Meet Nani Sumi

We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Nani Sumi. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Nani below.

Hi Nani, appreciate you sitting with us today to share your wisdom with our readers. So, let’s start with resilience – where do you get your resilience from?
The foundation for resilience is confidence in yourself, positive mindset, and “can do” attitude. Remaining positive during challenging times can test your mental fortitude and affect all aspects of your life. But, if you surround yourself with good people that share positive vibes, include supportive people along in your journey, and, in turn, become the conduit to give back and extend that positivity outward, the universe will reward you with groundedness, goodness, and energy to keep doing what you are doing. In other words, resilience.

The buck stops with you. You must be responsible and accountable for what you do in your life. Are your choices reasonable and realistic? Be honest with yourself and those around you, then you never have to look back. Own up, learn from your mistakes, and share your experiences to help others. The more life lessons you are willing to experience–good and not so good–the more knowing you are in who you are which gives you confidence in the next step forward. You are no longer afraid and will develop a more “can do” attitude because mistakes are life’s opportunities to learn and grow.

Life is unpredictable and can be, sometimes, cruel. What are you willing to do about it? Be strong. Be vulnerable. Be accountable. Be empathetic. Be real. Sharing your journey with others will help you grow in ways you never expected and will also deepen your true self. Accepting and embracing growth allows a positive mindset to become your normal, your new normal, your better self. Whichever it is for you, it’s a healthier head space to be in and encourages goodness to gravitate to you because you now occupy a positive space that others want to be part of.

None of this is easy. Life is not easy. Resilience has allowed us to open a restaurant in an already vulnerable industry mid-pandemic. That wasn’t the plan. But, here we are. No safety nets for new business owners. No grants, No PPP. We don’t qualify for anything. It’s grit and resilience in the face of the age of Yelp, Google, and freelance reviews that may be true and appreciated and, equally, completely made-up falsities because those persons wanted to troll somebody and we were the target in that moment. Appreciation of all the hard work and sacrifices is thrown out the window in a quick, thoughtless stroke of someone’s whimsy. Negativity can be debilitating if you let it.

How do we stay positive? How do we remain committed to making this work? Out of the Covid closures and half-openings, then closures and unprecedented rules, we continue to hold ourselves accountable for our commitments and can be resilient as every day is a new day. Positive feedback and encouragement wins our hearts. It’s the fuel to help us keep going and turn to find a new purpose. The focus is no longer: we are in it to make money. It’s the refocus: we will be the community learning ground for How to be a Good Employee 101. Finding the positive in everything gives us resilience to make it. We are so grateful for this life lesson.

Thanks for sharing that. So, before we get any further into our conversation, can you tell our readers a bit about yourself and what you’re working on?
Big Island Eats and Shave Ice is a Hawaiian style comfort food limited-service restaurant located in the Promenade mall in Rolling Hills Estates. We enjoy sharing the aloha through daily exchanges with customers and larger events at private homes and businesses.

We continue to search for new avenues to augment our business. We have been blessed to have catered for the Super Bowl XVI at SoFi Stadium 2022 VIP Tailgate Party, community hospital Torrance Memorial Foundation’s (YPPA) Young Physicians and Professionals Alliance first in-person fundraiser since Covid closure, company-wide summer bash for Laserfiche, featured in VoyageLA Inspiring Stories in the South Bay, and most recently, featured on ABC7 Los Angeles news segment On the Menu with Rachel Brown. We are truly grateful for all these positive opportunities and show of support.

We have a global menu catering background and are always open to pulling from this experience to offer more off-menu catering choices for our clients.

Looking back, what do you think were the three qualities, skills, or areas of knowledge that were most impactful in your journey? What advice do you have for folks who are early in their journey in terms of how they can best develop or improve on these?
Be willing to make mistakes, learn from them, and share those lessons. Be willing to work hard and have grit to make it through the hardest times. Be positive in the face of all the negativity that may be thrown at you. Only you can allow negativity to affect you. It’s not easy, but, don’t let it. Find the positive energy in all that you experience and do. Positive vibes will find you and you will become energized from them.

To close, maybe we can chat about your parents and what they did that was particularly impactful for you?
My parents lead by example. They worked hard and did everything for the sake of the family and us kids. They allowed us space to make mistakes while holding their tongues. They allowed us to explore. They were there to encourage us to be the best version of ourselves. They gave us a foundation of family, extended ohana, tradition, and inclusion. They made many sacrifices for our benefit. Truly wholehearted selflessness.

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Image Credits
ABC7 On The Menu with Rachel Brown Big Island Eats and Shave Ice

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