| What is your most memorable childhood experience? | When I was six, my elementary school embarked on a wooden "creative playground" project to replace the aging equipment in the back lot. We, the young students, were invited to provide proposed features. I distinctly remember helping hammer nails into the painted ramparts and towers. For my remaining few years in elementary school, the experiences gained scurrying through those wooden labyrinths with my classmates filled my memories. On early Autumn nights after club activities adjourned but before our parents picked us up, my friends and I lay on the top surfaces, gazing out into the darkling five o'clock sky. |
| What immediate family member do you closely identify with and why? | It is perhaps natural that I identify with my mother, because she is also a lawyer and she is the person who suggested the path I took after college. She struggled through difficult times, but emerged the better: licensed, experienced, and wise. |
| What character traits do you admire in an individual? | As Albert Einstein put it, “I have no special talents. I am only passionately curious.” Most important is, having the attitude and zeal to learn from one's mistakes and improve as an individual. It can apply to any aspect of your life: career, health, family, friends, relationships, or hobbies, etc. |
| What is the funniest thing ever to happen to you? | I was traveling on business to Japan one time, and intended to meet a client corporation's representative to bond and cement business ties. I went to my hotel, when before long I received a text message from my client stating that he was in the lobby. So, I proceeded to the lobby, and met a Japanese gentleman with whom I shook hands and proceeded to spend an evening in the typical Japanese business way, coming to understand one another over shots of sake and American-style back-slapping. Soon after midnight I shake hands one last time with my client, then journey back to my hotel in a taxi. Once back in the lobby, I run into another American, who had also just returned from a business meeting. It turns out, we had met up with mixed-up individuals. |
| If time and money were not an issue, where would you travel and why? | I had the opportunity to visit Vietnam. It is still a developing country, but there is a spark and liveliness for business and development that reminds me of the promise that America still holds. If I had the resources, I would visit Vietnam again to see the rapid development sure to follow. |
| When and if you ever have children, what would you like to pass on to them? | I have three children, and regardless of the clichés: my kids are amazing, unique, and the center of my life. Despite being full siblings, all three are as distinct as ice cream flavors in a chain shop. My daughter plays guitar and piano, when she's not singing; she plans to be the next Taylor Swift. My middle son plans to defend the country, yet has a gentle heart. And my youngest is the most studious, but longs to be where his older siblings are. |
