01.Childhood
Jinks Chong Tzy Jing, Founder & CEO of Senseplus, was born into a single-parent family in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. He was raised by his mother & grandmother as his father passed away unexpectedly when he was just one year old. His family’s business at that time was a childhood place of many people, which is a comic book store. As a child full of artistic talents, he was deeply influenced by numerous comic arts & has since then dreamt of becoming a comic artist when he grows up. He would often use his exercise books as drawing pads in his elementary school years. His talents later turned out to be a topic in school after a group of classmates became fans of the comic series he drew like chasing a drama series. The characters he created later became an everyday conversation topic by his classmates, building his sense of accomplishment as a child.
02.Young & Frivolous
During his high school years, he joined a gangster group under the influence of toxic friendships, which caused him to fail on his school grades. Just over the course of the second year, he was dropped out of school due to the constant absence in class & was involved in multiple school brawls. Young, frivolous & jobless, every day he joined those toxic friends from the gangster group, becoming more & more degraded. Nearly half a year after being dropped out, the death of the gang leader led to many internal fighting which he then took advantage of the chaos & quit the gang. His loving sister at the time encouraged him to return to school. His sister even quit her job & often visited the Ministry of Education, pleading to let him return to school. Seeing his sister’s endeavors, he agreed to finally return to school. However, returning to school proves challenging, for he has wasted years of studies & couldn't keep up with his classmates. He then gave up pursuing his studies & became addicted to video games, failing all his Form 5 final exams. Although he failed all other subjects, he did get an A in the Art subject.
03.Chasing Dreams
After graduating high school, he hoped to enroll into illustration to fulfill his dream of becoming a comic artist. However, his mother at the time doubted that a man who failed all general subjects & whose English proficiency was comparable to that of a kindergarten student could graduate. Under pressure, he decided to work & earn money for his tuition. He spent three years working in Internet cafes & computer maintenance, eventually only saving enough for two semesters, where he planned to work part time whilst continuing his third semester. After he entered college, he discovered that Graphic Design can broaden his talents more than illustration, and so he chose it as his major subject. While studying, he had trouble understanding lectures due to his poor English which then resulted in poor grades, ranking only second to last among 30 students in the first semester & fifth to last in the second semester, making him worry about the third semester where he had to work part-time. His mother finally saw his dedication towards studying this time & couldn’t bear watching her son so exhausted, she decided to pay for his tuition. He then finally lived up to his mother’s expectation by graduating with top grades!
04.Fledgling
After graduating, he joined a local advertising design agency as a junior graphic designer. When he first joined, the agency was facing an issue of a large client’s dissatisfaction with all the logo designs presented by the incumbent designers, causing embarrassment to the agency’s reputation. The agency’s executives held this issue with the utmost importance & instructed all designers to do their best to restore the agency’s reputation. As a rookie designer, he was appointed to assist his predecessors in designing this logo. As a result, all his predecessor’s logo design was completely rejected, it just so happens that the logo designed by him that was only meant as an ‘accompany design’ received high praise by the client & ultimately decided as the final brand logo of the client. The client then jokes around saying: ‘Your designs are terrific, maybe one day you will become a logo design master’. With this one praise, he has since then set a lifelong goal, which is to become one of the world’s top ‘Logo Design Masters’.
05.Startup
With years of accumulated experience in the industry, he decided to resign & follow his dream to establish a branding design company. On the journey of starting his business, he soon realized that reality is often different from what he imagined. A young man with no connections, no backups & no budget, he knows he can’t survive with just a passion for design. During the first few months, he figured the only useful & traditional method to let more people know Senseplus is by riding a motorcycle & approach shop lot businesses one by one to promote his design services. Of course, no one pays any attention to him, he even tried designing for a customer who refused to pay him & even threatened to cut him if he ever dared to show up & collect money again. With an income of only RM200 in the first month, he wanted to give up his business, often thinking about returning to a stable paycheck job, questioning himself on why he needs to work so hard to start a business. Reminding himself on his lifelong goal, he ultimately still chooses to follow his dream.
06.Persisting His Goals
Struggling for at least a year, he was mentally tired & felt like nothing he did was right. Then one day as usual, he still rode his motorcycle to a listed company to promote his design services. At first he almost left because of the manager’s perfunctory, he happened to be noticed by the boss of the listed company. Marveled by this young man’s boldness to come up & promote his services all by himself, he decided to give him a chance at designing an ordinary flyer. Unsurprisingly, the design came out very well & the subsequent designs were even better than expected. After that, the listed company decided to hand him the exclusive right to design all of its brands where he finally had the funds to establish a proper design company. He then finally understood a saying from Chinese billionaire Jack Ma: “Today is cruel, tomorrow is even more cruel, but the day after tomorrow will be beautiful. Most people will die on tomorrow’s night, for they can't see the sun after tomorrow”. Therefore, firmly persisting the goals & then acting on the opportunities is always the key to success!
07.Business Journey
Fate has changed for his business, as he was favored by many big clients. Then, six months into starting his business, his office was looted by thieves & had lost items worth more than one hundred thousand Ringgit. The most valuables were not the lost items, but rather the loss of years of important client’s archival files, something that even with all the money in the world can’t buy. Because of this misfortune, many client’s data were leaked & many products awaiting launch were forced to be suspended, delaying sales & causing clients to lose money. Adding fuel to the fire, some internal staff even caused more troubles that put his company in a very difficult position, causing many brands to vote no confidence & terminate their contracts with his company. In the end, his company survived thanks to a few brand owners that are willing to continue supporting us, but without budget to continue hiring, he decided to disband his company. Amid all the misfortune, a few delight remains as his previous designers, already not the employees of his company, offer their help without any fees & assist him to tide over the difficulties. Therefore in any business journey, always treat others with a good heart, for one day others will help in the direst need. Down the journey of building his business, perhaps the most right thing he did was being sincere & treating others good.
