Life was smooth-sailing for Aaron Teo.

Whatever he put his hands and efforts to, he would get the outcomes he wanted.

In school, he played volleyball and his school team often emerged as champions in Singapore.

He did well in his exams and got into the course he wanted – hospitality and tourism management.

When he applied for government jobs – even when they were not directly related to his course of study – he won the favour of the interviewers. Having received several job offers, he could cherry pick whichever he preferred.

After marriage, his application for a BTO (Built-To-Order) flat went swimmingly. He secured a spacious five-room corner unit in Tampines.

“I even managed to drive my dream car, a Land Rover Defender. I had no major setbacks in life. My friends often sing praises of me… that this ‘Aaron Teo is super gao lat (“enough strength” in Hokkien, meaning “capable”)’” said Aaron, now 36.

Happy with everything but one 

Back in 2019, he was a general manager at Singapore Sports School.

He enjoyed his work and had good relationships with his colleagues and the parents and students from the school.

Aaron (on the left) celebrating with students on their sports victories.

There was just one thing he wanted to change about his life: To have more time to spend with his two children, then aged four and two.

“Staff could only take annual leave during the June and December school holidays. There was once I wanted to bring my kids on a camping trip in April but my leave was declined,” Aaron told Salt&Light.

Aaron camping outdoors with his son Dylan.

During that time, his friend shared with him some good news. After years of being an air steward, he had finally passed all the tests to become a pilot.

His friend looked at him dead in the eye and said: “Aaron, if there is anything you want to do in life, you just have to spend some time and effort on it and you will be able to achieve it.”

The uncanny timing of receiving such advice just as he was feeling constrained by the office hours of his corporate job set him thinking.

“I realised that not many jobs could give one the flexibility of time, where I could arrange my own schedule and not need to ask for permission when I want to go on leave,” he said.

“I narrowed the job options down to two that fitted these criteria: An insurance agent or a real estate agent.”

Upon reflection, he was aware that each time he hosted friends over at his place, he would be extremely excited to show them around his flat, even if it was for the umpteenth time.

With that, he set his mind on becoming a realtor.

In March 2019, he took the Real Estate Salesperson course so that he could sign up for the qualifying exam that would allow him to be a real estate agent.

It was difficult juggling work, family and studying for the real estate exam.

Every day after putting his two children to bed at 9.30pm, Aaron burnt the midnight oil and studied all the way till 4am. Then he caught a few winks of sleep before getting ready for a new work day.

“It was really tiring but all my life I believed that hard work and perseverance would get me whatever I wanted. I really wanted to become a realtor so that I could spend more time with my kids during their formative years,” said Aaron.

In the June of 2019, he took the real estate exam alongside more than 3,000 others. It was not easy as the questions were scenario-based and filled with case studies.

He failed the first exam.

“I thought maybe I didn’t study hard enough. To me, if I put in 100 per cent effort, I felt I would be able to pass the exam. So, I continued studying till 4am every day until the next exam,” he said.

The exam is offered every four months.

Four months later, Aaron found out that he had failed it again.

Taking the plunge to quit his job

Unfazed, Aaron felt that it was a matter of dedicating more time and energy to achieve his goal of being a realtor.

Thus, he did not think twice about quitting his full-time office job in order to fully concentrate on becoming a real estate agent in the December of 2019.

A farewell dinner for Aaron that was organised by students and their parents from the Singapore Sports School.

During that time, early news of the COVID virus being detected in China was beginning to surface. Back here in Singapore, Aaron was unperturbed and continued studying diligently round the clock every day.

One week before he was due to take the exam for the third time in February 2020, Singapore went into DORSCON: Orange. Precautionary measures against the spread of the COVID virus were heightened, and the real estate exam was postponed indefinitely.

“It was quite scary because I had no job and my wife could not work as a ballet teacher given the COVID measures,” he recalled. “Our family suddenly had no income.”

