Step 32; Finding a mentor.

It amazes me as to why most people would rather learn from their own mistakes than seeking a mentor.

Mentors comes in different forms like books, seminars, successful people and even failures. I look at failures and their behavior and choose not to be like them. Most of them are egoistic and think they know everything. I would usually stay away from such people or do the opposite of what they do.

I seek mentors by reading their books and attending their seminars. It is the cheapest and fastest way to be successful. Then why is it that not all the people who read books and attend seminars are successful? One of the reason is that they look at why it cannot be done rather than how I can get it done. It's just like when I attended seminars on how to buy properties with little or no money, my classmate will tell me that it cannot be done in Singapore or Malaysia. Fortunately, I choose not to listen to them and I manage to find many ways to buy properties with little or no money.

I find a lot of people who seek for free advice and are not willing to pay for mentoring. From my experience, this group of people are usually not very committed to their success. Sorry to say, advicing them is a waste of time. Since they did not pay anything, they will not do what they have been told.

If you want to be successful, be willing to pay for good advice. The most expensive advice are free advice from poor people.

Step 31; Why entrepreneurs make more money?

The job of an entrepreneur is to look for unsolved problems in the world and find a way to solve them. You will pay people to solve a problem you could not solve, wouldn't you? To make more money, you will need to add value by solving more and bigger problems for more people.

One of the key is to leverage on other people's money, resources, skills, time, database etc, etc. The problem is that most people want to leverage on others but do not want others to leverage on them. Personally, I would always put on the table what I can contribute first before asking the other party to show me what they can contribute.

As an employee, you are most likely selling your time and let's face it, you only have 24 hours a day. How much time can you sell. As an entrepreneur, I network and look for teams to work with. I don't mind making a lot less than my partners if they are putting in more time. To me, it is better to make 1% from 100 people's effort than to make 100% from my own effort.

Next is to set up a system for the business where it continues to do the same thing and make the same amount of money. Of course if you want to increase the revenue and profit, you will need to innovate all the time. One of the keys is to be patient and build it over time. If you can solve a problem once, you can do it again and again. The good thing is that you can solve it faster the next time. If it takes you 5 years to make your first million, the next million will be faster and easier. The key here is don't give up. However, you must not do the same thing that is not working over and over again. It is insanity to be doing the same thing and expecting a different result.

Next week, we talk about finding a mentor.

Step 30; Changing Your Reality Box

Ever wonder why there are more negative people than positive people in this world? And why are there more poor people?

 It's got to do with what goes into the head. Remember, your thoughts shape your destiny. Thought=Word=Action=Habits=Character=Destiny. Gabbage in, gabbage out, it's that simple. Take note of what have you been feeding yourself mentally. Stop reading or watching the news. Am I right to say that most of them are negative news? Tsunami, Economy crisis, Rape, Robbery and you name it. Because of all these, I decided to spend very little time reading the newspaper nor watch TV.

It amazes me when everytime I present an opportunity, most people will point to me all the negative things that can happen and tell me the impossible. I am glad I chose not to listen to them, otherwise I would not be where I am today. If you want to be successful, to be a multi-millionaire or billionaire, start changing your thoughts, your reality box. I said multi-millionaire or billionaire because I want to help you change your reality. I want you to know that to be a millionaire it is no longer enough. Why? because whenever I ask people in Singapore, whether a million dollars is enough to have a comfortable retirement in Singapore, most of them says no. Some of you will have this question; why so greedy? (that's a negative thought by the way) I want to share with you this, it is not the money, it is the character you built along the journey. In order for you to be a sustainable multi-millionaire or more, you would have to build trust, add enough value to enough people, have integrity, grown and contributed to society, the list goes on.

Change your reality box; "Impossible is I'm possible"

I will share with you why entrepreneurs make more money next week.

Step 29; Money is an idea

Money is an idea, an idea on how to solve problems, especially other people's problems. Look at what other people want; save time, save money, make more money, have peace of mind, comfortable life, being recognised, grow & learn more, be entertained and the list goes on.

One of the richest man, Warren Buffet, what problem did he solved? He help people to make more money, people who invested in his company, Bershire Hathaway. He also create jobs through the many companies that his company owns. Look at Steve Jobs, Bill Gates and the many other entrepreneurs, not only they solve problems with their products or services but they also created many jobs. Now, do you know why successful entrepreneurs are richer compared to employees? They all started with an idea to solve a certain problem, then they add passion, action and perserverance to get to where they are.

If you want to be rich, start thinking out of the box, out of your current reality box.

We will talk about changing your reality box next week. 

Step 28; Problems are opportunities.

Problems are opportunities, so don't run away from problems, embrace them if you want to be rich. Am I right to say that you don't mind paying someone to solve your problems? Yes, you can solve some of your own problems but what if there is a problem that you cannot solve? For example, if you have a toothache, do you mind paying a dentist to solve that problem? Will you check their fees first before you consult them or do you ask them to solve your problem first before you check their fees? It's obvious what you will do first, isn't it? Ever wonder why good dentist are paid so well?

It is good if you can solve your own problems but it is better if you can solve other people's problems. The more problems you can solve and the bigger the problems, the more money people would be willing to pay you. Start looking at all the problems in this world and see if you can fix it, the more problems you can fix, the more money you can make. It's simple isn't it? Start thinking, start observing.

See you next week.

Step 27; You see money with your mind, not with your eyes.

What do I mean by you see money with your mind and not with your eyes? Before you could see the physical money, you have to see it with the mind first. For example, before you buy a run down property and sell it for a profit later. You have to imagine how are you going to make improvement to the property? How much are you going to buy it for? How much will you be paying for the renovation? Where do you find the people to buy it? How much will you be selling it when it is renovated? You have to see all this in your mind first and then take action, do whatever it takes and you will see the money at the end of the day.

I was at the East Coast in Singapore last night and saw a group of people riding bicycle and I told my friends about the opportunity that I saw in my mind. Want to know what was the opportunity? Bicycle rental business! The bicycle rental business can be a very good business, why? I was told that the bicycles are rented out at $6 per hour per bicycle. All you need to do is to rent your bicycle for 2 hours a day, multiply it by 365 days per year, you get $4,380. How much does it cost to buy a bicycle? What's the ROI in this case? Of course you will need to look at the rental of the kiosk and the salaries of the workers running the kiosk. Do the numbers, I am sure you will come up with a very decent profit at the end of the day.

Can you see the many opportunities that is available out there? or rather, in your mind? Will share with you more about opportunities next week.

Step 26; How to buy properties with little or no money down?

Method number 3; Joint Venture 2

Another way of joint venture is where you look for owners of land or run down properties. Persuade them to let you build or rebuilt their property and share the proceeds when it is sold for a higher price later. Or share the number of properties that you have built for them.

Example; owner of a piece of land that has got permit to build 8 units of apartments. Offer to build for them for free and share 4 units each when it is completed. Your question will be where do you find the money to build? Here is what you do, convince a builder to build the 8 units and offer him 3 units upon completion and you end up with 1 unit for free.

If you want to do this, you will need to have a very good lawyer to help you with the contract with both the builder and the owner.

Will share more ideas next week