08.The Comeback
Always keeping his goals in mind, he continued to create a Freelancer Design team & occasionally shared his experience & journey with these designers, proceeding with his design in baby steps. Slowly shining as he is already a skillful designer, he helped many SME improve their business & sales. As a result, more & more people began introducing Senseplus to their friends & the business began to rise again. One day, a friend referred a client to us, the client was none other than the famous ‘Namewee’ Wee Meng Chee. Designing Namewee’s logo made him realise Namewee’s creativity and open-mindedness towards music, which is what inspires him to put his best efforts into designing Namewee’s logo, ultimately winning the praise & appreciation of Namewee. Since then, Namewee’s logo was popular & beloved by the public, making Senseplus popular for that time being. It is also this time he had the funds to re-establish his company. Now the company is in tip top condition, with a proper working environment & many other creative services like hand-painted murals & full of artistic aspects. A persisting goal that exchanges to today's success is a life worth everything.
09.Moment Of Clarity
Ever since Namewee’s logo received rave reviews, everyday many clients will come eager for him to design their logo. However, since face to face meetings are essential for making deals, he exhausted most of his time meeting clients & barely received more than ten confirmed logo design projects which then limits him to receive more projects. This is a tradition in the local industry as many clients would refuse to pay for design services without a face to face meeting. Without any direct solution, he spent several months of sleepless nights thinking hard, until one day 3:30 in the morning of a certain month in 2014, he thought why not converting online & offer his logo design services through a website in a form-filing mode where clients can get a logo without having a meeting, giving more time to focus on design works. It was this idea that made Senseplus become the first & only design company in Malaysia that utilises form-filing mode in a website to design logos & also the first to advertise logo design services in Facebook back then, making Senseplus an originator of this business model. As of 2020, Senseplus have designed more than 3,000 logo designs in total with sales exceeding a total revenue of 2 Million Ringgits, making Senseplus the No.1 in the logo design industry & therefore have successively received many business & design awards along with interviews from newspapers, radio stations & magazines over the years.
10.Fighting For His Health
Tons of design projects has made him used to staying up all day & night every day without realising his health is slowly deteriorating. One day a colleague discovered he looked very much slimmer than the week before. After measuring, he found out his weight had dropped from 65kg to 54kg, which prompted him to seek immediate medical attention. A full body diagnosis has revealed that he’s suffering from diabetes with his blood sugar level at an exaggerated 19.7mmol/l & must immediately be suppressed with medications. At the same time he also found out he had kidney failure complications & his condition was only controlled after repeated treatments. Still, misfortunes never come singly as one day he started feeling dizzy & his vision blurred while staring at his computer, which again after diagnosis revealed it was caused by the complications of his high blood sugar. Doctors have since suggested to minimize screen time, exercise more & eat healthy as there are currently no cure for diabetes & only constant medication can control his health condition. Seeing design as life, he insisted in completing all client’s designs as promised even though it would take two days to complete a design that normally only takes a few hours due to his blurry eyes, for he once said: ‘We must always achieve what we promised & being sick is not an excuse’. Ultimately after much persuasion, he finally agreed to gradually reduce his time designing & instead let his team take up the responsibility for most of the projects with him acting as a mentor.
11.Transition to Consultant
Due to multiple media coverage and radio interviews, many business owners became acquainted with him. Since 2019, he has been continuously invited to serve as a brand strategy consultant. Apart from providing brand design services, he incorporates the philosophical theories he has studied for many years into brand strategic planning. Subsequently, he has repeatedly proven that his theories are applicable in practical scenarios, rather than being mere theoretical ideas. In addition to assisting clients in brand strategic planning, he also aids in training the design teams within companies, enhancing the designers' technical skills and thought processes, helping them grasp the essence of design. His training and lecturing style often involves explaining design from a philosophical perspective, earning him the nickname "design philosopher" among many students. He jokingly responds by calling himself a "strategic philosopher delayed by design" and expresses a preference for being a philosopher over a designer if given a chance to choose again.
12.Philosophical Meditation
Beyond design and consultancy, what captivates him the most is philosophy and meditation. Whenever he has free time, he delves into philosophical books or engages in meditation. He writes strange texts in his mobile notes, to the point where even his wife wonders if he has become obsessed with philosophy. The eccentric nature of an artist's personality shines through, as he would rather meditate at home than attend social gatherings, even when invited by prominent figures seeking to expand his network. With nine years of dedicated study in philosophy and meditation, he discovered the feasibility of applying philosophical theories to brand strategy. Consequently, he developed two strategic philosophies. He experimented with these philosophies across various brands, consistently viewing the results from an experimental perspective. After several adjustments, he realized that these strategic philosophies could indeed help clients improve their chances of entrepreneurial success. Feeling the time is right, he is determined to promote these strategic philosophies to assist more entrepreneurs on the path to success.
As time becomes increasingly scarce, he no longer accepts clients indiscriminately as he did before. Presently, he carefully selects clients, stating that only businesses with similar philosophies are worthy of his philosophy and design. Without like-minded individuals, he would rather never serve others in his lifetime. Undoubtedly, he is a genius in both the design and philosophy realms, with his motto being "No one can defeat you, except yourself." He is the genius of brand strategy, Jinks Chong.
