Jonathan was born in London to a Chinese mom and a Korean dad. Due to circumstances, his mom ended up raising him on her own. At first, they lived in Brooklyn Heights, NYC, and although it was not quite a ghetto, it was not a great neighborhood at the time. They were poor, and unable to provide great care to Jonathan, his mom sent him to live with grandparents in Hong-Kong.

Even though Jonathan did not speak Cantonese, nor did he really know much about Hong-Kong or his grandparents, he says it was a fantastic experience. He learned a lot and got to meet his extended family.

Jonathan Sposato wrote a book about this called Better Together, in which he talks about gender and how we can do better in the business by having more women be in positions of senior leadership.

Having some luck in life enabled Jonathan to feel very grateful for what he already has, while giving him grounding to not take things for granted and to always appreciate how far one can go. He knows first hand how much impact one can make even by simply helping others to have a sit at the table, so to speak.

Microsoft taught their employees to be great engineers and managers, and marketers and strategists and technologists, but very few had any kind of mentoring on how preserve wealth or to be philanthropic with it.

Jonathan says he knew he had a mom, that she lived in New York, and that she would send back money and Christmas presents, but he did not actually see her for six straight years. However, he has nothing but fond memories of his childhood in Hong Kong, growing up in a massive city, gaining independence, learning a lot.

Jonathan's mom married Dawn Sposato, who subsequently adopted Jonathan as his son, and to honor that gesture Jonathan is keeping with his Italian last name.

When Jonathan arrived back to the US, after more than six years abroad, his parents made an effort to make sure he felt welcomed. Non-the-less, it was still the suburbs of Edmonds, Washington in the 1976. People didn't know what to do with a family of a Caucasian husband and an Asian wife.

Yes. If anybody is bullying you and hurts you physically, you stand up for yourself and you punch back.

When someone else is being bullying, do not be a passive bystander, stand up for them.

Talk to children both candidly, and in a way that makes sense to them. They will understand.

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