Forty years ago today, on 5 September 1986, I left Varennes-sur-Allier, my village in rural France, with two suitcases and a plan that was only ever meant to last six months. Learn English, then get a job on a cruise ship. The six months turned into forty years. The cruise ship never happened.
A Small Village and a Six-Month Plan
Varennes-sur-Allier is what the French call “le trou du cul du monde.” Small village, few jobs, a train to Paris that ran on a timetable it seemed to invent as it went, and still does. I said goodbye to my grandparents on the platform, then the train, then the ferry across to England, a genuinely miserable way to leave a country if you want the record to reflect that.
I never sat the Baccalauréat. Never went to university. What I had was catering school, years working in my parents’ hotel from a young age, and a willingness to outwork whoever was standing next to me.
Learning the Trade
I arrived in England and became Head Waiter, first in a restaurant in Welwyn Garden City, then in a hotel. I was an anglophile decades before Brexit, back when a French national could simply turn up and start working, no visa required. Try that now.
In 1988 my sister followed me over. She never went back to France either, though she settled for two countries to my five, England, then Ireland.
After catering came a spell running a frozen food business, selling fish for a living.
Twelve Years at Hitachi
In 1998 I joined Hitachi and swapped fish for spreadsheets. Twelve years, mostly the UK with two in Tokyo, finishing as European Operations Manager. I earned every bit of that title. I was properly, seriously good at that job, not lucky, not stumbling into it.
The Least Sensible Thing I’ve Done
In January 2009, at the start of a recession, with zero knowledge of the toy industry, I quit to build my own toy company, Asobi. Probably not the sanest decision I’ve made. Definitely not sensible. When I lost it, in a boardroom coup with more plot twists than most divorces, I did not quietly slink back into a normal job. I built another one. Konomocha rose out of the wreckage, still based in Hong Kong, though I’ve run it from Bangkok for years now.
Somewhere in the middle of it all, in Hong Kong in 2013, I met Jovelyn. We married in 2024, and together we started ako & sila, her jewellery brand in Bangkok.
Where I’ve Landed
Four industries. Five countries, France, the UK, Japan, Hong Kong, and now Thailand. Not one formal qualification behind any of it.
If I’d stayed in Varennes-sur-Allier, none of this happens. Forty years on, I’m grateful for every door that opened, and quietly proud of the ones I had to kick down myself.
