Bill Belew has raised 2 bi-cultural kids, now 34 and 30. And he and his wife are now parenting a 3rd, Mia, who is 8.

Throughout my life I have seen my father working really hard, waking up early going off to work, No excuses for a vacation. The most important lesson I learnt was “IT IS VERY IMPORTANT TO WORK” NO Excuses. Actually my grandfather was a Luggage Puller in India but my dad really wanted to ease the pain of his family. The pain of Poverty, he used to work day and night in search of work. He joined a small clothing shop as a helper and saved all his money, skipped his meals just to save money and not too late he collected enough money and goodwill (that he got loans from his friends to build some stock). He started selling the clothes, bed sheets from home and after 2 years he managed to collect enough money to open a shop. Now he is the proud owner of 3 boutiques and he is a famous business man all over Delhi. The lesson learnt from my father cannot be described in words but definitely it has taught me the right perspective I need to have towards my life.

Below are Top 3 lessons that I learnt from my Father

1.      Sell an Experience, not just a service/product:

My dad always used to tell me that you can sell any product and gain profit but that would be a one time deal but if you are able to impress your clients by the kind if customer service you provided it will lead to positive word of mouth and repeated customers. So don’t make selling as your first priority but work hard towards giving the best experience to your customers.

2.      Always ready to learn new things:

I still remember my dad telling me everything in this world teaches you some lesson. So just keep your mind open, learn from your environment and keep yourself ready to change.

I put it as “THE ONLY THING CONSTANT INTHIS WORLD IS CHANGE”, change is inevitable so to survive in this era of severe competition, just keep changing and introduce new things to your customers.

3. Be a Person of the people.

Since my father has already gone through a lot of pain this lesson he considers as the most important lesson. He says that you need to be people’s person only then you will be able to develop relations with customers, employees and even friends and family. Everybody deserves respect. He always prophesied that “Everything in this world is give and take, If you give respect you will take/have respect”.

Having said that, there are numerous things that I have incorporated from my dad. His teachings are beyond words but yes even today the above stated three lessons are definitely a prerequisite for any business. Definitely, any success I will get from Lunch Express, I would like to dedicate it to my DAD.

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Talk to Bill and others about their experiences raising bi-cultural Japanese-American kids.