Bobby CE Ong

Some of you are aware that I was awarded the Sime Darby Foundation Scholarship after my A-Levels and I am currently serving my 5-year scholarship bond. A few days ago, I commemorated my 7th month on the job and I would like to spend some time writing about the things I wish I was more aware of when I was 19 years old before I inked my signature on the contract some 4 years ago.

1. The Scholarship Value is a Very Large Amount of Money

When I signed my scholarship agreement in mid-2009 to UCL, I just knew that studying in the UK is expensive. What nobody tried to put into sense to me was, IT IS VERY VERY EXPENSIVE.  For my 3 years of studies in the UK, it is worth about US$150,000 (RM450,000) as it covered tuition fees and living allowances.

The scholarship value could buy a double-story detached house in the suburbs of Kuala Lumpur or a massive bungalow in one of the smaller towns of Malaysia. With starting salary of about RM2,500-3,000 per month (~RM30,000 per annum) for a fresh graduate in Kuala Lumpur, it is worth nearly 15 years annual salary for a fresh graduate to fund the cost of studying in the UK.

2. The Scholarship Bond Period is a Very Long Period of Time

My scholarship bond period is 5 years and many people will say that it is short compared to other scholarships’ bond period. But 5 years is a very long period of time. It represents 50% of your twenties. Being tied down to a single company in a single location for 50% of what is supposed to be the prime of your life removes a lot of freedom associated with your twenties. You cannot just simply move to a different country, company, job type or lead an alternative lifestyle because you have essentially tied down your future to that job.

3. You Will Change a Lot After Going Through University

Your interest and aspirations will very likely change after going through university, regardless of where or what you studied, with or without a scholarship. What you thought would be a perfect job or opportunity as a late teenager may differ from your point of view of a perfect job as a fresh graduate. Your horizons will broaden and your interests change and you will feel like doing a different thing post-graduation. With a scholarship bond, you will be placed in a job that requires your skills due to business demand and sometimes you may not fancy the job role, company, industry or subject matter any more after university.

4. It Does Not Make Business Sense To Sponsor A Student for Overseas Education

It costs about RM400,000 to RM1 million to sponsor a student to US, UK or Australia for studies. This does not make business sense to any organisation at all. A simple returns on investment calculation will suggest that you need to create discounted business value throughout your scholarship bond period over the amount invested on you for the investment to be worthwhile.

It is highly unlikely that any scholar could generate that much business value from an entry level position during the bond period. If it makes business sense to sponsor students abroad, all the big firms would be doing it. Besides, the risks are high as many scholars fail to perform at school and at work. That is why most scholarships are given from the Corporate Social Responsibility budget i.e. in other words, you are a charity.

5. Your Parents Want What is Safe for You, Not What is Best for You

This is perhaps the biggest revelation to me. Your parents will tell you they want what is best for you, but really, what they mean to say is they want what is safest for you. Your parents will urge you to take up the scholarship while playing down the long bond period because that is the safest option. It’s an overseas education experience versus working experience tradeoff.  You get immediate benefits while deferring the payoffs to a later date. You get a free US$150,000 education without having to worry about money and you are sorted with a job after graduation. That is safety to most people.

6. There Is No Free Lunch In The World

When I applied for scholarships post A-Levels, I viewed scholarship bodies as banks giving out free money for me to go study. What I definitely forgot to factor in was banks DO NOT give out free money. They give out loans and you are expected to pay back what you borrowed plus interest.

In many sense, the scholarship bond has taught me a lot about debt and its crippling effect if not used properly. When you buy a house or car on loan, the bank essentially owns the purchase because it is a collateral by itself. In a scholarship agreement, you are essentially a resource to the organisation and can be deployed to any business unit according to the business requirements. The unfortunate part is, your deployment may or may not be to your liking.

7. You Are Very Lucky

If you received a scholarship, the first thing you should do is count your lucky stars. Do not even try to rationalise that you deserve the scholarship because frankly you don’t. Winning the scholarship simply says that you fit all the criteria that the scholarship bodies are searching for. I’m sure there are many other smarter people who just do not fit the scholarship criteria.

8. Pray That You Join a High-Performing Team with a Good Boss

This is probably the single biggest factor in whether you will feel happy serving your scholarship bond. Getting into a high-performing team with a great boss is really a matter of luck. If you found a good fit, you will be able to perform on your job. Very importantly, be nice to the HR personnel handling your scholarship file. They know which departments fit your personality and they know the vacancies available in good teams.

The corporate world is not created equal. Good bosses and jobs with good prospects are not found everywhere. So far, I can say that I’ve been one very lucky guy to join a dynamic team in HR Systems pioneering HR Analytics in the Group. We are probably one of the earliest companies in Malaysia to dabble in HR Analytics and being a pioneer in your industry is almost always a good thing. I can only count my lucky stars every single day that I’m serving this bond.

