Last time I talked about dad, Chan Tang Sang and motivations.

It's typically a weekend. I'll be found sleeping in a moving van, probably snored loudly. A trip would start in the early morning from Chow Kit Road where Ah Chan stayed. Dad, mom, me and Ah Chan would get on his Toyota van filled with Sunsky's household products and demonstration kits. From here we formed a team of literal travelling salesmen.

We were out making a hit on the relatives on either mom or dad side. The destinations consist of Teluk Intan, Sabak Bernam (dad's people) and Raub (mom's people). Relatives were pleased to see them as far as I can tell. I get the impression that there's an undeserved sense of superiority when us city-folks came knocking.

When chit-chats were done, Ah Chan was introduced, the sales setup begins. Similarly there's the table of products, writing board laid with mahjong papers to write on. Relatives gather around and the show starts.

Ah Chan was always the showman. The line up of product demos, the script, the jokes, they were always the same. I could even recite them at the time. Sometimes I would be a class clown and interfere to childish wisecracks. Ah Chan had to give me face and be a sport about it.

I was thinking dad should be the one selling the demo. But I can only remember two occasions where he partially did. He was never as sleek as Ah Chan but he'd never be without the practice. But presenting and selling to family and friends carry a different historical burden compared to a stranger with nothing to lose.

Now that I think about it, I wonder what proportion of energy did Ah Chan put into cultivating dad. I hope not much, because he would've been sorely disappointed.

Financially these all turned out to be wasted efforts. Some relatives did buy a few products for consumption. Some even bought a few times, maybe as a favor.

There were zero recruitment made. I now wonder if the concept of multi level incentives were too much for them to grasp. If they did, they probably have the instinct that this is much harder than the sound of "five of your friends recruit another five of their friends."

Even if there was any recruit, it wouldn't have amount to anything without someone like Ah Chan to handhold them all the way. Had that happen maybe dad wouldn't mind being a mentor like Ah Chan but it didn't. Which makes me wonder if dad had ever mentored anyone in his career, however short. I suspect he would've taken the tough love approach.

Companies like Sunsky would know about issues found in recruiting. They are counting on regular people like mom and dad to willingly exploit their social graphs for commerce. All these are done with no reputational cost to the business. At this time people like dad weren't aware enough of the social implication in case this blows in everyone's face. It's only luck that it ended with a whimper.

Next time I'll dive into how this company operated and how it ran into the ground.