I am
constantly amazed how the universe works to make things happen in my life. I feel truly blessed. Not a day goes by where I don’t think about
how lucky I have been to start a company and see success with it, and to start
over again and reach even higher horizons. It is amazing to me. I have
always known that we make our own luck in life, but we do that by following god’s
will for us in life. I believe
that. I am deeply appreciative for the incredible
people that are drawn into my life. We
have assembled a wonderful team at Hugo Naturals, and this is not something
easily done. It has just fallen into
place. This is what I mean by blessed.
My
thoughts take me to a day long ago when I first came to this incredible country
I now call home. I had $100 in my pocket
when I landed in New York. The first thing
I did was take a taxi from the airport to a hotel in Manhattan to book a room
for the night. I had been in the United
States for one hour and had already spent $63 of my original $100. The only thing left was $27 in my pocket and
a hotel paid until noon the next day. Now
here I am, 28 years later, and after many long roads in this awesome country I
know that anything is possible if you have a dream and the courage to see it
through. I think how incredible it is to
be running a company like Hugo Naturals. My dreams and challenges are completely changed from where I began, but
the same fundamental truth exists for me. I can see the most important part of my business is the human element, as
it is in my life. As I face my
challenges running my business, others have challenges with basic things like
giving their families clean water, health care, food, and housing. Even here in this great country people have these
challenges. The fundamentals of business
around the world are about “Me”. Whole
Foods and other great companies in our industry are trying to change the
conversation and make it about “Us”. Hugo
Naturals is such a company. As our line
grows we will focus more and more on these issues. How can we prosper while others suffer far
away and at home?
Never in my life has it seemed more possible
to end hunger, disease, and reduce suffering as it does right now. Now more than ever we need to begin to think about “Us”.
The planet’s
warming climate, water deprived villages, and all of the challenges I mentioned
are becoming the latest bonanza for public relations companies and marketing
executives. Their goal is more about fixing
the bottom-line, and less about addressing the problems. I imagine a business community where eco-friendly
and socially responsible acts and practices actually help a company bottom-line. We must remain sustainable and prosperous in
order to stay in business and have the ability to help people, so we need to be
realistic how we do it. However, companies that talk the most about
sustainability aren't always the best at putting forward the rights efforts and those right efforts are to cut toxic emissions, create eco-friendly
and safe products, help the poor of this world by meeting humanity's needs
without harming future generations.
Concentrating on the bottom-line makes companies
postpone inevitable changes that are badly needed by people and our planet.
The team
at Hugo Naturals is completely aligned in our core values and vision. This gives us a much more focused company
than we ever had before, and I couldn’t be more pleased to have you as a part
of it. A friend and a customer.
