How to Overcome My Clinical Depression?

This post is in response to a question posted by Grace about her Clinical Depression. I believe that many people reading this blog would be suffering from some form of depression time to time… I used to do so myself. So, I hope my thoughts would empower you to transform the quality of your life.

Well Grace, if you want to breakthrough your depression and feel totally happy, confident and fulfilled, there are Three major mindset shifts that you must make right now.


1) You Are A Perfectly Normal Human Being…In An Un-Resourceful Emotional State

The first thing you MUST know is that there is NOTHING wrong with you! You are a perfectly normal and healthy person who has just developed a temporary habitual pattern of getting into a depressed state. All of us get depressed from time to time…even I do. I bet anyone who is reading this blog feels depressed at times too. If you do, pls leave a comment and prove me right. It is just that many people and I have found the right strategy to break our depression pattern and feel powerful instead. You can do the same thing immediately when you know how!

Once you LABEL yourself as having problem/ disease/condition called ‘clinical depression’, then you have doomed yourself to be this way for a very long time. As human beings, we always behave in a way that is consistent with our self image and identity. If you believe that you are clinical depressed, that mere thought will stimulate chemicals in your brain that will continue to make you feel depressed! The human mind cannot tell the difference between what is real and what you believe to be real! It is called a self-fulfilling prophecy. At the same time, you will always behave consistently with your self image and expectations. If you believe you are a depressed person, you are going to take on negative thoughts, see things in a pessimistic way and use your physical body in a certain way (slouch your shoulders, look down, breathe shallow, walk slowly), thereby reinforcing this negative pattern forever.

So, keep telling yourself that you are a happy and healthy person that MUST change your temporary negative emotion! In other words, your emotion does not define or change what or who you are!

2) Only YOU Can Change Your Emotions

The second thing is to understand that nothing can and will come along to change your emotions. If you are expecting that getting a boyfriend/husband, monetary windfall, promotion, a praise, loving words will change how you feel… It won't change how you feel permanently. The reason is because the secret to changing how you feel LIES IN the THOUGHTS you choose to have. It is your INNER WORLD you must change.

It is not the events that happen to us that determine how we feel. It is how we choose to look at those events and interpret those events that determine our emotional state. This is why a person like Britney Spears who was given all the fame, fortune, beauty, opportunity and love could still feel DEPRESSED AND LOUSY and in the end turn to alcohol and drugs that destroyed her marriage, her career and her life. If you are not happy with who you are today, then a billion dollars and a million fans will NOT make you happy. Courtney Live, Lindsey Lohan, Michael Jackson, Mike Tyson, John Belushi and Whitney Houston are again examples of people who have had everything most people would dream of but destroyed it all because they did not control their inner thoughts!

At the same time, look at people like Nelson Mandela, Nick Vujicic (the guy born with no arms and legs), my fellow trainer Dr. William Tan (paralyzed at age 2) or Oprah Winfrey who were given the most painful and unfair environment and circumstances any person could think of! Oprah was born to a 13-year old mother with no father. She was physically and sexually abused for over several years and got pregnant at the age of 12 herself. She gave birth to a still born and was sent to juvenile detention for criminal and drug activity brought on by her caregivers. And yet, this woman remains extremely confident and happy, loving herself every step of the way. It is her inner passion and love that has not only allowed her to become one of the wealthiest women on the planet, but allowed her to inspire the lives of millions.

So, you have to understand that NO MATTER what happens of the outside, it cannot affect how you feel unless you choose to allow it to. It is ultimately how you think, interpret and respond to the events in your life that determine how you feel.

3) You Can Change Your Emotions in An Instant!

The third principle is to understand that depression (or any state for that matter) is NOT a disease like FLU that must take days, weeks or months to run its course before you can better. Depression is a state that you CAN change IMMEDIATELY the moment you CHOOSE to MAKE IT A MUST. The moment you decide that you are SICK and TIRED of feeling LOUSY and you will NO LONGER stand for it, is the moment YOU CHANGE. My guess is that there must be some secondary benefit in your subconscious mind that makes you hold on to this lousy feeling. Is it because it gets you attention? Is it because it feels more comfortable and safe to feel depressed than to go out in the world and take action and dream big? Is it an excuse you use to avoid doing stuff? You have to make it a MUST to let go! No secondary benefit is worth it…isn't it?

Once you understand the 3 principles, let me tell you a few things you can do immediately to change how you feel (this is exactly what I did to change my Own state).

1) Write down all reasons why you must change NOW! Write down all the painful consequences of continuing to hold on to this depression. How is it costing you in terms of your health, career, family…. At the same time, write down all the benefits and pleasure you will experience if you can feel totally happy and confident! Then, VISUALIZE yourself experiencing the freedom, joy and abundance in your career, family, relationships and health now

2) Change your focus. What we choose to focus on consistently determines our reality and our emotions. I want you to focus on what you are grateful for and what you appreciate in your life. I want you to write down at least 10-20 things which you appreciate about your life. Focus on what you HAVE and what you want to achieve!

3) How you use your physical body and your physical health is a major factor affecting your emotions. I want you to begin to CARRY yourself AS IF you were totally happy and on top of the world. When you give a wide SMILE and GRIN, walk with a DANCE in your step, SPEAK faster and in an excited voice, Breathe DEEPER, look UP and lift your eyebrows, you will be amazed how it changes how you feel. At the same time, work out your body! Go for a swim, run, play tennis, jump on a trampoline. When your body is active…it is IMPOSSIBLE for your mind to access depression

4) Only use powerful words on yourself. From now, on keeping telling yourself how happy, healthy and lucky you are. We think by talking to ourselves. If you keep telling yourself how great life is, your mind will focus on and create that reality for you…

It’s Not What Happens to You. It’s What You Do About It

Let me introduce you to Nick Vujicic of Melbourne, Australia.



You see, many people blame their circumstances (e.g. Bad luck, no support, no money, no opportunities) for making them feel bad and for them not achieving the results they want. Yet, we know that we are the sole creator of our thoughts, feelings, actions and results!

A phrase I often like to quote in my Patterns of Excellence™ Live Training is  Event + Response = Outcome. Many people believe that it is the EVENTS or circumstances in their lives that MAKE THEM feel bad or fail.

To them, Event = Outcome. These people often say things like, People discourage me and that is why I failed, I was born with no opportunities and no money and that is why I am poor. She made me angry!

We know that many (in fact, all) successful and happy people are not the way they are because they only have happy events. In fact, many role models find themselves in the most adverse circumstances. But what allows them to be happy and successful DESPITE their problems? They know that it is not what happens to them that affects their outcome, but rather how they choose to respond and what they choose to do about it that makes the difference. To them, Event + RESPONSE = Outcome™.

The events in our lives only account for 10%. It is the way we CHOOSE to respond to these EVENTS that shape our feelings, actions and results.

Nick was born with no arms and no legs. On the day of his birth, his dad left the room to throw up and his mother was in tears. As a child, he was teased and bullied by his friends in school. Instead of CHOOSING to focus on his limitations, what he could not do and making himself feel useless and depressed, he instead chose to focus on what he HAD…his inner strength, his mind and his voice. Instead of blaming God, he chose to create a powerful meaning to his circumstances.

He chose to believe that being born this way happened for a purpose. God was using him as a model to inspiration and heal the world. The meaning we choose to give to our life's experiences is the meaning we create. We can choose to see our adversities as Problems or opportunities as punishments or blessings.

He chose to live not just an ordinary and normal life, but to live an extraordinary one. He went on to graduate with a Bachelor of Commerce majoring in Financial Planning and Accounting. He is also a motivational speaker and has thus far spoken to over a MILLION People in Indonesia, Sweden, USA, Africa, etc… His current goals are to become financially independent by the age of 25, through real estate investments, to modify a car for himself to drive and to be interviewed and share his story on the ” Oprah Winfrey Show “! Writing several best-selling books has been one of his dreams and the title of his upcoming book will be called “No Arms, No Legs, No Worries!”

