Adam Khoo Yean Ann (
traditional Chinese:
邱緣安;
simplified Chinese:
邱缘安;
pinyin:
Qiu Yuan An) (born
April 8,
1974) is a
Singaporean entrepreneur, best-selling
author and peak performance
trainer. A self-made
millionaire by the age of 26, he is one of the youngest millionaires in
Singapore,
[1] and owns and runs several
businesses in
education,
training,
event management and
advertising, all with a combined annual
turnover of S$30 million.
Khoo is the
Executive Chairman and Chief Master Trainer of Adam Khoo Learning Technologies Group Pte Ltd and
Director of seven other
private companies. Khoo was also a
director of the Singapore
Health Promotion Board (HPB) 2009-2010. He is currently a member of the Singapore Chapter of the
Young President's Organization (YPO),
[2][3] whose membership is only available to
business owners below 50 years of age, who run businesses with minimum annual turnover of US$9 million. Khoo was also conferred the
NUS Business School Eminent Business Alumni Award 2008 for being one of Singapore's most successful and prominent
business leaders.
Career
Books authored
Adam Khoo is the best-selling author of ten
books including
I Am Gifted, So Are You! (first published by
Oxford University Press,
ISBN 978-9812324276).
[4] His second and third books are
How to Multiply Your Child's Intelligence (
Pearson Education,
ISBN 978-0131013551) and
Clueless in Starting a Business (Pearson Education,
ISBN 978-9812445070).
Khoo's fourth book was
Master Your Mind, Design Your Destiny (Adam Khoo Learning Technologies Group,
ISBN 978-9810508562). His fifth and sixth books were
Secrets of Self-Made Millionaires (Adam Khoo Learning Technologies Group,
ISBN 978-9810552848) and
Secrets of Millionaire Investors (Adam Khoo Learning Technologies Group,
ISBN 978-9810581954). His seventh book was
Nurturing the Winner & Genius in Your Child (Adam Khoo Learning Technologies Group,
ISBN 978-9810596835) and his eight book,
Secrets of Building Multi-Million Dollar Businesses (Adam Khoo Learning Technologies Group,
ISBN 978-9810814786) was launched in October 2008. His ninth book was titled
Profit from the Panic (Adam Khoo Learning Technologies Group,
ISBN 978-9810820879).
Background and education
Childhood
Khoo was expelled from
St Stephen's Primary School[3] at the age of eight for misbehavior, partly due to poor academic results.
[5] His
parents hunted for a
primary school willing to accept him and finally found
Ngee Ann Primary School.
[3] Due to his poor results at the
Primary School Leaving Examination (PSLE), he did not qualify to enter any of the six
secondary schools his parents had chosen.
[5] Eventually he went to a
government school Ping Yi Secondary, where he passed only five out of eight subjects
[5] and finished 156th out of 160 Secondary 1 Express Stream students.
[1][3]
Khoo's parents and teachers described him back then as capable but
lazy,
indifferent and
addicted to
television.
[3][6] He described himself as being totally uninterested in
learning (he was frustrated as he felt he could not learn),
[6] extremely unmotivated,
[7] physically weak and mentally lethargic.
[5] His
stepsister was an A-student in the
Gifted Education Programme at
Raffles Girls' Secondary[3] while
cousins from his close-knit
extended family were from the best schools in Singapore.
[5] He had very poor
social skills,
[5] did not enjoy
reading anything but
comics[7] and was addicted to
arcade games and moronic
TV programs.
[5] He tried to join the
Scout Movement, but was thrown out six months later for not passing the basic qualifying test, the 'Scout Standard', as he did not bother to try.
[5]
Turning point in education
In 1987, when Khoo was 13, his parents enrolled their
"under-achiever" son for a five-day residential program at Ladyhill Hotel called Super-Teen Camp.
[1][3][4] The man responsible for spotting Khoo's "gifted talent" in Super-Teen was Dr. Ernest Wong,
Founder, Principal Consultant and Master Teacher of Ernesco, the Centre for Motivational Language Learning based in
Kuala Lumpur,
Malaysia[4] (the Super-Teen Camp is now under Learning Mastery Pte. Ltd.) Dr. Wong's
teaching tools incorporated and adapted an American-developed
learning technology called
Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP), as well as Whole-Brain Learning.
[4] This was the beginning of Adam Khoo's interest and journey in mastering motivational techniques,
[4] which formed the foundation of many of his best-selling books and
seminars.
Within three months of the program, Khoo climbed to among the top 18 in his secondary school.
[4] He went on to rank among the top 10 in Ping Yi Secondary within a year,
[5] topped his school in the
GCE 'O' Level examinations with the lowest scoring aggregate, and was the first in Ping Yi Secondary to qualify for the then-top
junior college in Singapore,
Victoria Junior College.
[1][4][5] At Victoria Junior College, he was
President of the Economics Society
[6] and scored three 'As' for his
GCE 'A' Level examinations.
