When Thai Talent No Longer Needs Permission to Be Seen

When Nene Royal won, I felt proud like so many Thais — and then I found myself thinking about all the young people we never get to hear. These are a few thoughts from my years of working with people and teams, and from watching how AI is changing the way we learn and get noticed. I don’t have all the answers. But I hope some of these ideas are useful to anyone — in a ministry, a school, a company or a family — who has the chance to open a door for a young Thai.

In 2026, Nene Royal, a sixteen-year-old rock musician from Phuket, became the first Thai to win America’s Got Talent. Many Thai people felt real pride. I did too.

But what stays with me is not only the result on stage. It is the question that comes after it. What can Thailand learn from one young person who reached a world standard — so that this kind of success can happen to many more people?

That question matters more than searching for “the next Nene.” A country cannot plan its future around waiting for special individuals to appear. But it can create places where talent has a better chance to show itself, grow, and be tested.

Her own story already holds the lessons

After her win, I read and watched several of the interviews Nene gave to American and Thai media. What struck me is how closely her own story mirrors the questions in this article.

Her journey began almost by accident. As a young child, she wanted to join her school’s computer club. It was full. The only place left was the music club, where a teacher handed her a guitar. One full club, one open seat, one teacher — and a path began. It is a lovely story. It is also a quiet reminder of how much talent still depends on chance.

She learned from the internet. She taught herself largely by ear from online videos — the same open door that now lets a child anywhere learn from the best musicians in the world.

She grew up on real stages close to home. Long before America, she played with her band at a weekend market in Phuket, in front of shoppers and tourists. Then came Thai music contests and Thai television. Step by step, each stage prepared her for the next one. That is exactly the kind of ladder I believe every province could offer.

She had a small circle that believed in her. Her father introduced her to rock music, took her to play at the market and made room for her to practise at home. When he worried that rock was mostly for men, she told him she believed girls could play rock too. A loving family willing to be persuaded — and a young girl willing to question an old assumption.

And she stayed grounded. Asked what she would do first when she got home, she said she would go back to practising and writing music. For her, the title was not the finish line. It was the start of more work.

None of this makes her less special. But it shows that behind an “overnight” success there was a pathway — part luck, part family, part local stages, part the internet. The question for Thailand is how to make that pathway available on purpose, not by accident.

Nene is not alone: Jeeno and Lisa

Nene’s story is not the only one. Look at two other young Thai women who reached the very top of their worlds, and a familiar pattern appears.

Jeeno Thitikul, from Ratchaburi, became world No. 1 in women’s golf and broke Annika Sorenstam’s long-standing record for the lowest scoring average on the LPGA Tour. Nobody in her family played golf. Her grandfather read about Tiger Woods in the newspaper, and her father wanted an individual sport she could practise without waiting for anyone. For almost ten years she has worked with the same Thai caddie — who, she says, can be her caddie, her big brother and at times her father. When she prepared for a major in America this year, her coach flew in from Thailand.

Lisa of BLACKPINK, born in Buriram, began dancing at around four and performed with a children’s dance group in Thailand. At 13 she auditioned for a Korean entertainment company and was the only one chosen from some 4,000 hopefuls in Thailand. At 14 she moved to Korea alone, without speaking Korean, and trained for five years in one of the most demanding systems in the world.

The details differ, but the shape is the same. A small, steady circle close to the heart — family, a coach, a caddie who stays for years. And a world-standard system that asks everything of them — the LPGA Tour, the K-pop trainee system, the stage of America’s Got Talent. The circle gives them stability and belonging. The system gives them the standard. Neither alone would have been enough.

This is where I see both a Thai strength and a Thai gap. We are very good at the first part — families who sacrifice, mentors who stay loyal, teams built on trust. We are weaker at the second part here at home. Lisa had to leave Thailand at 14 to find a world-class training system. How many others could not leave, and never found one? And when one girl is chosen from 4,000, I cannot help wondering how many of the others simply needed a different door.

That is the combination I hope Thailand can build on purpose: a Thai heart and a world standard, together.

Someone has to go first

Jeeno was not the first Thai to reach the top of women’s golf. In 2017, Ariya Jutanugarn became the first Thai golfer — man or woman — to be ranked world No. 1. Her sister Moriya kept going on the LPGA Tour for six years before winning her first title in 2018. Before them, the first Thai women on the tour had no Thai role models at all; one of them has said her idol was Lorena Ochoa of Mexico, half a world away.

