An Entrepreneur’s Journey

Just came back from National Achievers’ Congress 2008 (NAC), I must say it has been a great event. The speakers are great, not all of them, but those who are great are really great.

Well, I didn’t hear all the speakers, I heard those whom I want to hear, like Blair Singer, Joel Christopher, T. Harv Eker and Joe Girard.

Blair Singer and T. Harv Eker, both are fantastic presenter. Their style of presentation is so familiar - the Money & You style. Both are trained under the same program, and I am going through the same program as well.

Joe Girard is another great presenter. Blew my mind off with his presentation. His out of the box style of presentation won my admiration of this old man. His presentation is full of dramas, climbing ladder, bringing out a shovel, having a “heart attack” etc.

I learned so much from this master in terms of life, business, sales and presentation skills. I remember clearly from Blair Singer. Those who did not use their gifts to serve more people because of fear, they are selfish people. Those who are immobilize by fear kept their gifts to themselves, didn’t want to share are so selfish that they are worried more of their fear than any other things. Amazing statement to me, I simply love it.

This NAC is better than last year, at least in my opinion. Will I go again next year, I don’t know yet, but I will going for Millionaire Mind Intensive by T. Harv Eker in November.

It feels freaking good to be rich. Money is just a thing, it’s the user of money attached a meaning to it. Why do I need to have so much money?

It feels good when I am able to donate money to the less fortunate. It feels so good to look at any charity organization, thinking to myself, “I would love to help them” and out come the cheque. With the money that I have, I have the ability to help more people. I must say my spirit was in joy when I am able to do it. I wonder do Warren Buffet or Bill Gates felt the same way.

It feels good when I can go to any shop, buy the things I fancy without worrying too much of the price. It can feel damn miserable to have to worry about price, it hurts the soul. Did you know that when your soul is in joy and abundance, it’ll naturally attracts more money?

When you feel good about yourself, about having the ability to purchase your “toys”, you too attracts opportunities. On the other hand, those who feels lousy and miserable will have a challenge attracting opportunities. You wouldn’t buy things from a salesman who looks like a zombie, would you?

You probably heard of this a thousand times, “the rich get richer”, well it is the case that the rich has a different mindset and belief about money. Yes, it’s true that they look for opportunities rather than obstacles. It may also be true that because they feel good about being rich, thus attracting more money.

It feels good to pamper myself with good food, 1st class transport or a better lifestyle. These are events that soothes your soul. The soul will want more of it, thus manifesting more money to enjoy them again.

I love to have more money because my soul deserves more. My soul have to feel good, so I can influence more people into doing good.

Over the weekend, I was in Malacca conducting a team building session for 120 people. Thank you Tina for involving me in this training. It was definitely a nice experience to do training for 120 people.

This experience certainly does a lot of help to my confidence. Why?

1. First time doing a session for 120 adults. My biggest group is 1000 children.

2. First time doing a session for so many managers who have much more experience ad much older than me.

3. First time conducting a session in front of the company’s MD.

4. First time seeing 120 adults moving at my “command”.

All these are enough to jump start my confidence.

Two weeks ago, St Anthony Primary School finished their last session of “Unleash Your Spirit of Innovation” Program with us. It was an amazing experience with this group of kids. They are intelligent, creative, innovative, persistent, active, energetic, fun-loving, selfless, hardworking, committed etc.

Throughout the 9 weeks, although I am the main facilitator, but I learned many things from them as well. This kids gave me something to remember in my life, and really, I do miss them now.

I had prepare a photo slides for them, and hopefully it will become a nice memory for them in years to come.

Let’s discuss just one method to help build your business. It is so simple that you may not believe that it is so simple. So what is it?

Simply by telling others that you are good at doing one thing and one thing alone. Your customer are just like any human being, they want to the best for themselves. They want to know that those who are helping them solve their problems are good and reliable business people.

So it comes down to consistency. Keep telling people the same thing on what you do, even if you may have expanded your business, industry or service. You want others to have an image or perception of you being the figure in your industry.

Your customer also wants to know that the people they are dealing with are experience and knowledgeable enough to help them. Don’t be shy to announce to the world how you can help them.

Some of my friends have moved from industry to industry, business to business - business hopping. They have this idea of if it doesn’t work in 3 - 6 months, then it’s not going to work. In the end they achieve nothing, they lose their credibility, no one trust them.

You may have several businesses, still just promote your core business. Once they get a chance to know you better, then you can share about your remaining business.

Now there’s a catch to just telling people that you are good at doing one thing. That is you must be really good. Well, at least you must be improving all the time.

Keep doing what you are good at, very soon people will start knocking at your door.

Since the cinemas are screening of Three Kingdoms (三国之见龙御甲), and the main cast is on Zhao Yun （赵云， 赵子龙), let’s discuss on him a bit. Ok, I am not an expert on the history, I’m just a fan of Three Kingdoms. Pardon me if it’s not the truth that you know.

Zhao Yun, a loyal general of Liu Bei (刘备) was claim to be the most courageous (一生是胆) general in country of Shu (蜀国). How did he got the “full of courage” title?

It was during the time when Cao Cao (曹操) army was chasing Liu Bei’s army, being having a weak army, Liu Bei has no choice but to leave his wife and son, Ah Dou (阿斗) behind. It was Zhao Yun who rode back to the enemy frontline, fought with 54 enemy generals to save Ah Dou.

It shows the loyalty Zhao Yun had for Liu Bei.

