As one who thought he would never grown old—or maybe even grow up—Jorge Motoshige has always been one to parlay his winning smile, social abilities, and interest in the diverse mysteries of the world into an adventure of two. As time has moved along, he has settled down in some ways, but his open and adventurous spirit live on. Find out how never staying still is helpful in gaining new experiences.
Guest Jorge Motoshige felt as though college surrounded him with an interesting, diverse group of people that helped him land in a number of different places with some comfort, because he didn't have any concerns about being able to get out there and meeting new people of all kinds of different backgrounds. Get out there, he did, becoming employee number 113 at Yahoo upon graduation. After a number of years in producing there, he timed his departure right before the first dotcom bust and left the company in 2000. Figuring out where to go and who to be next proved more difficult and so he took the opportunity to travel. Frequent visits to New York made him realize that this California boy could spend two or three years there. Before he knew it, he’d been there for at least 15.
Though he joked in college that he doubt he’d live past 40, fate proved otherwise, though his bachelor days were numbered. Through mutual friends, he met Elisabeth, an opera singer from Greece, and ended up married in 2019. The couple lives an international lifestyle with Elisabeth basing her career out of Berlin and Jorge doing likewise from New York.
In this episode, find out from Jorge how never staying still lets you consistently amass new experiences …on ROADS TAKEN...with Leslie Jennings Rowley.
About This Episode's Guest//Jorge Motoshige, international man of mystery, splits his time between New York and Berlin and the many destinations of his professional and personal travels. Who knows where he will turn up next?
Executive Producer/Host: Leslie Jennings Rowley
Music: Brian Burrows
Find more episodes at https://roadstakenshow.com
Email the show at RoadsTakenShow@gmail.com
Jorge Motoshige: A lot of people I know, they wanted to be doctors, they wanted to be lawyers or whatever, which is fantastic. Maybe I didn't have the organization or the stubbornness to try to pursue something like that. And honestly, I also, I think I knew that I didn't know enough back then to really be able to sketch it out.
Leslie Jennings Rowley: As one who thought he would never grown old--or maybe even grow up--Jorge Motoshige has always been one to parlay his winning smile, social abilities, and interest in the diverse mysteries of the world into an adventure of two. As time has moved along, he has settled down in some ways, but his open and adventurous spirit live on. Find out how never staying still is helpful in gaining new experiences...on today's Roads Taken, with me, Leslie Jennings Rowley..
I'm here today with a much-anticipated guest, my friend Jorge Motoshige, and we are going to talk about the life of an international Playboy and how things evolve. So Jorge, so good to see you.
JM: It's great to see you, Leslie. Thank you for having me.
LJR: So dear, I start these the same way every time with two questions and they are these: When we were in college, who were you? And when we were getting ready to leave, who did you think you would become?
JM: Hmm, tough questions. I think when I was in college, I was, you know, kind of uncertain about who I was like many of our classmates, really unsure about what the future was going to bring and what I was going to do when I grew up. And I'm happy to report that that hasn't changed much. I'm still trying to figure out who I want to be when I grow up and all of that. I think I've checked off some of the, some of the traditional boxes. Gotten a job and gotten married and all that sort of thing. But I think, you know, that was a really nice thing about being in school. We had so much of our lives ahead of us. And even though I'm getting many more gray hairs than I ever thought I would, I used to joke with you guys that I was gonna hope to die by the time I was 40, which hasn't happened. So I'm happy that back then we had so much ahead of us. I think that even now we have so much out of us, which is really nice. I haven't bought a sports car yet but you know, maybe that'll come in the next five years or so though, actually I'm, I'm happy not to be driving. I had my last car when I left California and obviously don't need one in New York or in or in Berlin. That's been really nice.
LJR: Alright. So already you've thrown out some bombshells that our listeners are going to be like, wait, wait, wait, what? Jorge is 40. Like what? He was perennially going to be 21 and wait, he's married and wait, he has gray hair? So I don't see the gray hair. So you might be lying about it. This is like two truths and a lie, but anyway, It is remarkable that you. Are as old as we are almost as old as we are. You were a young’un, right? [JM: Yes.] You came in, yeah, a very late 21st birthday, but you made up for it with a celebrations proceeding that.
