GOTO-HEALTH

Over 50 years ago, I helped incorporate a non-profit Suzuki Method music school and was the first President. The next president was assertive Mary. I kept getting phone calls of complaints about a host of her leadership issues. Finally, after a couple months, I got brave and decided to call her directly because I didn’t want to participate in the gossip train. It was scary and very un-Japanese of me I thought, but I made up my mind and called her.

 

Mary and I became friends (not that she was right about it all) as a result and this incident has been key to my response to similar situations since then. Another situation was in 1989. I was 50 years old at that time. I was asked to join the Seattle Japanese Language School board by the President. The President and I were interested in broadening the scope of the program to a Japanese Cultural Center.

 

When I attended my first meeting there was a lot of discussion about how the young people like me were not financially prudent and big spenders. Since returning from the Japanese in America incarceration in the 1950s, they had reestablished a Saturday Japanese Language School. They were proud of the fact that they had 20 years of being in the black financially. 

 

Toward the end of the meeting the “then president” and I were asked to step outside while they voted as to whether I could join. The result was that I was “Black Balled” and the President was demoted.  Because of my previous incident with Mary, I found out who a couple of the board members were that were against us and called them to have coffee. I hadn’t even known them, so I knew it was not personal. I don’t think we became close friends but we have been cordial since.

 

It took several more years of discussions, but the building was turned into the Japanese Cultural and Community Center of Washington (JCCCW) in 2003 and the Japanese Language program is thriving and expanding. It is now time to appreciate the 25 years of success and fund raise for sustainability for the next 100 years.

 

There is a personality test called OCEAN. The OCEAN personality theory, also known as the Big Five or Five-Factor Model, was developed through the contributions of several researchers including Lewis Goldberg, along with Paul Costa and Robert McCrae who popularized the widely used version of the framework. 

 

Being high "A"-Agreeable keeps me with more friendly connections. But it has also been determined that high achievers are somewhat lower on the Agreeable scale. Likely, it’s necessary to be direct when there are problems and disagreements in a business? I find myself in organizational situations today, 2026. I hope, like my idol Dolly Parton, that I keep the benefits of my relationships by knowing when to keep my mouth shut.

 

I STILL WANT TO ACCOMPLISH A FEW MORE THINGS IN MY LIFE.  I’m sitting here debating. It’s not easy!!!