"This girl had cataracts in both eyes, but the Orang Asli treated her as though she was blind. The moment the doctor opened [the bandage on] the girl's first eye, she smiled ... even if you give me a hundred million [dollars] today, it wouldn't be the same thing," Neoh says with a big smile on his face. "It was like proposing to your fiancée and she said yes!"

The gratitude he felt in the young girl has been among the factors that inspire Neoh to consider the needs of others when he makes business decisions. He strives, he says, to make decisions that can help others.

"A lot of people have a good heart but they do not have the capacity, but I have the capacity. Since I have gone through the experience of not having the capacity, today, I take it as my responsibility," he says.

What he means by not having the "capacity" refers to his younger days, when he had to help sell vegetables from a truck that went from neighbourhood to neighbourhood.

When he was just 13, Neoh decided to venture into selling plastic bags. That was after a national campaign was launched in 1983 to encourage the public to start using plastic bags in rubbish bins. The young Neoh took RM9 of his own savings, and borrowed another RM6 from his mother. With his small capital, he sought the help of his uncle, who owned a factory producing plastic bags.

The business took off and Neoh and his family invested more time and energy on it as it continued to expand. However, there was a price to pay — he devoted so much time to the business that he failed his Sijil Rendah Pelajaran — the Form Three public examination.

 "That night my father talked to me and said, `Son, there has never been anyone who has never failed in their life. This is the first time that you have failed," His father, he said, gave him a choice — to continue the business or pursue his education.

Neoh chose to resit his SRP and eventually managed to get a place to study Urban Regional Planning at Universiti Teknologi Malaysia in Johor. He says he doesn't regret the decision to continue with his studies as it gave him the training and knowledge to persevere and achieve his goal of becoming a property developer.

After working with some construction and development companies, Neoh started Trinity in 2004. The company now has 48 employees and is worth RM250 million.

With each project, Neoh looks to build com-munities where neighbours trust one another and feel safe.

"Everyone should trust each other. Everyone should care about their neighbours. This is the software that I am talking about. You give them the hardware," he says.

Neoh tries to provide features in his projects found in higher-end developments, such as a garbage disposal system in the kitchen. That's because he wants to provide people with the opportunity to experience higher-end market housing at a lower price.

Neoh also wants to provide a "home" for his employees. His idea is that they will "come into the office like it's a home and take ownership when they come in".

And while his company has a system to encourage productivity, he says "the system is never good enough".

Neoh continues to strive to create sustain-able environments for happy customers, neighbours and employees alike. While he has faced setbacks along the way, his believes in perseverance. "Never give up. You must have an iron will," he says.