The
managing director of Fitness Thailand is a young man who is
living proof that if you really want to do something with your
life, a little hard work will do you no harm. And while
education can be the key to unlock your future, a lack of
education is not necessarily the end to your future hopes.
Sunpetch was born in Surin, not the most
affluent province in Thailand. His parents were rice farmers,
and Sunpetch was the fifth of their seven children. As you can
imagine, this was a poor rural family. That they could put rice
on the table, was the sign of success.
He went to the Surin government schools, but
dropped out of high school when he was 14 years of age. In the
poorer provinces of Isaan, your childhood finishes early. He
shouldered his backpack and went to Bangkok. “This is normal
for Isaan people to do,” said Sunpetch. “We have to work out
by ourselves what we need to do, because our parents could not,
so we look for our future in the big city.” That type of
childhood breeds a fierce independence.
The young adventurer made it to Bangkok and
started his working life as a labourer on a building site. This
he did for one year, and then spent another two years as a
general worker in a plastics factory. Slowly he began to see
that his future was not just at the end of a factory production
line. He was only 17 but with maturity forced upon him, he began
to look further.
A hotel on Petchburi Road needed waiters and
he got in on the ground floor, working his way up from being a
dishwasher. He spent three years there, but he knew this was not
his true direction either. “I was confused as what was to come
next,” said Sunpetch.
The hotel had built a small fitness center,
and this interested the young man. He went to the GM and asked
for a job there as a fitness instructor. He felt inherently that
this was what and where he wanted to be. He requested the change
from the Food and Beverage Department to the fitness center by
appealing to the GM. “I don’t have experience, but my heart
is 100 percent directed towards working in the gym. If I cannot
do it in three months, I will leave. Can you give me a three
months chance? I don’t even care about the salary!” He was
only 21 years old, but mature way beyond his chronological age.
The GM acceded to his impassioned plea and he
entered the world of the fitness machines, dumbbells and
aerobics. He was enthusiastic and he learned fast. He learned
much in the initial three months and then began to take his
experience to new levels as he moved between various fitness
clubs in the capital. After four years he knew that he was ready
to move to the next level, or phase of his professional fitness
life - that of being a freelance personal trainer, which he did
for two years.
However, he was brought back into the fold of
the corporate fitness clubs when the Grand Hyatt Erawan offered
him a full-time position, which he took, but then went on to
further his experience at other corporate clubs. He was now in a
phase of personal consolidation, even though he did not realize
this at the time. He was keeping and storing all the information
he could, not just about training techniques, but about the
different types of fitness training equipment that was needed by
a top establishment. “It was important for me to learn by
myself. I could not afford to go to study courses, I had to do
it all through personal experience. When I was teaching one on
one I would remember the member’s questions.”
Having gone through the ‘school of personal
experience’, Sunpetch felt that he was ready to do something
for himself. He wanted his own fitness center. He looked around
Bangkok for six months, but could not find the right location.
By now he was also married to Panarai Worasontarosod, and his
mother-in-law suggested they should come to Chiang Mai and see
if they could start something here. “I arrived in Chiang Mai
and made up my mind by four p.m. that afternoon. There were many
expats here and in Chiang Mai there was nothing like what I had
in mind.”
They moved up to Chiang Mai and the work
began. They met a marketing man, Satchuset Raungdessuwon, who
knew the equipment suppliers in the world market. Sunpetch knew
the equipment he needed, and Panarai had the business
experience. This was the basis for Fitness Thailand, and they
opened the doors on the first of November last year.
Despite working in the fitness field for many
years, Sunpetch has not lost his initial enthusiasm. “I like
fitness and exercise. I spend two hours a day with my own
personal exercise programmes, but I am in the gym all day. I am
happy when I stay there. I don’t like staying in the
office!”
Sunpetch has also not lost sight of his
roots, going back to visit his parents in Surin as often as he
can, to also allay his parents’ fears. “They worry about
me,” he said. He continued, “Sometimes I hit myself on the
head. Is this true? Am I dreaming? I never thought (to begin
with) that I would ever have a business like this.” He also
remembers the times when he had to work with his hands. “I
came from a farm,” he said simply.
He has no special ambitions, other than to
see Fitness Thailand take off and then to franchise the business
later. “This is the challenge for me. I also want my wife and
her family to be proud of me.”
Sunpetch is a proud boy from Isaan, and he should also be
proud of what he has achieved.
