From Gorontalo, young Thayeb Mohammad Gobel migrated to Makassar and then to Java. His youth was spent working. Young Gobel had worked for Dasaad Musin Concern and Fasco. He was also in the furniture business and failed.
In the 1950s, he founded PT Golden Star Plastik Ltd, which is engaged in the plastics industry. The most important step was when he and several friends founded PT Transistor Radio MFG.Co in 1956.
From the National Industrial Bank (BINA), they got a capital of Rp 5 million and bought land in Cawang, to build a factory. With components from Austria, Transistor Radio assembles radios under the Cawang brand.
The Colombo Plan then gave Gobel the opportunity to go to Japan. There Gobel met Konosuke Matsusitha, the founder of National. It was an important meeting in his life. They then became friends in the electronic business in Indonesia.
Gobel's business advanced in the 1960s. He was also involved in the production of Leppin Product radio and also founded PT Factory Diesel and Traktor (Paditraktor) in 1962 which produces agricultural machinery. Sukarno also knew him and finally met.
"Why choose the transistor radio business?" Bung Karno to Gobel, as recorded by Ramadhan KH in Gobel: Pioneer of the Indonesian Electronics Industry with the Business Philosophy of Banana Trees (1994)
"So that your speech can reach people in villages, in remote places, at the foot of mountains, on islands, even though there is no electricity in those places, sir," answered Gobel.