What’s Next: Pick yourself up, learn, sharpen skills: Page 2 of 2

It’s not only about profits

As a software entrepreneur, Fusionex’s Teh (pic above) faced different challenges – his first at the tender age of eight.
 
With his mother a school-teacher, the young Teh was used to getting top marks in school. “But when my dad sent me to work in a bedding stall at a night market just to get some real-world experience, I came home that night with the first zero of my life.
 
“I could not manage to sell a single item to customers,” he told the What’s Next audience.
 
Dejected as he was, he spent a sleepless night trying to figure out what he did wrong. Nobody gave him any tips, but that next night, the young Teh managed to outsell the senior sales people.
 
“All I did was to pay a bit more attention to the customers, and based on the colour of the clothes they wore, sold them beddings that were of similar colours,” he said.
 
The point he made was that entrepreneurs are not born. Rather, entrepreneurship is something you learn along the way, with the critical factor being to learn from your mistakes and failures.
 
“You will fall and fall again, but pick yourself up and learn the lessons and continue to sharpen your skills – and that is how you eventually become successful,” said Teh.
 
He shared that Fusionex has made tons of mistakes along the way since he launched the company in 2008, leaving a comfortable corporate career fuelled with a desire to make a difference. “I wanted to make data more accessible, faster and cheaper,” he sais.
 
The biggest lesson he has learnt along the way?
 
“Learn to make a great product and aim to make your partners, customers and the ecosystem successful. Put yourself in their shoes and pay attention to details,” he said.
 
Teh also advises entrepreneurs to avoid thinking about how to make money from customers because people “can see the dollar signs on your face.”
 
“You can still be successful if you think this way, but in my books, it is not a recipe for big success,” he said.
 
To him, ‘big success’ comes from putting partners and customers first. They will reciprocate, he believes, by helping you become profitable and bringing you more business.
 
With a market capitalisation of RM904 million as of Oct 9, and a PE (price/ earnings) ratio of almost 47, that approach is clearly paying dividends for Teh and Fusionex.
 
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