By Ling Yah
A podcast featuring inspiring people about their journey to discovering and living their "WHY" or purpose in life. With your host & producer, Ling Yah, we deep dive into everything from finance
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The podcast currently has 177 episodes available.
Rodney Wong is the CEO of Munchy's, one of the largest Malaysia-based snack food manufacturer with presence in over 60 countries globally.
Which makes him the Willy Wonka of Malaysia!
And he's had quite the varied career.
From tobacco to Coca-Cola, Petronas and now the world of snacks and sweets, Rodney is testimony to the fact that we all need to take charge of our own career and personal development to get to where we want.
The question is... how?
While everyone's path is different, Rodney's shared his personal journey, highlighting the people who were significant in his journey, why paying forward is so important him, what it's like working with founders on their 'baby' and his vision for the future.
Want to hear what one of Malaysia's top entrepreneurs has to say about building success career?
Stick around and you'll find out!
Highlights
🙊 Want to support STIMY for as little as $0.10/day? https://www.sothisismywhy.com/support-stimy/
🍿 YouTube: https://youtu.be/dx_ePevgoRU&list=UULFSZlcS5ooyCjj_MkrmH_WhQ
🎙️Show notes/transcript for this episode: https://www.sothisismywhy.com/149
💌 Subscribe to the weekly STIMY newsletter: https://sothisismywhy.ck.page/ebf231f605
We're back with Part 2 with Dato' Sri Idris Jala - the former CEO of Malaysia Airlines, Managing Director of Shell Sri Lanka and Senator & Minister in the Malaysian Prime Minister’s Office, and current Chairman of PEMANDU.
In Part 1 of this So This Is My Why feature, we delved into his tribal origins, how becoming top of his class was a matter of life and death, and his journey to becoming the Managing Director in Shell Sri Lanka - still his toughest gig to date. Listen here: https://youtu.be/KekuCGZJYlk
In Part 2, we go even deeper, exploring things like:
🔸 If Dato' Sri Idris would act the same way if he had a chance to redo everything?
🔸 How Shell moved Idris out of Sri Lanka because he was taking huge risks and they thought, “We should take you out before you kill yourself!”
🔸 What he learned from Michael Black
🔸 How he put Eddy Leong as the first CEO of Firefly because “he’s a bit crazy but he has the tenacity to push it”
🔸 Why he gave up the job he really wanted - to be the Chairman of Shell - to become the CEO of Malaysia Airlines
🔸 The advice he has for his sons
Want to learn more?
You’ll just have to tune in.
Highlights:
🙊 Want to support STIMY for as little as $0.10/day? https://www.sothisismywhy.com/support-stimy/
🍿 YouTube: https://youtu.be/lhIUOf7jSKs
📍Show notes: https://www.sothisismywhy.com/148
💌 Weekly STIMY Newsletter on the art of storytelling + building your personal brand (+snippets of STIMY behind-the-scenes): https://sothisismywhy.ck.page/profile
When Dato Sri Idris Jala became the Managing Director of Shell Sri Lanka, he wasn’t expecting to hold the country on ransom.
The Sri Lanka unit had already experienced 27 years of continuous losses when he took over. And on Day 1, what Idris had to handle was: bombs strapped to his depot, the kidnapping of his transport manager, a major labour strike and…
Threatening letters sent by a professional sniper who knew where he lived, where he worked, when he left each place and the exact route he took each other.
Tough doesn’t even begin to cover it.
But Idris turned it around.
And in the latest STIMY episode, he shares how, why he took on such a tough gig and what continues to drive him.
There were so many gems in his 2-hour interview that it’s only right to have split it into two parts.
This is Part 1.
Which opens up with his childhood in the Borneo Highlands - where his dad would throw him into the pigsty when he misbehaved.
And also insisted that they sleep on the floor of the stinky fish market - because they were travelling with neighbouring tribes who couldn’t afford a tribe and “they shouldn’t act different from others”.
Education, for him back then, was a matter of life and death.
His North Star then was to be the top of his class.
So he asked his dad, a teacher, for advice.
He was told, “Very simple, son. Find out who’s currently No. 1, be his or her best friend, and do exactly what he does but put it to the power of 10.”
And so Idris just did. 😂
Others highlights:
🔸 Surviving ghostly encounters & treacherous rapids in the Borneo Highlands
🔸 His spiritual awakening as part of the Bario Revival
🔸 The concept of “ketuit” (which is kelabit for ‘kiasu’ or being very competitive)
🔸 Why his cocky job application letters were successful - he began his letters with the words, “Dear Sir, I’m the man you’re looking for”!
