Salt intern Wei-Yu Wang attended a recent gathering of the Technopreneurs Association of Malaysia to hear a talk about entrepreneurship.
I didn’t really know what an “entrepreneur” was. Like “businessman” (or “-woman”), it always seemed to be a rather vague descriptor of someone who didn’t actually have an occupation as such, but seemed to end up with money, and associated BMWs. Surely they must be doing something right, then?
I was going to be audience to a man called Dash that evening, and I had heard him being called an entrepreneur before. The event in question was a monthly gathering held by the Technopreneurs Association of Malaysia (TeAM) (a technopreneur, by the way, is—well, exactly as it sounds).
The purpose of these gatherings was twofold: firstly, to allow young and ambitious entrepreneurs-in-the-making to meet other like-minded individuals and construct a lucrative list of contacts, and also to act as a platform for proven successes, like Dash, to share their wisdom and experiences, and hopefully dispense helpful advice.
So the scene was set, to the backdrop of PappaRich Bangsar, and I stumbled in awkwardly. The room was fairly crowded already, and everyone already seemed to know everyone else. I felt somewhat out-of-place; sort of like the first day in a new school. I hid behind the depths of my notebook and tried to predict what the evening was going to be like.
Dash had proven to be an enigma, so far. ‘Dash’ was a nickname, of course, and quite the ink-saver compared to Dhakshinamoorthy Balakrishnan. I hadn’t managed to get a look at some good photos, so I didn’t really know what he looked like, although I had surmised he was probably Indian. I knew he was the founder of Warisan Global, a project management firm. I had found his rather messily-formatted blog but, sadly, hadn’t had the time to peruse thoroughly.
Somewhere, I had seen a mention of meeting Barack Obama, which I thought was rather interesting, as he tends to be hard to get hold of, as he likely is a very busy president. Just as I began to wonder whether Dash was planning a fashionably late entrance, the house lights dimmed (metaphorically) and he was announced. As it turns out, he had been sitting next to me for the past ten minutes. I hoped he hadn’t been reading over my shoulder.
Dash was an entertaining speaker who exuded a confidence that I guess can only come with the success he’s experienced from a very modest start. Entrepreneurship starts young, evidently, and his story began from his school days. The drive and hunger for success, he said, was key. Then, a pivotal moment of realisation: as a young man, on a routine trip to the pasar malam, he found a symbol of wealth and security by the side of the road; an eminent automobile, a Jaguar. Who, he asked, are you to own such? A businessman, came the reply, and that was all the inspiration he needed.
That same businessman advised him to become an accountant, the first step on the path to entrepreneurship – advice, Dash said, that he found to be wrong. But, believing it at the time, he joined an accounting firm for a while before leaving shortly thereafter with a distaste for the profession but with the added bonus of having met his wife. (Would that all first jobs lead to such fortune.)
It wasn’t much later he started his first company, putting nearly every material possession on the line to do so. This raised a point I hadn’t considered before: where there’s entrepreneurship, there’s risk. To get the capital to start a business, an entrepreneur must find a way to fund it, usually by themselves. His story continued to success, obviously, but I wondered what happens to those who rolled poorly, and subsequently lost everything.
But Dash emerged from the gauntlet unscathed and went on to bigger and better things. His efforts culminated with the founding of Warisan Global, and this combined with his involvement in Global Entrepreneurship Week (GEW) led to an unexpected invitation to the White House earlier this year, for the Presidential Summit on Entrepreneurship—which, of course, is how he ended up shaking hands with Obama.
But perhaps more interestingly than that—I know, what could be more interesting than that?—was the three-week trip proceeding the summit, where he was escorted around the country, meeting and speaking with some lofty academics and business professionals, from such institutes as Harvard University and the offices of Google. Some of these events have been documented in his blog.
Dash described his journey as a “crash course in an entrepreneurship MBA,” and he admitted that he learned a lot. I was particularly interested in his observations of the differences of professional attitudes between Malaysia and the US. For example, Dash noted that everybody there was faultlessly punctual, from CEOs to chauffeurs. A sign of good business etiquette and mutual respect, perhaps?
Someone in the audience asked him who he thought worked harder, Malaysians or Americans. Neither necessarily did, he said, but believed that, in general, Americans may work smarter, paying more attention to business fundamentals, using rigor, planning and thinking things through more completely.
Another thing Dash noted was how surprisingly humble everyone was, especially those in top positions. A respected lecturer informed him that the bulk of his material consisted of a brutal analysis of his own mistakes during his banking career. A department head at Google told him that the objective of a job interviewer was to find someone smarter than them, then hire him/her. How novel: a society that didn’t rely on keeping the other guy down just so you can stay on top.
Someone else asked him what about the Malaysian entrepreneurship he would like to see improved. He summarised thusly:
- It’s okay to fail. The attitude towards failure in the U.S. is much more forgiving, and ultimately beneficial to society as a whole. A failed venture should be seen as evidence of experience and growth, not a black mark.
- Believe in the young, because they have all the energy and best ideas. Don’t discount someone because of their age and inexperience.
- Live and let live. Aim to succeed, and to foster a culture where others also do.
- Think global. If you start something, don’t keep it confined; keep the entire world in view, and your potential will benefit enormously.
But it’s not all about just the success, Dash said. Another thing he saw that is absent in Malaysia is the willingness to give back what you have earned. The US. is rife with scholarships, programmes and donations, the objective of which is not money but genuine goodwill, something he does not see so much here. He has since tried to affect that directly; his involvement in GEW and the fact that Warisan Global focuses on social projects are telling.
Dash is obviously a hardworking person; the type who always dots his i’s and crosses his t’s. He didn’t explicitly say this, but I think that’s probably the biggest reason he is where he is today, and anyone wanting to follow in his footsteps would do well to consider that. His accomplishments are, after all, admirable.
But, I asked him, did he get his Jaguar in the end? No, he said, I got a better car. He didn’t elaborate. I guess he thought it was a silly, out-of-place question—which, to be fair, it was.
