16 Business
2.While you read
A self-made man
Damo Setiadi is one of the top thousand richest men in Indonesia-
not bad for someone who was born into a huge family
in a tiny village in the middle of nowhere.
Mr Setiadi runs his own business,
importing machinery from Europe and selling it all over the country.
He employs over three hundred people
and lives in a mansion in a nice suburb of Jakarta.the capital city.
However,as he will tell you,
he had to travel down a long,hard road to get to where he is today.
Building up a business takes a lot of hard work and effort.
especially in a developing country.
I'm a self-made man
and I built this business up from nothing through my own hard work and brains.
said Darno.I come from a very poor family
in a rural part of Indonesia and I've got thirteen brothers and sisters.
My dad died when I was only fourteen
and I had to go out to work to try to support the rest of my family.
To begin with,I sold ice creams in the street.
then I got a job selling cloth door-to-door in my town.
after that,I started travelling all over the island selling things to people
and slowly I started getting ideas
about what kind of products the different markets wanted,
and I started making contacts.When I was twenty-one,
I left my wife and two children at home
and moved to Jakarta to set up my own business,
selling all kinds of machines,but particularly propellers for boats.
There are over thirteen thousand islands in Indonesia,
so there's a huge market for that kind of thing.
It was really hard work.I din't have any money of my own.
So I lied and told the bank I had a contract,so that they'd lend me money.
I told the companliees I wanted to order from I had money.
So that they'd sell to me.
I even had to tell the companies I wanted to sell to that I had supplies.
so that they'd orderfrom me.
I was telling so many lies that it was really difficult trying to remember who I had told what!
Luckily for me.I had some friends in high places
and I had a word with them and they helped me get import licences.
which meant I ended up cornering the market in propellers.
Business was booming and I could finally afford to bring my wife and family over to join me.
That wasn't the end of the story,through.
First of all.I've had to do all the things every businessman has to do:
pay taxes and wage bills.meet deadlines,
deal with workers and officials.On top of all that.thugh,
I've also had to deal with all sorts of other problems too:
my shops have been attacked and burned in anti-chinese riots
and the economy hasn't been very good.either.
The last ten years haven't been the most stable!
We've had really high inflation
and we've seen the value of our currency drop from three thousand rupiah to the dollar
to eighteen thousand to the dollar!
How are you supposed to run a business with things like that going on?
It's madness!Anyway,here I am today-a wealthy man!
The only real problem I've got now
is who's going to take over the business when I retire.
I'd like my son to run it.but he's not really tough enough to do it!
I think perhaps his childhood was too easy,
and that's made him a bit too soft to do work lke this!
1 Listening
So,who are you going to vote for,if you don't mind me asking?
I'm not,I don't see the point.They're all as bad as each other.
They're all only interested in making money for themselves.
They've all corrupt.Politicians!I just don't trust any of them.
Do you really believe that?
Of course I do.Look at this government.
At the last election.they said they would change everything,
but nothing has hanged at all since they came to power.
The economy's still in a mess.
people are still losing their jobs and prices are still going up.
In fact,I think the only thing they have done to change anything since they've been in power
is to cut taxes for the rich and cut unemployment benefits for the poor.
it's a disgrace.They're only interested in their friends in big business.
I know,but did you vote last time?
No.I told you.I don't believe in them.Yeah,but don't you see?
It's because people like you don't vote that these people get in.
By not voting you're really voting for them.
No.look.Bob.You're not listening to me!
What I'm saying is there's no alternative.Look at all the main parties-
they basically all say the same things.and have the same policies.
That's my point.But they're not all the same.are they?
You could vote for the People's Workers Party.
What?The People's Workers Party?You are joking,aren't you?
All they want to do it put up taxes and re-ntionalise everything.they're mad.
They're not.That's what this country needs.
If the state was running things like the railways and telephones and things like that,
we wouldn't have such high levels of unemployment.
We shuld be putting up taxes on big business and rich people.not cutting them.
Maybe.Definitely.
If we did that,we could invest the money in schools and hospitals and things like that.
Maybe,but the government would probably just waste it.They usually do.
The other things is.If they taxed business more,
then they'd just go somewhere else.or find some way of avoiding paying it.
You could stop them somehow.
Yeah,maybe,but let's face it.Bob,Nobody's going to vote for them.are they,
so it's all a bit hypothetical!