by Dr. Iain
Corness
The regional manager of the Shilpa Company is Tom
Rossetti, the man behind the monthly tourist information book called
Pattaya Food, Shopping, Entertainment and Accommodation Guide. He is an
Italian / Irish American and is a man who never saw the silver spoon, let
alone had it in his mouth.
Tom was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in America.
His father, an ex-military MP, was of Irish descent and his mother, a
one-time professional ice skater, of Italian heritage. He admits that from
a very early age, his parents drummed into him the advantages of a strong
work ethic. He was used to working all his formative years and the young
Tom could be seen shovelling snow, washing cars, dog sitting or stacking
shelves in supermarkets.
The young Tom was also a fairly headstrong youth and by
the age of 15 had left home, adopting his mother’s surname and living
off his wits, to send himself back to high school. Hard work and hard
knuckles were no stranger to this young man.
By the time he was 17 he was ready for the world.
“That’s when my life actually started.” He hitchhiked through
America with his backpack and his guitar to Manhattan Beach California.
His goal? “Better weather and a better kind of lifestyle, rather than
the rigid lifestyle of Philadelphia.” Those were the days of the Beach
Boys, Jim Morrison and the Doors and Tom Rossetti was right there on the
beach in California with his guitar and his first blue eyed blonde
Californian girlfriend. Life was looking good!
His early years in California were a mixed bag of jobs,
but that strong work ethic soon began to pay dividends. He was very
quickly picked out as being of management material and no matter how
menial the work, he had soon worked his way to the top of any heap.
Up till this stage he had been involved in physical
work until a friend suggested he should try selling. Tom had never done it
before, but with the rough and tough school of Philadelphia behind him, he
was ready for anything. He loaded up his car with all sorts of goods and
took to the road - opening up the boot and selling directly on the
streets. “You needed brass balls. It was a show really, but what I
learned was that you gained in direct proportion to what you gave. That
was a great lesson for me.” That lesson he took to heart, and very soon
he and a friend had opened up their own sales company, which grew over
three cities.
Still in his early 20’s he moved on and badgered one
of the Fortune 500 companies to take him on. Eventually they did, making
Tom Rossetti the first non-college graduate they had employed in the
advertising department. The work ethic worked again and he ended up as VP
of marketing and a sales trainer.
However, after 4 years he was ready for the next step -
to start his own advertising company. This was basically a one-man show.
“I used to do business from my house while sitting in the jacuzzi,” he
reminisced. One got the feeling that more than the advertising business
done in that jacuzzi!
By now he was 33 years old and ready for the next
challenge. He had met a lady from Malaysia who said she was going to KL,
so Tom trotted along too, then from KL to Singapore and then to a small
island off the coast which was almost uninhabited. He stayed for 18 months
and practised martial arts, a factor that was soon to become very
important.
It was at this time he made his first contact with
Thailand, going on a dive trip to Phuket. “My life was never the same
after that.” And what was so attractive? “The diving, the food, the
women and the people.”
However, it was not yet the correct time to make the
move here. He returned to America where he started a security agency. The
main thrust was executive protection training, and he and his partner were
very successful at this, becoming an accredited school within 18 months.
“What we did was remarkable,” said the ever-modest Tom.
During this period, he was certainly making money and
then coming to Thailand for 6-8 weeks holiday every year. “I realized I
wasn’t living passionately in the US. I was just saving up to come back
here for those 6-8 weeks.”
When his partner wanted to buy him out of the business,
he agreed and came straight to Bangkok. This was not one of his more
productive times. “I spent money for 18 months!” He had sent off his
resume, however, and Shilpa showed their interest, suggesting that they
needed someone to kick off a tourist booklet on Koh Samui. This was the
challenge he needed. “I did the same thing I had always done. I worked
hard to give me the freedom to work the way I want to.”
Koh Samui took three years and then a little over 2
years ago he moved here to kick off our tourist booklet, which has also
been very successful. However, for Tom Rossetti success is contributing to
the community in a positive way. He cites proposing and getting a Green
Environment Day off the ground in Koh Samui as an example of this. “We
had 396 people out doing a clean-up,” he said with an obvious pride.
He regrets not dedicating himself more to martial arts
and never completely reconciling his differences with his family, now
passed on and too late, but he does acknowledge that much of his success
was from that parentally passed on work ethic. He has no children himself,
“I would have made a fantastic father - but not so great a husband!”
Tom Rossetti is an interesting mixture, with an
interesting background, and is a man who does understand himself and his
strengths. A true formula for success!