Do check out his inspiring video. His story is truly amazing…makes yours amazing as well!

How We Can All Change The World

As many of you may already know, I just love watching movies and learn alot from the messages that they hold for a better life. I just came back from watching ‘Evan Almighty’, the sequel to Bruce Almighty (played by Jim Carrey). Although this show is a hilarious comedy, there were many powerful lessons that I took home.

In the show, Congressman Baxter(played by Steve Carell) prays to God that he would like to ‘Change the World’ as a newly elected politician. At the same time, his wife, prays that the family comes closer together as they embark on their new life in New York. Well, be careful what you wish for….

One day, God (played by Morgan Freeman) appears and asks him to build an Ark and to save one pair of each animal and as many people as he can. God tells him that a flood is coming to wipe out the town. Baxter, who starts building the Ark, becomes known as the Noah of New York. Not only does he get suspended as congressman, but he becomes the laughing stock of the whole city.

His wife and kids, who thinks he has gone nuts, abandons him in shame and asks him to seek ‘professional help’. His wife blames him for humiliating and breaking up the family. Baxter, continues to build the Ark alone while everyone laughs and hurls insults at him.

Then God appears to his wife as a waiter in a diner and asks why she is feeling so sad. After she explained what her husband had done, the waiter explains…

When you pray for courage, God does not give you courage. He gives you the OPPORTUNITY to become courageous.

When you pray for your family to become closer, God does not give you that fuzzy warm feeling. Instead, he gives you the OPPORTUNITY to become closer and stronger

It was at that moment that his wife realized that she had abandoned her husband in his time of need and that it was in this time of difficulty, that lay the opportunity for the family to become closer. She then returned with the kids to help him build the Ark

And when Baxter later asks God why he was CHOSEN to build the Ark, God replies that it was because he prayed to ‘Change the World’. ‘But how can I change the world?’ he asks.

God replies, ‘ We can all change the world by perfoming A RANDOM ACT OF KINDNESS (ARK) everyday.

Now, even if you may not be a religious person, remember that whatever we ask for, we will attract with our thoughts. This is known as the Law of Attraction. The powerful message that we can take away is this…

When you ask for wealth, money will not fall from the sky. Instead, you will be given the opportunity to become wealthy. And remember that opportunities always come hidden as problems.

When you ask for confidence, God will not make you confident. Instead, you will be given opportunities to build your self confidence. Maybe, there is a chance for you to volunteer as a leader, give a speech, stand up to a bully etc…

If you wish for people to love you, you will not have people come up to you suddenly and give you hugs. Instead, you may start to notice opportiunities where you can give your love and kindness to others, thereby giving them them chance to love you. Is there something kind that you could do for a friend or loved one today?

If you wish for happiness, you will not wake up one day feeling happy for no reason. Again, you will begin to notice opportunities where you can perform random acts of kindness to friends, family, strangers and even animals. And I guarantee that doing it will make you feel happy.

Do You Want to Achieve More In Life? First, Be Grateful For What You Have

Recently, a man came up to me during one of my seminars and started complaining about all the things that was not working in his life. He said that he hated his wife, his kids wouldn’t listen to him and he was given more work by his boss and with no increment to show for it. It was apparent that he was completely miserable and frustrated with his life.

He asked, ‘ How can I make my life work? Why must my life be full of all these problems?’ ‘ Do you really want to know the answer to your question?’, I asked. ‘Of course!’, he said. My answer to him was, ‘ If you want to achieve more in your life and be truly happy, then you must first be GRATEFUL for what you have now. Focus on all the resources YOU HAVE instead of what you don’t have and you will begin to attract alot more success.’

At first, he asked, ‘ what do I have to be grateful for? NOTHING is working right for me!’ I believe that no matter how bad our life seems at a particular moment, there are still many things that we can be grateful for.

No matter how bad life seems, there is always someone out there alot worse off. At any point of time, we can be grateful for the fact that we have the chance to wake up and be alive, that we have the eyes to see and the legs to walk around with. We can be grateful for the family that loves us, the mind to think, the opportunity of a new day and the fact that we are born in a country that is free of war and famine. Be grateful that we are born in a time and place where with enough desire and hardwork, we can create any future we want for ourselves.

I must admit that in the past, I too fell into the trap of being ungrateful and complaining about the things that were not working in my life. As a result, I found myself never being happy for more than a few minutes. Everytime I was happy to achieve something (e.g. winning a business deal or buying a sports car), some problem would surface to make me unhappy again. I used to think that I could only be happy when my life was finally free from problems.

I finally realized that this way of thinking is a receipe for disaster. It would only make me miserable for the rest of my life. This is simply because life will ALWAYS be filled with problems and challenges. In fact, the more successful you become, the more problems you will have. I believe that Bill Gates and George Bush have a lot bigger problems that you and me put together. The question is whether we want to look at the tough experiences in our life as problems that plague us or as challenges that we can be excited to conquer. You see, the only people without any problems are those in the graveyard. So, if you are only going to be happy and grateful when you have no more worries, then just wait to die.

Today, most people are astonished how I can be so happy all the time, despite having a crazy work schedule and having to battle business problems daily. The answer is that when I wake up every morning, I put my feet on the ground and say ‘THANK YOU’ for all the things that I have in my life. No matter what problems I had at the moment, I would choose to focus on all the great things that I have that I should be grateful for.

Every morning, I thank God for the wife that I have, my two wonderful children, my parents who are still with me, the fact that I have a job that allows me to empower people’s lives, my wonderful staff who work so hard with me side by side and so much more.

Whenever I catch myself complaining about anything, I would read about people like Mr. Amri Samat who has been paralized in his wheel chair for the last 20 years and recently had half his body amputated because of an infection.

Making The Right Choices

I work in a line where my job is to help people and to empower them to achieve their goals and live their dreams in life. I enjoy what I do tremendously and I love my ‘work’. Self-empowerment simply means taking charge of your own life, you and only you decides what is right for you and where you want to go in the future, you make your own decisions and stick with them, not giving in to doubt or fear that you may have made the wrong choice. It is simply about taking your own life back into your own hands and listening to your inner self instead of relying on others for your future happiness and success.

Most of us rely on others to make decisions for us and we go along with them, this can be for many different reasons such as insecurity, low self-esteem or simply because it seems the easiest way to go. We do this in a variety of situations, some are as simple as choosing which movie to go and see and you follow along with your partner’s choice or where you want to go and eat. Taking your life back into your own hands and making your own choices is a simple as making healthy positive choices be they mental, emotional or physical. The following are all tips for making the right choices that enables you to become self-empowering.

We all have self-doubt at sometime or other, this is natural, but too many negative thoughts harm our way of thinking. Negative thinking however always seems to be so much easier to instil than positive, whether we care to believe it or not our feelings and how we feel or think does have a huge impact on our lives and what we think we are capable of achieving or not. We can so easily talk ourselves out of making decisions and choices if we listen to that small doubtful inner voice that so often shows up.

It is those two little words that so often come to mind even without paying them much attention, that cause so many problems. Once the what if have surfaced then self-doubt begins to take over every time and we can then go from a positive attitude to a negative one very quickly. Affirmations work well for changing negative thinking into positive thinking and affirmations are simply positive short statements that are repeated to oneself out loud or just in the mind. Write down four or five simple short statements and when self-doubt and the creep in consciously replace it with one of your chosen affirmations.

Realise that it is you and only you which puts these negative thoughts there, for example if you get stuck in a traffic jam then you can curse and work yourself up all you want but it wont change the fact that your stuck in a jam. Do not blame other drivers, the road works holding you up etc., take responsibility for the fact that you chose to drive that way, you set off at that particular time and instead of stressing yourself and those around you just let it go and focus on aspects that are more positive while you are stuck. Take this time to listen to that new CD you bought, read the report from your briefcase, practise affirmations or a stress reducing exercise, there are many more positive things you can do during this time than think negative.

