Today’s guest is a very close friend of mine. He’s not your typical entrepreneur. His name is Darryl O’Young. Darryl is a professional race-car driver and the director of Craft Bamboo Racing. He has over 28 years of experience in motor sport. He’s a three-time Macau Grand Prix winner, a two-time Porsche Carrera Cup Asia champion, and, most recently, the 2015 GT Asia Series champion, but his most famous accomplishment is probably the podium finish that he earned in 2013 at the 24 Hours of Le Mans. This is the most prestigious and historic endurance race in the world.

Darryl’s acquired millions of dollars in sponsorships, and today, he gives us a peek into his early life, the influence that his father had on him, and just how he deals with being in the public spotlight all the time. Let’s get right into the show.

Jay: Darryl, thanks for coming in and being a guest on the podcast. Pretty excited to have you here. Let’s just begin with your background. It’s quite unusual, I guess, being in Asia to have a professional athlete, because that sort of thing has to be encouraged by one’s parents and whatnot growing up. Myself, as a child, basically my dad wanted me to be a doctor. I basically resisted. I still ended up being in finance. Tell me about your beginnings, and how did you get into racing?

Darryl: I started racing really young. Like you said, my parents did support us a lot in sports, so I grew up doing a lot of different sports, but racing was one of the things that my dad liked to do himself. It actually started when he was young probably. The passion started back in Hong Kong. He was raised in the streets. Actually, back then, it was a normal thing in Hong Kong to do some street racing. It was not actually that forbidden in the past. I’d say obviously now with safety becoming a lot more, it’s something that people don’t do, but that’s where it sparked his interest, and he passed that along to me.

When I grew up, even after I was born, my dad was already racing cars. He was semi-professional as a hobby. It was not really a full-time thing for him. He was very serious about it and he won a lot of championships back then, something he did a lot. When I became eight-years old … I actually started off, four, five-years old, I used to watch him race. I really loved cars. Then, when I turned eight, he got me a go-kart. That was really a big turning point, because I really just fell in love with racing. I just did it a lot from there forward.

Jay: Was it one of these things where basically he encouraged you just by being around him? He was your role model, obviously. You kind of fell in love with it at the same time.

Darryl: Yes. Sport is something that has to evolve. That’s why it’s really good to give kids exposure to sport, because they’ll find out what they want to do and what they love. My dad never forced me. He wasn’t one of those sporting dads that forced me to perform well and forced me to compete. He really just introduced me to it and gave me the chance to race, and I just took it from there. He gave me all the support I needed.

Jay: Right. Was there a point in your childhood that you remember that you were like, “Okay, this is what I want to do as a career?”, or was it kind of like a hobby, and you were exploring other things, but then you naturally gravitated just because of your dad’s background and whatnot?

Darryl: Actually, there was a very big turning point. It was at 12-years old. I do remember this because were just racing locally in Vancouver and around Canada. Then my dad actually asked me if I wanted to take it more serious. That was a big turning point at 12-years old. He goes, “You’re doing really well, but if you want to take this to the next level, we have to invest time and money into traveling more to the US and competing.” I definitely said I wanted to do it, of course. Of course, he really wanted to make sure I was serious. I had to study well in school. I had to actually dedicate myself to doing it well and doing it with him.

He actually retired from racing when I was twelve. He stopped racing, because racing is a pretty expensive sport. It’s not something you just do with a basketball or something. You have to buy a go-kart. It takes a little bit of an investment. Carting is still the cheapest form of motor sport, but it still took some money. He stopped racing, sold his race car, and actually put his time and money into me. It took a lot of time because we did a lot of races. I think at the peak of my racing, when I was about 15 or so, I was probably doing 20 races a year. That’s quite a bit. That’s 20 weekends out of the year. That’s quite a lot.

Jay: Wow. That’s incredible. Was there an agreement between you and your dad that was like, “Okay, you still need to do well in school, and this and that … ” ?

