Kari Pietarinen

The year was 1979 when I started my entrepreneurial journey together with my father and brother. Iwas 24 years old and had built the first home for my family in Pornainen the year before, where westill live today.My passion for construction was an inheritance from past generations. 

I left high school unfinished, when my father asked me to join him at work.

I did have other dreams as well. I applied to the Technical University in Otaniemi but failed in theessay test. 

Another big dream of mine was the conservatory. I had been given the gift of music,singing, and playing instruments, which has always been one of the sustaining forces in life and part ofour daily family life at home with our children. I have also worked as a cantor all my life as a “hobby”alongside entrepreneurship.

Rakennusliike Pietarinen, under the leadership of CEO and founder Kari Pietarinen, has been ahighly visible builder in Uusimaa. Many new buildings, daycare centers, service homes, row houses, etc. stand as our legacy serving those in need. In addition, numerous renovation projects from parishcenters to apartments and demanding church restorations have been our showcases of craftsmanship.

The more challenging the project, the more interesting it has been for me. As a single example, Iwould mention the Airport Congress Center (our €8.5 million contract).

I have never feared challenges, and perhaps one of my strengths has been my stress tolerance. In my children’s words, I have never lost my temper about anything, gentleness is their father’s greateststrength.

As the family grew larger, I also had to work harder and do more. 

I always considered it important toprovide jobs for my children. Every one of them has worked on construction sites, both girls and boys,doing everything from carpentry to cleaning and even bookeeping. The children themselves wantedto work summer jobs, enjoying the work and being given great responsibility and trust. Perhaps thisshows how our family business was truly a shared good, and how we succeeded in making work intosomething positive and also everyone’s duty. 

I even took my grandchildren to sites from an early age,just as I had brought my own small children along to meetings. 

Out of my nine children, many becameentrepreneurs; our family has been blessed with 17 children in total.

The severe recession of 1991 was a difficult time, and we survived through hard work andperseverance. That time also taught me a lot about myself and the fragility of everyday life most of all,about the power of trust in overcoming hardship.

Building for the Housing Fair area in 2000 led to our company’s debt restructuring, which in the longrun resulted in bankruptcy. That was a profound journey into myself and into life, one we survivedwith trust, faith, and hope for the future.

My passion for work never disappeared, but I began taking on managerial positions in theconstruction industry as an employee. The simplest answer to survival has been: keep working andcontinue daily life.

At the age of 69, after regaining my credit rating following the bankruptcy, I founded a new limitedcompany. I still believed in the power of honest work. My courage came from knowing I could trust the future and my own eforts, that things would work out, that honest work is always blessed.

I am grateful that I have been able and still am able to build our shared homeland, to do good forothers, to bring joy, and to see my own handiwork in this world both as an entrepreneur and invarious positions of trust.

Kari’s wife, Hilkka, tells:

Entrepreneurship has been a way of life for the whole family, where work was naturally dividedaccording to life situations and skills, with the children participating from a young age in householdchores and later, of their own will, working summer jobs on construction sites as teenagers.I myself have spent my life as a homemaker, managing the everyday life of a large family whileenabling my husband’s entrepreneurship and the family’s livelihood.

Entrepreneurship demanded a lot of resources from both of us, but it also brought much into ourlives. 

Over the years, we went through many diferent phases with the company, which, after 40 years,ended in bankruptcy. The bankruptcy was certainly multifaceted. Faith and trust in the Highest and in life’s purpose surelyformed the foundation of our survival. It also reshaped our values completely. 

Kari also had the abilityto handle matters in a way that we managed to get through. He has always been a good sleeper, Karihas often said that what saved him was being able to sleep.

But there was also much shame, at times great powerlessness, and then came physical illnesses. 

Aserious heart disease brought him to the brink of death, and surviving that changed everything thathad been lived and experienced until then, bringing an immense gratitude for the gift of life.

I encouraged Kari to establish a new company after the bankruptcy, when what he wanted most wassimply to work. 

Kari then founded a new limited company at the age of 69. 

It is remarkable to think what a great blessing has followed us. Our home was almost lost in thebankruptcy, but one of our children was able to take out a loan in their own name, and we managed tokeep the house. Years later, after founding the new company, we were able to get a loan ourselves, and the home is once again in our own name.

With hard work and divine blessing, we have once again been able to rise to the surface.

Life is enriched in our home in Pornainen, with doors always open to 17 of our own children with theirspouses, 73 grandchildren, five great-grandchildren, and a large circle of friends.

Kari Pietarinen
Entrepreneur, KAP Control OyConstruction ConsultantProperty Manager for Housing CompaniesConstruction Supervisor, Rata Academy