An Entrepreneur’s Journey

The decision to cut away from school training is always hard as we started our business from the schools. It’s a dilemma for us, because we do have some very nice clients, but the gebiz system makes it hard for business growth. If we were to stay in the school market, we won’t be growing very far.

Last night, I received a call that helps to make this decision. I took it as a sign to move away from school to conduct my own program publicly. I knew it deep within that for us to grow, we have to move away from the school market. But I kept holding it back, because of many reasons. One of it is FEAR.

Now, I can’t avoid it anymore. I have to face it now, move out of my comfort zone again. Come to think of it, it seems like every year, I have to move out of my comfort zone at least once. That’s great news, because it means I’m growing.

Right now, I need more people to help me to make this public program possible. I manifest that I have good people supporting me in doing this work.

This is simply exciting.

Last weekend I was at Entrepreneur Action Program (EAP) doing my review. I attended EAP more than 5 years ago, going back there to re-cap the experience and information is familiar and unfamiliar.

Familiar because some of the activities and information are similar, but Jerome and Wendy added a lot more information which causes the unfamiliar part of it.

In any case, EAP is such a powerful network where you really don’t know who you will meet there. Just like when I was there for my review, I did not expect anything. The Universe likes to play joke, when you least expected, it gives you.

Abrial who graduated from the last batch of the program, and was helping for this batch; chatted with me during lunch. Suddenly he asked for a training proposal for his organization. And of course I am willing to provide him a proposal, and deal done.

In business, having a network that can support you helps to build your business more efficiently. At the same time, you must add value to the network. The principle of give and receive applies here too. Also a huge distinction for me, JUST SHOW UP.

It was very interesting the way I got the news of the bankruptcy of Lehman Brother.

I was out for a meeting early in the morning yesterday, so I didn’t read the newspaper. Right after the meeting, I went for a drink, switched on my laptop, check the stock market. HOLY COW!!!! Did the stock market crashes? So many companies are trading at a discount.

Seeing the huge discount, I cannot stop the buying bug in me. I have to load up on some of those companies that I’ve shortlisted.

In the afternoon, went for EAP preview. Sylvia commented that the stock market must be in bad shape. I took the opportunity to ask her what actually happened.

Sylvia: You mean you don’t know?
Me: I didn’t read the news today.
Sylvia: Lehman gone bankrupt.
Me: WHAT??? I thought Barclay is buying them?
Sylvia: No, they walked away from the deal.
Sylvia: And Merill Lync is bought over by Bank of America.
Sylvia: And AIG is in deep deep trouble.

At this point of time, Clive came in.

Clive: And HP is retrenching 24,000 of its staff.
Me: WOW! No wonder today stock market plunge.

With these news, suddenly there are tons of opportunities around. I’m sure there will be more coming.

Yahoo!!! Nothing can be better than beating Man U. Frankly, I didn’t watch this “big four” match. When I walked past my neighbour’s place, I caught a glimpse of the match score at about 60+ minutes, it was 1-1. And then the next moment I looked at it again, it was 2-1 with Man U trailing. I was in estacy.

After watching Liverpool got bullied by Man U for the past few seasons, finally Liverpool got 1 back on Man U. To make it even better, Liverpool was without the inspirational captain, Steven Gerrard and their goal scoring machine, Fernando Torres. Yes, Liverpool won without their two key players.

Great to see Liverpool came back from behind to beat the double champions. It was not easy to come back from behind to win Man U. Through sheer determination, Liverpool has done it.

Credit goes to Mascherano and Alonso. These two center midfielders are awesome in the absence of Gerrard. They actually step up their play, making their counterparts, Scholes, Carrick and Anderson redundant.

All along I like Macherano style of play. A bulldog, yet with the skill. Alonso, the master of passes, I’m so glad he stays in Liverpool. When Rafa wants to sell him, so he can buy Garath something, I thought Rafa has gone nuts. He’s already gone nuts paying $20m for Robbie Keane. I think it’s huge mistake, he almost makes another mistake by selling Alonso.

Robbie Keane, again no goal to his name yet. When is he going to score, I wonder. He’s surely good at one thing – blasting the ball into the air in the 6 yards box.

A must mentioned – Ryan Babel the super sub. I always feels he’s a very good player. Silky skill, fast, dare to run at defender and able to score goals, but Rafa plays him in the bench too frequently. Again he has proves that he is good by scoring the winner. Came into play in just 8 minutes and he made his presence felt.

Overall, a determined performance by Liverpool. If they can keep up this performance, they may take the title home this season.

I was conducting a training for this particular school yesterday. As usual while they are playing the game in teams, I was observing their behaviours. I always enjoyed this process, as sometimes I find interesting characters, sometimes I uncover gems.

And I did uncover a gem in the this game. Someone whom worried me the most, showed unlimited potential in him.

A short introduction about this boy. When we first met him in the first session, he was hyperactive. He couldn’t sit still, making fun of the girls, throwing things at people, find that one of the games is boring etc.

When I had this second session, I am worried that the game couldn’t keep him focus throughout. I thought he will disappear half way through the game. But, hell no, I was wrong. He sticks through, not only that, his desire to win was extremely high.

When there is only 5 minutes left in the game, all his team mates has given up, he was there shouting at his team mates, asking them to get their butt out of the chair to complete the project given. He kept shouting and pulling everyone in the team until the time is up. He never gave up.

During the debrief, I specially single out this boy, mentioning that there is huge leadership potential in him. And I wrote the word, “LEADER” on the flip chart to emphasize that point.

What happened next touches my heart!

After the session, this boy asked if he could bring that “LEADER” flip chart back. He tore that flip chart to bring it home. He told me, “nobody has ever praise him.” That moment I knew I had inspired someone.

That’s why I’ve been doing this work for 5 years.

An entrepreneur becomes an entrepreneur from the day he starts taking action. The day he starts materializing his dreams and ideas, he become an entrepreneur.

Why do I say that?

Have you ever know of someone who shares with you his/her ideas and big dreams, but is reluctant to take any action or move out of their comfort zone to fulfill this big dream?

I do know of people like that, many of them.

I remember 5 years ago, a friend shared with me that he hopes to own his own cafe. Today he is still working for others.

Well, there is nothing wrong with working for others, if you are enjoying it. But why do some choose to give up on their dreams, and continue working for others?

One of the reasons may be because working for others is the easy way out. As long as you run out of cash, find a job, it’s the easiest. Find a job that pays you $5 to $10 an hour. What can be harder than exchanging time for money?

Then we come to the next point. Most people are good at exchanging time for money, which means they are not so good at creating wealth. An entrepreneur creates wealth, they don’t exchange time for money. It seems creating wealth is a much harder process, at least on surface it is how it’s look.

Why is creating wealth harder for many?

That’s because we are not trained to create wealth. In school, we are train to be an employee, exchanging time for money. Parents told us to look for a job when we grow up. All these upbringing wired our brain into having thoughts of exchanging time for money. As long as crisis comes, our brain goes, “look for a job.” It become an immediate reaction.

To change this, stop looking for a job. Take action to fulfill your dreams and ideas. Once you are able to break that cycle, you are re-wiring your brain.

I was down with fever for a whole of last week. The doctor had suspected dengue, but fortunately it was just viral. But it was enough to set me back for a week.

Coincidentally, there was no training last week. No appointments, no business talks, no meetings etc. The body chose to fall sick during that kind of week. It’s no coincident, it was planned beforehand. The Universe never makes a mistake.

I’m well again, ready for some action.