Zen Tay: Surviving not by Chance but Design

Zen Tay Surviving not by Chance but Design
Four years ago, Zen Tay made the headlines. Not old enough to register a company or catch an R(A) show, the then 19-year-old student at Nanyang Polytechnic started a design and advertising firm with his own savings.

Zen Tay is now 23, and old in the ways of the world.

His name also seems a lot more appropriate now, especially when you consider his calm manner despite the roller-coaster ride he has been on the last four years.

When he first hit the pages of The Straits Times in 2000, he was a 19-year-old held up as an shining example of entrepreneurship.

Now, four years later, his design consultancy is still surviving, but Mr Tay is a lot more, well, Zen in his approach to business, having had to put it on the backburner because of National Service (NS), and because the intervening years have been rough on most ventures, never mind one run on the ideals and energy of a 19-year-old.

Talk to him now, and he says things like 'I would not have survived if people did not extend a helping hand...'

There's more: 'It's a big responsibility... ', and 'you really have to plan ahead so you don't go hungry...'

For the young entrepreneur, challenges came from all angles. From clients who saw a chance to take advantage of his inexperience, to grappling with the reality of business, to the biggest one of all - the NS hiatu