Calling his own shots

MAKING the leap to become an entrepreneur is never easy. Zheng Food Sdn Bhd’s Wilson Chang can certainly attest to this – it has given him many sleepless nights and also a rise in his blood pressure!

But looking back, Chang, 63, is glad he made the decision to be his own boss and to do something that is entirely different from what he was trained in.

Back in the mid-2000s, he found himself trying to decide between continuing his cushy job as an architect and throwing his life savings into a business he had no experience in. He even tried to seek advice from fortune tellers to help him make up his mind.

“There was a well-known fortune teller near Genting Highlands. But on both occasions when I went there, the fortune teller was not around,” he says.

He was disappointed. But he also knew that the decision was really up to him.

Chang drew inspiration from the life of the late Genting Group founder Tan Sri Lim Goh Tong. Lim had taken a risk to build a theme park up in the mountains in the 1960s. And Lim was then already in his 50s.

“I was also in my 50s then and this was my major concern, that I was not young anymore. But if Tan Sri Lim can build a theme park and resort in Genting Highlands, I think I am capable of taking up the challenge in the food industry,” Chang shares.

Once he had decided, Chang used whatever skills he had learned as an architect and channelled them into building his food manufacturing business.

He notes that one of the key elements to developing quality products is to find the right food technology to ensure that your products remain fresh for a period of time.

This was a problem he noticed while spending his younger days helping his father who was a hawker.

He recalls that on days when it rains, sales would only reach about RM5 and most of the food that was prepared would be wasted.

But above all, observing his father taught him to take control of his own path.

“My father was a hawker selling wonton mee or noodles with dumplings. I know how hard life was – you have to be there the whole day, standing and preparing the noodles for the customers,” he says.

He adds that there is a limit to the number of plates his father could serve his customers as he was the only one doing everything. His father could serve about 2,000 dumplings a day but if there was an order for 20,000 pieces, he’d simply have to decline the order.

Chang helped his father since he was six years old in their hometown in Kuala Kangsar, Perak. He observed his father’s daily routine, which starts early in the morning with the buying of ingredients from the market. He would then be cooking from afternoon till night.

“My father would clean up his stall at night when we call it a day and then the whole process repeats the next day, for 365 days,” he says.

“Seeing how hard my dad worked, I told myself I will study hard,” he adds.

He was offered an apprenticeship with a local architecture firm in 1972 and as he gained experience and interest, he furthered his studies in architecture in the US in the late 1980s.

Chang worked as an architect for about 30 years before leaving as an associate of his firm to set up his food factory in Semenyih.

Although he feels a sense of pride whenever he looks at the houses he has designed as an architect, he says the satisfaction is not comparable to what he is experiencing now as an entrepreneur.

“I am a trained architect, so in a way I have years of learning and experience to guide me. But this journey as an entrepreneur is entirely new to me, and I am glad that I have gotten this far,” he says.