Shoe shine Boys

Sometimes ago, I was in Shanghai, China. On the street, quite a number of shoe shine boys, with them their shoe shinning tools, begging people to shine their shoes for 1 Renminpee.

Among them, there was this elderly China man who is around 65 years old, pulling the sleeve of a prospecting customer. I felt pity to this elderly man and I paid him 1 Renminpee for shining my shoes.

This man works because he wants to or he has to?

No amount of what I say can change

I wrote an article on "SUCCESS IS NOWHERE" on March 3, 2009. You may click on the following link and read it - http://stevenlee-mynewsflash.blogspot.com/2009/03/whats-in-your-mind.html

I can repeatedly tell a person that it should be read as "Success Is Now Here" and yet he wants to see it as "Success Is Nowhere", then there is no amount of what I say can change him.

Three Types of People

There are three types of people:

The first type - Wage earners, their income phase stop at age 55 or maybe 60. After retirement, they have to count their nest eggs.

The second type - Business owners, they enjoy a stream of income as long as they are in business. In their old age, they may not work as hard, they may earn less, however, they have recurring income.

The third type - This is the best type, they still earn an income after death. Their continuous income derive from copyright. A good example is Michael Jackson, he continues to earn an income for his estate after his death.

Abbott and a young monk

It was winter in North China, the weather was cold. There live in a old temple on the hill top an Abbot and a young monk. The Abbott said to the young monk, "Since the weather is so cold, let us go to bed early."

Both the Abbott and the young monk went to bed. They put on their blankets respectively and after a little while, the Abbott asked again, "Are you feeling better and more comfortable?" The young monk replied, "Of course, the blanket gives me the warmth."

Abbott said, "No, think again, was it you who give the blanket warmth or the blanket gives you the warmth?"

Yes....if you want people to trust you, you have to trust people. If you want people to love you, you have to love them....the more you give, the more you get.

Who is lucky and who is not

Both Bill and George are schoolmates. Both their aged mothers are around 68 years old, and warded to a same hospital for heart conditions. They both spent around RM30,000 respectively for their aged mothers. However, Bill's mother passed away a couple of months after discharged from the hospital. George's mother survived, but she needs regular medical treatments and nursing care.

George told me that he has to spend averagely RM2,000 a month on his mother's medical bills and nursing care.

Who is lucky and who is not? Bill or George?

How Much Success Do You Want

I was invited to speak at Jack's sales meeting last Friday. Jack has a sales team capable of writing an average of RM50,000 new business every week. Before my presentation, he reprimanded a few of those sales persons in his sales team who did not write any new business, or wrote merely one new sale during that week.

For some sales teams, anyone who can get a new contract in a week, is considered a successful sales person. In Jack's team, if one is not writing two cases or more a week, he is considered as a failure.

So, how much success do you want?

Earn - Save - Spend

There are three things I want to say about money.

Earn - One has to earn enough, his income must not exceed his expenses, if not he is a broke.

Save or Invest - One has to save and make his money work harder for him, if not he is a slave.

Spend - One has to spend wisely or make sure he has enough money for retirement, if not he is an idiot.

Still Waiting For Economy To Recover?

If you have read my blog post on April 2, 2009 (link below) "Did You Invest Your Money Wisely", I probably would have convinced you that economy is on the path to recovery. You probably would have taken my advice.

Just to show you some changes since April 2009:-
Dow is now 9154 points, surged from 7,957 points in April.
KLCI is now 1175 points, surged from 992 points in April.
Gold price remains unchanged at around RM106/gramme.
Mutual funds gained an average 28% since Jan 2009
GBP currently trading at 5.89 (Dec 2008 - traded at 5.08)
AUD currently trading at 2.92 (Dec 2008 - traded at 2.22)

It's Ok if you have not invested your money in any of those financial products mentioned, but you no longer can use bad economy as an excuse for not doing well in your business.

Link for blog post dated April 2, 2009
http://stevenlee-mynewsflash.blogspot.com/2009/04/did-you-miss-boat.html

Reach For The Sky

The A380 Airbus is a double-deck, wide body, 4-engine airliner. The first class area of this superjumbo has 12 private suites complete with double beds. This amazing machine can fly at the cruising speed of 900 km/hr and it's truly a luxurious passenger plane.

Today, a doctor friend and his wife, took trouble and flow to Singapore to board this A380 Airbus to Hong Kong just to experience this amazing flying machine.

Someone asked me: "How come they are not flying there by the budget airline and just pay a fraction of the fare?" If you were the one who asked that question, you are yet a success. Successful people live their lives in exclamations, failures live theirs in explanations.

Successful people believe they deserve the best, they never short change themselves.


Read more about A 380 by clicking the following sites:

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/travel/news/article2669878.ece

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Airbus_A380

Thermostat

Thermostat is a device for regulating the temperature of a system (eg. an air conditioner) so that the system is maintained at a desired temperature. The thermostat does this by switching the electricity supply on or off the system.