Once the sisters proved it could be done, something changed. In 2018, a young Thai golfer, Patty Tavatanakit, said that seeing them succeed “proves to us that we can be up here too.” A few years later Jeeno became the second Thai world No. 1, and in 2023 she won the International Crown for Thailand alongside Ariya, Moriya and Patty.

A first success is not only a result. It is proof. It turns “impossible” into “possible” for every child who is watching. That is why each Thai achievement on the world stage matters far beyond one trophy — and why it deserves to become a pathway, not only a celebration.

Reaching the top is hard. Staying there is harder.

Reaching No. 1 in the world takes years of work. Staying there asks for something more. The whole world is now trying to beat you. Every week brings new opponents, new conditions and new expectations. At the same time, a young person has to learn to live with sudden fame — attention, sponsors, social media, praise and criticism — while still doing the quiet, repetitive work that made them good in the first place.

Jeeno has spoken honestly about this. When she first became world No. 1 at 19, she said, she put enormous pressure on herself — even one bad shot felt terrible. With time she learned to tell herself, “It’s OK, you have another one.” Ariya, too, has known both sides of the top: reaching No. 1, losing it, and fighting her way back.

This lesson goes far beyond sport. For young people — and for any organisation or country — the real test is not a single breakthrough. It is consistency. It is the discipline to keep improving when no one is watching, the maturity to carry success without being distracted by it, and the strength to face your own doubts and your own new image. If we want more Thais at the top, we must prepare them not only to arrive, but to stay well — in body, in mind and in character.

Talent may not be what we are short of

When someone succeeds internationally, we usually explain it with one word: special. Special gift, special effort, special luck. Some of that may be true. But I think the more useful question is this: how many other young Thais had similar potential, but never had the chance for anyone to notice?

There is a difference between not having enough talent and not seeing the talent we already have. Thailand may have more capable people than we realise. We may simply find them too late, look for them in too few places, or recognise only the kinds of ability that fit our exams, our famous schools and the networks we already know.

The internet is changing this. A young person can now learn from the best teachers in the world for free, build real work before anyone gives them a title, perform before they are famous, and hear honest reactions from people far outside their own town. The old gatekeepers are no longer the only door.

Business taught me the same lesson from another direction. In building organisations, I have learned that the most expensive talent is often the talent we never saw — the capable person filtered out because their CV did not look familiar, or the quiet team member whose ideas never reached the meeting room. Strong organisations do not wait for stars to walk in. They build systems that find people early, give them real responsibility, and let performance speak. A country can think the same way.

The place matters as much as the person

Years ago, when I studied how Thai people behave in online communities, I noticed something simple but important. People did not bring exactly the same habits everywhere. The same person could act differently when the setting changed. Our Thainess did not disappear online — but the way it showed itself did.

One observation has stayed with me. In everyday Thai life, some differences between how men and women responded were clear. Online, many of those differences were no longer visible. This does not explain anyone’s success, and it says nothing about who is more likely to succeed. But it raises a question worth asking: when a new setting loosens some of the weight of hierarchy, distance and traditional roles, does ability that was hard to see begin to appear?

We often ask whether a young person is good enough. We ask much less often whether the place we have put them in allows their ability to show. The student who is quiet in class may be confident on stage or online. The person who does poorly in exams may be excellent at making real things. The young person in a small province may reach a world standard once they have the right tools and someone who gives them honest feedback.

Behind every star is a small circle of support

Most individual success is not truly individual. Behind it there is usually a small circle — a parent, a teacher, a coach, a friend, a few people who believed before anyone else did.

Thai society is good at this. We look after one another. We help through trust and personal connection. That is a real strength. The challenge is that it only reaches the people who are lucky enough to be inside such a circle. The task for the country is to make that kind of support available to young people who do not happen to know the right person.

World standards, Thai roots

Reaching the world does not mean becoming like everyone else in the world. What it requires is a world standard — work good enough to stand beside the best.

A young Thai can keep their family values, their respect for others, their humour and their identity, and still train with discipline, master their craft and compete on any stage. These are not in conflict. In fact, as AI makes ordinary skills easier for anyone to produce, deep skill combined with a clear personal identity may become the most valuable combination of all.

Make success less accidental

This, I think, is the biggest lesson. No country can manufacture a superstar. No one can promise that a particular child will reach the top. But a country can reduce how much success depends on luck.

A talented child should not have to happen to meet the right teacher, happen to be born into a family that understands their gift, happen to attend a school with good connections, or happen to live in Bangkok. Every “happen to” is a door that is open for some and closed for others. Even Nene’s own path began because a computer club happened to be full.