Start with the little everyday choices that you are faced with, for example when asked what movie you want to go and see, stop and think and make a choice don’t just ask what your partner or friend would like to see. When asked which restaurant you would like to go to, give a decisive answer. Take control of your life in the small ways first and build up gradually until you are comfortable with this new way of thinking.

It will probably take a while for this new, more confident and positive way of thinking becomes easy, after all you have let negative thoughts and feelings rule your life for so long, they wont change overnight. By practising and pulling yourself up when negative thoughts and feelings enter your mind and doing this day in and day out slowly you will gain control back over your life and become more self-empowered.

Your True Wealth & Security Lies in Your Mindset And Nobody Can Take This Away From You!

A few days ago, a middle-aged gentleman attended my Patterns of Excellence Introductory Seminar and signed up. He told me that he wanted to re-think and re-plan his life’s strategy as he felt like he wasn’t going anywhere in his career. What frustrated him was that he used to be very successful in school. He was the perfect student who studied hard, got top grades and went to Raffles Institution, Raffles Junior Colleges and to NUS, where he got a first class honors degree.

He did everything by the book and coudn’t understand why he had less success and money than some of his friends who were from lousier schools and had poorer grades. ‘Where did I go wrong?’, he asked me.

He always wanted to attend my program and learn NLP but procrastinated for a long time. What really made him take action was that he had enough about working so hard, but always getting passed up for a promotion. What’s worse was that his company (an MNC) was undergoing a restructuring and there was a high posisbility that he may get retrenched. At the age of 43, he had the fear of what he was going to do if it should happen to him. He came to me looking for answers.

I explained that the world had changed so much since our parents time and the advice they gave us in the past will not only NOT help us succeed, but it may kill us. In the past, change happened slowly and people would work for the same company their entire lives. In the old days, parents gave good advice like, ‘ study hard. Get good grades. find a good job with a good company. do as you are told. don’t rock the boat. the longer you stay and the more loyal you are, your value and pay will automatically increase until you finally get to retire at 50 with a nice secure pension.’

However, the world we live in today is vastly different. Technology and knowledge is changing so fast that 80% of what you learn in school is OBSOLETE by the time you graduate. The nature of jobs are changing so fast that 50% of the jobs that exist today will not exist or exist in a different form 10 years from now. So what does this mean? This means that when you work for a company today, there is no job or income security anymore. The longer you stay in a company, your value will begin to decline (if you don’t upgrade yourself continously and do things differentl). By the time you hit 45-50 years old, there is a 70% chance of being retrenched! Why? becasue your boss will know taht he can hire someone half your age, half your pay, double your energy, doing the same job! And even if you can find another job, it will probably be at a much much lower pay!

Many people who are holding their prestigious degrees and in prestigous positions (Senior managers, Vice-presidents, directors) think they have security. But it is really an ILLUSION of security. Because you do not own your job or your income. Both these can be taken away from us at any time.

So what will give us true income, true freedom and true security? The answer is in continually investing in yourself and upgrading yourself. Your true wealth and security lies in your mindset and your personal mastery skills in being able to continually motivate yourself and overcome adversity. No one can take this away from you! With the right mindset and personals success strategies, you will be able to ride the sea of changes and take charge of the environment, instead of allowing the environment take charge of you! You have to begin to master your mind and design your own destiny (or someone will design it for you)

Problems Are God’s Way Of Tapping You On the Shoulder

I just completed one of my final Introductory Seminars for my Patterns of Excellence Program and am happy to report that my next Intake 5-8 April is Almost Full. However, I want to relate to you an interesting experience I had with one of the participants who signed up last night.

He told me that the reason he chose to sign up eventually (he heard about my program 3 years ago, but never took action) was because his problems has become so severe that he could not take it anymore. His wife decided to leave him, he lost his job and suffered a mild heart attack just a few days ago. All this pain finally drove him to do something to change his life.

He told me that he wanted to come to the program to learn how to make all his problems go away. he said he wanted to be a successful and happy person like me who seemed to have no problems. He will only be happy if his life was free of problems and he believed that I could help him achieve this.

That’s when I stopped him and said, ‘ You have got the WHOLE WRONG IDEA!’ ‘ I cannot make your problems go away!’ In fact, I believe that the more successful you are, the more problems you will have. Everyone has problems at any given point of time in their lives. In fact, I would bet that Bill Gates (the world’s richest man) has his own set of problems and I can tell you that his problems are a lot bigger than yours and mine.

The only people without problems are those lying in the graveyard. So, if you want to have no problems, then GO AND DIE (of course I did not say this…he would have slapped me and not signed up).

But the question people always ask is why must life be full of problems? Why can’t everything go the way we want? Why must things be so difficult? Why do some people get hit with such big problems in life sometimes? (e.g. kids run away, wife leaves them, diagnosed with cancer, business failure).

Well, I believe that whenever a ‘problem’ arises in our life, it is God’s way of tapping us on the shoulder and telling us that we need to learn something or change our thoughts or actions.

If we keeping falling ill, it’s a tap on the shoulder that we are not eating right, not exercising enough or thinking of negative thoughts (emotional stress is the number of cause of physical illness). If our kids don’t want to listen to us, it’s a tap on a shoulder that we are not listening or spending enough time with them.

If you receive complaints about your work, it is a tap on the shoulder that you are not putting enough effort or you are doing things the wrong way. If you keep getting into arguments with your partner, it is a tap on the shoulder that you doing what is required to sustain a good relationship.

When we acknowldege God’s taps, learn the lesson and take positive action, we will move closer towards our goals and dreams in life. The trouble with most people is that they IGNORE the taps by justifying, avoiding, denying, giving excuses or blaming someone else for the problems arising. They say things like ‘ The stupid boss is just finding fault!’, ‘the clients are just unreasonable’, ‘ my kids are so ungrateful and defiant’, ‘ these chest pains will go away’, ‘ I wish my wife will quit nagging…just ignore her’.

So, what does God do when you don’t learn and do something to his taps? He starts tapping EVEN HARDER! This is when your problems start getting worst! Your business starts losing clients, the chest pains get worst, your kids start arguing and shouting back, quarrels with your partner gets more and more frequent.

And if you continue to IGNORE these taps, God will do whatever it takes until he gets his message across to you that you need to change your thoughts and actions. He will HIT YOU ON THE HEAD WITH A BRICK. This is when those major problems whack you in life… Your partner leaves you, your kids run away from home, you suffer a heart attack or you go bankrupt.

So, how do people choose to respond when they get hit with a brick? Some people will spend keep rubbing their head and complain of how much it hurts. These are the people who will just wallow in self-pity and depression. Some people will blame the person who threw the brick at them. These are the blamers in life.

Some people will reflect and ask, ‘what must I learn from this?’ ‘What is God trying to tell me?’. By asking this question and reflecting, they will finally get the message and start changing their life for the better. So, how are YOU dealing with God’s shoulder taps now???

Are You a Monkey With Your Hand Stuck in a Coconut

Recently a man came up to me and told me how he wanted so much to achieve financial freedom and after listening to a 3-hour free seminar,he was even more inspired. However, he kept hesitating to sign up for the course.

What kept him from signing up was his fear and limiting belief that he was a slow learner and that he would not be able to learn and use all the strategies. He kept saying that he was bad at math and that he found investing too risky to try. He kept lamenting that he has no self-confidence and that he had many bad habits (like giving up on things half-way) that would prevent him from benefiting from Wealth Academy.

Then he came up with another reason that paying $3,000+ for the course would be equivalent to his one month’s salary. He was just not willing to invest one-month of salary for a course that he did not believe could help him because of all his own limitations.

At that moment, it reminded me of a story I heard long time ago. It is a true story of how tribesmen caught monkeys in Africa. What they would do would be to take a coconut and make a hole that is just big enough for a monkey’s hand to go into. However, once the hand is closed, it will not be able to come out. They would then tie this coconut to a tree. Next, they would place a handful of peanuts into the coconut and leave a trail of it along the ground all the way to the nearby forest. They would then sit and wait patiently.

