Saturday 3 May 2008

Another loss for Malaysians..A man who followed his dreams and made it!

Yesterday I heard the sad news of the sudden death of (the late) Tan Sri SM Nasimuddin , the founder and chairman of NAZA group in LA.

He was fighting a late stage lung cancer. He was 53.
I have been reading about his NAZA empire and even though I didn't know this man, I have a deep respect and great admiration of him.

I once had a dream like him i.e to have my own car by my own name when I was young.
Reason being I saw most car companies in the world were founded by men who love their machines.

Here's a few example:
(Note:the year at the end is the year they started rolling their first car model, the company might be started earlier)

Mercedes Benz- Karl Benz, Germany 1886

Peugeot- Armand Peugeot (brothers), France 1889

Ford- Henry Ford , USA, 1903

Honda- Soichiro Honda , Japan, 1948

Renault-Louis Renault ,France 1898

Citroen- Andre Citroen, France 1919

Ferrari - Enzo Ferrari, Italy, 1929

Porsche (now part of VW AG)- Ferdinand Porsche,Germany 1931

Toyota- Kiichiro Toyoda (son of Sakichi Toyoda) ,Japan, 1937

Datsun (later Nissan) -The DAT family (Den Kenjiro, Aoyama Rokuro,Takeuchi Meitaro),Japan, 1931

Suzuki- Michio Suzuki ,Japan 1937

Opel -Adam Opel ,Germany 1906 (Opel is now part of GM such as Vauxhall in the UK, Holden in Australia ,Isuzu in Japan , Chevrolet in the US etc)

Audi (before VW AG) - August Horch,Germany 1901

Maserati - Maserati brothers ( Carlo Maserati, Bindo Maserati and Alfiery Maserati),Italy 1926

Mazda - Ahura Matsuda ,Japan, 1960


Well, I could go on and on but I need to mention these great car lovers who made cars out of their passion but never put their name on:

Volvo - Assar Gabrielsson and Gustav Larson, Sweden, 1927

Skoda (before VW AG bought it)- Vaclav Laurin and Vaclav Klement , Czech Republic , 1894


I said then if other ccountries could produce cars, why not Malaysia :).

This was the question Volvo creators asked more than 80 years ago in Sweden hence they produced Volvo. I am sure everybody knows what is Volvo.

Talking about Volvo, let me tell you something about Volvo:

Life better lived together is their latest TV commercial. They are known for their safety features.

The reason they made it to be safe because there is a sad story behind it.

Volvo was originally started after Assar Gabrielsson's wife died in an auto accident, he then vowed to produce the safest cars possible .


The rest was history. I will write a special topic about Volvo when I have time.


But fate had me going another way. So this man had followed his dream and he died doing what he loved most.

But as the saying says, only the good ones die young. Which is sadly quite true. I can name a few: Tan Sri P.Ramlee, Tan Sri Yahya Ahamd ( DRB founder).

I really envy him. He started his business at the age of 21 back in 1974.
He saved RM80,000 (quite a large sum that time I suppose) and went to Japan to buy 10 Japanese used cars.

He imported those cars to Malaysia with his AP and sold all of them. He made his first million ringgit a year later. RM1 million in 1975!!!

This man was accused as being one of the AP kings, but he actually worked hard for it and used the system to eventually provided jobs to more than 4,000 Malaysians and I must stress that he hired both bumi and non-bumi.

To me he was a true businessman and his love for cars had made him rich (damn, this was what I wanted to do!) and proved that anyone can become successful provided one works really hard.

For his contributions to South Korea (Kia Motor Corporation), Nasimuddin received the country's Industrial Service Medal.

Anyway, condolence to his family and I hope we will always remember this man for what he did and most of all he followed his dream....

A great man!


RIP Tan Sri...

4 comments:

D said...

yes, I too heard this story and was taken aback by it. Perhaps because of 'cancer' and how fast it really kills! I love stories of people working their way up through hardship to really being successful, and indeed, Tan Sri Nasimuddin was among them. However, there's a message behind this also: that even with wealth, we can't escape death!

Al-fatihah...

Lee said...

Really sad to see a distinguished personality passing away so young. But cancer doesn't spare ages.
Can see you really love your cars.
I used to, young days, cars and motorcycles.
I love motorcycles, owned three Ducati's young days, then a Norton Twin, then a Yamaha twin.
Later switched to cars.
But it was funny, I used to modify my Alfa Romeo's and never spared the horses, never once blew up the engine.
Then getting on in age I bought a Mercedes 280S, a one year old and traveling at a very high speed somewhere near Slim River, Perak I blew the engine.
It sure was an expensive repair....gave it up, returned to Alfas, ha ha.
You have a nice day, Lee.

All The Cars In The World said...

I love Italian cars too Uncle.

They used to have weird driving position like long arms and short legs (kinda like monkeys hahahaa)

Italian cars always to me have a good or seducive designs like most Alfa Romeos. Today, you can see the heritage on Alfa 159 Berlina.

Beautiful!

Lee said...

Hi All cars..., terima kaseh seribu for the honour you having my callsign here.
You are right re Italian cars having funny positions for driving, but they sure made beautiful designed cars.
And the sounds the Alfa Romeos make on 3rd gear at 5800 RPMs have to be heard to believe.
I was fortunate old days having the opportunity of doing lots of driving all over the country weeky, to East Coast or along the East West Hyway.
At that time in the early 80's there was curfew after 5.30pm, and I would arrive from Ipoh or Alor Star around 5.20pm, ha ha just before they roll the barb wire across the road, this near Grik, the start of the hyway.
And there was no speed limit...the moment after the military or police took my number down and telling me no stopping till Jeli in Kelantan, I behaved like Michael Shumacher, rowing my gears hearing the raspy, fabulous sounds echoing across the hills and valleys.
I would take those fast bends at 80 mph, even doing 4 wheel slides when it rains...having good Michelin tires.
As my Alfa Was modified with half race cams etc...it was plain Nirvana....and one reason I never had passengers....they would have wet their pants, ha ha at speeds of 125 mph plus and screeching tires around the fast bends, ha ha.
How I miss those days....
Today I drive my Lincoln V8 like a law abiding senior citizen, ha ha.
You stay easy and have a nice day, Lee.