 I'm Rusty Komori, and this is Beyond the Lines on Think Tech, Hawaii. I was the head coach of the Punahou Boys Varsity Tennis Team for 22 years, and we were fortunate to win 22 consecutive state championships. This show is based on my books Beyond the Lines and Beyond the Game, and it's about leadership, character, and creating a superior culture of excellence. My special guest today is the highly respected owner and president of the cab. And you know the number, 422-2222. He is Howard Higa, and today we are going beyond taxis. Hey, Howard, welcome to Beyond the Lines. Hi, Rusty, good morning. Thank you very much for having me. Howard, you've been such a successful businessman throughout your entire life, but let's start kind of in the earlier part. I know that you graduated from Punahou in 1962, and tell me about the colleges that you attended. Yes, I did graduate from Punahou in 1962, and after my graduation, I went to a small Midwestern college called Drury University in Springfield, Missouri, and that's where I got my, I graduated and got my AB degree or BA degree. And from there, I went on to, of course, my whole life there, and I did go to two other schools. Well, I graduated and during the summers, what I did is I went to, instead of just doing nothing, we lived in Geneva, Switzerland, the family did. And so what I did was I decided to enroll at the University of Geneva to do language studies. So I went to the University of Geneva to learn French. I also went to K.O. University when I went to Japan to learn Japanese. So I actually went to two other universities besides Drury University. So, you know, that's my, basically, my college degrees. Wow, I love hearing that, Howard. And Howard, during the Vietnam War, I know that you enlisted in the Navy Reserve, and can you tell me a little bit about that? Well, you know, after graduating, we all were actually being drafted. We're going to get drafted. So at that time, before getting drafted, actually, we had a choice of actually joining the service branch of our choice, and mine was the U.S. Navy. So I thought I'll go in as a naval reservist and go from there because I thought that would be probably one of the safest branches to be in. Instead of the Marines or the Army, you know, people are getting knocked off. And I said, well, you know, probably I should probably get into something safer. So what I did was I joined the U.S. Navy Reserves, and I waited in San Francisco for my papers for active duty. When I was there, I actually waited about, so five, six, seven months, and I finally told the guy there. I said, listen, put me in the next big ship that comes in, and I'm in for that, just tell me what the ship is. So anyway, I get this call about five or six months, and I'm in San Francisco partying away and waiting to go to war. I thought, you know, I'm just getting tired of that too. So I need to get the service business out of the way. So this guy calls me up one day and he says, yeah, here you go, we've got this ship coming in, and it's gonna be in the Philippines, and you gotta meet it there. And so what kind of ship is it? He says, it's a carrier. So I'm thinking like this, you know, big carrier with the jets on there. And I said, whoa, that's great. And he says, well, it's not quite a jet carrier, aircraft carrier. It is an aircraft, but it's a helicopter. It's the U.S.S.E.O.G. and my LPH too. And I said, well, I guess it's big enough. That's probably safe, you know, sign me up. So within probably a few days, he put my name in and I got my tickets, my orders to go to the Philippines and to pick up my ship in Subic Bay. So that's why I stayed in there. And I went in as an enlisted because I was waiting around to get into office and training. But, you know, they said they were about two years behind for me to get to school there to do coming as an officer. So I said, you know what? I just need to get this business out of the way. I'm not gonna be a professional military guy. If I get my business out of the way, I serve my country, I'm good. So that's the reason I went in as a seaman. And really the first probably month or so I was on the boat. Of course, where they put the seaman's, they put them on the mess deck. So we're in the mess deck and I'm doing cooking and all this kind of stuff. And from the rear of the boat, the captain was standing way back there and he was watching me serving all this food and yammering with the staff and yammering with the crew. And he said, you know, Higa, come over here. I wanna talk to you. So I went over there and he said, so tell me, what's your educational background? He said, well, I have my BA degree. And he said, well, why went to an officer? I said, well, I told him the story. I said, you know, it's just too long to wait. So I'll tell you, I just came in as a seaman and just get the same away because I'm not gonna be a professional military guy. I need to serve my country and, you know, I'm here. And he says, I'll tell you what, when you're done, come up to my quarters. So I was done, I went up to his quarters and he says, I'll tell you what, do you know