I was kind of lost during my teenage years. I didn’t know what I wanted to be. I was good at school so I thought I might study medicine. I ended up studying electrical engineering. It wasn’t my happiest year.

I’m a rebel. I think it’s quite lucky I didn’t study arts straight away because I might have clashed with the professors. I always have my idea on how to do things and it doesn’t follow any artistic rules.

I love trees and flowers as I grew up in the more rural surroundings of Thonburi. I was drawn to flower arrangement when I was working as an engineer. There was a Japanese flower arranging school in my office building so I decided to study it as a hobby.

I kept getting jobs as a florist for events after doing the course for two years. I finally had a chance to open my small flower delivery service, called Sakul Flowers, and started writing columns for magazines such as Ploy Gam Pet and Elle Decoration.

There are no boundaries in design. I love the fact that I didn’t study art, so I just do what I want.

My engineering knowledge actually helps me a lot. It helps me create floral installations which are my signature. I can design the whole structure using my engineering skills and then use my artistic side to arrange the flowers.

Orchids are my favorite flowers. It’s a tropical flower and really exotic. It inspires me.

Flowers are representative of the universe. They show you that nothing lasts forever. A human life might take 60 years to touch on this eternal truth but flowers can bloom and die in the same day.

We’re lucky our culture has strong roots. You can explore the world as far as you want but in the end you’re still able to come back to our precious culture. Our life wouldn’t be this fun if we didn’t have what our ancestors have created for us. It’s important to take care of it.

I feel overwhelmed to see singers sing traditional songs in the Thai version of [TV talent show] The Voice. You see these great jazz singers as well as luk-tung singers on the same stage. And they wouldn’t be here, I wouldn’t be here, even artists like Thawan Duchanee wouldn’t be here, if we didn’t have our traditions and culture.

I used to be a grumpy perfectionist. I blasted others, lost my temper and then used the excuse that I’m an artist. I now regret every time I did that.

I even went to see a psychologist and took pills to try and cure my stress. She told me that if you accept that you have problems, then you’re halfway to solving them already.

One day, my assistant said to me, “please stop grumbling and I promise that all the work can be done perfectly.” It made me realize you can choose to reach your goal with anxiety or be calm and treat people nicely.

Proper care of your mind is the key to being happy. If you find yourself having a problem, just step out from the issue and see the cause. Then don’t let it happen again.

Stop thinking before going to bed. It’s hard, but think about what you’ve done that day, write down a list of what to do tomorrow and then forget it when you touch the pillow.

I love running in the morning. It’s like doing meditation for me.

People don’t live in the present nowadays. I feel pity for them, while they’re among friends, they keep looking at their smartphones following feeds on social media sites which are already showing the past of somebody else.

My new inspirations come from travel. I love to travel in Asia because you can still touch the traditional cultures. If you go to old towns in Europe, people just dress up in traditional clothes at tourist attractions. But in India, you still see people wearing the same saris they have for centuries.

There’s no tourist attraction that’s quite as much fun as markets. I love to visit markets, especially flower markets, every time I go abroad.

Opening the Museum of Floral Culture is like fulfilling my destiny. I’ve been looking for this type of house for years. I love its ambience, both the 100-year-old architecture and the garden.

I really love Disneyland. I love its fantasy and fairytales. I dream of opening a Disneyland-like flower park presenting floral cultures from all over the world.

I’m in the process of making a book on Bangkok. I want it to act as a guide for flower lovers who want to see the floral culture and sites here.

I never lose my inspiration. Good artists never stop thinking. Just be honest to yourself and let things flow.

You have two ways of dealing with problems. One, put in your best effort to fix it. Two, if you can’t fix it, then learn to live with it.