A Story from an Enterprising Locksmith

Seumas Tan Nyap Tek*,
Advocate & Solicitor

One rainy afternoon, I was at the Ampang Park Shopping Centre browsing around. Since it was raining and I wasn’t able to walk back to the office, I decided to stop by the Locksmith’s stall on the 1st floor of the shopping complex. The Locksmith’s name is Mr. Wee and he is an interesting person to talk to as he has an opinion on everything and anything under the sun.

As there were not many customers that afternoon, I decided to sit down on one of the stools at Mr. Wee’s stall. We chatted about the local and world news in the newspapers when the topic came to careers. I decided to take the opportunity to ask him what motivated him to be a locksmith. I was quite apprehensive as I wasn’t sure if he was willing to share something so personal. But Mr. Wee being an open minded person was more than willing to share his story which is one which we can really appreciate and be inspired by.

Mr Wee was born and raised in Penang. Being a young man at that time, he decided to seek his fortune in Kuala Lumpur. He managed to get a job as a factory worker. He was happy working in the factory but felt somewhat bored, especially on his off days. One day, while walking in downtown Kuala Lumpur, he saw a machine that made duplicate keys which were for sale. Mr. Wee was interested but at the same time mindful of the cost of the machine. He went home that night and did some deep thinking as to whether he should purchase the machine or not. After a sleepless night, he decided to go for it. He took a huge chunk of his savings and went to the shop to buy the machine. Mr. Wee knew that it was a big investment and he was not going to look back and regret the decision he made.

Now, that he got the machine, how was he going to start the business of duplicating keys? Being an enterprising man, Mr. Wee, who was still working in the factory at that time, decided to make an offer to his colleagues in the factory that they couldn’t refuse! He offered to make duplicate keys for free. Each colleague would be given one free duplicate key. I admired Mr. Wee for his generosity but surely there must be a good reason for doing this. Mr. Wee said he wanted to find out what were the most common keys in the market used by a majority of people. When starting out a new business, Mr. Wee said a person can’t expect to buy keys of all shapes and sizes. So, the best way to do this was by offering to duplicate keys for free. That way, he could also get to practice his key-making skills by using the machine. Mr. Wee took down the shapes and sizes of the common keys and then proceeded to place an order for those uncut keys.

When Mr. Wee was confident enough to duplicate keys commercially, he decided to put up a small sign at the house that he was renting. Actually, he rented a small room in the house but the landlord was kind enough to allow him to put a cardboard sign at the gate. Mr. Wee was not getting as many customers as he had hoped for, so he went back to work in the factory on a part time basis.

One evening, a young couple came knocking on the door asking for him. Mr. Wee came out and was ready to assist the young couple. They looked panicky and asked Mr. Wee if he could follow them to their house. Mr. Wee was taken aback and asked why he should follow them. The young couple explained that they have locked themselves out of the house and they didn’t have a spare key with them. Mr. Wee said he couldn’t help them as he only duplicated keys and didn’t know how to pick locks. The young couple looked puzzled. They said to Mr. Wee, “If you can duplicate keys, surely you should know how to pick locks”. Mr. Wee had no answer to that question and remained quiet.

When the young couple left the house feeling disappointed, that got Mr. Wee thinking. He knew that duplicating keys would not be enough to sustain him in this business, he must learn an extra skill. Continuing education was important. In this case, the extra skill was learning how to pick locks.

Then came the second hurdle, where could he learn the skills of a locksmith? A locksmith’s skill in picking locks is a closely guarded secret. Mr. Wee went through many advertisements and he couldn’t find any school or person willing to teach him how to pick locks, so Mr. Wee did the next best thing. Mr. Wee asked around. Finally, someone in the wet market told him that there was an old experienced locksmith in Bangsar who used to teach those who were interested in picking locks. The person in the wet market warned Mr. Wee that the locksmith’s fee would not be cheap. Mr. Wee took the contact number and immediately called the locksmith in Bangsar. The old locksmith told Mr. Wee that he was willing to teach him the skills provided Mr. Wee paid him RM5,000.00 which was a hefty sum at that time. Mr. Wee tried to get him to reduce his fee but the old locksmith refused. Being an enterprising and crafty fellow, Mr. Wee proposed to the locksmith that he pay the locksmith by way of installments. The locksmith agreed since he thought he could get his money quicker that way.

On the first day, Mr. Wee went to the locksmith’s house cum office in Bangsar. When he reached the locksmith’s house, he was asked to sit down and wait. Mr. Wee was getting fed-up after sitting for half a day doing nothing. He complained to the locksmith but the locksmith asked him to be patient. Finally, the phone rang, the locksmith picked up the phone, finished the conversation and then looked at Mr. Wee and smiled. The locksmith said, “Now, you begin your lesson”.

The locksmith took Mr. Wee on his motorbike to the customer’s house. The locksmith taught Mr. Wee how to pick the locks using some tools. Mr. Wee was a quick learner. He learned fast and by the third week, he was able to pick locks on his own. The old locksmith just stood back and watched. The old locksmith basically got Mr. Wee to do the job for him! Being an equally crafty person, Mr. Wee decided to stop going for “lessons” after his first month! All in all, Mr. Wee paid the old locksmith RM250.00 for the “lessons”.

With this additional skill, Mr. Wee gained confidence and started his locksmith business full time and never looked back ever since.

There is an important lesson that we can learn from Mr. Wee’s story. First of all, we shouldn’t be complacent as the world is a competitive place. We must continue by whatever ways and means to improve our skills and techniques. In the legal field, lawyers are constantly updating themselves on new developments in case laws and legislation. In the medical field, doctors and researchers are constantly finding new cures and methods to improve and prolong the health of human beings. The second lesson we can take from Mr. Wee’s story is that to succeed in this competitive world, we have to be enterprising and find ways to achieve the end result. When Mr. Wee offered to duplicate keys for free, it may have cost him a bit but the end result was well justified. One can consider such expense as the cost of “research” or “marketing” but in the end it was worth it. As an old saying goes, “spend money to make money”.

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*Seumas Tan practices in the area of Employment Law covering issues dealing with human resource matters. He practices under the name and style of Messrs S. Tan & Co. and may be contacted at Seumas@STanLawyers.com.my.