<Begin Segment 11>

JC: What do you feel have been your greatest accomplishments in your life?

SN: Getting married. [Laughs] I really think so, really. I think that I was very, very lucky to get married to Mary. I thought... because I was really worried I wouldn't find the right person because in those days, in those days, you see, getting married is what you have to do, and there is this compulsory that, you know, today, the situation is entirely different, I know that.

JC: And in addition to getting married which was your greatest accomplishment, what was some of your other things that you're most proud of in your life?

SN: Well, I think that in a small way that I was successful in running a business, starting the business, and growing the business. And my brother and I were very lucky. I think, I always say, I always say to people, success is ninety percent luck and ten percent knowing that you're lucky, really, definitely.

JC: If you were, if you were giving advice to young people today, well, let's say you are giving advice to young people today, what would you tell them based on your own experiences?

SN: Well, I always say that you got to develop common sense. So many people have no common sense to succeed. They are, just really have to think these things out and to keep on looking at the big picture, not micromanage your life, day-to-day life. I mean, you just get swamped with doing small things. And never let your one failure, your two failures get you down to the bottom. I mean, just ride right over and keep going because you're going to stumble. You're going to stumble regardless. If you are walking down the street, you might stumble, and just like that, just keep going. Life is, and I think you have to think of life as fun, always. I think that you just have to say, you know, and you could make it fun. You could make it fun. I think that -- I think too many, too many people get discouraged over little things and you've got to always think out of the box. Things are different out there, and you got to find that difference. But I don't believe in putting twelve, fourteen, fifteen hours just working, just doing things. Most of that is a waste of time. I think that you got to work intelligently and think, for example, I bawl out these people, people, they were shuffling paper. I mean, they look through the paper once, they looked through the paper again, they look at it a third time. What are you doing? Just make your decision on what it says on the paper the first time you get it and look at it. Think it out, all right. They don't want to think about it and that's why they set it aside. They look at it again, and they don't want to think about it. And it's those things that I think... when paper, a lot of paper comes from my inbox out, I look at it just once, all right, make the decision there and end. Otherwise, you spend whole day working, and I want to say is that people got the misconception is that working long hours means you're succeeding. [Laughs] Work smart, that's all.

JC: I realize that when you brought in your artifacts, there was an interesting little black enamel box. Could you tell me something about that?

SN: This is the award that I got from the emperor of Japan.

JC: And tell me what that, what that means? What does that signify?

SN: Oh. That means that my activities that I had promoting Japan and the Japanese culture and business, you know, years of importing and helping the Japanese develop their businesses and so on is what that signifies.

JC: That's quite an accomplishment.

SN: Thank you.

<End Segment 11> - Copyright © 2003 Oregon Nikkei Endowment and Densho. All Rights Reserved.