Dead end ? Sirivat's Sandwich story

心中有富 --- 司徒永富 (2012年02月03日)

一次的失敗是否代表永遠的失敗呢？這個問題由泰國斯里佛(Sirivat)先生的經歷回答最好不過。十多年前，斯里佛先生本是泰國富甲一方的富翁，他主要的業務是「炒股」和房地產投資。他致富的方法是以高息向銀行借貸，然後開拓高級住宅，賣給有錢人。由於當時經濟蓬勃，斯里佛的生意愈做愈大。

好景不常，一場亞洲金融風暴摧毀了斯里佛的美夢。斯里佛的高級住宅大量滯銷，接著無力還債，唯有申請破產。當時的斯里佛回到家中十分沮喪，他回想說：「我當時相當沮喪，像是一個只能靠醫療儀器維生的重症病患者。」

他的太太當時鼓勵他：「我懂得做三文治，不如我們就去賣三文治吧！」斯里佛就在轉念之間，每日背著食物箱到街上賣三文治。日復一日，直至現在斯里佛依然堅持親自到街上推銷三文治，不同的是他的公司已經做大了，快將上市，建立他的飲食王國。

真人真事往往是最令人感動的。斯里佛先生從負債10億到將成為上市公司主席，他的路一點都不易走，但是他從沒有一刻放棄。我在想，不知何故，上天有時會關閉一道門，但我們不妨向螞蟻學習，拐一個方向，走向另一道門。其實，人們失敗往往不是因為能力有問題，而是贏不了自己，腦筋不能急轉變，便一直失敗下去。是的，最大的敵人是自己！如果你心灰意冷，甚麼都不上心，即使眼前是到機會你也不會珍惜。只有保持長勝的心境，不畏艱難，路總是可以行出來的。

http://www.sirivatsandwich.com/history/history_eng.asp
NAME : MR. SIRIVAT VORAVETVUTHIKUN ( CNBC called me THE SANDWICH MAN )AGE : 61EDUCATION : B.B.A. (FINANCE), UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS AT AUSTIN, TEXAS, USAPAST CAREER : (11 years) MANAGING DIRECTOR, ASIA SECURITIES TRADING CO. LTD.
(PRESENTLY, ASIA PLUS SECURITIES TRADING CO,LTD.); (4 years) CHAIRMAN, TONG GWEEN CO,LTD. (property development)PRESENT CAREER : ADVISOR,' SIRIVAT SANDWICH '

After graduation from the University of Texas at Austin in 1974, I had been working in the finance and securities industry for 16 years as a professional employee. As soon as I left my post as Managing Director in 1990, I started investing in the local stock market for my clients. I was able to make profits for them until our portfolio grew to hundreds of million baht. When the stock market crashed in 1994, I lost all the money. The situation became worse when my multi-million high-end condominium project collasped in 1997--the IMF year.

In April 1997, I started selling sandwiches to earn a living and to pay salaries to my staffs. On the first day, it took 6 1/2 hours to sell all 20 sandwiches and earned just 500 baht. It has been more than 14 years now that I have been selling sandwiches in the streets of Bangkok and have been interviewed by 121 international medias (including CNN, BBC WORLD, CNBC, NHK, AP, NEW YORK TIMES, LOS ANGELES TIMES) and 262 domestic medias.

Today, not only that I have additional products viz. SUSHI BROWN RICE, THAI CRISPY-RICE SNACK, PITA SANDWICH and THAI HERBAL / FRUIT DRINKS but also I have been invited as special guest speaker to 181 universities, chambers of commerce, private and public organizations in Bangkok and up-country provinces, including many occasions in foreign countries with a total audience of some 126,000 people.The largest audience was 10,000 people at the 9th APLIC Conference on April 15,2007 at Taipei Arena in Taiwan. The never give up speech is “My Story, My Brand—Sirivat Sandwich”. Also, I have begun operating the first Coffee Corner at the BNH Hospital (next to Saint Joseph Convent, Convent Road); the second branch at Bangkok Hospital(New Petchburi Road); the third branch at Central Plaza Chonburi; the fourth branch at Bangkok Hospital Pattaya and providing coffee break service at only Baht 45.- a set under the brand of Coffee Catering.