Early Life:
I was blessed to be born into a family which accepted Christ from a young age. I believe since I was 3-4 years old, my parents have already exposed me to Christianity and brought me to church regularly. However, accepting Christ personally came in two encounters. The first being in Primary 4 (10 years old) when a family friend brought me for an event in Lighthouse Church along Adam Road. The show explained what resurrection and after life was all about. I felt a tremendous sense of God presence and cried during the show. I remembered raising my hand inviting God to be my personal Lord and saviour. However life wasn’t as smooth and rosy for me as a student and I didn’t do well in my studies and PSLE. God however did had other plans for me and hence through my parent’s church friends, a place at St Andrew’s Secondary School was offered to me. Being in an Anglican school exposed me to Christian teachings and I remembered in Secondary 2 (14 years old), giving my life to God after struggling many years with sin.
Career:
All through my life, God has always had a plan for me and I’ve always received blessings whether it was with my studies or my career. I started off in the steel industry after a stint in F&B working for McDonalds. Though I had zero experience, I experienced great favour working for my ex company being in sales. I remembered being passed a list of customers in which the company had offended previously and the Sales Manager told me feel free to contact them. I remembered praying to God that if this was your will for me to come into this industry, please open up the path for me. Within the first month, I remembered closing a sale to a client which was near to impossible.
I had several encounters similar to this. For example in my second month, I remembered calling a client at 5pm enquiring about a project and he told me he was going to make a decision within the day and was already ready to do so, but after speaking to me, he decided to give me a chance and we won the project.
In my third month working for my ex company, I was presented the opportunity of being in charge of the Philippines office. Being rather new in the industry, I struggled whether this was the right move for myself career wise. Being relatively inexperienced, many seniors in the company recommended that I turned it down. Moreover, the office had suffered 2 year of losses and never made any sale in that duration. Taking over the office was near suicide as many would have felt so. Nevertheless, I felt the inclination to do so and prayed that God would guide me through this and it would be a success. In a short span of 1.5 years, I turned the office around even after the staff in the Philippines office resigned, and we managed to close many sales and turned it into a very profitable office. Till date, 10 years later, that laid the foundation for me setting up my own company and it remains till today my largest market by revenue.
Working in my ex company, I struggled to agree with my bosses back then in the way they managed the company and how they treated customers and staff and hence, decided that it was best I left. It was indeed a big struggle for me to do so as I had just got married a few months before. But after praying and feeling God’s assurance, together with 2 other partners, we set up Mer Lion Metals or Mlion Corporation which it is now called.
Mlion Corporation:
Through the 10 years which I have managed the company, we have gone through many ups and downs during this time. However, I have to give glory to God for his provisions on the company. We have constantly grown throughout these years and never made a loss. With every difficult year that we had to face, be it challenging economic climate, or a project that didn’t go the way we had expected, God has always provided for us a solution in order for it to be solved. My staff would know that when we hit a difficult problem, I would always tell them what we need to do is Pray! Pray for supernatural intervention to happen. I firmly believe that God provides us such challenges to test our faith and trust in Him. To highlight this point, there were 3 such scenarios which I can only conclude that God’s plan is greater than ours and trusting in Him is essential.
Collections in Batam, Indonesia:
I remembered very early into running the company, we secured an order in Batam for a shipyard expansion. The project got off on a very good note and we managed to secure all the necessary contracts with favourable terms. When it was time for delivery, the client had to pay up for the remaining cost of the goods. Problems occured when he was not able to. He said he didn’t have sufficient cash and wanted to cancel the order. Goods had already been shipped and was en route to Singapore. In fear that he would delay payment, we insisted that goods be stored in Singapore port till payment was complete. I remember taking the ferry to Batam daily, hoping to have a word with the bosses to find out when this payment could be completed. To make matters worse, storage costs in the port was starting to rack up and we were starting to make a loss. I remember praying each day before entering the customer’s office and asking for a break through on the situation. After a month of praying and sleepless nights, God answered our prayers and he paid us for both the piles and the storage cost. Even as a Christian, it’s easy to say, trust in God and all will be okay, but being human, it’s inevitable that we worry and get anxious. But sometimes we really need to have child like faith that indeed God is in control.
