WAV Studio - Part 1
The creation of WAV Studios hasn’t been the smoothest of journeys, as one of its founders, Ben, can attest to. Conceived through the cracks of a tight Movement Control Order (MCO), cold-emailing a 100 prospects a day, the dissolution of partners, resilience has been the root word to describe the journey of the production house.
4 years in (at the time of writing), and the brand has stabilised to become somewhat of a growing powerhouse, hoarding a portfolio that comprises big brand names from the likes of Levi’s, Nike, Joe Flizzow, and many more. Getting there though, lies a rollercoaster of emotions, decisions, and outlook that have shaped the brand into what it is today.
As I barged myself into their studio, I got a chance to sit down with Ben (with special guest, Jason), who for better or for worse, keeps it very real through a loud-mouthed and vulgar personality.
Read on to understand just how much work is being put into keeping a studio alive, and his deepest and darkest fears.
*This interview is condensed and rewritten to be engaging in a story format, parts of which may be edited for the reader’s understanding.
Foetus Ben
Background & Childhood
After settling down on the couch, Nabil opens the conversation starting from the very beginning. “Alright, so we've known each other for quite some time really, right? But I don't think I've known about your background, I think more specifically, like your childhood.” says Nabil
Physically recoiling from his seat, “God damn this is sus as fuck man, i swear to God, but okay.” Ben replies.
“How was it like growing up? How was your childhood?” Nabil asks.
“I grew up in a pretty damn strict family.” said Ben. “The overarching theme that I was brought up with is if you want, ‘if you want something, you have to work for it.’ This is implemented since I was fucking young, when I was still single-digit year old.”
“This came from your mom or your dad?”
“Both……both.” Ben pondered. “Yeah. I wouldn’t say my parents are well to do, they’re decent, just decently average. So they definitely provided everything that I needed, not everything I wanted. So my education, my daily necessities, the roof over my head, everything is provided. I grew up pretty comfortable in that sense, just enough.
Everything was just enough.”
Nabil then continued, “I think from how you spoke about you growing up and especially with your parents, not a lot of people would have gotten to this type of realisation of the blessings that they get. Of course, even though it's like, okay, middle class never mind, but you know, all the necessities were covered, and you didn't have to worry about when's your next plate of food coming and things like that, right? So what were the events, or what led you to the conclusion of, ‘you know what? I’m blessed as fuck.’”
Reflecting on the question for a little while, Ben then replied, ”I came to this realisation when I finished university actually, it’s because when I realised that, oh shit, all my friends are in debt, even before they began working, in terms of debt. What I meant by debt is your college loans, university loans and shit. All of those are covered already by parents. Yeah, so in a way that they are, they are so thrifty just to provide everything that I need in life basically. So only then I realised, oh shit actually, I'm in a pretty good place. I finished my education, I can come out to work without any worry to repay my debts and shit.”
Interest in Development
“Obviously, you know, the whole of the company is about video and photo production. From early childhood, were there any films, productions or any sets of photography that you were interested in or was there any particular event that drew you into this field?” asked Nabil.
“A simple answer is no, nothing, none at all, Ben sharply replied.”
“How I got into what I would do now is, it really came out of, as easy as it sounds, it really came out of passion man, and interest lah to begin with. I went to an audio college, all because I wanted to become a DJ.
Luckily, my parents were very, very supportive. They think that, hey, there's no point going to, you know, a DJ academy, just learn something more in depth lah, in that sense. So they sent me to an audio engineering college.”
“Which was the School of Audio Engineering?”
Ben during his time at School of Audio Engineering.
“Correct,” said Ben. “It’s called SAE, And then for my diploma, we actually touched base in pretty much all of the media side of things, which includes obviously the audio stuff. And then slowly we got into photography, videography, 3D editing, designing, yeah, pretty much everything lah.”
“The goal was to let the students, you know, touch base on all this stuff, and let them choose what they actually want, so that they can go into the degree course and dive into more specific ones.”
“So the degree was more into a specialised role?” asked Nabil.
“Correct,” agrees Ben. “So, as I got into the second semester, I got exposed to photography class. Then I was like, oh, shit, this is pretty fun, man, not gonna lie. And it piqued my interest. I thought it was just a hobby for me. Then in a way, it became a cari makan jalan (way of making money) for me along the way. And video comes after that as well. “
Nabil then asked, “Was it a case of maybe throughout the journey as you were discovering your hobby, you kind of got good at it?”
Ben then answered, “There's no such thing as getting good at it, it's more like, you know, there is a certain style that I like. I try to practise the style and people think that it works and it becomes a paid job after that lah.”
“So to get it straight, actually like when you started this because you wanted to become a DJ right? How did that pan out?” Nabil clarifies.
“Oh, that's a very good question, because as I was going through the whole audio classes that shit ain’t it for me at all bro because it involves a lot of calculation. It’s more technical than what people actually think to be honest.”
“Very technical because the calculation requires a lot of additional mathematics (Add Math). So when people always say that they took add maths in high school and shit, and it wouldn't help them in their future career. Eyy if you study audio, add maths would help bro.”
“Straight up man. There's a lot of ABC minus this that I'm like God damn I ain't up for this shit bro.”
“You’re just not cut out for calculus lah?” Nabil enquired.
“Nah my G.” replied Ben, quickly off the tongue. “I didn't even take add maths in high school. I was forced to drop that shit because I failed constantly. So going to uni and taking it all again is just a nightmare for me. And for the first semester I failed a couple of subjects. I had to reseat almost like, not gonna lie it’s almost 10 times. I'm not even shitting you bro.”
Amazed by this fact, Nabil asked deeper, “Do you recall what subject it was?”
“Yes. Fucking Intro to Audio man.”
Jason then prodded in, “You failed intro? Hahahahhaha.”
“Yeah. 10 times. I shit you not. I was supposed to pay for the reseat fee, but I managed to not pay.”
“You were supposed to pay or parents pay?” Jason asked.
“Parent’s were supposed to pay but ended up I didn’t pay a single thing,” replied Ben.
“How did you finesse it?”
“They've forgotten about that. They lost track, all of us failed at least 10 times man. Different subjects or the same subject as well.
So it's just bullshit lah so they didn't keep track of the failing. And once I tried my luck when I finally passed everything I went to collect my cert and then eventually they just passed me my cert then I was like the fuck this that's it? So then I fucked off straight, without paying anything.”
“You said that you failed your paper 10 times. Did you have to resit for just the paper or the entire unit?” asked Nabil.
With clear relief he did not have to do it again, Ben replied, “Resit the paper only. Thank fuck man. If I were to resit the entire semester, I’d still be studying right now, I shit you not.”
