“Don’t downgrade your dream just to fit your current reality. Just work your butt off to upgrade your conviction to fit your dream.”

That was what my mentor, Vince Tan, told me. At the time, I was a young man recently out of a job. I was relying on my wife and family to take care of 6 months' impending house rental. I was depressed.

But then, with Vince’s mentorship, my friends and I started up Juara UPSR, an academic mentorship program to help underprivileged students prepare for their UPSR final examinations.

Within 7 months, I went from a jobless youth to ‘Cikgu Lan’ – I teach more than 14,000 students from underprivileged families with the online learning portal we set up.

Without the support of my family and mentors, I would not have had the opportunity to turn my life around.

Watch Cikgu Lan's full story in this clip from our Malaysian Confessions:Real Entrepreneurs, Real Stories event!