(high intensity chase music)
- If you like Rags to Riches story today you
are in for a new treat.
Today I think we have one of the
ultimate Rags to Riches story, our
guess today went for being homeless
on the beach of Baqui to being a billionaire
Real Estate Developer and serial Entrepreneur.
His company was named Topped High Property
Developer and also now he grew his
company so now is currently worth
over two billion dollars in Thai box.
So I'm so excited Andres, welcome to the show.
- Thank you so much!
- Uh talk to us about the beginning.
How you got started and what's it like
growing up?
- Uh, well,... growing up I had to
... I think a lot of people would
be able to relate to me, when I tell them this
story, because I did have a harsh youth,
and I dropped out of school when I was
14, and I thought that life just
happens to you and you don't have any
control of what's happening right.
- Right!
- I never thought I would've end up
on a beach in Thailand the first time,
and I didn't never expect that I
would've end up like the person I am
today.
So yeah but everything started I will guess
when I ended up in Thailand and I
became homeless, you know that's where...
- What happen, because you were born
in Sweden right?
- I was born in Sweden.
No actually I was born in like a little
Columbian Island in the Caribbeans, but
I moved to Sweden when I was three years old.
- Got it.
- And then I been.... I grew up
in Sweden all my life until...
I ended up in Thailand.
- What made you move to Thailand
in the first place?
- Umm, psst, My grandfather died and
I got to inherit a little bit of money, but uh, I
never never liked to be in Sweden
at all, because its always dark, its always cold.
So I wanted to end up in a tropical
paradise.
- So you was going to the opposite right?
- Opposite, yeah, In the tropics.
So um when he died I didn't, it
was a coincidence that I actually
ended up in Thailand.
I just went to a travel agent, and
I saw what I can get for the two thousand dollars
that I was inherited, and it lead me into
picking Thailand because the pictures
looked nice and the palm trees and the
oceans and white sanded beaches looked good
in the pictures ya.
- Were you also thinking of also
the cost of living in Thailand
was low and you could stay there for a while?
- I knew it was cheaper, but I didn't
really know to much about it.
Ya.
- Right, and then when you first got
there you didn't speak like Thai
or anything like that?
- I didn't speak anything at all.
I didn't speak the language.
I didn't know the culture.
- Yeah
- I even ended up in the wrong city.
At the first time when I arrived to
Thailand.
- Yes.
So when you were going through the pf time,
when you was homeless, in Thailand.
What was going through your mind?
How come you don't thinking about
going back?
Were you thinking bout building
something in Thailand?
Like, what was your vision?
- When I arrived in Thailand I didn't
have any visions, I didn't have the goals.
I just knew that I didn't want to
be in Sweden, and as long as I have
my palm trees, my coconuts, and my blue oceans,
and whatever job I can take, that
was the vision I had, and that's what I was
striving for, but I didn't have any major
plans or visions or desires at that time ya know.
- Um and is there a turning point
where you thought, okay now I want to be an
entrepreneur , now I want to be successful,
now I want to be somebody?
- No it took me a long time to be able to
develop that, but I started with the
other goals that lead me to what I
am today.
So, and I'm happy that I think that
I have....because I was visualize being
that big entrepreneur when I don't
have anything, I might not have been
that because I thought it was impossible
to be that.
- And what triggered that, it must
of been an event, or is it a person, is it
like.. uh something that happen to trigger you
to say hey I wanna make a change in
my life, I don't want to live like
this anymore?
- Well when I was at rock bottom, I mean it was
two times.
In Sweden and then also when I was homeless
on the beaches, but everything started with small
goals.
To be able to become what you have
today, and I mean the biggest decider...being
on the beach in Thailand was to just get a job.
- Yes
- And after that job, I was starting to look up
to people within the same organization,
but with better.... better people right?
From that I wanted to be a sale manager, after
that a sales manager...
- Because you was already, so you're working
in a real estate industry right?
- My first job after the beach
was to hand out brochures for our real estate
office, on the beaches, more or less,
but trying to get people inside the office
to give our real estate presentation.
So that was my first job I ever got.
- Yes, yes!
And then from there, but you rose up to the rank.
- Exactly but I always found role models
to follow.
Like for instance when I was a Marketing
Executive I wanted to.... I was looking
up to the Sales Executive.
There making all this money, selling
the properties and stuff and I wanted to be one
of them.
So I always for the best one of
that organization, and I started to be like him,
would dress like him, talk like him, follow him
and that's one of the quickest paths to
success, Is to find someone that already
have what you have and not what you want,
and just be that person, because he have
already found a way to achieve what you want,
so will only get the results if you do what he
does, and there was also a big learning curve
for me, and then when I became sale executive,
I wanna be sales manager, so I'm the best sales
manager within the organization.
