Another self-made champ: Seizing the opportunity!

A friend asked me how would a person from a poor family who did not have the opportunity to study be able to achieve success.

Well, it is true that without a university education, there can be no opportunity to be a lawyer, a doctor, an engineer or an accountant.

But life is not about being a lawyer, a doctor or an accountant. There are still so many other things in life we can be successful in.

Allow me to tell you a true story of a very poor man who was determined to achieve success and did put his everything into it when opportunity knocked.

I personally know this young man who is about twenty years younger than me. We were together in learning Martial Arts and Qiqong under Sifu Wong Kiew Kit in Wahnam Shaolin, Sungai Petani, Kedah, Malaysia. He was the son of a Chinese herbal drink vendor at a small stall in that part of Sungai Petani named Old Town.

He had very little schooling as his family was poor. As a teenager, he was a newspaper boy, delivering newspapers to his customers.

Fortunately, he had intelligence, courage, strength, coordination of movements and so was fast in everything he does. He had a strong determination to succeed. He saved whatever money he could.

At one stage, he used to come to me to help him get orchids to plant and sell in the compound of a house he bought.

We used to discuss his ideas. He even requested for temporary occupation of government land to plant vegetables and fruit trees in another town, Merbok.

One day, the government thought of getting back the land for a Disney-like tourist attraction. He got a huge sum of money from the government when he had to give away his fruit plantation on the land.

With that money, together with some people, he invested in a packaging factory.

Today, with a wife who is just as hardworking and intelligent, he has extended his business, having another factory in Kuala Lumpur.

With his hard work and strength, he started projects. When the opportunity came, he quickly used the sudden financial improvement to start something even bigger. The rest was more hard work and greater returns and that is the business of packaging.

So, there are always opportunities. All our children and us need is to be ready for such opportunities. Yes, get ready, learn everything there is to be learned, keep ready whatever money there is and do whatever that can and ought to be done so that when the boat of opportunity comes, we are ready to jump aboard to sail to success.