Lady Boss
Mai Thai Restaurant
Gazing upon the gentle countenance of Ms Jessuda, founder of Mai Thai Restaurant, one could never guess the amount of hardship she has endured. With courage, conviction and sheer determination, she has overcome the adversities in her life to bloom and flourish and build her business into the success that it is today.
The loss of innocence
The daughter of an army general, Jessuda grew up in the lap of luxury. Her father worked for the Thai government and her family had a business selling jade. As a young girl, she had maids, a chauffeur and a chef at her beck and call, and attended an exclusive private school. She had everything she asked for and wanted for nothing. But all that would change when she was seven. As a government official, her father was involved in top-secret missions, but one day, he disappeared without a trace. Jessuda’s mother was devastated. She never recovered from her grief and passed away soon after. And at the young age of ten, Jessuda and her brothers became orphans. As she was the eldest child, the responsibility of her younger siblings fell to her and she was forced to grow up overnight.
Picking up the pieces
With no relatives in Thailand, Jessuda and her brothers soon found themselves under the care of a guardian who sent them to different boarding schools across Thailand for their studies. Just like that, her family was torn apart. Jessuda thought that she would never see her siblings again until one day, when she was 16, a close friend of her father’s came forward and made the decision to send her and two of her three siblings to Taiwan to learn Mandarin. Filled with gratitude, Jessuda was determined to repay the kindness of her father’s friend. To ease his burden, she sought to find ways to pay her school fees and support her siblings in Taiwan. She worked as a waitress after school and, when the restaurant closed, would gather whatever wares she could find to sell at the various night markets. “Those times were extremely hard, but I felt indebted to this man and I wanted to repay him,” she reminisces. Through her experiences, she began to realise her responsibilities and started to appreciate the little things in life. Singapore Business Gurus 2013: Lady Boss 69