How a family escaped scraping by

I was born and grew up in a semi-rural place in Malaysia. My parents both came from poor families and only attained primary school education. When they got married, my dad was so poor that he only had RM5 (equivalent to about £1) left in his pocket. At the time, my dad was a plantation worker. My mum used to help her family in their bicycle repair shop, but became a housewife when she married my dad.
In the years to come, the family grew bigger as there were 4 children to feed. With the very little income my dad was earning, money was always the source of worry and argument for my parents.
My childhood
I don’t recall having any toys when I was little. Up until I was four, we lived in a small rented house where five of us (my parents, and the three youngest kids) would share a bed. My eldest brother was lucky to have his own small bed!
When I entered primary school, I had the most basic set of stationery supplies while other kids would have fancy pencil case, colouring pencils etc.
Whilst most of my friends would have trips away with their families during school holidays, my siblings and I would spend most of the time home. The truth is we didn’t even own a car to travel. If we had to visit our grandparents who lived two hours away, the only option was to take the bus.
Beginning of change
My mum realised that my dad’s wage alone was not enough to raise a growing family, and decided that she needed to do something to change the family fortune. She started selling motorcycle parts in the weekly morning market. Most people, whether or not they knew her, ‘advised’ her not to pursue the idea as these were very unusual items to sell in the market. Her perseverance proved them wrong, as she managed to build a reputation for herself and the stall attracted more and more customers over time.

After four years of hard work she had accumulated enough capital to rent a shop and expand her business. She was now selling a wider range of spare parts, offering repair services and selling motorcycles as well. While there were other women involved in the industry, she was perhaps the only woman in Malaysia to run her own motorcycle shop — the other women would be helping out their husbands who were running the business. My mum didn’t let the fact that she was a woman the get in her way to build her business in a male-dominated industry. She didn’t let her initial lack of knowledge in repairing stop her in offering repair services. Nor did she allow her lack of written literacy be the reason not to sell motorcycles as it involved some paperwork.
She continued to work hard and expand her knowledge about the industry and her target market. Business was getting better to a stage that we finally could wave goodbye to scraping by. It was only then we started to enjoy the luxury of having our own car and our own house.
Don’t let limiting beliefs hold you back
It wasn’t a coincidence that three out of four of her kids could study abroad — if it wasn’t for her belief in her ability to create the life she wants and her hard work I would not be able to share this story with you.