Unfortunately, most salespeople behave in the same manner as a thermostat. A mediocre salesperson 'suddenly' chalked a huge volume of business may go back to sell his usual monthly volume the next month. He usually says, "Hey, that's not me!" If he chalked too small of volume, he does not earn enough and he also believes, "Hey, that's not me too!" He merely keeps himself in a certain range - not too good, not to bad.

Achievers do not carry the thermostat with them. They always challenge themselves because they yawn for the sweet taste of success!

Ctr-Alt-Del

What do you do when the computer hang on you?

Ctr-Alt-Del are the keys you hit to start your computer again. Yes, half of the year 2009 is gone, and we are into the month of July 2009. If you have done well in the first of the year, I like to congratulate you and hope you can spring board into greater success in the 2nd half of the year.

If you are not happy with your result so far, then just kick on the Ctr-Alt-Del keys and start again....

Take CONTROL of the clock for you cannot afford to lose time ad you have 6 more months left this year. Make ALTERNATE plan, if the current method is not giving you result, change to another method. You cannot expect a different result by doing the same things you have been doing in the last 6 months. DELETE all your negative preconceived ideas and replace them by trust, confidence and believe in yourself.

Ctr-Alt-Del....start again!

Hare speed or tortoise pace

In a few days time, half of the year 2009 will be gone. It's time again to conduct a diagnosis of your progress.

If you are still crying over the global economic crisis, I am sorry for you. Most of the Asian Markets are up by 20-50%. KLCI surged from 872 pts (March 2009) to the current 1075 pts (current) and still climbing.

If you are making some progress, than you have to ask yourself a question: 'Am I moving at hare speed or tortoise pace?'

If you are doing the right things and running on the right track to success, I am glad for you. However, you must increase the momentum or increase the 'frequency' in doing the right things. Just to illustrate, you must increase your prospecting activities and making more calls.

At tortoise pace....reach success at age 99?

Hermit Crabs

Hermit crabs have long soft abdomens, and therefore they have to carry around with them a salvaged empty seashell into which the whole crab's body can retract to protect from predators.

As the hermit crab grows in size, it has to find a larger shell and abandon the previous one. A hermit crab with a shell that is too small cannot grow naturally than those with well fitting shells, and is more likely to be eaten as it cannot withdraw completely into the shell.

There the some similarities between a hermit crab and sales person. Both of them have to leave their comfort zone in order to grow. A hermit crab has to risk it's life when leaving it's shell for another. A sales person has to risk rejections when penetrating into a new market or an affluent market.

If the hermit crab refuses to take the risk of moving to new and larger shell, it may be choked to death. If you refuse to take risk in moving to more challenging market all the time, you will die of slow death being a sales person.

A horse tale

A race horse named Champion won countless trophies and awards for his master during it young days. Champion was staying in a air-conditioned stallion. To ensure its race performance, it was fed with oats, vitamins and a full spectrum of minerals and protein.

Now that Champion is old and no longer able to win trophies for it's master. Champion is now sold to an amusement park owner and used for riding by children visiting the park. Champion no longer get good food and no longer staying in an air-conditioned stallion. What a sad tale!

Friends....what are you thinking? One day you will grow old and you will no longer performing.....

Belief

Denver was hit with devastating drought. The extreme hot temperatures led to death of many people's livestock and animals. One Sunday morning, the villagers gathered in a local church decided to pray for rain.

No matter how hard they prayed, the dry condition did not changed, it was so severe that lakes were actually drying out. At the end of the prayer, the priest noticed a little girl at the far end of the church, with her an umbrella. Immediately he realized the reason for their failure in praying for rain.....the belief in not strong enough....they did not bring along umbrellas.

He summoned all to go home and bring along their umbrella the next morning and pray for rain again. True enough, their jumped with joy the next day with a heavy rain that ended the drought.

Belief.....

Earth Hour

Earth Hour began in Sydney in 2007, when 2.2 million homes and businesses switched off their lights for one hour. In 2008 the message had grown into a global sustainability movement, with 50 million people switching off their lights.....for an hour. On March 28, 2009, Earth Hour was taken to the next level, with more than 1 billion people turned off their lights....for an hour.

For a moment, I like you to think about switching off your lights for merely 5 minutes earlier everday. Your actions may translate into saving lights for more than 30 hours a year in fighting global warming.

You have to bring the light

How to brighten up a dark room? The answer is simple....you have to bring in the light.

Life is never a bed of roses. At times, we may meet with disappointments and heart breaking moments. What can we do about them? Changing the situations to better starts with your mindset, your attitude. In another word, the darkness is there, you can change the dark room into a bright room by bringing in the light.

One must be insane just by sitting down doing nothing and expect a change.

Did you invest your money wisely

I am not sure whether the financial meltdown is over. However, if you have invested your money wisely 6 months ago, you would have made some money during the last challenging 6 months.

Dow has moved from the 7,100 points to the current 7,957 points
KLCI closed above 992 points and recorded a 7 month high
Gold price inched from RM98 per gramme to RM105 per gramme
Mutual funds averagely gained 18 - 20% during the last 6 months
GBP was trading at 5.08 six months ago and today trading at 5.36
AUD was trading at 2.27 six months ago and today trading at 2.63
Car loan interest rate rose form 2.45% to 3.20% for purchase for new car

Did you invest some during the last 6 months? I did.

