A Story of Our Founder

I would like to share a story of my Father, the founder of Fantastic Enterprise, Jimmy C. Liu. The story is about his first time to visit Europe. Actually it's not only the first time to Europe, but also his first business trip, even the first time going abroad.

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First time to visit Europe

I began renting the office in October 1971 and received the business license of Fantastic Enterprise on 7th December. The first year was quite hard, but in the second half of the year, there were customers in the US and the UK. One of our UK customers was scheduled to visit us; however, the original office was only 115 square metres in the apartment, so I decided we had to move when the first year of the lease expired. It was originally expected to find a office of about 165 square metres, but in the end, we rent a perfect first-floor office with 280 square metres and needed least renovation. Praise to God, the British customer visited for 10 days and ordered about 20,000 dozens of sweaters. Since then, the business has developed smoothly. In the middle of 1973, the textiles, groceries and shoes departments all had customers in Europe. I decided to go abroad to visit them and develop new customers in the meantime.

The visa application procedure for going abroad took nearly 2 months from June to late August, and I scheduled to depart on 3rd September. Since I was going abroad for the first time, and the itinerary was arranged in more than 10 cities across 9 countries, the travel agency arranged to take the most reliable German Airliner - Lufthansa. I prepared four suitcases of samples - two suitcases of ready-made clothes, one of shoes, one of groceries, but Taipei Songshan Airport Customs insisted that one must be withdrawn.

The flight from Hong Kong to Frankfurt was a new Boeing 747. More than 300 seats were full. After the transit in Bangkok, it arrived in New Delhi, India at midnight. After about an hour, all passengers were asked to go to the transit room to rest. The transit room was very small and full of curry flavour. Another hour later, while some people lying down to the floor, Lufthansa arranged a vehicle to take everyone to the hotel to rest, but the passport must be handed over to the customs.

Arriving at the hotel, two people shared a room. First announcement was to the 10 o'clock collection. Soon changed to 12.00, then 14.00. Lunch was provided with two options - fish or burger - only. When re-scheduled again from 18.00 to 22.00, many people including me couldn't stand it and asked for a decent meal for dinner and everyone then enjoyed a sumptuous supper.

However when it's time to take off at 22 o'clock, there was no sign taking people back to the plane. I took the tickets to the temporary contact centre and showed to the person in charge: "Take a look at my tickets, I have to go to so many places. The itinerary is so urgent that I must be placed on the priority list!" Until the person in charge marked on my name. I went back to the room to sleep.

At 00.30 in the midnight, I was woken up by the telephone ringing. I was asked not to wake others to bring the suitcase to the hall. A total of 40 people first transferred to the Qantas flight to Athens, and then transferred to Frankfurt, which was already a day and a half after the scheduled time. Fortunately, among the first 40 people, I made an Australian friend, not only introduced the customer to do some business, but also became a good friend of my life.

After visiting the shoes customer in Frankfurt, I took the train to Hamburg to visit the customer introduced by the shipping company. The third stop to London, the customer-booked hotel was next to Oxford St., quite convenient and often full. Originally I settled 7 days but the work was not completed and delayed for 3 days. The hotel urged me to leave every day. The next itinerary and the accommodation were not scheduled, but there was basically no problem to keep the planned route. Every time I go to the tourist centre, I will find the hotel. It was not only troublesome but the hotels were also not very good (in order to save money, I dare not stay at starred hotels). There was a hotel room on the fourth floor without elevator so I would have to carry luggage to go upstairs, luckily no accidents.

After the London trip I turned to Amsterdam, Brussels, Vienna for visting my friends studying there. Then to Goteborg, Stockholm, and Paris. I took the taxi from the urban air station to the hotel, using the big bill to pay and the driver just drove away without giving me change! Then to Milan, Pisa, Carrara to visit the shoes customer. Next stop was Zurich, Switzerland, and then back to Frankfurt. On 13th October, took Lufthansa to Hong Kong in the evening of 14th and returned to Taipei in the evening of 16th.

Recalling the entire trip, the departure was delayed by one and a half days due to the aircraft failure, then another 3-day delay in London. I had to amend appointments with my customers in several places. The visa of Italy took me days to extend because of expiration. I changed several itineraries and went in and out four times at Frankfurt Airport. Most of the places I carried two large 25-kg suitcases and a small one. Nevertheless, with full of energy, in addition to visiting all customers, I took time to see the market and the world as much as possible by visiting the famous attractions of several big cities. Especially the Italian customer was in the famous marble-producing city of Carrara. They gave me a very heavy Beethoven marble head statue as a gift. I also got the chance to climb to the top of The famous Leaning Tower of Pisa (now can't go up). Also visited the international headquarter of Y'S MEN INTERNATIONAL in Geneva.

When arrived in Hong Kong after 42 days of travel in Europe, I went to bed at about 11 o'clock after dinner and woke up in the afternoon of the next day. After 13-hour sleep I took the flight returning to Taipei in the evening of October 16th. Thank God for leading all the way and taking care of.

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When I was a kid, I heard this story at the family dinner almost every Chinese New Year's Eve. Honestly it bored even annoyed me. However when grown up, I gradually understand the incredible experience must had been deeply engraved on his mind which he was so proud of. This 42-day trip truly represents the core spirit of him, the foundation of Fantastic Enterprise.

Miss you papa.