Another time was between a political marriage of Sun Quan’s (孙权) sister and Liu Bei. Due to the tension between Country of Shu and Country of Wu (吴国), Sun Quan’s sister went back to Country of Wu bringing Ah Dou with her. It was Zhao Yun again who got back Ah Dou while she’s on the way back.

Although Zhao Yun was highly skilled in martial art, full of courage but he never lead an army for any battle. And he was not in the rank of the 4 main generals (正牌将军). I am always wondering how can that be? He is definitely a talent not to be miss. Is it because Liu Bei didn’t trust him?

That’s because Zhao Yun was Liu Bei most trusted subordinate. Zhao Yun was given the role of taking care of the inside, meaning taking care of Liu Bei and his family. I wonder again, isn’t it a waste of talent?

Well, Liu Bei identify Zhao Yun as a meticulous person compared to Guan Yu (关羽) or Zhang Fei (张飞). Zhao Yun is the best person to take care of the inside, like a bodyguard, while the rest goes for war. Beside meticulous, Zhao Yun was also reliable, he will complete any task given to him, saving Ah Dou twice proved it.

It was said that Zhao Yun also has the political brain. When Liu Bei first got his first city after many years of struggle, he wants to share it with his subordinates. Zhao Yun was the only one who object, saying that this is only the beginning. They should consolidate all the resources to fight Cao Cao. This of course made Liu Bei unhappy, but accepted his idea.

This shows that Zhao Yun is not afraid to speak up, selfless, and had a political vision.

Another time when Liu Bei declare war on Country of Wu, to take revenge for Guan Yu’s death, Zhao Yun again advise him that it’s not the time to fight Wu, the real enemy is Cao Cao. Liu Bei lost the war, that’s the beginning of the fall of the Country of Shu.

Once again Zhao Yun proves his political point of view is correct.

In today’s term, Zhao Yun is like a idol, gaining lots of popularity among the Three Kingdoms fan. A person full of courage and vision, that is Zhao Yun or Zhao Zilong for you.

Recently there is a rise in Romance of Three Kingdoms (三国演义） searches. I reckon the reason being the Three Kingdom movie screened in cinema.

As for me, I’m a Three Kingdom fan from the age of 14. When I first started to learn about Three Kingdoms is through PC game. That got me interested in the history, which got me reading about the history.

Initially, I was interested in the Generals (武将). I was fascinated with strength, power and ranking of the Generals. Then I got interested in the story and chain of events in the history. Now I am so interested in the analyzing of individual characters and the lessons behind Three Kingdoms.

But I discover the one I have, Romance of Three Kingdoms (三国演义) is a novel being dramatize. 70% of the content is not true. To get to the real history, one got to read San Guo Zhi (三国志). San Guo Zhi uses ancient chinese which makes it extremely hard to understand.

Fortunately, due to globalization, lots of videos and DVDs from China got imported here. I found 2 sets of videos analyzing the history of Three Kingdoms.

I got lots of new insights to human behaviour, human psychology, strategy issues, political issues from those videos. I will get post some of my learnings soon. Watch out for it.

Tithing is what I do every month. It is a way to do something good. With all the blessings I have, it’s not too much to give away some of what I have.

Due to the near death experience, I have been giving away more. Giving treats to those who have supported me through out these years. I thought it’s a way to give gratitude for survival.

While I am giving, more came my way. This morning I received a call from Tina’s assistance, asking me support Tina in training this Saturday in Malacca. Tina has been very supportive in my business. She’s the one who got me to do training for Housing Board of Development (HDB) and Singapore Police Force.

I am blessed that my life is surrounded with an abundance of opportunities. I am so blessed that my life is surrounded with good people to support me. Thank you.

Becoming successful, wealthy is a long journey. It’s not necessarily a tough journey, it can be an easy one. Certainly you want to have a successful business or achieve financial freedom as early as possible.

One of the way to achieve your success in the earliest time possible is to practice the principle of LEVERAGE. So, leverage on what? In this post, let’s discuss - leverage on other’s experience.

Find someone who has done it before to guide you in your success journey. This person has been through the pitfalls of the journey, to be able to leverage on his experience, you are able to avoid them, thus speed up your success journey.

The easiest way is to read their books or listen to their audio book if they have any. This is the cheapest form of investment. I invested a lot of my time in reading. It helps me get into the brains of all these successful people, learning about how they succeed, what are their secrets to success. Secrets of Self Made Millionaire is one book I read it twice to get the juice out of the book.

Another effective way is to attend talks, seminars and workshop run by these people. There are many of these success gurus, and their courses don’t come cheap, but most of the time the values I got out of the course worth every single cent. You realize I used some of the time, because some are craps.

The final method we are discussing today is to give these people a call; buy them lunch, ask for an hour of their time etc. Get to talk to them in a private session. If possible, get them to be your mentor. Getting them on board will shorten your learning curve by at least 5 years. I have been actively looking for mentors to guide me. By talking to them for an hour, it always gives me insight on my own journey.

Over the years, I had a few mentors who had supported me. It helps me grow in a tremendous rate. When I look back my life to where I started, I saw a huge transformation. I am glad I took this path, I never regret make that decision to start my business 5 years ago.

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Adam shares his experiences of how he became a millionaire at the age of 26. A 300+ ebook that is value for money. The interesting thing about Adam is he became rich by running a physical business, not by internet marketing. Online sales is only one of his multiple vehicles.

If you are keen to find out more about this ebook, click here