[Applause]
you can do it you can turn impossible to
I am possible you can you can and you
can when I say this to people you know
they often cringe they say that oh thank
you you can of course of course you can
because you know you regardless of race
language or religion you can you can you
can of course you can because you are a
celebrity you’ve gone on 30 television
shows you are an international
best-selling author and you can speak
with the power point of so is our
amazing nasira’s now everyone can it’s
so easy isn’t it oh because you’ve been
on the UN stage and you are on the Wall
Street Journal and you have spoken at
Harvard of course you can Surya you are
so lucky
Who am I Who am I Who am I to do what
you do
you are superhuman I am NOT I am nobody
well just like a ballerina performing on
stage so beautifully right what we do
not see is the broken bones that goes
behind the scenes isn’t it so allow me
to pull the curtains to show you the
broken scenes behind the curtains to
show you that special privileges that I
got for myself when I was a school
dropout I was okay in primary school I
was okay in secondary
school and then when I went into my pre
university days I was more interested in
boys than books
sounds familiar so that was me that was
me and I was more interested in boys and
bulls and you know it doesn’t really
help that my relationship with my father
wasn’t really good we’re sick in the
same house but we don’t talk so he’s
very authoritative and say you do a meth
and you do a counting is very good for
you it’s good for your future sit for
the exams well I did that I set for the
exams I did that I set for the exams but
I didn’t do anything I wrote my name I
wrote my name index number and I said
for the exam but I did not do anything
for my accounting paper for my a math
paper and I got a zero zero for both
papers and then got a welcome to the
principal’s office and a nice VIP exit
out of school so I was kicked out from
school and I didn’t want to tell my
father eventually he found out but not
talking times not talking equals still
not talking right so I went around
bumming in my life worked at 7-eleven
worked at the factory worked at the
childcare center here there but no way
no way and I was in a very abusive
relationship also and I was physically
abused throughout those years and my
parents didn’t even know about it and
suddenly one day something happened that
totally totally rocked me changed my
life my father who had not been talking
to me at all
suddenly just stood up in front of me
and he did the unimaginable no he didn’t
beat me up no he just stood and he just
cried and cried and cried just tears
rolling down his eyes and I was
speechless I didn’t know what to do I
don’t know how how to react and I just
looked at him and he looked at me in the
eye and he
just said one sentence uh I didn’t honk
ow
what’s gonna happen to you and I knew
right there and then that I had
disappointed him so much and I was
asking myself deep inside is this what I
want to do disappointing him and he’s
already so old and I made that decision
right on that spot that I was gonna
change my life that I was gonna take my
a-levels again as a private student but
I couldn’t say all of that to him I just
said it in my heart and I did it I said
I did my night classes and then
eventually I know set for the papers and
just before the exam results were gonna
come out he just died of a sudden heart
attack just like that he was gone and I
remember just crying in front of his
body it’s crying and crying and talking
to him but he was no longer there it was
just too late I was telling him my plans
I was doing this for you you know I love
you talk to me talk to me but it was
just too late I grew up ten years wiser
just by the incident and I realized that
I could take my own sweet time but my
parents I don’t know when will be the
expiry date so I got my results and it
was really really good
and I wanted to pursue nutrition a cause
that wasn’t available at a time in
Singapore so I went like you know and
found out that I got a place in
Australia and when I got that place and
the second thing happened also changed
my life more than any professors in
university would have taught me I told
my mom that I got a place and she looked
at me and that was this long silence and
she said how much I said $60,000 mom I
knew money that we didn’t have at all
and she asked me one question she said
do you really want to study and I said
yes of course if we have the means and I
know we don’t have the means it’s okay
no do you want to study then I said yes
if I have the chance and she said how
much do you need first I said at least
$6,000 mom to pay for everything the
first semester fees and all that she
said porn all the jewelry porn all the
jewelry and take everything and just go
and he said but how how am I gonna
survive month after month after that she
said just go we will figure it out you
jump and then the net will appear that’s
a philosophy in life and figure it out
she did so while I was studying she took
up jobs
she is illiterate she could not read she
could not write she’s never been to
school so she could only do cleaning job
so she was working at the airport as a
cleaner or cleaning toilets from 12:00
midnight all the way till 7 o’clock in
the morning and that money wasn’t enough
and then it’s done
7 and she’ll continue 10 o’clock all the
way till 5:00 at the condo cleaning also
and that also is not enough and when
she’s done she’ll go to the restaurant
very busy restaurant at Bedok dinner
time crowds
6 o’clock all the way till 11:00
cleaning the tables picking up the
plates cleaning the tables picking up
the pigs all the way till 11 and then 12
midnight to 7 o’clock and then 10 to 5
and then 6 to 11 7 days a week non-stop
for 3 years not one single day of
medical leave and she was 60 years old
when she was doing all of that so I knew
I could not fail and I did very very
well when I was in Australia I got a
student exchange to the US and then I
came back and finally I achieved my
father’s dream that was to be a teacher
which I did so these are the two amazing
people in my life and I went on taught
for five years studied hard like got a
good job and then things happen got
married have two kids one after another
that’s them that’s them now 15 and 16
so yeah I was not easy like you know
working teaching and then having these
two little almost like twins and then I
decided like I want to create I just
want to create I want that $3,000
paycheck paycheck as a graduate create
and just do something so I decided to
open up a business which is a nutrition
clinic because I know how to lose 20 kg
without exercise right so I knew that
this is going to be a big hit so I open
up my nutrition clinic six months down
the road I owe five banks $80,000
because I don’t know how to sell I don’t
know how to do a business I only knew
how to collect a paycheck that’s all I
knew right to have a boss pay me money
but I don’t know what to do if you leave
me on my own doing my own business I
wouldn’t know what to do so I was left
with that eighty thousand dollars that I
