(This is reproduced from the posting I made on my Facebook Page on 27th October 2025.)

My first business venture after leaving my job as the founding chief editor of The Borneo Post was in publishing. I was only 21, hardly out of my teens, but looked and felt hardy, energetic and ever ready to take on all adversities. This book, The Rahman Decade, was among some of my early publications, dating back to 1980s.

The business was doing quite well in the beginning, until I began to think big and took on more than I could chew, with my limited business experience and financial resources. My subsequent entrepreneurial forays began to take a toll, and that was when the darkest days of my life were anchored in. For many years, I remember that nothing seemed to go right.

It was a most lonely and painful trudge, with hardly any acquaintances or friends who would believe in anything that I was trying to do. But I never thought of giving up as an option. Through it all, I think I kept my sanity by personally writing all my marketing brochures and handling creative work. Anything that had to do with new ideas and novelty, I would be hands-on and persistent, and still am. It has been more than 12 years since I started my Page on this digital platform, for instance, and I’m still at it.

So I guess the passion for putting thoughts to paper (or keyboard) and my journalistic instinct have never left me. As they say, communication is a means to a financial end, so I guess my way with words had in a way helped me rebound and expand after each setback. It is also my soft spot for the media that had me heading The STAR daily at one point. Later, I went on to establish my own publications like business weekly Focus Malaysia – they have since pivoted into the digital realm.

To be honest, journalism gave me more than writing skills. It taught me to ask the right questions, cut through the chase, recognize certain patterns and tell compelling stories. I guess these are universal assets in managing and growing companies. When we’re wired for curiosity and resilience, and a flair for controlling the narrative, we’ll have the kind of drive that moves people and businesses forward.