It's refreshing to see that, sometimes, nice folks finish first.

Tomorrow night, my good friend and part-time boss will be serving dinner for 300 homeless folks at the Manchester Center here in Lexington, Kentucky. His name is George Wei. He came to this country about 22 years ago from Taiwan and worked two or three ground level jobs as a dishwasher, busser, etc. In five years he owned two of the top Chinese restaurants in town.

Today, he owns 15 rental houses, an apartment building, is a director of a bank and owns Asian Wind and "Country Cookin" by George.
Over a year ago, a fellow who had gone belly-up in an Italian restaurant went to work for George and hired me to play his engagement party at a place George owned called East-West Cafe. At the end of the night, George asked me to play his dining room until my summer job started. When I showed up for work, he had changed the name to "Country Cookin". It's a buffet. We became fast friends, and I decided to stay Fridays and Saturdays (5 to 7 or 8, depending on my next job) instead of returning to my long-time patio job.

His two kids are honor students at Carson-Mellon and MIT (I think). He's a card carrying member of the Chamber and the Kiwanis Club. He drives a BMW sports car and lives in a large, luxury home. His wall is filled with thank-you cards from local shelters, charities, civic organizations, etc.

We'll be helping with delivery of the food (folks from my office) tomorrow night and the guys from the Kiwanis Club will be serving dinner.

George is dearly loved and highly respected by employees, customers and the members of the community.

Now, when the "snoots" who frequent the high-end job I played for the last 14 summers tell me I'm ruining my reputation by playing at a $8.95 "country" buffet. I just smile.

I'm proud to work for my little friend.
And, his success is well deserved.

Here's a "nice guy" who finished first!

Next time you're in this area, stop by...I'll buy the fried green tomatoes! Food is good...music kind of sucks, Oh Well...

Russ

Russ, what an amazing success story. Proves that hard work, dedication and the desire to succeed pay off. The best part is that he hasn't let success get in the way of remembering his roots and the struggles he most likely encountered along the way. That is humility for sure.

Russ ... great story ... unfortunately, it is hard to find that work ethic in this country ...
t.

Very nice story Russ. And can only happen in the U.S. of A.
Eddie

The dinner was GREAT. My office manager and I got there with our little Sion Xb company car, with the seats down to carry food containers, and there were 10 people...relatives of George, who volunteered on their time off to help. It was a family affair, and I was happy to be included. The only problem was, there was a University of Kentucky basketball game at 7:00 PM nearby, so traffic was horrible.

Everyone left afterwards with that "nice warm feeling"!

And now, our little car smells like a KFC delivery van!

HO...HO...HO!

Russ