The Ordinary Legend Was Born

​

Dato’ Anthony Cheng was born in a moderate family. His dad worked as a deputy editor in a press to bring the bacon back to the family. Since young, he had won numerous awards and topped his classes in school; not to forget his active participation in school’s societies, chairing most of them as a chairperson, included the prefect team. When  he was 13 years old, he also admitted to Chong Hwa Independent High School in Kuala Lumpur by nation second highest academic result. Thus, he has become a role model in school and amongst all the students.

​

Unfortunately, tragedy struck his life when he was 14 years old. Cancer took his dad away, breaking his family apart as they lost their sole breadwinner. For a living, his mother forced to be a worker in a garment factory. At that time, he was lost, feeling devastated by the tragic situation. He tried to look for the truth in life, by reading through books about philosophy, religion, numerology, psychology and more, hoping to seek his way out. He ended up overwhelmed by frustration and lost himself through it. Those days, were the darkest days in his life.

​

After a year of struggle, he finally realized that “Death is the only unsolvable difficulties in life, and nothing else is impossible besides it.” A baby was born to be like a piece of blank paper, whatever it turns out to be in the future, whether a nice painting or plain scribble is our only gift to our descendants. “Death has nothing to be fearful of. What we should be afraid of, is when we left nothing to be remembered with.”

​

He started to realize that, “The importance of life is not about how long we lived through, it’s about how deep and how wide we’ve discovered.” With this, he pledged, that no matter how long he’ll live, he has to overcome the defaults of life and achieve more in this limited life. This is to make sure that he gets to retire earlier and start realizing his dream, looking for the life he desired, and giving back to the community.

​

From that day onwards, the 15 years old teenager started to work hard towards his dream as if he was reborn and rejuvenate. He began to make up his attitude, started working hard to recover his study which has been abandoned for more than a year. Finally, he has earned a success by getting 8 A’s in Unified Examination Certificate (UEC)! At the year of 16, he became the President of Hostel which helped hundreds of students to fight for their rights and welfare. On the another year, he has been elected as the Head Perfect and acted as a communication bridge between school and students, to help in solving problems and conflicts between these two parties.

​

After graduating from high school, he always wanted to enroll in Business and Economics Management, however, knowing his family could not afford the expenses of study, he chose the cheapest faculty which is Advertising and Marketing, by giving up his dream. He told himself, no matter what choice he made, he will create his very own masterpiece in that industry. Since then, he never doubts or looks back, even when he faced challenges and difficulties ahead.

​

“Your Creativity Defines Your Success”

When Dato’ Anthony Cheng was 24 years old, he had already become a prominent figure in the local branding industries. Since 1997, the brands that he has built are uncountable, including well-known brands like Coke, Maxis, Nestle and many more. One of the most successful examples was when the branding company that he owned, helped Starbucks with their branding strategies for over 13 years, assisting them to expand from only 14 stores, to over 130 branches around Malaysia. Building up his legacy in the Sales and Marketing industry for almost 20 years, he has accumulated loads of experiences and achievements in terms of systems, training and networking.

​

His motto in life is “Your creativity defines your success.” In his mind, creativity is the source of success, it categorized human in 80% and 20%. Creativity can make things work out of the box and enable you to be outstanding among the rest. It can bring you success.

​

Hence, he utilized a revolutionary marketing strategy to get rid of the superstitious assumptions of the public towards funeral industries, and introduced the important concept of “Life Planning”. His new definition on “Life Planning” attracted sales elites from fields like insurance, estates, bankers, finance and more to join in, strengthening the foundation of Nirvana Asia. Now, his team has over 800 members, including youths that he keen to bring in to enlighten their lives and at the same time, increase their income, making him the bright guiding light in over 400 youths’ lives.

“The Truth of Wealth - is in your heart"

There is once where people asked Dato’ Anthony Cheng about his secret to success. He humbly noted a philosophy. “I have to throw a pebble, to start a ripple in the lake,”he said. He stressed on the importance of “Giving”, “Appreciation”, and “Gratitude”.

​

Life has no coincidence, only changes are permanent. The legend was born to bring meaning to his life.

​

“Inheritance”, is what he has been working on recently.

​

He noted that, “Wealth is determined by what you have in you.”