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Apr 17, 2010
 TWC seminar journal
by: Basil Teo

Mr TK Wong’s story was the one that inspired me the most. The other two speakers, Mr Bob Teo and Dr Ting Choon Meng, were undoubtedly sharing valuable advice with us students, but Mr Wong’s story left the deepest impression on me as his story of studying overseas mirrored my own education experience. Like me, he went to America at 17 years old. Unlike me however, he was able to secure a place in an elite university and even persuaded the government to grant him a scholarship. His method of enrolling in MIT first, then asking for a scholarship was quite ingenious. Unlike the way most Singaporeans perceive, Mr Wong has the admirable belief that true education does not all come from school and I share his sentiments. His other “mottos”: “Love what you do and do what you love” and “Do not work hard but work smart” were honestly a little cliché but I have to concur with the gist of those statements. After all, productivity increases, if you love work, and if you work intelligently and efficiently (common sense after all). So Mr Wong showed these often-preached and thrown-about phrases can be implemented successfully after all. I also respect Mr Wong’s entrepreneurship in forming Singapore’s first dotcom company. A lesser businessman would have not ventured in such unknown waters, but Mr Wong managed to create such a company and even got Richard Lee, the Hong Kong tycoon, to invest $88 million in it. He also bought the franchising rights to Ben & Jerry’s in Singapore, which was formerly not well-known in the country. In short time, he managed to transform Ben & Jerry’s into a household name for premium ice cream. His business instincts must clearly be razor sharp as he dared to take the plunge on relatively unknown ventures and still turn out a substantial profit. I frankly admire this trait of his. Mr Wong’s invaluable advice on having a solid team to run a successful business was much appreciated and had much truth. No one can single-handedly manage a company and pooling the resources and “brains” of individuals who share the company’s cohesive vision will go a long way in ensuring success; by tapping on the strengths of different employees, entrepreneurs will be able to negate their company’s weaknesses. Finally, even with such a huge amount of success, Mr Wong remains very down-to-earth. This has increased my respect for him. I will definitely keep his advice in mind when I do start my working career. I am not looking to be an entrepreneur, but his principles can be applied across a wide variety of business. His words have also made me eager to enriching myself from now on so that I have the needed set of attributes to succeed in my career.

Apr 13, 2010
 Guest Speaker Seminar
by: Rachel Ng

Mr. Wong Toon King inspired me the most with his speech. He was down-to-earth, had a sense of humour and showed that he really dared to be different. I thought his idea of giving back to the community directly through his business itself instead of giving donations was very practical. While I am not an inspiring entrepreneur, I felt that I could learn quite a lot from his talk.

One of the key lessons he mentioned was to “not let school get in the way of your real education” which really struck me. It is ironic in the sense that school is not our “real education” which got me thinking. In Singapore, society places a huge emphasis on education which accounts for the paper chase in getting qualifications. I have spent a better part of my life studying the schools’ curriculum. However, while education is highly important, the education system in Singapore largely stifles creativity and curiousity. During the year-end holidays last year, I started working part-time at Resorts World because I wanted to be part of the Universal Studios team. Through his talk, I realize that what i've learnt at my stint there would probably never appear in textbooks or journals. As I am interested in the hospitality field, it definitely was an invaluable experience. His talk gave me the motivation to continue to use my job at Resorts World and to discover other non-school opportunities to learn things that I could never have learnt from the textbooks and to find out if the hospitality industry is one that I want to be in.

Another key takeaway is his advice to “seize the moment when it comes” to be successful. We should trust our instincts, not second-guess ourselves and to not look back. I tend to be less of a risk-taker, more of a cautious and careful person. In this aspect, I learnt that if I really do feel very strongly about something, I should just trust my instincts and not hesitate. Huge opportunities do not come by often and it could very well change the whole situation. If I let the opportunity slip through my fingers, I could be regretting it for a long time. Hence, I will change my attitude towards risk-taking.

I especially like the advice to “plan for the worst in the good days and hope for the best is the worst days” because “when it’s the good days, the bad days are around the corner and when it’s the worst days, that means the good days are coming”. It really is quite true and I have never thought of it that way. I think this is applicable not just to an entrepreneur but to life in general. I feel this is the right mentality to have in respective periods of our life. We should not get complacent when things are going well for us and yet have the optimism in our darkest days. I think this is very practical for me to remember, as a sort of reality check.

