Age and gender do not define your chance at success

At 23 years old, Elfaine Tan has accomplished multiple feats. As winner of Shell’s LiveWIRE “Most Promising Enterprise Award” in 2009 and having been named one of Her World Magazine’s 50 “Most Inspiring Women Under 40”, Elfaine is the proud founder of The Sample Store (formerly known as Fr3b.com), an on-line store that distributes and sells samples.

(Photo: Elfaine, far left, with her The  Sample Store team)

Elfaine believes that there are many roads to education and achieving success. After graduating with a Diploma in Biomedical Informatics & Engineering in 2008, she took an office job but left a few months later because she had a business idea and wanted to validate it.

Despite initial protests from her parents and the lack of a formal business education, Elfaine was determined to prove that her business model works. She cold-called marketers at their offices throughout the day and got rejected by them over and over again. But she never gave up. Her hard work paid off eventually, when she managed to arrange for meetings with her clients and convinced them to use the platform.

To date, The Sample Store has garnered a substantial pool of members and customers, worked with many established brands and has also distributed and sold countless samples.

No excuses to achieving success

For the tenacious entrepreneur who started her business early in life, there are no excuses to achieving success. “I don’t think age or gender would affect one’s success. What matters most is the right attitude and mindset,” she observed.

In fact, that there are some advantages to being a woman. Elfaine points out that, as “most marketers in my industry are women, this gives me an advantage as I can communicate with them better and even share some very personal thoughts with them.”

She noted that there may be certain drawbacks for a young female entrepreneur. She added, “Sometimes people get the wrong impression the first time they meet you. They usually think that we are either not experienced enough or doubt our credibility.”

On dealing with gender

There are challenges to working with both men and women. For example, Elfaine observed that women in leadership positions tend to be more demanding, straightforward and set higher expectations. But the jovial entrepreneur offers a tip, “ I find joy in befriending my clients, and this makes the communication process smoother when it comes setting goals and expectations with them.”

As for the men, she quipped that they “can be a little forgetful and tend to forget about some deadlines. So we need to be constantly remind them about deadlines, submission and meeting dates.”

Women like Tyra Banks, Oprah Winfrey, local entrepreneurs Nanz Chong Komo and Ms Elim Chew have inspired the young entrepreneur to be strong, determined and to develop a never-surrender-to-failure spirit.

“Like what Steve Jobs said, anyone can give up, it’s the easiest thing in the world to do. But to hold it together when everyone else would understand if you fell apart, that’s true strength,” she said.