As my moving truck was grunting on the solo three-day journey to Southern California, I don’t think owning a jewelry company entered my mind. I did know Southern California was the land of opportunity, and that I would help change the world for the better. I’m sure my confidence came from my adoptive mother, who instilled in me that all things were possible, and that life would lead one wherever one wants to go. I didn’t know anyone in that state, and I didn’t realize that an apartment would cost twice the price of anywhere I had lived in the past.
I anchored my truck in Santa Ana, and put a hefty security deposit on a unit in the Spanish speaking neighborhood. A few young Hispanic gentlemen helped me unload. I had met my first friends and learned a few words of their language. I also met a beautiful girl named Carmen who would become my wife and soulmate. I slept that night with the windows open while the cool breeze of the Pacific Ocean blew through the curtains.
The next morning, I dressed sharply, slapped cologne on my cheeks, and was hired for a jewelry company a few miles down the road. The ten years I spent as a diamond merchant in the Midwest did not prevent me from having to learn the rules of my new employer. I suppose everyone has their own policies of doing business. During the following two years, the rapid transformation of Californian business tossed me around to three different employers.
In 1991, I opened Gallery of Diamonds with Carmen as my co-pilot. In honor of my adoptive mother, I began a writing contest for local schools, and asked them to pen their creative thoughts about their mothers. At the time, I was still searching for my own biological origins, and I thought this was a good exercise for kids to express their feelings for their moms, whether or not they were adopted.
Perhaps that is the slice of time that led us where we are today. Hundreds of couples in love have come to select a diamond that would symbolize their commitment. Having a store full of customers was a frequent image in my nighttime dreams. Today, Gallery of Diamonds is constantly busy with customers. Hundreds of people contact me to buy or sell jewelry. What I never dreamed, however, was that the largest mothers appreciation contest in the United States would be created. Today, 20,000 kids take the time to express their words of love to the person who instructs their footsteps in life. Every year.
What is my purpose? To convince the reader that whatever one imagines and holds intensely in the mind, that thought becomes real. That is quite extraordinary, and deserves a moment of reflection.
Think good thoughts. Change the universe.