Coach Sam and Coach Sabastian have a conversation about the cultures they were raised in, how they helped shape who they are today, and how they learned to take the best of their cultures and incorporate them into the raising of their own families.

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Parable #1: Multi-Cultural

• Coach Sam hails from three different cultures: the Persian/Middle Eastern culture, the French Canadian culture, and the American culture. The orchestration of these three cultures has only recently been viewed as an asset to him.
• As a young man, Sam wanted to hide so he would blend in; whereas today, he sees his multi-cultural background as an asset that has weaponized his mind, weaponized the way he speaks and communicates, and has allowed him to see different perspectives.

QUESTION

What cultures have influenced you?

 

Parable #2: Individualistic vs Collective

• The difference between the Eastern and Western cultures is this: One is an individualistic mindset, and the other is a collective culture mindset.
• In the Western culture mindset, when one is considering marriage, it is based on what the individual wants. In the Eastern culture, the question becomes, “Will my parents like her?” All the questions asked are not individualistic, they are based on a collective culture and your family unit.

QUESTION

Do you practice the mindsets of your youth? Why or why not?

 

Parable #3: The Best of Both Worlds

• Coach Sam freed himself from the demands of the collective culture. On the one side, there is beauty because you’re involving loved ones. On the other side, it’s total slavery to what everyone wants vs what you want.
• It’s basically an abandonment and total rejection of doing what others want him to do, coupled with an integration of the mindset of doing what he wants that has led him to adopt a system that carries the best of the East while operating in the Western world.

QUESTION

What have you rejected from your childhood teachings?

 

Parable #4: Colliding Cultures

• Coach Sabastian: As our cultures collide, just as we collide in our conversations, it’s not what’s right or wrong, it’s what works in the context find ourselves in.
• He came to America with a step-father and grew up German Catholic. “I grew up as a white Anglo-Saxon Protestant aka a WASP. ” He later learned he was Vietnamese/Chinese, another sub-category of Vietnamese people. He had to study and learn about his cultures, then reconcile with them.

QUESTION

What are the roots of your heritage?

 

Parable #5: Universal Principles

• As Coach Sam raises his son, it is his role to inject into him the wisdom of the East and allow him to choose. The East doesn’t present choices, they force.
• Coach Sabastian: I gave my sons the Western American culture which is abundance, and rooted them in the universal principles of love, forgiveness, and trust in God. As an analogy, a kite represents the Western culture of abundant, endless opportunities, which is tied or tethered to fundamental principles.”

QUESTION

What are your fundamental principles?

Parables from the Pit:

“We are two men proud and honored to live in the West while carrying seeds of the East.”

–Sam Falsafi

“The deeper you root your family in this Ethos, the higher your children will be able to fly.”

— Sabastian Huynh