Entrepreneurship (1)

He may be only 34, but he already owns fashion company that has 14 local outlets, and more than 3o worldwide.

How he started? Mr Tan Yew Kiat opened his first local store at Tiong Bahru Plaza in 1998, with seed capital of only $60,000.

His unshakable motto and promise to customers - "'A new woman every day', and we have engaged in branding projects since Day One to get that right" said Mr Tan, who juggles his hectic business life with being a father of four.

After 12 years of hard work and determination of engaging in expansion and branding work, Mr Tan now owns over 40 outlets, both in Singapore and overseas.

Said Mr Tan: "Fashion is something that depends a lot on your creativity. There's no fixed policies, there's no definite answer for whether this piece of clothing will sell or not. You must really study the market trend well."

Kudos to Mr Tan for achieving astounding success! Many are like him, who started from a small local outlet, perhaps they even had more capital than him. However, many of them may not achieve success.

Mr Tan has taught me a very important lesson - in order for your work to succeed, you must love your work and have interest in it.

After all, in the very beginning, it was a passion for fashion that transformed a young Mr Tan, who was a delivery driver for his merchandiser mother (his father was a banker), into an entrepreneur. That, and hard work.

If one does not like his or her work, they will be no passion and hard work put in to pursue this interest. However, for people like Mr Tan, they can have the best of both worlds. When they work, they are actually also enjoying themselves in their "hobby" and interest.

Another significant take-away from Mr Tan's story would be that we must have a strong vision and motto for our company to succeed. As Mr Tan has mentioned, his company focuses on creativity, his company wants to a place where women will be different everyday. This is a good vision to start with, and coupled with his passion and determination in this field, his company manages to achieve this vision to the end.

I particularly like this quote - "Success is not the key to happiness, happiness is the key to success. If you like what you are doing, you will be successful"!