Despite all its problems, America remains the best land of opportunity for many individuals to succeed, and I am a modern-day example of one who came to see his “American Dream” come true!
There are many American Dreams. Just to name a few: hitting a mega-lottery, being your own boss, or just for freedoms. Here is my American Dream: to achieve modest financial independence and then do whatever I want, such as writing on politics and competitive ballroom dancing.
I realized my American Dream a few years ago, and have been living it since then.
1. Growing up in China (1959-1982)
I was born in Hangzhou, China in 1959 and grew up throughout the horrible days of the Cultural Revolution (1966-1976). I graduated from high school in 1976 without knowing what to do, as there were neither colleges nor jobs. Then good fortune came in 1977: China re-opened its universities after closing them for more than a decade, and I made it into Zhejiang University, a top university in China.
As China continued to open up, I learned a lot more about the West – I was determined to see it, and the only way possible for me, or anybody in China then, to do it was to earn a scholarship.
I studied very hard in college. The photo below offers a piece of evidence – Only 20 out of 5,000 students made it into this class!
After scoring the best in a national exam for graduate studies abroad, I earned a Chinese government scholarship and was assigned to the University of Tokyo (aka “Japan’s Harvard”) in 1982.
2. Studying in Japan (1982-1985)
I did well in Japan. Aside from pursuing the M.E. degree, I studied Japan, especially its culture and history, in-depth. One memorable thing worth mentioning: I participated in a speech competition entitled “How should we contribute to world peace?”, and won, as shown by the photo below.
In hindsight, my interest in politics was there, because not only was it a good speech on world peace, I also delivered it very well. I just never had a chance to develop that interest further until 2008, when I started writing on politics.
Japan was good. But it was only my first step to see the West. In 1985, I gave up everything in Japan (e.g., the scholarship and Ph.D. in progress) and moved to America, as a Ph.D. student at Vanderbilt University.
3. Doing Ph.D. at Vanderbilt (1985-1988)
Upon landing in Nashville, Tennessee, I encountered two big problems right away:
- My stipend of $10,000 a year was hardly enough to support the two of us (yes, I was just married).
- My English was gravely inadequate: I could hardly understand the people around me, let alone have any meaningful dialog!
Fortunately, my job as a research assistant did not require much verbal communication up-front – just hacking out a lot of computer code with some good ideas and writing some research papers.
I spent most of my time, often up to 14 hours a day, in front of a computer, while picking up English as fast as I could, with one simple goal in mind: finish here as soon as possible so as to start a “real life” anew!
Guess what? I got my Ph.D. in a (then) record time of just three short years! I was not the smartest around, but I was the most focused. Most importantly, I got the job done! Additionally, in 1987, my wife gave birth to our first child.
Not bad for the first three years in America: a Ph.D. degree and a son!
4. Working in Europe (1988-1991)
I started my “real life” in 1988 by joining SWIFT (Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunications), a Brussels-based European company (which is frequently in news nowadays: Russia Says It’s Ready for Disconnection from SWIFT). It was my last big step to see the West.
I lived in Brussels for almost three years and traveled throughout Europe for both business and pleasure.
Europe was good, but America was better, especially for raising my family (Yes, our second child was born in 1989).
With that conclusion, I joined NEC America (Dallas, Texas) in 1991, and finally settled down in America.
5. Working in Corporate America (1991-2004)
With a complete set of global experiences under my belt, I was ready to work my way up in Corporate America. However, a big problem soon became clear: I was a foreigner with a lot of deficiencies (e.g., English and cultural holes). To climb up the corporate ladder, I must overcome these deficiencies, fast. I tried, to the best of my ability, and I did move up steadily, but not fast enough for the ambitious me. Finally, I came to the conclusion that the only way for me to be happy was to run my own show, for which I had to start my own business. I did, in 2005.
6. Running my own business (2005-present)
I founded West-East International, an import-export company, on June 30, 2005. The first line of business was to sell “Made in China” transducers (which are the key components in electronic scales) in America. What a fun run since then! I wish I could have struck out on my own a lot earlier, such as in 1996 when I had the first opportunity. But I was too obsessed with Corporate America then to seize the opportunity.
