Vision and simul in business

I've had 3 business mentors in my life. The late Mr Arumugam, owner of RIMA college, the late Datuk Hisham Albakri of Kumpulan Arkitek and Mr Yan Kok Yuen of Syuen.

Today I would like to share some stories of Mr Yan. Mr Yan started out in life as a tailor and was only educated to standard 6. Yet his was probably the most incisive mind I have ever met. I was always awed by the way he could cut through a problem and see issues clearly. Putting to shame all the rest of us with higher education.

I've had over 10 years now to figure out how and why he could always see more than the rest of us.

First was, he had almost no imagined fears. And the second was that he was a possibilty thinker with few peers.

He saw a multi million dollar/ multinational business from looking at his threads and needles. A Visionary. If only we could see half as much, what would we accomplish?

Very soon after joining him, I asked him why he normally had dinner spread out over 6 or 7 tables at his chinese restaurant. He smiled at me and said, "Raymond, every table represents a deal. Every time I sit down, I evaluate where the deal is, what else we need put in/or subtract to move it forward and which deals are not going to pan out and need to be dropped.

Simul being played out in business deal making. Amazing yes?