<Begin Segment 21>

TI: Well, and eventually, so you stayed in the securities business for a while, and you went, you transitioned from the back office to become a broker.

TT: Yah. (I stayed in San Francisco for a while, then I married and moved to Vashon and worked for Foster & Marshall.)

TI: Why did you want to make the shift? I mean, you're doing so well...

TT: I'm doing so well and everybody was counting on me.

TI: Right. And you were, probably from a company standpoint, more valuable running the back office.

TT: And so they didn't want me to become a broker. But then this other broker, you saw that other article, he says, "You're stupid." He says, "You know more about this business than any of the people that are selling." And he said, "You should get out of there and sell."

TI: Because you'll make more money?

TT: Yah. And I said, "No, I'm happy doing the back office work." I said, "I enjoy this kind of work, it's challenging." And he said, "Yah, but you'll have more money if you become a broker." And then, because I was even helping the other customers of the brokers.

TI: So you were essentially playing the broker role already?

TT: Yah, but not getting paid for it.

TI: And so that made sense to you? Because in some ways, something I've learned doing this interview is once you make up your mind, that's hard to change. And for... something about what this man said to you made you go from something that you were really good at and had no intention of leaving, to do something very different. And I'm curious, how did he do that?

TT: He said, "Well, you'll be making more money." I said, "Yah," but I says, "I'd be scared to do that." I said, "Where am I gonna get the clients, I have to get clients and I have to do all that prospecting and everything." But it was really amazing. When people found out that I was going to become a broker...

TI: People switched over?

TT: Yah. They would ask the broker something, they said, "Well, you have to ask Tak," and they'd come to me. I said, "I can't help you, I have my own accounts now, so I could only help you..." So they'd go to the management and say, "Can I move my account from that person to Tak?" So I got a good reputation that if they needed any problems solved, that they had to come to me.

TI: And when you did that, did the back office, they find someone who could handle everything?

TT: Well, I was doing both for a while. And then finally the boss, the big boss said, "You've got to make up your mind." Because I was signing checks, I was doing all that. He says, "You have to decide one way or the other." I said, "I think I'll become a broker," so that's when I became a broker.

TI: And they had to find someone else?

TT: Yes.

TI: Okay. Oh, interesting, that's a good story.

TT: Yes. [Laughs] [Narr. note: After I got married and moved to Vashon Island, I worked in the back office of Foster & Marshall and a couple of other companies. Then when I worked for Wedbush Securities I was convinced that I should be a broker. I started as a broker at the age of fifty and worked until I retired at age seventy-four.]

TI: At this point I've gone through all the questions, but I just wanted to just ask a few questions in terms of kind of reflecting upon your life. And one was, that comes to mind as I interview you, you're such a strong woman, what difficulties or challenges did you have by being so strong?

TT: I don't know, I was just myself.

[Interruption]

TI: Well, so, Tak, thank you so much for the interview.

TT: Well, thank you for letting me say all these without being hazukashii about it.

TI: No, this was fun, I learned a lot.

<End Segment 21> - Copyright © 2015 Densho. All Rights Reserved.