About Joseph Wong
I grew up in the 1950s in a pre-war house along Upper Serangoon Road with my parents, four brothers, my grandparents, five uncles and two aunties. It was apparent from very young that I was artistic but art schools were expensive then so the elders allowed me to use the wooden floor in the house as my canvas and, armed with chalk, I would sketch on every available space on the floorboards from the living room to the kitchen. And when there was no more room left, I would wash all the chalk drawings away and start a whole new canvas.
My schooling years were a period of self discovery. I gravitated towards music and picked playing the side drum quite by accident because my grandfather prohibited playing of any brass instruments at home. As fate would have it, I discovered I was a natural at drumming and soon became the leader of the percussions section. If there was one regret I had with my schooling years, it was that I did not put in enough effort to develop my leadership.
A significant moment of my life came about in 1999 when I became a dad by adopting a 3-month-old baby from a Vietnamese orphanage. Becoming a father remains the proudest and most meaningful stage of my earthly existence. I can easily regard being Amanda’s dad as the reason I was born. My daughter Amanda is my life purpose; my entire world.
I am a late bloomer. Even in the early years of my career at Standard Chartered Bank, I took my time charting my future. Thankfully, I was thrust into a leadership role in my early 30s and I had to grow up very quickly. In so doing, I visualised where the different pieces fit in the giant puzzle that was my life.
Paul Coelho said that braveness is not the absence of fear but rather the strength to keep on going forward despite the fear. And it was at this deep end that accelerated my leadership growth. I grew from strength to strength in SWIFT conversion, ISO9001 certification, Organisation and Methods, Sales and Marketing, Proposal Management, Training and Microlearning.
The leadership years at Standard Chartered opened new talents I never knew I had. When I left the bank’s employment in 2015, I had also become a stage performer, phonetics guru, career mentor, author, philanthropist, early childhood and parenting advisor.
Today, as founder of Delapro and owner of josephwong.co, I hope to share my experience and discernment with anyone who wishes to become better versions of themselves. Let me help you succeed.
