School of life: He quit school at 14, worked 3 jobs to support family and got an MBA at 46

SINGAPORE – Mr Chow Yi Tong was 14 years old when he failed his Secondary 1 year-end examinations at Zhonghua Secondary School in 1990 – on purpose.

The extended bilingual stream student from the former Chong Shan Primary School wanted to stop schooling to support his single mother. She worked as a dishwasher, wet market stall holder and odd jobs to support him and his two brothers.

His father had abandoned the family when he was around age six, which left them surviving hand to mouth with just one set of school uniform and one pair of shoes each. Meals in their three-room flat in Ang Mo Kio typically involved heating up instant noodles topped with an egg.

“I saw my mum having difficulties like raising extra money to support us or buy school textbooks for my older brother,” says Mr Chow, now 49, whose brothers are one year older and three years younger than him.

“So, I made the decision to quit school at a young age to support the family. At the time, I was also mentally disengaged and preparing to start working.”

His mother disagreed with his decision to abort his education, but he was adamant. He repeated Sec 1 and was allowed to leave the school on Nov 7 in 1991, five days before his 15th birthday.

On Nov 11 that year, he started work as a display artist for Emporium Holdings, a now-defunct retail group. After he clocked out, he worked as a part-time crew member at Burger King and also took on machine cleaning tasks there from 11pm until about 3am.

Surviving on four hours of sleep was worth it, he says, because his then combined monthly salary of $1,200 was enough to buy the family their first TV and a new sofa.

Despite working three jobs, he never gave up learning.

At ages 16 and 17, he picked up certificates in commercial cartooning, marker illustration and basic graphic design from a now-defunct art school in his spare time, hoping to one day land a better job. He also obtained motorcycle and car driving licences by age 18.

“I’ve always been curious about learning new things,” he says.

Learning sales the hard way

About six months before enlisting in national service in 1995, he quit his job at Emporium to sell premium vacuum cleaners door to door. For each $2,000 vacuum cleaner he sold, he earned about $200 in commission.

It was back-breaking work lugging the vacuum around and facing rejection after rejection, as he had no prior experience in sales.

“On the first day, I burst out in frustration: ‘I can’t do it.’ I had a choice then – was I going to go back to working three jobs a day or change my character and become a dynamic salesman? That was the period when I struggled,” he recalls.

Practicality and persistence drove him to learn to sell better, and he took home $2,000 in his first month. It was more than the 18-year-old ever earned in a month.

That stint also changed his life.

Not only did he meet a 16-year-old girl during one of his sales calls who would later become his wife of 25 years, but he also learnt the skill that would chart a new life path.

“I mastered the art of sales by canvassing strangers door to door every day. There was no basic salary, but it gave me the satisfaction of seeing my efforts pay off,” he says.

“When people feel your sincerity and authenticity, they want to engage with you more.”

He continued with the job during and after NS, but when his manager left for the real estate industry, he followed suit, joining a leading property agency as an agent at age 21.

His flair for closing deals served him well and he soon became a top agent, pulling in a six-figure annual income.

He was, however, frustrated by the management’s focus on seniority over achievement when it came to promotions, so he started a real estate agency, Mindlink Realty, at age 25 in 2001.

“When I started my company without a brand, nobody would join me. So, instead of giving commission, I paid my staff a monthly salary and trained them to become agents. Do things differently, instead of following the trend,” he says.

His approach, which he adopted for about eight years, served him well. Mindlink Groups, which handles an eight-figure annual value of property transactions, is now one of Singapore’s larger property agencies with more than 100 agents.

“I never thought of becoming a boss or running my own agency when I was younger. I just kept focusing on doing things in my own way and, over time, when I looked back, I achieved a number of things,” says Mr Chow, who has three daughters aged 16 to 21.

His journey from dropout to key executive officer of Mindlink has had its fair share of trials and tribulations. They include ventures into Malaysia and China that it had to pull out of, as well as a merger and acquisition deal locally in 2024 that fell through.

Retirement is for learning

He says doing his master’s in business administration (global business) from Coventry University via PSB Academy in 2021 helped him understand the business landscape better, especially in overseas markets, and he adapted Mindlink’s strategy accordingly.

The youthful-looking entrepreneur, who will turn 50 in 2026, stepped down in 2024 as part of his succession plan, but remains a majority shareholder.

Now that he has more time on his hands, he has lost 15kg by eating clean and getting fit, and is still learning and growing. In June 2025, he completed a professional certificate in full stack web development with artificial intelligence from local creative media school Mages Institute of Excellence.

He quips that coding gave him nightmares every day, but he wanted to better understand the technical processes behind Mindlink’s enterprise resource planning development to integrate business processes.

He is also learning more about stocks and shares in his spare time, and mulling over starting a PhD as well.

His advice to young people in the same situation as him three decades ago is to live life to the fullest and not fear making the wrong choice.

“As long as you stay open-minded and learn, you should be able to manoeuvre in life. Everyone can be successful.”