Ok, here we go 🤙

It’s 1987, and Nintendo has just landed in the United States from Japan.

I’m in Hawaii. I’m five years old.

I have three brothers—Joe, Mark, and Branden.

Joe and Mark shared a room until they eventually got their own.

Branden and I shared a room until I was 17.

We wanted a Nintendo.

So we asked our mom.

She said, “Ok. Buy it yourself.”

We grew up in Queen’s Gate 1 in Hawaii Kai, surrounded by a golf course.

That’s where we found golf balls—especially in the duck ponds.

One pond had thick gray mud that preserved the balls perfectly.

We dug them out like treasure.

We washed the balls, bagged them in Safeway grocery bags,

and sold them to Tee Off Closest at the Kalama Valley intersection.

Once we had enough cash, we got a ride to Toys ’n Joys in Hawaii Kai Shopping Center

and bought our Nintendo.

The real lesson came from my father:

“Thank you for not giving me everything I wanted,

but providing me everything I needed.”