The Beauty in the Art Form
Nabil then inquired, “Speaking of photography and filmography, Ben, what about the art interests you? Or what about like the process or the act of doing those things interests you?”
“You start off with just admiring nice visuals, nice movie, nice screenplay, nice story.” Answered Ben. “And then it got me thinking like what are the processes behind that, that causes the outcome to be this good. That was what attracted me.
Then I slowly went into it, did my own research. This is out of college and out of studies man. It's really just for my interest lah back then. So that's how I analysed stuff and again it piqued my interest and got me into ‘oh shit…….I think I’m able to do it as well. So why not do it?’”
“Was there like a particular movie or visual that was like-”
“Not really.” Ben jumped in. “It was just in general lah. It just kept me thinking on it. How to do it? How to do it? Once I found out oh shit, this is how to do it, I think I can replicate it lah. I tried my best to replicate it.”
“There wasn’t any particular one?”
“Nah, nothing specific.”
“In your opinion, would you say that photo and video are difficult disciplines to master?” Nabil asked.
After a brief pause, “Yes.”
“It is, but again, it’s in my opinion, I would say that everything starts off from your interest. If there's no heart, there's no interest, you wouldn't be able to capture what everyone is, everyone else is capturing to present it to the audience.
So you can be good on all the technique side, all the, you have all the power gear in the world, but if you can't capture the emotions, the story, the feelings, it defeats the whole purpose of photography and videography or movie basically.”
Nabil then replied, “Yeah, because like, when you capture feelings and capture those emotions and things, they're very subjective.”
“Yes, exactly.”
“How do you define something like, okay, through your eyes, like, I'm sure you can see this one is just taken for the sake of being taken, but some of the photos you see like, okay, there is emotion being captured into it.
How do you differentiate that?” inquired Nabil further.
Ben then said, “Quite simple actually, you can tell the amount of effort that is put into the outcome. From the outcome, you can judge based on that lah. The amount of effort that is put into it, it involves some technical side of things, because you see for example like ‘oh shit this lighting, how is it being done? What type of lighting is being used to capture the motions? How are the emotions displayed from not just this lighting setting, but also the set design, the outfit, and style of it all?
A lot of factors play a very important role and people tend to always neglect all this stuff, especially, I'm going deep here man, calling out n*ggas bro. Especially, you know, I tend to notice that ever since I run my business and getting exposed to all this bigger scale of production and shit, there's definitely a difference when it comes to budgeting, because your budget would definitely affect how, what the outcome is.
And I would personally say that all these clients tend to not have, they don't prioritise the outcome. They just want to fit everything in that peanut budget they give at the end of the day. So, hence why, it is the creative’s challenge to try to express the emotions, the feelings and whatsoever on the peanut of a budget they give.”
Clientele Commotion
Continuing on the same train of thought, Nabil then asked, “Two parts to that question. One is when you say like the budget plays an important role in allowing you to experiment and things like that, right? Is it because like you are, you are allowed to afford more mistakes, more experimentation within the budget given?”
“I wouldn't say mistakes, but being more experimental is definitely it,” Ben replied.
“Then do the clients who give peanut budgets not understand the creative process fully or they do but you know that's just like what they have in their hand from the marketing budget and they just pass whatever they can to you and tell you to make the magic happen?”
“There's nothing wrong with whatever budget they have in hand, but they also need to know that the whole process of executing a production involves all this budgeting, a decent amount of budget at least to play around for a bigger set, a bigger scale of production work.
And they always tend to have, ‘hey, I got let's say this X amount of small budget, but I want to achieve [Christopher] Nolan level shit. Clearly it's impossible. They tend to not have the idea of how important budgeting is in that sense.”
“But when you are given that certain amount of small budget and yet you are able to deliver something that is leagues beyond what is expected of that budget level, do you feel that they appreciate the effort that you have put out or it is to be expected of them because there's the amount of money they put in and it's like entitled in that sense?” asked Nabil.
“Not really,” said Ben, “I see it as how, okay, so for me, this is my personal choice and actions. Let's say I'm given a peanut budget, but I feel that, ‘okay, this is something I feel that is worth putting into my portfolio or the company's portfolio and it piques my interest and I'm very confident in doing it, I’ll just do it.’
I'll go above and beyond for it, no cap, because I feel that I take this opportunity as a challenge for myself as a creative to try to give as much as possible, but receiving little.”
“Mostly because of just portfolio wise or more of like self satisfaction of being able to challenge yourself?”
“Correct, on both ends, yes. But it’s a very rare occasion in my opinion.”
“Was there like any specific project where you were able to achieve both of those things?” asked Nabil, exploring further.
“Okay, so to be very fair in 2023, we've been doing a lot of stuff like that, especially for projects with our close friends and staff, friends that do their own brands and shit.” Ben replied after some pondering. “Clearly you understand that their budget is limited, but the thing is they allow us to have creative freedom and it's something that I feel that if it's done well, it's definitely yeah.
So usually when my friend approaches and you know particularly it's because I fuck with them, I fuck with their vision. That is why I think that oh shit, this is a good opportunity for me to express myself and I can do good work.
I don't see the budget at all. I'll go above and beyond for it.”
“It’s more of a collaborative process.”
“Yes. It feels that way for me.” Ben concurs.
“Name drop a few whom you have done campaigns for.”
Jason then added, “LFG , Against Lab!”
“Shout out to my friends man.” nodded Ben. “I’m friends with Against Lab, shoutout Shawn. Shoutout Good Times, shout out to other Sean. What else I had this year?
Shoutout Jonnie’s Bodega. You know, just friends trying to do good stuff. I'm trying to help realise their dreams in that sense. Realise their dream, and at the same time helping me to satisfy my needs to express my creativity.”
“From what you said, I can feel that obviously it's a two-pronged thing. One is that you are able to help your friends, but also you gain the self-satisfaction of being able to help them deliver, but also in the image that, you know, the vision that you have for them,” said Nabil
“Exactly,” agrees Ben.
“How important would you say is being able to fuck with or vibe with like the people behind the brand or the brand itself when it comes to doing these things?”
“Very important man. Because you need to be close to a certain extent to understand who they are and what's their reasoning for doing what they do. Then if it gels well, the vision is aligned, then it's easy man, it’s very easy to work with.”
Nabil then added, “Jason, got anything to add?”
“Yes. Pay us well, please.”
