Thank you ladies, thank you gentlemen and thank you to all significant people in the audience. And that includes everyone of you. Everyone is significant.
Also, thanks to the staff of NLB for organising this book launch and to their Chief Executive, Dr N Varaprasad, for being my guest-of-honour. Thanks, to the management and staff of MPH distributors for believing in me and my books, and taking extraordinary measures to organise this launch. Thanks to your hard work, one of my books has already made it to the ST Life Best-Seller list. It was truly a pleasant surprise for me.

Today, you have a book. Today, you have a prizedream.

This is my book.
My story is my book.
Your story is your book.
My life is my book.
Your life is your book.

So today, you already have your own book waiting to be written and published. Should you need a publisher, we could sit down over a cup of coffee or tea to explore your dream.

Through the help of many people, I have written and published two books. And there are more on the way. I have turned my seemingly impossible Prizedream into a reality. I am grateful to the following people for helping and inspiring me: Mr T C Tan, Prof Kirpal Singh, Prof Tommy Koh, Mr Ang Wee Hiong, Ruth Chan, Prof Wang Gungwu, Ruth, and to many more heroes and heroines who supported me.

Today, 300 years ago on this very day, Benjamin Franklin was born. I like to take this moment to honour him for inspiring me. Hopefully, when you get to know him through my book, you will be inspired too.

Today, we are proud and happy to join America and the rest of the world in commemorating the 300th birth anniversary of this truly great man.

Franklin was one of the founding fathers of the United States of America, a scientist who contributed greatly to the understanding of electricity and refrigeration, and a civic leader who initiated the public library, fire brigade, fire insurance, liberal arts education, amongst others.

We are launching a book about him here at the National Library because Franklin founded what is possibly the world’s first lending library in 1731. So there is no better place to launch my books, than right here, on his 300th birth anniversary. I am deeply grateful to Prof Kirpal Singh and Dr Prasad for their graciousness, whose participation, make this book launch memorable and meaningful.

I wrote a book about Franklin because he left such a deep imprint on the soul of humanity that it is impossible for anyone to pass a day without coming into contact with something that he invented, discovered, thought up, popularised or fought for.

Franklin is what I call a PRAISE® Champion.

PRAISE® is a personal life skills model I developed, which encompasses six principles of success: Prizedream, Rules, Analysis, Invincibility, Strategy and Excellence.

When I look at the lives of the world’s greatest men and women, I find that they all apply principles that are similar to those found in the PRAISE® model. They all have a dream or a vision which they work hard towards. They all live by their personal rules, and so on.

Everything starts with a dream. Everything starts with a vision. Look around you. Everything you see in this hall is here because somebody had dreamt about it. Somebody had a vision. And that vision eventually got transformed into reality. This is what I call a Prizedream, as opposed to a daydream, which is merely wishful thinking.

Franklin’s Prizedream was to ‘gain in knowledge and improve in virtue’. He pursued this vision relentlessly throughout his life.

What is your Prizedream? I hope, today, you will discover your Prizedream. And, in so doing, become a master of your own destiny.

Today, if you dream of achieving something – to be a top student or a top banker or a successful entrepreneurship or a best-selling author – that can become your Prizedream. My advanced congratulations to your endeavour.
Franklin has shown us that it is possible for an ordinary person to achieve great things. He is not just a great American, but ranks among the greatest men in history. I am glad I picked him to launch my PRAISE® Champion series of books.

Just as great men and women can inspire, I believe that we can all learn from each other and inspire each other for the betterment of ourselves and society. I share my life journey with people in the hope that they will do the same and share their life stories with others.

Soulprints I – BreakThrough covers my life story till I was 18 years old. This was the roughest and toughest period of my life. I was a ‘gangster kid’ in my younger days. Many of my childhood friends were secret society members, drug addicts, armed robbers, and so on.

I grew up very poor. We were so poor that I had to survive on porridge with soya sauce or salted vegetables. My parents could not even afford to buy me a pair of slippers.

Can you imagine how painful it is to walk under the hot sun without a pair of slippers? I sold my champion spider for $2 to buy my first pair of slippers.

I felt so lousy when I was growing up. I had a strong inferiority complex.

In primary three, I was punished in school for wearing my brother’s black socks, because my white socks were wet and I did not have an extra pair. My form teacher could not believe that my parents did not have the money to buy me an extra pair of white socks. So, she made me walk round and round the school field under the hot sun, with the black socks but without the shoe, until I almost fainted.

My classmates and schoolmates laughed and jeered at me.

Can you imagine the humiliation I felt? I felt very lousy. I felt very small. I felt very terrible. I was so deeply hurt that it took me another 16 long years before I regained my dignity.

Apart from being poor, I was also severely abused by my father. Sometimes, he would tie up his children and hang us on a ceiling hook before he caned us.

I could not understand why my father treated me more badly than my brothers. My brothers got more food, more clothing, more toys, more of everything. But I got more canings. My father never once caned my younger brother.

I was a very playful child. So, I did badly in school. I had 19/100 for English, 22/100 for mathematics…

My grades gradually improved, but when I was in Pre-U, I got a 0 for one mathematics test. The feeling of failure was awful. I became depressed and suicidal. Can you imagine my despair when there is no hope in life?

Throughout my life, whenever I was in a crisis situation, I always felt an invisible hand guiding me and saving me. So when I did badly for mathematics, out of the blue a kind schoolmate offered to give me free tuition. Eventually, I made it to the university.

In my adult life, a strong influence was Sun Zi’s The Art of War. When I was an officer in the navy, I was told not only to read The Art of War, but to eat, drink, breathe, sleep and dream The Art of War.

The book, together with my navy experiences, led me to develop PRAISE as a personal life skills model, at age 26. With the help of PRAISE, I topped my diploma and masters degree classes, whilst holding a full-time career, at age 27.

I am grateful to the following people for my navy’s training: RADM (Ret) James Leo, RADM (Ret) Kwek Swee Jin, Mr Tan Kian Chew, Mr Lee Seng Kong, Mr Gary Lee, Mr Mr Lim Ah Seng and Mr Philip Cheong. Without their guidance, there would have been no PRAISE model and hence, no breakthrough.

I will be explaining PRAISE® in greater depth in my third book, Rough Life Rich Life, due later this year.

In October last year, I launched my books at the World Book Fair in Frankfurt.
I like to express my appreciation to Dr Christopher Chia, CEO of MDA, and Mr SETO Lok Yin, Director, International Development at MDA, for their support and presence at Frankfurt.

Many people have helped me turned my Prizedream into a reality. Through the help of many people, I like to create more LifeSparks to inspire people for a better tomorrow. Through the help of more people, I like to touch more hearts in the lost frontiers, new frontiers and old frontiers. This is my Prizedream. I would be most grateful to anyone, who could help me achieve this Prizedream.

And to those who have already helped, let me say a big THANK YOU. In particular, I wish to thank the many people who were kind enough to read my books and give their endorsements. I was very touched to receive a letter from Dr Vivian Balakrishnan, the Minister for Communication Development, Youth and Sports, congratulating me on my two books.

He wrote:”BreakThrough was particularly moving because of your graphic, brutally honest description of your early life in Singapore. I could not put the book down until I completed the last page.”

In closing, I like to share with you the three philosophies instrumental for my survival, and for transforming my rough life into a rich life.

• ‘You owe yourself a second chance. Never give up!’

• ‘Even though no one in this world likes you, you must not despair, you must love yourself.’

• ‘Even though no one in this world loves you, you must not collapse, you must love your soul.’

I hope my books will inspire readers, children and adults alike, never to give up in the face of challenges, and to discover their full potential for achieving excellence and success.

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