Sure enough, a monkey would soon appear and start picking up the peanuts one by one. Upon reaching the coconut, he would plunge his hand into the large fruit and grab as many peanuts as he can. The next thing he knows, his hand is trapped in the coconut. With his fist full of nuts, he cannot take his hand out.

Once knowing that it has been trapped, the monkey will then scream and shout and alert all the tribesmen who will then come along and capture the monkey! This poor monkey would then lose its freedom forever.

Now, at any point in time, could the monkey have ACTUALLY escaped? Of couse he could. All he had to do was to LET THE PEANUTS GO. But you know what? The nature of the monkey is such that it would NEVER LET GO of its peanuts. Why? Because it is so afraid of losing it. As a result, the monkey loses more than just his peanuts…he loses HIS FREEDOM!

I told this story to the man and told him, do you realize that you are acting like this monkey right now? I said it with as much tact as I could to prevent being slapped in the face. You hold on so tightly to your limiting beliefs, habits and $3,000 that you miss out on your chance of escaping from the rat race and the mediocrity of life and achieving FINANCIAL FREEDOM.

Is it really worth holding onto all these things just because it feels safe and comfortable to do so? How long are you going to be trapped and keep on complaining? I said to him, ‘let go of your past, your peanuts and go for something much bigger in life that your deserve’. ‘Go for your success and financial freedom’.

The Law of Attraction

Recently, I watched a video called ‘The Secret’ and it is a documentary on a very old but powerful concept called the LAW OF ATTRACTION. This documentary has been so powerful and life changing that it was featured recently on ‘Oprah Primetime’ and ‘Larry King Live’. When I watched the video, it reminded me of how I used this powerful law of attraction to attract all the wealth and success that I now have into my life.

The amazing thing was that I began using the law of attraction from the age of 14, way before I actually learnt about it formally. In fact, I first learnt about this law by reading very old wealth books (back in the 1970s-1980s) called ‘The Science of Getting Rich by Wallance Wattles’ and ‘You Were Born Rich by Bob Proctor’.

So what is the LAW OF ATTRACTION?

This law states that whatever you are experiencing in your life (e.g. poverty, wealth, bad luck, good luck, opportunities, problems) is the result of what you have been attracting by your thoughts.
People now know that every thought we have generates brain waves of a particular frequency. In fact, according to Quantum theory, Einstein said that every thought is a quantum of energy that vibrates at a particular frequency.

These thoughts that we generate penetrate time and space, acting as ‘personal magnets’. that reach out and ‘grab’ other similarly charged thoughts, attracting them into physical reality.
In other words, If you think about wealth, success and luck, you will send out thoughts of that postive frequency to the collective consciousness (metaphysical universe) and you will attract wealth, success and luck into your life. Similarly, If you keeping thinking that you have bad luck or keeping thinking of what you DO NOT WANT (e.g. problems, debt, unreasonable customers, dishonest people), you too will attract these elements into your life. The law of attraction is working for you every minute of every day whether you want it to or not!

Have you expereinced a time when you thought of meeting a particular person or a particular kind of person and the next thing you know, he/she calls or bumps into you? FReaky isn’t it? I experience it ALL THE TIME. And this is the law of attraction that is working. Have you ever thought of buying a particular brand of car or mobile phone and you keep noticng it popping up everywhere around you? Again, this is the law of attraction. You attract what you think about all the time.

This law is not new at all. It has been around for centuries. The ancient greeks and babylonians have known about this law and have used it for hundreds of years. In fact, one of the earliest known written formulations of the Law is contained in the 1906 book ‘Thought Vibration or the Law of Attraction in the Thought World’ by William Walker Atkinson. Almost all the major religions have talked about this law in one way or another.
“All that we are is the result of what we have thought.” – Buddha
‘And I say unto you, Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you’.- Luke 11:9

Let me share how amazing this law of attraction has been for me over the years…

1) When I was a teen, I used to see myself on stage addressing thousands of people, and it is part of my reality today

2) When I was young, I would keep seeing myself living in a big landed house driving a convertible…and this is my reality now

3) I used to imagine myself signing autographs at the bookshops and see my books on the best-sellers shelf… and again, it is a reality today

4) Recently, I kept thinking of the fact that I needed to expand my company and programs to different countries, The next thing I knew, I received hundreds of phone calls from people from Australia, Vietnam, Spane, Mauritius, Indonesia, wanting to become my business parter (and I did not even put an ad out!!!)

The example are really endless!!!. So, how can you get this law to work for you? What I suggest you you take a huge piece of paper (e.g. majong Paper) and past pictures of all things that you want to attract into your life. Paste in in a place where you know you will look at it everyday before you go to work. I guarantee that if you look at the ‘DREAM BOARD’ for 5 minutes a day, you will begin experiencing many of these desires coming into your life.

If you want to read more about the Law of Attraction, go to: The Forgotten Laws.

Three Choices that Make You Who You Are

One power that has given to us by our creator is the power to choose. The power of free will. I believe that the person you are today is the result of all the choices you have made in the past.

Ten years from now, you will definitely become 10 years older. if you are 20 today, you will be 30 and if you are 30 today, you will be 40 a decade from now. The question is who would you have become? What would you have achieved?

The answer lies in three major choices that you make every single day. It is what I call the three choices that make you who you are.

1) The People You Choose to Spend Time With

As social beings, we have the tendency of picking up, matching and following the beliefs, attitudes and habits of the people who surround us. If the people you mix with have negative thoughts, complain all the time and lack self-belief, then the chances are that you will become that way as well.

If the people around you constantly think positive, are self-motivated and set high standards, then you will become that way as well. Since we were young, we have been subconsciously picking up the thought and behavioral patterns of the people around us. Haven’t you notice times when you spoke just like your friends or your mother? Have you noticed times when you behaved just like your friends? It is common sense that if you surround a positvely charged magnet with 10 negative ones, the positive magnet will soon follow the charges of the rest.

This is why there are some people who get all motivated and positive after going for a personal development training but soon go back to their disempowered ways? When they leave the seminar, they go back to a negative environment where people tell them all day that life sucks and that things are hopeless. A seminar can immerse you in a powerful environment for 4-5 days, but the wrong friends will immerse you in a damaging environment for the rest of your life!

Let me ask you this think about this… Write down the names of 5 people you spend most of your time with. Now look at these names and ask yourself: Do these people bring out the best in me? Do they inspire me?

Do they challenge me? Do they uplift me? Or do these people make me feel lousy and bring me down?

Think of the beliefs, attitudes, behaviors and standards that these five people have for themselves. Are these the beliefs that I want for myself? Are these the attitudes that will help me succeed? If the answer is yes, then GREAT. If the answer is no, then it is time you change who you spend time with. If you want to succeed, you have to mix with people who are successful (or who aspire to be successful). If you want to be highly motivated, you have to mix with people who are highly motivated.

The main reason why many of the participants from my programs (e.g. Patterns of Excellence, wealth Academy etc…) create powerful and long lasting changes is because of the new friendships that are forged during the program. I have developed and implemented a system where program graduates form into success groups where they keep each other in check and develop a powerful new group culture where wealth and success in the norm.

2) What You Choose to Put into Your Mind

The second thing that makes you who you are is what you choose to put into your mind! What are the books you choose to read? What are the magazines you choose to read? When you read the newspapers, which section to you focus on? Which websites do you spend time surfing on? What bookmarks are in your web brower? What seminars do you choose to go to?

I often find it very funny when someone tells me that they want to increase their wealth. Yet, they read FHM and sports magazines (instead of SmartInvestor, The Edge and Fortune). They spend their time surfing entertainment sites (instead of moneycentral.com, sgx.com, cnn.com). They read Singapore ghost stories (instead of business & financial books). They rather spend their time and money watching a movie or going on holiday than attending financial management and investment seminar. They input negative thoughts like ‘why am I so poor?’ instead of focusing on thoughts like ‘ how can I learn the strategies to become rich?’

