Life Philosophy
I live in service of the pinnacle: artist, athlete, entrepreneur. Artistry comes first, and everything flows downstream from that. If I'm able to operate in all 3 domains simultaneously on any given day, that is success to me.
I live life in radical optimism. Similarly…
I'm in pursuit of rhapsodic transcendence - this intuitive conviction there's something beyond our lifetime worth chasing. This is where all my inspiration, optimism, and meaning of life comes from. Transcendence. I live freely, geographically boundless – toward a singular mission.
Have a romanticist's heart and a strategist's mind.
My name, Jeston, means "just" or "righteous." I have an incredibly strong sense of morals and unwavering loyalty toward the things and people I care about. Trust and high-integrity is everything.
I'm deeply obsessed. Excellence is the standard.
A digital dump of who I am. Last updated 9.26.25.
Meaning
I believe every individual on this earth is granted a cosmic duty that is uniquely theirs. It boils down to two parts:
Find what that unique thing
Will that duty into reality
People on a mission operate on an entirely different frequency to those who drift mindlessly in life. The difference is tangibly visceral. The meaning of life comes when you surrender to your nature.
When you live each day with purpose, you're not lost. There comes a liberating sense of freedom and aliveness not found anywhere else.
Life becomes electric when you're on a mission.
God
I believe in a singular God, monotheism.
I don't believe God as some entity floating somewhere in the sky, but found all around us – only if we have the clear intention to step back from our day-to-day lives and see it.
I believe with 100% conviction that there's something beyond this lifetime.
I find transcendence in beautiful pockets of my life. Sunsets. Oceans. Forests. Skies. This is an eternal, unwavering source of light I rest upon. I call it "getting flashes of heaven." It's the most beautiful thing ever.
I think I want to place my faith in Christianity. However, I'm still uncertain and skeptical. For now, I believe in deism – a belief in a creator but without divine intervention into our lives. I'm agnostic about the rest.
Beliefs
Some beliefs I hold very strongly (some contrarian):
○ Self reliance and inner truth
○ I don't believe in retirement nor vacations
○ Emotional resonance > commerce or hype
○ Competition is for losers
○ AI will never replace the soul of the artist
○ Infinite and positive-sum > zero-sum games
○ Cheating would not happen if we were taught the right way
○ Boldness is highly underrated
○ Mimetic desire reveals the intentions of human nature
○ I reject institutional bureaucracy
○ I walk out of places that stifle my ability to be free
In summary, I'm a romanticist in aesthetics, transcendentalist in independence, and Girardian in awareness.
Piano
It all starts with the piano.
When I started learning the piano at 5, I went straight to composing. Never mind practicing and learning the pieces of other composers – if I could create my own thing in my own little world, that's all it matters.
At age 10, I entered competitive classical piano. First locally, then regionally, nationally, and internationally. 25+ competitions won.
I studied under Professor Hans Boepple, student of Sidney Foster (traced down to Beethoven). He was my favorite teacher; I learned a lot, especially his wisdom on music. That's where a lot of philosophy on art comes from today and the importance of emotive storytelling.
My favorite memories were performing my solo debut, Beethoven's 5th Piano Concerto with the California Youth Symphony and at my high school's annual Christmas concert. Some really good times.
Composing
Composing is my lifeline. It is everything.
I've released 45 tracks and 3.5 hours worth of music in the past 2 years. Launched 4 albums along with 4 films.
My goal with all the music I create is to let people feel deeply and awaken something beautiful within them. Music is most alive when you breathe life into it. That's the only heuristic I use to assess the difference between a great and mediocre composition. Listen to this.
I never had a teacher for composition. It was all self taught and applied from my lived experience learning classical piano.
Music
I have immense distaste for people who play music for the sake of showing off, especially their technical expertise. This is not a math competition; it's a tool for artistic expression.
I only care about how you can make me feel.
I also dislike how music has become so performative nowadays. Doing music not for the sake of music, but as a vehicle to get from A to B. Like getting into a good university. It's so formulaic and unappealing.
One genre of music is not better than another. There's a subtle belief that classical music is more "sophisticated" than any other genre.
I only create the art I want to create.
Most traditional music learning doesn't teach your composing or improvising. That's a huge issue. Many are led to falsely believe that music is simply a process of regurgitating what the composer wrote.
Drawing
From ages 6-12, I was an avid artist, participating in local competitions at my hometown's Chinese school. This was before going all in on music. And I sometimes wonder where I'd be if I went all in on drawing instead.
I specialized in Western painting - specifically oil pastel and color pencil. I also dabbled in charcoal, drawing, but wasn't the biggest fan.
I love drawing cities and landscape, especially sunsets and horizons.
I'd get a "104%" on my 6th grade science art projects, as I'd spend 10-15 hours for each one. And for my high school French class I took for 4 years.
I would stitch together a dozen plus pieces of 8.5 x 11 paper, use a 0.3mm mechanical pencil, and draw imaginary cities down to the finest detail - either aerial shots or the road maps you see when you open Google Maps.
Learning
The best way to go from 0 to 1 on a certain skill is to find someone who is an expert on that skill you want to learn and find a way to learn directly with them.
In 2024, I wanted to work in tech and startups but didn't have the necessary skills to get my foot in the door. There, I came across the idea of "permissionless apprenticeship" – the idea of providing value without permission.
From 2024-2025, I've worked directly with:
Peter Yang – Roblox Product Lead
Andrew Yeung – Founder and CEO of Fibe
Alex Lieberman – Co-founder and Executive Chairman of Morning Brew
In a span of a year, I've gone from having zero connections + business skills to breaking into startups and becoming friends with successful entrepreneurs.
Startups
I remember falling in love with the idea of startups when I was my freshman year of high school. The idea of turning something you want to see in the world into reality was something that struck a chord within me – this pure essence of creation.
It all started when I created an account on Twitter and began following my favorite entrepreneurs, writers, and creatives.
Recently, I was the Marketing Lead for Distro, an AI content startup that helps marketers and founders create content from idea to publish. Worked alongside Alex Lieberman, co-founder of Morning Brew. We hit 3rd place on Product Hunt 5.19.25.
I absolutely love startups. It's fast-paced, high-agency, and oriented toward a singular mission. I cannot imagine working in any other setting.
Traveling
I study geography at UCLA. I chose it for 3 reasons:
It's easy, I don't care about grades, and it's not for career
It's the perfect excuse for me to study abroad as much as possible
I'm obsessed with maps, cities, and Google Earth
I spent a semester abroad at Peking University in Beijing, China during spring 2025. In 4.5 months, I traveled to 19 different cities in 8 different provinces.
I have a deep spiritual love for planes, the sky, and concept of flying.
Some believe travel = vacation. For me, travel is a way of life – this idea of un-rootedness. At least for the next 5-10 years, I don't expect to settle down. I want to be geographically unbound, free to satisfy my strong wanderlust for adventure.
Life's Work
My whole quest the past 5-6 years have been discovering my life's work.
I first went all in on music all the way up until university but quickly fell into an existential crisis during my 1st year because I was completely unsure on what I wanted to do. That existential moment led me to dive headfirst into tech and startups during my 2nd and 3rd years.
Now, I want to bridge the two worlds: art and startups.
I'm doing that with Musinary, a cinematic music production studio crafting musical stories to founders, brands, and creators. It rests upon a singular thesis: "let music tell your story." Music is one of the last frontiers in the age of distribution for startups.
I've also started "Artists," a public journal documenting my journey taking Musinary, this artistic manifesto into a global, category-defining venture.