SINGAPORE: A father, they say, is a daughter’s first hero. While it may sound cheesy, it doesn’t make it any less true for Jeline Ang, the founder of The Music Scientist, whose father’s actions spoke oh, so much louder than words.
Ang Poh Thong, now 71, once had his own construction firm, building it from the ground up through grit, determination, and sheer force of will, paving the way for Jeline and her two siblings.
A decade ago, however, he retired. At the age of 60, when he was suffering from poor health, he sold his company.
Then, “my dad took a leap of faith—not for himself, but for me,” she explained, adding that he invested S$1 million in her dream of founding a music enrichment center for babies and preschoolers.
“I simply couldn’t have started my company without this investment from him,” she added.
Freed from the constraints of work, one would think that Mr Ang would start to take it easy, but no. Despite recovering from heart bypass surgery and needing to manage long-term diabetes, he did carpentry work at The Music Scientist. He helped take care of Jeline’s young children, giving her the freedom to attend to her business needs.
“He stepped in, not to take over, but to steady the ground beneath my feet,” she told The Independent Singapore in an interview.
Mr. Ang, who still looks youthful and spry, told us that he feels he was born in the right place and at the right time, coming into his own in Singapore when anything was possible, and anyone could achieve what they wanted if they worked hard enough.
Now, he added, things are not so easy, which is why he was more than willing to support Jeline in every way he could.
When we asked him if selling his firm had been hard, with a twinkle in his eye, he told us, “You must know how to give up at the right time.”
On her part, Jeline, who worked as a contracts manager for many years, is beyond grateful that she gets to be much more hands-on with her own children, whom she laughingly referred to as the “guinea pigs” for the lessons taught at The Music Scientist, and also gets to see how their methods enrich other families, as parents spend more time with their children.
While at first Mr Ang felt that his daughter’s passion sounded more like a hobby than a business, he has seen her thrive, even through the struggles of the COVID-19 pandemic.
For Jeline, every step of the way as an entrepreneur has been a part of the learning process, with her father always available for help and advice.
“My father may not have told us ‘I love you’ every day, like Mummy did, but he has always shown us his love through his actions,” she said.
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To learn more about The Music Scientist, check them out here and here. /TISG
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