Darren Lim came to Australia from Cambodia in 1982, when he was just 13.
Struggling to speak English after being in a refugee camp in Thailand, he went straight into a Melbourne high school and yet somehow managed to graduate year 12 with top grades.
Quickly, the days of fleeing the Pol Pot regime in Cambodia were behind him.
“Out of high school I went to university for three years to do a Bachelor’s in mathematics, computing and science and finished in 1990,” Mr Lim said.
From there, Mr Lim got a casual job in a small electronics store, while also working as a teacher aide in maths and computing.
“One day Harvey Norman recruiters came around sourcing employees to work with them and so I went and started over there as a salesperson,” he said.
Little did he know the job would take him along an incredibly successful career trajectory. Mr Lim quickly moved up to become floor manager, then purchasing manager, a 2IC and then Gerry Harvey himself gave him the opportunity to take on his own store.
“He first asked me if I wanted to go to Singapore and run a store over there, as he had just opened 11 stores over there,” Mr Lim said.
“I gave him the figures it would take for me to go over because it’s very expensive in Singapore and you can’t afford to rent a house or apartment for less than $2000 a month.
He said he couldn’t afford it, so he put me up in a store in Gosford (NSW) and it turned out that I was earning way more there anyway.”
After successfully growing the business, Mr Lim was asked to take on many other stores around Australia, including Harvey Norman at Logan Hyperdome and Carindale.
“When you do well you have the opportunity to go everywhere,” he said.
Mr Lim worked with Harvey Norman for 16 years and then decided to try his hand at real estate.
“While I was working at Harvey Norman Swan Hill in Victoria, I went back to Queensland to look at an investment property, because I was really interested in property. The agent didn’t turn up and I said to myself, I could do this,” he said.
“I started on at LJ Hooker in Logan City in 2010, I moved on to Ray White, Remax and other places and now I am on my own with Professionals Logan City.”
Mr Lim said he is very passionate about the Logan community, so much so that he was a candidate for Division 2 (Kingston, Logan Central, Woodridge, and part of Underwood) in the 2020 council elections.
“Logan is the heart of the ethnic communities, and I am very passionate about the different nationalities here. Whether it’s about real estate or not, I want to help everyone I can no matter what culture,” he said.
“I thought, I know this community and I know the people and I already have the marketing skills. I went around and spoke to the people and found many were concerned about the rate prices, so I stood up and fought for lower prices or a possible solution.
“I came in second with only 500 votes behind the Labor Party candidate, and I only had two months to prepare so that was pretty good.”
During his career, Mr Lim also made it his mission to travel back to Cambodia and help those less fortunate.
“I am part of the Cambodian Association here in Australia, and I wanted to go back to Cambodia to help my people and my homeland,” he said.
“I decided to support some of the orphanages over there, on my last visit I bought the children food and handed out school stationery items like pencils, sharpeners, and books. They were so happy and I just love being able to help.”
Mr Lim has just opened his new real estate office in Logan Central – Professionals Logan City.
“I found out that LJ Hooker where I started my real estate journey was selling, so I took over the office. It held a spot in my heart being that I started here,” he said.
“I have a vision to grow the business and open another office, but for now I want to focus and train my staff up to maybe start their own business one day,” he said.
“I have already trained up three of my previous staff and they have gone on to open their own offices. I’m very happy to see them grow.”
