When Mr Patrick Tan’s fire-fighting systems installation business got burnt by recession, he flew off on a much-needed holiday in Tahiti in April 1988. There, amidst the fabled beauty of the South Pacific, the clouds of gloom parted to reveal the proverbial rainbow opportunity. A friend who lived there introduced him to some black pearl farmers, who later appointed him the agent for their lucrative business with Japan. So he gave up his former line and dived into the pearl business.
Today, Mr Tan, 40 sells up to 200,000 black pearls a year for two wholesalers in Japan and commutes between Singapore and Tahiti. He declines to disclose exactly how much money that added up to for his business, but he drives a Jaguar, a car that does not come cheap. He certainly agrees with Senior Minister Lee Kuan Yew, who had said at Singapore Press Club and Foreign Correspondents Association dinner talk last month that the rainbow of opportunities for young Singaporeans lie abroad in East Asia.

Although Mr Tan found his a bit further east and farther out, he echoes that advice: “Go for it. As the saying goes, nothing ventured, nothing gained. Just persevere in your dream and you can find your pot of gold, though not necessarily in Tahiti.” He claims to be one of the few Singaporeans dealing directly with the second and third largest producers there. “Luck and timing are very important to be successful in business,” he says, as he fingered his lucky mascot – a black pearl pendant dangling from a gold chain around his neck. The pearls are produced by the black lipped oyster, which shelters in pure waters of Polynesian lagoons. A nucleus or part of a shell is inserted into an oyster as an irritant and the pearl then takes 18-24 months to grow. Though called black pearls, they actually range in colour from peacock green to silver-grey and dark purple, says Mr Tan. Some of them even reflect light with a rainbow like effect. Getting started selling them to Japanese took more than just lucky rainbows, however. It took persistence, hard work, a lot of research into the black pearl business and countless faxes in Japan and Tahiti.

“I finally got their business with just a handshake. There was no need for contracts,” he says. “Now they have become more like friends than business associates. “In 1989, I sold my first consignment of 4000-5000 pearls, worth over $300,000, to Japan and started making money immediately,” he recalls. That year, he also switched to representing the Japanes black pearl wholesalers, and has been the agent for two of them since then.

Now, he and his Japanese associates are planning to set up shop to sell Tahitian pearls here next year. “Prices are not becoming more affordable for Singaporeans, due to increased pearl production, and the affluent can afford them easily,” he says. Still, they are not cheap. A single black pearl costs anything from US$200 (S$282) to US$10,000,depending on the size and quality, while a pearl necklace can cost from US$20,000 to US$100,000 or more. The way to judge their quality is by their smoothness of the skin and the brilliance and lustre, says Mr Tan. Mr Tan, who has a daughter, Eliana, 13 and son Lance, nine, here spends half of each year in Tahiti and is away for three to four weeks each trip. But he enjoys the best of both worlds. “I relax when I am in Tahiti and get revitalized for the rat race here,” he says. He has also realized the Tahitian Dream, as well as the Singaporean one. He says: “It is not the five Cs – cash, condo, car, credit card and country club membership – but the five Ss – sand, sun, surf, scuba diving and skiing.”