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A Comic Con-nection: Lightsaber-Bearing Millionaire Reveals Secrets
by | Oct 23, 2023 10:22 am
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Posted to: Visual Art , Pop Culture
May the Force be with you.
New York Comic Con
Javits Center, New York, NY
Oct. 12 – 15
When I went to New York Comic Con, I was ready for the spectacle of a lifetime. It’s one of the biggest pop culture events in the world, drawing visitors and celebrities from all over (when there isn’t a strike, that is). But the biggest spectacle of all came from a woman I bumped into at an industry event.
New York Comic Con is where the worlds of movies, comic books, videogames and pop culture collide. People from all over the world come together to cosplay as their favorite characters, meet celebrities, and share their love of heroes, villains and everything in between.
That’s how I met her. We started talking at the empty taco bar, lamenting our bad timing. She told me that her name was Angel Chan, and that she’d reached NYCC after a three-day cross country drive from her home in Los Angeles. I asked her what she does.
“I train Jedi,” she said mysteriously.
Angel Chan and a group of padawans.
In reality, she’s not that far off. She runs Weareangelscharity.com, a site where she sells custom-made lightsabers. The lightsabers start at $100, and can rise in cost up to ten times that amount or more.
There’s good reason for that. These aren’t the cheap plastic toys you find in Walmart. They’re made out of metal and handcrafted to resemble the most famous lightsabers from across the Star Wars saga, from Anakin’s lightsaber that Luke receives in A New Hope to Kylo Ren’s twisted sword in The Force Awakens. Best of all, the proceeds from the sale go to charity.
As a Star Wars fan, I thought that was pretty cool. As we talked, I was continually more impressed. Angel has lived the kind of life that people make movies about. She was raised in Beverly Hills, where she went to high school with Richard Pryor’s daughter. She has a computer engineering degree from Columbia and an MBA from NYU. She’s worked in investment banking for over 30 years — not that she needs to, because she made her first million at the age of 28. She was there during the umbrella protests in Hong Kong.
A Jedi vs. the Predator: Who you got?
And now she makes lightsabers for charity.
What made her take such a sharp detour from what she’d done for most of her life?
“I’ve loved Star Wars since I was 8,” she explained. “And at this point in my life, I’m too old and too tired to do what other people want.”
She has three boys (she also had a daughter who sadly passed away), and now she feels confident that she’s made enough money to ensure their futures. So, she says, it’s time to give back.
You can start with me, I told her. I need a millionaire mentor.
Begun, the Comic Con Wars have
After Comic Con concluded for the day, we went out to a high-powered New York bar. Think the kind of place Harvey takes his clients in the show Suits.
As we sat at the bar drinking water (Millionaire Tip #12: you don’t become a millionaire by making a lot of money; you become one by saving a lot of money), she showed me how to spot the posers from the real-deal ballers. (Millionaire Tip #6: if your bag has to say Gucci on it, you don’t really have money.)
Finally, we got down to the nitty gritty. How could I become rich and successful like her?
She already had her three simple rules ready to go:
1) You have to be smart — either street smart or book smart, preferably both.
2) You have to be self-made.
3) You have to sacrifice.
Don’t worry, she told me: I could share those tips with all of you, free of charge.
By the time I left New York at 2 a.m., I was repeating her words like a mantra. Comic Con was a great experience, and I’m glad I got to go. But making a new friend was the highlight. And making fun of rich people.
NEXT
New York Comic Con will return in 2024. You can find more pictures and videos of Angel Chan at her Instagram page.
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