In this episode of Art of Authenticity I had a thoughtful conversation with Jason Shen, a product manager at Etsy and partner of Ship Your Side Project.He is also the creator of the Asian American Man Study, which has been cited by NBC’s Asian America and The Atlantic. He served as a Presidential Innovation Fellow under President Obama and co-founded a Y Combinator startup called Ridejoy, which built a nationwide city-to-city ridesharing network.Jason’s writing has appeared in Fast Company, Quartz, and Lifehacker, he has been quoted in The New York Times, National Journal, Outside Magazine, as well as NPR’s Marketplace, and he has been a speaker at Google, Work-Bench, Auburn University, and FailCon.

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Show Notes

  • A brief history of Jason’s story in gymnastics [03:20]

  • How to notice a diminishing return on your effort [08:00]

  • His injuries and surgeries from gymnastics [10:10]

  • How his dedication to gymnastics flowed into other projects [16:50]

  • How there is no “make it” point in life [18:04]

  • The beginning of RideJoy [19:39]

  • How to know when to push through and when to move on [21:40]

  • How he transitioned to the Presidential Innovation Fellowship [28:20]

  • Why it’s important to go with your gut [30:40]

  • How entrepreneurs are simply people who don’t like BS [32:20]

  • The story behind the Aztec pushup world record [34:04]

  • The story behind Ship Your Side Project [38:20]

  • The psychology of personal change course he created [40:45]

  • What an authentic life means to him [43:28]

More About Jason

Episode Resources