AI brings a new possibility here. For the first time, learning can adjust itself to each person, for very large numbers of people, at a cost that keeps falling. A child in any district can have a patient practice partner that never gets tired. But a tool is not a pathway. Someone still has to notice the child, guide them, and connect them to the next step.

Working with AI has also shown me its other side. AI is very good at noticing patterns — which means it could help us notice potential early, in places no scout would ever visit. But if we train it on who succeeded in the past, it will simply look for more of the same people: the same schools, the same cities, the same kind of family. AI can widen the door or narrow it. The difference lies in what we ask it to find — and whether people with good judgement stay responsible for the final decision.

Imagine Thailand ten years from now

Let me describe what this could look like. A fourteen-year-old in Nan posts a short video of an original song. A learning platform notices that she practises every day and improves quickly, and a volunteer mentor in Bangkok — someone who once performed abroad — is invited to listen. Within a month she plays at a stage in her own province. Within a year, a small grant pays for the bus to a regional competition. Nobody had to know anybody. The system noticed, and people opened the next door.

Now imagine the same pathway for a young coder in Yasothon, a chef in Satun, a football player in Lampang, a designer in a Bangkok community most tourists never see. This is not a dream of producing more celebrities. It is a picture of a country where potential travels faster than luck.

What Thailand could do: ideas for those who shape opportunity

None of what follows requires one grand national programme. Most of it can start small, in a few provinces, learn from what works, and grow. I offer these ideas for anyone in government, education, local administration or business who is in a position to open doors for young Thais.

1. Look for talent in more places. Scholarships, admissions and selection should give real weight to what young people can actually do — a performance, a project, a product, a video of their work — not only to exam scores. Provinces could have people whose job is simply to notice promising young people and connect them to help.

2. Build real stages close to home. Talent grows by performing in front of real people. Schools, shopping centres, temples and local festivals can all become regular stages for music, sport, making and ideas. Local government and local businesses are well placed to organise them.

3. Create a mentor network that does not depend on who you know. Many successful Thais — at home and abroad — would give a few hours a month to guide a young person. What is missing is a simple, open way to connect them, based on application rather than invitation.

4. Offer small support money, quickly. Sometimes the difference between trying and giving up is a bus ticket to a competition, an instrument, or an entry fee. Small grants, decided in weeks rather than months with simple paperwork, could matter more than large programmes that arrive too late.

5. Treat English and AI tools as basic infrastructure. Like roads and electricity, access to English and to good AI learning tools should reach every district, not only big cities — with teachers trained to use them well, so the technology supports the child rather than replacing the guidance they need.

6. Protect young talent when success comes. When a young person suddenly becomes famous, the pressure can be enormous. Support for mental health, protection from online abuse, fair contracts, and the chance to keep studying should come with the spotlight. National pride should never become a burden placed on a child.

7. Learn from every success story. After every Thai achievement on the world stage, it would be valuable to ask — calmly and publicly — what happened before the success. Who helped? What made the difference? What stood in the way? What was simply luck, and what could be repeated for others? Each answer is a lesson the whole country can use.

8. Measure where talent comes from. If we track which provinces, schools and family backgrounds our national winners come from, the gaps become visible. If they always come from the same places, that tells us where doors are still closed.

9. Bring world-class systems closer to home. Partner with international academies, leagues, tours and companies to run training and selection in Thailand — so a talented 14-year-old does not have to leave home alone to find a world standard, and a strong local circle of family and coaches can stay close.

No single ministry owns this. Education, higher education, culture, sport, tourism, the digital economy, local government and the private sector each hold one piece. What is usually missing is not only money, but a shared pathway — so that a young person discovered in one place is not lost on the way to the next.

From hero stories to national learning

Success stories should not end with celebration. They should become shared learning. That is the difference between a country that has talented people and a country that knows how to grow them.

Nene’s story made me think less about how far one young Thai can go, and more about how many Thais could go further than our current system has ever allowed us to see.

The goal is not to produce the next Nene. It is to build a country in which the next young person does not need to be Nene — where they can discover their own ability, in their own way, and still find a path that carries it just as far.

Six lines to remember

1. Don’t wait for the next Nene. Build the path for the next thousand.

2. The most expensive talent is the talent we never saw.

3. Every “happen to” is a door open for some and closed for others.

4. AI can find the signal. Only people can open the door.

5. Pride celebrates yesterday’s success. Pathways create tomorrow’s.

6. Reaching the top is hard. Staying there is harder.