Step 41; Have a vision, think long term

"Begin with the end in mind" I believe I read this in Stephen Covey's book, 7 habits of highly successful people. He talks about writing your own eulogy.

One of my beliefs is "The only thing that you can take away from this world is what you give" What I meant is; all of us are going to die one day and the fact is that we can't take away a single cent with us. The reason why we want to make a lot of money is to use it wisely for the benefit of the planet and to contribute to mankind. At the same time, you can only make money when you are contributing good value to the planet or mankind.

I want you to think of what you want to achieve at the end of your life. Do you want to leave behind a legacy? My advice to you is think BIG and go for it without fear. Believe me, you will make mistake, you will fall at certain times, you will lose some battles but you must always remember to GET UP and KEEP GOING!

Step 40; Integrity, reputation and character

"Integrity is the Essence of Everthing" Buck Minister Fuller. If you want to be rich, you have to build a good reputation in business. Never collect money from people if you did not deliver the value. At the same time don't let people take advantage of you either.

I have a case where this guy attended one of our courses and later ask for his money back. Not only that, he try to instigate the class to get back their money as well. Fortunately, his course mates had benefitted from the program and had the integrity to reject him.

When I met up with him and told him that we do not have a money back policy. He claims that he took 6 companies public listed and what I taught was elementary. So I told him that since we don't have a money back policy and money should not be a problem to him (since he listed 6 companies) why not we donate the program fees to charity. He was taken aback and confessed to me that he actually needed the money for his son's medical fees. Out of compassion, we decided to refund him his money. I have seen many such characters in the market and I know they will never be rich. Remember this, the world is very small, what goes around, comes around. Your reputation will follow you wherever you go.

Step 39; Follow your heart

When you believe in something that you must do, deep down in your heart, then I say follow your heart without fear. Most importantly, it has got to be something that add value to others and not just for monetary gains. Don't worry, when you add value to others, the money will come, in the nick of time, always in the nick of time. I have experience this many times. When I need money, I just have to go out there and add value to others and the money will come in at the time when I need it the most. So, if you want to make a lot of money, you just have to add a lot of value to a lot of people.

Just look at all the masters in different fields, they have a passion and a heart for what they do. They love what they do and they do it really well. They do it again and again and see their money pouring in. Unfortunately, many of them go broke because of money mismanagement or could not manage their emotions. One example is Michael Jackson; he is a master of entertainment, make lots of money but could not manage his money and emotions. He died because he lost his spirit to do what he loves.

Majority of people work for money and not doing what they love. They are using their head and not their heart. I love what I do and I have no intention to retire at all. I want to do what I love, for as long as the higher power permits. What I do brings joy to my heart and I want to follow my heart. I hope you will be able to find something that you love to do, worth doing and add value to humanity.

Have an awesome day!

Step 38; Never take advantage of the rich

Net working with the rich is very important, but never take advantage of them or try to borrow money from them. When I was a bankrupt, I network with the rich and told them frankly that I am a bankrupt. I only ask them for project and to pay me a fair amount only when they are satisfied with the results that I delivered.

Unfortunately, I see a lot of people trying to borrow money from the rich and take advantage of them. Let me share with you a true story.

Some time ago, there live a very rich businessman and he wanted to help the people around him to be rich. So one day he ask some of his associates to share with him to invest in some properties. All of them agreed and invested with this businessman. Unfortunately, after investing, there was an economic downturn and the property prices started to drop. Most of the investors panic and pressured the businessman to sell the properties. The businessman did his best to sell the properties for a price where they need not lose any money. Unfortunately the businessman could not find a buyer willing to pay for the asking price. After sometime, some of the investors gather together and demand that the businessman return their money and threaten to sue him if he does not do so. This is like buying a stock at $2 and when the stock comes down to $1, the investors insisted to be paid back the $2. Because the businessman do not want to go through the hassle of going to court, he relented and return their investment. However, there was one businessman who is also very rich, who puts in a lot more money than the other investor who did not ask for his money back but willing to go through the bad times with the businessman.

I will stop here and posts some questions to you. If you are the rich businessman, will you ever work with those associate who ask for their money back again? Do you think you will share with them any good opportunities in the future or with the rich businessman that did not ask for his money back unreasonably? Do you know why the rich gets richer?

I have seen many rich people do deals together and they usually have the integrity to be fair to each other and go through good times and bad times together. One of my mentor sold his investment properties to pay the ransom for his friend and business partner, who was kidnapped. They loss all their money and have to start all over again. Today, they are still partners and they now own 2 public listed companies together.

Like what they say; When you lose money, you lose nothing. When you lose your health, you lose something. When you lose your integrity, you lose everything.

Step 37; Smile at adversity until it surrenders

Hey, let's face it, everyone have their own sets of problems and challenges. The rich, the poor and the middle income. There's no way we can run from it. We have 2 choices, get upset and make the problem bigger or smile at it until the problem goes away.

Met one of my friend, Steve Wee, and he shared with me what he learned from me sometime ago. "If it doesn't kill you, it will only make you stronger." Do whatever you can to solve your problems but don't let it drains you emotionally.

Step 36; What you think of me is none of my business

Having this mindset is very important to be successful. Let's face it, no matter what you do, you will have critics. Most importantly is to do things with a clear conscience that you are adding value to people and do no harm to anyone.

Don't try to please everyone or you will end up in a mental hospital. Mother Theresa, Jesus, Mohamed, Buddha, Ghandi, they all have critics, even God has got critics. So why bother about what people say or think about you. Except the fact that you are not perfect, you never will be, but accept yourself and love yourself anyway. By now you also should know that I have critics too and I accept that because I am also not perfect.

You must not let critics pull you down and stop you from doing what you must do in your life. Just put this in your mind "What you think of me is none of my business"

Step 35; Trust the people that you work with and work with people that you trust.

This is an ancient chinese saying which is very important for business. The boss will have to trust his employees to do the job and the employee will have to trust the boss that they will get their salary at the end of the month.
If both sides were to worry about each other, then it is better not to work with each other in the first place. The boss should train the people to do the job and trust them to get the job done. The boss should spend more time thinking, strategising, innovating and solving problems, whenever there is one.
Whether you like it or not, we have to leverage on each other. Everybody have their own sets of strengths and weaknesses. We need other people's support and we also need to support others. It is never one way, or you will create resentment sooner or later.
If you want to be financially free, it is time you look for a team to work with. You need not be the boss to be financially free, work in a company doing what you are good at and love doing it. Put your money to work wisely and let your assets feed you. Put yourself in a position where you choose to work, not because you need to work. Talking about that, I can't wait for my business partner to semi-retire and I start doing the previews again.