Darryl: I’m not sure if that was an agreement, or if that was what my mom had told me, my mom’s side. My dad probably would have slacked on that, but my mom was pretty obviously strict on me doing well in school. At the end, you can’t count on sport to be your … Everybody needs to focus on education. Sport will have to come as a secondary thing. Anybody that doesn’t do that, I believe, is being a bit naïve, because in life there’s a lot more than just … Even a sporting career only lasts so long. You need to think a lot about the future. You need to prepare. You’re not going to go back, finish high school, finish university after sporting [has dropped off 00:06:19].

Jay: I agree. I think it’s quite interesting, though, because given our backgrounds, being Asian and whatnot … My parents always hammered in the fact that you have to have education, education, education, but I think that education is changing now in regards to how you can learn. I think because of the internet and what has happened in probably the last 10, 15 years, a lot of the information that was not available to people, that you could only learn in school and the classroom setting, you can now get from free off the internet. I think what the schooling and education system will look like in probably 10, 15 years will be vastly different than what we went through, but you do have a point. I think a lot of younger kids have that naivete where they think that, “Oh, I’m going to be Michael Jordan,” or whatever. It’s great to have dreams and chase dreams, but there’s also a fine line.

That brings me to my next question to you, is having done this and having made a successful career out of it, was there ever a point where you questioned it at any step of the way? Was it like, at some points, “Maybe I’m not doing as well,” “Maybe I should toss in the towel and pursue something else”? Because I think that, as an entrepreneur, the greatest fear is failure. That fear never, ever goes away. Even if you’re quite successful, the next venture that you’re working on, you’re going to fear that it might not work out. How was that experience for you? Your whole life basically …

Darryl: Yeah, I was going to ask you, “Which of the hundred times [inaudible 00:07:48] … ?” No, obviously, it’s a very big challenge. It’s like you do in anything. Anytime you try and achieve something that is outside your comfort zone, it’s going to feel risky. It’s going to feel challenging.

I think the biggest moment for that was probably after high school. I went to study marketing anyhow, because actually my dad [inaudible 00:08:15] he said, “Before, reinforce education,” which I think is part of the package. As an athlete or anybody, you need a package. You need to be more than just a player. The ones that are actually educated are able to think about marketing, think about promotion, understand to work with business or start businesses. Those are actually the ones that are most successful, because you need to know how to market yourself throughout the career.

With that being said, putting it all together to make it happen, I actually started studying marketing when I was 15 or 16 because I really wanted to understand … My dad actually put me on that quite early, saying that, “If you want to keep racing as a professional career, you’re going to have to [bill 00:08:51] and find sponsors, because I’m not going to be able to pay for your racing.” I was like, “That’s a pretty good point.” It made me think about that. 15, 16, I took my first marketing course. Even after 18, I took some sports-marketing courses. I really wanted to understand more. I went on to get my education in marketing.

I did think about that a lot when I got to my, I would say, early 20s. I was thinking a lot about … I tried to get into cars, obviously, racing-formula cars. The step from go-karts to formal cars is quite a big one, because the car has a lot more costs so you need a lot more sponsors behind you. I was able to find … My dad actually put a lot of resource himself and time, and we had a lot of friends helping, to get me into my first race car, because we couldn’t really afford it. We ended up working long nights in getting everybody together to work on this project, “Build Darryl’s Formula Car.” We had people coming helping all the time.

Jay: It’s like Kickstarter before Kickstarter.

Darryl: Someone donated a race car, an old race car. It was a piece of junk, but it was an old race car. People were fixing it up. I did three races that year and I was able to finish second in this really big race in the US. I was able to land a sponsor. Even then, the sponsors, it was very tough. You’re not getting any pay. It was kind of like they gave me a job to work on a race team, and I was able to have a place to live, have some food to eat, and be able to race. I had no pay. It was just basic necessities and go racing. Back then, of course, early 20s, I was like, “Yeah, I’ll take it. I’ll do that for a couple of years.”

Jay: This was back in Canada?