Desperate, he followed the footsteps of some friends who went into stock trading, as it could easily be done online despite the COVID restrictions.

With no experience in stock trading, it was a foolhardy move. Aaron lost all his savings, except for $70, to the stock market.

Stuck in such a dire financial situation, Aaron could only think of the next best move to support his family – delivering food and parcels as a GrabFood delivery rider.

“My friends scolded me for having an itchy backside and quitting my stable job. I wore my own home clothes and hid my identity by wearing sunglasses and a mask while doing deliveries as I was ashamed to meet any of my former colleagues or parents and students from the school,” said Aaron.

Aaron covering himself up because he didn’t want his Sports School students, parents and colleagues to recognise him.

He borrowed a friend’s motorcycle and plied the road seven days a week, from 10am to 10pm every day, regardless of rain or shine.

The need for speed

“I realised that food delivery was very tiring and time-consuming. The fastest that I could do was a maximum of two deliveries for every one and a half hours,” said Aaron.

Taking selfies to send to his wife and children to show he was out working and would come back home soon.

In order to earn more money to put food on the table, he felt that the only way would be to ride his motorcycle faster to reach his destinations quicker.

On the morning of April 8, Aaron was out delivering some Korean food from Yishun to Novena. As he exited a bend from Lentor Ave to the highway, he rode too fast and his bike grazed the metal crash barrier that was in place to prevent vehicles from flipping over to the other highway lanes.

Crash barriers were erected to prevent cars from flipping to the other lanes as it is an accident prone location.

The nuts and bolts of the metal plate on the fencing sliced through all the muscles in his right arm as Aaron tried his best to navigate his motorbike to a gradual stop.

When he came to a stop, blood was gushing out of his gaping open wound. The cut was so deep that he could see the bone beneath.

The metal parts were jutting out and they tore Aaron’s arm open upon impact.

As he looked down at his arm, he blurted out: “Wah God, how can You let this happen to me?”

It had been decades since Aaron last talked to God. He had grown up in a Christian family and only followed his parents to church out of obligation. He stopped going to church after completing his National Service.

Then, out of fear and anger, he began berating God.

“I thought I was at my lowest point of having to become a food delivery rider, but I was wrong. I was brought even lower with the accident,” said Aaron.

He tried to keep his cool and called 995 to ask for the location of the nearest hospital.

Mr Do-It-Yourself 

Then, instead of calling and waiting for an ambulance, he rode himself straight to Khoo Teck Puat hospital.

He used his torn-apart arm to control the throttle while the other arm was used to manoeuvre the motorbike.

Even with his arm sliced open, the self-reliant Aaron chose to take matters into his own hands (pun intended).

“Without thinking, I just rode myself there. I just wanted to get medical help as fast as I could,” said Aaron.

Aaron rode himself to hospital despite bleeding profusely.

When he arrived at the hospital, an almost apocalyptic scene greeted him. There were tentages everywhere and everyone was in protective gear. They were on high alert for COVID symptoms, and his bloodied arm seemed to garner less attention.

While in the hospital, Aaron made three calls. The first was to his wife to let her know that he would not be going home that night. The second was to his good friend to ask him for a favour to look after his family should anything happen to him. The third was to inform the food vendor that he had been in an accident.

“I asked her to arrange for another delivery rider to pick up the food at the hospital and that I would foot the bill for that,” said Aaron.

While waiting to enter the operation theatre, Aaron prayed and pleaded with God to get him out of the surgery alive as he had to be around for his family. He reiterated the same plea to the doctor before he passed out after anesthesia was administered.

Will Aaron get to keep his arm after the operation? Will he end up becoming a realtor? Find out in Part Two of his story. 

RELATED STORIES: 

At the height of his real estate career, he was tormented by demons for 49 days

“We are just managers. God is our boss”: How PropertyLimBrothers built a culture of collaboration, not competition

81-year-old CEO and evangelist to 300,000 strong crowd