WHILE many of us would choose the plain sailing route, Muzahid Shah Abdul Rahman always strives for challenges.
Muzahid graduated from University Malaya in 2007 with a Bachelor of Engineering (telecommunications) degree.
At the age of 23 when he was interviewing for his first job with the Sunway Group, he had to go through five stages of interviews.
Despite seemingly an intimidating process, Muzahid felt it was a great opportunity for him to interact with the top-management and leaders who would at some point be his future bosses.
He got the job and served at the Sunway Group faithfully for 13 years, rising rapidly from rank and file.
His last post was senior vice president of Hitachi Sunway Information System, a joint venture between Hitachi Systems Ltd and Sunway Technology Sdn Bhd.
Today Muzahid, 37, is the chief executive officer of a digital transformation company called SteerQuest Sdn Bhd.
SteerQuest focuses on IT investment, merger and acquisition, corporate advisory services and business transformation by discovering and working with high potential tech companies across Asean.
In 2010, influenced by friends, Muzahid started investing in unit trusts.
He admitted he did not have a profound understanding of investment at that point of time.
Over the years, his mentor Cheah Kok Hoong, who is also the executive chairman of SteerQuest, had passionately shared about the importance of grit and constant self-reflection in his own journey.
Muzahid attributes Cheah as one of the contributing factors to his success.
"In my corporate days, I met people who are responsible in managing money and capital and I also had the opportunity to be involved in various corporate initiatives which were led by visionary leaders.
"The biggest lesson I have learnt is it's really crucial to have the right people with integrity in managing money, investment and capital. Even if the financials of a company is sound, the most important thing to look at is the management team of the company as it is the best substance to determine future growth," he said.
Importance of Self-Reflection
"Most people will study online reviews and do a lot of comparison when they want to buy gadgets, food supplements, gifts, and even daily necessities in order to find the best value for money spent or ensure the quality is as per advertised. However when it comes to stocks, they do not do so.
"I have this habit of scanning through Bursa announcements daily and I love reading autobiographies and books. What took others years to acquire in experience are laid down for us to learn in a book --- that's the wonder of learning," said Muzahid.
"In this digital age, being an "investor" is so convenient and we are seeing high retail participation. Consider building our decision making criteria by reflecting on the sound guiding principles we use to make decision for our daily lives, and then add things that we learn from others that we agree with (it can be fundamental analysis, technical analysis or both as long as you understand and believe in it)," he added.
"It's normal to have profit and loss, ups and downs – as everything carry a certain degree of risk. It's part of life. It's important to understand why you're investing in the first place and what kind of core values resonate with you. For example, if you believe in integrity, would you invest in a company that display a lack of ethics? I take these principles and embed it into my life and business endeavour," he said
Pandemic and company's resilience
"Nanakorobi yaoki" (a Japanese saying) is one of Muzahid Shah's favourite quotes as it reminds him "even if you fall seven times, you get up eight times."
Muzahid said that so many companies have been affected by the pandemic but those which were prepared to transform their business models held their ground only to emerge stronger than ever.
"Our nation is resilient and caring. I feel very touched by how the companies in Malaysia try their best to make sure employees and their family can ride through the storm. The way Malaysia's common people help one another shows me the promise of this country and the bright future in spite of the difficult times.
";Because of that, with the support of my wife and cheerful son, I aspire to play a part to make this country and the world a better place in my own way," he added.
*The writer was a journalist with the New Straits Times before joining a Fortune Global 500 real estate company (September 2017-July 2019). This weekly report is a collaboration between the NST and Tradeview, the author of "Once Upon A Time In Bursa".