TEH Wuan Xin is someone who doesn't like to procrastinate. She is not just a walking, talking Nike commercial: "Just Do It" is a mantra that the founder and chief executive officer of AI Talent lives by.
At 14, Teh launched a T-shirt business with some friends.
Even though it was done just for fun and on a whim, the business managed to break even for the four teenagers.
She was also a founding member of Food Ninja, which was a company focused on tackling food waste in Malaysia.
They launched a food management application that was used to collect food waste from various outlets to be re-distributed to animal farms.
However, Food Ninja was only operational from 2015 to 2017.
"The reason Food Ninja failed was because the partners could not fully commit to the business as we all had full-time jobs. I was working for a consulting firm at the time," said Teh.
Then, a 2010 car crash that claimed the life of a college friend further fortified Teh's belief that life was fleeting and one had to seize the moment.
"Joshua was a very good friend of mine. He was always there for me when I needed someone and was also very funny.
"I had accidentally deleted all his text messages from my phone before the fatal crash.
"Now that I think about it, it was probably his way of telling me not to think of him too much once he was gone. Even though he's not physically here any more, I can always feel that he's still cheering me on from wherever he is now," she added.
When Teh was a child, her wish had always been to "save the Earth".
The Penang lass, who is the middle child among three siblings, admires Nobel laureate Al Gore.
AI Talent was founded by Teh and two others in 2019 to provide global classrooms connecting children aged 7 to 16 to entrepreneurs and corporate leaders.
"I love children but I do not want to be a teacher per se. This business could give teachers an opportunity to earn extra income and also allows me to connect children to entrepreneurs and corporate leaders.
"It was during the implementation of the global Covid-19 pandemic lockdowns that my business actually picked up."
At the beginning, Teh had to go door-to-door to pitch her business to home tutors and tuition centres, who were her main clients.
The pandemic boosted demand for AI Talent and allowed the company to venture into Thailand, Singapore, Cambodia, the Philippines, Japan and Indonesia.
"Currently, we have 10 distributors on the team paid based on commission. They initially started out as coaches for the facilitation training programmes.
"Our clients (coaches and educators) would buy the licensing programme from us and we linked them to the business owners where the children could acquire skills such as photography and marketing in hour-long sessions.
"The number of students fluctuated due to school holidays or when the pandemic surged but the average number was 600.
"The students are divided into a team of five and they discover their own strengths as well as that of their team members. This is how they learn about team-building and entrepreneurship."
She added that her biggest challenge was getting participants from different countries and time zones to get together on Zoom to attend the classes.
"We have an 11-year-old student who excels in food photography on createbiz.my, a marketplace for child entrepreneurs.
"We recently launched a junior fashion designer brand and soon, we'll have a jewellery design programme," she said.
Teh also enjoys doing social work and networking, having helped out at old folks homes, children's homes and centres for people with special needs.
She recalled the time she
volunteered at the Stepping Stone Centre in Penang, which was aimed at increasing the employability of people with disabilities.
This was after she completed her studies at the University of New South Wales, Sydney in 2015 and had a six-month gap before her graduation.
She also volunteered her time at the dementia ward of the Prince of Wales Hospital in Sydney.
Meanwhile, Teh's advice to youths is to regularly update their LinkedIn account as it would be their resume in the future.
"Start creating content on LinkedIn. Give value to the audience. I started my LinkedIn page at the end of 2020 and it has worked well for me."
The writer was a journalist with the New Straits Times before joining a Fortune Global 500 real estate company. This article is a collaboration between the New Straits Times and Tradeview, the author of 'Once Upon A Time In Bursa'.