More Money, More Problems
Adding on to Jason’s reply, Ben said, “So speaking of pay us well please, this, this, also recently I came to a realisation where you know I've been chasing money for the you know pretty much the 70 -80% of my life and I finally you know I'm not saying that you know I earn a lot but I got to a certain amount of wealth and it's to me I reached that point and I still feel like oh shit there's a certain void and void in me that hasn't been fulfilled yet so clearly money is not everything, money doesn't equate to happiness then I try seeking for the true definition of it then I realised that hey actually doing good work being able to help my friends being able to get recognition for doing good work is actually makes me more happy in that sense yeah.”
“Because of the fact that you've been chasing the bag practically all your life.” Nabil concluded.
“Pretty much lah. Yeah.” Ben says in agreement.
“How would you find the balance between still sustaining yourself in that pursuit while also being able to fulfill your own personal desires?”
“There is no balance for me. I have to make time for it. I have to make opportunities for myself. I think honestly I can say for everyone that there is always a struggle to find a balance. I don't think honestly people around my age or at least a few years older also, are able to find that balance. So at the end, it’s about how you manage everything that’s effective for you.”
“That managed everything is like you said, finding, creating your own opportunities?” Nabil extrapolated.
“That, plus manage finance, manage your own time, manage your team, manage expectations.” added Ben.
Inquiring further, Nabil then asked, “Does management play like a big role in your day to day?”
“Yeah, a very big role.” ben quipped.
“Obviously it's important because you're the boss. Quote unquote, but like in the midst of creativity and managing operations, most of the time doesn't gel.”
“Doesn’t at all. Doesn’t make sense.”
“But how do you do it?”
“I don't, I can't. Honestly, I can't. Prior to opening, starting off with, let’s go back further to college and uni days. They only teach us what we need to learn, which is what we signed up for basically. Let's say that I wanna learn advertising, or I wanna learn videography. They only teach you videography and photography, or advertising, that's all. They don't teach you how to run a business. So when I started off with WAVs, I had to learn it manually, man.
I have to learn it from more experience, business people around me, and slowly climb up the ladder in that sense. Also at the same time, me and my partners are forced to take on this responsibility that we weren't familiar with at all.
And then hence why, I would definitely say we are still not the best in managing, but we are trying, we are still learning. Yeah, we are constantly learning.”
Nabil then said, “Because the company is only about now coming to…”
“Almost four years,” said Ben.
“Time passes fucking fast”
“Damn fast bro. Very fucking fast.
So to answer your question, the balance is hard to handle with the management side of things and creativity. So what I do now is I'll pick and choose stuff to do, stuff to handle, instead of project I mean, not managing but actually executing the creative works.
Yeah, so I always seek opportunities to actually be more hands-on. Like say for example, like this project, ‘oh shit, it's not paying much,’ doesn't matter. But I like doing this and I think I can achieve a good outcome from doing this.
So that is what determines me from coming out of the management side and going back into the creative side.”
“You much prefer to be hands-on?” asked Nabil.
“Another way to look at this, or answer this is that I hate……I have this constant fear of hating what I do for a living.” Ben said as he explains his alternate perspective. “So hence why it leads me to, you know, have to, HAVE TO still be hands-on and stuff.”
I don't wanna lose my touch. I don’t wanna lose my vision. I still have to remember my roots.”
“I want to touch a bit about the creation of the company itself,” said Nabil. “What was the drive for you to start creating your own company?”
“The first day when I started working for someone, my previous company, I only had one full -time job previously. It was with Masses and Sneakerlah. The first week itself, first week of work, or first week of first month, I don't remember clearly.
Immediately I have the thought that, ‘oh shit, I'm not the type of feller to actually, I'm not the type of feller to work for someone, for a long time.’ That's a fact already, I really know for sure from day one.
So, I immediately plan out my direction, I plan out my journey, and my plans and my goals. Okay, when I joined this company, what was the reason I joined this company, and what are the goals I wanna achieve here.
So I did a list of it, I tried to achieve all of it. Once achieved, then I fucked off. Yeah, then basically whatever our goals and all is to, is to prep for my future plans, which is basically running my own company.
I always wanted to do that, even back in college days. I always wanted to do my own thing.”
“The dream has always been there.”
Ben acknowledges, “Yeah, the dream has always been there, the goal has always been there, I just don't know when, I don't know who to do it with.”
Nabil then asked, “How do you gain that level of discipline, I would say, for you to look inward to yourself like, okay, I definitely know that I don't want to work for somebody else, but how do you find that sort of drive? Or I wouldn't say drive, but more like discipline, in terms of, okay, this is what I need to list down. This is how I'm looking at myself objectively, in terms of the things that I'm not doing well, what I'm doing well, what I want to achieve, and so on and so forth.”
“How do I have the discipline?” Ben threw the question back. “It’s the constant fear of failing. It’s the constant fear of not achieving your goals. It’s the constant fear of disappointing people around me. That’s what keeps me going everyday.”
“That’s what caused your hair loss uh hahaha,” said Jason.
“Yes, that also,” Ben said begrudgingly.
“Who are you afraid of disappointing?” asked Nabil.
“People that have expectations towards me, most of which are my family. I don’t wanna be a failed child. I don’t wanna disappoint them like, ‘eh niama I give you so much money to study, what the fuck have you become?’
I wanna succeed in what I do lah.”
Getting into a slightly more serious undertone, Nabil then asked, “Would you say your parents are proud of you now?”
“I never really asked them before but I definitely don't disappoint them. That's for sure. Yeah,” Ben answers mildly confidently.
The Creation of WAV Studio
Continuing on, Nabil then asked, “You mentioned just now that practically since day one of you working full time, you knew that you were going to start your own company.”
“Yes.”
“And I’m sure during the time at Masses, you’ve also done some freelance work to earn some spare cash. But what was the tipping point for you to during the Masses time that you were like ‘fuck all this, I’m just going to like jump the gun and go for it?’”
“There’s quite a bit of backstory behind this, but granted it’s only from my side.” reflects Ben, “So I started this company during the first lockdown period which is around March, 2020.
We were all stuck at home. I got nothing much to worry about, which is in terms of my full -time job at the time. So I think like, oh shit, I'm free now. I'm gonna kick start this shit, man, that I've always wanted to do.
It's now or never, man, for me, now or never. It just kicks in like that, I just had to do it.”
“It was like an inward feeling,” Nabil affirms.
“Yeah. It was really at that time I had to do it already. So I just started it. Started it, hit a few friends, asking them, ‘hey, are you interested in it? Let's work on something together. Let's form a team or something, a creative team,’ in that sense.
What made me leave my previous job was, honestly, it became too easy for me. It became too comfortable. My goals are achieved. I'm just fucking around airplaning mode there, man.