Like all self-starters, I had to decide, as a first thing, how to position myself in the marketplace: a low-key also-ran or a high-profile game changer.
The latter, of course, for the ambitious me! For example, it was not a fashionable thing to do to openly sell the transducers “Made in China” then, but I did it anyway. On top of everything, I went out of my way in marketing. A notable example: I managed to appear on the cover of the Weighing and Measurement magazine in June 2007, as shown below.
It was definitely a coup for someone who had been in that industry for barely two years. More importantly, in the interview article, I clearly and boldly defined the industry for years to come, including the China factor. Controversial as it was at the time, that article remains a blueprint of the scale industry even to this day, time-tested!
Seventeen years and counting, we have succeeded wildly in the scale industry, because of our superior business model, a sharp vision, perfect execution, and a unique way of doing business “my way” (more on this later).
7. Writing on politics (2008-present)
With the success in business, I ventured into a new arena: writing on politics. It really started in April 2008, after a sports writer at the Chicago Tribune wrote a nasty article about China’s preparation for the Beijing Olympics. It was so unfair and irresponsible that I thought “he is not going to get away with it without hearing from me.” So, I wrote him an email, and heated email exchanges ensued. When it was all said and done, I realized that the entire chain of emails could be a good material for customer education. So, I emailed it to my customers and prospects. To my surprise, far more of them than I expected were sympathetic to my cause. More importantly, they found my writings interesting and educational. So, I just followed with more writings and more emails. It’s totally out of control now: I have published almost 700 articles and four books!
Now, if the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing got me going in writing on politics, the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing today will further accelerate it. Two main reasons:
- The U.S. wants to contain China, Tonya Harding style.
- China-bashing is so fashionable in America now that Anti-Asian hate crimes rose 73% last year, updated FBI data says.
As a Chinese-American, I am caught between a rock and a hard place. On one hand, I wish China, my native country, well – She suffered too much over the past 200 years. On the other hand, I wish America, my adopted country, well – She must stop her precipitous decline. Most importantly, there must be no war, trade or otherwise, between the two largest economies in the world!
So, what do I do?
I write, with two major messages to my fellow Americans:
- The real threat to America is America itself, not China (or Russia).
- America, reform our failing political system, as I have suggested (History 2.0 – China’s Comeback vs. America’s Decline), or become a fiddle, second to China!
8. Doing business my way
One huge advantage of having your own business is that you can do whatever you want (and bear the consequence, of course). Here are three things I have done very differently from others in the scale industry:
- I use email as a big marketing tool. Today, my email newsletters, at least twice a week, are very popular in the scale industry.
- I found a way to fill my email newsletters with good content. The Friday funnies are quality jokes contributed by scale men and women all over the world. My weekly political publications fill up the Wednesday serious letter. According to conventional wisdom, a businessman like me is not supposed to openly mix politics with business. Talking about politics in front of customers is a big no-no. But I did it anyway, with the calculation that I would accumulate a lot more loyal and better-educated customers over time. This strategy has worked out remarkably well for me.
- I pay little attention to political correctness. I write uniquely not only because of my unique life experience but also because I do not have a boss telling me what to do and what not to do. Most importantly, I do not write for a living!
No guts, no glory! As my business becomes bigger and more successful, I will try a lot more new and big ideas, toward achieving my full potential!
9. Parenting and grandparenting
On March 23, 2018, I became a grandparent. The image below is worth more than 1,000 words.
Today, I am a 3-time grandpa!
10. Competitive ballroom dancing
In 2015, I took on a new mega-challenge: competitive ballroom dancing, for which I restored my youth by some 20 years, as shown by the image below.
Two photos below offer some latest highlights.
11. Summary
My American Dream has come true!
To thank America back maximally in my way, I want to save it with my pen (or keyboard, to be more precise). I believe I have the most accurate diagnosis for America, as well as the best solution. What I need to do is to sell them – See image below.
Is there a bigger challenge in life than this?
12. Closing
Life is short. I will continue to make the best out of it by doing a variety of things, particularly in trying to make the world better with my keyboard!
Now please sit back and enjoy the video below.