🔸 Why ‘the graveyard is full of indispensable people’
🔸 The impossible game
Highlights:
🙊 Support STIMY for as little as $0.10/day! - https://www.sothisismywhy.com/support-stimy/
🎙️Show notes/transcript: https://www.sothisismywhy.com/148
💌 Subscribe to weekly STIMY newsletter: https://sothisismywhy.ck.page/ebf231f605
When Arthur Kiong, CEO of Far East Hospitality, failed his A Levels, he thought his life was pretty much over.
His dad even told him, "I’m sorry, you had your shot but you missed it" and in Arthur's own words, "I was lost and I was discouraged and I was in a great deal of pain and despair."
Arthur ended up selling slimming products on the streets because it was the only job he could find before applying to Mediocorp to become a stage technician.
Things took a turn when he was asked to take a voice test and he ended up with a celebrity radio DJ because he could pronounce "Thursday the Thirteenth”!
Overnight, Arthur found himself rubbing shoulders with the who's who and celebrities of the world and you would’ve thought that this was where Arthur’s career was on a rapid trajectory upwards save that he gave it all up to work to become a greeter at Prego.
People were astonished.
Why would he take on such a 'demeaning' job?!
But Arthur was adamant.
And Prego signalled the first step that Arthur took into the world of hospitality, where you'll find that he's had more than his share of incredible luck, ingenuity and adventures.
Including:
To find out more, you’ll just have to listen to this STIMY Ep 147 with Arthur Kiong. 😏
Highlights:
Special thanks to Limpeh Studios for making this in-person interview possible!
🙊 Want to support STIMY for as little as $0.10/day? https://www.sothisismywhy.com/support-stimy/
📍Show notes: https://www.sothisismywhy.com/147
🍿 YouTube: https://youtu.be/lJkY_8igcxQ
📚 Download 5 Stones & a Sling: https://www.fareasthospitality.com/-/media/StayFarEast/Five-Stones-and-a-Sling
💌 Weekly STIMY Newsletter on the art of storytelling + building your personal brand (+snippets of STIMY behind-the-scenes): https://sothisismywhy.ck.page/acd5bd1062
*
Official Biography
Arthur Kiong is the Chief Executive Officer of Far East Hospitality, which is part of Far East Orchard Limited, a listed company under Far East Organization.
Since Arthur joined the organisation in July 2012, he has been instrumental in growing the company’s hospitality management business through joint-ventures and acquisitions. Over the last nine years, Far East Hospitality's portfolio grew from 18 properties in Singapore to 105 hotels and serviced residences in nine countries – Austria, Australia, Denmark, Germany, Hungary, Japan, Malaysia, New Zealand, and Singapore, with more in its development pipeline.
In more than 35 years of his career in the hospitality industry, Arthur has worked at prominent international hospitality brands including Banyan Tree Hotels & Resorts, The Ritz-Carlton (Singapore and New York), Mandarin Oriental Hotel Group (Hong Kong), Hyatt Hotels Corporation and Westin Hotels & Resort.
Arthur also plays an active role in championing change in the hospitality industry, and currently serves as First Vice President of the Singapore Hotel Association. In 2020, he was appointed as the hospitality representative in the National Jobs Council – a task force set up to establish jobs and upskilling opportunities during the Covid-19 pandemic.
In Nov 2022, Arthur received the Executive of the Year – Hospitality & Leisure award from the Singapore Business Review Management Excellence Awards for initiating transformative changes to FEH’s operations and steered the group’s expansion in recent years despite the pandemic.
Arthur was a recipient of the Special Recognition Award from Singapore Tourism Board in 2016 for having played a key role in rallying support for driving productivity and manpower development initiatives in the hotel industry.
“When people say it’s ok, I don’t need a family, I don’t need a partner, I say bullshit.”
Woon Tai Ho is most known for being the founder of Channel News Asia & author of prolific books like the trilogy by George Yeo (Singapore’s former foreign minister).
But has the success been worth it?
What are some of his biggest regrets in life?
In Part 1 (which you should listen to if you haven’t), we explored all of his big career achievements and the challenges that came with it, including being summoned by China to answer for their coverage of Falun Gong.
But today, we cover something very different.
Deeper.
More personal.
Starting with Tai Ho’s major pivot from broadcasting to author.