couldn’t go back teaching because when I
left I was still bonded so I still had
to pay the government which I still have
not paid at that time so I was stuck
with this 80k debt and I cleared that
eventually by asking for the key so the
key is the formula asked for the key
always seek knowledge because knowledge
empowers you I know how to lose 20 kg in
three months but I don’t know how to
make twenty dollars in three months so I
needed the marketing knowledge the
business knowledge and I soaked them up
like a sponge and I made it finally I
net about two hundred fifty thousand in
my first business a second business Atem
in the education business and was all
good and great until I lost everything
again why because I have the first end
the first time is knowing how to make
money but I didn’t have the second M
which is how to manage my money I
invested my money not in a property none
of that but I gave eighty thousand to a
friend who wants to open up a boutique
you should have been my best friend at a
time right so and then twenty thousand
dollars for an equipment for a gym and I
have two gyms at that time so these
businesses all went bust and I lost half
a million dollars
and at this period also I went through
my divorce
so I didn’t have a home I was living in
my office and I couldn’t live in my kids
because I was broke
so it was the lowest point really in my
life at that time having the you know
societal is like understatement at that
moment to be minus half a million
dollars and going through all of that
and that was a time I remembered what my
mom said my mom said that you need to
have a Y that makes you cry and you will
have a way that makes you fly and what
will my Y my two kids were my wife they
were the one who gave me the fuel to get
me going they would say they were very
young at that time and he’ll come to me
and they will say that Oh me they say
that you don’t love Azumi oh hey they
say that when you die there will be a
lot of money on your grave for me like
what no not from the ex-husband okay my
ex-husband from the father no he’s a
very nice man but from the people around
you know the people are out we’re in the
same planet and we write you have such
people don’t you people who push you
down when you’re even down right so
that’s what happens so I felt so down
and I said at the same time that was my
fuel I said I’m not gonna grow you know
like let them grow up and look at me as
his useless hopeless mother that they
said that I was no no way that’s gonna
happen so what I did was I had some
money left that was supposed to be the
rent that was overdue and instead of
paying the rent I picked my max and I
went to the US and I took an MBA for a
few days it’s not that kind of a median
you’re talking about in the university
no no no this is all about marketing
mindset but a different kind of mindset
I took different mentors mentors who
have been bankrupt before and how they
rose up I wanted to know more about how
to rise up from people who would teach
me and marketing news new ways of
marketing how do I get clients I want to
learn online marketing so that’s what I
did so I soak it all came back to
Singapore and this one lady changed my
life and she said that if you do this if
you only focus on this you
gonna make it and it is free and it is
good so what is free free is a great
word for me right now right at that time
so I said what is free and good Facebook
Facebook is good Facebook is free so I
decided to come back and just figure out
this Facebook monster how do you make
money posting pictures on Facebook your
cat or whatever why you eat right so I
figured it out I cracked the code
I had my fanpage and I became famous on
Facebook and it brought my sinking
Titanic I got a lot of clients from
Facebook and I got many many many many
such such such messages as well please
help me Surya please help me help me and
help me so I decided to run classes
after classes and it was about helping
people he teach them how to fish instead
of giving them the fish and I started
new businesses and that was when I broke
my ten million dollar sales and I earned
my half a million in just 10 months and
I got my biggest dream come true and
that was to have a birthday party for my
daughter in my own house
which I did and I remember my daughter
you wrote me a note and she said Umi
this is the best day of my life and I’ll
never forget that for the rest of my
life and that saved my dignity so I went
on with my life and the dignity was
reclaimed I was able to send her to a
good school she did very well and this
was a moment of triumph because this
useless hopeless good-for-nothing mother
is the one that finally is able to
reclaim her dignity again and I got a
cat I love cat but this cat is a
different leak right and it is not just
about this cat right and I don’t have a
driving license by the way so it is not
about the material but it is the smile
on my mother’s face and that is
priceless
that is truly truly priceless and we
just need to have that why that makes us
cry the wire is going to keep us going
the smile on the people
face that Metis to us and that’s gonna
keep us going to the life’s ups and
downs ups and downs and all these
challenges in my life and I’ve realized
that there’s one thing that no one owes
me a living no one owes me a living and
I have guiding hands in my life mentors
people who have helped me my mom she’s a
teacher to me my friends the people who
believed in me when no one would believe
in me and my enemies and my haters they
are also my mentors because their
feedback their criticisms are fuel for
me and I use their criticism to fuel me
and I never run out of energy its own to
the University of hot knocks in life and
that is the experience in life the best
teachers are the experiences in life the
experiences in life the ones that has
helped me mold me into what I am being
sexually abused at age five and being
physically abused through all my teens
have molded me into the woman that I am
today from a so useless hopeless person
that I was to a woman who now champion
for the causes of sexual and physical
abuse and adopting charities where I
could reach out to them and this school
dropout this school dropout who finally
made the green and studied in three
universities have taught me that every
child is a potential genius and there’s
two sides to the coin and the most
important coin is a coin that the
parents play to nurture the child true
positive parenting and true being
divorced twice have taught me and
empowered me to now empower other women
other single mothers who are struggling
financially and true being an
entrepreneur who have lost 580,000 has
taught me to explore new horizons beyond
borders beyond anything else and explore
anything that is possible that can help
create an income besides that just one
paycheck so event eventually my mess has
done into a very very beautiful message
and I know that everyone regardless of
race language and religion beyond all
our borders we all can make it we just
need to have a why that makes us cry and
we will find a way that makes us fly see you at the top thank you