Wake-up calls from his parents shocked Hopoi Vaivevea into a career
Getting the message that "sport is good but ..."
Hopoi Vaivevea got a great job as a sales representative – with the help of some tough love from his parents.
"I was a typical Pacific Islander boy, sports-oriented. I was really good at sports, but my father told us, 'Sports is good, but you have to have education to fall back on'."
"He wanted to see us sweat"
"I’ll never forget one school holidays, he woke my brother and me at four in the morning to go work at his construction site. He wanted us to sweat, to see how he worked every day, to make sure me and my brother learned through that.
"After that two weeks, I thought, "No way, I’m done with that. I’m going to get a better education. I’m not going to go through that.' "
"I surrounded myself with good friends"
"I studied up and went right to Seventh Form – passed all my exams and everything. I surrounded myself with good friends with the same ambitions of making it. At lunchtime we’d gather around and have study sessions, which is not common for Islanders, we'd rather be playing sports!
"I got a lot of grief from my old friends. I was studying, and my friends would wag school. But now, they see where I am."
"Ma came up with a bucket of water ..."
- Hopoi on the phone discussing discounts with a booking agent
After Seventh Form, Hopoi studied tourism. At one point during his Level 5 studies he started to go under. "Assignments kept piling up. I didn't go to school for four days and my parents kind of knew.
"I remember I was sleeping. My ma came up with a bucket of water and tipped it over my bed.
"She said, 'You get up, get dressed, and I’ll drop you back to school. I don’t want you to miss another day. I do not slave 12-hour days to have you sleep.'
"Which woke me up. My parents are sweating out there, and I’m here sleeping. I woke up, picked up my game and my attitude."
"We chose our paths and our parents supported it"
Hopoi went on to finish his Level 5 diploma, and then got an opening which led to his job as a sales rep for a backpackers.
"I love my parents because they let us be ourselves. It wasn't, 'Oh, you should be a lawyer'. My brother is in the Army and my sister is at nursing school. We chose our paths, they supported it."
Read more about Hopoi's love of talking and how it led to his job as a sales representative
