In Malaysia, a career in real estate has always been linked with encountering challenges, difficulties and earning an unstable income. In the recent interview with Top 10 of Malaysia, Ben Ling, the team leader of one of GS Realty Sdn Bhd’s award-winning groups – 168 Group, shares with Top 10 of Malaysia his experience in the real estate field and how he wishes to change society’s mindset by motivating youngsters to join the field and succeed despite being young and inexperienced.
Hailing from Ansun, Teluk Intan, the young and promising Ben Ling is already a team leader of 168 Group, one of the successful groups under GS Realty Sdn Bhd established by Dato Raymond Yeo. “After I graduated from Sekolah Menengah San Min (Suwa), I tried out various jobs which include being a gardener,” Ling shares. “When I was younger, I was unsure of what career path I wanted and so just like most people, I enrolled in a university.”
Later in his life, Ling was persuaded by some people to give it a try in the field of real estate. “I have a passion for almost anything. When I was in middle school, I participated in various co-curriculum activities and was the leader in nearly all the groups. Despite having interest in many things, I was unclear of what I wanted to do in life,” says Ling.
According to Ling, a career in the field of real estate can be luminous if given the right platform for people to succeed. “Nowadays, youngsters can earn a high income in real estate if they follow the correct system,” Ling says enthusiastically. “These days, the younger generation tend to lack confidence in themselves but if given the right opportunity, they will be able to achieve their dreams in life.”
Ling was the youngest member when he first joined GS Realty. “My family and colleagues’ initial impression was that I was too young to start a career selling properties and I proved them wrong,” laughs Ling. “Ever since then, we started recruiting more young people to join the company and many of them were arranged to be in my team,” smiles Ling with a sense of accomplishment.
Despite the successes garnered by 168 Group, Ling isn’t resting on his laurels and wishes to expand his team of young and successful property agents to be award winners in Malaysia. “When our team was at an initial stage, we only started out with around 10 members, now we have expanded to some 100 members,” reminisces Ling. “We didn’t have much resources then but after working hard persistently, we started to accomplish much through trial and error. Newcomers joining us these days are more privileged as we have already built a strong foundation of the work system for them to effectively help customers search for their dream homes,” says Ling excitedly.
Ling says that in Malaysia, the field of real estate isn’t a popular one. “I think that people in Malaysia assume that those who work in this field are usually the elders or middle-age adults. I hope that one day, their perception of this would change and this type of career will be widely accepted here,” says Ling hopefully. “In Taiwan, jobs in the field of real estate are pretty common and people believe that they could earn very good money just by being sacrificially diligent.”
168 Group has been winning awards for 3 consecutive years as a yearly champion for success in group sales. Ling personally has won awards for his outstanding performance for personal sales in 2016 and also as a top entrepreneur in 2017 and 2018.
Ling has this advice to give to youngsters out there: “Diligence is important but making a good choice in life is also vital as the same amount of hard work in whatever you do will yield different results based on the circumstances at hand.”
