After years of building her art business and a highway tyre blowout that made her rethink life, Australian mortgage lender Ka Po Ng quit her bank job in 2024 to pursue art full time

A frightening experience on the road can change how a person thinks about the future. For Melbourne-based artist Candy Ng, whose legal name is Ka Po Ng, a tyre blowout during a highway drive became a turning point that prompted her to reconsider her priorities. In November 2024, after years of building her art business, much of it alongside full-time work as a mortgage lender, Ng resigned from her banking job to pursue art full-time, according to the About page on her own website, Candy Ng Art. The blowout was not the only reason for her decision. It was a catalyst that pushed her toward an ambition she had held for a long time.An early attempt at becoming a full-time artistTo understand why this decision felt different, it helps to look at her first attempt. According to her website, Ng first left finance to pursue art in 2020. Even though her banking job provided security, its stresses eventually led to burnout. Ng quit the banking sector and decided to test whether she could earn her living from art. Over the next seven months, she created abstract paintings and promoted them on Instagram to attract buyers. She later returned to the mortgage industry as a mobile mortgage banker while continuing to develop her art business. From the experience, she learned that to make art her career, she had to have much more than just passion. She needed a viable business model, a clientele and an idea of how costly it was going to be. Instead of quitting her artistic dreams, she kept working on her skills together with her job.Building an art business while working in bankingIn that role, she started earning a six-figure salary and got a company car. At the same time, Ng was broadening her artistic horizons in her spare time. In addition to painting, she has been able to offer services such as customer illustrations, event illustrations, engraving and Western and Chinese calligraphy. Such services helped her in various ways to make money from her creative abilities. As she became popular through her work, she started getting bookings and working with her customers. The growth of her artistic career meant she was better prepared to take the risk than she had been when she first tried to make a career out of her art. The importance of this preparation is that by quitting her job, she lost her regular salary.The highway incident that prompted reflectionIn 2024, Ng experienced a tyre blowout while driving, an incident she later described as a wake-up call that prompted her to reconsider her career and priorities. In her January 2025 account of her career change, Ng said her car started fishtailing, but she slowed down and pulled into a service lane as a large truck overtook her. She received roadside assistance after the tyre blowout, allowing her to continue her journey. Though Ng was lucky enough not to experience the result she was afraid of, the incident left an impression on her. On the trip back, Ng wondered what could have happened if she had died on that day and asked herself if she was making good use of her time.As Ng rated her experience, she called it a wake-up call. It made her think of how long she wanted to wait before giving up her art aspirations for a job that did not seem relevant anymore. However, the decision was not an impulsive response to the roadside incident. By then, she had spent years developing her art business, building savings and establishing customer relationships. Her previous experience of working full-time as an artist had also given her a clearer understanding of the risks.Resigning to pursue art full timeNg left the banking job in November 2024, motivated by the perspective she gained after the highway incident. This time Ng was more ready to make the change because her business in art had grown from being experimental. The variety of services offered, growing number of clients and management of financial risks that came with running the artistic business were factors that played a major role in helping her make the right decision. She could spend her working hours painting and performing at live events.You use AI every day. Now get your AI Quotient. Take the AIQ test.