Magnifying glass

A magnifying glass is a double convex lens with a short focal length. When an object is placed under the magnifying glass, an image is produced and also appears larger than the original object.

If you direct the rays of light through the magnifying glass, the rays are bent towards a point on some combustible materials, like papers or dry cloth. Not for long, the dry materials may burst into flames. Yes, if you focus on your business, not for long, you will succeed! However, if you simply focus for to a short while or keep moving your focus point, then success is an illusion.

Similarly, if you boil a kettle of water for a minute or two and turn off the flames and repeating this process many times over, the water in the kettle will remain not boiled forever.

A priest and a butcher

A Buddhist priest and a butcher are good friends since childhood and they are neighbors.

Each morning, the priest wakes up and goes to the temple to pray, the butcher wakes up and slaughters pigs in the market. Whoever gets up earlier will wake up the other, as promised.

One day, they both died. The priest went to hell and the butcher went to heaven. Oops....that must be a mistake!

They met up with the God and were told "No mistake". The butcher wakes up the priest to pray in the temple and the priest wakes up the butcher to slaughter pigs. The butcher has been doing good deed and therefore sent to heaven.

Bottom line that counts.

A Good Weekend

What are the things that can make a person happy? Driving the fast car? Jet-setting? Eating in posh restaurants or the pride of owning a Rolex watch?
Having a lot of money not necessary make a person happy. I had a wonderful weekend. My daughter took her parents out for a movie! That made me very happy!

That simple? Yes, that simple.

It's OK

You don't get to meeting in time.
It's OK, because you are not a Manager, and you don't plan to be one.
You are just another employee.

You don't vow to shoulder the team's commitment.
It's OK, because there are other team players, and you don't have to be responsible.
You expect others to cover your shortfall.

You don't bring enough money home.
It's OK, because you are not keeping an expensive life style and you don't plan to get one.
You believe things are going to change for the better.

Is it really OK ?

What's in your mind?

Did you read it as "Opportunity is no-where" or did you read it as "Opportunity In now-here"? It tells what you have in your mind. The heat of financial meltdown is approaching our shore and you need positive thoughts to steer out of financial trouble.

My Newspaper Vendor

My newspaper vendor, Jack, sends newspapers to my house every morning around 7am, rain or shine. A week ago, I noticed a young Indian boy riding on a motorcycle accompanying Jack on his rounds throwing the daily newspapers into my car porch. I though Jack is going to retire from his newspaper business.

Jack told me that he has just hired this Indian boy to deliver newspapers to his existing clients and he is going to invest his time to develop new clients in a nearby new housing estate.

To become more successful, we too have to move on into a bigger playing field from time to time, engage others to help expand your business.

Love What You Do

Ah Teik is the owner of a florist, a successful one. He hires Patrick to help him man his shop. Everyday Ah Teik takes orders from his customers and delivers flowers personally to them.

I though he should man his shop and requests Patrick to run around delivering flowers to the customers. Lately, I learned from Ah Teik that he likes to delivery flowers to his customers because he loves to see smiling faces of his customers when they receive flowers from him.

Love what you do and you don't have to 'work' another day.

Golden Age

Todd recently retired from his employment at age 57. I have the opinion that he should have a lot of time to do those things he could not do when he was in his employment, like traveling and enjoying life.

Todd said, "On the contrary, now I am not able to do a lot of the things you think one should do at retirement."

"I have to live with the RM230,000 EPF I saved, I am a heart patient and a diabetic patient. I cannot eat some of the 'good food'. I cannot travel much as I
get tired easily. I have to make choices. I have to choose my lifestyle base on the money I have saved with EPF."

One can only enjoy his golden age if only he has time, money and health. Don't live your life in regrets.

Save A Fraction Of Your Income

Very unlikely you may use a same cell phone for 5 years, use your computer notebook for 6 years, use your same car for 10 years....

Always save a fraction of your income. In life there are many stages that you need money. Buying a new car, buying your first house, getting married and having children, just to name a few, not to mention about retirement.

I have heard enough about people telling me that they are not getting married, not buying a house because they don't have money. It's not true. They just don't have savings.

Always save a fraction of your income. You may need it some days, just because you don't know when your car needs a major repair or when some one you love needs an expensive medical treatment.

Always save a fraction of your income.

New Year Resolution

Do you have a new year resolution 2009? Fred walked into my office and shared with me his resolution, "I want to make RM100,000 income this year."

I quipped, "If I am not wrong, that's your resolution two years ago."

Making a resolution is all about making a decision. A decision to achieve a goal, learn a new skill or maybe quit a bad habit. If a decision is made and not being carried throughout the year, than your resolution loses it's purpose, it's merely a wishful thinking.

George made his resolution: "I drink no more." I know, I know, neither is he going to drink less.

Mere Justification

"Rich people are greedy, they are mean and they are those not doing honest things to become financially successful." Sounds familiar?

This is not true. This is the excuse used by the poor to justify themselves for not being successful....and therefore they remain poor.

Uproot this thought in your mind is your down payment to your financial success.