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Entrepreneurship is starting a business to maximize profits with limited resources. Entrepreneurs are innovators and sources of innovative concepts for products, services, businesses, and operational methods.
Entrepreneurs are essential to any economy because they have the knowledge and drive to foresee requirements and develop novel ideas. Entrepreneurship that succeeds in assuming the risks involved in founding a firm is rewarded with money, notoriety, and chances for future growth.
Many people try their best to succeed and grow while achieving specific objectives. A person must be diligent and devoted to a goal to achieve something extraordinary as an entrepreneur. John Shen is among those who work hard and strive to achieve their objectives. Shen is enthusiastic and has a multitalented personality. However, the challenging fields he chose became rewarding because they contribute to economic growth, innovation, and wealth.
John Shen was born in Beijing on January 23, 1970. Both of his parents were teachers. His father, Tianyou Shen, taught ancient Chinese literature at Peking University and was well-known for researching “The Dream of Red Mansions,” a famous Qing Dynasty classic. His mother, Zhiwan Zheng, taught Chinese in high school. His brother Qun (Steven) Shen is nearly ten years older than John Shen and his wife, Stella Zhang, serves as a chief operating officer for the American Lending Center, a successful lending institution John founded in 2009.
His parents were professionals, but their income was only about $20 per month at the time, which was modest by Chinese standards. Shen had a typical Chinese working-class upbringing. He walked to elementary school due to a lack of resources and transportation.
John developed a love for learning around the age of 12 and set out to enroll in Beijing’s top middle school. He had the lowest score imaginable yet managed to pass the entrance exam. He replicated this achievement by entering the top high school in Beijing and graduating in 1988. He got admitted to the top university in China, Peking University Law School, and completed his bachelor’s degree in 1992.
He moved to the United States in 1993 as an international student. He completed a master’s degree in statistics and decision sciences in 1996 from Duke University. When he obtained US citizenship in 2009, he changed his name from Zhong Shen to John Z. Shen.
Shen is the founder and board chairman of five businesses with their headquarters in Irvine, California. He also serves as the CEO of one of the businesses, American Lending Center (ALC), a private nonbank lending institution. Shen is a creative thinker specializing in creating entrepreneurial businesses and strategic innovation. He coined the phrase “parallel entrepreneur” to describe businesspeople who, like himself, intend to develop and run multiple firms at once to benefit from the numerous advantages between sister organizations. He also wrote an upcoming book, the Era of Parallel Entrepreneurship: Launching and Innovating Multiple Businesses, planned for publication in April 2023.
The Challenges of Immigration and Getting a US Citizenship
The experience of living abroad can profoundly change one’s life. The adjustment to life abroad is not as simple as it first appears. It takes time to adjust from an emigrant lifestyle to one more aligned with local customs. Living abroad comes with a condition known as culture shock, which all immigrants experience eventually. Some people are much more enthusiastic and can accept challenges, so they choose to live in a foreign country. One of those is John Shen, who, despite challenges, decided to be an immigrant to avail opportunities.
Being a foreigner also presented difficulties for Shen because he needed a company ready to sponsor a worker’s (H-1B) visa application to be granted a permanent green card. He also fell short of points for an immigrant visa because he still spoke English with a noticeable Chinese accent, resulting from his upbringing in China. John had been waiting for his green card for five years, even though it usually takes one year to complete the process. He called US Citizenship and Immigration Services multiple times but received no answer regarding his status. Later, Shen sent a letter seeking aid from a Pennsylvania-based US senator.
Shen eventually received feedback from USCIS on his file after the Senator forwarded his explanation letter to USCIS. In 2004, he ultimately acquired his green card. It was a difficult journey that Shen had to go through before becoming a green card holder. However, achieving what you want is not always easy. It requires a lot of patience, hard work, and determination, which is what the multitasker Shen did.
