By Dusty Ricketts – originally published on nwfdailynews.com
FORT WALTON BEACH — Local business leader Paul Hsu was at a parade in San Diego with his family about five years ago when he saw a group of people holding a sign that said the American dream was dead.
That sign inspired Hsu to one day tell his story, being a first-generation immigrant from Taiwan, starting his own business and working hard to see it succeed, in hopes of showing people that the American dream is not dead. Hsu’s book, “Guardians of the Dream: The Enduring Legacy of America’s Immigrants, is scheduled for release April 21.
“As a first generation immigrant, it really hurts me when I see so many citizens around the country saying the American dream is dead,” Hsu said. “My God, it’s not. I’m the living proof. I’m the first generation opportunity. I see opportunity every day.
“That’s really the only reason (I wrote the book),” he added. “I just want the American people, especially the young people, to let them know success is not going to be on the silver platter. It all depends on how bad you want it. You have to create your own American dream.”
Hsu, who was born in Taipei, Taiwan in 1950 and graduated from the University of Chinese Culture in 1974, accepted a scholarship to earn his master’s degree from the University of Central Missouri.
Within eight years, he started Manufacturing Technology Inc., an avionics and battlefield electronics company that contracted with the Department of Defense. It grew to one of the largest employers in Fort Walton Beach and one of the most respected small businesses in the nation, receiving the National Small Business Prime Contractor of the Year Award in 1991 from former President George H.W. Bush. When he sold the company in 2004 for $75 million, he employed more than 650 people.
In the book, Hsu writes about the struggles he went through to achieve the American dream for himself.
He arrived in America on a Sunday and he spent his first night in the country sleeping on the couch in a janitor’s closet at the University of Central Missouri because the registration office wouldn’t open until the next morning and he couldn’t afford a room at the nearby Holiday Inn.
Today, Hsu owns Total Parts Plus, ActiGraph and the Hsu Enterprise Group, all three with headquarters in Fort Walton Beach.
Hsu has been invited to talk about his book April 21 at Harvard University, where he serves as a senior research fellow for the university’s Asia Center. He will also talk about his book in New York, Rhode Island and Chicago for the International Leadership Foundation.
He is also doing some local promotion for the book. Hsu has been invited to be the guest speaker at the May 1 Crestview Chamber of Commerce breakfast and was interviewed by Florida’s Great Northwest President Larry Sassano for his regional television show.
“This book is really my story, my journey to this great country,” Hsu said.
