Page 30 - PUCM Malaysia China Entrepreneur Vol.00

Committee 理事
Pioneer in Student Housing 象牙塔宿舍的守护者
From accountant to entrepreneur, Sally Qian’s travels have brought her far from her home in Guangxi, China.
Sally spent eight years in Australia and there she met her Malaysian husband. She has been in Malaysia for more than seven years now. She likes Malaysia as it is multicultural. As an adventurous foodie, she loves durians and enjoys the great variety of food that is available in Malaysia.
She and her two friends were all professional accountants, working in Australia. One day, they decided to become entrepreneurs and to create opportunities for themselves and for others. With their experience as foreign students in Australia and New Zealand and their positive outlook of the Malaysian higher education industry, they used all their savings and opened their first student hostel in Malaysia. They started humbly with 100 beds and today their team is managing a 6000-bed portfolio.
LIFE AS A STUDENT
During the years studying in China and overseas, Sally has found that living environment plays an important role during her transition period from a young student to a fully independent adult. During those years, Sally was lucky to be surrounded by supportive and open minded friends and was taken good care of by the Management teams of the on- campus hostels. She had the opportunity to meet with people from different cultural backgrounds and age groups. There Sally developed good understanding of different cultures as well as developed her values and views of the world.
She admitted that she never thought that she would one day become an entrepreneur. Just like what Steve Jobs once said, you can’t connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards. Being greatly benefited from her personal experience at the hostels, she was destined to create an ideal living environment for others.
28 | PUCM 2nd Anniversary Issue
Sally Qian 钱兰
JOURNEY AS AN ENTREPRENEUR
Sally believes that all past experience has helped her in a way or another. She is very optimistic about the future. She is able to follow her passion, have great experience and learn new things, and furthermore she is able to help others along the way. Living a life like this is indeed wonderful.
Due to her experience as a student as well as her work in The Purple House, Sally has developed a strong passion for nurturing a vibrant student community and people development. Working with The Purple House team has given her the exact opportunity to what she loves.
The Purple House hostels do not just provide a room for the students. It is much more than that. Their students are in a vibrant, friendly and supportive community, a big family. In this ideal living environment, students make new friends, build lasting friendships and have a lot of wonderful experience together.
Sally is also instrumental in developing a team culture that puts people first. The Purple House team members are quite different in terms of educational background, race, religion and belief, and personalities. They believe in openness, a sense of purpose as well as mutual respect and trust. The Purple House team embodies these principles and work well as a team.