Hello everyone. I would like to share my life story here and also the reason why I would like to share. My real life experiences are just like “a snake shedding its skin”, leaving my past behind and presenting a brand new me. Only when my past has been left behind, then I can continue to move forward in life passionately. This is because it takes courage to confront myself, to know, discover and understand the real me. With the new found knowledge of my strengths and my weaknesses, I am now able to analyze things quickly, decisively and objectively, finding my role and contributing in where i belong in society. Like most people, I was born in a normal family. My parents felt that accounting was a secure profession and therefore as the eldest son in my family, I have to bear that expectation and responsibility to inherit and continue my family accounting business. To me, filial piety is the most important of all virtues and I did not want to disappoint my parents expectations and hopes that they have for me. As a man, I certainly want to achieve my own dreams and I did not want to inherit my family business. What was my dream at that time? You absolutely cannot imagine! My dream was to become a fashion designer and a model. At that time, I felt that I had these talents but my passion did not necessarily translate into income and reality. My parents did not support my involvement in this industry. As a result, I was forced to study at the Malaysia Institute of Accountants (MIA). Later, I went to New Zealand to take my bachelor’s degree, I only manage to pass an entrance examination and was accepted in Chartered Institute of Management Accountants (CIMA). As I was working part-time during my studies at CIMA, my results were quite disappointing and I failed one of the modules which I had to retake to pass. As I stepped into the accounting industry, I found myself not interested in figures. Looking back, I was not as mature as I thought I was then. I felt that I could be a boss and I was determined to start my own company to experience true freedom. It turned out that being a boss was not easy, and I had to attend to everything big and small. In the beginning, I can only hire TARUC interns at low cost to help. Later, I am thankful that my parents introduced some clients to me. Slowly the business grew and I was approved by MIA to set up a company that I had planned for. After the company stabilized, I had more time to enjoy my personal life by traveling and staying in the US and Europe for two months.
During the operation of my company, many employees and managers came and went quickly, batch after batch. One employee from my pioneer batch in particular, Miss Wong, became my business partner and we cooperated on a simple arrangement of profit sharing. Her strength was she had good relationship with all employees. However, out of her own personal interests, she took some of the customers and our employees without informing me. I turned a blind eye to this and we remained good friends and associates. Now, on a hindsight, I should have talked to her about it and set some expectations. The rest of the managers that I hired were not capable and did not perform to expectations. I felt that if I could not find a capable manager, it would bring the company progress and performance from bad to worse. Finally, the turnaround came, thanks to Miss Wong, who introduced a capable Miss Lee to work as a manager in the company and she has been working with us for six years now. Once the company reached a certain stage of stability, I became unsatisfied and I wanted to expand my business outreach. I created another business stream which I set up an outsourcing cleaning services business together with Dato. Our partnership did not work out well as I failed to achieve the goals set by him. I also tried to open a bar with other shareholders and they betrayed my trust and took all my investments. Then, I developed another income stream by selling white coffee with two joint venture partners and my cousin. Again it was unsuccessful because we were unfamiliar with the beverage industry and had miscommunication issues with our customers. Both parties were not satisfied with the conditions discussed which led to non harmonious relationship between the partnership and customers. After these bad experiences, I began to search for answers on what I should have done but not done and on how I can improve and learn.
So how do I find my answers to what I have been searching for? What is the most powerful search engine tool now? Of course, it’s Google. During my research through Google, I discovered that the government had introduced a type of professional network called ‘Equity Crowd Funding’. This is a platform that you can get equity funding through an investor to grow your business. I also attend for short courses to broaden my knowledge and vision. During one of my presentation, I found that some of the audience were dozing off. That was how I realized that my presentation skills could be improved. Yet, I still did not understand the power of language and its impact. During that time, I also met some influencers; we discussed on whether we should start up a company to sell expertise and knowledge to people who needed them. I would provide my expertise, knowledge and advice to them and as influencers; they are responsible for transmitting the knowledge to their followers. We also worked together on ‘Trading Knowledge’ and fundraised millions together. Along the way, we had different opinions on investment. I shared on my opinions on thinking twice before using the investors’ money. We should use the money wisely and we must have a proper business system and processes in place. However, they thought that they could use the money for whatever and whenever they wanted. Because of those disagreements, they backstabbed me and informed me that I had no right to ask for those fundraised money. Besides that, they also broadcast a live streaming video to criticize me in front of their followers. At that time I met a Capital Master and he told me that “Knowledge is a double-sided sword; it can help people and also can hurt people.” At that time, my reputation fell to rock bottom. I hired a lawyer to sue the influencers. Eventually, we settled the lawsuit and took back my own investments but in the process, I lost many things such as business connections, friendships, my wife and several partners. I am very grateful that my current partner Woo still continue to manage and serve the company irregardless of what happened.
After that incident, I regained my strength to reconnect to my contacts, reached out to influential masters and challenged myself to pursue and achieve my goals again. Along the way, I met five Master Trainers with different unique knowledge and expertise. The first one was the Capital Master I’ve mentioned before. The second one was a Marketing Master; he taught me that knowledge can be built up and standard processes can be implemented in sales. I attended the marketing training course to learn as I was short of marketing skills. The third master was a Wealth Master. He used his language and communication skills to convince people and shared how using language alone can affect the mood of everyone. Then, I realized the power of language. I started to record every single word that he said inside my blue notebook but I did not understand his expressions. So, I tried a new way by listening to audiobooks. While listening to the audio, I will write down the key points in my green notebook. Indeed, that was a better way to improve my understanding of business knowledge.
Therefore, I decided to take the challenge to awake the leaders in everyone as much as possible. Together, we can change the business world by summoning a group of leaders like me who has the skill and knowledge to help those who are in business difficulties, such as bosses, young people or entrepreneurs who have just started their business. The fundamental rule is that to be a good leader, you must first be a good follower. Being a follower, you can learn more unexpected knowledge from the Masters. After all, they can see the pros and cons of things and we can learn how to see the angles that other people cannot see. This is effective in awakening the leaders to help those in need. One of my favourite slogans taught by the master: “Begin with the End in Mind”. It means that when you start doing something, you must know exactly what you want to achieve and how to achieve it. It is easy to fault people but it is difficult to understand ourselves. In reality, we often care about what other people think, but are not aware of our own thoughts. Understanding and knowing ourselves and are the keys to success. It is up to us to be awakened leaders.
