Intelligent Ignorance… Christmas Tree Vendor “To get anywhere, a man must have a certain amount of intelligent ignorance.” was quoted by Charles F. Kettering, an engineer whose inventions, including the electric starter, were instrumental in the evolution of the modern automobile. What intrigued me most however, was ‘intelligent ignorance’. By definition, intelligence is knowing what to do and being able to do it. Ignorance, in contrast, is not knowing what to do. When put these two words together, it could mean recognizing that one is ignorant of something and acting on it. That’s a bigger possibility than merely accumulating knowledge because

Vivid Imagination ‘Always have a vivid imagination, for you never know when you might need it.’-J.K. Rowling The quote reminded me of what happened on the streets of Manhattan in 1980.  I was walking around the blocks of 28th Street and 6th Avenue and kept thinking of how good silk flower business could possibly be. It’s insane to say that the Green, the Dollars, kept adding up in my mind even thought we just received the very first box of the flowers. It’s 10-lbs air parcel beat-up cardboard box from Thailand. I opened the box and carefully unfold the flowers, one

Villa Basket/Lost and Found  It was a beautiful sunny day in late October 2016. My wife and I went to a flea market in South Jersey. While I was leisurely walking and checking things at the vendors had to offers, there was a dazing voice from the other side of street. ‘That’s our basket, isn’t it?’ My wife urgently pulled me to see the basket closely and I couldn’t believe what I saw on a vendor’s table. The basket looked unsteady from its rough and uneven reeds, yet was carefully weaved with pastel hues of hand dyed rattans. Yes, it’s indeed

Timber Candle  ‘This is Khoa Laum, isn’t it?’ The astonished voice was from Mr. Thaksin Shinawatra, the Prime Minister of Thailand, who came to visit our showroom in New York City in December 2001. He seemed to have a long day from addressing the U.N. after the 9/11 disaster. Mr. Prime Minister strolled around our showroom with curious face but said nothing, until seeing the Timber Candles. Holding a 3×9” in his hands, I could see his affectedness face. It seemed for a moment the candle brought him back to his childhood when he perhaps had had Khoa Laum for his

Silk Flower…Basket…Candle   “Self-inspiration is the most important ingredient for success.”-W Clement Stone              The quote above captures the way I have done my businesses. I, who supposed to study in the U.S. for a couple years and go back to work for Thai Government, had opportunity to do business in 1980 and I jumped in. Flea markets and street fairs were where we started selling small handicraft items from Thailand such as macrame plant hangers, pots, umbrellas. They were my choices simply because I was kind of grown up with them. Daankwain Pottery was the most

@The Show – แต่งตัวไปขายของ Scrolling through my own photo album in my cell phone this morning, I was amazed by some well dressed pictures of mine. They were mostly the photos taken from the trade shows and there were in the 80’s.  I dressed quite formal even working daily in the office. Ties and jackets were the must at the shows of those days. In the 90’s however, I started to dress down which was perhaps in the trend at that time. BIG, the movie was a big hit and all the sudden everyone just wanted to be like Tom Hank,

100 bahts = 100 US Dollars ‘That’s impossible.’ It isn’t now, but it happened when I first came to the US. Let me bring you back to 1980. I started bringing handicrafts products from Thailand to sell in the US. The big hand-turned with dragon-engraved urn was one of the most popular items. I still remember this very urn because it’s the same urn that I had taken bath and grown up with. We sold this big urn for $100 each and the cost was only 100 Bahts. (The exchange rate was $1 = 25 Bahts) It’s 25 times marked up.

Everything I Learned was from Being on the Roads ‘How’              ‘By observing and adapting.’   The coast to coast trip in 1978 probably set the tone for me to live in the US, perhaps I could say to live anywhere in the world. In those 5 weeks, there was no fixed daily destination. There were days that we couldn’t find places to stay or to dine. We had no choice but tried our luck with fishing in the streams nearby and got into national forest grounds, putting up our tent next to the bear sign

Tour USA I think the path that led to Vance Kitira began on the road trip in summer1978.  I had only been in the U.S. for a year when I decided that I wanted to see more of this great country, because I might never have a chance to come back ever again. I went from Syracuse to the West Coast and began the wandering drive back to New Jersey. I was young, broke, oblivious to what could go wrong and there was no such thing as GPS. It was amazing… It changed my way of thinking and so began my

Take Risk “Take risks, if you win, you will be happy; if you lose, you will be wise.”  -Anonymous I couldn’t agree more with the quote above. It helped recall when Vincent got small shipments of coconut chips to get Dang started in 2012. While working for a company in San Francisco, Vincent went out, whenever he could, to pitch the chips to the market; trade shows, stores and consumers.  Andrew and I had a chance to help Vincent set up a small booth at a church and offer the chips to whoever passed by. At the end of the day, the