Ninja Life Hacks fans refer to Mary Nhin as the “Ninja Lady,” but the author says she aligns more with another secret weapon: grit.
“It’s not just a word to me; it’s basically my life,” Nhin said. “It’s what I’ve been through—like all of the failures and mistakes we’ve been through to get to where we are.”
Through her 300 Ninja Life Hacks books, 99 emotion-exploring characters and various classroom resources, Nhin hopes to give kids the skills to grow and strengthen their mental toughness.
“Imagine having this in your toolbox so early in life. I think that you could accomplish so much more, and you would look at failure and mistakes in a different way,” said Nhin, whose passion to help kids propels her productivity. “Every day I create, I write and I try to research and think about ways to help kids understand their emotions better and learn while having fun.”
Nhin remembers a time when friends laughed at her idea. She admits the first year of Ninja Life Hacks was bumpy.
“My first school year in business, I did over two million dollars in sales, but I lost over $200,000,” she recalled.
The trying moments didn’t discourage her; they inspired her to adapt her plans and charge forward. Perhaps that’s because this wasn’t Nhin’s first experience launching a new business after several setbacks.
“My story is full of failures. It began when my husband had a dream of opening a restaurant,” said Nhin. “This was in 2002. We didn’t have any collateral credit or money to open a business, so we went to a bank for a $65,000 loan, but we were rejected.”
The Nhins applied for a loan with a different bank with the same result. They repeated this process a dozen times, all ending in a hard “no.”
“It wasn’t until 2005, when we found a ‘For Sale By Owner’ sign, that we were able to open our first restaurant and make his dreams come true,” Nhin said. “To come up with the money needed to open our first restaurant, we maxed out all our credit cards, took out lines of credit on the little collateral we had on our vehicles, and borrowed from friends and family. We risked it all … Then, we were working 12 to 16 hours a day to pay off debt.”
While Nhin’s husband focused on growing their restaurant business (today Nhinja Sushi has five locations), she focused on raising their three sons.
“I felt like my number one priority was to raise three caring, kind and compassionate boys,” she said.
Decades later, after the kids had become adults, Nhin felt it was time for her to pursue her own dream, launching Ninja Life Hacks. Getting it off the ground wasn’t easy, but a little grit can go a long way.
“You see, we all have grit, right? But not all of us tap into it,” Nhin said. “We all have emotional intelligence. We all have a growth mindset, but not everyone taps into it, because maybe they don’t know they possess those superpowers. That’s what I want kids to know—that all of these are actually within you.”
Superpowers are within us all. For sure, they are within her.
