MEET AQILAH NORAZMAN

ON HER BIGGEST INSPIRATION AND PASSION TO HELP THE COMMUNITY

“My crazy is that I don’t give up very easily even if things get incredibly hard.”

MY STORY IS …

If I could sum my entire life up today in one word, it’ll be this – haphazard.

Truly, chaotic and messy for sure, but I love it entirely. I was born in Brunei, and I grew up in Oman, Singapore, Sydney, and Toronto. I guess moving around at a very young age, albeit unsettled, has put me to where I am supposed to be today.

My earliest memories in entrepreneurship began when I was 17 where I started building and selling customised computer CPUs to my family and friends, before and after school. When my friends were hanging out, I’d rather go and build something. I then started learning basic HTML and building websites, reading lots of books about the digital world, and tried a few different computer programmes, just for fun.

I wish I could say I was a really good student. All through my school years, I was busy volunteering and helping others and consequently did badly in university. But that led me to realise I truly enjoyed helping people and my career path started there.

To really explore what I love doing, I hopped from one job to another, each one I started and left shortly after. It almost seemed like I couldn’t settle on one. Some of them even paid really well but if it didn’t leave me with a sense of satisfaction, I left. Through this, I realised very early on too that I disliked working for people and taking orders, especially in jobs that had very low human interaction. Instead, I flourish in roles that put customer service at the forefront, are flexible, and allow me to interact with people.

My biggest inspiration growing up was my father.

Growing up, I saw him start a business while raising us. My father is an opportunist, often seeing opportunities before they even happen (that’s why we moved around a lot!). He taught me about kindness and delivering service above and beyond and has always pushed me to start my own business.

That’s what inspired me to start something of my own.

When I started 1-Habit in 2015, I had zero clue of how to run it. I just wanted to impact people’s lives and help them realise their greatest potential by helping them live healthier. Because of this, my business processes got a little bit chaotic to a point that I got into financial troubles. I woke up one day with a six-figure debt right smack in my face and found myself at a crossroad as to whether or not I should quit or still continue doing what I’m doing. I chose the latter.

Today, I am learning how to manage my finances while growing the community at the same time - not for myself, but for our community of members who come into our Studio every day with the drive to change their lifestyle. I’m not sure if it’s my resilient nature that refuses to give up easily or I just love taking risks and making mistakes that have led me to where I am today – either way, both are good.

I want to inspire more women to take risks, step into the unknown and realise their biggest dreams.

I will never trade anything else with what I am doing today, and I wake up every day feeling so grateful to be able to do this. Be your own hero - I am doing just that because nobody else can do that for you.

photography Zahwah Bagharib