When I first got the invitation from Chun Kit, the project director of Enactus, the first question that came to my mind : how on earth that they found me, and why me? But Tai Hau being Tai Hau, I grab every opportunity that comes to me. I love talking in front of crowd, I love sharing, and I often get inspired attending talk. This is the very reason why I accepted the invitation, to talk about the journey in front of 100+ undergraduates from USM, UMP and UUM. Very honoured and humbled to be invited.
I feel both excited and nervous at the same time because I am sharing the stage with the legendary burger cafe's founder, Wee Kiat. An infamous face in F&B industry, an enlighten start up founder cum blogger and EY Young Entrepreneur nominee. Then I found out more about another speaker, Mr Ko, the executive director of + Solar, the dominant player of solar power industry in Malaysia, with a turnover of multi million dollar.
Okay Hau, wait a minute. What are you going to share? And who are you compared to these guys?
Self doubt and low esteem kicked in, adding even more fuel to my burning nervous. With all the overflowed jobs that pilled up since last week and Air Asia post event follow ups, I had little time to focus and plan for the talk. I decided to do a more down to earth sharing, instead of talking about all the cool stuffs, I wanted to share about the challenges and emotion.
So the talk began. And ended. Followed by Wee Kiat's and Fax's.
I learned a lot from both of them. Not just about the story, but the way to present too. Wee Kiat has a lot of empathy elements in sharing, and he can connect well. I got the chance to ask him more about his journey personally (I've read his blog and really respect this guy a lot)
Then Fax. This guy is good! Speaking of gaining experience and garnering resources before venturing into an industry that requires solid fundamental and technical knowledge, he has executed flawlessly. Spending 4 years working with different companies to starting up his business with 100k and getting multi million turnovers in the 5th year, this is the technical-to-business path one will take.
Then come to this point when I start to think, what would the audience perceive about our sharing. Was mine too shallow? or too irrelevant?
We had tonnes of photo sessions after the sharing. Before leaving, a young lady walked up to me and thanked me. Funny thing was that I asked her : why thank me?
She answered that I cleared her doubts and the questions she has been having all the while. Whether or not to choose to start a business. This sharing I really opened up to share about my own feeling and experience rather than giving all the politically correct answer. And she valued it.
"I was so focused during your sharing and you've given me the answer" this makes every single second spent preparing the talk worthwhile.
I think our sharing resonates with different people. Some find mine relatable, while I find theirs relatable. I admire and respect them for what they've done, they may find the same about me.
Everyone has their own story to tell. Let's not be inferior about our own, You'd never know how powerful yours is. After all, every business is different, there's no way to compare, and there is no need to compare.
