It has been my dream for a long time, to write a book on my life story. I drew inspiration from the memoirs of our former Minister Mentor and it is a story filled with pain and struggles beginning from my earliest childhood. There were poignant experiences from which I drew insights into life, and they have shaped me to what I have become today, as a Vice President, Quality Management with a multi-national organization.

My story begins in 1957. My biological parents who are Roman Catholic moved from Alor Gajah, Malacca, Malaysia to work in Singapore and shortly after that, I was put up for adoption to a Singapore family residing to what is now known as Dairy Farm Estate. Till today I have no clue as to why I was put up for adoption being the oldest in the family of 7 siblings. My siblings, of 4 younger sisters and 2 younger brothers, now live in different parts of West Malaysia, while 1 younger sister and 1 younger brother live with my biological parent in Kota Tinggi, Johore Bahru where they operate a successful timber business. One of my younger sister who is also my loving sister works with my biological parent has just recently passed on and a saddest moment to me.

My adopted family who are Buddhist, both my parents have since passed on. There were 4 siblings of 2 elder sisters and an older brother with me being the youngest in the family.

My adoptive father came from Tong'An District, Xiamen, Fujian Province, China and in order to make ends meet to support an ever growing family, he established few small businesses, both legal and illegal. He owned a small provision shop, rooms-to-let as well as an illegal gambling (mahjong) den.

From an early age I was "groomed" to run the businesses including being a lookout for police should there be any raid take place. I am also the handyman to support the 6 tenants, a jack of all trades, supplying maintenance services like repairing leaking roofs and water pipes, changing blown light bulbs, painting jobs and many more. At times I was also roped in to be a mediator for any disputes among the tenants.

At age 13, I was enrolled in the nearby Catholic School of Boys’ Town English School. It was a school runs by the Brothers of St Gabriel and during that time, it was reputed to be a home to boy gangs as well as boys from broken families seeking refuge to study and stay. To be accepted by the “establishment” I had to join a gang so as to be well protected from bullies or thugs. In 1973, Boys' Town English School merged with CHIJ Bukit Timah to become a Co-educational Catholic mission School, now known as Assumption English School where it has influenced me in my believe in Christ and was baptised as a Roman Catholic.

In 1975, my adoptive mother who was my pillar and support in life passed away and it was the saddest moment of my life. It was also the turning point in my life. I had to stop school at that time to look after the family businesses but I had the tenacity and the will to complete my education by doing part-time studies. After my studies I was conscripted in the Singapore Police Force to serve my national service and that was one of the factors that had turned my life around.

I worked hard after my National Service stint as a production operator and rose to the rank of senior position. I spent 25 years in the industry and throughout this time I studied part-time collecting a total of 58 different certificates, two diplomas, a Bachelor’s Degree in business, two Master’s Degree in business excellence & knowledge management and now was conferred with a Doctorate Degree, recently, I had completed and graduated my specialist diploma in advanced digital manufacturing from Technical University of Munich (Asia) to equip myself with the knowledge of the new digital age in Industry 4.0. It is my belief that life long and continuous learning is one of the most important career developments one can achieve in one's working life. Having qualified as a Tony Buzan's Qualified Instructor, my aim for my next educational goal is to complete a Master degree in Artificial Intelligene degree in my area of interest and for personal development.

I now worked for a German company, called TUV SUD PSB Pte Ltd, (f.k.a PSB Corporation Pte Ltd) as a Vice President, Quality Management. The satisfaction here is also due to my interest in the job support from the organisation, the trust and support given by all my bosses and my own goals of continuous learning. Afterwhich, I will scout around for another education courses that can continuously develop my brain power and knowledge development.

To this end of my story, I would like to impart my strong personal belief with a short quotation;

“If you belief that it is possible to achieve something that can add value to you, then you must be determined with a strong mindset, you must put your heart to wholeheartedly learnt it and must put into practice, never every stop along such learning journey, most importantly, you must understand it and must implement it to make it happen right the first time.”