how to write? He says, I said, well, I can write. And I says, I'll tell you what, why don't you be my public affairs officer, acting public affairs officer? And I said, okay, so what do I do? He says, so you report to me and me only. And what I want you to do is write good stuff about the ship. I don't want to write anything else about who got hurt or whatever it is, how many jets went down, where you were on duty. I just want to write good stuff. So that's, I said, I can do that. So he took me on and I had a lot of publications, reviews on Navy times and things like that. And he was happy about that. So anyway, during the period of time I serviced there in Vietnam, but maybe for six months a year, there's a, at that time, telegraph that came in. The Navy has run out of money and they're going to be releasing 30,000 reservists. And I happened to be one in that group. So I went back to the skipper and I said, listen, I like my job and I thank you for what you did for me. But I have my life to deal with and I would like to, for courtesies tell you that I'm going to put my name in to get released. He says, oh, no, no, I really want you to spend another deployment with me out in Vietnam. He says, well, Skipper, his name was Captain John Shepherd. I said, Skipper, I really can't do that. I mean, that wasn't my agenda. And I think I sort of lucked out and I got the release, early release with full honors and full credits. So I said, I'm going to take that option. So I did. And so that's how I really got out of the service. But I tell you, I was, during that period of time I was very, very proud to serve the country and I still am. I think that maybe that gives the, at that time, that generation, gave them a pride for the country, to serve the country and to do what they had to do, even if it meant that. And I said, you know, I was good with that because I had family. They tell you that you're protecting your family, you're protecting your friends back in the home. So you have to fight for your country. And I believe that and I think that's true. So that's what we did. And I felt really, really good about it. Howard, that is absolutely so honorable. I mean, I love hearing that from you. And before you took ownership of the cab, can you tell me briefly about some of the businesses that you own previously? Sure. Well, I actually spent about 30 years, 20 years, 25, 30 years going back and forth to Japan. I lived in Japan for about 15 years and most of my businesses were in Japan. And I had a travel company in Japan. I also had a driving school or driving academy, which I started there and well, actually ran. And then I had a trading company. So I did many things in Japan during the 25, 30 years. In the meantime, I was flying back and forth to the mainland for certain things. And that's of course stopped off in Hawaii. And when I stopped off here, I said, you know, this is such a great place to live. I'm from Hawaii and you're gonna come back and forth. You live in Japan. There's a lot of things that go on in Japan. Japan is a nice place, but I'll tell you Hawaii's better. So for me, I was coming back here and I said, you know, I need to form a business here. Because eventually I wanna live in Hawaii. So what I did was I actually started some companies here. And one of them was, I was involved with a company called Honolulu Cellular Company. And as you know, Honolulu Cellular was the forerunner for AT&T Wireless in World. So I was probably the only local guy that actually invested in the company. So I'm really proud to say that I was one of the investors into the present AT&T Wireless. And I saw, I had a vision for that and it really worked out. And there's a little story to that. So my father actually met me here in Hawaii one day, one evening. So I went to his apartment and I said, you know, that I said, I got this business I wanna get into. And he said, well, what's that? And I said, well, I believe one day everybody's gonna be running around with a phone in their back pocket. He looked at me, you know, he's a, at that time he's a older generation guy. He said, are you crazy son? I spend money, I send you to school, I educate you. Why do you say something that stupid? And I said, really dad, I really think this is gonna be a big thing. Phone in the back pocket. Listen, I've been a businessman for 50 years. Don't tell me I need a phone in my back pocket. I've been successful. Especially from you, I educate you. I spent a lot of money doing that. And you're telling me something that stupid. And I said, you know, dad, I really believe in this. So from that day on, we never really agreed on anything. We actually kind of parted ways. But I kept on going and I did become one of the founders of Honolulu Cellular. And that, you know, the rest of the story today. I mean, everybody has a phone in their back pocket. But that's one of the things that I was involved in and I was really proud of that. Then I formed another company called Rampaging. I don't know if the younger kids know what paging is, but I was one of the founders of this company called Rampaging and