By Tou Hui Ling
“What Mensa means to me is a level playing field where we are all equals, regardless of race, gender, and age, because we all joined under the same criteria, which is achieving the top 2 percentile of IQ score.”
– Low Keng Lok, Past Chairman
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Launched in 2019, NTMN is a quarterly event to welcome new members and to provide an avenue for new and current members to interact with each other. This year NTMN aims to feature members who have benefited from Mensa and have extraordinary achievements in their careers. We hoped the conversation would help members find value in their membership, while learning how diverse our community can be.
The first NTMN of 2020 kicked off with an encouraging turn-up of 51 participants. This is especially heartening considering public health concerns due to the current coronavirus outbreak. Among the participants included familiar faces that joined as early as 1989, to quite a number of young Mensans accompanied by their parents. This meeting proved to be a great success, with increased member engagement and interest in volunteering. This group of Mensans sat as equals meeting new friends of diverse backgrounds, whilst taking the opportunity to peek into the fastest growing start-up in the region; Fave.
We were greeted by Fave’s co-founder, Yeoh Chen Chow, at their headquarters in Bangsar South. Chen Chow has been a member of Malaysian Mensa Society since 1996. Prior to starting Fave, he led regional operations for Groupon Asia Pacific. He also had a stint at JobStreet.com and Accenture. After leading a member’s introduction and ice-breaking session, Chen Chow generously shared his start-up journey from raising funds to business structure and company culture, peppered with a couple of jokes in between. He also shared some nuggets of wisdom for those interested in joining or starting a start-up.
“The right attitude to have for a start-up, is not just being passionate about an idea, everyone can come up with an idea. Instead, you should be passionate about a problem, a problem you can’t stop talking to your friends about, a problem you stay awake at night to think about, a problem you won’t give up trying even after failing one too many times,” he said. He went on to share that “It’s very challenging to run a startup, you often get rejected and fail for so many times, that you think of giving up. However, remember that among the many success stories people tell, there’s always one common factor, which is they did not give up for that one last time.”
Past Chairman Low Keng Lok also took to the stage to address questions related to Mensa. “What Mensa means to me is a level playing field where we are all equals, regardless of race, gender, and age, because we all joined under the same criteria, which is achieving the top 2 percentile of IQ score,” said Keng Lok. He also emphasized that Mensa is a place for forming strong bonds and lasting friendship. The event rounded up with a quick tour around the office followed by a dinner session.
Post-event, feedback has been quite positive. Many agreed that the sharing session was a great addition. Nevertheless, we also got a request for more time allocated for members interaction, so rest assured more events are coming our way! Personally, I think the new NTMN structure is definitely an upgrade. Being a rather fresh member myself, having just joined last December, this event is indeed a memorable one. Within just a couple of meetups, I felt that I was already part of the family. To me, Mensa is a home for brilliant (some say crazy) minds like us to find like-minded friends, to have in-depth discussion on topics of interest, and to be comfortable as ourselves without the worry of being judged. How I wished I’d joined this club earlier. Now, the introvert inside me is looking forward to the next event. I hope to see you there too!