My late dad spent more than half his career in the insurance industry. Started off in London where he spent 7 years before coming back and joining the local insurance company Talasco Insurance, running the life insurance division.
I grew up knowing this but didn’t really know what insurance actually meant. What I remembered from his time in Talasco was his staff (which is more of his friends) and sports. I had the chance for to meet many national legendary footballers and hockey players including the late Mokhtar Dahari (who used to be branding manager) and Karim Pin (who also married my cousin). Can’t remember the name of the hockey players but I knew they were good – me and my brother got ourselves a hockey stick each, which we used to play back home.
For some reason, my dad’s circle of childhood friends also ended up in the insurance industry – Uncle Subri, Uncle Uncle Amir, Uncle Anuar. These names I grew up knowing – all of them became senior people in the insurance industry.
The funny thing was my dad never brought us up to be in this industry. My brother studied accountancy and I did IT but somehow both of us ended up in it.
My entrance into the industry was thanks to Uncle Subri who kindly took me in as a management trainee at Malaysian National Insurance (MNI) when I couldn’t land a job in IT despite graduating with a good CGPA. I went from interview to interview but just didn’t make it. People might say its cable – I say yeah probably, but it’s more fate than anything else.
So the two people who actually got me into this industry are my late dad and Uncle Subri. Looking back, I’m thankful that fate brought me here through them, now I’ve end up in the takaful industry that I love so much.
A photo of the two of them (both sitting down) when they were young shared by Uncle Subri.