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Now don’t try to misinterpret this by saying that I’m not grateful for the opportunity to study abroad provided by the scholarship. The fact is I can’t be grateful enough for the opportunity. I would have had a very different life and would not be able to expand my horizons meeting all the interesting people in London and travelled extensively across the world had it not been for the scholarship.

At the end of the day I think the scholarship decision is really about the positives of having an overseas education versus the negatives of being tied down with a scholarship bond. I wished I was more aware of the other side of the scholarship coin so I could better appreciate my university experience. This Singapore Scholarship Guide I bumped into a few months ago is pretty useful and talks about roughly similar topic in greater detail.

In Economics, it is a basic assumption that people optimise their utility (happiness) subject to their constraints. This is not always the case in real-life because the rationality and perfect information assumptions do not always hold true. I can safely say that in my case, there is no way I can optimise any further with my career so far.

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Today I would like to write about the importance of role models and how I believe they play a very important role in bringing me to where I am today. I know I am no entrepreneur yet and you may be quick to dismiss me but this post will detail how I used role models to model my first quarter of my life growing up to win double scholarships to study in Singapore and UK.

Role Models Encourage You To Dream Big

My first role model growing up was my Dad. Dad was the first person that let my imagination fly far. Since about 5 or 6 years old I remembered Dad talking about his experience studying in England and travelling around Europe. He showed family members and I photographs of him visiting European cities and spoke fondly of his experience there.

I was a young boy then. I knew nothing (I still don’t know much) but all I knew was that the world is big, there is no limits to what I can achieve and England seems like an interesting place to go for university because travelling around Europe seems fun. I only knew London as the only city in England back then so I made up my mind to do university in London before I was even in primary school.

True enough, my childhood dream did come true about 12 years later when I won the Sime Darby Foundation Scholarship that paid for my university education in University College London. The scholarship gave me sufficient allowance that allowed me to live comfortably in central London without working and also to travel around Europe every semester break. Little did I know back then (I only knew parts of the following as I was applying to university) that Dad actually studied in Sunderland Polytechnic, up north in England, far away from London and had to work many hours as a kitchen helper washing dishes to have enough money to survive because his parents only gave him enough money for one semester. I also did not know then that he only had one summer to travel around Europe because he was working all the other time. The travel stories just sounded fascinating to me and I wanted to do the same.

My second role model growing up was Victor, the brother of a friend one year above me in primary school. I was 7 years old, having just completed my first year of primary school. Victor was 12 years old and just completed his final year of primary school. This guy would inspire me from afar throughout my primary and secondary schooling days and inspire me to head to Singapore.

I did well in Primary One and was at the school prize-giving ceremony. There, I saw Victor on stage being saluted for being a model student. He was the Head Boy of my primary school and did very well in the governmental primary school leaving examination. I think Mom made a short remark on how I should be like him when he was on stage. I made a decision then as a 7 year old and dreamt that I would be a Head Boy and do well in my exams too.

I do not have conversations with him. I only hear about him from my friend and Mom once in a while. He went on to a secondary school for studies. 5 years later, I heard he won the ASEAN Scholarship and is heading to Singapore to study. I made up my mind when I was 12 years old and dreamt of heading to Singapore on an ASEAN Scholarship after completing my secondary school too.

I did end up being a Head Boy in primary and secondary school, topped my class for several years throughout primary and secondary school, did well in governmental examination and won the ASEAN Scholarship to Singapore.

Role Models Show You a Path to Success

In hindsight, I would say I have been very lucky to be where I am now with the role models which I have accidentally chosen. I am very lucky that my parents guided me the right way when I was young. I modelled my life after the people I looked up to. I wanted to achieve what they achieved and do better. Looking back now, I would call this the Law of Attraction in action.

I could have easily looked up to a gang leader and life would have been very different. Success to me would then mean being the gang head and making life horrible for other people. Thankfully that did not happen.

Change Your Role Models at Different Stages of Your Life

Victor was a big role model for me throughout my schooling days when I was 7 to 17 years old. I do not have interactions with him – he doesn’t even know my existence until many years later when I bumped into him while jogging around London Regent’s Park when his sister and family were visiting him in London where he is completing his MBA in London Business School.

Victor stayed on in Singapore after his A-Levels to complete his university education. I switched my role model to Dad during my A-Levels years in Anderson Junior College when I was 18 to 19 years old. In many sense heading to London and travelling around Europe has always been my plan since young and I was adamant that I do well to fulfil my childhood dream and not do my university in Singapore or Malaysia.

Do Not Blindly Follow Your Role Models’ Footsteps

Dad and Victor has played their part as role models to me during the different stages of my life. I would like to make a point here that choosing a role model does not mean we copy exactly what our role model does.

We should not blindly follow our role models’ footsteps. We need to use our discretion and pick what is good and discard what is bad. Use them as an inspiration, copy the good parts that you want to emulate and adapt their achievements to best suit your needs. You may like your role models’ way of doing some stuff but think his attitude is plain horrible. Alternatively you may feel that your role model is not paying enough attention to his health or financial situation. Use another person to guide you in that part of life.

