A Day in the Lion City

It has been quite a while since me last trip down south to Singapore. Last Friday me had the opportunity to take an AirAsia flight together with several of me colleagues for a day trip to visit a factory located in the Ubi Road area, about 20 minutes from the Changi airport.

Apart from the potential business collaboration that could be discussed further, the thing that really caught me attention was the factory owner and his lifelong struggle from having nothing, with only an idea and a bold determination, to achieve what he had achieved today, which he proudly called the "fruit of his labor" - only after more than 30 years of "bloods, sweats and tears".

Nothing came on a silver plate for this self educated man. From being a humble welder with a very poor family's background, the achievement that he had today is truly an amazing and a classic case of "rags to riches" story. It was not meant to be easy for him, from the day he first started back in the mid 80's until even today, the challenges still keep on knocking on his (factory) doors. But he took it all in good stride and never once saw the need to stop tackling the challenges, even how insurmountable they may be, as long as he still has the capacity to think and the will power to tackle and make good the problems at hand.

The story of his lifelong struggle, that was told within the few hours that me were with him that day, had really struck a chord in me psyche. It has always been in me interest to know what would be the best recipe to a successful life especially in the realm of doing business. Me learned from this man that not many would have the acumen and the patient needed to steer a successful business. Those unseen qualities, such as sincerity and humbleness which me noticed were bestowed on him would have provided him the internal strength which constitute an important prerequisite to success.

This brings us back to the all too familiar story of businessmen wanting to become instant millionaires. In their haste chasing the millions, they had inadvertently thrown all precautions and good traditional values out of the windows with some even forgotten their real purpose on this earth!. All too often, we have been made to belief that being in business is easy and glamorous and the one sure road to a quick easy life. Alas! it was not meant to be that way in reality....Without knowing the many pitfalls that may lie ahead, a lot of aspiring businesses would have succumbed to the horrible truth before they even reach their first year of operations...often ending up much worse than before.

Me always belief that we must possess inner strengths based on our Islamic values in order to confront the myriad challenges posed in our quest to building a successful business.

As exemplified by the factory owner that me visited, knowing to skillfully and patiently ride the ups and downs when building a business will always remain the essential ingredients to building a successful future.