That first break and the start of something great

When I was thirteen, my family moved to Chaah, another small town nearby which had a secondary school. That was the first time I saw running water, electric lighting, and a flushing toilet. Everything seemed like magic to me. I spent a part of my teenage years there – and later in Kuantan – making friendships that would last a lifetime. While my dad worked three jobs to provide for the family, my mom saved every cent she could, eventually buying a small durian plantation. This plantation would become my ticket to a university overseas.

When I turned twenty, everything changed when I boarded a plane to the United States, where I had enrolled at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. It was my first time flying, and the 30-hour journey made me realize just how vast the world really was. I didn’t know it then, but that exposure to a foreign country would completely open my horizons.

Blood, sweat, and steaks

At the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, I pursued a double major in MIS and finance. To complete it in the shortest time possible, I took 15 to 18 credit hours each semester, including summers. But classes were only half the battle, as I needed to work to cover my living expenses. Every weekday, I spent four hours flipping steaks at a nearby restaurant, where I discovered the wonders of Nebraska corn-fed beef. For extra money, I also worked Saturdays at the stadium cafeteria as a cook’s helper from morning until afternoon.

Needless to say, I was constantly exhausted from the relentless cycle of classes, work, and homework, especially with my heavy academic calendar. After the first year, some friends and I moved out of the university dormitories into cheap apartments nearby to save money. One of my roommates, who shall remain unnamed, woke me from an afternoon nap for something he thought was urgent. Tired and annoyed, I actually punched him. Fortunately, we remained friends, and he later became a partner in two of my business ventures.

Immediately after graduation, I launched IBI Consultancy in the U.S., remembering my mother’s words: “Start your own business. Never work for others.” I went door to door at five-star hotels, visiting kitchen after kitchen to find customers for top-grade beef.

I was young and broke, but sincere and always delivered on my promises. I hired my first employee around that time. She worked beside me every day, organizing meetings and designing proposals. She refused to take a salary for nine months, keeping faith even when the bills piled high. She became my wife in 1997, and we went on to have four wonderful children.

When opportunity knocked

In 1993, I had my big break when I co-organized the first-ever Global Conference for Creative Entrepreneurship with two mentors from the University. This was a series of international conferences where entrepreneurial students from various countries gathered to discuss global entrepreneurship, and one of the conferences was to be held in Kuala Lumpur.

We hosted high-level dignitaries, entrepreneurs, and thought leaders who discussed global entrepreneurship. Our Guest of Honour was Dato’ Seri Anwar Ibrahim, then Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance of Malaysia. The event not only placed Malaysia on the world map, but the connections made soon led to new business opportunities. At the same time, my halal beef import business started taking off with the first contract signed just before the conference.

That same year, I was invited to the Pan-Pacific Business Conference in Beijing. There, I met officials from Longchuan County in Guangdong Province who were seeking Malaysian investors. They appointed me Investment Advisor to the Longchuan County Government.

This became the seed of my expansion into China over the next decade. I became one of the first Malaysians to bring investors into China’s Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities. By the late 1990s, our work through the various IBI companies spanned highways, bridges, and airports, with over RMB 1 billion in total investment.

In less than a decade since getting up the plane and leaving Malaysia for the very first time, I had gone from flipping steaks to facilitating multi-million-dollar investments. Everything seemed to be going well. But as I would soon learn, success in business is never a straight line.