Hi Steemians!
After over 3months on Steemit, I finally have the time to write my "Introduce Yourself" post.
I can see myself providing contents here on Steemit about things that interest me; business, finance, investment, health, travel, history, libertarian issues and life on general.
To make this post different, I've decided to tell it in story form :)
WHO AM I NOW?
My name is Abu Zar. Most people just call me Zar. I'm from Johor Bahru in Malaysia. I'll be 30 this year (still feel & act like 19 years old kid). I am a Petroleum Engineer by training. Though, I quit my corporate job over 2 years ago.
I owned few small businesses. I have invested in over 50 rental properties, physical precious metals, and blockchain assets. I'm also investing in select junior resource stocks in mining, precious metals, energy, marijuana and such. I'm pretty much just looking after my businesses and investments after quitting my corporate job.
Life is good now and I have no complaints.
HOW IT ALL BEGAN?
My background has shaped much of my experience growing up and my adult life. I'm the youngest of 12 siblings. We lived in what was then a kampong (small village). My late dad passed away when I was only 4 years old.
I don't have much recollection of him. I was only a small child when we lost him. When he was still around, he's always away from home for work and other obligations. We were pretty much single-handedly all raised up by my mom all on her own.
For all of my siblings, our mom is our biggest inspiration in life (I might write a separate post dedicated to her later). Being the youngest, I'm relatively more pampered compared to my older siblings.
Both of our parents have never had any formal education. But somehow they managed to strive against all odds to put food on the table and get all of us educated. Denied the opportunity to get educated, they somehow took it upon themselves to teach themselves to read, write, and count.
They were both rubber tappers (tapping rubber trees) and also work other multiple jobs at any single time (3 at least). By the time of my dad passing, they managed to own two plots for rubber tree plantation, two plots of residential land with houses that my dad built himself on the lands, few row houses for rental and a small convenience shop.
When my dad passed away, 9 of us are still in school. My mom then had to work way harder on her own, with the kids helping as much as we can. But no one can do it better than what she has done.
Looking back I'm amazed at my parents' sheer determination at survival. I think all of us the kids inherited our parents' survival genes and are proud of my humble beginning.
We were taught earlier on that money did not come easy. For whatever expense we want, we have to earn it ourselves by helping our mom making some side income doing some small businesses or finding part time jobs outside of school hours.
CONFUSING YEARS GROWING UP: WHY AM I NOT LIKE THEM?
I wasn't very inclined on schooling at first. I didn't do very well in school until the end of primary school. I only went to rural primary and secondary daily schools near to my home. I walked 2.5km to and from school every day.
I'm a slow learner at first. But as time goes by I noticed that I'm actually a picky learner. I love geography, sciences, history and general knowledge the most, but not much on math. As I get more interested in these subjects I started picking up reading habits and read stuff that interests me outside of school curriculum.
While my peers were busy following the latest trends like Tamagotchi, Tamiya, video games and such (which I can't afford), I rather spend my time reading stuff that none of them interested. Instead of spending time for prep and tuition classes, I rather learn on my own.
I only have few close friends during primary and secondary school years. I don't hang out much with most of them because of lack of mutual interests. I always keep mostly to myself.
Somehow I still care too much what other people think about me. That's why I think I became more and more socially awkward around people during my teenage years.
But I'm grateful that I found some great friends and teachers for life during these confusing years of my life.
As luck would have it, I became the top student in my school when I got a good result for my SPM exam (GCE-O Level Equivalent) in 2004.
WHEN YOU'RE CAGED YOU'LL WITHER
Because of my good SPM result, I got a scholarship from PETRONAS (Malaysia National Oil Company). I had to do International Baccalaureate, IB diploma first. If I met the cut-off point then they'll send me to continue my degree in Petroleum Engineering in the USA.
To be honest I don't know what to do with my life at this point in time. I took the offer because the opportunity was presented to me.
This ought to be one of the most stressful time of my life. For a starter, it is operated like a boarding school. All of my freedom coming from a daily school background was taken away. Everything has a schedule.
But what affected me the most was the loss of my privacy. It's impossible to have an alone time. That's the drawback of boarding schools. Before this, when I wanted to find solace I'll just exclude myself from anything involving other people. This setting doesn't really help with my social anxiety.
Most of the students here are crème of the crop. Almost all coming from elite or boarding schools. They all speak very good English. Coming from a rural school where almost no one speaks English other than in English classes, I was not as conversant as them. I was then put on remedial classes for English to help me cope.
Also, I'm struggling with the technology here. I've never used any computer at home. We don't own one. My only encounters with technology at this point of time in my life was during the occasional classes that we had in secondary school. Also Nokia 3210 phone I bought just before I left secondary school.
I flunked all the IB internal tests for all the semesters except for the final standardized test. But is was the only one that counts. I got 39 out of 45 possible points. The cut-off point was 35. I'm not sure how I pulled that one off.
