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Ngehe: Ali Muharam’s zero-to-hero journey
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Self-made: Ali Muharam works on his macaroni snacks known as Makaroni Ngehe. (Ali Muharam/-)
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rowing up in a small town called Tasikmalaya, Ali Muharam had dreams of becoming a writer but fate took him in another direction to become a successful snack entrepreneur.
Arriving in Jakarta with only a high school certificate, Ali's is one of those rare zero to hero stories.
During Ali’s early days in the highly competitive megalopolis and concrete jungle of Jakarta, he worked various odd jobs like selling sandals, washing dishes, being an office boy, serving at a warteg (Tegal food stall) and scriptwriting. He was even homeless for some time, but none of these deterred the young Ali from his conviction that he would eventually make it big.
“I didn’t know how I would get there [...] but I knew exactly who I was going to be,” Ali said.
With such a conviction and self belief, Ali mustered up the courage to borrow Rp 20 million (US$1,430) from a friend to open his first outlet for a snack he branded as Makaroni Ngehe in 2013.
The origin of the snack brand came from Ali’s own hardship experience during his early struggles in Jakarta. The word "ngehe" is Indonesian slang often used to convey annoyance and mostly used to refer to a person or occurrence. An English equivalent would be something like “suck”.
Ali admitted there were multiple times a co-worker or a superior had flung hurtful words at him when he was still a small time hustler. He also said he often felt his life journey was quite ngehe.