Copy and paste different elements of other people’s lives to form a combined role model for your life. You may like Person A’s achievement, Person B’s healthy diet regime, Person C’s exercise routine, Person D’s financial philosophy and it is not entirely wrong to combine them all into your life. Take inspiration from all these people to inspire your life in all these different parts of life.

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I have set new goals and new objectives after achieving everything I wanted to achieve in my first quarter of my life. Some goals like entrepreneurship has been with me since secondary school days and I am still trying hard after many failures. I have since picked new role models for the next phase of my life. Joel Gascoigne and Leo Widrich of Buffer are my current major role models for the second quarter of my life. For the third quarter of my life, I have Tony Fernandes, the CEO of AirAsia as my role model.

I believe everyone should have role models in life. We can all learn a thing or two from our role models. Role models help spark dreams and more importantly they help provide the fire to keep you chasing the dream.

What do you think about this article? Do you have a role model and what is your approach towards role models? Drop me a tweet or a comment below or an email at me@bobbyong.com and I would like to hear what you have to say.

Yesterday I made a decision to very carefully choose who I let into my social life. I am going to spend my free time only with go-getters who are running side projects or starting a business. In other words, if you are doing a 9-5 without doing anything more than that or running something else by the side, I do not really want to spend my free time with you. This is a very harsh stand to take but it is a necessary evil to help push myself in pursuing what I really want to do.

The Law of Averages Never Lies

The main reason I took on this strong stand is because I believe very strongly in this simple saying by Jim Rohn but found it very hard to improve my average.

You are the average of the five people you spend the most time with. ― Jim Rohn

It is not the easiest thing to follow for many people harbouring hopes of success. In fact, for many, the dream of achieving something remains a distant dream for many years until it is forgotten because life just simply seem to follow its own path without the right people to motivate you. There are so many excuses that comes out causing an initiative to be postponed, cancelled or forgotten.

I have been trying very hard to get something going on for a long time. I have started and failed launching countless websites and part of the reason I failed is because I tend to throw in the towel too early because I get demotivated when things do not pick up. Launching anything is a lonely journey and without the right support group, it is very hard to stay on the same path.

Change Your Environment

Joel Gascoigne made a very strong point when he said that the best way to help others is to help yourself by packing up and leaving your hometown. I totally agree with Joel’s point because it is tough staying in your hometown. You are surrounded with parents and friends from school. You will also find it hard in starting new positive habits. Parents, although they love you, would prefer you to be in a stable 9-5 and not risk uncertainty in a startup because if it all fails, they know you will come back to them with your tail between your legs. Old friends from school, although fun to hang out with a beer or two, are most likely friends that do not share the same goal of launching a business like you.

One of the toughest things to accept as an ambitious entrepreneur is that you are affected by your environment and the circle of friends you have. We have far less willpower and self-control than we like to admit to ourselves. - Joel Gascoigne

It is easier moving to a different country because you start without any ‘baggage relationships’ to pull you back. Given a choice, I would have lived in a different city upon graduation but I am very constrained with a corporate 9-5 job here in Kuala Lumpur that I have to work because I signed a contract 4 years ago as a 19-year-old to take on a scholarship offered by a Malaysian MNC that paid for my tuition and board in University College London in return for a 5 years working contract upon graduation. I am grateful for this opportunity no doubt, don’t get me wrong. However, having no choice of who I spend my 9-5 with, the only free time I have becomes very valuable, and it is imperative that I work on a side project and spend time with people of similar mindset to stay motivated.

Joel’s cofounder in Buffer, Leo Widrich also said something very closely similar, which I strongly agree:

It doesn’t matter how smart you are. It doesn’t matter how talented you are, which skills you have, where you are born or which family you came from. All that counts if you want to be successful in life is the people you surround yourself with.

Lastly, Seth Godin said something about outliers that made the strongest impact and inspired me to consider this decision in the first place:

The easiest way to thrive as an outlier is to avoid being one. At least among your most treasured peers. Surround yourself with people in at least as much of a hurry, at least as inquisitive, at least as focused as you are. Surround yourself by people who encourage and experience productive failure, and who are driven to make a difference.

I cannot leave Kuala Lumpur without incurring significant cost but I can surround myself with go-getters in Kuala Lumpur  (if you are wondering, my student ‘debt’ if I walked out of my current work contract is nearly US$150,000). If I cannot stay motivated at home, I must change my environment to be more conducive in working on my side project. It has been 6 months since I relocated from London to Kuala Lumpur. It is time I make something out of my life again and get the side project going that will hopefully turn into something bigger. I have made the decision to spend most work days at Publika between 6-10pm after-work to work on my side project in one of the cafes with other people who have a similar objective. If you are working on your business and want to spend time working on your project together, feel free to drop me an email.

Do you agree with the idea of surrounding yourself with go-getters? Drop me an email or a tweet with your thoughts. I would love to hear from you.