By day Zane DeSilva runs one of the top construction companies on the Island and outside working hours he is an MP representing the people and interests of Bermuda.

For the self-made entrepreneur juggles heading up Devonshire-based Island Construction Services Co. Ltd. with putting the case for his Southampton East Central constituents in Parliament and fielding calls, letters and e-mails from concerned residents.

But there is nothing which fazes the businessman-cum-politician who overcame the odds after leaving school at the age of 17 and made a big success of himself.

Mr. DeSilva came from a humble background, starting out with selling coral to tourists at the age of six and mowing lawns in Somerset for five shillings a go.

He went to school at Boaz Island before joining Saltus and then Bermuda College to study business management and book-keeping at night school later in his career.

His first job was at the London Shop, working under the astute tutelage of owner Chuck Dickens, who had his own cleaning and painting business, whom he learnt the basics of his trade from people skills to being an entrepreneur.

Mr. DeSilva went on to work for American International, printing and delivering mail, in the process increasing his salary from $80 per week to $110, while learning other key business skills.

But he really wanted to work outside and decided to join SKB Coatings, working for John Kaufman erecting and painting Bermuda roofing systems for 10 years.

During his early working life he supplemented his income with Saturday shifts at the London Shop and renting bikes for his stepfather Junior DeMoura on Sundays, including every public holiday for 20 years, as well as being employed as a bar porter at Disco 40 and washing dishes at the Henry VIII restaurant a couple of days a week.

Mr. DeSilva met his wife Joanne at the age of 22 and they were finally able to realise their dream of owning their own home after much scrimping and saving, a point he is keen to preach to those Bermudians, both young and old, who complain they are not able to own a piece of the Rock.

"During that period between the London Shop and SKB is when I really decided that it was time for me to try and make as much money as I could because I did not like paying rent, so one of my first goals was to buy my own home," he said. "I hustled and saved like there was no tomorrow.

"I met my wife when I was 22 and we had to start from scratch and make a lot of sacrifices to realise our dream of buying a house. We did not know what fine dinners and fancy clothes were — we were focused and we ended up buying our own home, and once we did that I said 'let's save for another one'."

Mr. DeSilva, who readily admits he is not afraid to speak his mind whether in business or in his political career, was then offered the chance to link up with his father Howard DeSilva at Island Construction in 1988, where he took on the role of labourer, eventually being appointed supervisor of the trenching business, where his management skills did not go unnoticed by his father, who swiftly brought him in to run the office.

"I had a tough baptism of fire, I guess because he saw how I managed the trenching and he just fired everybody in the office and he said: 'You come in and manage the business like you manage the trenching'. That's when I went away to college to study nights.

"The other person that was really influential in my life was my stepfather Junior DeMoura — he was a good people person and a businessman and any business deal or personal decision I used to run past him.

"He knew my hunger for wanting this country to do as well as it could and he said when it is right you will know it is time to go into politics and he supported me 100 percent."

During his time at Island Construction, Mr. DeSilva has seen it grow from a construction firm to an thriving excavation, trucking, container haulage, quarrying (through subsidiary Island Quarry Ltd.), landscaping and plant nursery business, even buying out his father's stake of the business in 1994, having taken it from the brink of extinction to the success it is today.

Other offshoots of the business include a Goodyear tyres franchise, a full paint and body shop, as well as servicing Island Construction and clients' equipment and machinery and a project management division.

Mr. DeSilva, who is now in partnership with his brother Alan DeSilva and Stephen Moniz, has also got into real estate development in the past 10 to 15 years, via Island Construction, property developers and on his own, dealing in condominiums, luxury homes and office blocks, but at the time he took over the business he was deep in debt and facing a big struggle just to survive.

"The biggest challenge that I faced was in the early days — we had people banging on our doors demanding bill payments that were due, we struggled to make pay roll and it was not unusual to work 10 or 12 hours a day," he said.

"We were actually in really bad financial shape and no discredit to my father, although he was a great visionary, at the same time he struggled administratively.

"But my entrepreneurial spirit would not let us rest here and we grew very quickly and diversified quite a lot over the past 25 years. Now we do everything from transportation to regular lawn maintenance."

Having recently completed the redevelopment of the Port Royal Golf Course ready for next month, Mr. DeSilva's company is currently working on clearing the former Wyndham Hotel site in Southampton. Among his proudest achievements, he puts winning the contract to run Bailey's Bay Quarry right up there with the best. But it is the team spirit and camaraderie between workmates at Island Construction which he enjoys the most.

"I call this mission control here at my desk," he joked. "But the success of the business is all down to the guys that work here — I think we have got some of the best guys in Bermuda. We are not unionised, but I think and hope the guys are very happy and we have managed to develop closer relationships with our workmen because we are all in it together working towards the same common goal."

Mr. DeSilva, who has a son, Zane Jnr., 22, who works for the business, and daughter, Zarah, 25, a former Bermuda number one women's tennis player, enjoys running in his spare time, setting a record for a debut marathon in Bermuda in a time of two hours 52 minutes and one second, and plans to do the Bermuda Day Marathon Derby on May 24.

He is also a keen snooker player and president of the Bermuda Snooker Association, and was also a footballer, having kept goal for Somerset Eagles in previous years.

"I have been through two recessions in my lifetime and because of diversity I have been able to hold onto our guys for a lot longer than most companies," he said.

"The next few years are going to be tough for us and we are no different to the rest of the world — we are all experiencing tough times with the economy.

"We have just got to remain hopeful that just as we got into this whole mess in the first place, we can climb out of it."

If he shows the same grit and determination as he has throughout his business and political life, there is no reason Mr. DeSilva why cannot weather this financial storm and go from strength to strength in the future.