This website uses cookies and other technologies to help us provide you with better content and customized services. If you want to continue to enjoy this website’s content, please agree to our use of cookies. For more information on cookies and their use, please see our latest Privacy Policy.

Accept

cwlogo

切換側邊選單 切換搜尋選單

NAFCO Chairman Francis Tsai

Learning to Live Life at a Slower Pace

Learning to Live Life at a Slower Pace

Source:CW

IT veteran Francis Tsai was forced to compromise the fast-paced lifestyle of his industry after a harrowing medical scare and is now learning to take life one step at a time.

Views

139
Share

Learning to Live Life at a Slower Pace

By Rebecca Lin
From CommonWealth Magazine (vol. 490 )

When he opened his eyes after his operation, it was as though Francis Tsai had returned from the afterlife to the mundane world.

"Because I was wearing an oxygen mask, my mind seemed especially clear," says Tsai, the chairman of National Aerospace Fasteners Corporation, recalling his medical scare in early 2006. Just at the juncture in late winter and early spring when flowers should be in bloom, Tsai found himself stuck in the sanitary surroundings of an intensive care ward following heart surgery, with a dozen or more tubes puncturing his body.  

1st Hour: Listing Dream Travel Destinations

Once Tsai was released from the intensive care unit, he carefully took stock of his life and composed a checklist. He wrote down the 20 places he most wanted to visit during his lifetime, from Alaska and Jiuzhaigou Valley in China to Giglio Island off the western coast of Italy, and decided he would get through the list in the remaining years of his life.

Before the operation, he had galloped through the IT world for more than 30 years with the Mitac Group, leading its transformation from a personal computer brand to an OEM that emerged as one of Taiwan's 10 biggest PC contract manufacturers.

In 2002, he led Mitac into the GPS market, launching the Mio brand, which stands today as the world's third largest line of personal navigation devices.

His schedule completely overwhelmed by work, Tsai used the weekends and holidays to fly around on business. Because regular work days were "too precious," he insisted on not wasting his valuable time during the week on travel.

But at the age of 54, the taxing pace he set finally caught up with him when his health took an unexpected turn. A physical checkup revealed a life-threatening blocked artery, and Tsai's doctor told him he had to have heart-bypass surgery immediately.

The fast-minded, often impatient Tsai would sprint through life no more. Following the operation, doctors wanted him to begin his recovery by learning how to walk again, focusing on his breathing and carefully following one step with another, making every step count.

As an executive used to setting goals, Tsai took to managing his life as he would his business. As he was reacquainting himself with walking, he would often point to a mountain not far from his home and tell his son, who was helping him get back on his feet, "Before the end of the year, we are going to make it to the top."

But given his iron will, Tsai achieved his goal far ahead of schedule, reaching the 800-meter summit at the end of April, even before the end of spring.

As outside observers took turns guessing whether the industry veteran had made his curtain call, Tsai's actions showed he was just taking a halftime break.

That year, he traveled to Jiuzhaigou in Sichuan, but the visit to the national park known for its glistening lakes did not provide the tranquility he had anticipated. The serenity of the natural setting was destroyed by an animated argument among his tour group's members over whether the group's guide, who had a bad attitude, should get his NT$80-a-day tip.

2nd Hour: Plotting the Future

Amid the discord, Tsai's thinking turned unusually clear. "In the past, a decision could involve hundreds of millions of Taiwan dollars. Now, the argument was over NT$80," Tsai recalled. As he sat in a spacious reception area for foreign guests, Tsai pondered how he wanted to live the rest of his life.

He began asking himself how to define the value of living. "Only then did I realize that the value of life could not be determined by a ‘price.'"

His so-called price, in contrast to "value," represented material trappings such as one's salary, position or job title, everything Tsai fought hard to acquire when he was younger.   

He ultimately decided to return to his core expertise, where he could give full expression to the value of life while abandoning all of the labels that determined his price.

Aside from using his salary to establish a philanthropic foundation, Tsai reorganized his life by being less hands-on and learning to delegate, focusing primarily on studying internal reports and making only the most important decisions. 

Yet following his operation, Tsai's determination and competitive drive were as strong as ever, and in 2007 he helped Getac acquire Mitac Precision Technology to enhance the company's vertical integration and leave it better positioned to produce high value-added products. Two years later, Tsai successfully acquired Waffer Technology Corp., the world's third largest manufacturer of magnesium-aluminum alloy mechanical parts, and incorporated it into Getac's IT management system.

Within a short period of time, Tsai had enabled a company that was already well-structured to stand even taller. In his eyes, "sustaining the company and ensuring that employees can work with peace of mind" had real value and was all worth it.

3rd Hour: Finding Peace on a Wooden Bed

To Tsai today, time is more precious than ever. He has joined his wife in participating in Tzu Chi Foundation activities, including joining the foundation's clean-up effort in northeastern Japan last year after the region was battered by an earthquake and tsunamis in March.

At night, he lies on a wooden board big enough for only one person. When he closes his eyes, he feels a sense of inner calm that he never experienced before.

"The happiness one gets from helping others is the real thing," he says, sensing that he has finally discovered what life is really about.

Having given up his life checklist, Tsai has embraced the philosophy of taking things slowly. He says that spending his life working hard was like traveling on an express train – everything rumbles by too quickly without any opportunity to stop, much like in society today, where people have little choice but to jump on the express train, even if they don't really want to.
 
Tsai, however, has now chosen the slow train, able to appreciate the scenery as it slowly rolls by. "And sometimes, you can even take a break," Tsai jokes.

At the moment he awakened in the intensive care ward about six years ago, Tsai not only opened his eyes, but also began learning to seek true value, which can never be measured by a price tag.

Translated from the Chinese by Luke Sabatier

Views

139
Share

Keywords:

好友人數