Translated by Marie Foley
At 19 years old, K.S. Pua left Malaysia for Taiwan with NT$120,000 in his pocket. From humble beginnings, he went on to become the president of Phison Electronics Corporation and the hero of a success story that holds lessons for everyone.
19歲，帶著12萬台幣，從馬來西亞來到台灣，從無到有，群聯電子董事長潘健成的創業故事，告訴大家要為自己爭氣。
Pua’s grandfather emigrated from Fujian to Malaysia, where their family struggled to make ends meet. Starting at the age of nine, Pua spent his mornings working in the fields with his father. After finishing work one day, his father told him, “If a man is willing to work hard, he doesn’t have to stay poor forever.”
潘健成的爺爺是從福建到馬來西亞的移民，他小時候家裡很窮，九歲開始，每天早上跟著爸爸去田裡幫忙，潘健成回憶道，有一次在田裡工作後，爸爸告訴他，「人不會窮一輩子的，努力做，自然就會有。」
In the 1990s, many Malaysians put a higher value on a Western education, believing that a Chinese-language education would not open many doors. While ethnic Chinese students from wealthier families chose to study in the United States, those with less financial resources studied in Taiwan. When Pua was 19, he came to Taiwan to study electrical and control engineering at National Chiao Tung University (NCTU) with NT$120,000 that had been donated by the director of his Chinese school in Malaysia and his classmates’ parents. During Pua’s freshman year, he worked part-time at the campus store and library to help pay for his tuition and living expenses. Then in his junior year, Pua began doing research for one of his professors. And at the young age of 26, he and four students from NCTU founded the Phison Electronics Corporation. Two of those students were also overseas compatriots.
在1990年代前後，馬來西亞崇尚西方教育，認為華文教育沒前途，當時家境好的華人子弟都到美國唸書，家境差的就選擇台灣，潘健成19歲時，帶著馬來西亞華校董事及同學爸爸捐助的12萬台幣來台，進入交大控制系（現在的電機系）念書，為了賺學費跟生活費，他大一就在福利社跟圖書館打兩份工，大三開始跟著老師做研究，26歲的時候，他創立群聯電子，另外四位創辦人就是他在交大唸書認識的夥伴，其中有兩人也是僑生。
In 2001, Phison developed the first USB flash drive controller chip and once even won the top spot on the emerging stock market, making Pua the youngest person in Taiwan to head a company holding the most expensive emerging stock. Phison now has a turnover of NT$31.8 billion and Pua is often mentioned in the same breath as Stan Shih, the founder of Acer, and Barry Lam, the chairman of Quanta Computer. Yet Pua still remembers all the people who helped him while he was still at the bottom rung of the ladder of success, and says that he would like to give back to society. He funds scholarships at his alma mater to help overseas compatriot students become young entrepreneurs. He believes in paying it forward — helping those in need so that they in turn can help others. He has even shared his experience at the Career Planning Seminar for Overseas Compatriot Graduates sponsored by the OCAC.
2001年，群聯研發出第一顆USB隨身碟控制晶片，一度登上興櫃股王，潘健成也寫下台灣最年輕股王總經理的紀錄，而他最感念的是一路走來遇到的貴人。
群聯電子現在有318億台幣營業額，潘健成的名字總是與宏碁集團創辦人施振榮、廣達電腦董事長林百里連在一起。但他沒有忘記在困頓時，貴人給他的幫助，不但如此，他希望「將善念傳達出去」，他捐獎學金給母校、給僑生、拿錢資助年輕人創業，他認為，還恩就是要幫助需要的人，等到這些人有了成就，又可以再去幫助別人。他也曾應邀在僑委會主辦的「僑生畢業職涯規劃研習會」中，分享他的成功經驗。
Marking Phison’s ten-year anniversary, Pua has published “Make a Name for Yourself,” in which he draws on his experiences at Phison to describe the difficulties that even the most successful entrepreneurs must face, including financing, lawsuits, and competition from international manufacturers. As a child, Pua never dreamed that he would one day be an entrepreneur or that he would have so much wealth. His story is a testament to the success of the Chinese education system in Malaysia. Despite naysayers, a Chinese education did indeed open doors for Pua and helped pave the way for his success.
在群聯電子剛滿十年之際，潘健成口述出版《為自己爭氣》一書，用群聯為例，分享創業過程中籌資、官司、國際大廠相逼，種種在成功故事背後的艱辛歷程，潘健成說，小時候的他，從來沒有想過將來會創業、會賺大錢，而現在，他有了成果，證明馬來西亞的華文教育並沒有失敗，不是像大家想的一樣沒前途，反而可以讓他的人生，走出不一樣的路。
