Extraordinary Circumstances
There aren’t many people in my life that I get to classify as ‘extraordinary’, I only know a handful. I want to share a story that I was privileged enough to get a glimpse of. Meet my CEO, Mr. Hendra Kwik. He just turned thirty, he built the company that I’m currently working for when he was a year older than me, and he is possibly the most humble person I know.
Everyone in FAZZ FINANCIAL knows his story; he’s a self-made man. Kak Hendra was born and raised in Jambi, he moved to Bandung to study at ITB. He started to build FAZZ FINANCIAL when he was 26 years old with his two-childhood friend. What started in a kamar kost, turn into a company based in central business hub in Jakarta, that employed 400 people. We all know this story by heart (many even personally know our beloved founders).
However, nobody knows kak Hendra well, because he doesn’t talk about himself. When I talk to him it was all about his vision. Not business necessarily, but his dreams. Looking ahead is, of course, important. But I also want to share a side of kak Hendra that not many new employees know. The side that makes him someone worth to follow, and it can be summed up in one story from when he was studying at ITB.
Kak Hendra studied in ITB from 2008–2012. From early on, he had a passion for entrepreneurship. He wanted to study at Harvard and return to Indonesia to be a great entrepreneur. In his third year at ITB, he decided to try out for Harvard Model United Nation. He wanted to see if you could reach the school of his dreams, even just for a moment.
Because he didn’t want to burden his parents, he decided to wait a year and save up extra money. So he started doing odd part-time jobs (English-calculus- physics-chemistry teacher, lab assistant for physics classes, teaching assistant, selling food & beverages by opening up his own Kwiks Food Catering and Kwiks Enterprise), interning (business consultant and other various organizations), and participating in the contest.
But after all that work (while maintaining stellar performance in all his classes), he still hadn’t earned enough money. To be exact, he saved up seven million rupiah, while he needed 20–25 million rupiah. In one year, he only managed to save up about 1/3 of what he needed. Below is an email he wrote to an ITB alumnus, asking for their support.
Those emails is not why I want to share this story. Those emails didn’t get to me, emotionally. Because, if this was a movie that wasn’t rock bottom. There was still a chance for him to go. But the next email. I honestly couldn’t understand why he didn’t just give up instead of writing that email.
It was time to leave for Harvard, but he needed ten million rupiah to buy the plane tickets, while he only had 600 thousand rupiah, and he only had four days to complete the payment. Even though I knew he ended up going, my heart still aches, just a tiny bit. Read it for yourself.
Kak Hendra did not only went to Harvard, but he also won. He and his team mates were the only Indonesian students that won, and one of the two teams from asia pacific that won. And the cherry on top is that after he returned to Indonesia, there was still some money left from donations. He email the alumni and proceed to return the money.
I wanted to share this story mainly for my co-workers, I want to show the other side of our leader. To me, he is one of a kind. Someone extraordinary. When he had nothing, when everything seems hopeless, he still pulled through. We are now privileged with the tools we have at our disposal. Hopefully, we can follow his example. His perseverance against all odds, sincerity to do great work, and a vision to grow our extraordinary company. Hopefully, we can also be extraordinary.
“When you have a dream, nothing is impossible.” — Hendra Kwik.
