This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Dean Chou, a 53-year-old US citizen who moved back to Taiwan to be closer to his aging parents. It’s been edited for length and clarity.
I was born in Taiwan, and moved to Los Angeles in 1999 for college.
After graduation, I got hired as a product coordinator for a lighting fixture company. I worked between the American office and the factories in China, and that’s how I learned about procurement.
Around 2009, when the economy crashed, I was laid off. My next job was selling frozen seafood, and I continued to build the sourcing business I had started a few years earlier. I was helping…