everybody did have a pager. And we went from paging onto cellular. So when cellular got really cheap, the pagers went out of the market. And now today it's just the cellular phones. So that reasons I got involved then, I got involved in some hotel business here in Hawaii. I owned a couple of hotels and eventually sold them. I thought, you know what? I don't want to be in the hotel business. I want something with more action. So meeting up to how I got involved with the cab is, here I was, I was young and I had a lot of experience and, you know, I made some money. So, you know, kind of like a, just a free life guy, just doing anything I wanted to do. And a friend of mine came into the office one day and he said, you know, Howard, once you, can you lend me some money? I says, well, you know, I do a lot of things, but I don't lend money. I'm not a bank. The bank's down the road right here. So I said, you go there and if they lend you money, good for you. He refused to leave my office. He came back two or three or four times and he said, listen, I really need to borrow some money. And I said, okay, I'll tell you what. If I loan you the money, when you get out of my office and don't bug me, he says, okay, I'll do that. So I loaned him the money and he left. He left and about a year later, he came back and he threw some keys on my desk and he said, well, I'll tell you what, he didn't work out. And I said, well, I told you, it's not gonna work out and now we're enemies. We used to be friends, but now you can't pay me back. And you're saying aloha. I mean, what am I supposed to do with this thing? I said, just out of curiosity, what are the keys to? He says, oh, it's a cab company. I said, oh, no, no, no, I don't do cabs. I do a lot of things in Japan. I do other accelerator business, you know, just other businesses, but cab business, I don't understand the cab business. And I don't wanna be in a cab business, but I had no choice. He said, okay, well, aloha, I see you. I'm sorry, I didn't work out. So the keys sat on the desk for about a year. And I looked at that thing every morning, I come in and said, boy, you just made a big mistake. I was like, you shouldn't have learned the money. You should just forget about it next time. But I looked at the keys and I finally said, you know what? I'm gonna try and look at this thing and try to restructure it. In the meantime, it already got to be probably a million dollars in debt. And I said, well, I can either shut it down and write it off or take it on as a challenge. So that's basically what I did. I took it on as a challenge and I thought, well, you know, I'm gonna redo the whole thing. I'm gonna be in the cab business. I want the perception of cab drivers. I'm gonna change that. Everybody knows the cab driver. Oh God, he's probably the lowest on the totem pole. And you know, he's a dirty guy. He knows all the dirty things under belly of the world is and blah, blah, blah, blah. I said, you know, I can change that. And how I can change it is, give the company a better reputation. Ah, we can use Frank Nima. He's a comedian. He can give a great reputation to the business. I didn't know Frank. Well, one of the people at the channel two, yeah, K-O-N said, you know, I know Frank. I can get him to a meeting and you can talk to him. I said, okay, we'll go ahead and talk to Frank and see if he's interested. So our first meeting, I said, you know, Frank, we wanna do the cab. And my daughter was with me too. We can do this business. I wanna do you as the person, the spokesman really for the company. So he said, well, what is it? Oh, it's a cab business. And I could see his eyes go down on the ground and looking at the table like this. And I said, Frank, are you sleeping or what? You know, I'm thinking. I said, well, what are you thinking about? Well, I've never been in a cab business. I don't know what a cab business is like. And I said, I know what you're thinking. You're not thinking you've never been in a cab business because you're a comedian. You should do anything, right? You just didn't wanna be associated with the cab. And I said, I'll tell you what, we're gonna have fun with the sink, I guarantee you. And we met at Zippy's restaurant. And he said, yeah, okay, I'll try it. And from that day on, he loved it. He did his work with passion and he actually was a great face for the cab. And as you can see, he sold this to the people, the local people here in Hawaii. Everybody loves him. Everybody knows the 422 number and my hats off to Frank Delima. Well, I love hearing that, Howard, that's incredible. And then you guys just recently honored Frank Delima on 422-22. And yeah, I mean, it's such a catchy commercial that your daughter, Shannon, had really put together. And it's absolutely fantastic. And Howard, you have a beautiful family. And I mean, Shannon worked with you. Now you have your granddaughter Riley working with you. You said you have one of your nephews working. I mean, how special is that to have some members of your family with you in this venture? Rusty is so special. At this age, you're beyond trying to make