During the afternoon, I drove all the way from Klang to Kuala Lumpur to attend the Young Entrepreneurs' Conference 2015 (YEC) in Plenary Hall, KL Convention Centre. The event started at 2.50pm and the first speaker is Tan Sri Liew Kee Sin, Chairman of Eco World Development Group Bhd. Somehow I just feel that it could be true that people want to take picture with you when you're successful in life.
Besides, I also saw his son, Liew Tian Xiong, 24 year old was there too.
Somehow it just remind me one of my ex-ex company that I work back in 2012 whereby Dato Lee appointed his son, 24 year old too to become executive director of the public listed company. I guess this is the generation of father's wealth passing to their children? In fact, I saw most of my secondary school friend also having similar inheritance in my circle of friend.
During the moment when Tan Sri Liew Kee Sin sharing about
Eco World, he say that entrepreneurship is an endless journey and everyday is a problem.
His advice to those younger people is don't despair if you are not rich because you better chance to survival. Entrepreneurship is a different level of playing field and people who doesn't give up will mostly become successful. It is good that if you can have something that you passionate about and turn into money. Sometime you just need to ask yourself what is your motivation to become an entrepreneur? Is it because of wealth, social status or social enterprise? You must understand what kind of person you are and must decide it at the very early of thing. Are you a honest guy?
Don't ever think that no people will forget the things you do at 18 year old and try to ask yourself what is the definition of success that you want? Are you there to make money or help people?
He shared that his Eco World company is just less than 3 years old and the important to have a great team. Besides, he say that if you follow A to Z is not an entrepreneur as they normally end up working for people. Normally the naughty one in class who dare to break the rules would end up being entrepreneur. The spirit of entrepreneurship can change over time and you may be lay off. Entrepreneurship is very challenging job as he say that working in a bank never follow rules and regulation while his lady boss is the worst.
He shared that working as a banker during her 30 helps in his career. If you know to bullshit the bank, the bank will give you money but it no longer works in the current world because they is so much requirement to get a loan. He shared that he started off with RM50,000 to build a RM9 billion business because he is clever to restructure during the olden days.
On the other hand, an entrepreneur need to stay calm even if you are burning inside although you're struggle business in your business. For instance, the company that he started previously for 18 years, SP Setia has been takeover but he is positive to build another new company which is Eco World started at 22nd September 2012. He say that you can take whatever you can but not his team. Always stay calm and smile if you want to scale is your team and no man is superman. However, the strategy of the olden days couldn't be apply today because by the time you build it already consider obsolete. So you must keep tweak and tweak your business as time goes and do not break the law but push the limits as you maneuver around. I remember the CEO VS Entrepreneur story that he shared about in a global entrepreneurship competition. He say that when there are people who come from different billionaire background like Linkedin, Angry Birds, and etc, you can see all sort of ego they have.
There is one guy who brag about that he is the 14th generation of wine glass founder eventually lost the competition because it is an entrepreneur contest and he lose because of inheritance wealth.
Furthermore, I am agree with him that people who suffering and doesn't give up will mostly success. In deed his sharing shows that he is the best salesman and I start to understand why most of the boss didn't really need those technical skills to be successful. They are good in delegate the right person to do the right task. For instance, he hired Dato Joey Yap to talk about "Feng Shui" location especially the target audience is Chinese from Hong Kong, Taiwan, Singapore and others.
In addition, his advice to younger generation is to be a good and honest entrepreneur because entrepreneur is about you although everyday is a problem. When you're successful one day, remember to contribute back to society.
During the Q&A session, Mr Chan asked Tan Sri Liew Kee Sin on how to bounce back when you reach lowest point of life.
It is because he believe that there is 10 year of cycle happen in life. Tan Sri answered that he last time ride bicycle to find people do sales during the economy downturn while waiting a sign of economy recovery during 1997. There will be always someone who will save the country and that moment is when Tun Dato' Sri Dr. Mahathir bin Mohamad set the currency RM3.80 per USD and it help the economy to recover.
Below is the sketches by Sketch Post for the overall summary.
I truly enjoyed the sharing from Tan Sri Liew Kee Sin about Eco World during Young Entrepreneur's Conference 2015 at Kuala Lumpur Convention Centre.
#bizsmartacademy
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