All of My Heart. Teguh Pranoto Chen

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      Text © 2016 by Teguh Pranoto Chen

      Designs, Illustrations © 2016 by Teguh Pranoto Chen

      All rights reserved.

      Published in eBook format by Fulton Holding.

      E-mail: [email protected]

      Converted by http://www.eBookIt.com

      ISBN Softcover 978-981-11-1310-9

      ISBN eBook 13: 978-9-8111-1311-6

      All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or any means, electronic or mechanical, without the written permission of the copyright owners or publisher.

       www.fultonholding.com

      To my beloved wife, Kim,

      and my beautiful children, Lara and Zeke,

      I dedicate all of my heart …

      About the Author

      Upon graduation, Teguh Pranoto Chen traded an opportunity of a lifetime to join one of the most respected investment banks in the world with assignments in NY, London, and Tokyo to surf in Hawaii. Returning to Asia, he started his career with P&G in Jakarta. Not long afterwards, he skipped an offer to join a top 20 Ph.D. program in the U.S. His assignments with P&G included shutting down manufacturing sites, delisting a publicly listed company, integrating new businesses and streamlining operations, while building successful businesses across Asia. Along the way, he bagged multiple global awards and recognitions.

      After this, he joined a privately funded start-up to build an integrated coal mining project with 300-km railway behind access to the 2nd largest coal mine in Indonesia. Currently with Publicis, one of the largest advertising holding companies, he is embarking on a new challenge to build integrated digital business across Asia.

      He lives in Singapore with his beloved wife, two beautiful children, and their little dog. While not attending his day jobs, he dedicates his time to his passion in trading. His first book, Portfolio of Trading Systems (Partridge, 2014), is available on Amazon. His second book, Wisdoms of the Sparrows (Fulton Holding, 2015), shares fun and entertaining stories about the trials and tribulations of a growing sparrow family, to convey real life business lessons.

      For more info, email [email protected].

      Prologue

      There’s that indigestion again. Popping another antacid tablet, I rub my chest. “Happens every time I eat lunch on the run…” I tut to myself, making a mental note to let that be the last time I neglect my dietary needs for the sake of squeezing in an extra meeting.

      I can almost hear my father telling me off… “You’ve got to start taking care of yourself, son. You’re not getting any younger.”

      Then it takes me. A searing pain like a lightning bolt tearing in through my chest and exiting through my lower back. A sweaty sickness from deep down in the pit of my stomach and an agonizing cramping in my arm prevents me from keeping control of the wheel. Lifting my foot from the gas, I’m preparing to die. If the heart attack doesn’t kill me, I am certain in my mind that the impending collision will.

      I begin to pray for the first time since my wife became ill during the birth of my youngest child. I pray that I will get to say goodbye. A pain is shattering my heart now, not the physical pain, not the muscles in my heart dying from a lack of oxygen rich blood, but emotional pain.

      God, I wish I had spent more time with the people I love.

      There is always a sky above the sky

      Then I feel myself going back, back to a time when I had just completed my degree. I remember that proud, puffed-out-chest feeling as if it was yesterday. Graduating with the highest grades in my class, I had even delivered the valedictory address at the graduation ceremony. I had preceded most of my peers in what was the best university in the country. Wow, the world is my oyster, I thought. Unstoppable.

      I knew which company I wanted to be a part of, the instant I first read about them. Flipping the pages in the glossy Fortune magazine, I saw the listings, and yet again they were ranking as one of the most elite and admired. One of only two companies in the world to appear in all of Fortune’s annual lists — a blue ribbon company.

      I will be there soon, I smiled to myself… And convinced that I had chosen them, rather than vice versa, I strolled right through the open double doors that my newly acquired qualifications had jimmied ajar for me.

      You can only begin to imagine the crushing blow my ego took when I arrived in that welcome meeting, strutted up to the sheer glass table of strangers, and seated myself defiantly — only to find that all of them seemed just as intelligent, just as passionate, and possibly just as hard working as I would ever be. My heady feeling of being top dog for the job was starting to wane quickly.

      I spoke to one of them by the water cooler… a relatively young girl, still no more than nineteen. Jane was the president of the student association at Berkeley and graduated top of her class. Beautiful, athletic, and incredibly intelligent… To look at her, I would never have thought she might even entertain an interest in such a male dominated cooperate environment. But she was there, she was popular, and she was radiant as she answered every question put to her, with a calm and informed finesse.

      Max was the quiet one with geeky glasses who sat opposite me in the far corner. He struck me as possibly a little shy… Needless to say, he was just absorbing every detail and biding his time. When he introduced himself, I was to discover that he was top of his class at Stanford, had family connections with the CEO, and was popular with the ladies. Didn’t even need the glasses — and would you believe, he never wore them again anyway.

      I was part of a team, and after their impressive performances, I was unsure who would become the leader of that team; not me, perhaps.

      That was the first time I had ever experienced a humbling. No matter how smart you think you are, there is always someone smarter than you.

      And as my car begins to leave the road, launching up onto the curbside, I see the clouds up above. It reminds me that in a company there is always a sky above the sky... I learned that lesson more than once.