From Family Legacy to Her Own Path: Eileen Goh on Growth and Confidence
As the second-generation owner and Chief Creative Officer of DMK, Eileen Goh now runs DMK alongside her older sister, Sophia Goh. Her work covers product creation, branding, marketing and creative direction, but her curiosity probably describes her better than any job title does.
She is constantly asking why people choose what they choose, how something makes them feel, and how a brand stays meaningful and relevant in a world where trends move quickly and customers have endless options.
At work, her team would probably describe her as “super Type A”. But outside work? A quiet dinner, a workout and somewhere that isn’t too packed is pretty much her idea of a good time.
Earn The Respect, Not Demand It
Eileen always knew she would eventually join DMK, the fashion business her parents started in 2000.
There was no dramatic moment where she suddenly discovered her calling. But joining it taught her an important lesson: being given an opportunity and earning your place within it are two very different things.
Early on, she once complained to her father that someone at work did not respect her. His response was immediate: "Why should she respect you? Because you’re my daughter?”
That sentence stayed with her, and shaped her leadership philosophy ever since.
Respect has to be earned, not demanded.
Around 2020, Eileen and Sophia began thinking about DMK’s next chapter. Not to erase what their parents had built, but to evolve the brand, because the women they were speaking to had changed, fashion had changed, and the way people discovered brands had changed. Naturally, DMK had to evolve too.
“Continuing a legacy doesn’t mean preserving it exactly as it was. Sometimes respecting what came before means having the courage to evolve it.”
That thinking eventually led DMK to become more involved in initiatives supporting women, from breast cancer warriors to new mothers.
For Eileen, fashion has never felt superficial. “Fashion is what we do, but helping women feel good about themselves is really why we do it,” she says.
Confidence Is Not Something You’re Born With
People may see Eileen as a confident leader who speaks publicly, makes business decisions and leads teams.
To her, confidence is not a trait. It is a skill, built through consistency.
You do something uncomfortable. You feel out of your depth. You do it again anyway. Eventually, each experience gives you another reason to trust yourself.
And when she is nervous, Eileen has one very practical strategy:
She prepares. A lot.
“I think sometimes we romanticise confidence as being able to walk into a room and wing it. I would much rather walk in knowing I’ve done my homework.”
It is not about knowing you’re going to get everything right. It’s knowing you might be wrong, but trusting that you’re making the decision for the right reasons.
Doing Things You Don’t Feel Like Doing
A book by David Goggins, Can’t Hurt Me, changed the way Eileen thinks about doing things she doesn’t necessarily enjoy. One idea that stayed with her was: ‘Do one thing you hate every day.’ Exercise became one of those things.”
“I don’t exercise because I love exercising,” she says. “I exercise because I think doing things I don’t always feel like doing helps shape the person I want to become.”
For Eileen, exercise is as much mental training as physical training. She has discovered that discomfort does not necessarily mean she has reached her limit.
That lesson has travelled far beyond the gym.
Stress, tiredness and discomfort are real feelings, but learning to sit with a little discomfort has made her more resilient in other parts of life too.
The Breakfast She Has Eaten for Almost 10 Years
For someone in a creative industry, Eileen is surprisingly repetitive when it comes to breakfast. On workdays, she has eaten roughly the same thing for close to a decade: plain oatmeal and boiled vegetables.
The reason is not culinary passion. It is decision fatigue.
She read years ago about the idea that we only have so much mental energy to spend on decisions every day, and it stuck with her. Eileen began looking for areas where she could simply stop deciding. She jokes that working in fashion means she cannot adopt the Steve Jobs uniform and wear the same outfit every day.
So breakfast became the thing she stopped thinking about instead.
The philosophy has since spread into other parts of her life and work. If something repetitive can be turned into a system or automated, she will usually do it. She would rather save her mental energy for the decisions that actually matter. But that does not mean she lives an ultra-disciplined life.
She loves food. She loves desserts. And if she is travelling, she is going to enjoy what she eats.
Her explanation may be the best summary of her approach:
“The boring routines give me headspace for the fun parts. That’s my version of balance.”
What Would Surprise Her Younger Self?
Probably how much she has learnt to trust her own voice.
Growing up, the path ahead seemed fairly straightforward: eventually join the family business and continue it. What she could not have predicted was how much she would want to shape that path herself.
Today, she oversees DMK’s creative direction, speaks publicly, makes decisions and regularly puts herself into rooms she would never have imagined entering when she was younger.
More importantly, she has learnt that she does not need to stay confined to one version of herself.
“I listen to other people, I question myself when I need to, but ultimately I’m comfortable making a call and standing behind it.”
Somewhere along the way, DMK stopped feeling like simply ‘the family business’ and became something she genuinely wanted to build.
Her “I’m Too Old for This” Era
Crowded parties and loud music used to sound like a good night out.
Now? Anywhere she has to shout to have a conversation is pretty much off the list.
Her ideal evening is much simpler: good food, good conversation and people she genuinely wants to spend time with, preferably somewhere she can actually hear them.
She says it is not really about getting older. It is about becoming clearer on what she genuinely enjoys.
These days, it is quality over quantity.
