Lau Ming Wai — on Youth, Life Philosophy & Astronaut Mentality

With a backdrop of sharks and stingray swimming in the Neptune restaurant of Ocean Park, it feels a little surreal to be having dinner with Ming Wai, who is an occasional theme park talent and also Deputy Chairman of the park.

A man with many hats, he’s also Chairman of Commission on Youth, Chairman of Chinese Estates Holdings Limited, Law School lecturer, Flight Instructor, Triathlon Fanatic and an amateur Chef.

With his varied professional roles and unique life experiences, we were all curious to learn what drives his interest in youth movement, what he learned from random fun facts to tips on staying fit.

What did you learn from your aviation career?

“When you first start out being a pilot, you have 2 jars — one is the experience jar which is empty, the other is your luck jar which is full. Be sure to fill up your experience jar before your luck jar runs out.”

“Pilot quantifies their experiences by the number of hours they flew. Statistically, the highest fatality rate from aviation accidents happens between 500–1000 hours. The common wisdom is that below 500, you are still scared and apprehensive. When you get to about 500 hours, you get a little too comfortable. This is when complacency kicks in and creates a sense of confidence and security.”

No matter how confident we are, we tend to overestimate ourselves. 10 years from now when we look back, it’d be like looking back at ourselves 10 years ago, and wonder how little did we know? Don’t be the pilot that gets too comfortable.

Ming Wai’s take on happiness and wealth.

“If you set your expectation or goals too high, you will never be content. If you are never content, you will never be happy. Money is important as an enabling factor to a lot of things, but at the end of the day being able to manage and find contentment is what defines success. That I believe its a universal benchmark that applies across all professions or aspiration or class and background.”

With his work in pushing youth policy, managing Ocean Park and more, he emphasizes setting the right expectation is crucial. To sustain his enthusiasm and grit in all his work, he stresses the importance of having a degree of detachment.

“In my line of work, failure and defeats are daily occurrences. If you take them too literally, too personally, then you are not going to have enough positive energy to carry you through.”

What is your life philosophy?

Ming Wai shares an advice he heard from an astronaut on tackling moonshot goals.

“How to become an astronaut? His advice was not to go become a pilot or join NASA. It was a philosophical advice which I fell in love with and I think applies to most things in life.

First, you have to enjoy the process of trying. If you’re not going to enjoy it, don’t do it.

Second, you have to accept the high chance of failing.

If you can do both, it’s worth it.”

With his work in pushing youth policies, which is a long journey with an uncertain chance to success, he has asked himself — “will I enjoy the process of trying? Absolutely.” This gives us a glimpse into the mentality of the Commission on Youth Chairman and leader in fighting the good fight for the long term benefit of our new generation.

A (surprise) night visit to the aquarium

In making our Time Auction experience even more memorable, Ming Wai surprised everyone with a private tour to the Ocean Park aquarium. Thank you Ming Wai for your time and thoughtful sharing which has raised 210 volunteer hours to Oxfam, Feeding Hong Kong, The Hong Kong Society for the Blind, Rotary, Hong Kong Federation of Youth Groups and more.

For more auctions, visit Time Auction — a platform that connects you with inspiring people while encouraging volunteerism.

The volunteers would like to say..

Lovelyn Padernal, Chef

“It was one of the memorable and inspiring experience for me. Being the only ethnic minority in the group, all the information i’ve learned from this meeting has broaden my perspective regarding various issues within the youth in HK. And I learned some few tips from Ming Wai Lau which I can pass-on to our students at I~Future Teens weekend school. Thank you so much for sharing your valuable time with us. By the way the dinner is superb! And cooking is one my passion too. But volunteering is my happiness! Thank you so much!”

Howard Chung, Asset Management Lawyer

“I share Ming-Wai’s view on how he defined success = happy + setting the right goal. I also admire Ming Wai’s heart in serving HK’s youth. I doubt I can have such a big impact but I will try to do my best within the community to bring youth hope and help:) I will pray for you Ming-Wai! I hope someday you will also learn about my faith. Hope you can come to our Christmas Eve service at Island ECC church on 24 dec at 4pm:)”

Allen Po, HKUST Student

“It’s nice to have MW’s sharing on his experience of his life and his advice on young people. I learnt a lot from him and enjoyed a lot during the night in Ocean Park. Inspiring sharing and nice food as well! Thanks.”

Cherie Wan, Sourcing Manager

“The meeting went very well, Ming Wai is very friendly and down to earth, probably we all needed a bit of warm-up time, so at first everybody seemed a little uptight 🙂 I admired Ming Wai because he choose a difficult path to walk 🙂 As for his wealth and family background, he can just enjoy life as much as possible but instead choosing a difficult path of helping to grow the youth, with the ability to face criticism, it is not easy already! And as we all know how rebelling the teenagers can become these days, and somehow a lack of sense of belonging and own identity twisted their values in seeing things. Ming Wai mentioned how he defined success, he said “happiness and self-contentment”. totally agreed with him, I will even add one point which is “self-fulfilment in terms of mental level “. It is how much we realized we are actually very lucky people, and with a healthy body and mindset to contribute our knowledge, time and resources to people less fortunate. If people do not feel self-fulfilling, it is hard for them to see or understand other people problem, because their minds are occupied to deal with their own things and can’t see things beyond their own-self. Happy to gather with all other volunteers, and thanks for Ming Wai for the great food and time! Thanks Time Auction for organizing this!”

Jenny Tai, Investment Analyst

“Thank you for sparing your time with us last night. It’s impressing of you to know that much about .. all kind of stuff around — such as where Disney’s profit comes from, even margin of BBA.. My regard for you has increased a lot :). I’m sending over a thank you card to you. Hope we will see each other again (not in situation that I need help out of trouble ;-). P.S name card crossed out email and office phone bc I just resigned two weeks ago, more in the card later.”

Jamie Chow, Education Professional

“Hi Mr Lau, Thank you for all the efforts made on youth development and ocean park. I like ocean park! I also enjoyed your sharing on flying :D”

Wilson Wu, CPA Audit Manager, Ernst & Young

“Hi Ming Wai, it is really nice to meet with you. For me, I totally agree with your saying “Saving first instalment by travelling less to Japan and watching less movies”. If this saying is from a employee, from a underprivileged family, it would be very meaningful and inspirational. I truly agree that because I am really the case of it. Instead of travelling, I joined these sponsored (COY) mainland exchanges and voluntary work to expose myself. I would find it more meaningful than just playing and travelling. Sad to say I am going to be 30 years old next year and it is harder and harder to find chance to contribute myself into the society. But I will keep on organizing university students program and share my experience to the youth. Wish to seeing you again.”