money, trying to make a living and all this and that. So you're more in the name backstage and watching stage. Just to sort of see my granddaughter working with me and also the people that actually worked with me for 15, 20 years in the company. It's so special for me to just see all this going and everybody's learned a lot of things about the business. And for me, it's just like, I'm in retirement, but I'm not. And so to me, it's really special. Yeah, and Howard, your leadership team, you guys are so effective. You guys are so efficient. What's one of the secrets and why you guys are so good as a leadership team together? Well, you know, Rusty, I'm going to bring your book up again. So when I read your book, you know, beyond the game, I mean, that was a great book for me. It was great reading. And I'm coming to my point on this thing. So I know you don't pay me to advertise for your book, but I'm telling you this, one of the greatest books and motivation I read because it did, it said everything that I actually was doing. And on top of that, I laughed at some of the stuff that was so funny. I was so happy to see some of the players there, I don't know, just killed the competitors, but then they did it in the right way as a gentleman. I cried, there was a thing in there about one of the players dying. So it was a book that just used all my emotions. Like, I'm happy about the business, I'm happy about reading about business, I'm happy about reading how people should act and behave themselves and win the right way as a gentleman. So to me, that book really created something. So you asked me about being a leader for all these things. As you know, and I read your book, the boss, everybody calls me the boss. And I said, yeah, I'm the boss. But when I read your book, I says, I'm not the boss, I'm a leader. Because you said, in your book, bosses work, that's your job. Their job is to make money for the company or for themselves, whatever. They're mainly money oriented, but a leader, what he does, he cares about the people. So getting to your point, I've always felt that for many years ago. So I chaired for my people, I really did. I treat all the staff, the management people as family. So we're different in that respect than other companies. We do have a chain of command and all that. But in reality, we're in the same boat, having the same canoe. So if no one fail, we all fail or we all succeed. So we act as family, we eat as family and some of the things, we do a lot of functions like bowling and things like that, caught okay with the family, things like that we do. And this is to create a trust between myself and the people. Because unless they trust you, unless they feel that you cannot, you can't trust it, like you have some of your players in the past, they're not gonna do anything. They're not gonna put their 100% down. They might put 80% but not 100%. With the trust, they will go full board and work with you. And that's what happened. I believe that's true. I completely agree with you, Howard. And I really saw that when I had lunch with you and your assistant Dorothy and your granddaughter Riley. I mean, I could really sense the pride that they have in seeing how you took the cab to number one and how you're creating this culture of excellence among your entire company. I mean, it's so, I mean, I felt so great just to meet and talk with you and to talk with Riley and Dorothy as well. Well, let me say something about Dorothy, but we have two really successful managers or leaders. This company, one is Darwin and the other one is Dorothy. I believe without these two people, they were with me for many, many years. Without these two people, we would not have the cab. I am very serious about that. Of course, it's not that unimportant, but I believe that a leader has to have people that really believe in you and the company. If you don't have that, you don't have a company. So that I will say. Yeah, that's so true. And I feel so humbled that someone like you really liked the book. So thank you, Howard. Well, Russ, it's my pleasure, really. I mean, I read it. I don't read that much. I read enough financial statements every day and all that. So when I go home, I cannot do any type of pleasure reading, but that book I decided was given to me by Linda Wong and Danny Calotini. And we met over there at Day at Wildlife Country Club and said, you know, who's this young guy wrote a book and what is he for? You know, I don't understand. What's his background to write a book? I mean, I haven't read the book, you know? And I said, I'm going to read that book. And I did from cover to cover, basically one scene. I said, you know what? I can't put this book down because it tells so much. And I'm telling you, if someone wants to follow some of the stuff in the book, they can be successful. But they still have to have, I believe, the perseverance to do what they're doing and they have to have the passion. And I'll talk about passion and they have to need the perception. They have to create a possession for themselves. But to me, one of the most important things is passion. And