Darryl: This is actually in the US. I was living in California. I moved to California and I went to work for a team. It was a challenging part of my career because it’s tough to think about all the ways it’s going to take my future, because I’m barely making ends meet. I’m doing okay on the race track. I won some races. I finished second and third in the championship somewhere in there.

Jay: It was like a true apprenticeship, where you get paid zero and you get to work with the team, but hopefully you’re betting that this will pay off at some point, right?

Darryl: Exactly. That’s what I was doing, because you need to get experience. I remember me and my teammate, we used to drive in the truck as well. We towed our race cars across the country, and then we’d get out. We’d have to race against some people that were … These other drivers would just show up and we got to race. We did it. We did the grind.

I wouldn’t trade that experience because it was fun, but I remember after two years of doing that … I did two years building that experience. It was the point where I considered quitting racing. I was like, “I have to think about my future. I have to think about what I’m going to do. I can’t just keep living this racing dream.” It was a big part of my life since I was eight, so at that point, it’s been twelve years of my life competing everywhere, but obviously, you need to think about reality. That balance came in. I remember my sisters encouraged me a lot to continue my career, to really focus on not giving up your dreams, and working hard at it, and there’s going to be opportunities that come. I stuck with it.

That actually led to some further opportunities down the road, brought me back to Asia, which was actually … It all happened coincidentally, because I made my little marketing documents when I went to … I actually got an opportunity to do one race in China about 2001. During those two years I was racing in California, I did one race over in China. I had an uncle that liked cars a bit and he brought me out here to help me line up a sponsor.

Jay: Just as an aside, Asian race-car drivers, it still is quite rare, right?

Darryl: Yeah, especially in the US and Canada. It’s not something, I don’t think, that was really attractive to sponsors. It wasn’t necessarily marketable. It just didn’t really have much substance to it. When I came back to Asia, to Hong Kong to do the race in China, it opened my eyes that there is … Because it was my first time leaving North America, actually, when I was 21. It was my first time leaving North America. It was kind of an eye opener to seeing Asia, seeing all the stuff. I thought, “Oh, there’s so much opportunity out here. Racing is still quite in its infancy,” so I decided to look for opportunities out here.

When I did the race out here, I made these marketing documents. My dad kind of helped me, told me what I should do, because I already did my marketing courses, so I knew exactly … I made these paper documents. I just went around literally everywhere and handed them out. I had some friends help me print these back in Vancouver and I brought a whole stack of them. I passed them everywhere. Went back to California to continue my racing, but then two years later, I think it was, in 2003, end of 2003, somebody had received that. It was Porsche Hong Kong.

Jay: The marketing packet.

Darryl: Yeah.

Jay: It actually worked! Amazing.

Darryl: It went to the desk of the GM. They called me and offered me a trial, a test to try it. I did the first Porsche Cup test. It went really well, and I got my first contract as a professional driver.

Jay: That’s unbelievable. I’ve never heard the story before, actually.

Darryl: I moved out to Asia. That’s how it all started, my career.

Jay: Wow. That’s awesome. I think a lot of the younger entrepreneurs now, the one thing that they don’t have is patience. As an entrepreneur, I know that that’s one of the most important thing. Because entrepreneurs, they’re very impatient. They want to get whatever the metrics of success that they think it is: money, fame, the next gig, or whatever it is. So many people are impatient. It’s a grind. Being an entrepreneur is not easy. You have to literally stick at it. There’s so many times, like you said, the hundred times that you thought you were going to quit, and what am I doing with my life, my future, this, that, and the other.

I think you just have to … Fortunately for you, your family was very supportive. That’s one thing that I think you have to find, that support network and people that believe in you to back you. I think if I was in your shoes, my parents would have been like, “Give it up. Go get a real job.” I think that obviously was one of the keys to your success. I think it’s just difficult, especially given the niche that you were in, given the fact that you’re Asian and everything, I think you really overcame a lot of challenges to get your first gig here in Asia.

Tell me, after that first gig that you got signed, you moved to Asia full time basically, at that point?

