User:Consonleong

The Unusual Tsinoy Entrepreneur Jun 1, 2007 - Ricardo Liong Email this article It is a known fact that many Tsinoys are born with the entrepreneurial spirit. Equally true most of these entrepreneurs are further endowed with a pioneering “can do” spirit. Invariably, they are also living a thrifty and frugal life.

But Arthur Leong was completely different. He was a hard working pioneering entrepreneur and a bon vivant. I met him again at a first class airline lounge, where he easily stood out among the Caucasians and Asians by exuding a personality like actor George Hamilton - tall, slim, handsome and fair, but not sun-baked. He dressed impeccably for every occasion – traveler, stiff upper-lips British club member, businessman, and casual sportsman. One could easily tell that his attire was flawless – not vulgar show-offs but carefully selected with a continental European flair. Later I learned that his butler meticulously matched his daily attire and arranged for his frequent clothes changes within the day.

When I have an appointment with my classmate Arthur, my wife would remind me to dress properly lest I may be mistaken as his driver. Dining with him was an exquisite experience. Forget the pancit canton, lechon, and chopsuey. A gourmet and connoisseur in fine dinning, he was equally adept in ordering the choicest Continental as well as Chinese dishes. A perfect gentleman, he was always welcomed immediately by the maitre d’ and continuously pampered by waiters.

Traveling for him was both for education and pleasure, arranged down to every detail by his battery of secretaries. Once when he tried the subway in Barcelona, a toughie demanded for his valuables and he sportingly handed it over without any fuss. “C’est la vie” he recounted the incident with a smile. During the past decades, he never missed any Olympic games except this forthcoming one in Beijing 2008.

Like a migratory bird, his secretaries keep tracking his ever-changing foreign itinerary for he may be in any of his offices at Guangzhou, Hong Kong, Vancouver, Manila, Taipei, etc. Once he suddenly decided to join the FAO World Aquatic Conference in Hawaii and on another occasion, he was in Australia in the company of Philippine delegation asking for more access to the latter’s market. Owing to his mixed-up time zones when traveling, practically all my unholy hours’ telephone calls came from Arthur.

Not being born with a silver spoon in his mouth, Arthur helped in his father’s carpentry shop. Then he started with an air-conditioning repair shop and expanded into refrigeration, shipping agency, real estate, food packaging, restaurants, fast food, communication, aquaculture and even an airline company servicing Boracay. These are only those that I knew. But his greatest business coup was setting up the first Timmy Hamburger chain in Guangzhou City, China in the 80’s – ahead of MacDonald and the rest. China was then a closed economy but Arthur was able to set it up successfully and introduced hamburger to the Chinese.

But even in then austere China, he didn’t give up his bon vivant lifestyle. Importing a Mercedes, he built himself a luxurious villa with swimming pool and exercise room in the exclusive Overseas Chinese village. He never forgets to keep his body physically fit and attractive.

A rare “hands-off” Chinese businessman, he spent time recruiting the best executives and organizing his enterprises so that he could be free to enjoy life and to look for more business opportunities. He had his share of failures and disappointments but it didn’t give him the excuse to slow down. He paid the most for his staff but also demanded the best. Indeed, very few could stay long and meet his expectations.

With parents who lived to over 90, he was looking to a life expectancy of 120. But his “Big Boss” ended it before he turned 70 because Arthur had enjoyed every moment of it.