Daily Lessons from Life 21 October 2012 in USA - From abuse victim to millionaire academic

"From abuse victim to millionaire academic - The Straits Times Oct 22, 2012

HE WAS a millionaire by the age of 29 and received his PhD in economics from Princeton University before turning 30 last year.

Now, economist and academic Leong Kaiwen has added another job title to his resume: published author.

This after the assistant professor of economics at Nanyang Technological University (NTU) released on Oct 1 a mini-autobiography titled Singapore's Lost Son.

Now 31, Dr Leong seems like a man who has it made. His book about his life journey so far, however, reveals a tale of hardship, personal struggles and academic failures, the result of being sexually abused as a 10-year-old.

"I was sodomised," he told The Straits Times in an interview at NTU earlier in the week.

Recounting the ordeal that lasted for more than a year, Dr Leong spoke about how he was sexually assaulted by a martial arts instructor whom he trusted.

"After that, I had difficulty trusting people. I felt that everyone had a motive."

Those traumatic experiences affected his grades, he said. His PSLE score of 200 was one of the lowest in Singapore that year.

He went on to a neighbourhood secondary school, where he was frequently picked on and beaten up by bigger boys due to his small frame. But he hardened himself, and put on an arrogant persona after he moved on to junior college."

An interesting tale which is heart warming as it is easier to be hardened the wrong way when one is a victim. I watched an episode of a crime TV series (not very trustworthy source I know!) that said only 1 in 8 of the victims turned tormentor and inflict similar harms and hurts on others!

Lessons for me are:

1. I am not interested in that fact that he became a millionaire but that he has overcome that sexual abused by a trusted martial arts instructor;

2. how he turned his life around is quite remarkable. Obviously going to some of the best known universities in the USA to get his PhD helped raised his profile for sure;

3. it is an inspirational story that hopefully will inspire many other abused victims to lead a new productive life.

Oh not sure why mmillionaire was used to describe the young professor. Guessed it is something our press can work on.