2. Dedication
This book is dedicated to my mother, Ms Sylvia Catherine De Silvia who
has been my pillar and support in my many difficulties that I had faced in
this journey of my life to identify and unleash my real passion, which is to
educate and train the next generation to think ahead for their future and
also to realise their full potential.
Ms Sylvia Catherine
De Silvia
(M y M ot h e r )
Certificate of
Fashion Designing
http://www.fashiondesign.co.nz/
01
3. Every one of us has something that we are uniquely good at. Sadly, many
today have not taken time to identify and utilise this gift of theirs, to reach
their full potential to gain real satisfaction and enjoyment.
As Confucius once said, “Choose a job you love, and you will never have
to work a day in your life.” Therefore, the key is to identify and unleash ones’
passion in oneself to obtain the real dream job that makes one satisfied.
There are many cases around us that people are providing services and
working in careers or jobs that they have no passion in. Thus, short changing
the public, employers, and even themselves. This is because, if one does
work that one is passionate about, one will tend not only to do the task set
before oneself, but would think one step more or outside the box to give the
WOW! Experiences to the people one is serving. In addition to that, one will
keep growing oneself in skills and knowledge in the chosen field.
By doing this, we will unleash our passion and we will gain positive results and
in turn spill over to everyone else who we know or come into contact with us.
This book is about my own experiences of what I went through to eventually
identify and unleash my passion in the Education Industry. It is the hope of
this book that I would inspire you to also identify and unleash your passion to
reach your full potential to be the best you can be and gain real satisfaction
in your pursuit to gain a good quality of life.
Terence King
Programme Manager (School Divison)
MBA, NZDip of Bus., mMBA cert. & ITTT TESOL Cert.
1st
of April 2013
Introduction
02
4. 03
I was born in a mixed culture
family, where my father is a
Chinese born Singaporean and
my mother is a Singhalese born
Singaporean. From an early
age, I had experienced racial
discrimination in Singapore.
In school, I was enrolled in
learning mandarin as my
second language. I distinctly
remember that when I was in
primary school, my Chinese
language teacher would poke
fun at me asking me whether I
was in the right class and in front of the vast majority of students would make fun of the
other cultures and their hygiene habits. Although, I was half Chinese, but because my skin
complexion is darker, I knew my teacher was singling me out of the rest of the class.
However, I did my very best to blend in and make sense of my schooling days, even
though I was not really made aware of what my skills, knowledge and learning style were.
Looking back, I realised I was one who love in engaging conversation and getting involve
in social occasion to network to meet new people. That would explain why in secondary
school, I naturally joined clubs and activities that required me to speak out loud.
Though all these were present in me, I was not aware of these gifts I actually had.
My Childhood
Background
5. 04
My educational progression could be said to be done in a very haphazard way without any
real focus on my strengths, abilities and personal interest. It is only in my late thirties that I took
stock of what I wanted to do with my life and then started to channel my focus and strategy
to achieve where I needed to be in my desired and dream career.
From my Kindergarten to Secondary schooling, they were all done in Singapore. Although,
I had completed my General Cambridge Ordinary level, the results were very average. I
did not really appreciate education qualification until later when I started getting into the
working industries to see the value of how it could be used to be competitively ahead.
I began my realisation of this when I was living in Auckland, New Zealand when my entire
family migrated there. I needed to get ahead in my employment then and so while working
I enrolled in the local New Zealand Diploma of Business studies. I enrolled in 2002 but only
managed to finish the 12 modules in 2008. It took me 6 years to complete as I enrolled
every semester with 1 to 2 modules. In a year, there were 3 semesters. However, you can
understand the satisfaction of finally completing the diploma course, while balancing my
full time employment over there in Auckland, New Zealand.
In September 2011, I enrolled online for the ITTT TESOL Certification in Teaching Skills-
International TEFL Teacher Training programme as one of my friends’ recommended me
and in that way, I finally had a Teaching qualification to teach English to Speakers of other
languages. The milestone later came, when I returned back to Singapore and managed
to come across the ERC Institute, Singapore. This institution put me in contact with The
University of Wolverhampton of the United Kingdom of which I did my Master of Business
Administration degree. I did the programme on a part time basis for 1 year, which was
on the weekends only.
