by Dr. Iain
Corness
The
managing director of Pattaya Business and Real Estate Law Office (PBRL) is
Sompop (Jack) Silalas, an ambitious young man, still in his twenties, who
has been working for the last 23 years!
His parents were fisher folk from Koh Larn who migrated
to the mainland and settled near Chantaburi to eke out a living scratching
in the soil. They had seven children, with Jack, the fifth child, being
the only boy.
When he was five years old, he was sent to live in the
village temple, as there were just too many mouths to feed at home.
"I wanted to make money to give to my parents, so I started to work,
doing errands for the monks." The 20 baht tips all added up, but were
not enough for the ambitious five year old. "I thought to myself, I
must sell something." There was also another driving need, as well as
the desire to help his family, and that was for some new clothes, as up
till then everything he wore was second-hand. He also had a taste for some
beef, a food item not found in the temple.
His parents were growing cucumbers and his mother said
that if he could sell 10,000 baht of the family crop in one month she
would make him fried beef. This stimulus from his mother was all he
needed, and he went and sold 30,000 baht’s worth. He also discovered
that by selling with limited credit facilities, he had
"captured" his customers. He needed to continue to sell them
product to get his money and they needed to continue to be able to eat. It
was a symbiotic relationship that he had worked out by himself. He says he
was 6 years old!
During this time, he also attended school 6 km away
from the temple, but many times he just did not go - he was too busy
selling farm produce! He was lucky in the fact that one of the monks in
his temple was university trained, and it was he who started Jack learning
English.
He was obviously a clever student as he was always in
the top 10, no matter how infrequently he attended school, but ambition
and pride were to carry him further. When he was 11 years old he was
prepared to bet that he would beat the boy who had always been first. He
studied, he attended and he ousted the other lad from the top position.
"I got on top. I was so happy."
Having demonstrated his natural intelligence, he began
to put it into action. There was 5 rai of land that was not being used so
he decided that there was a market in watermelons. He grew this as a new
crop. He then worked out that he needed to present them nicely to sell and
began cutting them in halves and wrapping in plastic. Taking his wrapped
melon halves to the market he sold them all. He began to employ others to
harvest, cut and wrap the watermelons. This boy was providing jobs for
people in his village, and was not even a teenager!
"But I started thinking more." He planted
flowers, and then roses in all colours, not just red ones. The florists
were overjoyed and his order books were filled. So were his pockets, and
he said he made enough money for his mother to be able to build a seven
bedroom house in the village. He had provided housing for his family - and
again had not reached his teens.
With his ability he won a scholarship to America and he
went there when he was 14 years old. He was billeted with a family in New
Jersey, and began to work, "everything from cleaning toilets to
working in a restaurant."
However, his entrepreneurial streak came forth and he
started a beer garden. At 16, he was not of legal age to drink, but he
rented the land, had everything drawn up by lawyers and started selling
draught beer. He had only eight tables, but it started to grow, and he
then began to offer BBQ food to go with the beer. By the time he had 30
tables he was doing well and regularly sending money home to his mother.
He also continued his education in America and studied
law and marketing, but when he was 20 his father died and Jack had to
return to Thailand. However, he came back to a small enterprise as his
mother had used the money he had sent to build some small bungalows on Koh
Larn and had purchased some boats for hire.
Looking at his mother’s business and using skills he
had learned, he could see ways around the problems she was having. He
instituted contracts, registered agreements and the principle of taking
deposits. The hire and rental business became profitable. At the same time
he enrolled himself at Ramkamhaeng University to get his Thai legal
qualifications.
Eighteen months ago he started PBRL and he says it has
enjoyed more than 400% growth in that time while now employing nine staff,
from the original one. His thinking has not stopped, with the business now
expanding from real estate and legal advice into travel agency work,
insurance, car hire, and now a contract to rent out 300 factories on the
Eastern Seaboard.
I asked him what was the driving force behind all this
and he said, "First I have to do it. Second I came from a poor family
and I had to help myself and my family. Thirdly, I just like to help
people and fourth, maybe the Buddha just made me like this."
As regards "success" he said, "Not yet!
But I have a dream to start a small hospital in my village, and I’ve
bought the land already." He also said, "To make a dream come
true you have to work and believe in yourself."
Sompop Jack Silalas certainly does all that!
