Business should be fun but too few New Zealanders enjoy the ride, according to the man who has stamped his own style on the global business community.
Swazi co-founder Davey Hughes will be in South Otago today and he is looking forward to catching up with "real Kiwis" as he makes a whistlestop visit to what he calls the best part of this country.
Yes, the economic downturn has made him, like other businesspeople, rethink how they do things, but he tries not to lose too much sleep over factors largely beyond his control.
"I just think most [business] people take things too seriously and business becomes a major part of their life. I like to think that life is a journey and a business is a little bit like a vehicle that you drive on that journey, but you have got to get out of it from time to time."
Family, friends and your community should always come before business, Mr Hughes said.
The former possum trapper takes his fashion designing business seriously, but he fails to see the point of being in business if he cannot have a laugh, a joke with colleagues and customers and "get out into the real world" and test the very clothing he makes.
He has taken his clothing all over the world, testing it in extreme weather conditions to ensure it stands up to the elements.
Knowing his clothing performs well reassures him customers will feel they have got value for money and will return in the future for more.
Levin was where the business started 14 years ago.
Back then, it was one of several major clothing and apparel manufacturers in the town of about 16,000.
Many have since relocated or closed, but Mr Hughes said it always "felt right" to stay in the community that gave him his start in business.
Thanks to a loyal staff of about 70, the company has bucked recent trends and continued to expand.
While Mr Hughes is a "glass-full" kind of person, he realises things will continue to get tougher in business before they get easier. Business had always been hard but it was about to get harder, he said.
"It used to be a challenge every year to be a New Zealand manufacturer. Then it was every month. At the moment, it's every week, and I suspect by next year it will be every day."
Although he lives in the central North Island, Mr Hughes confirmed he wanted to retire and live in the South Island one day.
Put simply, it is the people of the South that is the pull.
"People in the South Island, especially the further south you go, I don't know, they just get it.
"They are very conservative to some degree, but once you have made a friend, you've made a friend for the right reasons. In the south, you have to stand on your own two feet and you are respected for what you do and not who you are."
A keen environmentalist, his philosophy on life is simple - to "leave this place a better place than the way you found it".
But he also claims this country "sells its soul" indiscriminately, worrying about financial matters instead of focusing on social concerns.
Mr Hughes cited the recent signing of a free trade agreement with China as a classic example of this attitude.
"It was for money, for gold. I'm not a religious man by any means at all, but I guess it's kind of like Judas selling Jesus."
Aiming for short-term gain rather than focusing on what was beneficial in the long term was a big problem in this country, he said.
"We [New Zealanders] want to be liked. Here we are, opening our shores to trade, when we can't really afford to do that."
He questioned how a country like New Zealand measured its success.
"Do you measure it fiscally or socially? I think the last few years, we've measured it fiscally - this whole thing of `if we could just make a little bit more money, the country would be doing really well'."
Mr Hughes said it often took a tragic turn in people's lives, like being diagnosed with cancer, to make them appreciate what they had and to reinforce what was important in life.
"Wouldn't it be amazing if every day we woke up and thought it was an amazing day because we were alive and this day is the day that we make the world a little bit better?"
AT A GLANCE
Davey Hughes
Age: 49
Married to: Maggie, Swazi co-founder who helped him establish the company in 1994.
Based at: Levin, employing about 70 staff.
The business: Manufacturing outdoor wear.
Major New Zealand clients include Farmlands, the Department of Conservation and New Zealand Search and Rescue, with 650 customers worldwide.
Best part of the job: Meeting customers out in nature who compliment him on their Swazi equipment.
