I guess to deal with hardship is to not view it as hardship in the first place.
Don’t view things as failures and understand, If you wanna see it as hard, fine, but remember this, Anything good is gonna be hard to get anything worth it. It’s gonna be so difficult to get.
So, I’ve drilled that into my brain. whatever approach I take towards something I don’t go saying it’s Hard.
For me it’s like yeah it’s hard but it has to be hard. It’s good. Of course, it has to be hard.
If it’s easy then it’s on the surface. You know the good things are all underground, you need to put in the effort.
The oil, the diamonds all are deep underground, you gotta dig deep.
If you want it easy, to just get the surface, you’re going to get dirt and sand. That’s just how it is.
So approach life, not thinking of it as a hardship that’s there to bring you down, but it’s a hardship to strengthen you.
I’m half Kiwi, half Malay but I was brought up in more Malay culture and Malay-oriented home. I didn’t really manage to study that far, I’m just an O-level holder due to some financial reasons when I was younger.
So that’s pretty much it, just an
average guy, studied in an average school in an average neighborhood.
2. Did you ever think or dream of being an actor?
When I was a kid, I actually really, really wanted to be in the entertainment line, but more of voiceover acting, not really as an actor but I never knew how to enter the industry. I was just a kid.
I love entertaining people since I was a kid. I actually gave up on the dream because everybody around you was saying things like, “If you want to be an actor, that should be your hobby. You should find a real job to support yourself,” That gave me an idea that acting is not a real job so I gave it up when I was just a teenager, and then suddenly in 2010 my best friend wanted to enter a reality television show, it’s called ‘Anugrah screen’.
He asked me to accompany him and in order to accompany the person you
have to register, If you don’t they won’t allow you in. So, I registered. Long
story short, three months later I won the competition and I became an actor
ever since.
3. How can one approach their career and have the confidence and belief to become an actor?
My belief is that any approach in life, whether it’s a career, family, everything, you gotta have the right mindset. You see people don’t achieve success being such a negative thinkers.
They doubt themselves. You know the moment you doubt yourself; it will be your reality because you don’t even want to make an attempt. So always remember, in a way it’s kind of like the law of attraction.
Your mindset, It has to be right. But of course, the law of attraction you cannot just take It, Pursue, you know it has its paradigm, you know, like the paradigm, the multitude of habits that you have to be, what you wanna be.
if you wanna be an actor, Are you hanging out with the right
social network that is in the industry? because who you hang out with will also
play a part in what you’re going to be. The
first habit, your social circle, at least the five people that you spend your
most hours with, ‘cause you’ll be the average byproduct of that five.
4. If not this, what would you be doing?
One point of time when I was a child, I wanted to be a narrator or I wanted to be a television animal host, but we don’t have that in Singapore. Then at one point of time I wanted to be a pilot.
So, it varies. But if let’s say I’m not acting, I’ll be doing probably two things. One of it is content creation on motivation, on how to inspire people, how to shift their perspective.
Second, I would love to be an entrepreneur, I would like to have my own business online something digital. Because I learned social media marketing and digital marketing. So I wanna use that.
5. How did you deal with the hardships faced acting industry.
There’s a thing, though I’ve never really felt I was pushed to the limit till I wanna give up. I never had that mindset. I wanted it; I just went for it. Before I came to Malaysia to be a full-time actor I was in Singapore and everyone knows, in Singapore It’s very hard for you to be a full-time actor.
It is really difficult, especially for television. So, most of them, we have part-time jobs to sustain ourselves. For me, I was new in the industry at a time so I knew if I took a full-time job I could never act or I can never take serious roles because it requires lots of commitment.
So, for about a good four to five years, I was just changing jobs halfway in between my projects. I was a waiter. I was a dishwasher. I was a mover. I was a bouncer. I was a hotel gym tendon. I was a financial advisor for Phillip Securities at one point in time. But I never complained. I don’t remember going like “ oh when I’m gonna make it” no such thing.
After five years I gained enough experience. I packed my bags. I jumped to Malaysia at the first casting there was and the rest is history. I never felt affected by those people who said it’s harder for Singaporeans to be in Malaysia, “It’s harder to make a name ‘cause you’re a foreigner”, blah, blah blah, “you know you have a mixed look.
The Malaysians like the hero-like kind of look”. There’s a lot of advice that kind of pulls you down, even though they intend well for you. But it doesn’t affect me. To me. It’s like no, your mindset plays a huge part. I’ve never felt like I could not make it.
I guess to deal with hardship is to not view it as hardship in the first place. Don’t view things as failures and understand, If you wanna see it as hard, fine, but remember this, Anything good is gonna be hard to get anything worth it. It’s gonna be so difficult to get.
If you want it easy, to just get the surface, you’re going to get dirt and sand. That’s just how it is. So approach life, not thinking of it as a hardship that’s there to bring you down, but it’s a hardship to strengthen you.
Like when you go gym you gotta go through hardship and it strengthens your muscle, you become stronger. There’s the same concept in everything in life.
6. What is your mantra of success?
I don’t have a specific mantra, but you pretty much get the gist, that’s how I live my life. Approach things positively. I mean yeah I got heartbroken so many times does that mean I’m gonna become so phobic that I don’t wanna fall in love again.
No, I like the love, look at the positive aspect of it you get to be loved by someone. The only reason people keep dwelling on the negative is that they don’t take the right approach. My mantra is your mindset and your habits.
What is your mindset? Number one, do you believe you can have it? Number two, What are your habits? Do you know what are your habits? Are your habits leading you towards what you wanna be? These are the two things you combine. If you get these two, you get the right answers. That’s the formula for success, no other way around it. It’s just a matter of time.
My favorite book. I don’t have a particular favorite book I actually like lots of factual books, like self-help books or in fact, there’s one called “The Subtle art of not Giving a F***”. It’s one of my favorites.
I know the title is really crude, but the content is amazing. It teaches you what to give **** about in life, and why, and then even breakdown the whole psychology. It was useful to shift my mindset or to make it stronger. Yeah. And of course, a few honorable mentions like a 'how to win friends and influence people'.
Few others, especially those investor biographies, billionaires’ kind of biographies but I guess for now the recent one I would say is this. I love that book.
Interviewed by - Deepshikha
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