My Journey

The Turning Point

The year was 2011, at 27 years old, I found myself staring at my bank account, which barely showed $5,000 in savings. It wasn’t a feeling of accomplishment. It was more of a silent panic. Sure, I was technically an adult, but financially, I was still struggling to make ends meet.

I worked as a conveyor belt technician, earning just $1,800 a month, before CPF deduction.  

This went on for months, and with each passing day, I began to question myself. "How did I end up here?" I couldn’t help but wonder how someone could be so far behind, especially when there were people my age already building wealth, traveling the world, or living comfortably. I started asking myself, "How can I change this? How can I do better?"

The Wake-Up Call

It wasn’t just the shame of scraping for change that bothered me. It was the constant fear — the fear of never having enough, of not being able to provide for myself, of staying stuck in a cycle of living paycheck to paycheck. I realized I was trapped. My job wasn’t going to make me rich, and my savings account was a joke. It was time for something different.

So, I did what most people don’t. I took a step back, looked at my situation, and got real with myself. I had to stop pretending everything was okay and start taking responsibility for where I was. I had to face the fact that if I didn’t do something about my finances, I would be in the same situation year after year. I wasn’t going to let that happen.

The Book That Started It All

One evening, after another long shift, I found myself wandering into a local bookstore. I wasn’t looking for anything specific, but something caught my eye — a book titled How to Buy, Sell & Profit on eBay by Adam Ginsberg. I had heard of eBay, but never thought much about it as a way to make money. Curious, I picked it up and started flipping through the pages.

As I read, everything started to click. The book explained how you could turn everyday items into profit and build a business right from your living room. It wasn’t about becoming a millionaire overnight. It was about starting small and working with what you had. It felt like the perfect opportunity. Every little step I took could lead to something bigger.

I decided to take the plunge. I started my first side hustle by listing items on eBay on the weekends. It wasn’t glamorous — The first item I sold was my old laptop that I listed for $200, it wasn't much, but that got me hooked right away. From then on, I was selling old stuff around the house. The extra cash from my eBay sales started to add up, and I was hooked. I saved all the money I got from selling on eBay. Running out of things to sell, I came across a site called Alibaba.com

The Alibaba Discovery

After getting a taste of success flipping used items on eBay, I started asking myself a simple but powerful question:

"What else could I sell?"

I sat down one night, notebook in hand, brainstorming. I realized something obvious — I was into motocross, and there was a whole community out there just like me, always looking for good gear. Gloves, goggles, jerseys — these weren’t just accessories; they were essentials.

Lightbulb moment.

I knew I couldn’t rely on used items forever if I wanted to grow (at least for me at that moment). I needed something scalable—something I could sell in volume. That’s when I stumbled across Alibaba.com. It felt like I had opened a secret door to a warehouse bigger than anything I’d ever imagined. Manufacturers from all over the world, offering products at prices I'd never thought possible.

I zeroed in on motocross gloves and goggles. I started reaching out to manufacturers, asking about bulk prices, minimum orders, and shipping. At first, it was intimidating — negotiating in broken English, trying to figure out if I was about to get scammed — but I kept at it. Eventually, I locked in a few solid deals and placed my first bulk order.

Suddenly, I wasn’t just reselling used items anymore — I was running a real business.

Since I was buying in bulk, my cost per item dropped significantly. This gave me room to mark up my gloves and goggles at double the cost price. I listed everything on eBay, set nice, clean photos, wrote solid descriptions — and then...

Crickets.

For weeks, I had tons of watchers, but almost no buyers. It was frustrating, but I knew giving up wasn’t an option. So I got creative: I switched my listings to auctions instead of fixed-price sales. That’s when things started getting exciting.

Bids started rolling in. People fought over my products. Items that had sat dormant for weeks were now moving fast. Some even sold for higher than my Buy It Now price would have been! Watching those bids climb felt like winning mini-lotteries every day.

From spare coins to bulk orders, from slow sales to bidding wars — I was finally seeing real momentum.

And it all started because I was willing to look beyond what I knew, take a risk, and trust that small steps would eventually lead to bigger victories.

When The Tide Turned

Just as I was getting comfortable, business started to change — and not in a good way.

At first, selling motocross gloves and goggles felt like striking gold. I was flipping inventory, watching bids climb, and finally seeing real profits. But like every gold rush, others soon caught on.

Before long, Chinese manufacturers — the very ones I was buying from — started selling directly on eBay. They bypassed middlemen like me, listing the same gloves and goggles for prices so low it almost felt illegal.

I watched helplessly as their listings flooded the platform. They could afford razor-thin margins because they were shipping straight from the source. Meanwhile, I had to factor in bulk purchase costs, shipping fees, and eBay fees — not to mention the small matter of trying to actually make a profit.

My margins shrank.

First, they got tight.

Then they got squeezed.

And finally, they disappeared.

At one point, I was practically selling at cost just to move inventory. Competing with the very factories I was buying from was like bringing a butter knife to a sword fight.

It hurt to admit, but the numbers didn’t lie. Continuing down that path would’ve been financial suicide.

So I made the tough call — I stopped selling motocross gloves and goggles altogether.

It wasn’t a failure.

It was a lesson.

Markets change. Competition evolves. And sometimes, the smartest move isn’t to fight harder — it’s to pivot smarter.

Discovering Dropshipping

After shutting down my motocross gear hustle, I felt like I was standing at a crossroads — broke, bruised, but definitely not broken. I knew I wasn’t done. I just needed a better way — something smarter, something that wouldn't leave me drowning in unsold inventory or battling factories with deeper pockets.

One night, scrolling through Google, hunting for answers like a digital Indiana Jones, I stumbled across something that felt almost too good to be true:

Dropshipping.

At first, it sounded like a scam — "sell products you don't even own!" — but the more I read, the more the pieces started fitting together.

No buying bulk.

No packing orders.

No late-night runs to the post office with armfuls of parcels.

Just listing products online, and when someone buys, the supplier ships it directly to the customer.

It was like someone had taken all the worst parts of my eBay experience and thrown them in the trash.

And the best part?

There were millions of products I could sell.

Anything from phone cases to furniture to niche hobby items — all without touching a single piece of inventory. The possibilities were overwhelming... in the best possible way.

I remember sitting there, mind racing with ideas, thinking:

"This... this could be it."

For the first time, I wasn’t limited by what I could afford to buy in bulk. I wasn’t tied to a single product or stuck babysitting boxes of gloves in my bedroom. With dropshipping, I could test markets, pivot quickly, and scale infinitely — all while keeping my overhead almost nonexistent.

It was the ultimate freedom play.

Now, it was time to learn the game, master it, and build something even bigger than before.