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Alan Nagao
2nd Generation Napoleon Hill
About
Due to complications from Thalidomide, Alan Nagao was born with permanent muscle deformities. He had only one arm and one good leg, his right leg was only a piece of meat, so since childhood Alan Nagao had to use prosthetic legs.
Still, Alan Nagao overcame all guilt, rose with an endless passion for working with people, became a multi-millionaire, and was an inspiration to many people around the world.
Milestones
19-year-old
start a kite business in Hawaii
1995
start an yoyo business
1999
retired as a multi-millionaire
2006
back to business life
Starting point
Suffering from complications from Thalidomide as a womb, Alan Nagao is a historical witness to the wave of marketing the drug in the 1950s, when it was marketed as a cure for “anxiety, anxiety, and depression.” sleep, gastritis, stress” as well as symptoms of nausea and morning sickness by pharmaceutical companies.
Only 40% of children affected by Thalidomide survive birth, with permanent muscle deformities. Alan Nagao has only one healthy arm and leg. Even his right leg is just a piece of meat, so since he was young, Alan has had to use a prosthetic leg.
Even so, Alan was still surprisingly optimistic with a smile on his face.
His smile helped him, at the age of 4, become the face of the Easter Seals non-profit organization’s activities to support children and adults with disabilities to integrate into the community and society. Appearing on billboards with many American politicians, including the US President at the time, Alan was known throughout the country but still had many difficulties when he reached school age. This open-faced man confided: “I had a hard time walking, so when I was young, I often had to travel by car or skateboard. At that time, I went to an American public school, the children were joking with each other a bit maliciously, they often pushed me down and I never caught up because I couldn’t run. Every day I get teased as ‘pig’s feet’, ‘walkers’ or ‘pirates’”. Although very tired and depressed, but Alan’s mother often reminds her son that: people hit me with bricks and stones, maybe I will break my bones, but malicious teasing will never hurt me.
Alan loves surfing, but the most difficult thing is how to get from the beach to the water. Wanting to go to the sea, Alan had to remove his prosthetic leg and hop on the beach, making everyone stare and he hated that feeling. Ignoring everything, every day, Alan jumps into the sea with one foot and persists in surfing. When he got into the water, Alan found himself like everyone else, able to swim fast, free to windsurf.
And from here, the disabled young man decided to follow his dream of becoming the richest 5% of people in the world. This dream of his was ridiculed by friends and relatives as a vain dream.
Dream became reality
At the age of 19, the guy from Honolulu, Hawaii opened a kite shop and made $2,000 in revenue a day. To focus on business, Alan decided to drop out of college in his second year while studying engineering at a university in the US. Sharing about the story of dropping out, Alan said: “I have a passion for working with people, while an engineer is always working with computers, so I decided to leave school to do business and I am very happy with the decision.”.
Alan’s kite shop is very successful, and this guy has a hobby of making very large things, so he built a giant kite that can hold a 50-seat bus. “My kite company became a world champion in many kite competitions. In 1991, we won three world championships in England and Japan. I have set a goal to travel the world 3 times and have successfully done it,” added Alan.
In 1995, realizing that the yoyo (gyroscope) movement was starting to explode, Alan designed his own system to sell yoyos with a clever marketing method with a gameplay that was as simple as playing karate. For every 10 techniques you play, you get a white belt and so on strive for gold, and eventually become a black belt. This idea helped him get an exclusive distribution contract with the two largest yoyo manufacturers in the United States at that time.
Realizing this is a good opportunity to develop yoyos, not only selling in the US, Alan also brought yoyos to Japan. “Every yoyo sold in Japan makes me 1 USD profit, my goal is to sell one million yoyo to become a millionaire. To me, this goal is like the ‘American Dream’. At the first Tokyo Toy Fair that we attended, 78,000 boys aged 9-12 lined up for about 4km to play yoyo at our counter.” Alan recounted.
During that year, Alan helped yoyo companies sell 10.5 million yoyos, earning him a commission of approximately $1.2 million –$1.6 million per month. Alan thus once again became a historical witness to the yoyo boom in Japan and elsewhere, this time not as a victim but as a creator.
After the success from selling yoyos in Japan, Alan decided to expand his system to Korea, Hong Kong, Singapore, UK, France, Spain.
Within 3 years, he sold a total of 30 million yoyos worldwide and made $20 million.
New journey
After 24 years in the kite business and 3 years selling yoyos, Alan Nagao decided to retire early and travel the world.
After 6 years of “fatiguing retirement”, Alan decided to come back so he could bring the prosperity experiences he was taught from “Think and Grow Rich” by Joseph Green to help others. Alan decided to work with Nu Skin, and so far he has helped many successful business people, and the business system with Nu Skin is also bringing him millions of dollars.
Now over 60 years old, but still full of energy and enthusiasm, Alan continues his journey around the world teaching the famous methods of Napoleon Hill (Think and Grow Rich) to individuals who aspire to change and want to have a prosperous life.
Great journey is still ahead…
© Alan Nagao – 2nd Generation Napoleon Hill