From losing his 9 – 5 to writing his own success story – entrepreneur Ray Pang is proof that personal strengths and traits are your individual keys to success. Regardless of academic privileges and skills.
Ray Pang Si Heng grew up in a traditional Asian upbringing where his strict parents were keen to make sure he had academic success. Academic success, however, was not Ray’s strong point. It wasn’t that he didn’t have the skills; as a small boy, he was top 3 in his class. It was just that other things were of greater interest and importance to him – primarily football and socialising with friends! Ray admits himself he gained a bit of a reputation at school, “Having a reputation will result in people having a polarising opinion of you.” He goes on to add, “I knew how to handle the negative comments of other people and came to understand that life is not about pleasing everyone, it’s about finding your tribe of people who you can trust and truly care about you.”
There was a point when Ray decided to knuckle down and achieve the grades that would make his parents proud. It was during a time when he found himself unable to enrol into a good university, due to his low grades in his Singapore- Cambridge college graduation exam. This result inspired him to travel to Australia, where he worked hard to learn academics – and this time he was a success.
He received an internship at a FinTech start-up, taking on roles in several different departments such as operations, finance, partnerships and executive meetings. This variety in his working life enabled him to gain a lot of knowledge in business and also expand his confidence. It also reinstated his skills working as a team – something that had been clear during his football playing days. During school football, he also showcased his natural skills as a team leader. Strong attributes that have, no doubt, helped him to become the owner/co-owner of multiple companies, with Ray, himself, collecting a $100k-a-month income.
His path ultimately led him to success – but not just his own. Ray’s brand Addicted2Success Academy is a world-class self-development education platform that aims to help ambitious entrepreneurs, coaches, speakers, and aspiring online influencers to learn directly from a collection of world-class elites in the business world. Ray also offers the Speaker Agency, which was set up to help coaches, speakers and thought-leaders to build, grow, and, ultimately, dominate in their industry online using relationship-driven business developments, marketing, sales strategies and teams.
Like with so many venturers who succeed, Ray has had his fair share of ups and downs. There were the academic misfires, and he was laid off from his FinTech job, due to the company’s financial difficulties, but this ended up pushing him to find other ways of making an income, “After realising that putting my future and my situations at the mercy of just one company and whatnot, I quickly concluded that I had to find a way to make money in any condition. And I knew I had to make money in different ways so that whenever one source gets cut off and when things don’t go according to plan, I could still live comfortably.“