You need a dose of insanity: ESCAPE founder Dato’ Sim on what true entrepreneurship is

Entering Sim Leisure’s office some floors above Kidzania Kuala Lumpur, I’m told (or, in hindsight, warned) that the founder, Dato’ Sim Choo Kheng is quite the straightforward guy. 

Just minutes into meeting the man himself, I quickly understood what that meant. 

With spiky hair gelled up like a mad scientist’s, Sim Leisure’s head honcho is quite the opinionated person. Somehow, our conversation begins with him striking down the “fad” of work-life balance. 

“For entrepreneurs, we don’t see the working as labour,” he quipped, entirely stone-faced. “That’s why I never celebrate Labour Day.”

To him, the only thing you need to balance is sleep. Any time else is work, work, work. It might sound a little crazy to some, but it’s this so-called craziness that seems to drive Dato’ Sim. 

And I’m not just saying that to seem contentious; to quote him verbatim, “You’ve got to have a dose of insanity.” More on that later. 

With that dose of insanity, he’s been able to grow Sim Leisure into the leading theme parks and attractions business behind brands like ESCAPE. 

Admittedly, Sim Leisure’s story has been reported ad nauseum, and for good reason. It’s impressive and inspiring, how Dato’ Sim grew a leisure brand inspired by his childhood playing in the kampung.

Lucky for us, Dato’ Sim opted not to focus on his own story, but rather his hot takes on true entrepreneurship, and what it entails (not work-life balance, clearly).  

Profit is just a by-product 

The allure of being an entrepreneur seems to be stronger than ever, with many Malaysians seemingly wanting to create their own ventures, escaping the 9-to-5 norm. The number of “they quit this corporate career to run their own business” articles we’ve written is a testament to that. 

But to Dato’ Sim, owning a business doesn’t necessarily mean you’re a real entrepreneur. 

“We have a lot of businessmen,” he paused. “They’re not entrepreneurs. They’re businessmen.” 

The difference to him is that businessmen only chase after profits. Entrepreneurs, on the other hand, chase after accomplishments. 

“The profit part is never the number one priority,” he claimed. “True entrepreneurs will always see the profit part as the byproduct of accomplishments.”

In the world of business, when you achieve something great, the profit will naturally come. But that’s not to say that money isn’t important. 

“Of course, profit is important. Profit ensures sustainability in business. But, entrepreneurs are proud of their accomplishments. They’ve done something different, and that’s the most important,” he reiterated. “Naturally if you create something outstanding it will be worth a lot of money.”

Malaysia ain’t wide enough 

You might be wondering, why is entrepreneurship so important anyway? Dato’ Sim believes that entrepreneurship is necessary to put the nation “on top of the food chain.” As such, entrepreneurs should endeavour to not only win locally, but be global champions.

“Real driven entrepreneurs want to be the best in the world. Never a jaguh kampung,” he said.  

For some, an unfamiliar environment might seem futile and not worth getting into. Not Dato’ Sim, though. 

“My mission is to be the most successful leisure company in the world. And I hope to be able to accomplish this in the next 15 years when I still have the energy,” he told me.  

“Do you think you’re on track to accomplishing that?” I asked. 

“Yeah, of course,” he responded immediately. “It’s the madness of believing, you know?”

A healthy dose of insanity 

“You’ve got to have a dose of insanity. I’m serious,” he said.  

That insanity, he believes, is needed in order not to give up when normal people would. You have to be insane to believe something that is not achievable. 

“But it can be achieved,” he said. “It’s mind over matter. If your mind is believing in that, most of the time, you will achieve it. With the energy and with persistence, you will achieve that.” 

It’s lonely at the top 

Oftentimes, you’ll hear people describe entrepreneurship as a lonely journey. Some reject that notion by embracing community, but Dato’ Sim embraces it.

His brand of entrepreneurship is quite an anti-social one, he admits. This is simply because he’s not the type to rub shoulders and socialise just for the sake of business and formalities. 