So the second lesson is that if you want to excel in something (e.g. health, success and wealth), you have to invest in your education and learn everything you can about it. Fill you mind with knowldege and thoughts of wealth and you become wealthy.

3) The Dreams You Choose to Have

People who become better and better every day and move towards their goals do so because they have big and inspiring dreams that fill their minds the moment they open their eyes in the morning. If you have big dreams of becoming the best in your field, building a church/mosque/temple, sending your children to the best schools, buying a landed property, building your own business, then you will live each and every day with passion, focus and a sense of purpose. Every decision you take and every action you take will be purposeful. As a result, you will move closer and closer to you goals every day.

However, if you have no dreams that inspire you out of bed. If you have no goals that fill your mind every moment, then you will tend to follow the decisions and actions of others blindly. You will tend to go in all directions with little sense of purpose. You will live your life day by day, without much meaning. And where you will end up 10 years from now will not be by YOUR plan, but by the plan that others have set for you.

Cool Business Ideas

I was surfing around the web and I came across this pretty neat blog called Cool Business Ideas where they showcase, well… cool business ideas from around the world.

As a businessman myself, I’m always interested in how people can come up with new wacky, out of the box ways to do business and make a profit. And so I found myself browsing through the blog learning about the many new and different products and ideas that are pooping up everywhere. People are simply amazing.

Now I know there’s a handphone for diabetics which helps measure and monitor blood sugar levels, there’s a fridge which now allows you to make phone calls, listen to music and watch DVDs on it. My fridge is just a fridge!

In all, I found it a very interesting and entertaining read. If you’re looking for inspiration or ideas about business or products, Cool Business Ideas is a pretty good place to start in my opinion.

Have a look see: Cool Business Ideas

Masterminding Your Way To Success!

I know I wrote the book called Secrets Of Self-Made Millionaires but really there’s no such thing as a “Self-Made” millionaire. You see, I’m actually a “TEAM-Made” millionaire! And it’s true. I couldn’t have got to where I am today if not fo the people I have around me.

We all have different strengths and weaknesses and instead of wanting to become a hero and tackle everything yourself, isn’t it so much smarter to ally yourself with partners who can help you where you are weakest at?

For example, a lot of people often ask me how do I manage to find the time to run and manage 3 full-time businesses which generate over $20 million in revenue yearly?

The answer is I don’t!
My partners are actually the ones who run and manage the company and I don’t really handle a lot of that at all. You see, my passion is NOT in managing and running a company. My passion and strength lies more with speaking, creating new ideas and products for the company. That’s where I add the most value to the business.

I could run the company myself, yes, but I would be doing a poorer job than what my partner is doing now. You see, his strength is in managing and running a business. That’s where he adds the most value.
So you see, it is because if this superstar team that I have around me that has enable me (or us) to grow our business even faster and more successfully.

And we would have never been anywhere near this good if all of us individually attempted to do all of it by ourselves. Most likely, we would have gotten nowhere!
Don’t underestimate the power of a TEAM.

You too must learn how to create a team if you want to become successful, because like I said earlier, I’ve never really seen a “self-made” millionaire before. If you did, he probably just won the lottery and nothing else.

Discover how you can harness the power of a team and Mastermind your way to success!

From Bankrupt to Bankroll

In one of the last few posts, I talked about 72-year old Lim Tow Yong who re-emerged from bankruptcy to rebuild his million-dollar fortune at age 82. Here is another really inspiring story of a friend of mine who bounced back from bankruptcy and is now earning US$5,000-US$7,000 a month from the comfort of his own home. His name is Conrad Alvin Lim and he is now a full time professional Options Trader.

I first got to know Conrad 4-5 years ago when he was still in the media & advertising industry. He was a free lance videographer who did work for my advertising agency. Little did I know at that time that he was struggling to provide for his family.

For over 20 years, Conrad was an independent commercial producer in the Media & Advertising industry. He became the first and only privateer to own and re-sell national television airtime through a series of self-produced TV programs.

However, after a series of life changing failures from the Asian Financial Crisis and recent recession, Conrad went into bankruptcy. As a former business owner nearing his 40s, employment as a bankrupt was hard to come by so he took on ad-hoc and freelance work to make a living for his family.

As the free lance media work became more competitive, Conrad decided to explore trading (Options & Stocks) to create an alternative source of income two years ago. He joined Options trading workshops conducted by a number of the so-called ‘Gurus’ in Singapore. However, when he started applying what these mainstream options gurus had taught, he lost even more money (close to US$5,000) and his already meager savings has been further thinned out. So why did he lose money when he followed strictly what these gurus had taught?

He found that most of the investment gurus currently in the market now, made their money in markets like the tech boom and post recession spike. Their methods of trading are based on those types of markets and on their psychological backgrounds. For the last two years, the market was nothing like the ones the gurus had back in the days of the solid bull run. Also, the Options workshop he attended did not equip the participants with enough fundamental and technical analysis training so crucially required in trading for a living.
Instead of being disillusioned and choosing to give up, Conrad resolved to give up his media career to concentrate on learning the art of trading for a living. He vowed to master this craft and to make back his losses as soon as possible.

He spent days at the library pouring over any and all material available, he blazed online for hours and attended more respectable workshops to refine his art. He identified the failures from his first attempt and the weaknesses of certain strategies he had learnt. He started to craft his own unique trading strategies (like the 5-day Pre-Earnings Game and Intra-day Scalping) that could make him consistent profits in bad markets as well as good. And most importantly…in a very safe way.

Within less than a year, he managed to make enough consistent profits of US$5,000- US$7,000 a month (with just US$5,000 in capital) to not only pay for his monthly expenses, but to pay off a huge part of his debt that he owed from his business failure 5 years ago. One of the reasons he impresses me so much is that he had the tenacity to fight on and to master a skill, even though he met with painful setbacks at the beginning. This is the mark of a successful people. So many people I know start a new career/income startegy like trading, Internet marketing, insurance etc… The moment they don’t see huge returns in the beginning or if they lose some money, they start to give up and blame the whole world. Well, I believe that nothing comes easy and God will test your faith and resiliance before bestowing on you the fruits of your labour.

In fact, I was totally blown away when I saw Conrad earn over US$1,600 in just under 6 minutes through his strategy of intra-day scalping. I thought I was good at making money investing, but this dude takes the cake.
I have always believed that the key to building a pwoerful company is to indendtifying great talent and to invite them to join you. After much persuading, I am happy to announce that I managed to convince Conrad to join Adam Khoo Learning Technologies Group as our Investment Strategist. Conrad will be speaking at our next Wealth Academy Seminar as well! He also conducts very personal coaching sessions for those who are serious about become a full time trader or individuals who was to use trading to create a viable source of additional income.

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Bankrupt at 72 Years Old, Millionaire Again at 82!

In this Post, I would like highlight an EXTREMELY inspiring article I read on the Sunday Times (31st October 2006) entitiled ‘ 82-year-old Comeback Kid Bounces back from Bankruptcy’.

At the age of 72 years old, Lim Tow Yong was declared a BANKRUPT. The company he founded in the 1960s, Emporium Group Holdings which he built up to a sales revenue of $300 million has been crippled by the recession of the mid-80s and severe competition. His company chalked up debts of over $100 million.
Most people at the age of 72 would either be dead or half-dead. Instead of feeling sorry for himself, he picked himself up decided to START ALL OVER AGAIN at the age of 72. He began going back into the retail business by setting up joint ventures with partners in Sabah, Labuan and Brunei.

Ten years later, at the age of 82, he sold his 17 stores and supermarkets for $4.2 million makeing him a millionaire all over again! Can you imagine this? I truly salute this man.

So for all those of you who are whining, bitchng and complaining that you are too old, too tired and no money to make your millions, then stick this article on yoru wall and stare at it every single day. Think about it. This man not only started with ZERO, he started with -$XXXX. And at the age of 72, don’t you ever dare tell me that you don’t have more energy than him. These are the stories I read that continue to remind me of the POWER OF THE HUMAN SPIRIT and that everything is possible when you believe in yourself.