To be fair, my peers and lecturers are mostly a lovely bunch here. It's just that in a setting where I lost most of my personal space and time doesn't really help with my social anxiety. My peers might feel social life here akin to walking in a park. It's more like survival mode in the jungle for me.
WHEN YOU'RE FREE YOU'LL FLOURISH
I went to the University of Tulsa, TU in Oklahoma, USA in 2007. Freshman year I stayed in the dorm. Sophomore year onwards I stayed in the student apartment. This was the first time I have my own room. At 21 years old!
First couple semesters I went to most of the classes without fail. After I moved into student apartment, in my sophomore year, I skipped lots of my classes and spending more time in my room researching stuff that interests me. Mind you that this was the first time I had an internet connection so fast and there are so many things to learn online.
My other free time I spent working part-time in the university. I cannot work outside of campus because of my visa. But during the summer break, I worked illegally doing some odd jobs outside of campus.
After deducting living expenses I can save USD250 from my PETRONAS monthly allowance. I received USD1500/semester (USD250/month) from TU for IB Diploma excellence scholarship. From my part time jobs, I can earn USD500-600 a month average. Total average monthly income of USD1000 to USD1100.
Some of this money I used to cover my travel in the USA and also some part of South America. The rest I saved for future investment purpose.
When I got a free return ticket to go back to Malaysia during my sophomore year during summer break, I used the opportunity to take out some investment loans and using my savings as deposits. I then used my monthly income from my part time jobs in the States to cover the installment before I liquidated my investments when I'm back to Malaysia for good. I managed to increase my investments value few folds initial investments in 3-4 years.
I became less socially awkward with this new found freedom. Still shy, timid and introverted, but with more self-confidence. When most of my Malaysian friends keen to make new friends from people they know from inside of the campus, I'm keener on making more connections outside of the academia.
Most of my friends outside that I made coming from blue collared workers around my age, mostly Hispanic. I learned how they live and work by hanging out with them. Only then I realized that poverty is a big part of USA too; even worse than Malaysia.
My university, as nice as it is, is actually surrounded by slightly ghetto neighborhood with apparent poverty. Most out of state students didn't realize this because they spent most of their time inside of the campus.
Then US presidential election and Subprime Mortgage Collapse happened in 2008. I was finding the answers why excellent and fundamentally sound Republican candidate like Ron Paul didn't pass through and they bring in a clown like John McCain.
When I turned on the cable news, they all keep bombarding viewers with useless info and sensationalized debates discussing every minute details which frankly doesn't answer or solve anything.
I went to find the answers online and that is when I come to learn about the evil of government, central banking system Ponzi scheme, Austrian school of economics views, and libertarian movements. Then all the things happened started to make sense to me.
I started to read a lot about finance & economics books and skipped more classes and do the just bare minimum to graduate. I graduated one semester earlier than it should be with 3.33CGPA compared to my other Malaysians batch whom mostly graduated as at least Cum Laude, if not Magna Cum Laude or Summa Cum Laude.
WHY DON'T YOU WORK TILL DEATH?
After graduated I went back to service my sponsor PETRONAS as Drilling Engineer in 2011 in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. I have started investing in properties by then. The job was OK, no complain but I just could not stop thinking of starting something on my own. The thought of keep working a corporate job till retirement just doesn't appeal to me. Doesn't matter how prestigious my job title is.
I used savings from salary/bonus, personal loan and profits I made from liquidating my previous investments; my brother and I started a business in our hometown in Johor Bahru.
Although things don't always go as planned, the business was not really performing well and we're underwater for few months.
I decided to quit my job with Petronas after 3.5years with them; to take care of the business. My brother followed suit not long after. Thanks to him, we managed to put the problem under control and increase our revenue and bring down the cost.
While struggling with the business, we're also getting more involved investing in properties. With help from our mentors and other investment partners, we managed to invest in over 50 rental properties to date. We also started few other small businesses on the sides.
I'M DONE WITH SCHOOL BUT I'M STILL A STUDENT OF LIFE
During my corporate job stint, I noticed that out of 15 years that I spent on my formal education, not even 5% of the stuff I learned applicable to my job. This seems like a very ineffective use of time for learning to get a job.
Also, all the stuff that I learned on my own is applicable and useful in my daily life. I continued my learning every day on things that interest me.
I came across Mike Maloney and his crusade of increasing public awareness about precious metals investment. His arguments seem legit and backed by facts. That's just what I did. I mostly invest in physical silver instead of gold though.
I came across 
I came across Jim Rickards, Doug Casey, Marin Katusa and the likes. That's when I started opening up to invest in select stocks.
In my almost 30 years of life, I've met and learned a lot from other important people that have left marks in my life. Not just about business and investments, but also teaching me about life itself.
I've been blessed with so many good things that had happened to me. So I made it my personal mission to help improve the lives of others; be it my employees, family, friends, or even strangers.
Doesn't matter what's our backgrounds or stories, we can all contribute in one way or the other for betterment of this world (except for those who are evil to the core)
To make our world a better place ;)
Zar