An Interview with the Chief Alchemist - Stories

Wiley Chin started out as a staff at XIMNET CORP, a Silicon Valley-based startup company in 2000. After two years, and aided somewhat by September 11 and the Dot-Com bust, he bought out the company and set up base in Malaysia with eight staff.

The Chief Alchemist is still all-in to achieve the dream he set out to do fifteen years later. He strives to get the best out of everything he does and together with his team, he aims to build XIMNET into a global brand within the next five years.

Let’s read more about what he has to say:

How did you start being interested in digital marketing?

I experienced the magic of the Internet one day in 1995. At that time I was still working in a bank. I hooked my PC to a dial-up modem and after I was connected, what I saw blew my mind away. I immediately knew then the Internet was going to take on the world and change it like how electricity has altered our civilization.

With that thought, I began to learn how the Internet works and what I can do with it. One thing leads to another and 20 years later, I’m running a digital agency with digital marketing as one of our service offerings.

What do you think the future will look like?

The future looks like a sci-fi movie. The only difference is we will be living in it.

Wiley with his tribe (left and top right) and his passion of creating good music (bottom right).

Can you share with me what are the habits that you think a successful digital marketer should have?

I think the only difference between a traditional marketer and a digital marketer is, the latter needs to be very savvy with the ever changing digital trends.

What are the key values you see in the digital industry in helping mankind?

The digital age flattens the world. With a hyperlinked world, essentially, knowledge is just a click away. There will be no more boundaries that can permanently restrict the flow of information.

If all the people across the world have equal access to the Internet, they will also have access to all the information and knowledge stored in servers across the globe. With just one stroke, the future mankind is irrecoverably altered.

Being in this industry for almost two decades, what do you have to say to the young people who are joining or already in the industry?

I like the saying, “There are people who make things happen, there are people who watch things happen, and there are people who wonder what happened.” The Digital Age is just upon us. It has just started.

We live at this juncture of our civilization where we can make a huge difference to this world and positively impact our common destiny. Master the tools of the Digital Age and use it to make the world a better place.

Wiley Chin was interviewed by BFM, talking about how he gets his feet into the business to change the world. Download the podcast and listen to the interview here.