This programme made me aware of my strength and weakness. It helped me analyse
organisations’ leadership and their struggles. It also brought to the fore my inner strength
in presenting, organising, updating, and coaching with information that I had received to
fellow classmates and potential students who were looking to enrol in the programme. I
thoroughly enjoyed my studies, cause with this programme; it had assisted me to identify
and unleash my true passion which is being involved in the educational sector to make
others aware of their passion.
Educational Progression
6. UK, UOW MBA Degree experience with my classmates and different local lecturers.
Marketing and strategic studies team photos for the UOW MBA Degree
programme studies.
With the different lectures in the UOW MBA Degree programme.
Sharing my experiences of my studies of my University of Wolverhampton,
Master of Business Administration Degree from the United Kingdom with
potential students.
My Graduation
photos of my Kindergarten
in Singapore and Master
of Business Administration
Degree from the United
Kingdom.
05
7. 06
Model Language Studio, Japan
In 1995, I moved to Japan and not knowing a single one of Japanese, I
found myself working in a company called Model Language Studio (MLS),
Japan, which was very interesting as this role required me to teach across
the different studios around the Kanto Region of Japan, conversational
English to children and teenagers alike. Those were very fond memories
for me as I not only got to travel around but also learnt skills like class
management, students’ coaching and behaviour management. I was
so good at the English instructor role that the company offered me an
Area Studio Manager role, when I told them that I was relocating to
Auckland, New Zealand in the year 2000.
Career
Progression
8. As for living in New Zealand, I continued teaching for 2 years in both a private
language school and later a government primary school. Sadly, these
teaching positions were not stable enough to make ends meet. Therefore,
one thing led to another and I landed myself a banking consultant position
with the ANZ Bank New Zealand in 2002. This was totally a new career move,
which I knew nothing about. Interestingly, even in a different country, I still
experience discrimination with regards to my race and different look. The
New Zealand Herald, which is New Zealand’s National Newspaper even,
used my story to highlight the difficulty I had gone through in my employment
in New Zealand. Nevertheless, my employment in the bank enabled me to
meet different people and networking with different organisations that I was
really comfortable with. I picked up in knowledge of banking products and
how it worked, to market them out to meet the publics’ banking needs. I
worked diligently as I could and worked myself up to various positions in
the bank, such as Banking Consultant, Personal Manager, Online Business
Manager, Branch Manager and finally Mobile Mortgage Manager.
With my Daughter, my Princess,
Serene at her school camp.
07
9. In addition, during my time in the bank, I had
organised function and events for the bank
in New Zealand and became a well known
emcee among the group there. In fact,
some had asked me to be their emcee for
their wedding too.
My Emcee assignments in New Zealand and Singapore.
08
10. In 2011, I returned back to
Singapore due to my father
being ill, and while in Singapore
as mentioned before I
enrolled in my one year study
of the Master of Business
Administration Degree with the
University of Wolverhampton.
I continued to network and
took short trips overseas to
educate and expose myself
to the overseas markets and
employment conditions.
On 04/02/2013, I finally landed
a full time role as a Programme
Manager (School Division)
with Moneytree, Singapore.
This company assist students
by teaching them financial
literacy, innovation and
Entrepreneurship. This is finally
a full circle of my life as I am
now using my teaching skills
and banking knowledge to
educate the next generation
in Singapore to start planning
for their future now. Thus, my
passion had taken me to a
place that I never thought that I
would ever get to be.
09
11. Teaching Industry
I taught Conversational English to pre-school all the way to Adults while I
was in Japan and New Zealand. The institutions where I taught were through
Government schools, Private language schools and Private tutoring classes.
My technical skills are to observe and identify how people learn and absorb
information. From these, I would work to cater the materials to the specific
style that the individual is able to relate to, thus gaining maximum benefits
and clear understanding. As for Singapore, I am working as a fulltime
Programme Manager of Innovation and Entrepreneurship, where I overseer
the materials and programme deliveries to Singapore government Primary,
Secondary schools and Colleges. The main aim is to open the minds of the
students to see the benefits of having ones’ own business and gain financial
literacy about their savings and spending habits. Most important is to open
up their passion for their chosen career and make it happen for them.
My previous banking experiences in New Zealand have proven useful in my
Programme Mananger role in Singapore.