Mr. Wong Toon King really is an inspiration not just in how to be an entrepreneur but how to live our lives to make the most out of them. And not forgetting, to never be afraid to stand out.
Apr 06, 2010
 Tk Wong's Pearls of Wisdom
by: Anonymous

Tk Wong's Pearls of Wisdom
By Ginna Divya
Mr. Wong’s life is an inspiration to me as I aspire to become a ‘techopreneur’ myself in the future. The fact that he chose to break away from the tradition despite being an MIT scholar with a comfortable job, is in itself an inspiration to me as I have always been brought up to believe that studying hard and secure that 5 figure salary is the only option I have to be successful. In recent years, speakers such as Mr. Wong have been opening my eyes to the possibility that there is an alternative way to enjoy what you do which incidentally does not always have to be a 9-5 job. Being an entrepreneur can be an extremely tough yet rewarding job if a person puts in the right amount of work, has passion for what he does and loves bringing ideas to life especially with new technologies. This is one of the lessons that were further cemented in my head when I heard him speak. Even as I interviewed him for the video segment of the talk, I was treated to many of his pearls of wisdom one of which was “It takes 10 years to sharpen your sword” which incidentally got me taking a step back to realize that not every entrepreneur will have a million dollar story to tell. As I think about the ideas for innovation and business models in my head every day, and start building castles in the air about how they would be wildly successful and I would become the next Bill Gates my interaction with him made me realize that I have to be cautious and patient as my idea incubates and grows as success rarely comes overnight. Therefore in my future endeavors I would definitely be as practice patience when necessary. For me, forming a strong team of diverse backgrounds and personalities is something I will adopt in the future. Also, as a student I have always noticed that I have had luck on my side. Be it not studying for a test and the test eventually being postponed because the teacher fell sick, or getting lenient interviewers for interviews, or even narrowly escaping accidents, lady luck has always been on my side, which means that the only thing that I lack in this aspect that I need to change is to trust my instincts or gut feeling. Since I already am lucky with many things in life, I should follow Mr. Wong’s advice and go with that gut instinct in order to succeed in whatever I do in the future. In conclusion, I feel that as a aspiring entrepreneur there is no fixed formula for success that I need to follow, but adhering to some wise thoughts of the success stories before me can’t hurt when I follow my dreams.



Apr 05, 2010
 Mr. Wong TK
by: Chen Weijian

On Friday night, I attended a talk as part of the Technology and World Change (TWC) curriculum. The guest speakers were Mr. Wong Toon King, Mr. Bob Teo and Dr. Ting Choon Meng. Their speeches were insightful and entertaining! Mr. Wong’s speech was particularly inspiring and filled with much wisdom. The one subject that really hit me hard was the talk about the pursuit of money.
Money was a topic that ran across all three speakers. They spoke of doing things that they are passionate in and not to be obsessed with money. I remember Mr. Wong reminded us not to “chase the money”. As I listened to his words, it struck me that all along, I have been doing just tha. As I relentlessly seek a better GPA and hopefully at the end of it get a high-paying job, I seem to have forgotten a very important point: “am I really interested in what I going to do in future”? If not, what I am going to do is probably not going to be sustainable in the long run. Hence I will now indulge in more activities to find out what I truly like. This allows me to discover my interests and strengths, and as Mr. Wong noted, when one’s strength and passion unite in perfect harmony, that is where he will be most successful and happiest.
Mr. Wong has also inspired me with his mantra of “not letting the situation define you”. In his case, he could not afford to go to USA and hence had to apply for scholarship. He even had a back-up plan. It is evident that he did not let his predicament hinder his goal. Instead he engineered the situation to keep his dream alive. This is where I can learn a lot. From time to time, I find myself in tricky situations and more often than not, I will blame my lack of luck for it. Mr. Wong’s refusal to give in to fate has inspired me to do the same. As such, I shall make the best of the cards I am dealt with and manipulate the situation to my favor.
Perhaps the most important lesson I got out of it knowing that life is not just about oneself. Mr. Wong spoke about moving on to the second part of his life, the part of doing good and being significant. This has reminded me that life is not just about me living a comfortable life. It is about giving back to the society as well. For them, this means seeing les stroke patients and “doing well while doing good”. And this is something I shall work towards. I want to do “what will matter”.

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