My boss is 80 years old, and diagnosed of melanoma - skin cancer. His autobiography is being published today, a limited edition of 1000 copies. The failing of his health appeared at the same time of the death of Taiwan's largest enterprise's 90 year old owner - Wang Yong Qing of Formosa Plastics. Wang died suddenly during his trip to the U.S. at the height of the 2008 Financial Crises. He would have been the last of the 'Five Dragons' to be alive today from the era of Taiwan's Industrial Revolution.

I was my boss' 'secretary' for 4 years -- in Asia, 'secretary' brings more meaning than in the U.S. of just recieving phone calls and doing the administrative work. We were their Executive Assistants. We decided what information they recieved, who they met, where they went, who recieved what undertable bonuses -- we were their eyes and ears. I personally handled US$78 million in purchases alone for raw material for the company, including business trips overseas to establish our foreign offices, factories and evaluating acquisitions.

I was 23 years old when I entered the company. These were exciting times, as the housing market was rising rapidly, oil was rising rapidly and all eyes were on China. Our product was expandable polystyrene (EPS) -- 60% is used in the thermal insulation within the walls of houses, and 40% used in the packaging of electronics and home appliances. 99% of our product is made from the derivative of oil -- therefore when oil was at $147 a barrel in 2008, we were making bank. We were the largest company in the world -- twice the size of our next largest competitor, and we had the financial connections to the largest corporations in the world -- Mitsubishi, Chevron, Shell, Samsung, LG, etc. We were on the brink of bringing the corporation public in August, 2008 when the Financial Crises brought a stop to everything. 

My boss had been interviewed in the local Taiwanese Business Times, and each year we were featured as one of the 'Top 100' Chinese busineses. He had been christianed 'The Father of EPS' 10 years ago. Our competitors had been his previous plant managers -- a pain til today he still holds close to his heart. He was often asked to make public speeches at international interventions due to his experience and gift of moving audiences with his words. He had been crowned 'Honory Citizen' by the Chinese city of Ningbo, where his very first plant had been established in 1991. He was a late entrepreneur - he started at 45 years old, after having spent some time in Norway for research and technical training. He found an opportunity to start his own business first as a trading company during the Second World War and after the first oil crises around 1987.

I now follow his son, who is 55 years old. I am responsible for the U.S., South American and Polish sales market. This is the year in which China has been asked to step forward in becoming a global leader in international politics, and in which Taiwan has chosen to sign a free trade agreement with Beijing. This is the year in which China has signed a free monetary agreement with South American countries, allowing them to purchase the Chinese currency RMB freely. When my father immigrated to the U.S. in 1982 we kept alot of our savings there even after returning to Taiwan when I was 14 years old -- in case Taiwan went to war with China. It now seems that keeping more than 50% of our household cash savings in U.S. dollars will quickly be switched to another stronger growing currency. I am now in my 7th year of working after college -- and 5 years in this company.

The Chinese have a saying - Wealth will not last in the family past three generations. It strikes my heart at the contrast of watching my boss only eat NTD50 lunches (equivalent to US 3 dollars) compared to his granddaughter who is now a junior at Pepperdine University and asks for a new Integra every two years. I feel a loss that she will never experience the iron will of her grandfather -- the ability to nuture 1300 employees and their families. And due his stubborn will, he has never been able to get along with his just-as-stubborn son. His son has never allowed many visits of his father with his children. What use of growing such a large empire if not for the future of the next generation?

I was re-organizing my old emails and deleting everything over 6 months old... including my organic farm (WWOOF) volunteer job in China... my rejected application as a free translator for the Beijing Olympic committee... and various other junk.

I've been wasting my time. It's time to do something this year.