Don Johnson is a softly spoken, mild mannered American
who was born in the famous gambling town of Reno, Nevada. However, he has
not gambled with life in the style of Luke Reinhardt’s “Dice Man”
but has always applied long range goal planning to his future direction.
His
father was a bartender and his mother worked at a small print shop. He was
an only child, and was also adopted, a fact that was kept as no secret
from the young Don. He was an average student who went to the University
of Nevada when he was 17 years old, where he did general subjects to keep
his options open. “I didn’t have a clue on what I wanted to do.”
Around this time, the US Government was offering
holiday packages for their young men in glorious jungled Vietnam. “Being
not a particularly good student, this enhanced my chances of going.”
Rather than sit around and hope his number didn’t come up, Don enlisted
in the US Air Force, where he was trained as an instrument technician, and
then scored overseas postings in Japan and Korea. This was his first taste
of travel and he liked it.
Returning home after the USAF, he went to college and
finished a four year engineering degree course in electronics, a natural
progression after his USAF training.
His first job was with the Goodyear Blimp, the
dirigible that would be seen at sporting events. There (or in it) he
racked up 640 hours of flight time, while maintaining all their
electronics and instrumentation and communication devices. However, a
better offer from the Arizona State Police brought him back to the ground,
and he spent four years with them responsible for the maintenance and
expansion of their telecommunications systems. “I had a badge, but I was
not a law enforcement officer.”
Around this time, the travel bug got to him again and
he was recruited by Rockwell International (a firm that made everything
from space shuttles to B1 bombers and parking meters). He agreed to join
if they guaranteed him overseas assignments. They did and he went to
Taiwan as a project engineer, where he learned Chinese, knowing that this
would also stand him in good stead.
After that contract he took a slight side-step - “The
money was in marketing, not engineering” and he convinced Rockwell to
give him a chance. They did, and he became the manager for Europe, Middle
East and Africa, opening Rockwell’s first European Telecommunications
office in Athens.
It was at this time in Greece that he fell in love with
diving. “There are three realms we can experience. Space (unlikely), our
earth and underwater. Before I died I felt I should be able to experience
two out of three, and I fell in love with the underwater one.”
Don then began a series of other overseas appointments,
including Japan and Korea again, moving through various companies,
eventually becoming the vice-president of Raven Electronics, a company
which won the prestigious “Exporter of the Year” award, a feat for
which he remains very proud of his and his people’s efforts.
The natural progression was for him to start his own
business consulting company, but when one of his clients (California
Microwave) needed regional management for their Singapore office to
service Asia-Pacific, the idea of travelling again was the final factor to
make him take it on.
He was still in Singapore when the Asian financial
crisis hit in 1997, and when California Microwave pulled out two months
later Don had an important decision to make. Move back to the States or
retire in Asia.
He had a friend who had bought a condominium in
Jomtien, and that allowed him first hand investigation of this region, and
the traveller put down his roots, Thailand now being one of the 78
countries that Don has visited. While here he has been joined by his
Chinese partner Carmen, who also shares his love of SCUBA, and who has
just passed her Divemaster certification.
Here Don indulges himself in SCUBA diving. A passion he
passes on to others all over the world, now being an accredited PADI
Master SCUBA Diver Trainer and Staff Instructor, giving instructor
development courses in places such as Vietnam, the country he tried to
avoid so many years before! Of course, he does also manage to find the
time for some golf, skiing, squash and a collection of classic cars in
America.
Still in his early 50’s, Don Johnson has done well
out of life, and I asked about his concepts of success. “I am a goal
oriented person. I set goals and objectives and write them down and read
them regularly. I (worked towards) having the time, resources, and health
to go wherever I want, to do whatever I want, whenever I want. This must
be done with personal integrity, which is something no one can take from
you. When I didn’t need corporate life any more I put the plan into
action.”
Don comes across as someone who really does have his
head together. I asked him whether being adopted had influenced his
thinking or his attitude to life. It had not, and he had actually found
both of his natural parents and even discovered that, “I had two sisters
and a brother. I was thrilled.” One of his sisters and he have become
very close and she has even been on overseas trips with Don. I went
further and asked when someone spoke about his “Mum”, which one did he
think of first. His answer was immediate and direct, “The mother who
changed my diapers!”
His advice to those who would emulate his success is
first to get education. “It’s critical. Then think globally, there is
always a need for improved communications throughout the world.”
That field has certainly been fruitful for Don Johnson,
a man with a plan that he put into effect with great success!