Because nowadays, it’s common to make career pivots. It’s hard enough when it’s just jumping from one company to the next in the same industry, but Tai Ho has made that huge jump so…
❓ How did he do it?
❓ How does he think about the ‘Second Act’ of his career?
❓ How should people plan for their own Second, Third or even Fourth Act, especially when it comes to retirement?
And is there such a thing as living for too long and just ‘waiting to die’?
We also talk about some of his deepest regrets, his relationship with success and thoughts on relationships.
His advice to people: Go marry, have kids, then go back to your career.
We don’t have to be that woke. 😅
Do you agree?
Time to hear from Tai Ho again in the latest episode from STIMY!
Highlights:
🙊 Want to support STIMY for $0.10/day? https://www.sothisismywhy.com/support-stimy/
📍Show notes: https://www.sothisismywhy.com/146
🍿 YouTube: https://youtu.be/U0_pVl_RsGM
💌 Weekly STIMY Newsletter on the art of storytelling + building your personal brand (+snippets of STIMY behind-the-scenes): https://sothisismywhy.ck.page/acd5bd1062
✍🏻 Leave a review on STIMY: https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/so-this-is-my-why/id1521191442
Growing up, Woon Tai Ho - Channel NewsAsia founder & Bestselling Author of books like the George Yeo trilogy, Soul of Ink, Riot Green- didn’t know he was poor.
Until he invited his friends over and was asked questions like:
❓ Where’s your phone?
❓ Where’s your sofa?
None of which he had.
Which made him realise that actually, he was pretty poor. 😅
But he was never ashamed of it.
When his sister invited him to stay at the house she was working at as a domestic helper, that changed his world.
“I couldn’t believe it, the way they stayed… these people had a dimension of luxury that I didn’t know about. So I told myself, I need to work very hard.”
And work very hard he did.
We know Channel News Asia as one of the preeminent TV news channels in Asia, but that wasn’t always the case. As Tai Ho shares, the earliest days of CNA was very much a ‘wait and see’ game.
It was hardly easy too.
“Television is a very, very hungry animal. A news channel is a very, very hungry animal. Every hour, every minute, every second needs content. Otherwise it's black.”
❓So how did Tai Ho build CNA from the ground up?
❓Position CNA amidst other giants like CNN & the BBC?
❓ Gain support from the likes of former Singapore foreign minister, George Yeo?
❓Handle challenges like when he was summoned to China for their coverage of Falun Gong?
You’ll have to listen to Part 1 of this STIMY episode to find out. 😉
Part 2 will come out next Sunday!
Highlights:
🙊 Like STIMY? Buy us a ☕️?: https://beacons.ai/sothisismywhy
📍Show notes: https://www.sothisismywhy.com/146
💌 Weekly STIMY Newsletter on the art of storytelling + building your personal brand (+snippets of STIMY behind-the-scenes): https://sothisismywhy.ck.page/acd5bd1062
“Are you a masochist?”
“Do you love books that much?”
If you want to be a bookseller, than those are the questions you need to ask yourself - according to Kenny Chan, the former Senior Director at Kinokuniya Book Stores (Asia Pacific) - he spent ~20 years of his career there prior to his retirement!
But prior to bookseller, Kenny was a foreign diplomat at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Singapore, where he was posted to London as their Trade and Culture Attache.
He then switched to bookselling, first at Popular Holdings Limited, then MPH Bookstores Sdn Bhd, and back again at Popular when they launched their IPO!
And finally interviewed for a position at Kinokuniya.
The President & Chairman of Kinokuniya flew from Japan to Singapore to conduct the interview and asked Kenny just one question:
“Do you love books?”
As it turns out, Kenny gave me the exact answer he was looking for!
And even after retirement, Kenny remains deep in the bookselling world.
If you haven’t already guessed it, Kenny is the latest guest on STIMY!
And we dive deep into all things books & the art of evangelising.
❓Why does Kenny not judge people by their educational level?
❓Why did he initially become a foreign diplomat?
❓What was it like opening bookstores throughout Asia Pacific, Dubai and New York?
❓What was it like working at his dream company?
❓What is the secret to buying books & why is bookselling a spiritual experience?
❓How can aspiring authors can get Kenny’s attention?
Are you intrigued yet?
