Actions speak louder than words
Duane Kurisu’s interview today
People love to talk about their passion
Getting people on your side
Dolly Omiya from the University of Hawaii
Transcript:
Today is September 1, 2005. This is Evan’s Journal coming to you live from Honolulu, Hawaii. Today’s Journal is titled Actions speak louder than words. And this is a you know pretty well known cliche. In Hawaii we say, “Talk is cheap” and that’s really you know what it is.
[00:00:20]
The reason I brought this up because today’s interview with Duane Kurisu, who’s one of the most powerful and successful men in Hawaii, and a guy who came from humble beginnings, I mean he was raised on a plantation where his father was a machinist and his mother eventually ended up working with the State government, I believe. You know, he was one of those people who grew up with almost I mean nothing. He had in terms of money he really didn’t have any. And he’s just amassed an amazing amount of success. He was already financially independent in his mid-30’s and now his mission is something that has inspired me and that’s why we’re doing this show. But when I talk about actions speak louder than words, you’ll hear it in Duane’s interview. He’s a very kind of a shy guy. He doesn’t toot his horn at all and he thinks a lot before he actually speaks. And what he speaks with more than anything else is his actions. What he does. How he acts. And that’s definitely how I want to model myself. I want to be someone that can do more and say less. So, we’re going to see if that actually works.
[00:1:35]
The one thing that I really noticed is that no matter how shy people actually are, once they start talking about something that they’re passionate about, something they’re excited about, they end up really getting into it and they can they just talk and it’s effortless and it’s just amazing. And I think that you’re really gonna see that in a lot of the interviews. Some of the questions when they’ll answer, they’ll be you know decent answers, but then once we hit a topic or some kind of subject that they really are excited about, man just watch out because what these people have to say, it’s just absolutely absolutely phynominal and I cannot wait to get the first shows up here so you guys can actually hear what we’ve been hearing because I’m blown away. Every single day I’m excited to do these interviews. Every time we can do these interviews, I don’t care how tired I am, I just got in a car accident and I’m going through this you know physical therapy and all that, and I just could not wait to do today’s interview. And after the interview was done, I was just blown away. Because not only Kari and myself feel this and learn this, but Michael who’s doing the board operating and stuff, I mean you can watch his expressions and he’s just absolutely touched by everything Duane had to say. And that I think is going to be awesome once we can get it out there. So thanks everyone for your support, and you know, this is really something exciting.
[00:03:00]
The other thing I wanted to talk about was getting people on your side, and what I found out is that if you’re truly doing something that you’re excited and passionate about and you’re trying to do your best, people tend to get attracted to that and they want to help out. I’ll give you an example. We just started the PR for this whole program, and so far the only bites that we’ve really gotten have been the University of Hawaii. So I talked to Jay Chrisman over there who’s the editor of the school newspaper and he wrote an article on us right of the bat and you know we’re very appreciative of that.
[00:03:34]
And then I got in touch with Dolly who is in she’s I don’t know exactly what her position is. Actually, you know what, I do. It’s her position is external relations office, but oh actually, her position is information and publications manager, and she said, you know, she would like to write an article on us to go into the UH magazine that’s called The Voice and The Voice has about 24,000 in it’s distribution and it’s an alumni magazine. And Dolly’s writing in something you know something for the case business plan competition where they’re highlighting social entrepreneurship and she wanted to put us kinda of within this thing. So, she asked if she could come and take pictures. And I said, “you know what, the perfect day for you to take pictures is today.” Why, because Duane Kurisu is an alumni of University of Hawaii. He’s also he was also a board of regent of the University and you know he’s very involved, so wouldn’t it be great to get a number of University graduates like myself and then Duane and kinda show how he went through the program and is passing the torch, hopefully more or less onto myself and Kari, and you know I thought that’d be a little more interesting. So she came today and we were chitchatting. You know really really nice lady, and she started taking pictures and then ended up staying for the whole entire interview. And after we were talking, I noticed from her feedback and what we were talking about, just by being involved with this situation and seeing what we’re doing, her understanding is so much greater and she’s very excited about what we’re doing. So I’m going in there tomorrow after I’m done with my morning meeting, which we’re pitching you know the potential sponsor, and then physical therapy after that, but then I’m going to meet with her and then we’re going to talk about you know joint marketing things that maybe we an do with the University. And this is just it’s just so exciting because the feedback that we’ve been getting is just unbelievable. And I just want to be able to spread this word and what we’re doing as far and wide as we an and I cannot wait till people from China and people from India and people from Europe and the content of the United States and even you know as far as Kalihi are going to tell us, wow, this thing this program is really making a difference for me. So I hope that through this program, you folks that are listening to it, can really identify what your passion is. What you’re excited about and put it into fuision so that you too can be as excited about what you’re doing as these people that we’re interviewing are and as I am becoming. So, thank you all for your support and we’ll talk to you tomorrow.
[00:06:27]
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
Subscribe:
