Vietnamese Refugee Plugs Into Success
Quan V. Nguyen flew to the United States in 1979 after spending a year in Malaysia, where he had fled with 74 other refugees from Vietnam in a homemade, 30-foot boat.
Five years later, the 39-year-old political refugee is president of a fast-growing, multimillion-dollar Orange County electronics firm, which he founded in 1982 while putting himself through college.
“When I first came to the United States, I wanted to open a martial arts studio,” said Nguyen, who in Vietnam founded and operated the country’s largest karate school, with more than 2,000 students. “But I saw I couldn’t do that once I got here. People weren’t interested.
“I was scared, really scared,” he said, leaning forward in his high-backed, leather-covered executive chair. “I came here empty-handed and I didn’t know what to do. All this high technology here . . . . I found it really difficult to adapt.”
Landed Factory Job
In halting English, Nguyen said that he decided to get into electronics after his American sponsor helped him find a “menial” factory job in an electronics firm in San Diego, and later in Santa Ana.
“I was making $2.90 an hour and going to school in the evenings, driving back and forth from work in Santa Ana to school in San Diego every day. I would come home and my kids (three of them) would be in bed and I’d leave again before they woke up.”
It took Nguyen, who now goes by “Henry,” five years to earn a bachelor’s degree. He finished last year and is now attending California State University, Long Beach, for his master’s.
While in school, however, Nguyen “gambled” and started a tiny electronics business in downtown Santa Ana in March, 1981, spending nearly all he had earned on a small office and three employees.
Major Expansion
Today he employs 180 workers and owns a new 20,000-square-foot building in a professionally landscaped business district in Santa Ana.
And he plans to expand even more in the next few months.
“I’m going to buy the building next door,” he said, smiling timidly.
The “building next door” also covers 20,000 square feet, and like his own, is sparkling new. The space will enable him to hire 300 more employees.
“I worked real hard so my dream to expand would come true. And I still worry because my dream is to become even bigger,” he said, sweeping his arm toward the spacious, sparsely furnished suite.
Dotting the walls are three framed documents denoting his achievements--three years of law school in Vietnam, a certified teaching certificate for karate and a bachelor’s degree from Golden State University in San Diego.
Helping His Countrymen
Part of his drive to expand, he said, comes from a deeply felt need to help fellow Vietnamese, many of whom cannot speak English and are unable to find jobs elsewhere. About 70% of his present work force is Vietnamese.
“I want to help them, train them. I don’t mind if they then move to another company later.”
Despite his success, Nguyen says he longs for his homeland at times.
“I’m happy I’m living here,” he said. “This country is more equal than any other in the world. But if it weren’t Communist, I would leave this business and go back. My country needs help.
“When I used to drive the freeway to Santa Ana from San Diego and pass by the ocean, I’d become very sad. It reminds me of home. Lately I’m real busy so I don’t have time to think, but sometimes I go to the Bolsa (Chica beach) and I feel that in some way, I’m in Vietnam.”
Though he wouldn’t reveal his company’s exact earnings, Nguyen, dressed in well-tailored gray suit and pink tie, said Q. N. Electronics earned $3 or $4 million in 1983. Earnings and profit for 1984 had not yet been calculated, but he said it should be “a lot more.”
All of it, he said, will go into expansion.
“I’ve learned one thing in the United States. People who work here make money. I work even in my sleep.”