The YouTube version is out now too. 😎
Highlights:
🙊 Like STIMY? Buy us a ☕️?: https://beacons.ai/sothisismywhy
🍿 YouTube: https://youtu.be/1uCeI8LOI5Y
📍Show notes: https://www.sothisismywhy.com/145
💌 Weekly STIMY Newsletter on the art of storytelling + building your personal brand (+snippets of STIMY behind-the-scenes): https://sothisismywhy.ck.page/acd5bd1062
✍🏻 Leave a review on STIMY: https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/so-this-is-my-why/id1521191442
Gero DiMaria knows what it means to go truly viral.
He's an Italian chef & owner of Kucina - Singapore's first authentic halal food restaurant.
But he's also a bona fide Italian culinary superstar with over 500k followers on social media - 256k on Instagram & 252.6k on TikTok!
He took the world by storm with his recent series of viral reels on choosing the best pasta/cheeses in grocery stores, and that had a real trickle down effect on his business.
So we dig into all the juicy stuff, including:
❓ What does it mean to actually go ‘viral’?
❓ What kind of measurable impact has social media had on his business?
❓ What is his advice for leveraging social media for businesses?
❓ What have his toughest moments been?
❓ And who exactly is Gero?!
The goal: To understand the role of social media today, what it really means to go viral & how one can leverage on that social media reach to build your own business.
Highlights:
📍Show notes: https://www.sothisismywhy.com/144
💌 Weekly STIMY Newsletter on the art of storytelling + building your personal brand (+snippets of STIMY behind-the-scenes): https://sothisismywhy.ck.page/acd5bd1062
✍🏻 Leave a review on STIMY: https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/so-this-is-my-why/id1521191442
Would you die for your passion?
Most wouldn’t but for 58-year-old Swee Chiow, Singapore’s first professional adventurer, it’s a question he must face every day.
And it all began when he caught a glimpse of Mount Everest from a plane.
He was working in IT (Singapore Airlines) then, but he decided from that one glimpse that he wanted to climb Mount Everest - a dream that took him a mere 10 years to achieve!
The journey was hard.
He knew nothing. So he read many books & even went on a 10-day mountaineering course at Mt Cook that he flunked because he wasn’t fit enough!
In 1998, he joined Singapore’s first Mount Everest expedition. It was a disaster at first because:
❌ Their tent collapsed during a freak storm
❌ Their first attempt at the South Pole failed as they didn’t have enough rope - the Singapore media hounded them & issued headlines declaring that the expedition had failed
But they didn’t give up.
Their second attempt was a success!
But an exhausting one.
In the midst of the media glory, Swee Chiow knew he had to take advantage of it so he immediately launched Singapore's first Antarctic expedition.
Since then, he has:
Highlights:
Special thanks to Limpeh Studios (Hepmil Media) for the studio!
🙊 Like STIMY? Buy us a ☕️?: https://beacons.ai/sothisismywhy
📍Show notes: https://www.sothisismywhy.com/143
💌 STIMY Newsletter on the art of storytelling + building your personal brand (+snippets of STIMY behind-the-scenes): https://sothisismywhy.ck.page/acd5bd1062
✍🏻 Leave a review on STIMY: https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/so-this-is-my-why/id1521191442
Meet Lucas Lu - Head of Zoom Asia.
And also a fellow Sarawakian!
Lucas has had an illustrious career going from GM of Systems Technology Group at IBM Malaysia where they closed large deals within the first 6 months, leading to Lucas winning ASEAN Rookie of the Year - his first big recognition.
He ended up staying at IBM for 10 years and won 2 Global Golden Circle Award before moving on to become:
Prior to his current role heading the Asian arm of Zoom, covering ASEAN, South Korea, Hong Kong SAR and Taiwan.
While at first glance, Lucas appears to have had a very varied career, he has also been very intentional about every career move he’s made.
And has had no zero regrets with how it has turned out.
So we dive deep into this episode into all things career development:
❓ How has Lucas chosen the roles that he has?
❓ What is his secret sauce to climbing the corporate ladder?
❓ How should one find mentors/career sponsors?
❓ How does he plan his career & life (he has a plan for everything, including for his family members!!)?
Please do listen & leave a rating & review!
Highlights:
🙊 Like STIMY? Buy us a ☕️?: https://beacons.ai/sothisismywhy
📍Show notes: https://www.sothisismywhy.com/142
💌 STIMY Newsletter on the art of storytelling + building your personal brand (+snippets of STIMY behind-the-scenes): https://sothisismywhy.ck.page/acd5bd1062
✍🏻 Leave a review on STIMY: https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/so-this-is-my-why/id1521191442
The podcast currently has 177 episodes available.
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