Yahoo Finance 
This cancer survivor gives 6 tips on pursuing your passion
Jimmy Poh, who was diagnosed with Stage 4 cancer, bravely made a mid-career switch in his 40s while raising two young children.
SINGAPORE — For many people, making a mid-career switch in your 40s while raising two young children and paying for a home mortgage is almost unthinkable. Well, that's exactly what property agent Jimmy Poh did – and he had a battle with Stage 4 cancer too.
In 2017, when he was 44 years old, Poh gave up a cushy salary of nearly S$13,000 per month working as a vice president overseeing IT projects at a local bank. At the time, Poh and his wife, who also works in banking, were financially supporting their 16-year-old daughter and their 11-year-old son, as well as Poh's parents and a helper.
In the initial stages, Poh relied a lot on his savings and that dwindled as he established himself as a property agent from the ground up. At one point, Poh shared, he had only S$2 in his personal bank account. Now, he earns over S$16,000 a month and in 2022, took home about S$500,000 in total.
Here are some tips from him if you too are pondering a radical change:
1. Ask yourself the important questions
On the surface, the Poh family lived a comfortable life in a landed property. In reality, however, Poh was experiencing tremendous work stress. Discontented with nasty office politics and the high pressures of his project management role, Poh told Yahoo Finance Singapore that it was a combination of "push and pull" factors that triggered him to leave the job.
"It was so bad that at one point, every day when I wake up, I didn't feel like going to work because the environment had become so unpredictable. I often had anxiety attacks in the morning," Poh recalled.
"I decided to ask myself these questions: What is my passion? Do I want to die as an employee?"
2. Take concrete steps, no matter how small
The "pull" factor for switching jobs came in the form of a peculiar interest: Poh's love of show flats. He shared that he feels a constant need to change his routine or surroundings in order to find inspiration and keep himself motivated – whether it's a job or rearranging the furniture at home. Show flats remind him of the changes that he craves.
"Every time I go into a show flat, I will learn something. The renovation and technology used in each show flat is always different, so I get very motivated and inspired by that," said Poh.
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But at the time when he made a career change, Poh knew nothing about the real estate business. Rather than immediately dive into unknown territory, he set himself up by acquiring a real estate agent license while still holding down his full-time banking job.
As office politics and stress levels mounted, Poh and his wife discussed taking the exam together as a backup. According to him, real estate exams are one of the most difficult to pass, although he did so on his first attempt. He spent many weekends, and sacrificed much time, attending the course and studying for the assessment.
3. Take risks but give yourself a timeline
After many difficult discussions with his wife, Poh decided to quit his full-time job at the bank, despite her protests. As the family would lose a sizeable portion of their household income, Poh's wife was understandably worried. To try and relieve her concerns, Poh gave himself a timeline of six months to establish himself as a real estate agent.
"I asked my wife, can you hold the fort for six months? Although I knew it might take more than six months, I decided to chiong (Hokkien for "to charge") first. If you don't take risks, you cannot change your life," said Poh.
4. Focus on the goal and drown out the noise
It's not uncommon for anyone in Poh's situation to face criticism from friends and family members for pulling off such a risky move. For Poh, his mindset was set on pursuing his passion, and nothing would have stopped him. But Poh's wife did not share the same view.
Throughout the six-month period when Poh was finding his footing in the industry, he shared that his wife "nagged" him about getting a part-time job or other full-time positions. She would frequently send him links to job applications from various job posting platforms – none of which Poh applied for.
"I had to stop listening to my wife's nagging. Her mindset was still in the same corporate box, whereas I could suddenly see clearly because I was already out of it. I knew there's a future in this role, but I didn't know how to convince her because she's someone so close to me and at the end of the day, she only looked at the dollar sign, given the kids and my ageing parents."
"I didn't know how to tell her to trust me. What is trust? No money is no money lah," said Poh, who added that he would just "acknowledge and ignore" her repeatedly.
Poh was so adamant about pursuing a new career in real estate that he even rejected an offer from an ex-boss to take up a new position that paid S$16,000 per month.
"I remember not telling my wife about it. Today, I am earning more than S$16,000 per month, so I think it was the right decision," said Poh.
"If you don't take risks, you cannot change your life." – Jimmy Poh
5. Get rid of your back-up plan
The six-month period of having no income was a huge challenge for Poh as he struggled to establish himself in the property industry. As property agents typically do not earn base salaries and instead, rely fully on commissions, Poh wouldn't be earning unless he closed deals. He depended on his own savings – the sum of which he doesn't recall – but it quickly ran thin.
"At one point, I went to the ATM and saw that I had less than S$2 in my bank account. It was very scary, and I had no other source (of income). I never told my wife this, but I needed to act as if I still had money when I actually had none," Poh recalled, adding that being that broke lasted only "for a short while" and he would go home for his meals during that period.
Poh also recounted mounting quarrels about money and upsetting situations between him and his wife as the months went by. But Poh saw all these as a source of motivation that pushed him "very hard" to close his first deal.
"What I did correctly was to 'chop off' all my back-up plans," said Poh.
6. Persevere and don't give up
A short while after the low point of seeing an almost empty bank account, Poh finally got his first major deal – he successfully sold his own house for S$2.05 million after listing it. He said that the decision to sell the family home was not "out of desperation". Rather, the family had agreed to downgrade to a smaller unit as the monthly mortgage payment on the house was getting higher at the time.
That first deal got the ball rolling for Poh as he started closing more deals, making an average of S$4,000 to S$5,000 per month. His income eventually grew to an average of more than S$10,000 per month, or roughly the equivalent of what he was previously earning. After two and a half years into his new career path, Poh hit his first six-figure income in a month.
But just as things started to become more stable for Poh, he was diagnosed with Stage 4 nose cancer in 2021. He was 48 years old. The tumour was so big that it was close enough to his brain and partially blurred his vision.
Despite the life-threatening news, Poh soldiered on. He underwent chemotherapy and radiotherapy treatments, known to have adverse side effects on patients, for about four months. Poh continued to close deals even while warded in hospital – he successfully closed one without leaving the confines of his room!
Now aged 50, Poh is in partial remission. He continues to enjoy being a real estate agent with ambitions to hit six-figure income levels per month.
"I can wake up tomorrow and get into an 'end-of-the-world' kind of mood and choose not to do anything. Or, I can still get up and run my daily life as normal. I choose the latter."
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