I felt I was always ignored by my parents. Our family was poor. I was the middle child without a strongly defined role.

I was driven by a dream to have money and a better life.

I quit school after grade 10. I didn’t like school so I decided to help my elder brother [Kriengkrai Chetchotisak], who had just opened a record company called Rose Sound (now RS). I preferred working.

Adaptation is a must in business. When Thai copyright laws appeared back in 1979, we couldn’t do business like we used to, selling songs without permission. Many companies died out but we embraced the system by buying the rights from artists and then searching for talented new bands to sign.

Think like you’re a customer. I love all kinds of music but I’ve never tried to upgrade to listen to jazz or classical music. That’s not what regular people listen to. I listen to all the songs that come out of RS and think of them as their potential audience would.

Making music is like buying the lottery. You never know which song is going to be a hit. We were B30 million in debt when we started, which was a lot in those days, but we just believed in what we did. I finally paid all our debts off after five years. Now we are a billion baht revenue company.

Don’t be afraid of change. RS has come this far because we are always ready to change how we think. Even some of my colleagues can’t stand such rapid decision-making, though.

Change before you’re forced to change. I knew the music industry was heading for a dead-end nine years ago when I traveled to Japan and couldn’t find a single CD playing there. I came back and changed all our business plans.

I sold our CD factory that we’d been running for 20 years. It was the hardest thing I had ever done. 2005-2008 were the worst years of my life, I couldn’t sleep well at night.

You just have to be tough. People said we were going bankrupt but I knew that I was just making the company grow in a V shape. The numbers, the profits, would bounce back up once we hit our lowest point.

I have no ego. Successful people can become trapped in their ego. That can lead them to disaster. That’s what happened to Kodak. I don’t try to defy or ignore the current situation.

I admire Steve Jobs. I followed his life since he was first fired from Apple through to when he came back with his huge successes. I love his daring, his craziness and his quick decisions.

There is no successful person who never failed. If you look at a gold medal winner, they always have lots of scars. It’s the cost of being successful.

Make the decision quickly and move on. Many find it hard, and it might be the wrong decision, but you can change it quickly, too. Experience will teach you to make fewer mistakes.

There are opportunities in crisis. While the value of music is down, I see a new opportunity in TV. I only took 30 minutes to negotiate and close the billion-baht deal to buy the World Cup rights back in 2008. It proved to be the right decision. We’ve now expanded to the Euro [Championships] and La Liga, which I aim to make as big a hit as the English Premier League is in Thailand.

Sports is entertainment. Seven years ago people wouldn’t think like this. Now footballers are superstars

I don’t like malls, I’m a home body. I don’t go shopping, I don’t care for all that stuff. My watch is worth a couple of thousand baht and was given to me by my wife.

I love reading and read everything except cartoons and novels. I love reading the memoirs of successful people the most because it gives you an insight into their life experience.

Knowledge doesn’t come from school. Those who get an A are not necessarily smarter than those who get a C grade. The A-grade students are just good at memorizing.

I’m afraid my kids wouldn’t be happy if they were still in the Thai education system. I took them out of school and sent them to Australia after I saw them carrying loads of heavy books to study. I don’t want to blame the system but it’s just not right.

Doing good things will get you good things back. I was really badly behaved when I was young. I smoked, drank, gambled but I stopped everything at 24 because I planned to start a family. Thank goodness I now have that family.

My kids are the best things that have happened to me. They are my dream kids. I treat them like friends. I even taught them to drink and smoke, which is better than to let them do it with others. Now they hate it.

I love Khaoyai. I love its peaceful atmosphere and the weather.

Businessmen can’t say when they are successful. I have exceeded my own expectations but there’s still more waiting.