Richie Norton, a 2004 Brigham Young University–Hawaii International Business Management graduate from San Diego, turned a punk rock past and a vision bigger than himself into a global career as a bestselling author, entrepreneur, teacher, and keynote speaker. Along the way, he built a loving family rooted in faith and discovered through profound grief that the most important work is the work we start today. Now reaching millions across the globe, Norton has never stopped influencing the world for good.
Kites on a String
Norton grew up in Southern California, raised by parents he credits with giving him both freedom and direction. “We were like kites on a string,” he says. “They let us have freedom, but looking back, I realize they always had a string tied to us to keep us grounded.”
As a teenager, Norton immersed himself in music. He played guitar in a punk band and performed shows throughout California and Mexico, eventually receiving an offer for a recording contract. But instead of pursuing a music career, he chose a different path.
He served a mission for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Fortaleza, Brazil, an experience that profoundly reshaped his worldview. “I saw a lot of poverty,” Norton recalls. “And I started wondering how you help people work their way out of it, how you create opportunity while still living your values.” That question would eventually become the foundation of his life’s work.
Love at First Wave
Norton first came to BYU–Hawaii after his younger brother, Erik Norton enrolled and joined the university’s tennis team. After his mission, Norton's parents pushed him toward BYU–Hawaii, none more than his mother, Shelly Christensen Norton, who had graduated from the school in 1977.
His first memory of campus was not a classroom. It was standing on Hukilau Beach in 2001, watching the voyaging canoe Iosepa be dedicated and launched into the ocean for the first time.
“I just couldn’t believe what I was seeing,” Norton remembers. “I fell in love with the school, the mission, but most importantly the people and the culture here.” Still, as a student from the mainland United States, he initially struggled to understand where he fit in.
BYU–Hawaii’s mission focuses on educating students from across the Asia Pacific region, and Norton wondered what role someone from the mainland United States could play in that vision.
“I remember thinking, ‘How do I fit into this?’” he says. The answer finally came to him. “When I finally said, ‘This prophetic mission applies to me,’ everything changed,” Norton says. “That is when I felt like I had real purpose at BYU–Hawaii.”
Rejected, Then Relentless
Norton threw himself into campus life. He served as student body president, worked in the BYU–Hawaii Alumni Office, and helped launch the Student Alumni Association, strengthening connections between current students and graduates around the world.
During that time, he also began working closely with then university president Eric B. Shumway, exploring ideas that would later grow into the Center for Entrepreneurship, now known as the Willes Center for Entrepreneurship.
The concept grew from a simple but powerful question posed by economics professor Beth Haynes. “She said something that stuck with me,” Norton recalls. “Students come to BYU–Hawaii to get jobs. But with all this education, why aren’t they going home and creating jobs?”
Inspired by that idea, Norton developed a business plan focused on helping international alumni start companies in their home countries. His proposal was rejected during the university’s business plan competition. “The devil was in the details,” he says with a laugh.
But instead of abandoning the idea, Norton moved forward anyway, partnering with alumni to help launch businesses across Mongolia and the Asia Pacific region, planting early seeds for what would eventually become entrepreneurship education at BYU–Hawaii.
Always Another Door to Open
After graduating in December 2004, Norton stayed at BYU–Hawaii to work in the Alumni Office under then director Rowena Reid. It happened to be the university’s 50th anniversary year, bringing alumni from around the world back to campus for celebrations.
Norton found himself coordinating projects that connected students, alumni, and university leadership.
One memorable assignment involved preparing the Cannon Activities Center for a performance by Gladys Knight. Because the building had never hosted an event requiring a ticketed seating system, Norton physically counted every seat in the arena and mapped the entire seating grid by hand. “It was wild,” he says, laughing.
Soon after, Norton began consulting with BYU–Hawaii’s continuing education programs, helping organize international conferences and bringing delegations from China to campus. At a time when social media did not yet exist, he hosted one of Hawaiʻi’s earliest e-business conferences and helped bring Especially for Youth programs to the islands for the first time. His goal was simple, to connect people.
Credit, Loans, and Community
When proposed development plans for affordable housing in Laie stalled, Norton pivoted again. Instead of waiting for outside solutions, he began hosting free financial literacy workshops to help local residents understand credit, loans, and the home buying process. The initiative became known as Empower Laie.
Through those workshops, Norton helped local families purchase homes across Laie, Kahuku, and Hauʻula, keeping many community members rooted in the area. For several years, his real estate team ranked among the top one percent of real estate professionals in Hawaiʻi, working exclusively with local buyers. “Because of this, we were able to keep a lot of families in the community,” Norton says.
What Grief Gave Him
While Norton’s career was expanding, his family experienced a devastating loss. His brother in law, Gavin, who had lived with the family for years, passed away unexpectedly at age 21. Later, Norton and his wife lost their infant son, also named Gavin to honor his late uncle. Both are buried in Laie.
Those experiences transformed Norton’s perspective on time and purpose. “Not only did we not want to wait until retirement to do good things,” he says quietly, “but you might not live long enough at all.”
That realization became the philosophical foundation of his bestselling book The Power of Starting Something Stupid, which includes a chapter called “Gavin’s Law: Live to Start, Start to Live.” The book was published by Shadow Mountain (the general audience imprint of Deseret Book). This led Norton to become a keynote speaker across the USA and Canada for Time Out for Women, speaking to tens of thousands of people in many audiences, including a TEDx Talk in Moldova.
The book has since been translated into more than a dozen languages and gained widespread attention after author Brené Brown publicly shared how much it impacted her life. Norton later published Anti Time Management, which became an international bestseller and the most recommended business book in China. “What if those good things we want to do someday,” he asks, “we just start doing now?”
The Invisible Thread
Today, Norton continues teaching entrepreneurship through the Willes Center, mentoring students and entrepreneurs around the world. He also speaks internationally and recently returned from projects in Norway involving artificial intelligence and entrepreneurship.
He and his wife, Natalie, whom he married just two months after meeting when they discovered they both had BYU–Hawaii connections, have raised their family in Laie. Their oldest son recently returned from a mission in Angola, and Norton jokes that they can finally speak Portuguese together thanks to his own mission experience.
Through it all, Norton believes the greatest professional asset he gained from BYU–Hawaii was not a degree or skill. It was a network. “There is nothing like the glue that comes from BYU–Hawaii,” he says. “Nearly every business relationship I have across Asia, across the United States, and even in Europe comes back to alumni from this school.”
Principles for a World That Keeps Changing
When Norton reflects on what BYU–Hawaii actually taught him, he does not point to a specific course or textbook. Instead, he remembers hearing a principle often attributed to President David O. McKay that a university should teach students not only what to think, but how to think.
“BYU–Hawaii taught me the principles, the way to think, so I could figure it out as the world changed,” Norton says. “All roads lead back to Hawaiʻi. I can trace every success I have had since graduation to this school.”
His advice to students is simple. “Be interested, not interesting,” he says. “Ask questions. Get to know people. The relationships you build here will change your life more than anything you will ‘quote unquote’ learn in a classroom.”
And for alumni, wherever they are in life, Norton offers one final message. “Keep going. The work you are doing matters to the people coming behind you. Your legacy really does matter.” Then he pauses and smiles. “If you can assign positive meaning to the things you are doing,” he says, “the mission and vision become clear, like you are wholly a part of this. And you should own that and do it with a smile.”