JM: Decidedly. Decidedly.
LJR: Decidedly.
JM: I was still kind of unhappy and, and maybe remain this way, that my senior funds were spent on events that I couldn't attend. So can I get some of that back?
LJR: We'll look into it. So that glossed over a lot of things though, in college for you. So you…honestly, I spent a lot of time with you through singing at the Dodec, and I have no idea what your major was.
JM: History.
LJR: I would've said that, but you are so good at languages and you took so many opportunities to go use those abroad. That was part of who you were. You were social beyond social. Everyone knows Jorge Motoshige. And what did that mean for you as you were getting ready to leave?
JM: I thought it was a very nice preparation because you know, one of the nice things about Dartmouth and this isn't the case the same way as other schools, but I thought we had a pretty interesting, diverse group of people there and interesting to group diverse group of friends and my experiences in terms of that socialization, I think helped me land in a number of different places with some comfort, because I didn't have any concerns about being able to get out there and meeting new people of all kinds of different backgrounds. I mean, it, it certainly helped a lot, to your point ,that even during school, I took advantage of, you know, the FSP and France. And went up to visit a, the FSP people in the UK. And traveled around a lot. It's funny: my first trip to Berlin was during that FSP during that break in the middle that they gave us which was super interesting and super interesting to see the difference that those—what?—30 years have brought. Cause my first trip was in, I guess, 94. And Elisabeth, my wife came here in February of 2020. So about 16 years or sorry, 26 years difference. And Berlin has changed dramatically. It's a completely different city.
LJR: Yes. But, but, but wait, we've jumped over a lot to get you back to Berlin 26 years later, but going way back, many of us know where you landed, right? We know you landed at Yahoo right after school, all that…was that. I mean, we didn't even really know what Yahoo was. Did they come and find you or
JM: Interesting story. Someone I knew who had been at Tuck ended up over there. And he was a Stanford undergrad, like, you know, a number of founders. And my brother was also a Stanford undergrad. So there were a couple of different connections there and it was quite a fortuitous situation. It was a fantastic place to work, a lot of young, interesting people and you know, really on the early edge of the internet. So.
LJR: Do you remember what number employee you were?
JM: 113.
LJR: That was, that was a very early start? [JM: Yep.] And you have the tattoo to prove it, I think.
JM: No, no tattoo.
LJR: No? You never did?
JM: No. They tried to get me to do it, but. Like with other tattoos, I can't imagine something that permanent on my body.
LJR: Right, right. And it wasn't permanent, but you were there for quite [JM: yep.] a while and saw the whole thing of it, the rise, and you got out, like at the right time,
JM: I mean, it’s all relative. I left the company, late 2000, I wanna say.
LJR: Yeah, late 2000, that was pre-bust or bubble popping or whatever you want to call it. And you and I were both in San Francisco at the time. That was a time shrouded in mystery and many trips to Las Vegas. And kind of what was life like then, trying to find a footing of who you were going to be, still young person still kind of in that world, but out of that world, what was it like for you?
JM: Well, you know, obviously it was my first job, which in and of itself coming out of that was a little bit difficult. And yet again, I found myself asking, what am I going to be? What am I going to do? And the answer wasn't simple. So I took a little bit of time off and visited a number of friends, which was a tremendous, tremendous experience. One of those friends was Michael Roberts, who is in New York and was in New York at that time. And I would always have such a good time visiting with Michael and all of the other folks in the tri-state area that I decided to move there in about 2004, which was a life-changing experience. I had always spent time in California before that and going to New York let me see that, alright, the cold notwithstanding, it was a very interesting, very fun place to be. I really enjoyed seeing the people that I was spending time with there. And I always thought it would be a two, three year thing. And then I'd go back to California, but it ended up being a 15 year thing. So that was, maybe 16 years.
LJR: Plus at that point, you kind of switched into a consulting role, replete with the trips. I would never see you in weekdays [JM: Yes.] and you'd be around the world. And in that time you were doing more growing up, you were, you know, fighting getting to 40, but alas we've gotten there, so. You are also, you know, a great uncle and like that was going to be your family side. So little Jorge is settled down. Tell us about life—Gosh, I can't believe I'm saying this—married life.