But at the same time, that is one reason. The other reason was, I was juggling between two jobs. My full-time job and my company. So shit became a bit hectic. I had to pick my battles man. Or battle. I had to pick one.
So obviously, I have to prioritise something I built. Hence why I chose to quit. And the rest is history.”
“What made you want to partner with your initial group of partners?” asked Nabil.
“That time, the idea was everyone I approached had their strong suits,” Ben replied. “One did PR, one did graphics, one did motion, one did photo, and one did video. So in my opinion, there was a strong core of assets that can be built, and can be used to build a pretty functioning agency, back then.
Yeah, that was the goal back then, to operate like an agency.
To me, it felt like an Avengers team, not gonna lie. It really felt like The Avengers.”
“How would you describe your journey since the inception, you know, including like all of the times where you went through the COVID period coming out of lockdown and finally being able to find your footing and up to now where you are stable?”
“How was the journey huh?” Ben pondered.
“There were a lot of ups and downs, man. More downs than ups, but the ups are good ups I would say. It was tough in the beginning because, you know, the first challenge for the company was letting people know who we are, which was very hard man.
Everyone with a fucking camera, a fucking skill set, or can use fucking Photoshop, they’ll start an agency or production team already. Very saturated market.
In a way, we had our breakthrough after a year or so, making use of the connections I had back then, try to sell myself really, really hard and shit, having to send out like hundred fucking emails every day, cold emails, man.
Fucking cold emails bro, those days were tough.
So that’s one part of the journey. Second part of the journey was hey, I quit my full-time job already, I’m running my shit full-time, then there’s the lockdown.
The feeling is different man.
Because there's no security right there. Everything is a blur for me. Nothing is certain, so what I can do is, try my fucking best and give my fucking best, bro. Push it, fucking have to push through.
In a way, it was a blessing where everyone is struggling during that period, losing jobs, losing clients and shit. I was glad that our client still went with us, nothing was affected. That's how in a way, helped us to sustain during that period of time.
Then once everything is over, the whole lockdown shit is over, everything is let loose again, jobs started to come in, man. “
“By that time, people would have already known who you are,” Nabil said.
“Yeah, we were quite fortunate,” continues Ben “We pump out content, we pump our portfolio, we beautify our work, we hard sell ourselves you know? Just make noise man, constantly making noise back then. So that’s how we got through the initial stage.”
“Was most of the risk borne by you in terms of the financials? Because you quit the full time job at Masses, and at that time, did you have any savings to rely on as you were doing this? And what happens when those savings dwindle?”
“Um, we, me and my partners came to an agreement where we don't take a single cent of salary at all for a year.” said Ben. “And the time, you know, when I was still working full -time, I saved up a lot of money for this, for this plan of quitting in the future.
I don't know when yet the time, but I still save it up because I know that this is going to happen soon already. I don't know which motherfucker advised me that, hey, you need to have at least six months of, you know, savings to sustain, minimum.
So that's what I did. I saved up six months worth of salary, you know, just to prepare for rainy days, man. So when we started off, we didn't take any form of salary at all until we really, really started to wring ourselves dry, then we live off a thousand ringgit every month. As salary.”
“That was for how long?” Nabil inquired further.
“Another year…….Yeah, another year.
So I kept rolling my, you know, company's fund, just rolling, rolling, rolling, building it up. You know, all of the preparation is for getting our own space, getting additional talents in the company, upgrading our equipment and shit to do bigger scale jobs and shit.
So in a way, we don't prioritise ourselves. It's always for the future plan. And one thing good is everyone is aligned. At least now. Yeah.”
“For sure it wasn’t an easy flight up.”
Ben agrees wholeheartedly. “Never. Never was an easy path.”
The Dissolution
“Apart from financial difficulties and things of that kind, do you have any other problems with personnel and shitty clients?” asked Nabil.
“I mean shitty clients,” Ben laments, “everyone faces that shit before bro, it’s nothing too outstanding. Personnel, obviously when we run a business, partners' visions are not aligned, leading to fallouts and shit.
But to me, it’s a lesson learned. Everything is a stepping stone. I’m still learning, and failure is always a lesson for me. I don’t see failure as a stopping point.”
“You said that you had a fear of failure, but you also said that failure is not a stopping point. That sounds a bit contradicting.” Said Nabil.
“Understand,” said Ben. “To provide some context, I trusted my partners. Back then, I really believed in them. Even though the shit started south, I still believed in them because we started off as friends first before venturing into this business.
So I'm trying to, in a way lie to myself, say, okay, this can work, this can work. Until shit is really going south, and then I chose to rip off the band aid earlier. I rather have the temporary pain than the long term pain, long term burning in my pocket.
I definitely didn't foresee this. I couldn't plan it out. That's why it wasn't part of my preventing failure notes. That is why it happened. Actually, as a lesson, it would definitely never happen to me again.
Partners just not acting up to your role. And then I have to fuck them off, quote that. No, kidding. I have to just kick them off. All of them were acting like employees.
This is a partnership, man. This is not, I'm your boss, you work for me. We have equal power. Why the fuck am I doing more? That’s just pretty much the gist of it.”
“Would you say that mindset happened because the whole idea and the whole vision came from you and not from anyone else?”
“I think low key yes,” reflected Ben. “Low key yes. To be honest, even though I was in on that vision, even though it came from me, I was never a solo player. I always want to play things in a team format.
I believe in having teams man. I feel that with that method, you can fly further and fly longer. That’s why even with all this vision and shit, I still want to have partners with me lah to do this together.
So to get things aligned, I would constantly try my best to paint them a picture, paint them a goal and shit.”
“So that was your view back then. What you wanted to achieve in the long run, for as long as the company can survive, that is what you want to do.” Nabil said.
“Yes,” agrees Ben.
“So would you say that at the very least, your partners need to work with you on the same level?”
“Always have that thought. But I learned the hard lesson where you can’t force expectations, you can’t force people to have the same level of thinking and drive like you. I learnt that the hard way.”
Nabil then continued, “Would you say that the alignment has been achieved, now that the band aid has been ripped off?”
“It’s better, the operation is smoother.” Ben said, after a moment of reflection. “You know, there's still room for improvement. Look at how I PR that shit, man. You know, things are improving, but it could be better. Yeah, it could be better.
To me, I want it to be perfect man. I don’t believe in half-ass shit man. For real, for real. If I want to do this, I want to be at the top.”
The Sacrifice
“Apart from the sacrifices that you have mentioned,” continues Nabil, “obviously finance is the biggest one–”
“I wouldn’t say sacrifice, I didn’t really sacrifice anything.” says Ben, jumping the question. “We started our company with zero funding. Not a single cent came out from our pocket.”
