PUUNENE — Even without knowing he suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder for many years, Vietnam veteran Wendall Nick DeVera has been able to successfully run his own stamp and engraving business for 40 years.

The owner of Maui Marking Device has advice for veterans: “If you find something you are passionate about, you can stay in it longer.”

DeVera said what appeals to him is the service aspect of his business where he can serve customers on his own and deliver his stamps in a day. For him, working alone has served him and his business well.

“What I try to do, is stay happy with what I’m doing, that’s kept me going for 40 years,” said the 69-year-old, who served with the Army in Vietnam for three tours beginning in 1969.

DeVera was one of five military veteran business owners who were on a panel discussing, “The Journey of Veteran Owned Business in the State of Hawaii.” The panel was one of the talks given Monday at the Private First Class Anthony T. Kahoohanohano Armory in Puunene, formerly known as the Hawaii Army National Guard Armory.

It was part of a free, day-long Maui Business Brainstormers event commemorating Veterans Small Business Week, which runs through Friday. The Maui Business Brainstormers wants to increase awareness of the need for more resources to help veterans, active or transitioning service military members and their families.

Other panelists were: Anthony Alleyne, a U.S. Navy veteran; Kelly D. Davison, a U.S. Army veteran; David Campbell Fletcher Jr., a U.S. Marine Corps veteran; and Fred Rickert, U.S. Air Force veteran.

The U.S. Census Bureau’s 2012 Survey of Business Owners reported 1,575 out of 17,146 Maui County firms, or 9.2 percent, are veteran owned, MBB said.

Panelists and audience members at the event said veterans should seek out mentors, including other business owners and military veterans. They also encouraged veterans to reach out to the Hawaii Small Business Development Center for small business help along with the University of Hawaii Maui College Veterans Resource Center.

DeVera is one story of success. He entered the military at 17 years old and can remember building a bunker near the North Vietnam line.

“It was far away, but we could see it,” said DeVera, who recalled rockets falling in the camp, at times close to him.

What kept him going was remembering what his mother told him, to “stay strong.”

In 1971, he got out of the military and moved to Maui. He worked as a bartender and also “played and self-medicated” with “drugs and alcohol.”

He and a friend were planning to go to California to learn to be hair stylists, but his friend ended up not wanting to go. DeVera went anyway. He learned how to cut hair, but put the brakes on when he had to do a shampoo and set.

Instead he began working for a friend’s stamp business in Hermosa Beach, Calif., where he worked for $100 a week. Making rubber stamps wasn’t his interest at first, but he “got to liking it.”

“It was tedious,” DeVera said.

The owners of the store offered DeVera the business for $100,000, but he didn’t have any money, so they later agreed to finance him, with DeVera paying them back in five years.

Seven years later, he sold the California stamp business back to the previous owners, who wanted to buy back the business after learning DeVera was moving back to Maui.

In 1989, DeVera set up shop on Lower Main Street and later settled in his current spot along Market Street.

He also co-owns the business Tri Paddle Maui, which focuses on his passion, paddling gear. It has been open for 18 years. Among the things that have helped him cope with the post-war life are his love for water sports and also engaging with other veterans in talk-story groups.

DeVera said he had no business experience and didn’t even know how to balance a checkbook. But through mentors, such as the owners of the California stamp company where he used to work, he learned how to deal with people.

Even though running a business was hard with his lack of business acumen and his undiagnosed PTSD, DeVera said he was scared, but pushed himself and developed his business at his own pace, even though he could have gone bigger.

Seven or eight years ago, he finally went to counseling and learned he suffered from PTSD. In his first appointment, he cried for almost two hours.

He learned that being a self-described “bastard” and someone who was “set off” easily wasn’t because of his personality, but because of his illness.

DeVera said veteran-owned businesses shine among others.

“Veterans that own businesses are not trying to prove something to anyone,” DeVera said. “They just are trying to prove they can do it.”

* Melissa Tanji can be reached at mtanji@maui news.com.