“My biggest fear is to let people down, to disappoint someone. When you say you will do something and don’t. I am more afraid of that, in business, in life and in general than of anything else that could happen to me”, Diego tells me. Diego certainly hasn’t let me down; instead he made my surfing dream come true.
One evening, before my sloth night shift, I was sitting at the bar eating my dinner and stumbling through a conversation in Spanish with the bartender. Diego was also having dinner and asked where I was from because it was pretty clear I was no Tica (Person from Costa Rica).
We soon discovered that we both worked on the grounds of Tulemar Resort, Diego as a property manager and me as a sloth technician. Next I learned that he owned a surf school. I said it had always been one of my dreams to learn to surf and Diego pulled the strings to make that happen and got me started with his team of instructors at “Blue Horizon”.
Diego is a busy man. He manages properties for the owners at Tulemar resort (TripAdvisor's 2019 Award Winner for #1 Hotel in the World), manages his own rental properties, owns a surfing school, and runs a sport-fishing company. For this interview, he has once again not let me down and made time in his full schedule. We’re sitting at a beach bar on Playa Espadilla, Manuel Antonio (A popular tourist destination on Costa Rica’s Pacific Coast). We can hear and watch the waves, feel the ocean breeze and Diego’s surf school is right next door.
“Being from where I am you can see that I had a very very natural simple childhood” Diego tells me. He grew up in Quepos (the residential town outside of touristy Manuel Antonio) and he says he didn’t even know Manuel Antonio existed until he was around 14 years old. “I didn’t have a need to come here because I had the waves right in front of my village”. Diego’s mom wasn’t a beach person but Diego says he spent a lot of time with his grandmother and she sponsored his surfing. “My mom was afraid but my grandmother took me to the beach for the first time. When my mom realized I already knew how to ride waves she asked: When did this happen?”. Diego says his grandma wasn’t a beach person either but he remembers “She wanted to make me happy, she was all about that. I was lucky I guess.” Diego got his first board when he was ten,thanks to grandma. It was a little board (5ft 5 in) and Diego says he needed a bigger one but he only figured that out later. He’s just glad that his grandma was willing to pay for it so he could get started. He says he learned little by little. Amazingly the same guy that made that first board still makes boards for him today (30 years later!).
Diego says he had a wonderful time from ten to seventeen years old. “I did some school part time. I did surfing and enjoyed being a kid.” Diego remembers that he was never a good student. “I knew how to be but I didn’t want to be because I wanted to have fun, I didn’t want to listen to teachers.”
Life changed at 17 when Diego’s grandma died. “I woke up and said to myself she’s not around anymore. I was almost 18 and my mom said you have to work.” Diego’s mom also wanted him to go to university after he finished highschool but instead Diego left the country in search of the American dream. Diego says that one of the most important things that came out of surfing was meeting the friend who took him to the States. “Surfing has been important. In the past, until I had the business, I didn’t make money with it but surfing connected me to people which is why I am where I am now.” This friend was older and Diego says he was one of those people that come across your life for some reason. Diego got a Visa through the surfing association in Costa Rica and his friend helped him get to the states and get a job.
“The reason I was in the States was because my mom said: When you finish high school you need to go to college. That meant I would move to San Jose (the capital) and all I knew was my friends and the waves. Going to San José was embarrassing.”
Diego says his friend thought he would run back to Costa Rica and go to school but instead he worked really hard.
When Diego got to the States, since he didn’t take his mom’s advice, he was determined that whatever he did he was going to do something good for himself.“I won’t let my mom down or waste my time,” he told himself. Succeeding in his new life required Diego to quit two things, which he had spent most of his time doing: surfing and smoking pot. The surfing wasn’t by choice but the pot smoking was. He realized that his options were to work to pay for it or quit so he chose to quit and hasn’t smoked ever since. “Now my body doesn’t need it and I don’t want it. If I had stayed in this town it wouldn’t have changed.” It’s not about money anymore either. “It could be free for life and I wouldn’t touch it,” he says. Diego said when he arrived in the US he was doing anything he possibly could to make money. He worked for his friend’s landscaping company by day and as a dishwasher by night. A year later he met a friend who was in the trucking business and Diego saw an opportunity. He got a CDL class A license to drive 18 wheelers. The next 5 years of his life were on the road. Diego says he was living in Jersey tri-state area and his route took him all the way from Greensboro North Carolina to Maine. It was contract work so Diego could move furniture, food or anything else. “When I turned 26 I had two trucks. We had all the work we needed so I could pay the loan for my second truck.” At this point Diego’s boss urged him to continue expanding in the trucking business telling him: “Diego we have more work” but Diego replied: “Look Cesar I haven’t been home in 7 years and I’m tired”. Diego says at that time he was afraid he would spend all of his twenties in a truck by himself making money. He decided to go home for a visit.He had already sent his mom money so they had a couple of properties in Costa Rica.