Nabil then corrected, “Yeap, understand that. What I meant was at any point, you could have taken the salary and paid yourself a lot more, but you capped it at RM1000, just so you can grow the company.”
“Yes.”
“Was there anything in terms of things like relationships with loved ones, partners, friends, that sort of sacrifice?” continues Nabil.
“Definitely man, you know constantly for the past one, what? This year and last year and shit, my relationship is definitely jeopardised by my working habits and shit.” Ben says as he recollects memories of his hardship.
“Because you know I had one point in my life I straight up told my girlfriend I said that ‘hey my priority now is work and career. Nothing else comes. Nothing else is more important as this so you know in a way, it may sound cold as fuck, but my reasoning is because this is the period of time where I'm young.’
I have the energy, I have the drive, I want to push it as far as I can man before regretting when I get old and shit. Yeah That is what I told my girlfriend.
I don't prioritise my family, I don’t prioritise you at this moment.
You’re not number one. Number one is still career, and you know, this is the path that I’m gonna take for the next few years. Just letting you know that, ‘okay if you are not able to tahan this shit, by all means you can leave.’
I'm not stopping you, because this is more important and I think this determines my future and shit.
I'm very glad that you know, she's accepting of it. She chose to stay lah.”
“So from the outlook of WAVS, like at least from someone who's an outsider or just knows your brand through social media and the things that they have seen, it's very obvious that the intersection between fashion and production is central to the main image of the company.” stated Nabil.
“Correct,” Ben replies.
“What was the main driver behind this specific combination that allowed you to grow into this niche?” asked Nabil.
“Initially, I wanted to do more fashion shit, but fashion doesn't pay at all. Not gonna lie. Because of my previous company that I worked at and the connections built, it's more focused more on the sportswear brand.
So eventually, we came like, how do I say this? It became our bread and butter, sports brand. Yeah, without us wanting it. But nothing wrong with that. I'm quite fine with that. But we grew into that. We got all the portfolio that we needed to impress people, get people's attention, get more future jobs and shit.
So with that said, that part of the pie is done. Now, I'll move on to what I initially wanted, which is going to fashion shit. And then, in a way, trying to pave that whole road towards the fashion side of things and eventually slowly happening lah, which I'm quite grateful for.”
The Highlights
Following through with that, Nabil then asked, “What were some of the highlights that you have experienced in terms of successful projects, or operations wise?”
“Oh, not gonna lie, I don't remember clearly any of it, but usually I would say that the stuff that, our day to day stuff, although it's repeated, like I said, day to day, sometimes my team is able to execute both and beyond, even though it's not the biggest project, says Ben.”
“That is what I'm very impressed with. And it definitely surpassed my expectations when it comes to bigger, actual bigger jobs that I do, because all these, all the reason, because these bigger jobs tend to be more strict, there's more direction, there's more focus and cater towards the clientele and what they want.
So the outcome may not necessarily be what I’m proud of.”
“More like the process or the sharpness of the process,” Nabil added.
“Yeah,” replies Ben. “To me, getting all these big jobs is more like a learning curve, learning to refine the processes and shit.”
“Shoutout to Rocket man,” Jason jumps in.
Ben chuckles. “Shoutout to Rocket. Shoutout to the team man, honestly.”
“So that was the highlights,” said Nabil, “but could you maybe just share about some of the really dark moments, all the lowlights that you've experienced?”
Surprised, Ben replied, “What, in my life??”
“No la, about what you’ve faced as you were running the company with your team.”
Pondering upon that, Ben said, “Like mentioned just now, I had to learn from experience where I can’t expect people to be the same, have the same drive as me when I operate.
Personally I think I operate at uh……….the level of the F-22 Raptor.
That fast, that efficient. And sometimes people tend to can't keep up and I'll be frustrated. Yeah. Frustrated and then I feel like, ‘Oh, fuck la sial, I've been doing a lot. But then again, niama why you all can't keep up’ in that sense.
I've been doing a lot–I'm pushing so hard, man. Uh, then I always, you know, I tell them I paint this picture. You know, you see with me doing all this, just me alone, let's say, for example, just me alone, with just my push, we're able to get this far. Just imagine if we all, all of us push together, how far we can get, what fucking shit we can achieve, man. What greatness we can achieve.
Then other struggles, having to get rid of my partners and shit is very, you know, draining, emotionally and physically. That was one of my tougher times.
Um, having to go through the whole, you know, um, low salary phase. It doesn't make sense for me, man. It's like, man, motherfucker, I came this far in life. I'm getting no salary to a thousand ringgit salary.
This doesn't make sense at all, man. So how to counter that problem is I do, you know, work harder, get more clientele, so that I can be stable a bit in terms of finance. Yeah. Yeah. These are some of the key moments that I feel.”
Nabil then continued, “Anyway, I want to know more of one particular experience that you have, meaning to say like one of the impactful moments that you've had as a team where everything was in sync, everyone was aligned and the cohesion was like on the next level, you know, do you have like any experience while working on a project with that?”
Reflecting on this for awhile, Ben said, “I think the best experience I had was the Levi's job that we did. It's literally full force, all full force were in charge of different departments. Everything went very well, everyone was performing I would say.
It could be done better again for sure. Generally with this scale of project, we were able to nail that shit lah, in a way.
We got the brief in maybe late June I would say. Then we had one whole month of July to plan for the project. We executed the project in three days in August, three full days, near 24 hour days.
And then, yeah, that is a bigger scale, three days. It's so big that we needed one day to set up the studio, the space, and then we needed one day just to do videos and one day just to do photos with the same type of setup and talents.”
“So each day was nearly 24 hours?” asked Nabil.
“Near 24 hours. Bare minimum sleep, but we have to give 100% performance. Everyone played their role. Again, could be done better but in terms of this, it was the first time for Team WAV to execute this scale of project. I felt that you know it was fun, it was a learning experience for us, we got to build connections, we got good clients, we got a good portfolio.
I cannot complain more.”
Jason chided in, “We got good working partners too.”
“Yes,” agrees Ben, “shoutout Jumin, shoutout to the team lah basically. Honestly, to me, I see that project as an opportunity to learn and build connections rather than prioritising it as my portfolio.”
“Extrapolating a bit on that, right, I think from the previous hour that we've been talking, so a lot of things were mentioned that was about the importance of building the connections, sustaining the network and And I think apart from just the production, you place quite a very high importance on those, I wouldn't call it metrics, but those objectives as well. So when you enter a project every time, is that like a side quest type of thing that you always aim to fulfill?” asked Nabil.
