Teachers changed my life. One gave me confidence when I was bullied at school while another introduced me to the wonderful world of science, which lit my fire to be a kid with big dreams.
Never give in to impossibilities. Most of my friends dreamed of studying in Chiang Mai, but I dreamed of winning at the Thailand Physics Olympiad—a pretty big thing to aspire to. My endurance finally paid off when I won a gold medal, as well as a bronze at the Thailand Mathematical Olympiad.
My desire to change Thailand drove me to Stanford University in Silicon Valley. After working at P&G [in Thailand] for years, my marketing idol was Somkid Jatusripitak, the ex-finance minister. But while I was following his footsteps, I realized that Stanford students like Jerry Yang and David Filo, co-founders of Yahoo!, were changing the world on the internet. I wanted to do that too.
Changing Thailand via technology, enabling education in the hope that it would alleviate poverty; that was my aim when I enrolled at Stanford. I wanted to change Thailand via education.
My universe changed at Stanford. I was so proud and felt really cool to get into this prestigious university, but after sitting with my fellow students, I felt stupid. I felt so tiny. They didn’t care who I was or what my last name is. They just cared about what I could contribute.
There is nothing barring you from changing the world. After meeting with the likes of Google CEO Eric Schmidt, Intel CEO Indie Grove and even Mark Zuckerberg of Facebook, I began to feel the possibility that I can change things, too.
Don’t let peer pressure define what you want to do in life. After graduating with an MBA, I went to work as a consultant at McKinsey, one of the world’s top consulting companies, as everyone thought it was the best choice. But then I realized it wasn’t what I wanted to do. I wanted to work with a company that changed the world. Google was my top choice and I got in.
Working at Google was like living on another planet. The atmosphere was full of such energy and power, working there for two years felt more like four years for me. Everyone is there to change the world. My passion to launch my own startup drove me out of Google after I finished up with the Google Moon project as lead marketing manager.
Being a company owner and being an employee require two very different mindsets. Trying to launch the Quipster app in 2011 taught me that a great deal of success still comes down to capital and connections.
The loss of four family members during my seven years in Silicon Valley eventually drove me to sell my company, Mobilitz, and come back home.
I want to create a startup community here. It took me seven years in Silicon Valley to learn from all my experiences, and I want others to learn faster than me. That’s the reason I founded Disrupt University, where I teach people who have the passion that they don’t need to go all the way to the US. They can build it up here; just look at the Taamkru app [which won “Most Promising Startup” at Echelon 2014].
The Thai education system discourages us from taking risks. Thais like to be fed knowledge and discussion never plays a part in our studies. There is no challenge to the status quo; no daring to change things. I’m a product of this education, too.
Teaching is all about passion. People complain that schools in rural areas don’t have all the fancy scientific tools, but it’s actually more about teachers having the passion to teach. My science teacher made the most of what she had around her: she would point out pond skaters walking on water to illustrate surface tension or put a needle in a glass of water to show how Earth’s magnetic field works.
Our society puts a low value on the teaching profession, so most of the brightest people don’t study to be teachers. There are many strong, passionate new teachers who become deadwood within six months as they are engulfed by our poor education system. Better pay and better recognition would result in better teachers.
The impending AEC is scary for us. The world is changing so fast, especially technology. Just look at the last seven years, we’ve gone from Blackberry to Line, Whatsapp and Facebook. Myanmar just opened up their country and everyone there is hungry for new things and success. The Vietnamese are so diligent; they work like they have an electric plug in their butt. If they work three hours more than us a day, they will be 15 percent better off than us annually.
Fail fast, learn faster, succeed faster is the core of startups. Startups in Thailand are still fragile. Many of them give up too soon. But you must disrupt and destroy the old mindset to create new things. It’s like a revolution.
Self-motivation is crucial. My mom is my greatest role model. She has asthma and has stopped breathing entirely seven times. Whenever I feel down, she says, “I’ve fought with death and won, what are your fighting with?” She’s my iron lady.
Ordinary people can do extraordinary things. Life is very short. Do whatever you want. I live the life I’ve chosen and happily contribute to society.
