Tuesday, October 4, 2011

Interview : FatherSez - fathersez.com

FatherSez is one of the pioneers in Malaysia Personal Finance blogsphere.  He started his first blog post on 8 September 2007, one year earlier than this blog.  He has always been one of the great minds I wanted to meet in person one day.  But little did I know back then, opportunity fade away sooner than I thought.  FatherSez passed away on 4 August 2009.


Although we never met and now lost the chance to ever meet again, we never feel far apart.  During earlier years even after 100 posts, I was still a skeptic about blogging.  It was actually FatherSez who found my sharing useful and kept me going.

Even years after his departure, I never forget every single word we transact online; through our virtual identities.  But he was busy with his venture and I was busy with my entrepreneurship back then as well.  We never met in person although both of us wanted to.  Well, at least I wanted to ( Fathersez received too many requests to meet that he couldn't accommodate to all . . . )

FatherSez is unique in his own way because it was clearly a message from parent to kids.  It was written with a legacy in mind, for the kids and the future.  I haven't read a personal finance blog that is as parental, as philosophical, as practical and most truthfully show his love toward his kids without reservation.


I was very scare and afraid after confirming the fact that he did pass away 7 months after his departure.  I worry his web site will be shut down very soon.  But 2 years down the road, I managed to contact one of his legacy, Azah.  And words cannot describe how grateful I am when I know FatherSez is still alive today.  This simply means whatever message FatherSez wanted to deliver has been well received.

What else can be more grateful 
than after you are gone, 
your messages are still 
being hold tight by someone ?

I have conducted email interviews to some of the personal finance web sites or blogs recently.  Fathersez is one of them.  Since I couldn't reach Fathersez anymore, I made a request to his legacy.  To my surprise, she accepted the interview request ...




At young age, Fathersze was one of those where today's basic necessity was not readily given by nature.  He had to walk 12km to school.  Luckily his uncle had supported him mostly not from any monetary form but most critically important - the existence of love and family tie.  Also thanks to his uncle?  Fathersez was exposed to accounting at early age, as early as his primary school time working in a cloth selling shop.  This was one of the key differentiation why he was able to contribute so much to our personal finance blogsphere today.  For other luckier kid like me, I was only worrying what lunch I can have with my 50 cents pocket money for that day.

. . . here is the original interview scripts . . . with minor censorship for privacy reason.

If you were also a FatherSez follower before you read this, you would most probably agree with me that a FatherSez 2.0 is in the making.  The way Azah write and feel for herself and also on behalf of Fathersez, clearly show how great a legacy FatherSez had left behind.  And how similar she is to her father.  And yet with a touch of 21st century of her own.

Lastly, a word for my dear friend Fathersez, for science or for faith, I hope one day you can read this . . . one way or another, I want you to know without a single doubt, a stranger like me . . .  miss you very much too.

3 comments:

ChampDog said...

What is his Blog URL?

Mt. said...

sorry my blog is having some problems not showing the link obviously, the link is http://www.fathersez.com/about/ click on the first word of this post actually link there too.

BipGirl said...

hello Michael. Thank you for the amazing post :)