“If the opportunity rises. Not a necessity for me. If it happens, and so ngam I see this potential to build connections, I'll use it as a side quest for me. But if not, the main quest is still the project itself.” said Ben.
The Price You Pay
“Four years now, you've been running the company, right? Yeah. Was there a moment in time where you just wanted to shut the doors?” Nabil asked.
“Everyday.” Ben said simply.
“Fuck it, wanted to close shop–”
“Everyday.”
“And re-enter the rat race–”
“Every fucking day. Every day. Every day. Quote me. How many times I said everyday? Put all of it in.
EVERYDAY. ALL CAPS. PERIOD.”
“Why?”
“No lah, ummmmmmm…….I feel that it's something that, I give myself the problem, you know. I could have been a grateful motherfucker, a simple minded motherfucker, no offence to anyone.
And just, you know, just work full time, you know. Nine to five, get paid on time, you know. After five, you just go home and do fuck all. You got annual leave to claim and shit, you know. You don't need to work on weekends and shit. That life would have been pretty decent man, you know?
Now??
I….Brotherman.” Intense sighs of exasperation.
“I cannot go away. I cannot be away from my phone, I cannot be away from my laptop. I haven’t gone for any holiday or whatsoever for the longest time ever. I'm broke as shit.
I don’t get enough sleep, I'm losing hair, I'm losing…….my health is deteriorating. Everything lah, but you know, now I'm thinking back, the fuck did I even get? I get fulfilment. I get fulfilment for sure lah.
But other than that, it's taking a toll on me man. It's not easy bro. Nobody told me it was easy man. Shout out Coldplay man. Nobody said it was easy for real. So a lot of struggles man, people would never understand.
And to be very honest, I can't express the shit that I go through man in words. Or in actions, I really just don't know how to express. It's generally really really tough man honestly.”
“Try in 3 words.” dared Nabil.
“In 3 words ah? Motherfucker. Uhhh…..”
“One more,” replied Jason.
“No, two more, two more.”
“3 words ah? Man that’s hard bro.
Trying to survive ah, honestly. Yeah, best description. Trying to survive.”
“Would you say the fulfilment that you have had is worth the effort?” inquired Nabil.
“To be fair,” replied Ben, “it’s not just fulfilment, you know.
With what I do now, I get to meet a lot of people. I get to build connections. I get my work out there. I get people talking about my work. I get recognition. I get to build a team. I get to provide opportunities to other people.
This stuff makes me happy lah. Not gonna lie.”
“But would you say that those things are worth the expense of your own health, your mental health? Yourself losing hair?”
The exhaustion is clearly drawn on his face as he utters the next sentence.
“As much as I complain, it's……I only have one life. If I don't give my best, if I don't push, if I don't push my boundaries, if I don't come out of my comfort zone, am I really living life? Yeah, just my counter question to myself everyday as well.”
Nabil then asked, “So you’d say it's a constant struggle of like is it worth it?”
Sparks of determination can be seen as Ben remembers his drive. “Yeah, definitely. But at the same time, I have to just do it. So the best way to describe my career path right now or my life at the moment, I'm in a tunnel. I always say this, I'm in a tunnel. It's a very dark tunnel.
I haven't seen the light ahead yet. It's too far for me to turn back. So what I can do is just keep pushing through and keep running.”
“ You say that you don't see the light at the end of the tunnel.”
“Not yet.”
“Not yet……Okay just imagine, I'm trying to paint you a picture. You are running, you are slowly, with every step that you take, you are losing parts of yourself, in that sense.” Nabil infers.
“Yeah…..yeah.” agrees Ben.
“When do you think that you feel that you have taken it too far or like you are burned out beyond measure that it's like, you cannot recover from it?”
“When ah?” Ben says without hesitation. “Now lah. So I always consult people on how to, even I check on WebMD and shit. How do I get over burnout and shit?
All those pointers are the same man. I can't afford to take on those pointers and actually work towards it. I can't afford to do any of those. So I have to break out from my burnout if it makes sense for you.
All I need to do is push man, just keep pushing bro for real man. It is definitely unhealthy…….but you have to just do it man honestly. Again, it leads back to the fear of failing. That is my drive lah I would say.”
Pushing it further, Nabil asked, “What will happen when it comes to a point in time where your health is seriously affected?”
“I told myself this lah, it sounds fucked up as fuck but if one day I were to die from working, it wouldn't be a disappointment for me because I know I tried my best.” says Ben confidently.
“Why you didn't quit or like why you didn't stop is because of those intrinsic fears,” added Nabil.
“Why I didn’t stop,” says Ben, “Aside from the fear, I got a responsibility to bear. Which is? I got people that are working under me, I got people that're working with me. I got a clientele that trusts us. I don't want to disappoint them.
It's a responsibility that I have to bear and I chose to bear.”
The Insecurities That You Face
Continuing on, Nabil then asked, “So being, you know, business owners, of course, like it's a tough balancing act to juggle multiple things at once. What are like, apart from the fears and apart from, you know, responsibilities and things like that, right, some of the insecurities that you face as you're building this up?”
“Oh, always compare,” Ben said easily. “I think this is very normal for everyone. I always compare myself to bigger agencies, or bigger teams, bigger competition out there, it's like, you know, shit, I feel that their work there is good, man. What if my work is not as good as theirs? That's my constant fear every day.
Can this sustain my team or not? That's my fear as well. In terms of insecurity, specifically, it's mostly just the work side of things, the quality of work. I always have the fear of, shit, is my shit able to compete with that quality of work that my competitor is doing?”
“Would you say you have imposter syndrome?” Nabil continued.
“Probably not,” a mildly confident Ben replies. “I definitely don't think I'm not worthy of the work that I put out. I definitely feel that we are not good enough yet. There's always room to improve. My threshold for work is very, very fucking high. I set it that high so that I don’t feel comfortable. I don't feel easily satisfied with what I do.
But I definitely won't feel that, Oh shit. I don't think it's good enough for me to put out this stuff.”
The Opposition You Encounter
“Did you face a lot of opposition during the building phase?”
There was a spare few moments of reflection as he ponders on the opps, both proverbial and literal. “I always get from people saying that I’m working too hard. Like I said again, my countering point is now or never. If I don't do now, whenthe fuck am I going to do? I don't want to wait until my mid 30s, late 30s, my early 40s and shit to only start freaking out, to only start realising the importance of actually pushing it when you're able to, when you're younger.
Other opposition? I don’t think there’s any. People were very very supportive of us and what I do, my parents, my friends, everyone.”
“What about enemies?”
