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Dengue fever should really be eradicated. I have such a hatred for that little effin’ mosquito especially since one bite snuffed out the life of a dear friend I knew since I was 13. Ian was in my same year in secondary school and we were in the same Scout group from 1994 through 2000. Subsequently, we co-founded a small business between 2003-2004.

Let this blog post, no matter how insignificant it might seem, be my little way of remembrance for a dear friend who taught me to live a life without fear of social expectations but one of following your internal passion.

Ian ditched his studies at Uni. of Washington in his sophomore freshman year to return to Singapore and startup. He was the person who inducted me into entrepreneurship when I could barely fathom what it really means other than a massive ego-trip of being your own boss. With 3 other friends, we ran a bricks-and-mortar business distributing outdoor retail goods imported from US and Europe. Ian’s passion for the outdoors was unparalleled by none other I knew. He was such an avid rock-climber despite the frailties of his physical body.

And how cruel it is to die this way. Ian survived the worst road accident, for more than a decade, in a remote part of Melbourne when a massive lumber truck crashed at full speed into their car on the highway. An accident that robbed him of another of our friends, Yaoping, weeks after we celebrated his 21st birthday and landed another friend, Kiat Han, in a coma for 3 months. Ian escaped with a spinal injury due to his being thrown out of the back seat. A fortuitous escape considering he did not wear his seat belt.

He next cheated death again when he survived a 6 metre fall during an indoor rock-climbing mishap and then one more time at the Dairy Farm natural rock climbing range in Bukit Timah - a 15-metre plunge which broke his leg after his cable snapped due to the brittle rock.

A man who could not be killed by extreme sports nor horror road accidents died due to a mosquito bite!?! Can life get more ironic that that? Whence the fairness in robbing the vigor and vitality of such a young man, i ask?

I only hope Ian’s final blow was inflicted fittingly in the outdoors. It would be due respect to him, if anything else. Despite his short life, he had left indelible impressions of his life philosophy on many of our friends. Many of us will remember how he challenged “mis-authority” with covert campaigns and audacious public acts during secondary school. As a college dropout and entrepreneur, he demonstrated a rare ability of daring to dream, venturing into the unknown as he pursued a career in the outdoor sports retail business — such an offbeat path in the concrete jungle of Singapore, albeit one he truly believed in. MORE crucially than any of the above was how his appetite for living was never diminished by all the brushes with death he had, setbacks which could only injure his physical shell but not dent the strong armor of his mind.

You taught me the courage to dream through your actions in life and I shall seek to repay you for the rest of mine.

For that, my dear friend Ian, go forth in peace. You will be sorely missed.