2019 Junior Achievement Hall of Fame: Laureate Connie Yoshimura.

• Author: Davenport, Samantha
• Position: YOSHIMURA

Growing up, Connie Yoshimura had no role models to look up to--so she became her own.

Yoshimura was born in Chicago but spent the first six years of her life in Decorah, Iowa, before moving to Webster City, Iowa, where she was raised by her maternal grandparents.

Yoshimura is a third generation Japanese American. For Yoshimura, growing up as a biracial woman in a community like Webster City was extremely difficult. She was happy to go to college in a more inclusive community in Iowa City, Iowa.

Yoshimura struggled with her identity, but it ultimately led her to where she is today: owner and broker of Dwell Realty, a real estate agency that employs thirty-eight people in Alaska.

Much like with other parts of her life, selling real estate wasn't easy, and Yoshimura hit her fair share of roadblocks. When she moved to Alaska, she had no family or friends in the state to network with, and the first home she stepped into was one she was showing to a client.

"I didn't have family or friends here, was just brand new," Yoshimura says.

In her early days in real estate in the Last Frontier, Yoshimura's last name registered as "funny" to some, and most brokers simply were not interested in hiring her. Eventually one saw her potential, and in her first months she sold two houses, proving her value in the industry. This and subsequent accomplishments led Yoshimura to take a leap of faith and open Dwell Realty in March of 2013.

"Starting Dwell Realty was a risk, certainly," says Yoshimura. "I had been in the business for many, many years, and I had owned a brokerage before I started Dwell Realty, and I was fortunate that I had a couple of clients--Hultquist Homes and John Hagmeier Homes--that I had been working with that... agreed to come with me."

Their willingness to continue their professional relationship with Yoshimura undoubtedly had a lot to do with her obvious dedication to her field. "I believe in a meritocracy," Yoshimura says. "Some people say that what they are going to put on my tombstone is 'She worked,' because I like to work. For me, work is a certain amount of freedom. I enjoy working and I enjoy meeting people."

And Yoshimura's job takes a lot of work. Each client has different requirements, highly varying incomes, and a multitude of housing needs that take a diverse skillset to satisfy. One of the best ways to improve is to reflect, and Yoshimura says it's important to learn from one's own errors. Not all of her residential investments...