True entrepreneurs, he believes, are this way, and do not rely on community. After all, that’s just conformity—more on this point later, too.  

Entrepreneurs are the benchmark 

Speaking to Dato’ Sim, I wondered if his strong entrepreneurial views dictate the expectations he sets on his staff members, too.   

“The reality is, if there is another person that thinks like me, I think they would start their own business, they wouldn’t be working for me,” he mused.

In Sim Leisure, Dato’ Sim is often the visionary, and the team is the cast of supporters who understand his way of doing things.  

In a corporate world, the approach would be completely different, there would be a bunch of consultants, approvals, references, etc. 

But for Sim Leisure, they do what Nike does—they just do it. 

An example of this attitude is when Dato’ Sim decided to make the world’s largest tipping bucket. The experiment was done in their own back yard, and the team quickly realised that the reason why tipping buckets don’t go that big—there aren’t ball bearings big enough. 

But instead of giving up, they decided to use their own creativity and create a makeshift solution. And guess what? It works. 

Without a visionary like Dato’ Sim calling the shots at the top, the team would not have had the daringness to believe and try.  

Change must not happen in tweaks 

Disruption has long been a hot key word in the industry. And while Dato’ Sim seems to abhor terms like work-life balance, disruption is one he readily promotes in entrepreneurship.    

“You cannot try to beat the record by 5%, 10%,” he explained. “In a 100-metre dash, it’s OK, but when it comes to products, you need to push to the extreme.”

That was the mindset he had when building the longest tube water slide in the world. In the water park industry, standard towers only go up 25 metres, simply because most people are not fit enough to climb up to 50 or 100 metres. 

However, he decided to leverage a sloped terrain, and built a chair lift to the top. Problem solved. 

“The crux of the matter is that change cannot be in tweaks, it has to take a different form,” he said. 

Dato’ Sim pointed to Tim Cook as a “businessman” instead of an entrepreneur. Specifically, the Malaysian described him as a career CEO who thrives at marketing. However, the iPhone seems to have reached a cap of sorts after Steve Jobs’ passing, with each iteration being more of a tweak than true innovation. At least, that’s what Dato’ Sim thinks.  

That’s why Sim Leisure isn’t just sticking to the status quo. Rather, they want to create a new genre of entertainment. Specifically, they want to offer a retro eco genre of family entertainment, as opposed to the mainstream, which is mechanical movie-based theme parks.

In other words, their innovative approach is all about going low-tech. 

Creativity first, technology second 

But low technology requires creativity, which Dato’ Sim believes is key. 

When big changes happen, like when Steve Jobs introduced the iPod, that’s creativity at work, not technology. 

“I always ask people why they want to be an engineer? Engineers will work for you. It’s the creative ideas that will create a breakthrough. Not an engineering feat,” Dato’ Sim determined. 

In other words, innovation comes from creativity. With creative ideas, the technology will follow.  

Get more success than failures 

Listening to Dato’ Sim, it might not seem like he’s one to tolerate failure. But that’s not true. 

“If you don’t make mistakes, you’re not making progress,” he explained. “Just focus on getting more success than failures. Then you’re okay. That’s part of life. Pick up the pieces and move on.” 

Sometimes, failures are also very subjective. What do you accept as a total failure, rather than a lesson? Don’t give up on a good idea before you really put in the work to fix it. 

Of course, having the tolerance for failure comes down to the financial runway you have, too.  

Don’t conform

At the end of the day, the one quality that Dato’ Sim believes sets an entrepreneur apart (literally) is their anti-conformity. 

Dato’ Sim has very strong feelings about conformity and how society promotes uniformity, so more on that in a separate article.  

But what this mean is: Don’t just listen to his ideas and replicate them. You won’t make a true mark on the entrepreneurial landscape unless you break out of the system.  

As Dato’ Sim said, “There will be people copying my ideas. But they can never copy my passion.”

Featured Image Credit: Vulcan Post / Sim Leisure