Darryl: Yeah. At that point, I was really committed to trying to build up myself in this market. I think it really helped aligning with Porsche, because they really gave me that opportunity. It takes some breaks. It definitely does. You can’t do it on your own. You need some things to align some times. This opportunity really did, because Robby Niermann, who was the GM at Porsche Hong Kong at the time, really had a vision to develop young talent, and he really wanted to help me get better, which is exactly … He didn’t want to just have a marketing story. He wanted to have some substance to that, which was giving me the opportunity to learn and develop.

He sent me to Australia and New Zealand for Winter Series to develop, and also gave me the chance to race for two years. It really helped me launch my career, in terms of I had my first Macau win with them, with Porsche Hong Kong. Actually, I drove for them for six years on. During that time also, I kept looking for further opportunities. I was able to start racing over in Europe. I had some sponsors that really supported me there. Things really went well in my 20s all the way through. It was a lot of great opportunities, a lot of good sponsors, a lot of people that really believed in me and helped me to achieve success on the race track.

Winning several major races, endurance races. I was able to compete in races that, if you look back to when I was younger in the US, I never even would have imagined racing there. I think even going to be a spectator at Le Mans, I would have been really happy, but to be able to compete in the 24 Hours of Le Mans and finish on the podium? It was a dream come true. We were only thirty seconds from the win, so it’s still one of those disappointments. We were really close to the win. Le Mans is the Mecca for racing. I really wanted to compete there and I was able to. Just things that are unimaginable really happened. Just a lot of things came together for me.

Jay: That’s awesome. I can’t even imagine the feeling that you must have had, having the podium finish at Le Mans, but then being so close to actually winning the whole thing. It must have been bittersweet. Obviously, you never would have imagined this as a kid, that you’d be standing there, but at the same time, you’re like, “Thirty seconds?”

Obviously, you’ve had quite a successful career. I think a lot of people recognize you for your humility. I’ve heard this from several people, where they say, “Darryl, he’s such a down-to-earth guy. I’ve met him several times and he just seems like a good dude.” How do you go from being a successful public figure, professional race-car driver, athlete … You obviously have a big fan base. How do you go from that to just everyday being as grounded and as humble as you are?

Darryl: I think a lot of it actually has to do with my dad. He did teach me a lot. My dad himself was a really … People always saw him as the guru. They would call him the guru or Yoda and all these funny things, but he had a very good faith in Christianity. It was actually a big part of him, which he passed onto me. Christian life was a big part of me. It’s just I think all around he always focused on my attitude. In racing, there’s of course winning, of course being fast, but, for example, he would never let me protest other drivers, even if they wronged me. It was something that he just believed and instilled in me that you just learn from that experience. There’s a lot of areas where sportsmanship was a big thing for him. There was just an all-around attitude that was …

Actually, this is where Christian faith does strengthen me, because it really helps me open my eyes to … One thing my dad always said to me is “There’s always another … ” This interview is actually drawing back a lot of memories. It’s funny. There’s a lot of things that he taught me. He did mention to me before, “There’s always going to be someone faster than you. You win a race here. There’s actually someone younger, someone whatever who’s always going to be quicker than you. You always just got to keep yourself in check, that you got to keep improving yourself, keep working at it.” It’s just a good attitude.

I think overall … What is racing? Yeah, I have a good talent at racing, but it doesn’t make me better than anything. That’s the kind of attitude I’ve always had. I think there’s so many super talented people in this world out there. Some people are good at business. Some people are good in sport, art. There’s just so many things that there’s talent. You have to respect every single area of that. For me, I’ve been fortunate to be able to do my hobby professionally. It’s been very fun. It’s been amazing.

I feel really blessed just to be able to travel the world and to see all these opportunities. That’s actually more fulfilling in a way, not just achieving that sporting side, but just having the chance to see the world and go to all these countries. Over the past 10, 12 years, I’ve flown two million miles and just seen everything, all these places I never would have imagined. I think everybody, my family, my sisters are all proud of me, but I feel like I just wish that they had that opportunity too, just to be able to do that, because it’s something that not everybody gets a chance to.

