| Risky Business |
| A Story
Phuket, Thailand |
| by Steve Rosse |
| January
2005
Saul retired
to Phuket from New York City in 1991. At the age of 40 he already had
under his belt a Master's Degree in Business Administration from New York
University, three years of therapy with a strict Freudian psychiatrist,
an amicable divorce from his wife Amy and a small fortune from the sale
of his father's business.
Saul's father
had run a factory in New Jersey that made rawhide chew-toys for dogs.
Saul took over the firm upon his graduation from NYU and profits tripled
in the first fiscal year. |
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| Most of this
increase came from the fact that Saul discovered that the dried beef hides
necessary to produce the chew-toys could be had in Bangkok for a third
of what his father had traditionally paid for them in Argentina. The rest
of the increased profits were a result of Saul's widely acknowledged gift
for business.
In the eighteen
years that Saul helmed Happy Bonz, Inc., he proved himself to be a consummate
man of commerce. He introduced new lines of toys, as well as a variety
of canine health-care and grooming products. He kept the unions out of
his factories and by the time he sold the company to an international dog
food conglomerate there were 141 Happy Bonz Boutique franchises spread
across America and they were doing over ten million dollars per year in
mail-order sales.
Saul divided
the money he got for the factory between his parents, six brothers and
sisters, and a variety of minor dependents. He took his cut and moved to
Thailand.
Saul came to
Phuket and bought a house on Kata Noi Bay.He bought a big motorcycle and
a flashy red sports car.He bought the best TV satellite dish and stereo
system available. |
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| He took diving
lessons and shooting lessons and equestrian lessons. He took trips to Singapore
and Hong Kong. He sat on the beach for hours at a time. He got bored.
Saul decided
to open a business. Business was what he was good at, and it would
be more fun than falling off of horses. He looked around and saw that the
highest profit margins in retail seemed to be in the boutiques in the five
star hotels.
He examined
their stock and decided that there was a lack of quality leather goods
available. He contacted a lawyer and set up The Chao Fah Leather
Importers, Ltd.
Khun Mot Malangsap,
the lawyer, told Saul that he would need a Thai partner, and Saul calmly
cut Khun Mot in for 51% of the business. |
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Offshore Resources Gallery
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| He was acquainted
with the concept of the Silent Partner, and was sure that if Khun Mot got
a little sweetness every month, he would let Saul handle things his own
way.
Khun Mot found
them office space, and an architect and decorator to make the rooms livable.
The first day he took Saul to see the site, Saul insisted on telling the
laborers how to lay the carpet by pointing out nips and tucks on the floor
using his feet. After they left, Khun Mot explained to Saul that in Thailand
gesturing with your feet is about the rudest thing you can do, but Saul
said "Dese guys are my employees, I'll treat 'em any damn way I like.
Dey don't
like it, let 'em go work somewhere else."
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Saul began
to run his samples around to the resorts. Everywhere he went, he would
stride up to the front desk and say"I wanna see da boss!"Usually,
he was referred to a Duty Manager or Executive Secretary, to whom he would
say "I wanna see da boss! You know, the farang in charge. I don't wanna
waste my time wid' no damn Thais!" He would end up leaving his card, which
was thrown in the trash as soon as he stormed out of the lobby. |
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| As Saul paid
the rent on his office each month, and the salaries on his staff of secretaries
who had no orders to take and drivers who had no stock to deliver, Saul
would curse the Thais and Thailand.
He said the
rudest things imaginable about everything that is sacred to the Thai people,
and since he had never learned a word of the Thai language, and didn't
understand the Thais when they talked, he assumed that the Thais who heard
him wouldn't understand him. He was wrong, and one day his beautiful
car was vandalized. A week later someone broke into his house and stole
his nice TV. A week after that, someone threw a rock at him as he rode
his motorcycle through Patong.
Khun Mot had
warned Saul that in Asia businessmen don't ride motorcycles, and they certainly
don't ride around wearing only shorts and sandals. |
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Offshore
Resources Gallery
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But Saul said
"Nobody
cares what ya look like if dey know ya rich. Money talks, bullshit
walks." Still, Saul never received an invitation to join the
Lions Club, or the Chamber of Commerce.
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By late last
year Saul found that his capital was all gone. His products were
on sale in only eleven outlets, and Saul was finding that people who are
vacationing by the sea have little motivation to buy heavy leather jackets
and boots that they can get cheaper back home. He was losing a frightening
amount of money each month, and his only material asset was his house on
Kata Noi Bay. Then he received notice that his house had been built
on public land, and he had one week to vacate before the government bulldozers
would return the expensive Bermuda grass of his lawn to the jungle.
Saul knew when
to cut his losses. He told Khun Mot that he wanted to bail out. Khun
Mot agreed, and after the big fire sale he took 51% of the profits. Two
days later, as Saul was packing up to vacate his house, two very polite
policemen came in and found some marijuana under his bed. Saul had never
smoked anything in his life, but it cost him every Baht he had to stay
out of jail. Upon his release he sold the furnishings of his house for
just enough money to buy a plane ticket back to New York.
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He left Phuket
about six months ago, to take a job as bookkeeper in his cousin Joel's
tailor shop. Nobody was surprised to see him go, and nobody missed him
once he was gone.
To contact
Steve Click Here |
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