Positive thinking is thinking that looks at things that happen with understanding and accepting what happened, whether it is good or bad things that happened to us. Especially positive thinking in negative situations will help us see ways and opportunities to fix or make things better than before.
As is the case with our current celebrity, for him, positive thinking is the key to every mission in life.
When mentioning Genie Records, many music fans will know it as a record label that has gathered together some of Thailand’s top rock bands and artists, such as Bodyslam, Paradox, Big Ass, Potato, Retrospect, Pang – Nakarin Kingsak, and many more. But how many people know that behind the success of this artist and record label is Nick – Wichian Rerkpaisan, the founder and former executive of Genie Records who has built this record label since the beginning?
Nick Wichian ‘s path was not strewn with rose petals. He pushed himself from being an intern on a film set until he became one of the revolutionaries in the Thai music industry. All this came from his eagerness to learn and his ability to create change in himself.
Walk the truth
Brother Nick – Wichian Rerkpaisan did not live his life according to his dreams, but walked according to the truth. He was born into a poor family and was aware of the hardships of his family since he was a child. These things shaped him and made him realize all along that he had to make his mother have a better life and be happier than she had ever been in her whole life.
“People often say that if you want to be happy, do the work you love, or if you want to be successful in life, you have to love the work you do. But for me, I want to tell everyone that if you want to be truly successful and happy in life, you have to work for the people you love. I love my mother, so my goal in life is that I will do everything for her. My mother is the person who keeps me in morality. She is the person who made me who I am today,” said Nick about his life philosophy.
Nick had a dream of studying art, but when he failed the entrance exam for the College of Fine Arts, he switched to a general education stream because he wanted to enter Silpakorn University. But when it was time to enter, he chose the Faculty of Political Science, Chulalongkorn University as his first choice, so he enrolled there and did many arts and culture activities, including acting in plays and doing various art projects, to the point where he jokingly says that he studied Political Science in the Faculty of Political Science, majoring in Drama and Art.
Learn from the bottom
After graduating, Nick became one of the founders of the Makhampom Theatre Group, which worked to drive society forward through his work in theatre and various media. He enjoyed working for society for many years. Later, due to limitations in life, he decided to change his career path by going to learn about work on a film set, starting with a small position in order to learn as much as possible about the work. He explains his determination and desire to learn about work from the beginning of his career in the entertainment industry as follows:
Nick told us that with positive thinking, “What I have always learned is that the skills in working in art are not taught in textbooks. We can learn these things while working. In the beginning after leaving Makham Pom, I went to work as a staff member on a TV program set, which was the lowest level job in the company. But we were fighters. Therefore, I worked hard to learn as much as I could from working. I studied continuously, using the method of observing and learning from teachers. Sometimes I learned from my junior colleagues who graduated in Communication Arts. So I could both practice and learn at the same time. I also went to read books about Communication Arts. It didn’t take long for me to understand all the working methods.”
Always dare to face new challenges.
With a clear goal in life, Nick is a person with a driving force to always bring himself to his goal. He was able to climb the ranks from a child on a film set, to become a TV show host, and finally become a music video director for Grammy Company. At that time, making music videos was still very new for the Thai music industry. He started by analyzing what a music video did. The answer he got was that it had the duty to make the song sound better, so he worked like he had created a specific curriculum.
“A music video is a combination of images with music. It’s the use of many art theories and processing them into a moving image that is directed by the beat of the music. I made it with the thought that there shouldn’t be anything wrong because at that time, no one had ever done anything like this before. I tried and made mistakes, combining many things, but throughout the process, I had to gradually process it into a formula, a rule.”
After Nick was a music video director for a while, Grammy underwent a major change when To Rewat Buddhinan passed away. The company’s internal structure was restructured, which brought about another major change in Nick ‘s life .
“At that time, I felt that I could apply all the knowledge I had to develop the organization. It was the IMF era, and the economy was very bad at that time. Business people were hurt. There were almost no cars on the road. We understood the situation at that time. Therefore, everything we did, we did very conservatively. Even if we were buying a computer, we would think and think again. We built everything like a music label that we invested every baht ourselves. We did everything with our true spirit.”
And this was the origin of Genie Records, a subsidiary record label of Grammy, which later became one of the most successful record labels of the company, producing many famous songs and artists. A former executive of Genie Records told about his past work that
“When we started working, we only lost money for the first 2-3 months, which was normal because we hadn’t produced any work yet. But by the end of the first year, Genie Records had a profit of 17 million baht with an album that many people probably know, “Prateuang” by Tai Thanawut, which was a work that came from our refusal to give up, based on the idea that it must be possible.”
Every problem is an opportunity.
From a poor kid who had to strive for a better life, to becoming a legend in the Thai music industry, Nick has now left his position as the executive of Genie Records. He has gone through many experiences and has summarized important working concepts for the new generation as follows:
“Positive thinking is the key to every mission in life, and every problem is an opportunity.”
Phi Nick always emphasizes that attitude or mindset that comes from positive thinking of people is very important, especially the attitude towards looking at problems that come into life as learning because every problem is an opportunity for us to develop ourselves all the time. It is a challenge waiting for us to face. And if we can get through it, we will grow and become stronger. When one day we look back at our past experiences, we will find that the work we have created has become a memorable legend and is what makes us who we are today.
The story of Brother Nick – Wichian Rerkpaisan is another example for us in changing our perspective on learning, especially in terms of happiness. As Brother Nick said, if you want to be successful and truly happy in life, you have to work for the people you love.
“If you want to be truly successful and happy in life, it’s not enough to just love what you do. You have to work for the people you love.”
And another important thing is that
“ Learning is not a textbook, but learning creates a textbook, and we can learn new things while working. ”
A good example from positive thinking from Brother Nick – Wichian Ritpaisan shows that learning is truly endless and our happiness can be created throughout the learning journey.
The story references an interview with Phi Nick – Wichian Ritpaisan.
From the Transformative Learning Project
Supported by the Health Promotion Foundation (ThaiHealth)
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Phi Aoi – Naphaphon Traiwittayawarakul or “DJ Phi Aoi” hardships and obstacles are also good teachers because when we can overcome them, we will be able to continue growing.
Mr. Singh – Wan Singh Prasertkun Learning that we don’t know by giving ourselves the opportunity to try.
