Life & Leadership Lessons I Learned the Hard Way by Dr Ong Kian Ming | EP 71

In this episode, we uncover the life & leadership lessons that Dr Ong Kian Ming (better known as OK Man!) learnt the hard way.
Tune in as Dr Ong shares about his lesser-known childhood stories, lessons from from his management consulting days, roadblocks that he faced as a policymaker, how Sheraton Move took a toll on this mental health, what a ‘return to politics’ could look like - and more!
Kian Ming is the former Deputy Minister of MITI and two term Member of Parliament in Malaysia from 2013 to 2022, representing the Democratic Action Party (DAP) and serving the largest parliamentary constituency in the country. He is the Program Director of Malaysia’s very first Philosophy Politics & Economics (PPE) program at Taylor’s University.
HIGHLIGHTS:
3:55 How his consulting stint at BCG shaped him
7:40 His proudest policy achivements
11:22 Not taking credit as a politician
12:26 Main roadblocks bringing a policy from strategy to ideation
15:11 First Difficult Lesson (Value added networking)
20:17 Second Difficult Lesson (Value added transparency)
22:27 His involvement with the vaccination exercise during the COVID Pandemic
25:56 Balancing conviction and ROI as a politician
26:54 Third Difficult Lesson (Value added mentoring)
29:39 Who is his mentor in the political landscape
32:26 Sheraton Move and how it affected his mental health
35:07 Why he decided not to re-contest for a seat
40:31 His aspirations with his podcast venture, Are We Ok?
42:40 What he would do differently if he rejoined politics
44:56 Audience Q&A 1 (How to Make Career Decisions)
47:44 Audience Q&A 2 (Advice for young people joining politics)
50:14 Audience Q&A 3 (Is there a need to be patriotic?)

[@lilywong7384]

Hello Kian Ming. I know u are a very talented person & highly educated. I hope u will stay put in one field to help revamp the country education system bcos the education in our country needs change.Please do something to change our country to be like that of S'pore, systematic, law enforced by the authorities & today we see S'pore advanced to get a developed nation with the highest reserves in the world. Take heed & be somebody to take the lead & be a leader that bring changes we so need to see our country a better place to live in for the youngsters & also senior citizens.

[@HCL882]

A smart, generous man who truly cares for the people.

[@Crouchingtigerpod]

Great question by the hosts! He was late to our pod too😂

[@actsplorethispodcast7704]

appreciate the kind compliment Bob!! :)

[@user-pw7yk1ym9d]

Our politicians must be intellectual and compassionate for a better Malaysia. Mist of our opp. politicians are pathetic to say the least.

[@ukbulldog2024]

Entertaining perspectives said. I note many words used from a post grad reading vocabulary. Very academic but yet to know his genre on coding and DevOps. Talk on policies is debatable is not actionable and makes little value. DAP as a Party is very Chinese Centric and my bother.

[@Alfie-Godfather]

La sallians memang notti laa 😂

[@stevenlow8452]

What a great man n what a waste you are not in the cabinet to sperehead the country or rectified it system of2 which it is still lacking to even moved forward.