To be a successful entrepreneur –  I think you need to get excited by a concept and also it has to make sense in terms of business model. Like, how am I going to make money and how am I going to lose money? And then the third is just pure passion. I guess for building the business, go after the concept that you love.

Titaporn Tuchinda

In this episode, I spoke to Titaporn Tuchinda who is an executive coach, entrepreneur and investor in Thailand.

She is the Managing Director of The Growth and Change Co., Ltd and founder and Board Member of Brighton College International School, Bangkok. And if that’s not enough, this Thai woman is also an executive coach with Aberkyn. 

At first glance, it seems that these are wholly unrelated businesses. But we went deeper and realized that each of these businesses taps into Titaporn’s true intention and love for learning and education albeit in different forms. 

She started her hotels in 2014 and two years later, she founded an international school (which her 2 teenagers now study at) and later became a coach and facilitator with Aberkyn. Yet at every step of the way, she never wavered in her love for learning and teaching. 

I didn’t have a plan. But I was confident that with the experience I have and the passion I have, there will be something for me to do. And I was also quite, quite strong and determined about starting my own business. I knew at that time that I would not go into corporate. There were a lot of corporate job offers for me. I declined all of them.

A mother of three teenagers, two daughters and a son, Titaporn came into the business after 12 years in the corporate world of McKinsey. As a management consultant, she had no idea what she was going to do when she quit her job except that she wanted to go into business. 

The business wasn’t concretized until one day she visited her cousin in Chiangmai and she wondered why there weren’t any luxury hotels in such a beautiful city in the north of Thailand. Together they decided to design and develop not one, but two hotels! 

Titaporn likes running, cooking and travelling and she speaks  English, Thai and Mandarin. Her favourite book is A New Earth by Eckhart Tolle. Titaporn says that she is inspired by “anyone who is inspired to grow him/herself in any way, through any means – conversations, books, etc.”.

She said she is most proud of the opening of her two hotels in Chiangmai, The Chiangmai Riverside and The Chiangmai Old Town and the opening of the Brighton College International School in Bangkok, the school which she founded. 

I like to decide, although I can be wrong. But what I cannot stand is you ruminate over and over again and not make a decision. I really cannot bear that…..I would rather make it. And if I made a wrong decision, I would rather make a quick and wrong decision and not make a decision [at all]. And maybe that’s my weakness too. So that’s why I try to surround myself with people who are more considerate than me that maybe hold me back [a little].

In this episode, she spoke about:

• Why having 3 scenarios for a business is crucial (she admits she can be overly optimistic) 
• What she is no longer afraid of, having learnt this lesson during the COVID pandemic
• A pivotal time in her life – one that changed her life completely
• Her big regret until today (and it has nothing to do with her businesses) 
• The crucial 24 months in the startup phase of any business 
• Why decisions are no longer escalated up to her 
• Where she intends to go into the next phase of her entrepreneurial life 
• The crazy things she has done over the years – she said she set herself a crazy goal each year 
• The secret sauce enabling her to manage all her businesses as well as her family without losing her head 
• Why you don’t need to go to university to learn about business 
• What business is truly all about and it’s not what you think it is!

Let me know if you like this episode by leaving me an emoji or a comment below. I look forward to your feedback! (And speaking of feedback, if you’ve been a listener of this podcast, help me out with this quick survey – and all answers are confidential!)