Born to taxi-driver dad and cleaner mum in 1959, Sim was one of the seven siblings, a large family considering their humble circumstances.

As a child, Sim was never comfortable with books but to play and having fun. However, his destitute circumstances left him in constant hunger pangs, let alone time for playing. The circumstances also forced him to “always willing and wanting to work to make money.”

As early as age nine, he went peddling Hokkien prawn noodles door-to-door after school. He made 3-cent profit from a 20-cent bowl, averaging 50-80 cents in a day, a relatively handsome profit considering his age. He went to become a serving assistance at a fishball noodle stall after school.

Upon completing his “O” Levels in 1975 and with grades eligible to pursue a diploma, he decided to work instead because his family could not offer his education. Sim tried his hands on many odd jobs, from construction worker to insurance and encyclopaedia salesman.

Later in 1980, he started a retailing company named R. Sim Trading Company at People’s Park Complex, selling an assortment of odds and ends, from pots and pans, knives, drying rods, to itch-scratchers, wood massagers and foot-reflexology products.

Disaster struck the company five years later due to the severe 1985 recession. Sim learnt the painful lesson that in order to survive, he needed to find a niche in the small Singapore market.

Through the years as a trader and retailer, he noticed the market was floating with numerous healthcare and lifestyle equipment from various overseas manufacturers, without any concerted marketing and promotion by any of them in Singapore. Sim decided to bring together all these disparate items under his company that focused on marketing and sales.

The marketing bid paid off. With the growing awareness of health and style among the growing affluent Singaporeans, by 1994, the renamed company Health Care & Care had quickly expanded to over 60 outlets across Asia. A few years later, he renamed the company Osim. “Sim is my surname, and the O is actually the globe,” he recalled.

Sim became more niche-focused and went all the way out to build the brand name. This way, the company will be able to survive through recession. From then onwards, there was no looking back, the company grew to over 35 stores in Singapore and 250 outlets worldwide and sales beyond S$1 billion.