When he visited home, Diego realized he wanted to move back to Costa Rica permanently.“At 26, leaving the states was the hardest decision I’ve ever made.” Diego had work, he had a place, he had two cars, he had all of that: The American Dream... Moving to Costa Rica he knew he wouldn’t have that much money. “Feelings were stronger than money at that point.” Diego says it was hard to go back to the USA where people had treated him very well and get rid of the trucks so he could take the money and invest in properties in Costa Rica. It was financially a risk to go back to the US and sell his company but Diego felt it was worth it. “I said it’s my decision, I will never see money again but if I stay in this country I will have 10 trucks and no life. “ Diego had quit surfing, one of his biggest loves, at 19 when he moved to the states but he says although he wanted to surf again that wasn’t really the reason for returning to Costa Rica.
“I didn’t know what would happen after 7 years not touching a board. It was more my sentimental life I was looking for. That money wasn’t bigger than what I wanted. I thought, I would trade this life with money and trucks for dreaming of falling in love with someone. I didn’t know that things would even get better”.
That dream of love came true. “I got here on December 23rd and on New Years I was already living with a girl. That’s the mother of my kids” Diego tells me. Back in Costa Rica, Diego used the cash from the trucks to build an apartment building with 6 units. He got the land at a good price and the cost of the building was reasonable. “That’s one of the best deals I have done in my life. That building has paid off 3-4 times” he says. Diego says today it is still like brand new because he loves working on it.
It didn’t pay off immediately though. When the construction of the apartments was finished Diego needed a job. Tulemar Resort needed a person to do check in and out. At that time (2002) Tulemar was very small with only 14 bungalows and some villas. They were opening up the new villas and needed extra help.Diego loves dealing with people and knows how to work hard so when he came to Tulemar and they offered him a job for $400 a month he took it. Diego has never been to college, but his willingness to work has served him well. “When I got to the states and someone said: do you want to wash dishes? I said: Yes I want to!” He did trucking despite the big risk of crashing and challenging lifestyle because no one else in the states would pay that well. When he got back to Costa Rica he needed to start somewhere and though the salary was low he knew Tulemar was an opportunity.
“The $400 a month was what I made in half a day trucking but I knew I had come here for the reason to start a new life so I knew that was my decision.”
It took Diego three years in the office until one of the owners at Tulemar (The majority of houses at Tulemar are privately owned, managed through a homeowners association and rented to vacationing guests) saw his potential and asked him to take charge of building and then managing a new house. For this first house Diego says he was doing everything on his own: concierge,maintenance, etc. and he says from there things worked out. “This June, it will have been 17 years since I first got to Tulemar, I never thought about that” Diego says to me.
Maybe that’s because Diego rarely has time to stop and think. “I work around the clock” he tells me. He does transportation for his own clients (3-4 vans), runs a surfing and fishing company and manages 7 properties for Tulemar plus 6 of his own. He is also now developing a new vision “I just got a farm and I want to develop it and live there with my mom and 3 brothers.” Each of them owns 3.5 acres and Diego says it’s a beautiful property and they are now ready for the permits. He plans to build the house he has always wanted but he also has a bigger vision... In 10 years when the surfing business has grown he will transition it to a real surf camp. “I am in love with this property and I want to build 5 bungalows, and a little club house with a cook. I want to have families and couples come all day to surf and spend the night in the bungalows which are just 5 minutes from the Marina.” Diego envisions he will be living at the house at the top of the hill “At that point I will retire and my kids or someone else can takeover. I just hope to enjoy my life when I’m 50.”
Through Diego’s life he has learned lessons he needed to get to where he is today. He says that through driving a truck he learned how to be careful with others because he had a big truck and everyone else was small. “I learned that if you’re big you need to do what you can for the smaller people.” He also learned how to be responsible for the things he was caring for like customers and that was all he needed to learn to take over responsibility of managing houses for clients. Through seven years of living in the states he learned about American culture and how to work with companies in the states, which helped him connect to clients, as many of the visitors to Costa Rica are American. When I ask for Diego’s advice for being successful in business he tells me:“Business can not be related to drugs it’s either one or the other. You can’t say: I can handle this. If it’s regular life with no responsibility you can get by but if you want to get things done you can not be a drug addict no matter what you’re talking about even if it’s just weed. Once you do it, you do it all the time. You can’t.
"You have to be prepared for anything at any second because anything can be important for the future. If you meet someone and you’re high that can ruin your future."
Bottom line is that if you are going to be a business person you can’t do drugs. (I am mildly disappointed to learn that I have already achieved this, most important, first requirement and am still not even close to business success). Diego says it’s hard to avoid drugs especially in a place like Costa Rica. He says he sees many examples of young people smoking and he knows because that was once him. “I did it from 11or 12 years old to 19. Everyday all day long. You forget that you don’t look good. People know what others are into.”
