Adam Khoo Yean Ann (born April 8, 1974) is a Singaporean entrepreneur, best-selling author and peak performance trainer. A self-made millionaire by the age of 26, he is one of the youngest millionaires in Singapore, and owns and runs several businesses in education, training, event management and advertising, all with a combined annual turnover of S$30 million.
Khoo is the Executive Chairman and Chief Master Trainer of Adam Khoo Learning Technologies Group Pte Ltd and Director of seven other private companies. Khoo was also a director of the Singapore Health Promotion Board 2009-2010. He is currently a member of the Singapore Chapter of the Young President's Organization , whose membership is only available to business owners below 50 years of age, who run businesses with minimum annual turnover of US$9 million. Khoo was also conferred the NUS Business School Eminent Business Alumni Award 2008 for being one of Singapore's most successful and prominent business leaders.
Adam Khoo is the best-selling author of ten books including I Am Gifted, So Are You! (first published by Oxford University Press, ISBN 978-9812324276). His second and third books are How to Multiply Your Child's Intelligence (Pearson Education, ISBN 978-0131013551) and Clueless in Starting a Business (Pearson Education, ISBN 978-9812445070).
Khoo's fourth book was Master Your Mind, Design Your Destiny (Adam Khoo Learning Technologies Group, ISBN 978-9810508562). His fifth and sixth books were Secrets of Self-Made Millionaires (Adam Khoo Learning Technologies Group, ISBN 978-9810552848) and Secrets of Millionaire Investors (Adam Khoo Learning Technologies Group, ISBN 978-9810581954). His seventh book was Nurturing the Winner & Genius in Your Child (Adam Khoo Learning Technologies Group, ISBN 978-9810596835) and his eight book, Secrets of Building Multi-Million Dollar Businesses (Adam Khoo Learning Technologies Group, ISBN 978-9810814786) was launched in October 2008. His ninth book was titled Profit from the Panic (Adam Khoo Learning Technologies Group, ISBN 978-9810820879).
Khoo was expelled from St Stephen's Primary School at the age of eight for misbehavior, partly due to poor academic results. His parents hunted for a primary school willing to accept him and finally found Ngee Ann Primary School. Due to his poor results at the Primary School Leaving Examination , he did not qualify to enter any of the six secondary schools his parents had chosen. Eventually he went to a government school Ping Yi Secondary, where he passed only five out of eight subjects and finished 156th out of 160 Secondary 1 Express Stream students.
Khoo's parents and teachers described him back then as capable but lazy, indifferent and addicted to television. He described himself as being totally uninterested in learning (he was frustrated as he felt he could not learn), extremely unmotivated, physically weak and mentally lethargic. His stepsister was an A-student in the Gifted Education Programme at Raffles Girls' Secondary while cousins from his close-knit extended family were from the best schools in Singapore. He had very poor social skills, did not enjoy reading anything but comics and was addicted to arcade games and moronic TV programs. He tried to join the Scout Movement, but was thrown out six months later for not passing the basic qualifying test, the 'Scout Standard', as he did not bother to try.
Turning point in education
In 1987, when Khoo was 13, his parents enrolled their "under-achiever" son for a five-day residential program at Ladyhill Hotel called Super-Teen Camp. The man responsible for spotting Khoo's "gifted talent" in Super-Teen was Dr. Ernest Wong, Founder, Principal Consultant and Master Teacher of Ernesco, the Centre for Motivational Language Learning based in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia (the Super-Teen Camp is now under Learning Mastery Pte. Ltd.) Dr. Wong's teaching tools incorporated and adapted an American-developed learning technology called Neuro-Linguistic Programming , as well as Whole-Brain Learning. This was the beginning of Adam Khoo's interest and journey in mastering motivational techniques, which formed the foundation of many of his best-selling books and seminars.
