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Sifu Augustin Ngu
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Club History in Ontario

The beginning is always the hardest phase. A friend of mine owned a studio on Lakeshore Blvd. and Dixie Road. At that time, I was working as an engineer and I didn't have the desire to teach Kung Fu full time yet. However, I had the desire to start another Kung Fu centre here in Ontario because by that time it was obvious that I have chosen Ontario as my new home. We started on a small scale. We subleased this studio on Lakeshore Blvd. for a couple of nights a week. We started up the club with 4 students and then we grew to 12 -13 students. If nothing had changed, we probably would still be there today as the studio was clean and we had a lot of freedom. However, the owner of the studio went out of business, and I was still not prepared financially to rent a studio for ourselves because from past experiences I knew what kind of financial and time commitment it would require to have an entire studio for ourselves.

Quickly I found a dance studio at the corner of Queensway and Cawthra. This studio was not occupied on a full time basis so we worked around their schedule and subleased the studio. Later on, this studio expanded and moved to a bigger unit and since the collaboration with them was very good, we moved along with them. Some time later on, the dance studio owner told us they needed the studio full time for themselves and we were faced with the dilemma to move again.

Around this same period a decisive factor came to play. I was personally facing a career crisis as an engineer. Those were the recession years in Canada when free trade had started. A lot of my peers in the engineer career were also facing a career crisis. I was laid off numerous time and switched companies numerous times. It was stressful to say the least. So I was at the crossroad of my career. I strongly believe that if I had decided to continue with my engineering career at that time, I probably would still be an engineer today. However, there was another factor that made me pause and think a lot. I had a group of friends who were architects and engineers in their 50's. When they were laid off, they went into a state of deep depression, and some of them even left Canada for the Far East like Hong Kong, Malaysia, etc. So my engineering career at a crossroad was one of the decisive factors for me to choose what to do.

There was also another factor. I had a serious car accident and broke my leg when an on coming car smashed me as I was examining my car which another car had rear-ended. Having a cast on didn't help with my job hunting. At that time, the school had grown to be a steady club with a certain structure. I was at a crossroad choosing between having my own business, career, etc. There was no sure bet. I knew I didn't want to be a "Tai Hung Yan" and I knew I didn't want to move back to Malaysia because I knew I would feel more like a visitor there. My family also would probably have objected to the idea of moving back. I didn't want to go to China to work, even though a lot of my friends went to Hong Kong and got very good jobs there. I chose then to follow my heart rather than my brain that time. So I asked my wife to give me a try. I would open a store and a full time Kung Fu school, and if I could not make it to bring bread and butter home in two years' time, I would go back to work as an engineer. After one year, I knew I would never go back. Things started to happen. I felt a great confidence that this was going to work even though things happened slowly and not without challenges or struggles.

- Sifu Augustin Ngu

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