|
|
|
|
 |
| Dreams do come true |
"I want to make it in America."
President Nakagawa had a dream when he was young: to make "it"
in America. Although he actually didn't know exactly what "it"
really was, the dream stayed in the back of his head and waited
for the time of "coming true." Today, after going
through some obstacles and detours, he runs three companies
in New York City.
|
AMNET President
Mr. Fujio Nakagawa
|
When I finished school in San Francisco, I decided to go back
to Japan to find a job there. It was 1990,
and back then, finding a job was a hard task because it was the beginning of the recession. You had no luxury to choose a job, but I desperately wanted to work for AMNET, because I thought it was a big chance for me to work abroad. And I was lucky enough to get that job.
It was not long before I got the first assignment to work in the Hawaii branch as a temporal manager. I understood it was a golden opportunity for me, and I worked as hard as I could. Luckily enough, I won recognition from one of my boss, President Miki, who I had very much looked up to, and later I was officially appointed to take charge of the Hawaii branch.
After a while, President Miki asked me to go back to Japan. I didn’t want to accept it because I didn’t really want to leave America, for an obvious reason. I loved America, and making it in the country was my dream after all. On the other hand, I strongly felt that I shouldn’t say NO, given all the favors my boss had done for me. So I went back to Japan eventually and worked there. But to my surprise, that turned out to be a path to something even better: working in New York City. Not Hawaii, but New York City! I took the opportunity without hesitation, and flew to New York. I worked there as happily as ever, and everything seemed going well, until the day when I was asked to go back to Japan, again.
I wanted to stay in New York, which meant I had to say NO to my boss. I really struggled to make a decision between two choices. One was going back to Japan as I was told to, the other was stay in New York City for my own dream’s sake. And in the end, I chose my dream over everything else. But I had an idea. I determined to do something for my boss, which was buying his company of the New York branch including the debt, and the already-established Amnet.
I can say that I was able to fulfill my dream largely thanks to my boss, who really paved the way for me. As I am a president now, I do want to play the same role for my workers. I want to encourage their dreams. I believe the good way to organize people is not to make them into your own working machines, but to help them have dreams, or realize what their dreams are, and try to help their dreams come true. I want my workers to know the pleasure of fulfilling their dreams. It is really something invaluable.
Our company, Amnet, is young, and there is still a long way to go. But we are progressing all the time. So if someone joins us, he/she might realize that there is a lot of room for improvement here and there. So I need someone who can not only observe the organization critically but also actually act aggressively in order to improve the company. I don’t care how well he/she can speak English, what kind of educational backgrounds he/she has or qualifications he/she has. I want to work with someone who likes our company and tries to make it better. That is above all the most important thing for me.
AGE: 45
Birthplace: Hiroshima
High School: Ohtori High School in Osaka
Graduated college in San Francisco
Motto:
"A chance that comes to you randomly doesn't always make it happen. A chance you created by yourself does."
Lived in NYC for 14 years
Provided by ProX J
|
|
|