[4][6] He entered the
Business Administration faculty at the
National University of Singapore (NUS) and continued his notable academic achievements by making it to the
Dean's List every year
[1] since his first year,
[6] ranked among the top 1 percent of academic achievers
[5] and became a pioneer in the university's Talent Development Programme (TDP), the
tertiary equivalent of the Gifted Education Programme for secondary schools.
[1] He holds an honors degree in Business Administration from NUS.
Millionaire in the making
At age 15, Khoo was devouring books on "how to make
money" like
Donald Trump's business books and
Warren Buffett's books on
investment techniques.
[7] While still in secondary school, he formed a
mobile disco company with his
friends, using his grandmother's house to re-create a
disco and charged
teenagers who attended a
fee. He even took over the
job of the
deejay that he
hired, after studying him.
[3] At 16, he began investing most of his
time and money to read and undergo training sessions in NLP
[4] in the
United States. At 17, he became a
freelance motivational trainer by visiting schools in Singapore, making the bold proposition of turning the worst students around for no charge in the beginning. Eventually, he started charging S$25 per student for half a day's training.
[7]
After completing
National Service in the
Republic of Singapore Air Force at age 21, Khoo went into
partnership with three NUS friends and registered an event management company, Creatsoul Entertainment.
[6] The company organized
hops, jams and other
entertainment activities
[3] for clients like
individuals, companies and
organizations at NUS and
Nanyang Technological University (NTU).
[6] This was later re-registered as Event Gurus Pte Ltd, an event management company. Today Event Gurus runs major events like
The New Paper Big Walk and the President's Charity Challenge's Project Y.
[3]
At 23, Khoo obtained his
license in NLP in
Seattle, Washington.
[4] At 24, he became a trainer at SuperTeen,
[1] conducting courses for organizations like the
Chinese Development Assistance Council (CDAC),
Association of Muslim Professionals (AMP),
Nanyang Girls' High School and the Universitas Pelita Harapan (UPH) in
Jakarta.
[6] At 25, Khoo was
coaching top
insurance agents and marketing managers twice his age on how to boost sales.
[1] At this time, his
father, Vince Khoo, who owned
advertising agency Adcom, bought out all
partners and offered the younger Khoo the opportunity to run it.
[1] Within three months, he turned it around from making losses in 1998–1999 to clinching a pitching rate of 80 percent
[1] with the first monthly
profit, and went on to increase margins by 30%.
[8] Their clients have included AIA,
Dumex,
Mobil (lost during the
Exxon merger), Phillip Wain slimming centers, Sobe Fresh Soya Milk,
Tabasco,
Heinz, Sinsin,
Night Safari, Singapore and
MobileOne (M1).
[1][9]
At 26, Khoo earned his first million, from giving motivational training at schools and companies (the most lucrative, earning him up to S$1000 an hour), his entertainment company and shrewd investments in
equities,
unit trusts and
property.
[3]
Portfolio
Investments
Khoo's first taste of
investing came from his
grandfather,
[7] who would give him
Lunar New Year red packets with Malaysian
share lots like
Genting, Kuantan Flour Mill and
HICOM.
[10] Inspired by Mary Buffett's book Buffettology, he started dabbling in
shares in the
army.
A conservative and long-term
investor,
[10] Khoo goes for investments with very low
risk and high
returns,
[7] favoring cash-rich companies with low
debts and the potential to consistently increase their
earnings.
[10] He prefers investing in
stocks and
options, using a variety of investing
strategies including
momentum and
value investing.
[7]
Property
Khoo's
portfolio consists of
property that he
rents out,
private businesses, Singapore stocks, US stocks and
exchange-traded funds (ETFs), generating an average
return of over 20 percent per
annum.
[10] In 1998, he bought a 1,300 sq ft (120 m
2)
condominium in East Coast for S$480,000 and rented it out for about S$3,000. He sold it for S$650,000 in 2004. In early 2008, he bought a 900 sq ft (84 m
2)
condo at Robertson Quay for S$1.3 million, renting it out at S$4,000.
[10]
Businesses
Khoo does not believe in taking on
consumer debt and prefers starting businesses with zero
capital, paying freelance fees or stocks in the beginning until
profit is generated.
[7]
In the media
Khoo's success and achievements have been
featured in regional
media like The Straits Times,
The Business Times (Singapore),
The New Paper, Lianhe Wanbao,
Channel NewsAsia (CNA),
MediaCorp Channel U and
Channel 8,
MediaCorp 938LIVE (formerly NewsRadio 938) and
Capital 95.8FM,
The Hindu,
The Star and
The Sun Malaysian newspapers,
The Executive Magazine, Asian Business the Magazine for Entrepreneurs,
Prestige, Her World Magazine, Calibre Magazine and many more. In 2007, he was ranked among the top 25 richest Singaporeans under the age of 40 by The Executive Magazine.
