I Just Sat Down with a Billion-Dollar CEO (and Got the Best Life Advice Ever)
It’s been a while since I last blogged. Busy with projects here and there, and honestly, sometimes I just don’t have the energy to write. But this one… this one I had to share.
At first, I jotted it down in my personal diary, just for me. But then I thought — why keep it to myself? No harm in sharing, right? Who knows, maybe what I learned might help someone else too.
So here I am, writing about that one morning where I sat down at a kopitiam with a 70-year-old billionaire CEO… and got the kind of life advice that whacked me harder than any motivational book ever could. (When I say billionaire CEO, it means that he is a CEO of a company valued at 2 billion currently, not his net worth)
Why He Even Sat with Me
Now, let’s be real: someone like him doesn’t normally sit with people like me. His meeting with people is usually in boardrooms, five-star hotels, or private dining rooms. But outside of the normal working hour, you’ll typically find him looking like a typical retired uncle with some old worn-out collared T-shirt, enjoying normal kopitiam food and drinks.
And the only reason we even sat down together was because of cancer.
He’s a cancer survivor. I’m a survivor too. And now, we’re both helping patients in our own ways. That common ground broke the walls, and suddenly a billionaire CEO was just an uncle sitting across from me drinking his Nescafe kosong.
But the backstory is interesting. He didn’t wake up one day and decide to help cancer patients out of compassion. No. The truth? His spiritual guru told him:
“Do good, gain good karma.”
He doesn’t believe in God, Christianity, Buddhism, or Islam. But he believes in karma. And honestly, that’s good enough to live as a decent human being.
For the past three years, he’s been giving cancer patients advice, direction, and real solutions. Yet he told me something brutally honest: if it wasn’t for cancer and his guru, he would’ve considered those three years “wasted years.” Because in his eyes, he could’ve made much more money if he had stayed focused on business.
That’s the kind of bluntness you get from him.
And then, after some small talk, he hit me with advice that felt more like a father’s scolding than casual kopitiam talk. Here’s what I learned.
Lesson 1: Be Aggressive
The first thing he told me was:
“Your character is still too soft.”
At first, I didn’t quite get it. I thought kindness was a strength. Especially when helping people. But he shook his head.
“You’re dealing with life and death. If you’re too soft, people won’t take you seriously. They’ll waste time trying other things. By the time they realize it’s not working, it may be too late. They die. Do you want that to happen?”
That hit me hard.
I realized he wasn’t just talking about cancer patients. He was talking about life in general. Business. Family. Success.
He told me how he raised his two children — he never let them be too comfortable. Even though his investment portfolio could easily give each of them a five-figure monthly income without lifting a finger, he never allowed it.
He pushed them. He taught them to be aggressive. He told them:
“Don’t settle. Don’t stay comfortable. If you want something in life, fight for it.”
That’s the mindset he carried into everything — health, business, relationships. Don’t just sit back and hope things get better. Be aggressive in making it better.
And I saw myself in contrast. I’ve often been too soft, too forgiving, too worried about offending people. But maybe that’s why I’m not achieving the breakthrough I want yet.
He reminded me: being aggressive doesn’t mean being cruel. It means being serious. Focused. Relentless. Especially when the stakes are high.
Lesson 2: Anticipate the Future
Next, he said:
“Don’t even dream of having a job where you can stay for 30 years anymore. The world is moving too fast.”
At 70 years old, you’d think he’d be out of touch. But no — he’s sharper than most young entrepreneurs I know. He reads trends. He studies technology. He anticipates what’s coming.
He told me about how robots are already replacing doctors in hospitals. Driving jobs are becoming obsolete. AI is already managing money better than bankers. Humanoids will soon replace physical labor.
He asked me, “Are you ready for that future? Or are you planning your life like it’s still 1980?”
That question pierced through me. Because truth be told, many of us — myself included — still live with an old mindset. Study, get a stable job, climb the ladder, retire. But that ladder doesn’t exist anymore.
So what do we do?
He gave two options:
- Adapt — Learn new skills, embrace AI, make it part of your work. Don’t fight it, use it.
- Invest — If you can’t keep up with the speed of change, at least invest in the companies building the future. Own a piece of the disruption.
That’s how he plays the game. He buys shares in future-focused companies, individually or through ETFs, using platforms like Moo Moo and Interactive Brokers.
He doesn’t just see the future. He profits from it.
And then he said something that shook me even more:
“If you’re not making enough money, be aggressive lah. Don’t just stay comfortable. That’s what I taught my kids. The world doesn’t reward comfort. It rewards those who fight, those who adapt, those who anticipate what’s next.”
Lesson 3: Help People, But Make It Sustainable
This is where the conversation turned really deep.
He told me about his father. His dad was also a multimillionaire, but he was extremely generous. He helped everyone, gave freely, and supported countless people.
But during his last days, he became a broke man. He had nothing left to give. Nothing left to pass over to his children.
So the CEO told his dad, “You can fly to Bangladesh, give everyone RM1, and you still can’t help everyone.”
So even generosity has its limit.
Then he told me:
“Charity alone is not sustainable. If you help people only by giving, you’ll eventually run dry. But if you help people through business, that’s sustainable. You get paid something, yes. But in return, you might have saved their life, or saved their business, or helped them earn more. That way, you keep helping, and you don’t run out.”
That was profound.
As someone who helps cancer patients, I’ve often felt guilty about asking for payment. I thought true help should be free. But his perspective reframed it completely.
Helping through business means you drive real change in someone’s life — and you get rewarded for it. It’s not greed, it’s sustainability. Without it, even the most generous man will one day have nothing left to give.
That’s why he told me:
- Help only those who want to be helped.
- Charge for your value, because that keeps you able to help more.
- Don’t waste energy on those who refuse your help.
And since I’m a Christian, he told me, just pray for those who refuse your help lah. But don’t let yourself burn out trying to save the whole world.
Walking Away with Fatherly Truth
By the time we finished, I didn’t feel like I had coffee with a billionaire CEO. I felt like I had just been whacked by a fatherly figure who wanted me to wake up.
His words weren’t polished. They weren’t sugarcoated. But they were real.
And that’s what made them powerful.
Here’s what I walked away with:
- Be Aggressive — stop being too soft. If you want to make an impact, push. Life rewards the bold, not the comfortable.
- Anticipate the Future — the world moves too fast for old thinking. Adapt, embrace technology, or invest in it.
- Help, but Make It Sustainable — charity is noble but not lasting. Build businesses that solve problems, help people who want to be helped, and get paid for your value.
That kopitiam table may not have been a boardroom, but for me, it was more valuable than any corporate seminar.
Because sometimes, the best life advice doesn’t come from books or podcasts. It comes from a 70-year-old billionaire cancer survivor, sipping kopi, whacking you with fatherly truth.
And I’ll carry these lessons for the rest of my life.
But I’ll still be funny anyway 😗😗