Gregory Barton

by Dr. Iain Corness

At the conclusion of my interview with Gregory Barton, he said, “I don’t think my life has been remarkable.” I had to disagree. How many other people do you know that began wheeling and dealing at age four, retired in their mid 30s, learned to read and write Mandarin in five months and make goat cheese? Gregory Barton has done all that and much more. His life is remarkable.
He was born in Sydney, Australia, and showed his remarkable prowess in the business world by taking a packet of potato chips to school and selling individual chips at the price he paid for the entire bag. He was four years old. By the time he was 10, he was hawking used postage stamps. “I was the richest kid in school. I had a five dollar note in my wallet. A big shot capitalist!” said Gregory with a laugh.
However, he abandoned capitalism when he went to university to study law, where by comparison he lived in poverty, feeling that making money was a distraction from his intellectual pursuits. He admitted that when he began the Arts-Law course, he did not really know what the “Law” was. Up till then his entire experience of the legal processes came from watching Perry Mason on TV.
He did work in vacations on building sites or restaurant kitchens, giving himself an overseas trip each year, and that love of travel was in a small way to shape his life. He studied hard and passed with honors, but rather than wait around to be granted his degree while wearing his academic gown with his mortar board on his head, he posted in his thesis two weeks early and went to America.
He found himself in New York and became interested in Maritime Law, “the romance of the sea,” Gregory said, passing it off lightly. There in the busy heart of American business, he was being told that China was the coming force, but nobody really knew Chinese laws, as China had no system to publish these in English.
Gregory saw a niche and went for it. However, he also knew that if he were going to do this seriously he would have to learn Chinese. He went to Guangzhou in China and crammed the learning of Mandarin. In five months of cramming he could read, write and speak the alien language. “That was my last great intellectual achievement. It took discipline, tenacity and determination. My brain cannot reach that level of intensity again.”
With this new-found ability he could begin work to publish Chinese law in English. He set up in Hong Kong and touted the concept around law firms and university libraries and began to receive orders for the finished manuscript. His entrepreneurial spirit started to come back, with a vengeance. He began to print his book, which became books, and his small cottage industry began to grow. He presented seminars. Expensive seminars that people were wanting to hear, as Hong Kong was in the boom time, and everyone wanted a slice of the action. Publishing houses came looking for acquisitions and made him an offer he could not refuse. He was 35 years old and had enough money to retire!
Hong Kong was in Gregory’s eyes “a great place to do business, but not a great place to live.” He preferred to stay in Asia and looked around for his options. Bangkok was centrally situated. It was on all the major air routes, and was his choice.
So what does a 35 year old retiree do in Bangkok? He began to study classical piano while learning Thai and trading stock. After one year he started asiachart.com one of the first financial blogs on the net. However, he found that the Thai language did not come to him as easily as Mandarin had. “My brain was not the same organ that it had been,” said Gregory, explaining his tussle with the piano as well as the lingo.
After five years in Bangkok he decided to leave the capital for cleaner air and more space, finally settling on a piece of land in Nongplalai outside Pattaya. He also purchased some land at the side of his house, but had no real idea of what he was going to do with it, other than the fact that it was there, and was for sale.
The purpose for this extra land only became apparent when he went for a holiday to Sydney and visited the Royal Easter Agricultural show, an event he had not attended for 30 years. “It’s a great place for kids, but a revelation for adult eyes. Unlike zoos, you can walk around the stalls and there were these really exotic creatures, the Australian Anglo-Nubian goats.”
To say that Gregory came back with an obsession about these goats is not putting too great an emphasis on it all. He went for a goat study tour to India, he scoured Thailand in search of good breeding stock, looking for the Indian quality. In 2003, the Year of the Goat, he bought Lulu and Daisy and the great goat saga began.
After three months he began to produce goat cheese, after studying cheese production on the internet. Experimentation and more cheese making ensued, and the following year he formed the Lulu and Daisy workers cooperative registered in the name of his staff, which had also grown larger to look after the enlarging goat population! The cooperative makes, distributes and divides the profits amongst themselves. And in return, Gregory indulges himself in this latest grand passion. The rearing of goats, the challenge of improving the milk quality of the Thai goat and trying to re-invent the Anglo-Nubian strain.
Concurrently, he keeps up his stock trading and his technical analysis of the Asian stock markets. He may say he is “retired” but he is obviously not sitting in front of the fire in his carpet slippers. He might have to look for some more land for his goats!