Ganas

My dad can do anything. Really, it's true. If there is something that I've learned from my dad's example it is that you can do anything that you want to. When I was growing up I was amazed that my dad could fix anything. Even if he hadn't seen it, or knew about it, he could fix it.

My dad came to the United States from Honduras when he was 8 years old. He wasn't in Honduras long enough to learn how to read and write well in Spanish, and by the time he was able to understand enough English to get by in a classroom, his peers were already reading to learn, not learning to read. Back then there were no ESL programs so he pretty much went through high school not knowing how to read and write. I remember being in 4th grade and correcting him when we read scriptures together as a family. He also was identified as having dyslexia.

When he was 35, and I was a freshman in high school, my dad decided to go back to school and become an art teacher. Going to college was not an easy thing for my dad, but he did it. He was the first from his family to do so.

When I look back at my first year in business, I think that any sort of determination or will power, or ganas, to succeed comes from my dad. He has always shown me, through his example, that you can overcome great obstacles if you have ganas. Thanks Dad, I love you.

(Here is a picture of my dad and I on a visit to the George Lucas Education Foundation at Skywalker Ranch.)