Christy Ng

She has a bunion the size of a 50-cent coin on her left foot.

It's from wearing cheap polyurethane shoes as a teenage waitress.

She couldn't afford better ones. Some nights, she didn't know if she could afford her next meal.

Christy Ng started working at 12. Selling flowers at an LRT station in Malaysia.

By 15, she was selling ice cream. By 16, waitressing. She'd work nights, then sleep through her classes because she was exhausted.

Zero fashion background. Her degree? Biotechnology.

In 2012, she quit her corporate job and started a shoe company from her living room with RM10,000.

And I know what you're thinking.

"Another bootstrap story. Cool."

Here's where it gets interesting.

When she applied for government grants to grow the business, she got rejected. Twice. Three times.

Most people would've given up.

She flew to Singapore, found the CEO of Cradle at an event, walked up to him and asked point blank: "Why do you keep rejecting me?"

He told her to reapply. She did. She got the RM500,000 grant.

But here's the move that made everyone think she was insane.

When she opened her first retail store in 1Utama mall, she chose the unit RIGHT NEXT to Vincci.

Vincci. The biggest footwear chain in Malaysia. Selling at HALF her prices.

People said: "Are you nuts? You're going to kill yourself. Either you're very confident or you're very stupid."

Her response?

"Vincci is a destination. Being next to them reaffirms my position."

She wasn't competing with Vincci. She was using their traffic.

Fast forward to today.

12 stores across Malaysia. E-commerce serving 50+ countries. 500,000 customers. 400% revenue growth after migrating to Shopify Plus.

They call her "the next Jimmy Choo."

Three lessons from Christy Ng:

1. Your scar is your strategy. That bunion isn't a memory - it's a mission. She designs shoes because she knows exactly what bad ones cost you.

2. Rejection is research. Three grant rejections didn't stop her. She tracked down the decision maker and asked "why" directly. Most people email. She showed up.

3. Competition is positioning. Opening next to your biggest competitor sounds suicidal. But she understood something most miss: established players create traffic. Your job is to capture it.

She once said: "If they don't give you a seat at the table, bring your own folding chair."

That's not motivation. That's a business model.

Who's an entrepreneur whose origin story you think more people should know about?