Being Cheated:
One of my customers asked us if we could supply LLDPE plastic pallets for the Davao market. Being an entrepreneur, we are always open to consider any opportunities if we believe money can be made. After finding a suitable supplier and having the initial samples tested and conformance to the specification, we went ahead with 2 orders to our factory. Our suppliers turned out to be cheats and sent us containers filled with rocks. I remember the shock and horror staring at a 250k USD loss, not being able to supply, yet foolishly throwing away that much money in a business that wasn’t even our core product. I remembered praying and asking God why does this have to happen? Why did you allow this to happen? But you know God always knows what’s best. Through this incident, we compensated the customer back for his money and did not even withheld a single cent, and in return, that trust gave the customer the confidence to joint venture with us in a business which has been thriving till today. You see, God has his amazing plans that we can’t see till we trust in Him.
Specifications Gone Wrong:
Our company was invited to participate in supplying a project in Hong Kong. It involved supplying pipes that would be drilled in a revolutionary way not done commonly before. Through the tender specification, we were confident of meeting the specifications required, however after the delivery and after being paid for the goods, the contractor found that they had overlooked a particular part of the specification and now all the pipes were not possible to be used. They needed a much tighter tolerance before it can be utilised. Since we were paid, I could have easily have walked away from the issue and blame the contractor for his mistake. I remembered turning up on a overnight flight to Hong Kong sitting in front of the main contractor, and sub contractor with many angry faces because they felt we misled them in the process. However in actual fact, it wasn’t our fault either as the specification was misunderstood by everyone. Being obliged to help, we agreed to reproduce all the pipes and accept some of the loss in the project. I remembered the losses exceeded 200+k USD and it was really painful for us as a company as we would throw away easily half a years worth of profits. I prayed hard during that ordeal hoping that God will provide a way through to prevent that loss but it didn’t change anything. Well in many situations in our lives, we can choose to blame others or blame God, or we can choose to accept and thank God for giving us this situation. I remembered telling my management team that we need to believe that something good will come out of this. We just have to trust and believe. Well true enough, about a year later, Land Transport Authority in Singapore started to embark on a similar projects and we won 6 parcels consisting of such pipe solutions. Isn’t God great?
Life:
In life, we can choose to look at it half cup empty, or we can choose to rejoice that it is half cup full. Being a Christian doesn’t guarantee a smooth sailing life or a perfectly thriving business. Actually it’s quite the opposite. We are saddled with problems daily and constantly fighting little wars. But being a Christian is the knowledge that we have the eternal Father to be by our side. Trusting in Him to know that whatever the outcome, we can rejoice and be thankful.
Covid-19 threw a curve ball to many entrepreneurs in business. Was I worried? Sure I was! I was just as confused, worried and anxious. But I chose to pray and trust God that he will provide. Before COVID-19, I was flying weekly to my offices in the region, but after the pandemic has set in, travelling has been near impossible. I praise God that even in the face of such adversity, I was awarded the EY Entrepreneur of the Year 2020 for Industrial Solutions and Mlion Corporation had its best financial year to date.
Unexpected Accidents…
While life can have its ups and downs, all of it could be gone in a split second. On Deepavali 2022 this year, I was out cycling with a friend along Braddell Road and was knocked by a Cab driver who didn’t see me on the road. At 70km/h, he rear-ended me and my bicycle, completely crushing the bike. I hit his bonnet and smashed his windscreen and flew forward onto the road. Miraculously, I only suffered minor cuts and abrasions. No broken bones, no pelvic, backbone, neck or other severe injuries. Even the Traffic Police and Paramedics were shocked finding out I survived unscathed. I can only conclude God and his Angels must have been there at that moment to protect me. What a miracle!
Future?
Do I know what will come in the next 10 years? I have no idea too. I’m excited as well as fearful to find out. But I know what the bible says in Jeremiah 29:11, For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, “plans to proper you, and not to harm you, plans to give you a hope and future.” and Psalms 20:7, Some trust in Chariots and some in horses, but we trust in the name of the Lord our God.
I therefore choose to give my life and trust in the one who first gave His, sacrificing his only son to die on the cross to save us and give us eternal life. Will you do the same today?