Jay: Yeah, that’s amazing. What an incredible run you’ve had, experience you’ve had. One of the questions I like to ask high achievers in whatever field they are is what sort of daily rituals, habits, practices just to keep you sharp on edge … ? Being an entrepreneur, you’re a businessman, entrepreneur. You’re a professional race-car driver. Literally, you don’t have time. I know how busy you are. You don’t have time to take a break. You’re always on. You’re always thinking about your business or competing in a race or doing some marketing. You always have to be switched on. Are there any things that you do on a daily basis that help you just perform at such a high level, day after day after day?

Darryl: Yeah, it is definitely busy. It’s important to obviously stay organized. I was able to actually build a team of guys around me. My assistant’s been with me eight years [inaudible 00:21:08] really big help for me. Just people that are really loyal and dedicated. I think that’s really important to have that. Yeah, of course, with the time schedule, it’s really hard to manage events, sponsors, and now having my own business, just everything like that. It’s a lot. Plus we must compete, stay on form and compete at the top level of the sport.

I want to say that in a perfect world, I could just race and not worry about anything, just train and race, and that’s all. That’d be the perfect life, but obviously you need to maintain having sponsors and building that base. It’s something that I’ve had to do on the side all my life. Sponsorship, the whole business aspect of it, I’m actually glad I did that, because it taught me a lot of business. I was able to learn a lot during those 20s. I was able to learn a lot about business. That helped me a lot.

Myself, personally, I’ve obviously got to stay fit. Training was a big part of my life. Lately, I’ve changed my training regime a lot. I started off training a lot. Did five, six days a week. Obviously, for me, all of the traveling I do, weight gain was one major issue for me. For me, personally, I was really trying to understand how to better manage my weight and things like that. Lately, I’ve learned a lot about nutrition and training. I can join this program, Hack Your Fitness. It really changed a lot for me because I learned a lot about nutrition and eating and changing my fitness regime. It actually helped me drop 25 pounds in the past few months. It’s actually quite interesting, that efficiency, I think. Training hard but doing it efficiently is really important.

In my business life, just keep working on building a better team. We’ve grown a lot in terms of the staff and people I have around me. It’s really helped our business grow a lot. Since I’m now 36, I’m reaching that … I’m not thinking about retirement yet, but it’s obviously in the back of your mind a little bit. It’s not what I’m trying to do now. I’ve always been more of a planning-ahead kind of person. I always liked to look ahead. Even in my sporting career, when I was racing in Asia, I was looking towards Europe in the back of my mind so I can make my move over there and then make it to the World Championship. I’m always trying to be a few steps ahead.

Right now, with me and a few partners, we’ve started a race team. Now it’s been three years already. We’re in our third year. It’s going really well. To have a business alongside my sporting career, it’s been really good. It’s going to be, I think, a great transition for when I move into the second half of my career after my 40s. I think racing will always be a part of me, so I’m trying to really look for other ways. Besides driving, there’s other aspects that you can be involved. I think having a race team is something that I’m really passionate about.

Jay: Right. Okay, so just for full disclosure to the audience, the Hack Your Fitness program is actually my own program that Darryl has actually been on. He’s had amazing results. Why don’t you tell us a little bit about what you’re working on? You talked about your own race team. I believe it’s called Craft Bamboo. Tell us a little bit about what you’re doing there in addition to some of the other things that you’re doing in the community, because I know that’s a big focus for you as well.

Darryl: Yeah. Craft Bamboo Racing, it’s actually a team that started out in Asia, Craft Racing, and then actually Bamboo Engineering was the team I drove for in Europe during the World Championships. My partner and I, Frank, started work together in Craft Racing to really try to build up this brand in Asia over the past few years. We merged together with Bamboo Engineering about two years ago.

