Though I have worked hard to build my business, I must attribute the success of HSU & Co. to my customers. Their joyful testimonials to the good effects of ginseng are the foundation of my success.

Hsu & Co. began on August 1, 1977, as I knocked on my first door in Columbus, Ohio. I had decided to leave the library where I had been employed for four years to sell ginseng on a full-time basis. The first day my hopes were confirmed. I sold all of the ginseng I carried with me. I realized that people in the United States also have an interest in the herbal tea that has been treasured in the Orient for 5,000 years.

My business grew as I went from door to door and the people I contacted told their friends and family about ginseng and the lady who sold it to them. These referrals started Hsu & Co. on its way. On September 15, 1977, one and half months later with one hundred regular customers. I moved my business to its first home, a two-room office on Cleveland Avenue in Columbus.

A wonderful phenomenon was occurring at HSU & Co. My customers were becoming my friends. While sharing tea in my office or in their homes, they would tell me about themselves, their health, their ambitions, the joys and sorrows of their family lives and personal relationships. At first it was hard for me to believe all of the amazing things I was being told about ginseng. For example, one man told me that his good friend was freed of a five-month-old neck pain by drinking just one cup of ginseng tea. I thought these extreme accounts might be due to some sort of psychological effect. Even given my prior belief in ginseng, the effects described were more far-reaching than I could have imagined. However, as more and more customers came to me with dramatic reports of improved health, I knew there was something very special about ginseng and the work I was doing with it. I knew that I wanted to learn all that was possible from the situation in which I found myself.

In the middle of September, I not only moved to my first office, but also hired my first staff member. Since I was no longer working alone, the filing system I had been keeping proved its worth. We made a card file for each customer containing statements made by the person to us describing physical problems, his or her feeling about ginseng, and the amount of ginseng being used. The filing system allowed me to stay in closer contact with my customers as my business grew. I could even visualize the individuals that my employees contacted. It also gave me the opportunity to learn about ginseng by observing consistent patterns in the information given to me.

My knowledge and number of customers continued to grow. By November 1, 1978, nine hundred people had purchased ginseng from HSU & Co. one or more times. My staff numbered five. I opened a retail store to make ginseng and other health food products available at Northern Lights Shopping Center in Columbus.

On July 1, 1979, HSU& Co. moved to 1965 Morse Road, in the Fountain Squire Shopping Center, with a full line of natural food products, health and nutritional books, natural cosmetics and an extensive stock of herbs and natural vitamins. Yet as my interest in ginseng only increased, the motto of the store remained "HSU & Co. - the Ginseng People."

During the past years many of my customers have told me what wonderful changes ginseng has brought to their lives and how much better they feel. After dealing with over tens of thousands of people with so many favorable results reported to me, I am very happy to share some of their letters of appreciation with you. I am grateful to them for their friendship and support, which has contributed so much not only to my sense of satisfaction, but to the steady growth of HSU & Co. and the expansion of its accomplishment.