TikTok Star Ming Wei on Pushing Through Tough Times

National taekwondo representative, Singapore's most famous TikToker, and founder of Boom Digital Media. At the age of 27, these are the titles that Ng Ming Wei has under his belt. "Be water, my friend," Bruce Lee once said and Ng is the embodiment of this quote, adapting to his changing circumstances like how water adapts to any vessel and flows through hard rocks that stand in its way.

The Taekwondo Dream

Ever since Ng was a child, it had been his dream to represent Singapore at the Olympics. He joined the taekwondo club when he was a student at Maris Stella High School and trained tirelessly for 14 years to achieve the best taekwondo results in Singapore, even taking a gap year from university to prepare for the Olympics.

Ng's parents, his strongest supporters, were there with him every step of the way. The cost of training a professional athlete was no small sum and they forked out more than $120,000 in total to pay for his local and overseas training as well as equipment expenses. It seemed that after years of relentless training and sacrifices made by both Ng and his parents, his dream of representing Singapore would finally come true.

However, before his Olympic dream could take flight, the COVID-19 pandemic hit.

"My sporting dream was dashed. I lost all confidence and locked myself in my room," Ng shares, opening up about one of the lowest points of his life. The Tokyo 2020 Olympics were postponed. Talks of cancelling the Olympics due to the worsening pandemic were in the works. For an athlete like Ng who had been training all his life for this one moment, this was a crushing blow.

TikTok Star and Branding Consultant

Rather than let the pandemic get the better of him, Ng picked himself up and decided to make the best of it. He returned to school and focused on his studies. At the same time, he started making more videos on TikTok.

Ng initially started posting videos on Instagram to share his love for his sport. The videos showed him using taekwondo moves to play other sports such as bowling and table tennis. During the pandemic, Ng turned to TikTok, much like countless others when lockdown measures restricted free movement and drove everyone indoors.

While staying at home, Ng asked his father to help him film a funny video. His father was reluctant at first but eventually agreed to Ng's request. That was the start of Ng's TikTok career. Today, Ng has over 20 million followers on his TikTok account (@mingweirocks) where he posts humorous videos of his father (@DaddyMing) and him.

Driven by the same tenacity with which he pursued his taekwondo dream, when Ng first started posting on TikTok, he slept less than 4 hours a day while managing his TikTok account. "I told myself I would keep doing it until I hit 10 million," said Ng in an interview with AsiaOne. However, after hitting 10 million, he found that he was still unsatisfied. Ng began to rethink his approach and realised that rather than going viral and focusing on numbers, he wanted to help others and use his newfound fame for good.

Following that, Ng founded his own company, Boom Digital Media, to help customers optimise their brand and content on TikTok and other social media platforms.

When Life Gives You Lemons, Make TikTok Videos

Ng's journey has been one of ups and downs, where the lows seemed almost impossible to return from. "I'm not going to lie. It was tough picking myself up. It was tiring juggling my studies and work. I wanted to give up," Ng admits.

However, Ng never gave up. Today, he is a proud graduate and works in a job he loves. He gives back to his parents and has grown closer to them by collaborating with them on his TikTok videos, and he gives back those around him as he understands just how difficult the pandemic has been for many.

"So if you are in a similar situation as I was, don't give up! It won't be easy, but you just got to do it because the way to get ahead is to keep going and trust the process," Ng says to those who are facing the same waves of uncertainty as him. The way forward is never easy, but if you see it through, there will always be light at the end of the tunnel.

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