Conquering Formidable Frontiers

I graduated with a Bachelor’s Degree in Computer and Electronic Engineering. 

Upon achieving my first milestone, I was left to ponder with a gut-wrenching thought: What’s next? 

Towards the early 2000s, the field I chose to pursue left me in a state of dubiety. I was jobless for six months. Time was passing fast and I needed a job desperately. The last thing I could do at that point is to be picky with job applications. And to everyone’s astonishment, I found my career path in Sales and Marketing. From then on, I didn’t turn back.

Being a fresh graduate at 24, I was forced to step out of my comfort zone and thrown into all sorts of challenging situations. It was an excellent learning curb for me; my confidence and persuasion skills were put to the test especially when dealing with myriads of people, clients and investors.

A couple of years down the road, my company chose to cease its operation due to a whopping RM1.7 million worth of debts.

Just as I thought everything was on track, I was faced with a huge hurdle. But deep down, I knew that this was not the end – it was my big break. I made a bold move and decided to save this sinking ship from drowning. My family and friends thought I was out of my sanity for taking such risk, considering the fact that this company was running at a loss with creditors chasing after it. Nonetheless, I kept my head high and gathered every ounce of optimism I had and revamped the whole company with the remaining RM600 in its fund. After four years of unremitting efforts, we managed to make ends meet with only a team of nine – earning a profit of over RM1 million. Safe to say, my intuition has led me to my second milestone and has opened new doors that bestowed to the expansion of KnowledgeCom ever since. 

With all that at hand, I thought perhaps it was time to try out something different for a change. As one of my friends’ 40th birthday was around the corner, we figured, what way to usher in his special day than with a climb up Mount Kinabalu? We have conquered countless of things in life and this should be an easy one since many have done it as well. Plus, I knew that can’t be living with a fear of heights my whole life and this was my golden opportunity to put these unwavering qualms to rest. Although I started taking up badminton and gym activities at age 26, bear in mind that I had no experience hiking up any mountain – let alone several flights of staircase.

So, we began intensive training on Bukit Gasing for over two months prior to the hike in May. The initial plan was to workout with my close friends and Mount Kinabalu teammates, Dev Kumaraendran and Sri Ganesh, but eventually became a trend among the rest of my friends to join our training sessions – which gradually grew to a group of 20 with my wife Yarlini and our 4 year old daughter Sanya as well.

Before flying off to Kota Kinabalu, the three of us were given a mini farewell hiking soiree and got our blessings for good fortunes. Upon arrival, we stayed at the Kinabalu Park to acclimatise to its climate before the big day.

Looking at the summit of this breath-taking mountain from below, I felt butterflies fluttering in my stomach. 

This is it. 

As we began the climb, we soon realised it was a complete contrast to all our trainings at Bukit Gasing. I presumed that I could achieve the same amount of effort hiking a number of times on Bukit Gasing repetitively but obviously I was greatly mistaken. It was unquestionably far more gruelling than what I had in mind. The whole journey from Timpohon Gate (starting point) up to Laban Rata Resthouse took us seven hours – which was alas, below average. Along the way, a few participants were down with altitude sickness whereas some were cruising through the rocky pathway effortlessly – we’re talking veteran hikers who were much older than us. However, the real challenge began the following night.

We set out for our quest up the legendary Low’s Peak Summit as early as 2.30am to catch the sunrise. To our dismay, the wind was rather unruly that day as it rained earlier on; the elevation didn’t help either. Since we were the last ones yet again, some of the guides thought it would be best if we stopped. At that juncture, Ganesh – being the team motivator – impelled us to keep pushing forward. Yes, we were fatigued and dead-tired but the last thing we can think of is giving up. So I decided to trek ahead of my team, without my guide. 

Just as I thought I arrived at the peak, I still had to climb over 20-30 metres of boulders. Soon, my acrophobia started kicking in. I tried to disregard my apprehension and continued anyway. What brought me to my breaking point was the fact that I fell three times consecutively. I halted in the middle before Low’s Peak and began contemplating – do I stop here or go forward? I knew it was now or never. Ten minutes later, unaided, I persevered and eventually stood up the mountain top overlooking the vast, mountainous land below me. Dev and Ganesh finally arrived few minutes later. Then and there, I thought to myself loud and proud: I made it!

Although it took us a total of 21 hours for the entire hike, this experience has definitely changed my perspectives on so many things. Having endured my worst fear gave me broader prospects on handling stressful situations and pressures in life. I came back feeling like an entirely new person, ready to take on bigger challenges every day.

At the end of the day, we should always challenge ourselves to break our fears as these hurdles are the things that will help nurture our way to triumph.

“Success is not final, failure is not fatal; it is the courage to continue that counts.” 

― Winston S. Churchill