Within three months of the program, Khoo climbed to among the top 18 in his secondary school. He went on to rank among the top 10 in Ping Yi Secondary within a year, topped his school in the GCE 'O' Level examinations with the lowest scoring aggregate, and was the first in Ping Yi Secondary to qualify for the then-top junior college in Singapore, Victoria Junior College. At Victoria Junior College, he was President of the Economics Society and scored three 'As' for his GCE 'A' Level examinations. He entered the Business Administration faculty at the National University of Singapore and continued his notable academic achievements by making it to the Dean's List every year since his first year, ranked among the top 1 percent of academic achievers and became a pioneer in the university's Talent Development Programme (TDP), the tertiary equivalent of the Gifted Education Programme for secondary schools. He holds an honors degree in Business Administration from NUS.
Millionaire in the making
At age 15, Khoo was devouring books on "how to make money" like Donald Trump's business books and Warren Buffett's books on investment techniques. While still in secondary school, he formed a mobile disco company with his friends, using his grandmother's house to re-create a disco and charged teenagers who attended a fee. He even took over the job of the deejay that he hired, after studying him. At 16, he began investing most of his time and money to read and undergo training sessions in NLP in the United States. At 17, he became a freelance motivational trainer by visiting schools in Singapore, making the bold proposition of turning the worst students around for no charge in the beginning. Eventually, he started charging S$25 per student for half a day's training.
After completing National Service in the Republic of Singapore Air Force at age 21, Khoo went into partnership with three NUS friends and registered an event management company, Creatsoul Entertainment. The company organized hops, jams and other entertainment activities for clients like individuals, companies and organizations at NUS and Nanyang Technological University . This was later re-registered as Event Gurus Pte Ltd, an event management company. Today Event Gurus runs major events like The New Paper Big Walk and the President's Charity Challenge's Project Y.
At 23, Khoo obtained his license in NLP in Seattle, Washington. At 24, he became a trainer at SuperTeen, conducting courses for organizations like the Chinese Development Assistance Council , Association of Muslim Professionals , Nanyang Girls' High School and the Universitas Pelita Harapan (UPH) in Jakarta. At 25, Khoo was coaching top insurance agents and marketing managers twice his age on how to boost sales. At this time, his father, Vince Khoo, who owned advertising agency Adcom, bought out all partners and offered the younger Khoo the opportunity to run it. Within three months, he turned it around from making losses in 1998—1999 to clinching a pitching rate of 80 percent with the first monthly profit, and went on to increase margins by 30%. Their clients have included AIA, Dumex, Mobil (lost during the Exxon merger), Phillip Wain slimming centers, Sobe Fresh Soya Milk, Tabasco, Heinz, Sinsin, Night Safari, Singapore and MobileOne .
At 26, Khoo earned his first million, from giving motivational training at schools and companies (the most lucrative, earning him up to S$1000 an hour), his entertainment company and shrewd investments in equities, unit trusts and property.
Khoo's first taste of investing came from his grandfather, who would give him Lunar New Year red packets with Malaysian share lots like Genting, Kuantan Flour Mill and HICOM. Inspired by Warren Buffett's book Buffettology, he started dabbling in shares in the army.
A conservative and long-term investor, Khoo goes for investments with very low risk and high returns, favoring cash-rich companies with low debts and the potential to consistently increase their earnings. He prefers investing in stocks and options, using a variety of investing strategies including momentum and value investing.
Property
Khoo's portfolio consists of property that he rents out, private businesses, Singapore stocks, US stocks and exchange-traded funds , generating an average return of over 20 percent per annum. In 1998, he bought a condominium in East Coast for S$480,000 and rented it out for about S$3,000. He sold it for S$650,000 in 2004. In early 2008, he bought a condo at Robertson Quay for S$1.3 million, renting it out at S$4,000.
Businesses
Khoo does not believe in taking on consumer debt and prefers starting businesses with zero capital, paying freelance fees or stocks in the beginning until profit is generated.
Khoo's success and achievements have been featured in regional media like The Straits Times, The Business Times , The New Paper, Lianhe Wanbao, Channel NewsAsia , MediaCorp Channel U and Channel 8, MediaCorp 938LIVE and Capital 95.8FM, The Hindu, The Star and The Sun Malaysian newspapers, The Executive Magazine, Asian Business the Magazine for Entrepreneurs, Prestige, Her World Magazine, Calibre Magazine and many more. In 2007, he was ranked among the top 25 richest Singaporeans under the age of 40 by The Executive Magazine.
