The Day a Dream Found Me

Amy with Randy Johnson (right), the founder of Johnson Jewelers in El Paso, Texas

The unexpected moment that led me into the jewelry business and changed the course of my life.

I didn’t know that buying a set of jewelry for my sister would change my life forever.

Let’s go back many years, to the day I finally received my green card. I was ready to leave Iran and start over in the United States. I had just finished my degree in electrical engineering and even started a small company with my university friends called Max Electronic. Maybe that’s why I later named my own company Brax. I’ve always loved names that end with an “X.”

Before my trip, my mom and I went to a well-known jeweler, a man famous for his taste, to pick out a ring and necklace for my sister, who was already living in the U.S. He asked whether we wanted the center stone to be blue topaz or turquoise. We couldn’t decide, so he suggested setting one and giving me the other to take to her, in case she wanted to switch later. We loved the idea and bought both.

While we were there, I ran into an old kindergarten friend who was buying a ruby necklace for his new bride. I remember watching the deep red glow of that stone, completely mesmerized. I didn’t know it then, but something inside me shifted, like my heart opened to a beauty and emotion I had never felt before.

A few weeks later, I landed in the United States, scared, lost, and with no plan. At my sister’s house, I gave her the jewelry, and she immediately decided she preferred the turquoise. The next day she said, “Let’s go to my jeweler in Laguna Niguel, they can switch the stone for me.”

That’s how I met Tony.

Tony and his manager, Roger, were two Lebanese men, among the most respected, kind, and honorable people I have ever met. When I first told Tony that I had just arrived, spoke little English, and didn’t know what to do with my life, he smiled warmly and said, “Would you like to work for me?”

I was shocked. I told him I had no experience with jewelry. But he said, “That’s okay. We just want a friendly face by the door, someone who makes people feel welcome.”

I accepted, and from that moment, my life began to change.

Tony and Roger treated me like family, like a sister. They were patient, respectful, and genuinely kind. Working there, I learned so much about people, beauty, and integrity. And even years later, Tony continued to support me. When I eventually started Brax Jewelers, he introduced me to vendors and helped me navigate the industry with wisdom and generosity. I will forever be grateful to him for that.

At the time, though, I was just a young woman trying to figure out her place in a new country. I spent my days learning, organizing jewelry, and flipping through GIA magazines that arrived in the mail. The world of gemstones fascinated me, and little by little, I found myself falling in love with the craft.

Soon after, I met my husband, who was completing his medical residency in Texas. We got engaged, and I moved to El Paso to be with him.

At first, I tried to enjoy being at home, painting, exercising, cooking. But after a week, I realized that while I loved those things, they didn’t fulfill me. I needed purpose. I even enrolled in a master’s program at Texas Tech, but within days I knew engineering wasn’t my calling. I didn’t want to spend my life doing something that didn’t light up my heart.

One afternoon, while out shopping near our apartment, I noticed a row of jewelry stores. Something inside me whispered, “Why not go back to what you loved in California?”

So I did.

I interviewed at several stores, and every one of them offered me a job. I chose the one that paid the least, Johnson Jewelers, because the energy there felt right. The people were kind, the environment warm.

My boss, Randy, was an incredible mentor, smart, humble, and inspiring. Working there brought me joy, and I began taking online GIA courses to learn everything I could about gemstones and diamonds.

One day, while walking through the store, I felt that same spark from years ago, that same quiet certainty. I went home and told my husband, “I know what I want to do with my life. I want to open my own jewelry store one day when we move back to California.”

At that time, moving back was still about a year away, and my plan was to open my store within five years. But the universe had other plans. Only a few months later, my husband got an unexpected offer from USC in California, something beyond what we could have imagined. Within weeks, we were packing our things, moving back home to California, closer to our families and, as I now know, closer to my destiny.

Even then, I wasn’t planning to open my store right away. I had no money, no inventory, no plan. I just wanted a job that didn’t require working Sundays so I could spend that day with my husband. After several interviews, I found a jewelry mart that was closed on Sundays. During my interview, the owner pointed to an empty booth and said, “I’ll put merchandise there, and you can sell it like it’s your own store.”

Something clicked. Why couldn’t I do that myself?

That question changed everything.

Soon after, I found the Fullerton Jewelry Mart, close to my husband’s commute to USC and our new apartment in La Habra. I rented a small booth, bought a few pieces, and opened my doors.

That’s how Brax Jewelers was born.

Randy remained a supporter long after I left Texas. A year after I opened, he visited me at the jewelry mart, and years later, when I opened my second location in Laguna Niguel, he flew all the way from El Paso to attend my grand opening. Seeing him there meant the world to me.

I’ve been blessed with incredible people, mentors who believed in me when I didn’t yet believe in myself. And now, for the young women working at Brax Jewelers, my dream is to give them the same opportunity I was given. I’d like to franchise Brax one day, and help these talented women open their own stores, their own versions of Brax, while having my full support behind them.

If someone has that same fire I once had, that dream of building something beautiful, I’ll be there to help her make it happen.

Because in the end, this journey isn’t just about jewelry. It’s about faith, timing, and the quiet courage to trust the path in front of you, even when you can’t see where it leads.

The girl who once stood by the door of someone else’s store had no idea she would one day open her own, and many more to come. She just followed the spark in her heart.

And somewhere along the way, she didn’t just start a business. She became her.