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How I Became A Full Time Trainer & Consultant - Adam Wong I was first inspired to be a trainer during my undergraduate days when I was on vacation training at KPMG. I remembered vividly being mesmerized by the professionalism of the trainer at the induction training. Upon entering into a banking career, I was fortunate to attend many personal development and skill training programmes provided by local and foreign trainers. Again, I was impressed by the quality of the trainers and secretly aspired to be like them – jet setting all over the world to share knowledge. It maked me think about my long term view of what I wanted to do. My first foray into training was quite by chance. Through the introduction of my boss (a very nice and caring lady), I was given the opportunity to train bankers at The Institute of Banking & Finance in PC applications in 1985 when PC was still an uncommon sight in offices. As I progressed through the corporate ladder in the banking world, I never stopped conducting training. I frequently applied for leave from my employer to provide training in various banking topics. My first opportunity to provide overseas training came in 1990 when I was invited to conduct credit training in Indonesia. One assignment led to another and soon I started a training company in mid 90s with a few of my friends in Indonesia. As we were all full time bankers, the administration and marketing were left to the wives of the Indonesian partners. I have always thought that having a “parallel career” would be useful should I decide to make a midlife career change someday. So I continued devoting a substantial part of my annual leave for executive training of bankers. In the early 90s, I was given the chance to undertake a lecturing assignment for an Undergraduate programme and a Masters programme conducted by two Australian Universities. I seized the opportunity as it was a chance, through the research and preparation, to learn more about the academic side of banking which in turn helped me in my career as a Corporate Banker. As banking can be very stressful at times, I find teaching to be a very good form of stress relief. As a Director of Corporate Banking at an American Bank in mid 1990 I remembered unmistakably the joy and sense of relief each time I walked into a classroom to teach my participants. With the possibility of a midlife career change ever present, I carried on providing training even though I was busy in my previous position as a General Manager in a foreign bank. Finally after a successful career in Banking, I started my journey as a full time professional trainer in 2005. I attended the Certified Professional Trainers (IPMA, UK) course in November 2005 and have been in touch with the community since. The joy and sense of accomplishment was fantastic when I received my first payment as a professional trainer. That pivotal that moment confirmed my belief that training was indeed a viable business proposition. I was finally freed of the corporate clutches. After many years in the corporate life with a steady monthly pay cheque, it was initially difficult to adjust to a situation whereby the income was erratic. One word of advice to anyone wishing to step out of the comfort zone of a steady income job – be financially independent first! I am not a particularly religious person, but I must say, by the grace of God, he has provided me with leads and assignments to keep my business going. One great advantage of a midlife career change is that my income is now no longer dependent on how my immediate boss thinks of my performance. As a trainer, I receive income from diverse sources and the risk is much better managed as opposed to a single source of income when I worked as a full time salaried employee. I have learnt an important lesson over the last few years. That is to give and share. Let me share with you this story. One day, a friend of mine called up to ask if I was prepared to give a two-hour talk for free. Since I did not have any prior engagement, I agreed. At the seminar, I met the Dean of a university who subsequently invited me to train in the university’s various executive programmes. So, that is payback number one. Now for payback number two. I provide financial training to the CEOs of various companies at one of the university’s executive programmes. A year later, I received a call from one of my participants to request for corporate advisory work. I roped in an old classmate of mine. Together, we successfully concluded the deal and ended up sharing fees of US$0.5 million. Without my partner, the deal would not be possible solely on my own effort. So, it was a win-win deal through sharing. Six years into full time training, I have covered training assignments in Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, Vietnam, Bahrain, Sri Lanka, Pakistan, Shanghai, all possible through the alliances and partners that have helped me in my continuing journey. |