JM: Well, I met Elisabeth through some common friends in New York City. She's originally from Greece. She is an opera singer. And it's been great. We got married in 2019, finally, as my parents would like to say, and we've spent some time in New York. Finally got married the 2019 in Greece, which was great. So it was a nice wedding at a place called Femahatzi, sort of an hour south of Athens. And for Elisabeth's singing, she needed to move to Berlin, which she did in February of 2020. So since then we've been kind of going back and forth. We've been very lucky though, because she is an EU citizen can come into the EU freely and I, as a U.S. citizen can go into the U.S. freely. So even during the pandemic, we were able to go back and forth, readily which was very fortunate. So I'm sure as everyone who's listening can recall those early months in 2020 were, were difficult. And when we had first come here, we didn't know anyone. We, nobody wants to meet new people during a pandemic obviously. My German remains poor. But hers has gotten excellent. So that language barrier was also a bit of a challenge, but we were able to, you know, ameliorate it by going back and forth to the us, seeing our friends there, et cetera. So,
LJR: Yeah, and the life of an opera singer just kind of went dry for a while.
JM: And then it continues to actually because a lot of the 2021 season is people that couldn't perform during the 2020 season. So, you know, it's all kind of a backlog really, which is unfortunate. Moral of the story: Do not become a professional singer.
LJR: Which could have been a path for you, Jorge, from La-Z-Boy onward. Yes. So in this kind of bouncing around traveling life, which has seemed to suit you for a couple of decades, what are the things that kind of are making you excited about this chapter or chapters beyond?
JM: Well first of all, seeing and doing brand new things and continuing to challenge myself to learn new things and grow in different ways. It all hasn't been great obviously. On the one hand living in a place like New York or Berlin, you learn to live with a lot less stuff, which has been actually quite liberating. I remember Michael would make fun of me and he'd say, what are you doing here with that California-size furniture in New York? which makes sense. But that's been very nice. On the flip side, you know, the fact that grocery stores in Germany aren't open on Sundays implies a certain attitude toward how people live, which I could understand if, you know, you have all kinds of time and whatever, but if you both work and you're both busy during the week, that leaves Saturday to do a bunch of these different errands, which makes things somewhat challenging, but it's part of the cultural, you know, lessons and growings and all of that, that being somewhere new is. So yeah, it continues to be a learning, growing, developing ups and downs kind of experience. Mostly ups, luckily.
LJR: Good, but what we would expect from you, frankly. And I let you off the hook a little bit earlier when I asked who you thought you would be when we were getting ready to leave. So harken back to that 21-year-old Jorge: knowing what you know now about where you've been and all of the pin balling and all of that, is this kind of what you had in mind?
JM: The short answer is, I don't know. You know, I was never one to make a five-year plan or anything, you know, socialist like that. So it was…I wasn't sure what would come, but I think, I think that's part of the adventure and part of the figuring it out. A lot of people I know, they wanted to be doctors; they wanted to be lawyers, whatever, which is fantastic. Maybe I didn't have the organization or the stubbornness to try to pursue something like that. And honestly, I also, I think I knew that I didn't know enough back then to really be able to sketch it out.
LJR: Yeah. Well, life has always an adventure with you, Jorge, and I am delighted that you deigned to be on our podcast and share a little bit about that. And hopefully we will see you in one of your round the girdled earth trips sometimes.
JM: I need to figure out what I want to be when I grow up.
LJR: Don't we all, don't we all? Okay. Well, thank you for being here.
JM: Thank you.
LJR: That was our own international man of mystery, Jorge Motoshige, who splits his time between New York and Berlin and the many destinations of his professional and personal travels. As Jorge mentioned, many of us are still trying to figure out what we want to do and who we want to be when we grow up. Luckily, we've been amassing a pretty long list of possibilities from the stories shared by our guests each week on this show. We're so glad to share them up on RoadsTakenShow.com or wherever you get your podcasts. There, you can follow, rate, and review so that other people can benefit from the collective brainstorm that is bound to keep emerging with my guests and me, Leslie Jennings Rowley, on future episodes of Roads Taken.