No More 9 To 5: Alternative Ways of Making A Living

For Ray Pang Si Heng, living to other people’s expectations was simply not an option. Today, he helps people prove that a successful career is not limited to those with academic degrees and approval.

An increasing amount of people around the world are not following the traditional pattern of 9 to 5. Thanks to the digital age that we now live in, we have extra tools to start up a business that we are passionate about, resulting in a greater number of folks becoming their own boss. For some, it is the absolute dream to avoid such a daily work pattern. Ray Pang Si Heng is co-founder of Addicted2Success Academy among several other brands, and working 9 to 5 is a lifestyle he has left behind.

Addicted2Success Academy-which focuses on business development, joint ventures, event management, branding and social media marketing- is just one of several companies that Ray either owns or co-owns. Today, at the age of 25, his income is not far off $100k a month. In some respects, it is not surprising that he ended up as such a successful businessman: at a young age (11-12 years old) he bought rare cards from shops to resell at a profit to his classmates!

Ray’s parents were strict with him when it came to education. They wanted him to do well in academics, but the problem was, despite showing promise as a small child, he quickly found out he was far more interested in socialising and football, and so his grades began to suffer. Added to this, and by his own admission, Ray was a bit of a naughty child who had a rebellious streak: “Having a reputation will result in people having a polarising opinion of you.” Ray did have loyal friends, but also had those that could be branded as haters. But he took lessons from these experiences: “I knew how to handle the negative comments of other people and came to understand that life is not about pleasing everyone, it’s about finding your tribe of people who you can trust and truly care about you.”  With his focus on football, one thing did emerge: he was a good team leader; a trait that would, of course, prove useful in his later life.

When it came to applying for a university, things started to change. Ray found he was unable to get into any university due to his low grades, upsetting him as he realised he could not make his parents proud with this development. But he became inspired to make up for this and study hard, travelling to Australia to do so. And this time it paid off: he soon had an internship with a FinTech start-up. Unfortunately, the company had to lay Ray off due to financial difficulties, but at least he was able to take what he learned to his next venture, which was starting up his brands. He completely left the idea of working a 9-5 behind, further backing his self-made income by learning a lot of helpful concepts such as agency building, digital marketing and copywriting.

And this is the thing that stories like Ray’s clearly show: even if you have knock backs, for example not achieving the best grades, that does not mean you can’t make a success of yourself in business and break free from the 9 to 5 restraints if that is what you want to do.

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