Unfinished Business
If you’re the child of immigrant parents, you’ve probably spent most of your life trying to gain your parents’ approval and meet their high expectations. Guilt is a familiar emotion; it feels like nothing you do can ever repay them for their sacrifices. As they age, the unspoken obligation to care for them places a significant burden on your life.
Yet your relationship with them is no closer than when you were a child.
In Unfinished Business, Amy charts the path of her journey from detachment to connection with her own parents. Her warmth, wit, and vulnerability shine through on every page as she explores how her parents influenced her life and the choices she made, and how they too were shaped by their circumstances.
So many people never get a chance to hear the stories of their parents and hold back from asking because of mistaken beliefs or past rifts in their relationship. Amy shines a light on the power of conversation as she shows us the world through her parents’ eyes. When you’re willing to engage your parents and take the time to learn about their lives and their struggles, you’ll discover (or rediscover) that your parents are humans too. They have their own hopes, dreams and even fears.
Combination memoir and guidebook, each chapter includes a framework of self-reflective prompts, tips and questions to ask your own parents to help you navigate conversations with them. We all want to be heard and understood, no matter what generation we’re in. That includes your parents.
Amy C. Yip
About Amy C. Yip
Amy Yip is a Somatic Life Transformation and Mental Fitness coach, keynote speaker, trainer, and author. She works with women of color to strengthen their mental fitness, heal intergenerational wounds, and have agency to let go of all the ‘shoulds’ so they can be the author of their own life story. Her mission to empower all women of color to become the embodied version of themselves.
In January 2020, after 16+ years of building and leading global teams in organizations like Google, Clorox, and Booz Allen, Amy left the corporate world, sold everything, and took a 1-way flight to Ghana with her husband to volunteer at a breast cancer non-profit and travel the world. COVID shifted their plans; they got stuck in Ghana for 7 months.
One of her greatest learnings:
Your mindset, NOT your circumstance, makes all the difference in your happiness and success.
Through this lens, she works with organizational leaders, including corporate executives, non-profits, and social entrepreneurs to find their voice and the courage to speak up, build self-confidence, navigate change, and discover what they REALLY want next in their life and career.
Amy is an ICF PCC, Certified Hudson Institute Coach, Certified Strozzi Somatics Coach, and a pioneer Mental Fitness Coach certified through Positive Intelligence. She is also one of fifteen Positive Intelligence Mastery Program Facilitators. Amy holds a MBA from Anderson UCLA, a MS in Communication Technology from Strayer University, and a BS in Computer Science, BA in Communications from University of Maryland.
Amy resides in Maryland with Greg, her best friend and husband, and her son Logan, the cutest kid ever.
Learn MoreWhat People Are Saying
What People Are Saying
Amy is an Asian American role model with a winding path to success. While striving to meet expectations of her immigrant parents, Amy was also able to find herself along the way. This book makes for a fascinating read for one growing up in a western society while under the influence of eastern culture, yet managing to find the right balance to find success in life.
Amy Yip has written something incredibly unique, powerful, and transformational. Unfinished Business is a story of intergenerational trauma, gifts, love and healing the likes of which I have never seen, and it's laid out in intimate detail. I am in awe of what Amy and her parents have brought together via their challenging and both heartbreaking and heartwarming conversations.
Amy is an inspiring powerhouse just based on her "external" achievements, but this story and her willingness to share her (and her parents') "internal" world, as well as the loving bond between them are what's so powerful. If you are a high achiever that struggles with anxiety, an Asian American like me, or someone seeking to heal their relationship with themselves and their loved ones, this is the book you need.
This is the book I wish I had read when I was younger. It is the book I needed to read while struggling to straddle two worlds, American culture and that of my parents - Vietnamese refugees who escaped into the United States with only the clothing on our backs. This book is for anyone who wants to heal intergenerational trauma through kindness, conversations, and practical exercises. In Unfinished Business, Amy tells her story of finding her way home by examining her relationship with her parents. In doing so, she tells many of our stories with warmth and vulnerability, shining a light on the tenuous but beautiful of the parent-child relationship.
