Big Bad Wolf

As much as I loved boasting about my hometown’s attractions and specialties , about how it’s much better than Kuala Lumpur , or anywhere else in this world for that matter , there’s one thing I can’t deny , that is the fact that Kuala Lumpur is a much more happening place than Penang . Not to say that there’s not much events and activities in the Pearl of Orient , there are events , but it just pales in comparisons with KL’s events .

For the uninitiated , KL is the most happening state in Malaysia , all the coolest people and parties , biggest and most important events , yup , more often than not , all of the above mentioned activities are bound to be held in KL . KL is the heart of the country , where all the happenings , happen ( pun intended ) , and akin to the city that never sleeps , KL people literally have insomnia all year round , what’s with the clubs and never-ending night life . Seriously , if you’re crazy about night life , KL is the place ~

So , in a way , I am grateful that I am studying in KL , because thanks to that , I am able to go to the BIGGEST , BADDEST , MOST HEAVILY-DISCOUNTED English Book Sales ever in the WORLD . Situated in Mines International Exhibition & Convention Centre,  just 1 hour away from my university by public transportation , it holds the record of being the BIGGEST English book fair in the world by offering an astounding three million titles of books up for grabs , priced at 75% to 95% lower than their retail prices.

My exploits from the fair .

Side View of this gorgeous baby :D

Thanks to that I am able to go to this book haven and gained some great books  :D

That’s all for now . Enjoy the pictures .

A real life Lamborghini on display 

Cutest Book Title ever

Here’s a random question of the day :What differentiates a businessman and entrepreneur?

SFI

In my previous post , I was talking about financial freedom , and how I wished to attain it. However , mere talks wouldn't cut it , and vision without action are mere fantasies . I am currently having 2 months break now and I was hoping I could attain some supplementary income before going back to my studies .

There is but a problem . I am quite a lazy guy , and procrastination happens to be my best friend , the fact that I get bored easily over conventional , mundane 9-5 office job doesn't help either . As mentioned in the Entrepreneurship : Why Now ? post , I intended to start a business sooner or later . Nevertheless , I lack the capital and experience to do so .

That being the case , I am slowly running out of options to earn money steadily and achieve financial freedom . As I am getting more and more desperate and frustrated with my inability to earn sustainable income , a god-sent gift appeared before me ( To be exact , it showed up in my google search result when I searched for ways of earning money online ) .

It hit me that there are ways to start a business even without any capital , and one of them would be SFI . For the uninitiated ," SFI (Strong Future International) Marketing Group was launched in 1998. Starting with just one product, sold only in the United States, SFI has now grown to more than 51000 products and services (and growing daily) sold in more than 190 countries around the world.

SFI was created to allow anyone with a computer and Internet access the opportunity to tap into the worldwide e-commerce revolution. Anyone of legal age in his or her country can become an SFI affiliate for free by filling out an online registration form. There is no obligation or purchase requirements of any kind.

Once registered, affiliates are provided with professional Websites for marketing SFI's products on the Internet. SFI also provides all necessary sale support services, such as customer service, payment processing, and product shipment – all at no cost to the affiliate. For each sale generated, SFI pays the referring affiliate a commission. Additional commissions can be earned by building and leading affiliate groups. " , paraphrased from the original description from About SFI page.

If you still don't get it , let me just rephrase it and make a shorter summary . it's a god-sent gift to enable people without capitals to start up their own business ! It's basically an e-commerce business where you earn money by several methods , either by advertising or recruiting people ( kinda like multi-level marketing (mlm) , but not purely mlm ) , but I assure you , you can earn money even if you don't invest any of your own money in it.

But don't take my word for it , take a look at it yourself here . Be skeptical , make researches , and use your own judgement before deciding it's the real deal or not . After all , in this modernized age of globalization , there are plenty of scams and quick get-rich scheme that aims on taking your money .However , I would like to point out that should you find the truth that it's working , do not hesitate in joining .

