It's that time of the year when the Enterprise 50 Award is given out to the fifty most high performing privately-held local companies in Singapore.
For me, it's an opportunity to read inspiring stories of people who overcame adversities to emerge as champions. The newspapers today is full of stories like that. We all know building a company is hard, growing one is even harder.
Ms Angie Tang had a tough childhood. She grew up with 3 brothers and a younger sister in a village. Her father, a hawker, died when she was 6 and her mom was a washer-woman who didn't earn enough to raise the kids. Angie learned to be an independent survivor from a tender age. She set up her own company supplying rigging equipment and services for the offshore oil and gas industry amidst the economic recession in the mid-80s. Today, her company sees an annual turnover of US$165m and employs 450 employees spanning the globe.
A one-man business which started out as a bicycle shop tucked away in a corner in Little India has today grown into a conglomerate worth US$10.3m specialising in asphalt, bitumen and lubricants. Mr Lim was only 18 when he started the bicycle shop with nothing more than a primary school qualification. His foresight to venture into the distribution of petroleum lubricant products has certainly paid off. When asked how he faced hardships, he replied "We do it by showing resilience and tenacity. We tighten every bolt, we never give up, we face it all. And when the situation gets real tight, we re-invent ourselves..."
Talking about enterprising people, an old Indian man approached us while we were dining at Changi Village on Saturday night. He was carrying a huge sack filled with little packs of pappadums (thin, lentil crackers that are really delicious). He came up to us, "50cts one packet. 2 packets $1. Here!" Two packets landed on our table. He made a quick sale in 1 second. Every table bought some from him. Now, that is what I call enterprising!
The moral of the story is, if you are determined and resilient, you can make it! If you can't sell petroleum products, you can make a decent living selling pappadums too!
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8 comments:
Hope you win the award one day :)
Thanks...but no lah. Not qualified. I can sell pappadums when I retire :-)
What happened to selling pork trotters?
I'll sell trotters during the day and hawk pappadum at night...
A very enterprising and inspirational post!
good stuff...i like reading about people who turn their lives around..and usually their so-called fate---after growing up in adversity.
GREAT post, Blur! It reminds me of my Mom...when she started her own business selling food she cooked herself in a traditional market. The first two years were the hardest. She had to market herself to everybody. Now that she has a regular customer, she doesn't have to market herself anymore. She never becomes a rich woman, but it's good enough that she can still sell food until now...It's good for her to be able to earn a decent living for both my parents (now that my Dad's retired). Plus she can meet lots of people and enjoy herself too.
I hope I can give you an award too. You are a brave woman :)
Usually I wun buy stuff from pple like that. However, I cant miss yummy food too... LOL :)
Janice Ng
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