Banking and Sales Industry
I did various roles with ANZ bank, when I was working for the organisation.
Positions such as, a Banking Consultant, Personal Manager, Online Business
Manager, Branch Manager, and finally Mobile Mortgage Manager.
My banking technical skills are planning and setting up safety financial nets
to assist my clients to reach their financial objectives and aspiration for their
families and themselves. Furthermore, networking, business relationships and
opportunities development for sales growth were other expertise gained
along the way too. Good at spotting opportunities and making appropriate
referrals and connection to grow the opportunities
discovered.
In Summary of my
technical skills
10
12. In order to assist one to identify and unleash ones’ true passion for life and
career, personality tests now available in the market have proven to be very
useful.
Personally, it has helped me to come to terms with my strengths and
weaknesses, which has given me a direction to focus for self-improvements.
For one to get an overall and unbiased testing done on one’s personality, I
would recommend doing 3 to 5 different and independent style of testing.
By doing this, one will get a consistent highlight of part and parcel of one’s
personality and behaviour.
Below is one example of a test done on me to assist me to
identify and unleash my true passion.
Personal DISC Theory
Personality Test
11
13. Identifying and unleashing one’s true passion will open doors that one can
never imagine will happen. The positive attitude and energy displayed
would be like a magnetic attraction to everyone around. One will feel
and express oneself freely and creatively in a natural way through one’s
conversations and actions. People will tend to be inspired or even follow the
examples set by you when they see it for themselves through one’s life and
that has certainly been the case for me. This can be you too!
At times, taking that leap might make one fearful, but deep inside one
normally knows that it is the right thing to do. Unleashing one’s passion
of what one already have and possess is much easier than
seeking or learning something that is totally unknown and
doesn’t make sense to one’s own passion and
desire to achieve in life.
There are many out there today that do
not find pleasure or delight in what they
do. They just go through the motion or
live their life with no plans for the future.
They just get by on a daily basis. Sadly,
in the long run it is themselves that will
suffer and loose out.
Personally, I have seen all of such cases
in my own family, relatives and friends in
Singapore. They always ask for change in
their lives, but in the final matter of it, they do
not have the courage and motivation to take
the leap of faith and change their mind set to
find out their passion in life and then unleash it
to the world.
It is the hope that by sharing my personal
experiences, all these will motivate the readers
to go out and also identify and unleash his / her
passion for life and career to achieve real joy
and satisfaction.
Going back to quote of Confucius in the
beginning which is, “Choose a job
you love, and you will never have
to work a day in your life”.
Recommendation
& Conclusion
12
14. After reading, please ask yourself the following
questions:
1. What is your passion factor at the moment?
2. How can you unleash more passion in your life?
3. How will living with passion support your personal
growth?
I grew up with all these cultures thinking:
The European and Eurasian thinking is that we are the
masters of the land and so we need to take control
to be ahead.
The Chinese thinking is that we need to slave for each
other to get ahead.
The Indian thinking is that we need to take care of
ourselves first to get ahead.
The Malay thinking is that we need to slow down the
pace and take our time to get ahead.
Inspirational quote by 8 years old, Miss Vivienne
Harr (08/08/2012):
“Mahatma Ghandi was one person,
Martin Luther King was one person,
Mother Teresa was one person,
Why can’t you be the one person who helps?”
Food for thought-
Something to
ponder about
13
15. Ministry of Education of Singapore, (Education System),
http://www.moe.gov.sg/education/
New Zealand Diploma of Business- http://www.nzqa.govt.nz
International TEFL Teacher Training- http://www.teflonline.net
University of Wolverhampton, United Kingdom- http://www.wlv.ac.uk/
ERC Institute, Singapore- http://www.erci.edu.sg/
Model Language Studio, Japan- http://www.mls-etd.co.jp/
ANZ Bank, New Zealand- http://www.anz.co.nz
News report story of my challenge in New Zealand-
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_
id=1objectid=10636001
Moneytree, Singapore- http://moneytree.asia/singapore/contact/
Miss Vivienne Harr- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v-_niCa4RZk
More reading on inspirational stories on passion:
http://www.agiftofinspiration.com.au/stories/inspirational/Passion.shtml
References
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