Many people often shy away from opportunities as they do not wish to move out from their comfort zone , and this inaction of theirs resulted in a lot of lost opportunities . Please , I implore you , if you are capable of grabbing this opportunity , do it , and do it quick ! I have taken my first step , have you ?

Here's in hope that I would be able to grow my SFI business smoothly and ensure a sustainable income being generated monthly so that I will be one step closer to my financial freedom and provide for my family.

Two links that are worth checking out regarding SFI :

SFI home page

Triple Clicks store - an online store owned by SFI , akin to eBay, except that it's so much better in so many aspects .

Financial Freedom

I came from a rather poor family background . However , during my childhood days , I was rather contended with the life I was having , i.e the cheerful kid with no worries or problems whatsoever . At that time , I used to believe that my life would continue being lived this way forever and ever being happy and contended . Oh boy , how wrong I was . I was naive.

Upon growing up , my naivete and dream of living happily ever after without any worries was shattered . It all started during primary school life, when the value of money would come into play and forever altering my shallow perception of life . I still remember during my first day of school , when I would walk to the school while my more well-off peers would arrive in dazzling cars , chauffeured by their personal chauffeur or parents . Back then , I remember asking why I have to walk while other parents would personally fetch their children to school . The response then was " because the distance was very short and we can save money by doing it " . Well, true enough , it wasn't much of a trouble to walk , it's healthy right? Besides, we do save money. So , I happily accepted that reason and get on with life.

In secondary school , the same thing occurred , except the fact that the distance is no longer short , in fact it was quite some distant away and I have to take buses home and walked from the bus station to my house every single schooling day ( which by the way is quite far ) . Under the scorching , hot sun , carrying big , heavy school bags while walking back home alone , I remember asking myself repeatedly " Why am I being subjected to such fate while others are spared? "

When I brought that question to my parents , their only response was simply " Sorry son , we can't afford it ( car or other means of transportation to fetch me ) . And the same response subsequently followed whenever I tried to request something that requires monetary funding. While I am truly grateful to my parents for bringing me up amidst the hardship and sufferings they were being subjected to , being the hot-headed , bad-tempered , testosterone-filled youngster undergoing puberty at that time, I would often throw tantrum around and being mad, at nobody , for having to "suffer" like this .

Often there are a lot of times when I would be thinking of the unfairness of life , of why some of my well-off peers were able to enjoy more of the pleasures of life due to some extra cash in their pocket , of why I can only make limited choices and decisions due to lack of funds , of how the world seems to be revolving around money and our current society is too preoccupied with materialism to care about other more realistic and pragmatic priorities in life , such as health, family and love .

As I grow older matures more , I slowly learn to respect and fear the value of money. There's a lot of stuff being said about money ( i.e Money is the root of all evil , Money is indispensable , Money can make or break a person depending on their personality and attitude, etc ) However, one thing's for sure , it is that no matter what one may say or think about money , it is undeniable that money is a necessary tool for survival for most people. Have you ever lived in the street as a homeless beggar ? Have you ever tried not having real food to eat and only survive on instant noodles and breads for months? These may be an exaggerated worst case scenarios , but I assure you , these people are very much real and they exists. In today's cruel reality , it's obvious that money is essential and we need them to survive.

Hence , I had always strive for and advocates financial freedom . It is my main goal in life to attain financial freedom , provide for my family and ultimately educate people and raise awareness of the importance of financial intelligence , in hope that more and more people would be able to achieve it .

For that purpose , I have created a blog called Financial Guide , hoping to share whatever little financial knowledge that I have and hope that more people may benefit from this together !

* for a more detailed and longer post about my past and how I started to learn more about money , click here .

Entrepreneurship, Why Now?

