I met him a few times while I was involving in the construction of a new airport hanger in Miri. During that time, he just started his new airline business - Saeaga Airlines. The new hanger was constructed to park 1 unit of Canadair Regional Jet, 2 units of de Havilland Dash 8 aircraft and a few helicopters belonging to Saeage Airlines. He visited the site several times to make sure that everything was constructed according to his requirement. That how I met him, but we seldom talked.
Today, I have the opportunity to hear Tan Sri Ting delivery his legendary story of success personally. The talk was held in Four Point Hotel and I found the key notes below to be very meanungful.
Tan Sri Ting starting his talk by saying `In life there are not many hours. Times are fixed by God and there is no extra time in life to be wasted. Everybody need to sleep early, wake up early, and must catch up with time. Don't waste your time singing in Karaoke till mid night and fail to perform your duty the next morning.' He only sleep four hours a day and that a normal people need only eight hours of sleep, don't waste time sleep.
Tan Sri Ting also shared with us his experiences in life, starting from working as a plantation worker with a wage of RM6.00 per day at the age of 16, securing his first contract of RM 14 million planting 12,000 Acres of oil palm for Commonwealth Development at the age of 23, constructing a 300-rooms five-star hotel and a 300-rooms three-star hotel in Langkawi in 100 days, till completion of New Kuching Airport Terminal Building in a record breaking time frame of 18 months.Entrepreneur can identify opportunity, which others cannot. He continued saying `Each time he saw JKR constructing a building, which can be completed in two to three months, took more than a year, he would complaint to then JKR's Engineer in Bintangor of the inefficiency of JKR, which was wasting tax-payers' money.' This made him thinking of pre-fabricated house concept, every components pre-fabricated in the factory and installed on site to save time.
The construction of quarters for 8000 Bintulu Port Authority's staffs sown the seed of his success. With the help of his consultant, he proposed an alternative tender of RM80 million to complete the project in one year of which a normal construction process will take three years to complete and saving the government two third of the construction cost. Nobody dared to approve his proposal as it seem to be an impossible mission in the eyes of professional, and the proposal was then forwarded to Tun Mahathir, the then PM, for decision. To enhance the confidence of the Government, Tan Sri Ting stated a condition in his proposal that the construction cost shall only be paid upon his completion of the project, and this made him won the contract.
Indeed, he completed the project on time and Tun Mahathir trusted his ability and awarded him with several impossible mission, one of which was constructing Unimas old Campus in 60 days to house 500 students for a cost of RM 25 million.
Tan Sri Ting advised us to be self-employed by saying `Malaysia still have a lot of opportunity. Do something that you are good at. Start with small and gain experience as time advances, before you go big. Always willing to ask, obtain second opinion before making any decision. Not sure have to make sure, do not gamble. There is no short cut to success.'
Tan Sri Ting stressed a lot on Time Management. He believed in mass production to save time and cost.
When asked by Mr Lau when he intends to retire, he said so long as his body is still strong and mind is still clear, he will not retire, because he scares of bore, need to work to keep himself busy. To him, bribery to some extend is acceptable. One willing to give in exchange of other willingness to help, should consider it as a sign of appreciation. Ya, I agree with him to so extend, this is the culture in Malaysia, a sign of appreciation.
To question posed by Miss Yvonnes, Tan Sri said he doesn't have any particular system in placed in his company, such as that of computer system. But he stressed that hand on is very important part of executing a business, everything need to be checked personally. One must know the daily routine of his business, and avoid being cheated. Cheating seem to be everyday business nowaday.
Mr Ch'ng asking Tan Sri on his opinion of failure, Tan Sri said `Every event, there will be a winner and a loser. If everybody win, who will be the loser then. But, before considering a business decision, my advice to you all is doing thing within your mean and take only calculated risk. Do not do anything that others tell you not to do.' He cited that in Bakun Dam construction, he lost RM 1.5 billion of which he treated it as a cost learn. He said `It is just like paying my school fee to study in Unimas.' Wow...that is cool.
I also posed him a question, but unfortunately he only advised me not to sleep to much, otherwise others already start counting money and I still in bed. Ya...I know that time is money, but then feeling tired mah....Actually my next question to him will be how he managed to only sleeping for four hours a day, yet still very energetic? What to do, the mic run out of battern, and everyone called it a day. 
2 comments:
Great experiance right? Hope we can have more this kinna event.
thanks for the post.. u really lucky to have the chance to listen to his talk.
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