Never ever give up. Fight till the very end. I remember watching Rocky (the movie about boxing) whe Rocky Balboa (Sylvester Stallone) was being bashed up his stronger opponent. It looked so helpless and it seemed impossible for him to fight back and win.

When he turned to face his coach, his coach Micky shouted to him ‘ I DON’T HEAR NO BELL’. ‘IF I DON’T HEAR NO BELL, THEN YOU KEEP FIGHTING!’ (The Bell signals that the match is over)
So, until you HEAR THE BELL that your life is over and that you are DEAD, you KEEP FIGHTING!

Fear Cannot Not Stop Us From Dying, But it Stop Us From Really Living

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Aim to Be Better Than Me? Absolutely!

This is in response to a comment made on my last posting. The comment was ‘ wow… u took 5 subjects and scored all As? Better than Adam…haha…but that does not mean Adam is lousier than you…’ by Koh
I have always said that anyone can do exactly what I have done and a whole lot more. I tell all my participants that their mission is not to be as good as me, but to aim to be even better. I believe that the hallmark of a great teacher is one who can train people who are better than you. If not, there is no growth! It has taken me over 12 years to fine tune all my learning and wealth creation strategies. However, when my students open their minds to truly learn and apply what I teach, they get the essence, teachings and lessons I have accumulated over the years within a few days. They are on a much shorter learning curve than I am. So, theoratcally, they should and could be better.

I am be proud of my OWN achievements but I am EVEN MORE proud of many of my students who have used my strategies and surpassed what I done within a shorter period of time. Besides Samantha, I would like to just share a few really inspiring stories. Nan Aisyah (KL, Malaysia) from 5As and 5Bs in her Prelims, scored 10A1s for SPM (Malaysian equivalent of O levels) 2 months after my training program.

Doris Ng (Singapore) was offered a scholarship by NUS (engineering) to skip her Masters and do her PhD in Chemical Engineering. So far, she has scored an ‘A’ in every single doctorate module. Before my training, she only managed to get a merit bachelors degree (without Honors). One of my first studnets in the Patterns of Excellence Program, Dr. Clemen Chiang (the guy you see in the news everyday) achieved his first million within 2 years after my training program where he set his goals to do so. I, instead took over 7 years to achieve my first million (I started my first biz at 15 years old). I must say thought that out of the 7 years, the first 5 years were really paying for al the stupid mistakes I made and the majority of my wealth and succcess was generated in teh last 2 years.

ONe reason why many smart people are never able to grow their business into a powerful and big company is because they adopt the mindset that ‘nobody can be as good as me’. So, they subconsciously hire ‘yes men’ who are less capable than them. In fact, they feel threatened when others outshine them. They do all the IMPORTANT jobs themselves and was listen to new ideas from their staff (afterall, ‘I am the smartest’ is their mentality.)

My belief is very different. IN fact, I believe that if you as the CEO (owner, founder) are the smartest guy in the company, then YOU ARE IN TROUBLE! It means that your company (made up of all your staff) are NOT great, Only you are great! Which means, your company can never grow beyond a one-man show. My secret of being able to grow Adam Khoo Learning Technologies Group (AKLTG) so rapidly and massively is because I keep idenitifying and hiring people who are more talented than me in different areas and empower them to do their thing! In fact, when some studnets comment that one of my trainers is more dynamic than me, it MAKES ME HAPPY AND PROUD. It means that I have built a dream team that can work without ME! The true success of an entrepreneur is his ability to make himself OBSOLETE, just like the way Bill Gate and Warren Buffett has. It is only this way that you can step out of your business and enjoy a truly passive income stream!

 -- Change Your Life To A Better You Now! --

I Have Achieved So Much…But I Am Still Not Happy!

A few days ago, I good friend of my introduced me to a very successful manager in the financial planning industry. During the conversation, he shared with me that no matter how much he had achieved in his career and his wealth (and he was indeed extremely successful by most people’s standards), his happiness seemed to last for only a few minutes. Soon after, he would feel unhappy again. He could not understand why no matter what he did or achieved, he was not happy with his life. In fact, he felt really down and even depressed at times.

I immediately emphasized with him and knew I could help him. Why? Because I was in that same situation about a year ago. Yes! Many people do not know this (except my wife and best friends), but in 2005, despite achieve phenomenal success in my business (Profits grew 55%), Income (I made over $1.2m) and family goals (I had my second child), believe or not… I felt depressed! I was not happy and I did not know why!

There I was living a life most people would only dream of and I had people thanking me every day (personally or through email and cards) on how I had changed their life, and I did not feel happy for very long. After months of deep reflection, I FINALLY got enlightened and found the SECRET of HAPPINESS. Today, everything can go wrong and I would still laugh and feel happy! I felt that I needed to share my discovery with this person who fell in the same trap I was in one year ago!

So what is the secret to happiness and why wasn’t I happy despite all the material success? I found out that the reason I was not happy was because of the way I defined happiness to myself. You see, all of us set up mental ‘rules’ on when we should or should not be happy. I discovered that my definition for happiness was ‘when everything goes my way and when I have no problems…then I will be happy’. No wonder I was not happy!!! Because, everytime I solved a problem or achieved a goal, another problem will surface or something will not go as I expected (this is life!), then I will be unhappy AGAIN! I figured that if I continued to hold on to this crazy definition, then I will never be happy for very long in my whole life.

Why? Because there will NEVER come a time when there are no problems to solve. There will never be a day when everything goes exacty the way we planned. Many people think that when they get a promotion, increase their income or build a business, they will have less problems. In fact, the more successful you get, the more and the bigger the problems will get! The only people with no problems are the ones who are buried 6 feet underground!

What’s the point in having everything if you are not happy? It’s INSANE! So, this is when I DECIDED that I would CHANGE my definition for happiness. I told myself that I must give myself the permission to be happy. From that day of enlightenment, I decided that my definition of happiness would be ‘ as long as I give my best and act according to my values…I will be happy…no matter what the outcome!’ The amazing thing is that the moment I made that decision, I immediately felt lighter and found myself smiling and laughing! Many of us wake up on certain days feeling bad for no good reason right? So, I told myself, ‘Why not feel good everyday for no good reason?’

So instead of achieving goals to be happy, I would focus on happily achieving goals! In fact my personal motto is ‘Have Fun, Make a Difference and Make Money’. Notice that MAKE MONEY is the last one. Why? Making money should not be the main focus in life. The main focus should be doing what you love, having fun and making a difference in people’s lives! Whatever occupation you are in, you create value to another human being. Be it healing them physically (like a doctor) or finding them a dream home (like a real estate agent). When you focus on creating value to others, money and wealth will flow into your life as a by-product!

Giving myself permission to be happy was one of the greatest breakthroughs of my life. I guess, I never gave myself permission to be happy because I felt that deep down inside, I didn’t deserve it. I kept feeling that I what I was doing was not good enough. While this belief drove me to keep working harder to improve myself and achieve more, it simultaneously sabotaged me by making me miss out on the true meaning of being alive and living life! I guess, I was also afraid that if I became happy and contented, I would become complacent. Let me tell you that this is totally not true. You can feel happy and grateful for what you have AND have the burning desire to reach out and do more and make a bigger difference in the world!

During many of my seminars, the most common goal that I see people write down is ‘to be happy.’ Well, if this happens to be your goal as well, let me share with you a revelation. You will NEVER achieve this goal! Why? because HAPPINESS is NOT a goal! HAPPINESS is a STATE OF MIND! If you cannot be happy today, you will not be happy when you have $10 million (even if you are happy, it won’t last long). I have seen super rich Tai Tais with their Mercedes S-Class and their million dollar bungalows wearing Prada from head to toe, without having to work a day in their lives. Yet, they feel miserable because their hairdresser messed up their hairdo or because their friend did not invite them for Majong.