“I don't have enemies I would say,” says Ben. “No one can take me down. Only I can take myself down. I have competitors and I feel that my other drive is I set all these competitors to be competitors because I want to compete at the same level or better.”
“Sounds like something out of [Michael] Jordan’s handbook.”
“I never read his book before lah.”
“Handbook is proverbial lah, Basically he makes imaginary situations that force him to be ultra-competitive.”
“So you’re asking me if I had this situation before or not?”
“Yes.”
“Actually I did,” Ben recalls after a good 6 minutes.
“Yea I just thought of it. I don't remember who, but actually they said to me before that, oh shit, I don't think you guys are at the level to achieve this yet……I'll go with someone else first.
WAH BROTHER, I tell you, the VTEC + twin turbo + RPM9000 bro, come in brother. Straight up come in man, motherfucker, I don't like people to look down upon us, honestly lah. I'm gonna fucking prove you wrong bitch, god damn.
Yeah, that was the drive.”
“That came from a client, lah?” Asked Nabil.
“That came from a friend.” replied Ben, rather stingingly.
“I’m not gonna say this name, it’s a bit too much to say.”
“Yea, especially coming from a friend is extra spicy,” agrees Nabil.
“Yeah, I'm like this motherfucker. You really really think I cannot do this?
Imma prove it to you man. I'm gonna be so big that nobody can deny us bro.”
The Survivability of Passion
“Good shit. Truth be told right, did the business come out of passion or survivability?”
“Passion.” answered Ben sharply.
“So how did you translate that passion into a money making process?”
“You do good work, you get paid good, as simple as that, honestly. At the same time you need to market yourself.
Never forget your roots lah in a way that you know where you started from.
Remember your core, core beliefs that got you into what you wanna do, and NEVER let money take over your thoughts man.
I’m not gonna lie, I had a period of time where I allowed money to overtake my thoughts which then became my main focus. I took all kinds of jobs that were given to us, just for the sake of the cash.
I really got lost in the sauce, no joke man.
Then I had some time to reflect on it. I tried to fill in the void with all this money I got but the void is still there, so there was the realisation that it wasn’t everything.”
“That void came because there wasn’t any fulfilment in it?” continued Nabil.
“Correct. Correct. It started from passion first. Honestly the advice is not to chase money first man. NEVER chase the money first. If that’s what you chased, it would be a short term thing.”
Day-To-Day Realities
“Get you.” Agrees Nabil. “I want talk a bit of like your day-to-day. How is life like for business owners such as yourself?”
“I don't know what other fellas are doing, I'm doing what I think I can do and what I think it maybe would fit well for the company. Personally, I can't answer for my team, but how my day is like is, you know, I wake up at 9am, I immediately start work. I'll sort out the day's tasks, reply the emails I need to, then you know carry out the day's tasks throughout the whole day, attend to a few different clientele, follow up with you know internal team on the progress of the ongoing works and shit.
Then when it comes to night, I'll plan for the next day's stuff. Yeah plan for the next day stuff or the following week stuff, especially for now you know I'm running two companies and shit.
Direction is very different. So I'm still finding my way to balance things out where to have the differentiation in terms of the working style. Yeah yeah then you know when I'm done planning for the next day stuff, next week stuff, I'll take some time to just you know fuck around and live life a bit.
Yeah and then it continues. Repeats for the past four years.”
Paying the Cost to be the Boss
“It is what it is. Would you say that having a routine helps to…..keep you sane?” asks Nabil.
“Yes. I came to a realisation where I need to follow a procedure everyday. If not, I'll lose focus. I've been using a lot of alarms, a lot of reminders, a lot of notes to keep track of things.”
“What happens when you are thrown off?” Nabil continues.
“It happens a lot of the time. Like give a good example is if I miss my alarm, then I oversleep. My day is fucked already man. My day is fucked. Even though I'm working for my own, but the day is fucked. Scheduling is off, everything is off.
Then I’ll go into panic mode, then I have to chase up time again, Then a lot of energy is drained from doing that.”
“So just from that initial panic.”
“Correct, correct. It’s already not a good day for sure. Then I’ll have to extend my working hours lah for sure.”
“Do you often do overtime?” Nabil asked.
“So the thing about working for yourself is there's no such thing as overtime, it's only work. Work never ends. So there's no overtime. As long as you’re still breathing, you still have to do work. That’s for me lah.”
“I get it from the business owner’s perspective. But do you try to at least slot yourself like a day to rest and recover?”
“Initially when I was younger,” Ben reflects, “maybe 2 years ago, I still had the ability to work overtime, work long working hours and even work on weekends as well. But we started off without any other teammates other than my partners.
So we just go full force man because this is our own thing. We die die also have to make it work. So we don't care there's no time, no off days, no weekends and shit, public holiday will work. So eventually I realised that I got no life man for real for real. I have to make life for myself.
And at the same time we got other teammates as well, who are not the partners of the company, so I would understand that definitely they would want off days during the weekend. So moving forward I implemented that I wouldn't want to schedule any work at all on weekends, that's in a way implementing work-life balance for myself and for the team.”
“I’m very sure that you’ve felt stretched thin.”
“That’s like burning out right?”
“No, stretched thin is just like you have to be like everywhere at any, every place, all the damn time.”
“It comes with the personality of your partners as well. If they are able to be more outgoing and shit, be more just characteristic, it helps a lot in being very aggressive in the work and being able to allocate tasks and speed the tasks both doing on both ends so that none of us will burn out fast.
For WAV, I just have to do it because I know I'm able to, I have to lead that side of things. I don't know, I'm way past the stage of wearing thin.
It's just immune already to me. Not gonna lie, I do have down times where I feel like fucking cibai this shit. I'm dying bro for real, I'm dying, dying, dying. I cannot do this anymore, blah blah blah. And the next day I just continue back to normal again.”
Facing the Creative Blocks
“One other thing that I want to touch on is basically like, we didn't really talk about so much as like what happens when the team or you have a creative block. What happens then, and how do you go about it?” asks Nabil
Thinking for a moment, Ben then replies, “How I do it is I have a lot of creatives that I like, that I enjoy their work. If I have a creative block, I know I can't do much really. I do my own research. I go on social media, I go on Pinterest, I read some books and shit.
Get some inspiration lah…….Get some inspiration. To me, that's a breath of fresh air to see, oh shit, this is cool work man. How do I do it? As I think about how would I do it, I can think, oh shit, this could work into my own way.
I may not be able to achieve that. I can make it my own way and build my own path to do the stuff that I'm supposed to do. Which is the creative stuff. That's how I overcome it.”
“How much of the direction or like the ideas that you come up with are wholly original? Because like I'm sure like you know during the process of your research and your own development it's all taking like inspiration.”
