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It may not be fancy or particularly lucrative, but Anto is happy to call the tire-repair stand his own. When he left his hometown of Purwodadi in Central Java, the 28-year-old’s only wish was to land a job. That led him to Jakarta and his uncle’s stand, which Anto has run for the last seven years.

The stand allows Anto to look after his family, and running his own business gives him the freedom to call all the shots. He couldn’t ask for anything more, except perhaps a little protection from the sun and rain.

How did you end up in Jakarta?

This business I’m tending to now, this tire-repair stand, belongs to my uncle. My uncle asked me to run this shop while he opened the same kind of venture at another location.

They say some people throw nails in the road near tire-repair stands like yours. How true is this?

[Laugh] That’s certainly not true, at least at my shop. Alhamdulillah, from the first day I opened business until now, I have never done such a thing, because I believe being honest is the most important trait in life. Others might do it, but surely not me.

Did you have any previous experience in this line of work?

My uncle taught me for about three months, then he supervised me for another two weeks. After six months, he let me do things on my own and I started running the business by myself.

What kind of services do you provide?

I mainly repair any kind of tire.

What sort of equipment do you work with?

I use different kinds of machines for fixing tires, like an air compressor, which is an important piece of equipment. I also have stuff for cleaning tires.

How much does it cost to have tires repaired?

It depends. Bicycle tires cost Rp 6,000 [60 cents], and motorcycles cost around Rp 10,000. Car tires, of course, cost more.

So what made you decide to come to Jakarta?

To be honest, it’s hard to find a job in my hometown. There are no factories there, for example. So I started looking someplace else. That led me to Jakarta for the first time.

What do you dislike most about Jakarta?

I don’t like how it floods in the city so quickly, and the way people just throw their trash wherever they want. Sometimes I wonder how people can be so irresponsible and dispose of their garbage the way they do. Once, I got into an argument with a man who threw his garbage near a river. I told him he shouldn’t do that. But he was stubborn, so we got into a fight.

Also, Jakartans tend to be too individualistic, and they really don’t care much about their neighbors, which is different from where I come from. In my hometown, the spirit of gotong royong [community unity] is still very strong. If something bad happens, like somebody gets sick, the neighbors will help to bring that person to a clinic or a hospital. No questions asked. But here at my boarding house, if somebody gets sick, no one does anything to help out.

If you had to choose an ideal job in Jakarta, what would that be?

I would still rather be self-employed, an entrepreneur.

Why?

First, being self-employed gives me a flexible schedule. Another thing is, I don’t have to answer to anyone but myself. As an entrepreneur, it gives me a chance to use my own ideas to develop my business and expand it. If I work with someone or for someone, I couldn’t do that.

What do you like most about your job?

I don’t know if there’s anything about my job that I really like. If it’s a hot day, I have to work under the sun all day. If it rains, I get soaked.

What do you do if one of your machines breaks down?

I fix it myself.

Where do you go and what do you do in your free time?

I rarely go anywhere.

What is a typical day like for you?

I work every day from 7 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. And if I don’t feel well, I don’t go to work.

What happens when you’re sick and you can’t work? Who looks after your stands?

Nobody, because I work alone.

Is fixing tires enough to make a decent living?

Everyone says they never earn enough, but it depends on the way we see things. If we earn only Rp 2,000 a day and we spend more than that, then sure it’s not enough.

Do you have a family here?

Yes. I have my 2-year-old child with me. I love my family; they’re a big reason why I work hard.

Who do you consider to be your real-life hero?

That would have to be my mother. She struggled to take care of me and my four siblings starting when I was 11 years old, the time my father died.

If you could be anyone else in life, who would you want to be?

I haven’t thought about that really, because I don’t want to be anyone but myself. What I want is simply to be a good person, that’s it.