passion is really a tough word because what is passion? We think about it. Passion encompasses a lot of things. You know, of course, hard work and you've got to have the right product. You have to have the passion to pursue your dream. You have to have the passion to convince other people that you're on the right track. And that takes money. That takes all this other stuff that makes people interested. But once they pass the money part, then passion becomes like kicks in. And they see you working at this job or working at the business with passion. You know, they start to join you and passion draws them to you. Money, you know, is okay, but that doesn't last too long. It's the passion, how you feel that the feeling you have for your company, the feeling what you're doing is what draws people to you. Yeah, and that's right. Exactly what you said. The passion becomes so contagious and everyone can see that. And Howard, I want to ask you about Uber and Lyft. How has Uber and Lyft affected the cab? And what are you doing to adapt and adjust to continue to grow your business? Well, let me tell you a story. So let's say maybe about 10 years ago, the cab had about 800 drivers. We were probably listed as second or third largest in the continent of the United States in Honolulu, Hawaii. So that kind of surprised me that in such a small island, we have like 800 drivers and being listed as at least top 10 in North America. And so we were riding high and said, you know what, I'm in neutral. I can ride this thing off and just relax. Well, parallel comes Uber. They're the market disruptors and they come in this market. So they didn't listen to any rules and regulations. They don't follow the rules and regulations. So the city council and the legislature made a lot of adjustments to accommodate them. I really believe that. And yet they have the controls and the cab companies. So I did a lot of testimonies at the city council, the legislature. And I said, listen, I don't mind competition. I love competition because competition draws my blood and gets it boiling and get going at the same. But what I cannot afford to do is not have an equal playing field. In other words, I don't have an equal playing field. You got rules and regulations on me, but you don't have it on Uber and Lyft. So I said, you know, you need to change that. I'm good at competition, but I'm not good with just a one sided deal. Well, anyway, long and short of it, we went from 800 cars to 500. I said, well, you know, that's a big drop. Throughout the country, most cab companies were seriously hurt and they kind of devastated the cab industry, the taxi business around the world actually. Fortunately, we had a big base of 800 drivers. So to fall back to 500, we're still operable and we're doing pretty good. And I said, well, you're okay, well, we'll build up. And I just couldn't figure out until I read your book why those even 500 guys stayed with me. And I thought, I need to look at the same because whatever, why they're staying, I gotta figure this out and I gotta continue to do what I was doing. And what that was, I'll tell you, reading your book and everything else showed me what I was doing actually. You really, I found like a passion for my staff and what I do is a boss works for money, but a leader, he cares about the people. He cares about the people. So to me, if you were to ask me what big ammunition I have against Uber is that I'm a boss because I'm a leader for my staff and I care about them. So can Uber do that? I don't believe they can. They're too large to worry about all the people they worry about the bottom line. They're burning, there's a big bonfire to Uber. They're burning billions of dollars a year. So to me, it's simple. If I had a lot of stockholders gave me billions of dollars, I can buy this market and that's exactly what they did. So I felt that if I can be a good leader, then I will not lose everybody. I'll have a core of drivers that believe in me believe in the company that's gonna keep the company going. So that's what I did. And that's what I, you know, that's what I did, but I didn't know that that's what I was doing. So I created this, I don't see, you know, for a choice of a better word, I created this culture setting atmosphere in the company. So these guys, as you know, all of them are immigrants, basically about 95% are immigrants that I have for the drivers. And, you know, the thing is, they come from Vietnam, they come from Korea, they come from Africa, whatever. We got all the immigrants working for us. So what they deal is, is that they're very clever and smart people, because they're immigrants, they're fighting for their own. They got put food on the table. One of the things is over all the years, 20 years, I realized one thing is that they, of course they're working for money, but they also believe in the company and they believe in me. If I say that you are gonna be okay, you are gonna be able to take care of your family and you are gonna be able to get your American dream, I believe, and they believe me. And so I got a lot of drivers coming in and says, you