That's a quick way to....
- And at that time you was still very you, like
twenty something?
- Twenty-one when I go my first job there yeah.
- Wow, wow and from there through out
this period of time, so you was learning
how to sale.
How to close right.
Right?
- Correct.
- What are some of the lessons your learned
that are the most important lesson you
learn when it comes to sales and closing?
- Sales and closing doesn't matter what product
you have, sales has the same psychology.
The same mindset, but to be able to sale
something to someone, you have to have honesty
and you have to make people like you and
trust you, and that's the first fundamental keys
to anything, because some... even you
don't like to buy things from people you don't
like.
- Correct correct
- So the first step is to make sure
that they do so, but sales is a big big
industry.
I mean I'm still learning, but I'm a good sales
person that way, but I'm still learning
there's so many things to learn within that
so yeah.
- And then from there well, when would you
say considered you have your first big break.
Where now your earning more money.
You got like a more stabile life.
Where would you say that point is?
Is it because when you went up to become a sales
manager, or, how would you define....
- I would say when I made my first million.
Then I knew that I broke the barriers.
Now its only straight forward to go, but
uh or when I got that second job as a sales
executive, I knew that I could then
start making some money.
There was certain points in my life, that I knew
was big turning and breaks that really changed
who I am today.
- Which is very interesting, because
even with my-self as well I started out as self-
employed right, and I was thinking about
building a big business, kind of like your story.
At the time I got in the business because I just
wanted to take care of my mom.
That was it, ill take care my family, and
that was my only goal.
I wasn't thinking of building a big company,
and pie anything like that, but from there it
seems like sometime I think people say that
you got to find your purpose and your mission.
But sometimes your purpose finds you too, right?
- Correct
- So how do you go from a sales superstar
to now wanting to be your own developer, owning
your own company.
What was that transition like?
- It feels like when you take the first steps in
life, the other steps just start to
reveal themselves, and sometimes like you said
the purpose find yourself, my vision
was to get a better job, I got that.
My mission was to be a manager, I got that.
But every time I got promoted, Its very
important to put new goals into something,
because when you achieve something, it feels
like maybe you starting to crumble or die,
right.
So you always have to say what's the next step?
What make me happy?
where I want to see myself in five
to ten.
So we're always keep growing, and if we don't
grow we not going to feel good.
Its very important to always keep
developing That.
I'm curious, with your colleges back then.
Did anybody tell you like that same
real estate office, like aw man you should just
be happy with what you have, What make you think
you can be a developer, and you
should just be doing sale.
What we're people saying to you.
- Well most people have caught, but I was always
make I'm and always social as myself with
people telling me it can't be done, because you
become who you socialize with most, right.
And a lot of these big goals are actually
I keep to myself because people cannot understand
that how you gonna grasp or they have limited
believe most people always say that you
can't do that or you can't do this, stuff like
that, but you gotta have a strong belief in it,
so, yeah.
- so Talk to us about your first project that
your very proud of......
- Well my development that I ever did started
with Residential Villa Developments, and there
was nineteen pools villas on a hill in Pruqi, and
I would say that was the start of being a
developer.
So, if you say which one am I most proudest of
that would be........ Because everything is
just there, started with just that image in my
mind, and it became a reality, and I also won the
most prestigious awards, and been recognized all
over Thailand, because of that project.
- Would that project in the beginning.....were
you funding it yourself or you also have investor
involved.
- No of course I have investors involved, and
it took long time to generate this strong data
base of investors...
Like I said it started with.... we did a
good job our investors got good returns
out of it, and transformed to be able to do
something to be able to do something bigger
and granivorous, so everything started with
nineteen units and were up at normal seven-
hundred units....
- So at first its the nineteen unit, the
investors like okay lets see what you
can do, right.
- Of course!
(both chatting)
- And if you done well then okay this is
went pretty well, and then they...
- And when it goes far you can also push them
back, well you see what we can do small,
but we can do it on a higher scale, and this
what we wanna develop, and of course
they wanna enjoy the ride if you doing the right
way, but like I said, to deliver good results to
the investors and good returns and have plans,
that makes you grow, and the word of mouth is
very important, then the trust passes also...
- Correct
- I mean it takes 15 years to develop
our image and trust we have now, so of
course its a long term commitment.
- And are there any property types that you like.
Like do you look at location first and say hey
you know this is what we can build or you
have a clear picture in mind this is the need
and market place we need to find a location that
can build something.
- Yeah that also and the type of units and kind
of projects you do by location is everything.
Also in Thailand in general when you build
something I make sure its close to
the ocean or on the ocean
- Yes
- And we know that anything close to water, they
will sale.
That's why my company is called Blue Horizon.
(both talking together)
- Then you'll be known for being that ocean front
properties, right.
- Yes correct