Christopher Quek wants to be his own man.

In this episode and the next, I’ll be talking to Chris, a third-generation member of a well-established family business in Singapore. Against his father’s expectations, he left the family business and his home country to pursue entrepreneurship in Malaysia, where he became an e-commerce entrepreneur. Upon returning to Singapore, he sold his inheritance to raise the setup capital for his venture capital firm TRIVE.

We’ll explore his journey of transformation in two parts.

This episode focuses on his pursuit of his own identity—his desires, his actions, the why and the how.

In the next episode, we’ll dive into his current work as a VC investor, building up the entrepreneurial ecosystem in Singapore and Southeast Asia. We’ll discuss the legacy he hopes to create for his country and the region; and we’ll explore his expectations for his children as a father at age 46.

Episode Breakdown:

0:34—Setting the stage and the tone for this and the next episode

3:13—Father’s Furious Expectations: When a Third-Gen Heir Sneaks Out of the Family Business

"I couldn't stand all the pollution that the manufacturing plant was producing. And finally, after three days, I sneaked back to Singapore and my father saw me. He got angry. He shouted at me."

7:35—Family Education 101: Learning P&L Over Dinner with Dad, Where Burgers Come with a Side of Calculating Profits

"He would take me out to restaurants. And he forced me to start calculating out the revenues. He will start telling me like, what do you think is the expenses behind this? And I had to start learning a profit and loss statement just by that very visible conversation itself."

10:36—Beyond the Textbook: How Mentorship Shaped Chris' Evolution

"I'm a product of my mentors in my life. So I'm the number two and number three mentors were also very successful businessmen."

16:30—Owning My Identity: Mr. Quek or Just Mr. Quek’s Son?

"There was already a trigger point in my value system that was I going to continue as a the next generation of business owners to continue polluting, just to make money for the sake of money."

20:59—Finding My Way: From Circumstances to Self-Fulfilment

"It was more of circumstances and situations and opportunities that just appeared.  If you ask me like some certain crossroads in my life, for example, heading off to Malaysia instead of China I felt that was the right thing to do."

23:14—The Adventure of Self-Discovery: Uncovering Hidden Layers of Yourself at Every Stage

"Give you a little bit of the element of what at every stage is about really discovering yourself, which is really an exciting journey. You don't realize that you have actually a lot of things about yourself that you haven't discovered. "

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