Craft Bamboo Racing is a business that really tries to link Asia and Europe in terms of motor sport. In Europe, motor sport is a world that has a really big history. It’s got 90 years at Le Mans and just a really big fan base and a really big infrastructure. Asia, it’s still really young. People didn’t really compete in cars and motor sports, but, at the same time, China is the number-one car market in the world. It’s the fastest growing car market. There’s a lot of involvement from manufacturers. Just cars is a big subject, I think, automobiles. I think our business is really trying to create a linkage, bringing expertise from Europe, but at the same time bringing that to the newer Asian market.

That’s what our racing team has been doing. We’ve competed in a lot of world championships that race in Europe and Asia, or also, at the same time, we compete a lot of championships in Asia. I think with the growing, not just motor sport, but just overall in car manufacturing and technology, everything in Asia is growing really quickly. We think we have the expertise to be able to help companies and businesses in that area.

Jay: Awesome. What about … I know you do a lot of stuff locally with regards to community outreach, because I know that’s a big passion of yours, is to give back. What have you been working on these days?

Darryl: One of the biggest programs we work on is O’Young’s Future Stars. It’s a nonprofit kids’ karting program.

Jay: O’Young’s Future Stars.

Darryl: O’Young’s Future Stars, yeah. Motor sport, like I said before, is something that people don’t have much exposure to. In Hong Kong, actually, a lot of people don’t know, but there used to be world championship kart races in Victoria Park.

Jay: Oh, really?

Darryl: Yeah. A lot of people don’t know this. It was in the ’90s actually, not that long ago, ’80s and ’90s that there was the Victoria Kart World Championships. A lot of the top drivers around the world used to come compete in carts here. There was a really big history in motor sport, especially the Macau Grand Prix. A lot of Hong Kong drivers used to be very famous competing in the Macau circuit.

The past 20 years really lost motor sport somehow. Whatever reasons it is, it doesn’t exist anymore. We’re really hoping that motor sport can make a comeback in the city. We can see it has, because Formula E is having its first motor-sports street race in Hong Kong. Also, we had a kart track here a few years ago. That’s no longer. We’re trying to really help motor sport grow again. Of course, the future of any sport is the kids. There’s nothing really introducing kids to sport.

For me, I was quite fortunate. When I was eight, my dad got me a kart because he liked motor sport and he knew it, but how about all those other kids that don’t have the opportunity? A lot of parents and people love cars. Hong Kong is a city known for huge abundances of super cars. Macau has a 60-year history here, the Macau Grand Prix. A lot of people grew up watching the sports, but there’s no outlet for people. Even if they like the sport, they have no idea-

Jay: How you get involved, how you get started, right?

Darryl: How to get started, yeah. Our program was really just to take action. There was a lot of talk about programs and yeah, we want to get kids, but no one’s been really taking any action. I was able to find a good partners. GV Motorsports and also Sideways Driving Club in Central. We worked together on concept to try and bring the general public to have exposure to motor sport. We’ve done now about ten classes. We’ve had over 150 kids been through our program. Actually, three or four of them are racing now full-time, which they never touched a kart before. It’s quite satisfying to see that we’re able to make a small difference.

Jay: It’s working.

Darryl: Of course, with millions of people in Hong Kong, we’re not really reaching a lot of people, but I think you have to take things step by step. That’s been quite a nice program.

We also, together with my sponsor VLT, we’ve been going to schools. We’ve been, again, to about ten schools now, about 5,000 kids we’ve spoken to. Next up, we have some universities we’re going to talk to with the Race to Win message, we call it. This year, our campaign is VLT Race to Win. That’s really talking about having that winning attitude, having that drive and desire to do well and perform well when you do something. Whatever it is, if it’s through sport or if it’s education or anything you do, you’ve got to really give it your effort to make it.

A lot of people think about things. Like if you see me in my sporting career now, they might think, “Oh, maybe these were opportunities that were given to me.” They don’t really know that story about the grind. That’s what we’re sharing to the schools. We’re using that Race to Win story and telling people that you really have to have a dream, and not give up on it, and keep working hard. I think Hong Kong needs it these days, because a lot of the young people are not really looking to the future and thinking there’s bright opportunity. There’s a lot of negativity on that side. Hopefully, we can inspire some kids to really dream big.