“Honestly, nothing man.
I’m not gonna bullshit like some other creatives in the world. I'm gonna say that all blah, blah, blah, nothing is original. It's just inspired by some work and then try my best to do from there on. My own take, because you, all these creatives, you can't copy 100%.
Yeah, I believe in that. And then it's how you adapt from that, learn and adapt from that.”
“A lot of it has already been overlapped, so this is picking the pieces out and recomposing the image.” Nabil rehashes the statement.
“Yes, correct. And then there's a lot of creatives that are like, you know, I pick and choose. It's like a buffet platter for me. Social media and you know, all this online, whatever, fuck all these books are buffet platters to me.
I pick what I like. All from different, different platters. I try to combine it into making what is my identity lah, of my work.”
“What would you say is WAV’s defining USP?” Nabil asks.
“Oh fuck me in the ass man I honestly I can't give you this but I would say that our bread and butter is sportswear stuff and then you know because we have different creatives in the team every everyone's work is very different, but moving forward you know we're trying to take whatever doing into the next level and try to get our own identity lah. Getting our own identity is our next level of improvement that we are aiming to hit.”
“So now would you say that like every one of the team who leads like their own project, they inject their own identity into it?” Nabil continues.
“Definitely, definitely.”
“Would you argue that having like a central identity versus like individual identities, which is better?”
“Again, leading back to what I just said just now, the buffet platter thing, everyone has different points of view, different ways of executing stuff. How I’m gonna facilitate it is, I'm trying to see the overview, trying to pick what they are good at and how they can do and perform in the certain work and try to utilise their skillset and combine everyone together, hence leading to making our own identity in that sense.”
“So it’s definitely a work in progress in that sense.” Nabil echoed.
“Correct. That is honestly, it’s underlooked and it should be a priority.”
“Are there inspirations that you take on the people whom you look up to in that sense, are there any specific ones who, I wouldn't say idolise, but you keep on referring to their work?”
“There's a lot, man, actually,” replies Ben. “There's a good Malaysian photographer that's based in China right now.
China or Taiwan? I mean, what's the difference? She's a photographer. She's called Zhong Lin. She's pretty good. There's a few Mat Salleh (White) photographers. I don't know why I've been looking into photographers a lot, man.But I can name drop bigger film directors.
I really like Quentin Tarantino. Pretty much my top three film directors, I like his way of doing things, his work and stuff like that.
Let me get someone out of this field. Motherfucker. Who else? That I look up too?
A lot of my friends who are just running their brands and shit, you know, I really idolise them in terms of, you know, understanding their vision, fucking with their vision and shit, I respect their decisions and the stuff they make.
It really inspires me a lot to become who am I and you know, to just do good, generally. Yeah. Uh, who else? Too many names, honestly. Can't think of anyone specifically.”
Industry Sustainability
“So in your opinion, right, can someone sustain themselves doing something purely out of passion, especially in the creative industry?”
“Sustaining themselves…..it’s very subjective man. I truly believe that if you’re passionate about it, you’ll definitely make it lah, in terms of sustainability. I really really believe that if your passion is STRONGER, your passion’s drive is stronger than you wanting to chase your money, you’ll make it in life bro, for real. No matter what.
Takes time lah. When? I cannot answer that. But definitely you’ll make it lah.”
“What would you say is the next step for WAVs?” Nabil asked, followin up from thye previous question.
“Having our own identity, in terms of work. So when people see it, they'll say ‘oh shit, this is from WAVs.’
I don’t wanna be like any other motherfucker that knows how to do things only. Everyone can do that. I don’t want to be a camera. What I mean by that is I don't want to be someone behind the camera and just snapping the pictures. I want to have my identity in my work itself that people can tell, just by looking at it.
So that applies for WAVs as well.”
Keeping Friends Close, & Your Chosen Family Closer
“A lot of what you mentioned previously was collaboration with friends, collaboration with like-minded people, so what I see what you guys are doing is putting out a self-reinforcing positive cycle,” observes Nabil.
“Oof, how?”
“Cos in-between WAVS, C.P., AE, with the freelancers, Sara, Lobach, getting them to come into the project, and they provide their input from an external party that is NOT necessarily aligned with WAVs, but it’s like a healthy bouncing of opinions. Would you say that those types of interactions help to contribute to the successes of your projects?”
“Of course! Definitely, for sure 100% no fucking cap man.”
“How so?”
“I believe in keeping the money in the inner circle. I can’t earn the money, I want my friends to earn it. I believe that in my mind, I still want to form the ‘Avengers’ of what I’m doing, having strong people, having very creative people who are good at doing what they’re doing. To me, they are just the best in the game already.
There are other people out there who are more experienced outside of my circle, but I truly believe that these people, I wanna grow with them, and be top of the game man.”
“Continuing on that Avengers portion right, do you foresee that you could take over this industry, locally lah at least, by religiously pushing through and creating not just a ripple, but a tidal wave of change?” asked Nabil.
“That’s why we’re called Creating WAVS.” replied Ben. “I shit you not man. That’s the whole idea of it. My goal is to monopolise the industry. Tapaufest they call it you know what I mean? Takeaway vibes you know what I mean? Makan sini or bungkus? Bungkus all the way bro.”
“How do you plan on monopolising it? Cos right now it seems kind of impossible given the definition of monopolising the whole thing, like in your terms?”
“You know what is Li Ning’s slogan? Anything is Possible. You know what is adidas’s slogan? Nothing is impossible.” A confident Ben utters.
“Impossible is nothing lah”
“Either way la, I don’t know adidas. Yeah, I fuck with that. How it’s happening, cos you think it’s impossible…..I’m confident enough to do it. I believe the people around me, I believe in the path i’m going, honestly speaking. So I’m trying to reach there and give it my best. Cos to me, there’s no point in being part of the pool of people that are already existing that does the same thing as you. I want to be outside of the pool, and I want to own that pool.”
Picture credit: Julian Alexander
Final Thoughts
With one last question, Nabil asks, “I wouldn’t want to word the last question as advice, but I would want to ask, in this process of conquest of the industry, what would you want the next generation below you to expect in order to uplift the industry some more to be world class?”
“Don’t be comfortable,” replies Ben simply. “You only live once. Fucking cheesy as fuck. You only live once, give your best man.
All in or nothing, for real for real for real.
Think about it, what is there to lose? Your time and effort only probably. But you know you tried your best. So give it your all, so you won’t regret.
I believe in what 50 Cent said, or what his album said: Get Rich or Die Tryin’. Okay not really the rich part, but you know, in all context lah.”
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