Leadership lessons from the back of a scooter to around the dinner tables
What my mother's scooter, an Oxford dining hall, and our 10 Nexus supper club taught me about leadership and belonging — and an invitation to unlock the signature leadership story only you can tell.
Dear Friends, Dear Community,
Tomorrow I get to do something that still amazes me: help a room of global leaders find and tell the signature leadership story only they can tell. It’s a free 60-minute lightning session titled Discover Your Signature Leadership Story, hosted on Maven.com, and I’d love for you to be there. But first, I’d love to share why this work matters so much to me.
When I was a 10-year-old boy, I learned my first leadership lesson on the back of a scooter my mother rode. Sometimes I’d sit in front, and my father would sit on the back.
Every morning at 5 AM, my parents were already awake. My father used to carry ingredients from France in his suitcase — every trip, for 16 years, between Vietnam and France. My mother worked two jobs, as a school administrator by day, and caterer by night, and I rode on the back of her scooter as she delivered merguez and French dishes across Ho Chi Minh City.
At local school gatherings, they’d grill and serve the food — never charging extra for the delivery or the service. And they served our community with so much love and care. For my ex-military French father, who met my mother when I was 7, food was how he built a connection and sense of belonging with the locals and expats in our Saigon community.
At age 15, I left home to study in Singapore, and subsequently in the US, France, and the UK. Being far away from home and my family, I turned to my studies and strived to become the best student and student leader I could be. In these learning environments, I felt so at home with other young, aspiring leaders from all walks of life and cultures.
I spent a year at Oxford University, where a few times a week, we used to wear black robes, and sit at these long candle-lit tables to have formal hall dinners with our friends and tutors from all over the world. It was magic, the conversations would carry late into the night at a local pub or college bar.
After university, everyone scattered. It became much harder to maintain ties and meet other interesting, ambitious leaders from other cultures and industries.
So in the fall of 2018, I started to host supper club dinners in New York, San Francisco and Los Angeles to gather ambitious leaders, founders, creators, first in my 850-square-foot Williamsburg apartment, and then in other private homes and cultural spaces.
Everything I do, via the workshops, storytelling salons, and supper club dinners now is an attempt to build the tables and sense of belonging my parents once built — for global leaders looking for a place and lifelong community to belong.
The best leaders don’t win with better slides alone — they make you feel something. Behind every leader who inspires trust and rallies a room is a signature leadership story: the true, personal narrative that carries their presence and influence.
And here’s what I believe: each of us has one, waiting to be told. Most of us just never take the time to sit down, reflect on it, shape it, and tell it.
Discover Your Signature Leadership Story — a free 60-minute lightning session on Maven
Thursday, Sept 3 · 10 AM New York / 4 PM Paris / 9 PM Saigon
→ Save your seat
Ready to go further? On September 10, I'm also facilitating The Power of Story — a hands-on, 2-hour workshop where you'll find, shape, and tell your signature story live, and leave with one you can use the very next day.
Thursday, September 10 · 3:30–5:30 PM Paris (9:30 AM New York / 8:30 PM Saigon) — or September 24 · $200
→ Join the Power of Story workshop
Want a head start? Take the free 5-minute quiz to discover your story type: bit.ly/10x-leadership-story — you’ll also get the free Signature Leadership Story Field Guide to start shaping your story.
There’s a seat at the table for you, and a signature leadership story waiting to be unlocked.
Bring a friend, a colleague, or two; the table is always warmer, and the stories richer, with more voices around it.
Come help us build a table where every voice, including yours, belongs.
Henry