In 1979, Mr. Ngo had saved enough money to purchase safe passage for he and his family (wife Nga, daughter Christine and son, Bobby Ngo). They boarded a 45-foot fishing boat carrying around 90 asylum seekers bound for the South Seas.

After days on the water, Mr. Ngo, his family and the other passengers landed in Malaysia. They spent months in a refugee tent city learning English and applying for asylum to nearly a dozen countries. Eventually they were granted access and safe passage to America.

Upon their arrival in San Francisco, opportunity presented itself to Mr. Ngo in a job shoveling asbestos and later driving a forklift for a pavement company. He accepted both positions, gratefully and stoically. Through a friend he learned of the money-making opportunities in the local fishing industry. With his many years of experience as a fisherman, it only made sense that his mission would be to buy a fishing boat.

Due to his determination, his family support and many 17-hour work days, there was enough money saved to purchase the boat. Docking the boat at Monterey Bay, Hua started to meet the other fisherman in the area. After a few fishing trips, catastrophe struck when the boat was severely damaged, nearly sunk and deemed irreversibly unseaworthy all in a single afternoon.

At this point, many people might have decided just to give up – on starting a business, on the seafood business, and even on the American Dream. But not Mr. Ngo. He and his family had already been through so much in their lives, nothing was going to stop him from becoming successful.

Evaluating the situation, Mr. Ngo saw yet another opportunity — he would start distributing seafood. He took the last of the family’s savings, bought a used delivery van and set out to forge relationships with as many of the local fishermen in the area as he could in order to sell and distribute their daily catches throughout the markets and restaurants of Chinatown and beyond.

Soon Mr. Ngo was delivering so many fish that he had to rent U-Haul trucks just to carry them down the California coast. Hua used his time wisely. He rented the trucks in the San Francisco Bay Area, made his deliveries all the way down to Los Angeles and would take the bus home so he could sleep. All the while meeting and gaining new customers as he was on the road, hours upon hours up and down the California freeways. Once all the U-Haul trucks were in Los Angeles, Hua realized it was time to buy his first distribution truck.

In 1981, the dream came true. H & N Fish Co. was founded. The “H” is for Hua’s first name, the “N” for his wife Nga’s. H & N has been a family company since the beginning, and it remains one to this day.

The rest is history because of one hard working man and his determination to never give up…no matter what adversity he faced in his pursuit of the American Dream.