Diego’s second piece of advice for business is that it’s important to respect the people around you and the people working for you. Diego wants his employees to see him as Diego. “I don’t want to be your boss”. He says then it’s up to the individual to do their job and if not that’s when he might have to step in. There’s a lot of pressure working at Tulemar because Diego says they have to be number one across the board to uphold their reputation. “I have to be careful with the quality. Tulemar has given me everything I have besides my property but I know it has taken a lot of energy.” Diego also uses the challenging opportunities to learn from. He says on his first construction he told his foreman Christian “you do the actual construction and I will do everything from buying the nails to finding the people.” Meanwhile Diego learned about construction from him. Diego says it’s the same with the boat he bought for fishing. “I didn’t know how they operate but now I can ask about what I don’t know. Boats are very different than cars.”
Diego says he learned how to work in the circles he does from being around and becoming friends with people like Dave who was the owner that initially saw his potential. Diego remembers checking Dave in and out before he started investments. It has been a process though. Being at the top of the line in town in CR is challenging because Diego says you can only be one way there. “The most challenging thing is being the same every day. You have to be there and be the same every day. No matter what happens you have to be there.” Diego says he has lost clients. Only 2 houses in 17 years but they were big lessons for him and his crew. “I was learning things, experiencing things. I wanted to be a person to have fun. Sometimes I put myself into more than I was ready. That’s probably why I ran into some issues. We’re all human.”
Despite all of the work, and a few injuries to cope with, Diego did get back on a board when he returned to Costa Rica and surfing remains a big part of who he is. “Before I became what I am now I was a surfer before anything. That means I like to be able to go when I want to and enjoy myself.” Diego says that he left this country at 18, which is normally the prime time of life, and instead he went to get a job over the clock living in a truck. “I was afraid of what would happen with my life and of having lost so much time because I was dreaming and building my life”. Diego says that when you miss something in your life your life asks you for it. Now sometimes he feels like life tells him: “go have fun you deserve it.” It’s not all fun though “I also work like a horse and take care of people” he says. The people Diego works with like that he likes surfing. “They think that it is something important for me and when I was hurt people always said: you should get back to surfing. Maybe they can feel how much I love it.”
Diego says he has made big mistakes in his life too. “Like losing my first wife that was a mistake.” Though it didn’t last between them it’s clear that Diego is a very proud father and tries to encourage his son and daughter in business.
My next question is asking Diego what travelers shouldn’t miss doing in Costa Rica. Diego says that being a first time traveler people usually do what is most customary but that the best is to learn how people live. Diego says it’s in the little details. “Not everyone has been as lucky as you. It takes time to know people. Everybody likes different stuff but the more you can get close to the locals the better but that takes more than one trip.” Diego says that with his surfing business his job is to deliver that connection and help people who always had surfing in their head and thought about it but never had the opportunity.“That was in my hands to make it available for people. I know how it is having families leaving here with the biggest smiles”.
Diego partly helped make my dream come true because he saw the value in what the Sloth Institute Volunteers were doing (The Sloth Institute is based at Tulemar) and so as the interview starts to wrap up I am curious about his views on Conservation. Diego says that where we are in Costa Rica, everything that we do is based on conservation, because that’s what makes it special. Diego says in Tulemar it’s hard to know how right or wrong the concept of the project was done. “When I think about this I do believe that people knew what they were doing because the way the wildlife stays around the property.” Diego says that the Sloth Institute came to Tulemar at the right time because in the past 3 years Tulemar got bigger. Diego believes that with the way Manuel Antonio is set up the wildlife can remain in the area. He plans to incorporate conservation into his farm. “We are planting at least 500 fruit trees at the farm.” Diego says his farm is empty rolling hills so trees are needed to make it cooler. “I’ll be honest, you guys your heart and your mind are set on conservation, my mind was more set on how to get things done but what I believe and hope keeps happening is that people like Conservation Alliance and the Sloth Institute get all the support that they can have. Part of the reason these houses are being built is because everything that happens around them needs to be protected.”
Diego says that Conservation requires investment and nobody supports anything if nobody is doing anything. He credits Sida (one of the founders of the Sloth Institute) for starting that conversation with Tulemar that led to the partnership between the resort and the institute. “She likes to win and win and win” he says.
One of my favorite interview questions is: What message do you wish the whole world could hear? Diego’s answer is:
“Be faithful. Coming from nothing is not the end. If you commit to someone or something you need to be real or don’t commit.”
Despite being a busy and important person, Diego is as real, genuine and committed to following through on his word as anyone I’ve met. As our discussion comes to an end I’ve got my mind on surfing, where one of my personal challenges is committing to waves!
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