I have also seen a family of 8 cramped together in a one-room HDB flat laughing together as they enjoy each other’s company watching TV. They seemed truly happy with life! You see, again HAPPINESS is a state of mind. You have to learn how to be happy NOW, if not it will never happen no matter what you achieve. So how do you get yourself to feel happy (or sad for that matter)?

Through NLP (Neuro-Lingustic Programming), I discovered that your emotional state is determined by the thoughts you hold in your mind as well as the physiology you adopt (i..e facial expression, posture, breathing patterns). To feel absolutely happy, all you have to do is to think about all the things that you have in your life that you are grateful for! Think of all the things that are working in your life that you are taking for granted! (Your good health, your loving family, your youth). Ask yourself,’ what am I grateful for?’

Think of all the great possibilities that lay before you! And the most powerful thing you can do to make yourself feel happy is to SMILE! That’s right! When you smile, you actually feel happier! Why? It is not just psychological, but smiling actually activates a bio-chemical response. When you smile, your brain releases a chemical called Serotonin that makes you feel happy! Serotonin is actually an anti-depressant prescribed by psychiatrist, but the amazing thing is that you can manufacture this same powerful happy drug in your own mind!

The main message I would like to share in this post is that you have to take charge of your own emotional states! No one (or nothing) can make you feel bad except yourself and nothing can make you feel good except yourself. So,…be HAPPY!

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The Power of 1 + 1 = 11

I would really like to share with everyone the power of sharing and the power of synergy. Some of you may have noticed my face appearing in alot more ads as usual. In fact, many of the ads my face appears in are the ads of ERC (Entrepreneur’s Resource Centre) which runs leading entrepreneurship programs (both Diploma and Degree).

Well, the reason this is happening is because AKLTG and ERC recently had a strategic alliance where we are now promoting each other’s courses and programs. For example ERC’s Diploma in Entreprise Development has incorporated my ‘Patterns of Excellence Program as one of its core modules. ERC’s Diploma in Wealth Management has incorporated my Wealth Academy as one of its core modules. As such, Whenever ERC sells their Diploma programs, they are effectively sellings seats in my seminars! These additional students that come to me as a result of ERC’s diploma program easily adds an extra $1 million + in revenue to AKLTG.

At the same time, I actively promote ERC’s diploma programs whenever I run previews for my Wealth Academy and Patterns of Excellence Programs, adding to their revenue as well. In addition, by leveraging on my brand name, ERC gets to further build their already strong credibility and are able to reach out to the studnet’s segment which they are new in.

The funny thing is that before I met up with the founder Andy Ong (who happens to also be a super high achiever, self made millionaire and author of 7 books), we saw each other as indirect competitors. In additon, he had the impression that I was an egotistical asshole and I too was told that he was an egotistical asshole.

So we had bad impression with each other before we met, which is one of the reasons we never ever attempted to get together. We found out later it was a mutual acquaintance who painted this totally inaccurate picture we had of each other. Turns out, Andy is really a nice guy…and has the same vision, values and srive as me (we found out is was the mutual acquaintance who was the real asshole who played us both out). I guess one big lesson to learn is that we should never form generalizations of other people (no matter what others say) until we really get to meet them ourselves.

After just one round of golf, we really hit it off and decided to forge this alliance which has proven a super big win-win for both parties. Although, we have to now share the profits of our participants with each other, the resultant comined marketing effort has resulted in the pie growing even BIGGER for both of us. The result? higher profits for both parties.

I have always believed that it is important to share. Some of you may not know this, but I only own 50% of AKLTG and I only own 30%-50% of all my other 7 companies (all consolidated into 3 main holding companies). In fact, I came up with ALL THE INVESTMENT money and gave away free shares to my partners. Some people think I am stupid as I would be earning less profits by giving away shares.

However, I have learnt in life that when you give shares to good partners, they will add so much value to your company that they will grow the original pie so many fold that you will find that everyone earns more and benefits more in the end. The reason I see so many businessmen remaining as one-man shows and never being able to expand their businesses is because they are so afraid of sharing their ideas, shares and profits.

So although they hold 100% of the shares, it is 100% of a very small pie. However, because I gave away 50% of my company to great partners, they have increased my pie to 100th fold so that 100% of this super pie is much much more than 100% of a tiny pie.

I always like to give the example of Bill Gates and Microsoft. Bill Gates is the richest man in the world. Yet, does he own 100% of Microsoft? No! He started out owning only 50% and now, he owns less than 20% of the company. In fact, out of the 10 riches men in the world, 3 of them (i.e. Bill Gates, Steve Balmer & Paul Allen) come from the SAME company, Mircosoft! I always say, it is always better to own 10% of a $100 million company than 100% of nothing!

Whenever I run my Wealth Academy programs, the biggets fear I hear from my participants in their business development proces is ,’ what if I share my ideas with people like investors, partners, friends and they STEAL IT?’ Well, let me say that IDEAS are CHEAP and FREE. If you never share your ideas and network with the right people, keeping that idea to yourself is worth nothing. You have to have the confidence to share your ideas, get feedback, get people on yoru team and turn that idea into reality. Wealth = 1% inspiration and 99% perspiration.

The trouble I find with the Asian (Especially Chinese culture) is a very selfish one. Traditionally, when a Chinese family discovers a new secret, they tend to want to ‘KEEP IT IN THE FAMILY ONLY’ and ‘KEEP IT AS A SECRET’, only to be passed down from one generation to the next. However, American’s mentality is very different. When an American discovers a new idea/investion/secret, they will go all out and share it with everyone and earns millions of dollars in royalty payments! This is probably why most of the world’s inventions were developed by the Chinese but made famous and cmmerically exploited by the Ang Mohs

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Does it Take Luck to Succeed and Make it Rich?

Many people have always posted this question to me. ‘Do you feel that luck played apart in your success?’ ‘Are some people just luckier than others?” Does it take good luck to succeed?’

Well, I believe that there are two kinds of luck, ‘gambling luck’ and ‘business luck’. I have noticed that there are some people who are just born with ‘gambling luck’. These are the guys who are the ones who keeping striking the 4D (like my father in law) and who keep winning whenever they gamble. I for one, have got no gambling luck at all. Everytime I play Chor Tie Tee (I don’t know what is the correct spelling), I keep losing. Everytime I gamble at the casio for fun (Jackpot or Craps), I ALWAYS end up losing.

However, I noticed that there are some of my friends who just keep winning at cards. So, I must admit that some people are just born with this DUMB LUCK. In fact, when I was in the army and out on missions, I would always gamble with my sergeants (I was a Platoon commander) Chor Tie Tee. Everytime, I would always lose. Some of my sergeants would win sometimes and lose sometimes.

But there was this particular sergeant who kept winning for every single mission we went to. In my Ad agency, I used to employ a production manager who kept winning 4D (he won 7 times in 3 years) and even won a car in a lucky draw. But you know what? None, of these guys are rich or successful. So don’t envy them. In fact, these DUMB LUCK people tend to spend whatever they have as soon as they enjoy their windfall and end up broke again.

Although I have no ‘Gambler’s luck’, I have another kind of luck that i must say has been responsible for me making my millions. It is what I call ‘Business Luck’. The best part of it is that business luck is not something the heavens bestow upon you…it is something that you can MAKE YOURSELF. I find that the harder you work on what you are passionate about, the better business luck you have. Gambling luck requires no hard work. Business luck requires lots of hard work for it to surface.

So what is ‘Business Luck’? Business luck is the OFFSPRING generated when OPPORTUNITY meets PREPARATION. In other words, BUSINESS LUCK = OPPORTUNITY + PREPARATION. So, to have business luck, you must have lots of opportunities and be prepared to take advantage of those opportunities.

Now, many people complain that they have no LOBANG! That is hokkien slang meaning they have no opportunities. You know why? It is because they don’t take any action. They don’t go out and network. They don’t read latest news. They don’t track trends in the market. They don’t listen and keep a lookout. I believe that oportunities to make money are there EVERY SINGLE DAY! It is only when you take massive action do they appear to you. But, let me tell you a secret! Opportunities never look like opportunities.

