What It Takes to Build a Global Tea Brand from Hong Kong — Tea Tasting and Lunch with Allen Wong, Founder and CEO at Or Tea?™

Sometimes the most meaningful and inspiring conversations happen over casual meals. The Time Auction Blog is a snippet of our meetings with people who have found passion in their life and career, where we get a glimpse into their mentality behind their ventures.

Bringing the Chinese tea tradition into the contemporary, global world hasn’t been easy. Just ask Allen Wong.

Being the Founder & Chief Executive Officer of Or Tea?, Allen spent a year and his extensive advertising experience to develop a product that could embody his vision of being creative and innovative, yet distinctly personal to himself and customers.

Over our tea tasting session and lunch, Allen didn’t just talk about his successful tea brand, he also shared his struggles of starting a business from scratch and how his love towards his family motivates him to go further in life.

What’s your life motto?

Do what you love.

My family is my greatest motivation.

I work all the time. From 8 a.m. until I go to bed. But I enjoy the work. I work on weekends also. I find Saturday mornings to be the most productive time of the week. I try not to work on Sundays, I’m not that crazy… yet. I enjoy my work even though it is very stressful all the time. The stress trains me to be more resilient and more determined.

If you have to give a lesson that is unrelated to your career, what would it be?

The secret of living on the edge. Because of my dream of creating something, I sacrificed a lot. I go crazy sometimes just to make something happen. When I first started my agency when I came back from Switzerland. I didn’t have any money. To start a web design agency you needed to buy computers, scanners, and you needed an office. I could barely afford that, so everything else I had to manage on my own but,

When you want to do something and you have the passion of getting it done, I’m sure you’ll find a way to do it.

And so when I needed shelves , I built my own in the office. It was a lot of hard work. But the sense of fulfilment proved its worth it in the end.

Is there an action that you want us to take away from meeting you?

Whatever you do, stay true, and stay original. Don’t always think about making money. Making money is important but doing what you love is the most important.

If you don’t enjoy it, you will not succeed.

Thank you Allen for donating tea & lunch and raising 86 volunteer hours to Feeding HK, Animal Friends and more!

Big thanks to our volunteer photographer Ivy Fung for the awesome photos!

For more amazing opportunities, visit Time Auction to volunteer and meet inspiring mentors!