'Alternative learning' prompts a new approach to being successful
Rommayakorn Suvisit always lived by the principles of working hard and never shirking a job.
Born to a family which ran a coffin-making shop in Bangkok's Chinatown area, Rommayakorn's parents separated, so from her teenage years she helped her mother with everything from sanding, painting and finishing the coffins, to delivering them "to a place beside the users".
Later, while studying at Assumption College, she took many part-time jobs, including translation and research. She also wanted some sales experience, so for Bt80 per day, she worked as a part-time sales representative at Central Chidlom.
Then she graduated and joined Property Perfect as a marketing executive. Without being asked to do so, she worked seven days a week, without claiming sales commission or overtime payments.
Even after she got married and had three children, Rommayakorn said she continued to be a kind of "part-time mother, full-time worker."
Eventually, she believed she had gained enough experience by working for three companies. Everything seemed to be going smoothly, so at the age of 27, she decided it was time to fulfil her dream to pursue her own business.
She took the idea to her twin sister, Worakamol Thurdnampetch, who happened to share Rommayakorn's dream of pursuing an entrepreneurial life.
Worakamol had begun her career as a sales executive for Nam Heng Concrete. She later went to the United Kingdom where she studied for a master's degree. After graduating, she flew home to work for the United States embassy as a business "match-maker", helping American firms to find local partners in Thailand. Then she joined Lucent Technologies Thailand as a marketing communications executive for two years. Along with her more recent experience, Worakamol's background in her family's coffin business helped her to land the Lucent job after just one interview.
The twin sisters set up Pan Pho as a conventional event-organising company in January 2000, and the business developed well until the competition became fierce in about 2007. Then, amid the struggle to compete, their worst nightmare struck in 2008 when Suvarnabhumi Airport was closed by yellow-shirt anti-government protesters. They had already been affected by the cancellation or postponement of all concerts and festive activities during the mourning period for HRH Princess Galyani Vadhana, who died earlier that year.
From proud achievers, Rommayakorn and Worakamol became troubled-business owners, struggling to find the money for monthly pay cheques for their workers. Sensing all the signs of trouble, the staff began to flee.
For Rommayakorn, the crisis ignited a change in her life and later, it transformed her business. While suffering the lowest point of her business career, she was advised by a friend to attend a three-day workshop in Singapore featuring motivational speaker T Harv Eker, author of "Secrets of the Millionaire Mind".
"On the third day [of the workshop], I was sitting down and crying," Rommayakorn recalled. "[I had just realised that] I had been doing business the wrong way for the past 10 years.
"I had always been taught that I had to work hard, to never feel tired, to never give up, and that money was hard to find. But the ajarn [T Harv Eker] said: 'Because you think it [money] is hard to find, so then it will be hard to find'."
The most important thing is to find the correct "blue print" for your life and your business, Rommayakorn said. The biggest fault of a traditional event-organising business is its "one to one" business proposition that limits its capacity to serve customers, she said.
"Let's say you spend Bt10 million for a spa, and someone else spends the same amount for a glass factory," she said. "On a good day, the clients are queuing up. Who will make more?"
Rommayakorn attended more intensive courses organised by Eker and other well-known business, leadership and wealth motivators including Blair Singger, Anthony Robbins and Stephen Pierce, in Singapore and Malaysia. She suggested that Worakamol join her, and together the twins spent nearly Bt1 million in a year, re-educating themselves at seminars.
Rommayakorn told The Nation that a change in mindset was crucial. She found it was worthwhile flying to attend expensive seminars abroad because within three months, thanks to the change in her attitude, she had been able to pay off debts of several million baht and, within eight months, had created a new sales record for her firm.
"The important thing is that you must love the things you're doing. You must enlighten other people and help them to learn and succeed," she said.
Pan Pho now organises seminars that target individuals who aspire to succeed. Rommayakorn said that last year the firm arranged for a record number of 1,000 Thais to attend three workshops given by Robbins and Eker in Singapore, and organised many more seminars in Thailand under the theme "Find Yourself, Find Your Wealth", as well as other events.
In line with its new business proposition to offer "success resources for your life", Pan Pho is organising a "Learning Expo 2010" at the Queen Sirikit National Conventional Centre from October 7 to October 10. It will aim to bring together providers of 'alternative-learning' courses on various subjects, from money and investment, mindsets and creativity, health, entertainment and the arts to work and personal connections.
A "Find Yourself, Find Your Wealth" workshop will be held as part of the expo, featuring the Oishi Group's founder Tan Passakornnatee, Ayudhya Fund Management's chief investment officer Prapas Tonpibulsak and a local motivational speaker Supakit Rungrote.
Rommayakorn said Pan Pho's target was "transforming 200,000 lives" within two years, and making Thailand an Asian hub for alternative learning within three years.