Well-known Amsterdam entrepreneur in Thailand crashed

This is stated in the Parool:
Nick Draijer: The carpet topper who held waterbed parties in the iT

Nick Draijer (1959-2014) died on Monday in Thailand of a cerebral hemorrhage. His cousin and colleague tell his life story.

Three weeks ago, Nick Draijer came over from Thailand, where he had lived for years. He couldn't wait to go back. To great love Tanya, the resorts, the thriving Heart Bar he had started for her, and the lovely people he knew there. "He had a great time in Thailand and was very successful in business," says Mohamed El-Fers, Nick's uncle and his best friend. “The news of his death hit us hard. There are so many flowers; it looks like a flower parade.'

On Monday night El-Fers received the message that his cousin had died in Kalasin, Thailand. He had suffered a cerebral hemorrhage in his car and had crashed into a tree. Apart from Tanya, he leaves behind his Thai wife, a son and a daughter from previous relationships.
Nick Draijer was born in Heemstede. The family consisted of four children. His father was a truck driver, his mother a housewife.

After primary school he worked. For example, he lugged carpet rolls. In 1986 he opened his first business, Edison Carpet, in an old theater on the Elandsgracht. An unprecedented success, not least because of the unconventional way in which Draijer managed to put his business in the spotlight.

Surreptitious advertisements
'El-Fers: 'I think he single-handedly maintained just about all the pirate channels in Amsterdam with his commercials.' Particularly via Salto, small TV providers broadcast surreptitious advertisements by Edison Carpet and De Waterbeddenconcurrent, another Draijer company. He was also the first to advertise on manhole covers. Good friend and former employee Mira Schmitz: 'One day he went to Manfred Langer and said: 'Listen Manfred, you are good at discos and I am the carpet topper of Amsterdam. How can we combine that so that we both benefit?”

The answer was simple: waterbed parties. Schmitz: 'Nick provided waterbeds – he already had them in the back of the carpet shop – and that is how the first waterbed party in the iT came about. At one point it was banned by order of the fire brigade, because about four thousand people there were in danger of being electrocuted. But something like that was typical for Nick.'

Parking guerrilla
Act first, ask later, was Draijer's motto. He hated government interference and regulations. In the mid-XNUMXs he initiated 'the parking guerrilla', an action against the increased parking fees on the Elandsgracht. Edison's facade was painted 'wheel clamp yellow' and there were playful actions to avoid parking attendants. He preferred not to apply for permits and, according to Schmitz, he almost always got away with that.

Draijer worked non-stop and expected the same from his staff. Schmitz: 'You got a free water bed and a nice salary, but you also had to work very hard for that.'

Money
Although he definitely got rich from his business, he cared little for money. "It was the game he enjoyed," Schmitz says. El Fers: 'Not everything he touched turned to gold. I can remember times when he could barely get fries at the snack bar Don't bump your head on the Elandsgracht, but he always enjoyed his work.'

Nick Draijer will be cremated in Thailand today at eleven o'clock, Dutch time. At the same time, friends and acquaintances will commemorate him at the old building of Edison Carpet. There have also been flowers there since Monday.