For the young aspiring businessperson, Dr Peggy Wong has a simple formula, which she calls the “5 F’s”. They are: Faith, Family, Finances, Fitness and Friends.
Her Keray Group of Companies is today involved in investment portfolios besides developing a strong presence in the fields of information technology and communications.
“My five F’s are like the five poles that hold a tent together,” says Wong, who is widely known to her social and business circle as a corporate matchmaker and a visionary philanthropist. Despite being very successful together with her husband Foo Kong running the Keray Group of Companies, Wong’s formula is something she wants to share with everyone.
She begins her list with the word Faith. “One must have faith in God. It is this that will put all the other things into the right perspectives,” she explains. “Without faith in a living God, everything will just go haywire. This is pivotal in my life, very much like the central pole that holds a tent together.”
In her series of little books, “Life’s Little Secrets” she wrote: “We enter into this world with nothing and we will leave this world with nothing too.” Life is but a mist, come today, gone tomorrow. Let us do whatever good we can, while we are on earth. Since four years ago, she has always given priority to her time spent with God.
After Faith, the other four `F’s are equally important, like the four poles that hold the tent together. A firm believer in the family unit, Wong places her Family, which consists of her husband and two sons, as a single highest priority in life.
“You can be very successful, but if at the end of the day, your family is not with you, what is there left for you?” she asks. “When you are down and out, it is your family who stands by you. So, never ever neglect your family when you are climbing up the ladder of success.”
The third F is Finances. A very downright person who would not mind speaking her mind, Wong say, “Love cannot live on air and water. At the end of the day, every family has to learn to manage their finances. Many marriages have unfortunately ended up with divorces when financial crises hit the couple. Be content with what you have and thank God for the blessings.”
On finances, Wong’s advice to the young entrepreneurs: “Contentment is priceless. Are you rich? There is always someone who is richer than you. Are you poor? There is someone who is poorer than you are.”
Adding to the list is Fitness. “When you are financially strong, without good health, life can be very miserable. Therefore, I have always added Fitness as my priority,” she says. “I do exercises to keep myself healthy and learn to eat right. This itself is very challenging with all the good food available in Malaysia.”
It’s sad for her to see many of her very successful friends who die young because of they neglected their health. “Otherwise, they could have enjoyed their family, their health and wealth,” she adds.
A socialite, who now believes in matching corporate philanthropists with the needy in our midst, Wong says her circle of friends have always been very generous towards the urban poor. Together with her friends, they have raised millions of Ringgit for charitable organisations like the WWF, Kosovo Victims, JE Victims, the Tsunami Charity Fund, Asrama Cahaya and Rumah Hope, where she sits in the board as its Vice-Chairman as well as Chairman of the Rumah Hope Education Fund. She is also the Charter President of Kiwanis Club of Bukit Bandaraya.
“When you are very successful in business, everyone wants to become your friends. When you are down and out, that is when you will find out who your true friends are. We have to learn to value true friendships. True friends are people who will tell you the truth, without fear or favour, and are with you during difficult times.”
That’s why she has added the fifth `F’ – Friendship – to her formula for success. Her strong desire to help herself and her friends has motivated her to recently start a special support group for ladies. “We want to maximize and integrate God-given talents among ourselves,” she explains. “We want to encourage ourselves to reach out to other women in need of support.”
Tatler, in its 2005 list of successful entrepreneurs, aptly describes her: “When we think of a role model for the next generation of women, the name Peggy Wong comes readily to mind as she has exhibited flair and balanced corporate life with charitable causes for over 20 years. Charity is second to her nature, it’s almost like breathing.”
It is traced back to her grandparents. “For me, charity has always been very close to my heart,” she says. “My grandfather used to dispense medications to Chinese immigrants free of charge and my father, Chan Chee Kheong was always helping the poor people in Ipoh. He was the moving force behind many Chinese schools in Perak. I had very good role models.”
She feels that she is well placed among the rich and famous for a good reason, which she puts in her own words: “To draw out the noble hearts of successful businesspeople and socialites and encourage them to be philanthropists with a beautiful heart of compassion and love.”
It takes someone who is a visionary philanthropist as Peggy Wong to create a spark that sets off a of firecrackers to celebrate the restored dignity of those who are otherwise deprived of the better things in life.
“It is not just about me doing my bit; it’s about creating a momentum when we join forces to contribute back to society, especially the underprivileged children and single parents.”
Today, she is delving very much into emotional healings of the abandoned, abused and neglected children. “This is the one major reason why many of them do not do well in their studies,” she said. “There is a lot of work that needs to be done to help them heal emotionally.”
She did not earn her honorary doctorate from the University of Honolulu (affiliate of UNESCO) for nothing. It is the University’s recognition for her 20 over years of involvement in charitable work and her business acumen in corporate re-engineering, a skill that not many people possess. Yet, she is finding her own five F’s a constant challenge. She smiles: “I am still struggling to keep them in perfect balance. Without it, success in business is meaningless!”
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