Lessons

One of the 12 recipients of the Medal of Liberty awarded this year to distinguished naturalized citizens, Wang started the electronics laboratories that bear his name as a one-man shop six years after his arrival in 1945 from China at age 25 and built it into a multinational company. In this forthright autobiography, ably assisted by Linden (Silent Partners, etc.), he attributes his success to adapting technology to society's needs and applying to his business practices Confucian values of balance, moderation and simplicity. Surviving the upheavals in China of the '20s and '30s and the Japanese invasion of the '40s, in which he lost his parents and a sister, Wang came to the U.S. as an industrial apprentice. After earning a doctorate in applied physics at Harvard, through his research he achieved a breakthrough in computer core memory design. The cores he manufactured would make him a rich man, as did business and general purpose computers and word processors developed as compatible systems. In his memoir, Wang, a dedicated philanthropist, shows that ethical standards are vital to him as commercial success.