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GOLDSEA | ASIAN AMERICAN RAGS-TO-RICHES SAGAS

MIDAS OF MEMORY

PAGE 5 OF 10

     Physically Wang is a blend of his father and mother. He refuses to consider which parent he was closer to. "They're so united that we never thought of them as [two separate people] -- it's always sort of one."

     After finishing the eighth grade at Incarnations, Wang went to Brooklyn Technical High School. Like Sturvesant and the Bronx High School of Science, Brooklyn Tech admits top students from public and private schools through an entrance examination. Though he was a member of the math club at Brooklyn Tech, Wang denies any aptitude or fondness for math and science. "I don't know if you have aptitudes or if you get encouraged to do well and so you do well. It's like a chicken and egg type of thing." His favorite subject was art. His high school career was undistinguished. He was an average student who graduated with a B-average. Nor was he active outside of classes. "We played intramurals and things like that but I wasn't a member of any of the teams."

     By contrast, older brother Tony, who attended a private military school, graduated number 2 in his class.

     From an early age Wang's energies seem to have been focused on the practical. He worked Thursday and Friday nights and all day Saturdays as a stock clerk at the grocery store. Though he is reluctant to take credit in other areas of his life, Wang offers no false modesty when it comes to his gifts as a worker. His self-image is that of a hard-headed worker rather than a brilliant scholar.

     "I was the best store clerk, I was the best cashier," he says with real pride. "I had to be the best. I worked harder. I worked faster. I put in a little more effort. For example, I used to work Thursday night and Friday night. What we did then was pack out the store. We put the new things on the shelf getting ready for the weekend. In those days they didn't have the bar codes; we had to stamp every can. You can do like everybody else -- look them up in the big book [that has] the prices, or you get a little smarter and you said, 'There are some popular

     items that sell all the time and they're the things we pack out the most on Thursday and Friday night. Campbell's Cream of Tomato Soup. That's two for 29.' I memorized those prices so I wouldn't have to look [them] up. So I saved myself from da da da da. Little things, you just gotta say, 'How can I make it better?' That's what makes the difference.

     "They used to say in the grocery store when I was a cashier, if you rang up $1,500 in one line on a Saturday, you're pretty fast." Wang talks faster and faster as he gets into his story. "So where did they spend most of the time? One, looking for the prices, turning those cans up and down, and two, bagging it. What if I took all the ice cream bags and opened [them] up first so I don't have to [blow on them] trying to open them? If I opened up all of them once [in advance] and then stacked them back up? If I opened up all of them once [in advance] and then stacked them back up? If I just doubled all the bags when I got in and stacked them all up, I don't have to stop and double each bag. And since I pack out on Thursday and Friday nights, I know all the p[rices of the popular items by heart. I did three laughs proudly at the memory of that accomplishment. "It was fun. It was really a lot of fun."

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     He gets the same kind of kick out of telling about how he used his head to turn the drudgery of sorting mail at the post office into another exercise in efficient systemization. "Maybe if I just rearranged these boxes. That route one, which is really the most popular route, shouldn't be up in the upper left hand corner just because it's numbered one. It should be right in the middle because ten percent of all the mail for the 30 boxes go there anyway." With a little tape he labeled all the boxes and rearranged them to his convenience.

     Those early pieces of systems-engineering might be seen to contain the seeds of Wang's later successes in developing computer software that squeezes the most use out of existing computer hardware. Wang refuses to make any such connection. He also poo-poohs the notion that his early work experiences show a knack for systemization. "Maybe the outlook would be, whatever job it is, however boring, if I can make it better or more interesting I would do a better job at it. Okay?"

     "Just care about it," he adds. "That's all. If you make it just sort of a robotic job, you won't care and you'll screw it up anyway."

     Wang worked more out of a desire for independence than necessity. By the time he started at Queens College, a city college with a nominal tuition, the family had moved out of the apartment and into a house. Throughout college Wang continued to live at home. He majored in math and physics but had little interest in his studies. As in high school he was too busy working virtually full-time at the post office, the grocery store and Emery Air Freight to get anything more than barely passing grades. "I wanted to be more independent, I guess," he explains. "I also saved up for a car and things like that. I just wanted to do it my way." Mainly, he was impatient with the entire academic experience and was eager to make his way in the real world. His background in math and physics proved to be "not at all" helpful in his career, he claims. By contrast, Tony continued to be a first-rate student, entering Yale, then Cornell Law School.

     After four years of marking time Wang graduated in 1967. "I barely graduated," he says with a show of utter indifference. "I didn't like school. I thought it was a waste of time. I wanted to get out and get out fast." He contained his impatience just long enough to get the degree that he looked upon as the key to the door of opportunity. To this day he gives little weight to one's grades in school. "That's not one of the important things in life, it really isn't. I think it's been said that A students always teach. It's the C students who really do something that matters in this world in the sense of enterprise or a business." PAGE 6

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"Maybe the outlook would be, whatever job it is, however boring, if I can make it better or more interesting I would do a better job at it. Okay?"




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