice that you ever received? My father when I was going to school said try to work for the best company you can work for because under a big tree the opportunities will flourish. You think everyone should go out there get a job first.

19:17 Get a job first. Yeah. It's very very difficult to start as an entrepreneur. And how do you invest your money? Try to do some real estate. The real estate is always a good investment. Very solid. I don't trust too much Wall Street. Who should become an entrepreneur? Being an entrepreneur is not for everybody. I think you can be very successful working for a great company. Allow yourself to test your skills, but being an entrepreneur is very difficult.

19:41 You always have to think at the end of the month if you're going to meet your expectations in sales or if you're going to have money to pay utilities. So, it's very difficult, but enjoy enjoy life. And I think if you put your five senses or six senses into what you do, you will be successful. Thank you so much. There you have it. Asking USC parents what they do for work. Obviously, we talked to some really amazing people. I learned a lot personally and hopefully you guys got some value from this video as well. My big takeaway is that you need unconditional love. You just really need to support your family, your kid, whoever it is because support is so important. Anyways, thank you so much for watching. You guys got some value from the video, uh, make sure to hit that like button and also subscribe for more content just like this. I do a ton of videos about personal finance, entrepreneurship, videos like this, and my whole goal is to help you guys live a financially successful life. Thank you again and I'll see you in the next video. Peace.

20:29 Yeah. [Music] Heat.