School of life: He give up college at 18 to ‘clear longkangs’ and began a $3m waste administration firm, Lifemodel Information

SINGAPORE – When Mr Shaik Nifael Nazeemuddin dropped out of pre-university as a result of “I didn’t want to study any more”, he didn’t think about that his first job would contain cleansing grease traps – units that separate grease from waste water.

The teen, who studied within the categorical stream at Nan Chiau High School, failed his O-level arithmetic and mixed science topics in 2005. He retook them a yr later and received into Millennia Institute in 2007, however after his first year-end examinations, he was able to give up.

His father, then a common supervisor at a waste administration firm, was livid at his son’s determination. In a bid to persuade him of the significance of college, he insisted that Mr Shaik earn his maintain.

So, the then 17-year-old turned up at dad’s workplace in Ubi for an interview – he took the bus there from his house in Hougang, whereas his father drove to work.

“He told me: ‘You have no education and no experience. You should be thankful I’m employing you,’” Mr Shaik, now 36, recollects. He could be paid $23 a day as a technician and will earn extra if he did additional time work.

The first weeks in December 2007 had been “very bad” as he struggled to return to phrases along with his new actuality, he says.

“My friends were going to school and playing Counter-Strike. I was cleaning grease traps. It smelled so bad. I thought: ‘What am I doing with my life?’” the chatty Mr Shaik recollects.

“Then I told myself: I already have one leg in. Make it or break it. That’s when I decided to give everything to it.”

He labored lengthy hours to earn extra, even sleeping subsequent to grease traps when there was a three-hour buffer between jobs within the wee hours of the night time.

Later, he joined the high-pressure water jet staff to be taught extra technical expertise. He found that having the ability to learn and write English set him other than the older employees, as he might talk with purchasers simply, an asset his boss appreciated.

By the time he left the corporate in late 2008 to do his nationwide service, he was pulling in additional than $3,000 a month as a senior technical specialist.

After finishing NS in 2010, he joined a specialist cleansing firm for a yr as an operations government. His duties primarily concerned utilizing high-pressure jets to take away barnacles from vessels and tools on Jurong Island.

Fourteen months later, he determined to heed his father’s recommendation and launched into a worldwide diploma in advertising and marketing and advertising and marketing administration at a personal instructional establishment right here. But he gave it up when he failed an essential module.

He was uncertain of his subsequent steps at age 22, however his father, who by then was working in one other waste administration agency, referred him to his firm. It wanted a supervisor to supervise operations, planning and gross sales for its 60-member staff.

He earned much less – $1,900 – when he began in 2011, however picked up worthwhile expertise corresponding to negotiating a take care of a foodcourt operator to deal with all 20 branches as a substitute of only one.

In two years, the then 24-year-old greater than doubled his month-to-month wage and earned himself an organization automobile, a purple Mercedes-Benz C180, he says.

Accidental entrepreneur

Mr Shaik’s curiosity in entrepreneurship was sparked throughout his secondary college days. He recollects seeing schoolmates arriving in chauffeur-driven Mercedes-Benzes and Bentleys, solely to search out out that their businessman-fathers couldn’t learn or write English.

In distinction, his extremely educated academics drove extra modest vehicles.

“I told myself: ‘The only way I’m going to make money is by doing business,’” says the previous college sprinter, debater and National Police Cadet Corps member.

Even although Nan Chiau was not a Special Assistance Plan college then, he confronted an enormous tradition shock adapting to its deal with Chinese language and tradition as a minority pupil. That included after-school actions in Chinese calligraphy and Chinese opera.

That expertise, along with the truth that he grew up within the Teochew heartland of Hougang, expanded his world view and gave him expertise that may at some point show pivotal.

In hindsight, he says: “I went to the right school. My parents took me out of my comfort zone and my survival instincts kicked in. I started to look at life differently.”

Still, his foray into entrepreneurship at age 26 got here fairly accidentally in 2015.

His father was compelled out of the corporate they labored at after a disagreement with its administration, and Mr Shaik give up in protest.

Determined to strike out on his personal, he approached Mr Kelvin Neo, an acquaintance in his 50s who labored in the identical constructing. Mr Neo, who runs panorama firm Ho Eng Huat Construction, had as soon as requested if he was able to be his personal boss. Mr Neo spoke no English and Mr Shaik spoke little or no Hokkien, however they’d a very good rapport.

To his shock, the older man instantly agreed to take a position $200,000 into Mr Shaik’s fledgling waste administration firm, Jetters Incz. He additionally launched Mr Shaik to a company secretarial service to assist him arrange his new enterprise. Mr Neo by no means requested for the cash again.

Mr Shaik says of the life-changing incident: “If I am shy, I will never learn and will die stupid.”

Starting a enterprise proved to be more durable than he realised, as he was juggling cash-flow points whereas elevating two younger kids along with his spouse Dania Nur Kay’la Mohd Taib, 36, who helped him with gross sales. She is now Jetters’ chief industrial officer and so they have three children aged eight to 16.

“It wasn’t easy, but I told him: ‘Don’t give up. Jetters is our baby, don’t ever let it go,’” says Ms Dania.

Their arduous work paid off and Jetters Incz pulled in $600,000 in income in its first yr, thanks partially to massive purchasers from his former firm who signed up with him. Ten years on, its income is anticipated to hit the higher finish of $3 million for 2025.

In January 2025, it was named one among Singapore’s 100 quickest rising corporations in a rating by The Straits Times and Germany-based international analysis agency Statista. The record was primarily based on income progress from 2020 to 2023.

Jetters grew tremendously in the course of the Covid-19 pandemic, because of Mr Shaik’s foresight. He took his overseas employees out of dormitories simply earlier than the lockdown and was due to this fact capable of tackle extra jobs.

He additionally purchased his first workplace property in Admiralty and subsequently bought it for a revenue when he moved operations nearer to Hougang, the place he lives in an government maisonette.

Mr Shaik says Jetters was one of many first within the trade to go digital. He plans to leverage on the Internet of Things to develop it right into a know-how firm and is searching for a companion.

While waste administration might not have been his first selection of profession at 17, Mr Shaik believes it’s nothing to be ashamed of.

“When people meet me at gala events, I say: ‘I clean longkangs.’ They tell me, ‘Don’t say that’, but how is that insulting?” he says.

“I’ve been overlooked, stepped upon, forgotten. It’s normal. So, I never look at the glass as half empty. I like to see it as half full.”

Studying will not be his forte, however Mr Shaik says he has had an extended profession runway than his friends due to it and his psychological fortitude has helped him keep the course.

“Life has been my best teacher.”

This article was first printed in The Straits Times. Permission required for replica.