No silver spoon in this Malaysian billionaire’s daughter’s mouth

Yen Kuok was never handed anything on a silver platter. In spite of being the daughter of Malaysia’s richest man, Robert Kuok, she worked her way through trial and error to make a success of her online consignment fashion store in Hong Kong.

In an article by social news network SAYS Malaysia, Yen relates how she had a no-nonsense upbringing and went to school with only a moderate amount of pocket money.

“The way my family brought me up was very strict. In fact, I was not given much pocket money. When I was in school, my friends’ pocket money was usually much more than mine,” she was quoted as telling the media in Hong Kong.

She even talked about how her first piece of branded clothing by Viktor & Rolf was a gift from her brother when she was 17 years old.

Yen explained that her grandmother set these strict rules when advising her son that her granddaughter should not be raised like a “princess” just because she came from a wealthy family.

Even her father’s approach to education was unconventional, because unlike many other parents of today, he never pressured her to bring home a string of As.

“My father kept telling me that going to school is not only about studying and getting good grades, but instead, education is meant to expand one’s horizons,” Says Malaysia reported her as saying.

“My father had never forced me to get an A in my exams, and he said it doesn’t matter if I get a B.”

That approach worked wonders, as Yen excelled academically and was eventually accepted into both Stanford and Harvard (opting for the former in sunny California) before settling down in Hong Kong upon graduation.