Jay: I agree with you. I think the easiest cop out for anyone, whether they have a chip on their shoulder or they look at the success of other entrepreneurs or businessmen or in whatever field, it’s very easy for you to just say, “Oh, well, he comes from a rich family,” or, “He was given that opportunity,” or, “He got lucky.” A lot of people say, “Oh, you got lucky,” “He lucked out,” but what people don’t understand is that, yeah, sure, there’s a small minority of people that they lucked out or they came from a good family that set them up, but that’s not to say that these people didn’t work hard for whatever they earned. They didn’t get lucky. They’ve been working for 10, 20, 30 years on their craft, their passion. Even the Hollywood star. You know how difficult it is to land an audition. These people are working on their craft for years and years and years, and then they have their big break. Then people say, “They lucked out. They got lucky.” It doesn’t work like that.

We’re going to look to wrap up here. On that same note, what’s one piece of advice that you would give to a young entrepreneur that’s looking to perhaps pursue something, chase a dream at a young age? Maybe it’s something similar to what you’re doing, a nonconventional route, or maybe it’s just something that they’re not sure if they’ll be successful at. What would you say is one good piece of advice?

Darryl: I would say, especially when you’re younger and have more flexibility in your 20s, really take risks. Try to find different opportunities. Look for things that you’re passionate about. I think that’s the hardest thing. For me, I was quite lucky, because I found my passion when I was eight. Most people can’t really be able to find that passion. Whatever it is, if it is sport or it’s making money or it’s being successful in business, whatever it is, find that passion and then really dedicate everything you do towards it. Like I said earlier, with motor sports, I found that passion is racing, so I had to study marketing, I had to study PR, I had to study business. I had to really strengthen that side in order to be successful in motor sport. It’s not just as simple as, “Oh, I like to drive fast.”

If you find your passion, you’ve got to build around that. Take the time and take the risk to find that passion, and from there, take time to study and learn that craft. Find all the areas you need to be strong in, around that passion, and then the success will come in your 30s. It’s something that takes time. Nowadays, people are looking for shortcuts, looking for the hacks, but there is no shortcut in the long term. You need to really know your stuff when the opportunity comes. When the big opportunity comes and you don’t know what you’re doing, it’s really very obvious and apparent, so be prepared for that big break.

Jay: That’s really, really good advice. You have to be patient, but at the same time, you’ve got to be very prepared. You’ve got to put in the time, go all in, and become that expert so when … Exactly what you said. You never know when that door opens. Then you have to have done all your work and ready to seize it.

That’s great, man. Dude, thanks so much for doing this. I think this is going to be really, really helpful. I think the listeners are going to take away a lot of good insight from here. Where can we find out more about you? You’re on social media, right? Twitter?

Darryl: Yeah, social media’s always a good way.

Jay: You’re Darryl O’Young. Is that your Twitter handle?

Darryl: Yeah. Usually, if you search Darryl O’Young on Facebook and Twitter and all that stuff.

Jay: Facebook, Twitter. Then your company website is CraftBamboo.com.

Darryl: Yeah, CraftBamboo.com.

Jay: Okay. What’s your big race coming up next? Where can people look to see you racing next?

Darryl: My biggest race each year is the Macau Grand Prix. That comes in November, end of the year each year. That’s a really big race for me and for our team as well. Yeah, Macau Grand Prix street race. This year, I think, is the 63rd edition. Yeah, it’s a really exciting race. Actually, a lot of Hong Kong people don’t know about this race. A lot of people in Asia, from around Asia, fly in to watch this race. Hopefully, more people can take the ferry from Hong Kong over to watch it, because a lot of people don’t know about it, but it’s actually an amazing event. Some of the motor-sports greats around the world have actually competed here.

Jay: Awesome, man. All right. Well, thanks again for coming in, and best of luck to you.

Darryl: Thank you.