know, Mr. Higa, American dream, I didn't get my American dream, you know? And I said, okay, but let's look at this. So the other day I was talking to this one driver and the same thing, I didn't get the American dream. So, you know, I'm a cab driver. But wait a minute, let's look at this. So tell me about 10 years, 15 years ago, you used to bring your son in here. I know that a couple came into our office just a week or so ago. They brought their son in and said, where is your son? What is he doing now? And they looked down and says, well, he's in New York. And I said, okay, so what is he doing in New York? Oh, he's a doctor. I said, oh, he's a doctor. I said, you know, it takes a lot of money to send your son to medical school and become a doctor. And he says, yes. And you know, they're very humble people. Most immigrants are very humble. Then I said, well, he's a doctor. You know, I got the same going on. No, they just stood there. And I said, you're a daughter. You had a daughter too. I remember that. So what is she doing? Well, she's at the U.A. She's gonna be a biologist. Oh, and she wants to be a doctor also. Well, I said, let me tell you something. What I believe is that you have attained your American dream. And they looked at me kind of confused. And I said, you know, the American dream comes in many ways, your children are your American dream. If you look at most of the drivers out here, they spend so much time working and they spend so much money sending their kids to all the schools, the good schools. For example, this is a while back. This one guy came in, you know, local guys just saying, hey, Higa, you got all your cab drivers. They're really crazy people. The wife, look at their cars. They got pass, they got stickers on there. Pula Ho, they got Ilani. They have a Harvard, MIT, Northwestern. I said, you know what, you ever figured this out? You know why they have the stickers? Not that because they love stickers on their cars. Their kids go there. What? Their kids go there and says, yeah. You know what it cost for Pula Ho? Ah, I know it's a lot, but you have to find out because that's what these guys are doing. They work 10, 12 hours, 15 hours a day, seven days a week. And that's how they send their kids to school because they want their kids to have something better than they have. They came here from Vietnam, some of them are both people. I mean, from Korea, from Africa, like Bangladesh and people, we have those drivers and they work hard. And this is what America used to do. This is what Americans used to do, work hard. Today, I don't see that, I see that dissipating. And I said, you know, that's the reason why I believe that working in this business gave me the opportunity for payback really. So the money part about it is okay, but maybe I get rewarded by seeing these immigrants in their American dream. And I was part of their American dream. Hundreds of drivers, hundreds. So I always believe you can, if you can create something good for one person, one individual, you're a leader and you did a great thing. But how about doing it for several hundred? Wow, it just blows my mind. I mean, to me, that is my payment. That's my, to me, that's my American dream. I was responsible for being responsible for part of their success in America. So that's my story. The money's okay. The cabbie is a great talk, but I'm telling you the reward, fantastic. Howard, it's absolutely priceless. I mean, and you know, I wanna really thank you for you sharing all of these insights and to why you've just been so successful throughout your entire career. And I really wanna thank you for taking time to be on the show today. Well, Rusty, thank you very much for giving me the opportunity to share my experiences. I'm a lot older than you are. And I'm glad that I can share that with you because you can carry that. And hopefully that helps you or helps anybody that's watching your show, gives them some sort of leaping stone in what they wanna do. And at least if they hear from all the different speakers that you have on there. I mean, you know, one thing is the older people always have a lot of experience to share. An experience is the best lesson. Writing a book would be the best, but I mean, I don't have the time to write a book. So I read the book and I enjoyed the book. And I said, you know what, that Rusty is a smart kid, I'll tell you. Because he put down things that I should have put down on my book. Howard, you are the best. Thank you. And thank you for watching Beyond the Lines on Think Tech Hawaii. For more information, please visit RustyKamori.com and my books are available on Amazon and Barnes & Noble. I hope that Howard and I will inspire you to create your own superior culture of excellence and to find your greatness and help others find theirs. Aloha. Thank you so much for watching Think Tech Hawaii. If you like what we do, please like us and click the subscribe button on YouTube and the follow button on Vimeo. You can also follow us on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and LinkedIn and donate to us at thinktechhawaii.com. Mahalo.