Upon turning 18 and moving out, I spent a few years in lethal Oak Park. Come 1977, I moved once again, but this time to Silicon Valley. That one single action changed the entire course of my life.

The year was now 1979, and computers and Silicon Valley were just starting to come of age. While working as a Trainer at Peppermill, I met someone with whom I would later partner in business. With a combined net worth of virtually nothing, we incorporated. From a few employees in 1979, to marrying my partner in 1980, less than three years later we were a multi-million dollar international company employing over 200 people world wide. We made the molds that encapsulated the semiconductor chips. Our customers were none other than the top semiconductor companies.

In addition to handling the legal and administrative tasks, it was also my responsibility to fly around the world to seek out locations in which to form manufacturing companies and establish production and/or sales, mostly in the Far East. Alone from my apartments in Hong Kong and Penang, I would easily log 250,000 air miles a year doing that and overseeing the foreign operations. It was a fast paced life of living out of one suitcase for weeks at a time.

Perhaps one of the most difficult aspects of this was dealing with the Asian prejudice against females in powerful positions. This was, after all, the early ‘80s, and women still had not been readily accepted on the same level as our male counterparts. The trick was to abbreviate my first name and just use its initial in all forms of written correspondence so as to hide my gender from customers and vendors. It was a great trick and worked extremely well until one day when I had a face-to-face meeting with the president of AT&T Singapore. After that, the trick never worked with them again - for obvious reasons.

I also had the impeccable timing of having landed in the Philippines the day after the attempted overthrow of the government broke out in ‘86. But I was there to meet my Grandfather for the first time and nothing was going to stop me. I had spent a couple of years tracking him down around the world and was not going to be stopped by any of the communist inspection road blocks along the four hour drive into the dangerous back hills of the Philippines. At one point, I took a slight detour, only to discover that I had driven straight into what was the communist insurgent’s headquarters at 11:00 at night. Not a wise move. It was a dangerous place to be, replete with being held at gunpoint by rifles. I did not speak Tagali and they did not speak English. I think of it every time I watch the movie, “The Year of Living Dangerously.” Sadly, though, my Grandfather had passed away just two days before I arrived at his home. I never did get to meet him.

My goal was to retire by the age of 40, so as fate would have it, in 1995 we sold the product lines to a couple of Asian businessmen. One more manufacturing and sales operation to set up in Penang and I could retire. With my goal having been met, it was a strange feeling packing up the contents of the Asian apartments and sending things to my other home in Silicon Valley.

So now, whether it’s at the 20 acre ranch in California or the 55 acre ranch outside of Vegas, we enjoy a quiet life that includes specialized dog training of my working Dobermann in tracking, obedience and protection, a German dog sport called Schutzhund. I also do volunteer work for the community of roughly 1000 families as Chairman of the Finance & Budget Committee and as a member of the Legal Committee.

Remember, in life, anything is possible if you set your mind to it.