Wempy Brings Great Wisdom To The World
(Say that three times fast!)
“Governments create borders and entrepreneurs erase them” -- Wempy Dyocta Koto
How does one go from being a child living in a small village in Indonesia to being named one of Indonesia’s “40 Under 40″ by Fortune? Simple...you arrive to this world ‘a teacher, a seeker, and a champion’. You, then, combine those characteristics with an innate entrepreneurial spirit and globally-aware consciousness and, ultimately, call yourself Wempy Dyocta Koto. That’s all you need to do.
Sorry, folks...truth-be-told...there is only one Wempy.
As the Chief Executive Officer of Wardour and Oxford, Wempy Dyocta Koto has spent his extensive international career advising and leading some of the world’s most widely known brands as well as unknown start-ups -- names like American Express, Microsoft, and Kalibrr. His unique and valuable insight has been wowing and winning over clients and awards since his early days at Young & Rubicam, OgilvyOne WorldWide and Wunderman. Among them sit Asia’s highest entrepreneurial award “The Asia Pacific Entrepreneurship Award” alongside the reputation earned as ‘one of the world’s 200 leading social CEOs’ as recognized by the United Nations award-winning communications agency Strategic Objectives .
When Wempy’s not accepting awards for his own service, he’s giving them out to others for theirs in the form of "The Wempy Dyocta Koto Award", which brings together twelve up-n-coming, out-of-the-box thinkers with twelve of Indonesia’s most experienced innovators to conquer the world’s problems through breakthroughs in business, technology, social justice, and more.
Wempy Dyocta Koto is a man ‘about the world’ in every sense of the phrase and I couldn’t think of a better multifaceted entrepreneur to open the door to than him. I’d suggest you do so too through the interview below.
What is your personal mantra?
“You were born to be extraordinary. Do not reduce yourself to average.”
Provide a bit of your personal history.
I was born in a village in Padang Panjang, Indonesia. At three, my parents migrated to Sydney, Australia, where I stayed. As my parents took a risk moving from Indonesia to Australia, I always felt the need to honor their courage with that of my own. After much schooling and many years with American Express as well as a handful of other notable companies (where I found my ‘international’ legs), I decided to become a full-fledged entrepreneur and, eventually, launched Wardour and Oxford.
What was your first entrepreneurial endeavor.
Wardour and Oxford
How many entrepreneurial failures did you have before your first success?
Countless. I’ve enjoyed many failures and I’m still standing. They were all bitter pills to swallow but part of a necessary learning process. Now, I can laugh at them.
As the CEO of Wardour and Oxford, explain the focus of your company.
We focus on investing in and advising companies and startups all around the world and across all dimensions (creation, marketing, branding, advertising, finance, etc.) I sit on many boards and serve in numerous management capacities for very small companies as well as multi-million dollar enterprises.
What is the most important lesson you needed to learn in order to clear the decks for success?
“You can listen to other people, but only you know your breaking point.” Entrepreneurs have to be unreasonable despite the fact that the world wants you to compromise. There is a madness that goes along with being an entrepreneur. When the world is telling you to use logic/reasoning, you need to go against the grain.
Share your, current, priority, either personally or professionally?
To find “true love” and begin a family, making sure that I keep them ‘center’ at all times.
Lots of entrepreneurs don’t do this. In my opinion, your family needs to be the mecca of your existence.
What are you looking to accomplish, ultimately?
I truly want to become one of the greatest entrepreneurs, teachers, and mentors in the world.
You travel all over the world. Which country is the 'best' at mentoring entrepreneurs and which is the 'worst' out of all those you have visited?
The biggest issue I am seeing with regards does not necessarily correlate with 'location', rather ‘vision.’ We seem to begin the process of mentoring greatness at early ages when it comes to certain skills -- like playing ball, for instance. But we don’t apply that same strategy when mentoring great business leaders. We should be nurturing that skill set just as early as we do the others. The world would progress much faster if we did.
What is your biggest concern for our world’s youth and how do we solve it?
I often worry about the impact of social media on kids. I see families being divided at dinner tables by devices. I see the sad impact of cyber bullying on lives and society. We’ve raised a generation of curious yet fragile children and then set them loose in an age devoid of appropriate rules and boundaries governing the use of social media. The ramifications are not good. More needs to be done to protect our children from others and themselves.
Share a social cause or cause-based organization close to your heart?
Sedekah Rombongan. You have a lot of people who can’t afford medical treatment for serious diseases and ailments in Indonesia. This organization helps many.
When all is said and done, how do you want to be remembered?
As a person who 'pursued knowledge, shared knowledge, and created knowledge -- with little to no deficits between the three.'
Wempy Dyocta Koto is an honorable, incredibly gifted gentleman whose deepseeded wisdom is benefiting the rest of the world in ways, I believe, we’ve only just begun seeing. His presence and impact is a clear reminder that "great leaders arise from all kinds of circumstances." History has proven that reality many times over and it is doing so again through Wempy!
Many thanks to Wempy Dyocta Koto for making this interview possible