Irene Ang, 52, is the head honcho of artiste management agency Fly Entertainment and she runs her own F&B empire. One might think that the high-flyer has always had her finances in check, but that definitely wasn’t the case as she revealed on this week’s episodes of Hear U Out.

After winning a silver medal for fencing at the 1991 SEA Games, Irene was offered to be a candidate for the selection squad for the 1992 Barcelona Olympics but sadly, she had to give up on going to the Games because she couldn't afford the expenses for the trip.

She then took on different jobs and was once a sales promoter and a hamper and corporate gift salesperson.

Irene would eventually join the insurance industry after getting head-hunted by her mentor, David.

“I started to get full of myself because others would take a year to become a Million Dollar Round Table member but I only took three months,” admitted Irene. “I bummed around for the remaining nine months. I picked up bad habits [because] I was getting comfortable. I signed up for multiple credit cards and would just charge [whatever purchases I made to them].”

She continued living like that until her grandmother was admitted to hospital one day. There, the doctor told Irene that her grandma only had a few months to live.

“That woke me up,” Irene said. “I started panicking. I told myself that I would spend as much time with her as possible. My grandma had nine children so they would all take turns to be with her. I volunteered to take the night shift and I’d take over from one of my aunts at 11pm and only leave at 7am, when another aunt came to the hospital.”

“I’d go for a meal, then sleep from 10am till night. I didn’t work for six months,” added Irene. “I continued using my credit cards and I used up all my savings. In August 1996, I received the first lawyer’s letter I had ever received in my life.”

She was 27 then, and Irene didn’t quite know what to do when she read that she would get sued if she didn’t pay off her $26K debt.

“I was receiving nothing but bad news (…) I felt that life was meaningless, said Irene. My parents didn’t love me, and I didn’t have anything worth living for. I felt like I had achieved success at the SEA Games and in the insurance industry. But after this failure, I was too tired to pick up the pieces again, so I told my mentor David that I’d end my life when my grandma left the world.”

David told Irene to bring her bills and the lawyer’s letter to his office the next day, saying that he would ask his lawyer friends for legal advice. But instead of calling his friends for help, David buzzed his assistant on the intercom and asked her to bring him his chequebook.

“I told [David] that I didn’t want him to think that this was my attempt to borrow money from him,” said Irene. “He told me that he just got promoted to a managerial position that year and that he wanted to win the top new manager award. He said it wouldn’t be possible if I wasn’t there, and said that I had to become a successful agent to help him attain his goal.”

He then wrote her a cheque for S$30K — $4K more than what she owed the credit card company.

“He said I’d need S$1000 a month for my living expenses,” recalled Irene. “He also told me to get some sleep after leaving the hospital every day, but that I had to meet potential clients every day from noon till I went back to the hospital. He didn’t care if I had zero sales. All he wanted was for me is to meet 10 potential clients.”

In the span of four months, Irene hit the sales target of S$50K and she did that while looking after her grandmother.

“I don’t like owing anyone anything,” averred Irene. “I wanted to make sure I paid David back the S$30K even if I was going to end my life. He’s my mentor, so it was a debt that I had to repay no matter what.”

To find out what else Irene revealed on Hear U Out, click here for part 1 & here for part 2.

Photos: Irene Ang, Mediacorp