Team DailyPedia
What do you do when your suitor asks you for a loan? For most women, it would definitely be a “no” to the request and the possible relationship. But not so with Lim Seou Lan who reportedly lent her suitor a whopping $446,000.
Throughout the eight long years of courting Ms. Lim, Jason Yeo was too poor to afford anything for himself or for his beloved, according to Strait Times.
Although Yeo owns an automation business, he needed to work 21 hours a day to keep it from failing. Aside from the money he borrowed from Ms. Lim, there were even times when he had to take a loan elsewhere.
He reportedly owed his wife a total of $446,000 by the time they got married in 1995.
When Yeo, now 52, asked her why she didn’t have second thoughts on lending him such a huge amount, she only said she was investing in him.
Slowly but steadily, Yeo made his business a success. He is currently the Chief Executive and founder of JCS Group, a six division company with interests in various areas from equipment manufacturing, machinery, up to renewable energy. They also have expanded their business to China, Sri Lanka, and United States reaching $60 million in annual revenue.
Looking back, Yeo recalled his family’s years of struggle living in a small village in Sembawang, Singapore. His parents were vegetable and poultry farmers trying hard to make ends meet to feed their ten children.
Yeo loved fiddling with machines that he could use to shoot birds when he was younger. When he was 14, he designed a device for his elder brothers who owned a small bird cage making business. The machinery became a hit in their village at the time. When asked how he built the contraption, he said he only relied on his instincts. “I visualized the machine, sketched it out and then built it by using parts bought here and from Japan.”
He studied mechanical engineering in Singapore Polytechnic, but was kicked out after a few months when he failed one of his subjects.
He then worked for the Republic of Singapore Air Force as an aircraft mechanic for seven years. Aside from the salary he received, they gave him the opportunity to go back to school by sponsoring his part-time studies. He went back to Singapore Polytechnic and finished a diploma in factory automation.
In 1988, he borrowed $50,000 from a brother-in-law, hoping to start an automation business. However, things didn’t work out as planned because a close friend borrowed $38,000, promising to give it back after two weeks. He hasn’t seen his friend since then.
With big dreams but no money to start on his machinery, Yeo pushed through with JCS by setting up a makeshift workshop in a parking space outside his home. To support himself, he would refurbish old cars and sell them. He later stopped working on cars to focus on the automation business.
Over the years, he accepted all sorts of commissions, from moulds to automated pancake machines. Although his business grew, he still was not making money. “I was building machines for people, but I was losing money for every project I took on. Because I was so focused on building machines, I didn’t think about how to build the business,” Yeo admitted. It did not take long before he went into debt. He even recalled borrowing $50,000 every month from an illegal moneylender. Not only that, he owed his sister $800 monthly salary for seven years of working in his business.
Then, he met Ms. Lim in a friendly gathering. Realizing they both lived in the same neighborhood, they became close until he began courting her. Working in a brokerage firm, Ms. Lim was earning a good salary so she started supporting Yeo in his ventures.
After seven years, he invented a machine that could do precision cleaning and washing for parts in high-tech industries. This was where JCS started pulling in good money. In 2001, Yeo sold one of his inventions to a Japanese multi-national company which opened doors for his business. From his small factory, he then moved to a larger area in Woodlands. Not long after, his hard work paid off when JCS set up operations in United States, China, and Thailand.
From there, he started putting up companies specializing in assembly, packing, die design, and manufacturing for the aviation industry and in producing organic fertilizer.
Almost twenty years after he started JCS, Yeo took up his Executive MBA (EMBA) at the National University of Singapore (NUS) Business School and graduated in 2013. In an interview, he shared, “I’m a good engineer, but that doesn’t mean anything. If I wanted to build a platform for technological innovation, I need to have a bit more.”
Today, Yeo is busy attending talks and retreats in different countries. He also started devoting time to learning more about Buddhism.
Featured image via Mark Cheong
