Mark Twain, the American writer and humourist, might seem an odd source of inspiration for the scion of one Thailand's most prominent business families. But Korawad Chearavanont, the 20-year-old eldest son of True Corp chief executive Suphachai Chearavanont, says school and education are truly not the same.
"I don't want my education to interfere with my learning. And I don't want to let exam results decide my fate. I want to learn outside school," says Mr Korawad, who in August dropped out of Columbia University before his junior year at undergraduate school, where he majored in history.
"Human intelligence is richer and more dynamic than we have been led to believe by formal academic education," he says.
Now Mr Korawad is back in Bangkok and working full time as chief executive of Eko Communications, the start-up he founded to develop mobile messaging apps for the workplace.
Eko began life at Korawad's boarding school dorm in New York when he was 17. The main product office remains in New York, and the start-up firm has opened an office in Bangkok.
The relocation of Eko's main office to Bangkok is motivated by the need to be close to its major clients, which include True Corporation and convenience store 7-Eleven.
The relocation also intends to expand across Southeast Asia.
Eko last year received an initial US$1 million in seed funding from 500 Startups and Siemer Ventures. It also received pre-seed funding from Tigerlabs Ventures.
"This is the year I officially started my business," Mr Korawad says, adding "I worked very hard to do my job when I was in high school."
"The life of working and studying made me realise how inefficient it was to have learning controlling my time and work schedule," says Mr Korawad, who is the grandson of Dhanin Chearavanont, the wealthiest man in Southeast Asia with a net worth of more than $14.4 billion.
Mr Korawad says when he told his parents his reasons for wanting to leave school and start his business life as a tech start-up company, they pushed him to study further.
"They said if I could raise money by myself, they would allow me to quit school and run a business," he says.
"I respect my parents' opinions and know they think they are making the best choice for me."
The turning point in Mr Korawad's school life and the starting point of his road to the technology industry came when Eko in August secured $5.7 million in Series A financing from Asian venture capital firm Gobi Partners, the second-largest such funding for a Thai venture.
His parents finally allowed him to work full time as he could prove himself to be a man who can take on responsibility and raise money by himself to fund his own business.
"I don't know what would happen if I follow my passion, but I know for sure that if I run my business, I would live a life like my father and my grandfather, which I think is the best for me," says Mr Korawad.
"Also, it's the sense of pride in building something of my own," he adds.
After its inception three years ago, Mr Korawad says Eko expects to begin recording revenue for the first time this year with an expected annual recurring revenue of $1.2 million. Most of the revenue comes from China, where it has a number of undisclosed clients.
Mr Korawad says Eko works a bit differently from some of its rivals by having a high touch relationship with some corporate clients that extends to them getting customised versions of the Eko app -- not the app available for download on Google Play or Apple's App Store.
The company's app is focused on enabling intra-enterprise communication within large-scale companies through its mobile-centric product. True Corporation and 7-Eleven deploy Eko's mobile app for internal use.
The next step for Eko is to establish an office in Beijing this year and to expand to Asean countries early next year.
Eko aims to reach $6 million revenue next year, doubling to $12 million in 2017.
"Our strategy is long term. We don't just want to be an enterprise messaging app, we want to be a mobile enterprise platform," says Mr Korawad.
He observes that working life and school life are completely different. The most significant difference is that it's more challenging, fulfilling, and he feels he will learn more from working.
He says since he was young his family made it clear that the family's rule is that everyone must work and build businesses independent from the CP Group as part of building a spirit of entrepreneurship in the following generations.
Another stark difference is that in working life, there are consequences for failures that affect other lives. Getting a C on a test is bad, but getting a C grade in profitability means hard decisions that affect lives and have real world impacts, he says.
"In addition, there's the amount of time I spend working, almost 24 hours a day with no breaks," he says.
When facing challenges and problems, Mr Korawad says his father and grandfather offer their thoughts and share their experiences. "They taught me how to do business and how to address problems."
Now Eko has 30 staff, one-third of them foreigners. The company plans to recruit 20 more employees this year to serve its expansion plans.
Mr Korawad says Eko's employment policies have been set out to suit the nature of the company's business. There's no maximum or minimum period of paid annual leave an Eko employee can take. "Our employees can take annual holidays whenever they wish."
"I believe business success, especially in the technology field, depends increasingly on the ability to innovate and being creative."
"So, we don't evaluate employee performance based on the amount of annual leave, instead we use key performance indicators to access an employee's performance," he says.
Mr Korawad adds no matter what the future holds, he will do his best today.