Inthis past few weeks ,I have been engagedwith the idea of entrepreneurship and starting my own business with the passion , vigor and energy more than Iever had in my past 20 years of living . The reason ? Well , for starters , inthis past few weeks ( 3 weeks to be exact ) , I have been attending businesstalks and entrepreneurship workshop conducted by renowned and successfulbusinessman , most noticeably , speakers like YB Tony Pua, former CEO of CyberVillage ,a pioneer in e-commerce , Ms Winnie Loo , CEO of A Cut Above , MrMichael Tan , CEO of myparttimejob.com and recently Mr Jonathan Quek,CEO ofTrue North Asia and Ms Candice Lee, Sales Director of Capital Asia Group.

I havealways been interested the idea of doing business from early age. You see, Ialways thought that working in a 9-5 job , collecting money every month isretarded . I mean , sure , there are lot of high flying employees out there whoare earning 5 figure salaries , living an exciting life , but unfortunately also, in this cruel , realistic world , there are too many people , stuck in themiddle income trap , often just stuck being an employee who works for the rich, deprived of knowledge to excel and achieving their true potential .

Thus , being an employee and working forothers have always had a bad impression in my heart and mind. Though , if I hadto work , I would definitely prefer working for people who have truecapabilities and knowledge , whereby I can learn and gain something ,andworking with people who are fun , friendly and downright crazy.( something likein nuffnang and Capital Asia,I believe) ,instead of being under tyrannyof the inept ( which ,unfortunately happened to a lot of employees in Malaysia).I am always drawn to unconventional work cultures that promote work hard andplay hard. Do you know that in Nuffnang’s office, there’s a place called Nuffie’sZone, whereby people can just sit down and rest on the plush sofa ,relaxinguntil they are ready to work again? Oh and they have a PS3 in their office too.Now, that’s what I called awesome work culture !

Butof course, if possible , I would love to start my own business and making a jobout of things I love doing best . Idigressed . Today, I had the honor to listen to the speech by Mr Jonathan Quekand Ms Candice Lee , both of whom have had a lot of ups and downs in their life,and very inspirational visionaries that strives for big goals ( and arecurrently in the progress of completing them ) .

MrJonathan Quek is the CEO of True North Asia ,a consultancy company aimed topromote youth intelligence and provides alternative investment consultancy ,while Ms Candice Lee is his partner and also the Sales Director of Capital AsiaGroup , a real estate consultancy group .

Asthey shared with us about their core values , what they do , the obstacles theyfaced when they first started , everybody’s eye lit up . Their enthusiasm was infectious , their passion was evident ,and the atmosphere was electrifying . Mere words alone would not do justice tothem . Their stories are simply inspirational and motivational.

Hereare some excerpts from the their talk . “ Imagine a plane , with fourpropellers , flying from K.L to Hawaii. Now , Hawaii is your destination .Doing business is a lot like flying this plane. In order to fly the plane , youmust have four propellers which are a metaphor for the Marketing department ,Human Resource department , Operation department and Finance department. Andyou must always set your destination right first . So, the destination is yourWHAT , the plane is your HOW and thefirst reason that got you flying that plane in the first place is your WHY. Ifyou have a very strong WHY , then you would know WHAT you want and the HOWwould eventually come :.

“

“There’s this one game in Miri where theyoungsters would spend playing .In Miri, there are a lot of monkeys , andmonkeys love peanuts. So ,the youngsters would take a lot of peanuts , lay themon the ground to form a trail , leading to a coconut contraption ( where theyput more peanuts into that coconut ). When a monkey follows the trail ofpeanuts , eating them along the way , eventually it will find the coconutfilled with the peanuts inside , and put its’ hand inside to pick up thosepeanuts. But , because the size of the opening in the coconut is quite small ,just barely big enough for the monkey’s hand , when the monkey grab a lot ofpeanuts , it won’t be able to take its’ hand out . So, the monkey will betrapped , and when it’s trapped , it will scream for help and eventually thevillagers would heard of the scream would come and catch it. Well , you see, alot of people are like the monkeys , they chase after things that they want ,often being too greedy and don’t want to let go . If the monkey just let gosome of the peanuts , it can always return and get more peanuts next time , butbecause of its greed and foolishness , the monkey got trapped. “

“Life’snot how fast your start but how well you end the race “

Theabove paragraph with quotations are excerpts from Mr Jonathan’s talk , notdirect transcript of it , but mere interpretation from my own memories. Anotherinteresting point worth mentioning from their talk is that they actually had instantnoodles for almost 6 months back when they are near bankruptcy.

