Gary Goh, born on November 26, 1962, is an author, educator, and entrepreneur. Before becoming a successful entrepreneur, Gary had a humble beginning, with his father working as a clerk and his mother a housewife. He had his fair share of struggles in life after his father passed away and he was left with no option but to work part-time jobs to finance his own education. He is married to his Singaporean business partner wife, Jasmine Koh and obtained his Australian residency on 2nd June 1994. They both emigrated to Australia in May 2000. Today, he is a successful entrepreneur, author of multiple books and educator who helps people, small and medium businesses to grow and flourish.
In this candid interview, he talks in detail about his early life, his journey as an entrepreneur and an author.
Interviewer: Give us a brief about your background and early life?
Gary Goh:
My childhood is not the simplest of my times. Growing up poor, I had to work part-time jobs and finance my own education since my father passed away suddenly due to a major illness. My mother is a housewife and I had to help her in her household chores. The experience made me appreciate the value of hard work and manage my finance wisely in order to complete my higher education studies.
Experiencing setbacks early in my life has a profound effect on the way I think and perform later down the road. That's exactly what happened to me when I go about in my career path and start-up businesses - the greatest glory is not in never failing, but in rising to become successful again every time I fail.
Interviewer: What inspired you to become an entrepreneur?
Gary Goh:
My spouse is my inspiration for becoming an entrepreneur. She is a Buddhist who encouraged me to try my best to leave a significant mark in this world. I realize that life is impermanent. I only have one go-round in this life. I should aspire to make a difference. I eventually pursued my dreams to be an author, educator and business entrepreneur to enrich the skills and knowledge of people, dedicated to help people to advance their personal life, career and business exponentially and grow them successfully.
If it was not for my wife, I would have never wanted to go into business for myself. As a child, my father would always say to me - No one is going to give you anything unless you work for it - so follow your dreams and the money will come.
Interviewer: Tell us something about your journey so far as an entrepreneur?
Gary Goh:
The life of an entrepreneur is no rosy path to walk.
I had to be prepared for a lot of rejection, people saying 'no' to the education and training service I want to provide. People saying, 'Oh, it's too difficult. I don't want to do it.' If you knock on 99 client doors and they all say 'no,' on door 100, be just as enthusiastic.
The road towards success have numerous challenges which is definite.
Every business has its ups and downs, but the success of my companies depends on how effectively I handle the challenges I faced. There are always things going wrong that I had to fix. I had to constantly make decisions that may make or break my businesses.
Sometimes life hits me in the head with a brick. I don't lose faith. I am convinced that the only thing that kept me going was that I loved what I did. My work fills a large part of my life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what I believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what I do.
Here's my key point: Learn from every mistake, because every experience, particularly my mistakes, are there to teach me and force me into being more who I am - To become a successful author, educator, and entrepreneur.
All the adversity I've had in my life, all my troubles and obstacles have strengthened me.
Interviewer: What are your biggest accomplishments so far?
Gary Goh:
As a pioneer in the field of life skills-based education in Australia, I had developed innovative for life programs which had inspired many people to achieve outcomes they had not believed were capable of.
Some of these programs include the Australian LifeSkills program, Happiness@work program, Mind Power program, Positive Thinking program.
The outcome for people is the opportunity to be employed for those seeking employment, run a successful business for those in business, a status in the community that is well respected and a role model for other community members.
I gained a lot of satisfaction when I contribute my time, donation in developing programs to people at risk, some examples of organizations which I am involved include The Federation of Western Australian Police and Community Youth Centres Inc., Marr Mooditj Training Aboriginal Corporation.
I remain convinced that education is the gateway for people (despite background or socio-economic status) to financial security, civic involvement, life-long learning, and increased social mobility.
Interviewer: Tell us about the books you have written?
Gary Goh:
I have written and published six books for business and motivational skills.
When I wrote these books, my intent was not to make money but rather to contribute to the betterment of society through publications.
My books are about empowering people, improve the life of others, mind power prescription to overcome any difficulties and obstacles in one’s journey in life, provide endless opportunities to make an impact on the world, business mantra that provide actions and inspirations for a business life. These are all in the areas of community work.
Everything started from my passion of helping others.
I hope people can understand that we are living in a reality that is constantly changing, we need to have a source of constancy in mind on health, wealth and happiness to achieve a peaceful and contented life.
Life is a precious gift not to be wasted. My books are about helping one to achieve a meaningful life since one has a limited life span.
I never expect that all my published books are in such high demands and of international standards which are currently sold worldwide in America, Canada, United Kingdom, Italy, Australia, New Zealand, Singapore, Japan, India, China, etc. It is marketed in major online book vendors and bookstores such as Amazon, Angus & Robertson, AbeBooks, Booktopia, Bookdepository, FNAC, Internet Bookshop Italia, Thriftbooks, Barnes & Noble, Rakuten Kobo, etc.
More information about Gary Goh can be found here.
Media Contact
Company Name: Gary Goh
Contact Person: Emeritus Professor (Dr) Gary Goh
Email:Send Email
Country: Australia
Website: www.garygoh.com.au
