So having a P.h.D doesn’t mean I know it all?

For nearly 47 years, Nikken has encouraged well-being and collaborative entrepreneurship. Nikken’s Wellness Home and its products and technologies nurture our nature so that we all can be Healthy by Choice. The Nikken business model provides an opportunity to share the same with others. 

For over 24 years Nikken has been my second career, what I often refer to as my “encore career”. 

My first introduction to Nikken was for products that could improve a neck issue that I had been dealing with for over three years. Short of neck surgery, my health care professional’s advice was to live with it. At the time, I was in my late 40’s and neck surgery was the last thing that I wanted, so my decision for the time was to live with it. 

And I run, run so far away

Following a week-long business trip to China, I was invited to relax at a client's health spa in Taipei the day before I was heading home to California. At the spa, a physical therapist noticed my neck issue and recommended a few magnetic products from a company he represented, Nikken. As a physiologist, to say the least, I was extremely skeptical that I could benefit from using the products and my opinion was this must be a lot of marketing hype. I had never heard of using magnetic products like he was showing me for health. He let me know that using magnetics for health was very common in Japan and the rest of Asia. I politely (or maybe not so politely), let him know that I had no experience or knowledge of the types of products he was talking about and couldn’t imagine how they might benefit my condition. 

Upon returning home from this business trip, I was checking my son’s little league scores for the games I had missed while traveling. Adjacent to the box scores was a quarter-page article on a Japanese company helping people all over the world with magnetic products. How strange, the company mentioned was the same company that the physical therapist in China recommended, Nikken. This all occurred in a 24 hour period and made me realize that I had formed an opinion on the products and technologies without any experience or information. This is not an open-minded approach, and as I thought about it, I had to ask myself, why did I have an opinion on something that I had no experience or knowledge about? 

One week later I was in Eugene, Oregon on a business trip and was meeting with clients. As I was walking through the hotel lobby a young man approached me and introduced himself. He was a physical therapist and said that he noticed that it looked like I had a neck injury from the way I was walking. He mentioned that he was a Nikken distributor and invited me to attend a meeting, a Wellness Preview, that they were having at the hotel at 7 pm. He suggested I attend to learn more about some products the company had to help my condition. Since I was already scheduled for dinner with clients I declined, but it really got me curious. Here were three exposures to Nikken in about a week's time. A company I had never heard of being brought to my attention. It was apparent that the Universe was calling out to me to check Nikken out. We don’t know, what we don’t know, right?

For over 24 years Nikken has been my second career, what I often refer to as my “encore career”. 

Since my only options were to either live with the problem or invasive neck surgery that may or may not help my condition I decided to set myself on a path to research the use of magnetic and natural energy products for health. I conducted a literature search on the subject and was amazed to find a large body of peer-reviewed papers on the subject. The main theme throughout the research was that these products were safe, easy to use,.inexpensive, and in most cases very effective. I was impressed that a large percentage of the studies were published in veterinary medical journals. This was quite impressive to me as animals do not exhibit placebo effects as do human beings. 

The results of my studies prompted me to find a Nikken distributor that lived close to me. I contacted him and we made an appointment to meet at his house. This individual was informative, caring and told me that he had benefited from Nikken products for years. His name is Jerry and to this day, we remain in contact and are very good friends. I bought a few products from Jerry and within a very short period of time, I noticed dramatic improvements in my condition. 

It is all about timing

One day while talking with Jerry he asked if I had an interest in the Nikken business opportunity. My immediate reply was no and that I didn’t have time for another business. My business was very time-consuming and involved extensive travel, both domestically and internationally. 

One afternoon while reflecting on the successful business that my partner and I had built over the previous 20 years, we both started asking if this is what we wanted to do for the rest of our careers. The lack of time freedom for us both was the main issue. We both had families and it was rare that we could devote the time we wanted to for healthy family life. Up until then, neither of us had entertained other options. It seemed as though the bigger and more successful our company became, the busier we both became. This was a very candid conversation and it became apparent to us both that although we loved the work and the company we had created, it appeared as though it didn’t love us back. We mutually agreed that we would take a look at some options that may provide us the time freedom we didn’t have but wanted. 

 I had been benefiting from the Nikken product line for some time as a customer but hadn’t looked at it as a real business opportunity. I remembered Jerry's invitation to join Nikken as a distributor and this prompted me to do complete due diligence on Nikken as a possible business option. I was impressed to find out that Nikken had been in business since 1975. It was started in Japan by a gentleman named Isamu Masuda. Mr. Masuda’s philosophy for himself and Nikken was that one could only achieve true health and happiness with balance in 5 key areas. He called this the 5 Pillars of Wellness. Healthy Body, Healthy Mind, Healthy Family, Healthy Society, and Healthy Finances. The key was to have balance in all of these 5 areas. This caught my attention I have to say it appeared as a very novel concept to me. At that time, I can honestly say healthy finances were the only healthy pillar in my life. I loved the products and was impressed that Nikken was constantly evolving, expanding into new global markets, and adding new products and technologies. What if I could create balance in my life by leveraging the existing business model that Nikken provided?

What if?

 “What if?”, is a good question to ask and it is important that we do so to keep growing. I think we all hit a point in our life when we ask questions, is this all there is, and will it be this way for the rest of my career? What if…..? 

Next week, part 2 of my Nikken Journey continues highlighting the Nikken business model. Subscribe to our weekly newsletter below and get healthy choices in your inbox.

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