MsCandice’s talk was also filled with fiery passion and enthusiasm , as shetalked about how had a complete turn over of her life . She shared with us hervery amusing history back when she was 20 years old , and told us that the twomain obstacles holding people back from doing the things they want to do are lackof emotional security and lack of strength of character. I guess one of themain highlights of her talk is when she talked about having the right plan forlife and she had a very detailed plan , in her own words “ to build a hotel ofmy own ,with the profits being used to set up an orphanage , in which we willtrain and provide financial education to the youths in that orphanage ,empowering and grooming them . When they grow up , they will be given sharesfor the hotel and be the ones managing and continue to grow it further . “

WhenI heard that , it truly sent chills down my spine , in a good way of course. Itwas so remarkable to see someone so young having such detailed plans , down tothe nitty-gritty details planned out for her future . After that , sheexpounded the concept of personality profiling , in which people’s personalityin general can be divided to 4 elements , namely fire, water, wind and earth.

Firetype of people are generally bold and courageous ,and are often adventurousrisk takers . While they may be the people who dare to be different and leads ,the flaw of a fire type person is that they are egoistic , proud and sometimeseven too full of themselves.

Watertype of people are generally obedient people who are great listeners, beingemotionally sensitive and very adept to changes , though their flaws would bethe slow pace that they work in , and lack of motivation and little interest inmost things. They would be the best people to consult when you break down andneed a shoulder to lean on and cry.

Windtype of people are typically influential , outgoing extroverts . They arenatural sales man that are very socially active and optimistic people. However,their flaw lies in their lack of discipline , attention-seeker and they oftenhave short-lived enthusiasm .

Earthtype of people are analytical people who often have deep thoughts &reflection , driven by laws and principles . They are usually quite reservedand trustworthy . Nevertheless ,they might occasionally have self-pity and theycan be quite judgmental sometimes, and easily falling into mental stress.

Somehow,I felt like I possesses characteristics from all of the elements above , thoughit’s more like a mix of several characteristics from each element . However, I findthis personality profiling very interesting , in the sense that this is whatpeople should be learning. If you read around my blog , you would have noticedthat I advocate the thinking of 3 rd perspective , that each and everyone of usis unique and should respect other people’s opinion even if they contradictours.

Ina nutshell , I guess I have really did acquire something from the talk afterall .People should have big dreams , dare to be different and ultimately make adifference in people’s life. Listening to their motivating talks , I reallyhope I would be able to make it big in the future ,meeting more people likethem and learning from them .

Yousee , I always believed in lifelong learning rather than just school ,textbook-based approach . I find it paradoxical that the formal educationsystem that is supposed to be empowering us , ironically did the opposite ,which is to limit people’s freedom of thinking flexibly and creatively .Learning is an endless process . I believe when one stop continue learning andimproving themselves , that is the time they die. Oh well, more on that nexttime. For now, I am just grateful I had the chance to listen to their wonderfultalks and meeting some right people in my life now. I suppose maybe,just maybe, this is destiny’s intervention too ? Be sure to check out their websites and blogsif you have the time ;D ! OH, by the way , the last tips that MsCandice shared with us was her business philosophy which was P.H.D ,whichstands for…….*drum rolls* Pain ( able to endure pain and work hard) , Hungerfor knowledge , and Dreams for which you should be fighting for , doingeverything to achieve them. That’s all for now , tata!