Opportunities ALWAYS come disguised as PROBLEMS!!! Those who have the millionaire mindset see opportunities, while the average person only sees the problems.

The bottom line is that you have to look for opportunities in problems. In fact, whenever something looks like an opportunity, it is often just a SCAM. I am sure you have received emails from Nigeria where this son of a Sultan Abibaboo claims to have US$250m and they need your help to get the money out of the country and they will pay you 10%! If something is too good to be true, it ALWAYS IS.

But being able to see the opportunity is NOT GOOD ENOUGH. You must, be PREPARED to take advanrtage of the opportunity in order to generate LUCK! For example, I was able to take advantage of Osim low price because I had the financial training to know what their true intrinsic value was (Osim’s true value was $1.80). True enough, when market sntiment improved (it always does eventually), the prices moved towards its intrinsic value, allowing me to sell and make a nice profit. When I saw the opportunity that there were many parents who did not know how to help their achieivng kids, I was able to capitalize on the opportunity because of my knowldge and training in accelerated learning and NLP.

So, my advice is to constantly build your knowledge base and skill set. Learn about how to invest, learn about business etc… So when the next opportunity comes, you are prepared to pounce on it and make your luck happen!

-- With Your Life With Adam Khoo's NLP --

Should I Take Charge of My Life Or Should I Let God Take Charge of It?

Recently I had a participant of mine say that he felt that my teachings contradicted his religious beliefs.
He said that his religion advocated that he should let God choose his destiny and lead his life. Whereas in my seminars, I teach people to take charge of their own lives and their own destinies. I teach people not to leave their life to chance but to have a plan for their future. I teach people to make full use of their potential and live life to the fullest. I always say that if you don’t have a plan for your life, then someone else (like your boss or friends) will have a plan for you. And you will probably fall into somebody else’s plan. (And I don’t think other people have anything good planned for you).

Because of his strong belief and faith in God, he says that he does not feel the need to set goals or to take charge of his life. God will give him the answers ‘one day’. And all the bad stuff that is happening to him is God’s will and beyond his control, so there is nothing he can do about it.

First of all, let me first say that I myself am a very firm believer of God and believe alot in the power of faith. In fact, I have found that the more successful and wealth I have become, the more spiritual I have become as well. When I was young, I never believed that God existed. I thought that since it was not something scientifically proven nor something I could see, it was probably all made up in people’ minds. However, through the years, I have become a VERY firm believer in God for a few reasons. First, as I started to think about the complexity of the universe, nature and the human body, it dawned on me that there was NO WAY that everything could have happened by chance (e.g. the fact that every single cell/organ/tissue in the human body performs a specific function working together in a symbiotic relationship). Everything that we take for granted, from the intricate veins of a leaf to the ventricles in the human heart had to be designed by a creator.
The second reason is that when I look back at my life and reflect on all the events that have led up to now, it seems too coincidental that things have happened by chance. Everything (even the awful painful stuff) seems to have happened for a particular reason. For example, if I had never had screwed up my PSLE and ended up at the bottom of my school, I would never have found the need to learn about NLP and about the Psychology of Success. If I had never learnt about NLP, then I would not be as successful as I am today .I would never have been able to write all my books and created my life changing programmes and I would not be able to help thouands of people every year change their lives. It seems that this is my purpose and my mission from God and that everything that has happened was part of a divine plan.

Well, then doesn’t this contradict my own teachings about taking charge of one’s life and planning your own destiny? Absolutely NOT. In fact, it is totally in alignment. Let me explain.

See, I believe that God is a force that exists in all our hearts and within every single cell of our body. He is not some old man with a white beard sitting on a throne one billion light years above the clouds. As such, God works THROUGH you. Every positive thought, idea an inspiration you have is a message from God. Some people hear the message and act on it, others just ignore it. When you feel passionate and excited about something (like I am with teaching and speaking), it is God’s way of telling you that this is your purpose and mission in life. Again, some people hear this calling and act on it. Many others ignore and deny their passions, and end up in a job they hate, simply because they feel that they have ‘No choice’. Do they really have ‘no choice’ or are they simply letting their fear consume them and abandoning their faith? I believe that the greatest power our creator has given us is the power to choose. And every choice we make shapes our destiny. So, if God is in you and God works though you, then when I talk about thinking about your passion and designing your life around your passion, it really means that you are letting God lead you, through you. When you set your goals and live with passion, you are living in alignment with what God put you here for. God takes charge of your life by you taking charge of your life.

For example, I wrote all 360 pages of my book ‘Secrets of self made millionaires’ to change people’s lives, And I set the goal to be one of the best speakers in the world. But you know what? It was really God’s words that wrote the book and God’s will that I became a speaker. His message came through my feelings, intuitions and thoughts. It was really God’s plan, but I wrote it. He created me with this mission and this is my purpose for living.

In fact, why have I suddenly turned on this computer at 1.00am on a Friday morning and why am I typing all these thoughts down when I should be sleeping. Is this all happening by chance? Or is it God directing me to send this message for all of you to read? Something to really reflect on.

Unfortunately, I have seen so many people mis-intepret the meaning of ‘letting God take charge of your life’. They think that it means that they should not plan, but wait for something to plan it for them. Do they expect that one night while they are sleeping that an angel will appear in a ray of light and tell them that they should quit the job they hate and pursue their dreams? Will a booming voice from the skies tell them to start an online business or to invest in stock Options? don’t think so. Duh! I feel that many people who say this to themselves are just using it as an excuse to avoid responsibility for anything. They are simply living in fear and using God as their excuse.

In fact, I believe that by being lazy and not doing anything about it, you are doing God a disservice. You are not making use of the power and assets you have been given. You are not fulfilling your purse and mission on earth. See I believe that all of us were born to make a positive difference in the world. So, by not doing anything meaningful with your life, it is just as bad as harming the world. You are wasting this precious life you have been given! Although I am not a Christian, but I remember a very powerful story in the bible (I got an A1 for Bible knowledge in school by the way). In the parable of the talents, Jesus teaches about the need for all of us to use our God given talents. In this parable, a master had to go away on a long trip and wanted his servants to look after his property while he was gone. To the first servant, he gave 5 talents. Through his hard work, the servant doubled his talents to TEN. To the second servant the master gave 2 talents, This second servant also worked hard and doubled the two talents, To the third servant, the master gave one talent, For fear of losing his only talent, this servant buried it and hid it, When the master returned and found that he had done so, he called him a LAZY and WICKED servant and took his only talent and gave it to the servant who had TEN. So, if you sit on your ass and do NOTHING with the god given passion and potential you have been given, then everything you have will be taken away from you and be given to those have achieved wealth and success.

-- Outperform Yourself Today! --

Real Way to Wealth – Part I Industry

Anyone who has tried to find financial advice on the web has encountered nothing but scams. “Invest with me, buy this book, use my AdSense secrets, and you will be making easy money in no time.” It is all garbage. Those who want solid advice to live by would be well served to consult The Way to Wealth by Benjamin Franklin. In a few paragraphs Franklin wittily transmits the wisdom the made him a fortune and one of America’s greatest fathers. Beware: there are no secrets or short cuts, only common sense.

Franklin wrote the Way to Wealth as a speech given by a wise old man to the townspeople. The focus of the first section is the virtue of Industry

1. Early to bed, and early to rise, makes a man healthy, wealthy and wise
2. Diligence is the mother of good luck
3. God helps them that help themselves

We have all heard these familiar sayings, but how often do we neglect to live by them? Rising early, using time wisely, and getting to bed at a decent hour is the first step to building wealth. It puts you in the position to succeed.

Franklin also condemns laziness as the cause of many failures.

1. Sloth, like rust, consumes faster than labor wears, while the used key is always bright
2. Dost thou love life, then do not squander time, for that’s the stuff life is made of
3. Lost time is never found again
4. He that riseth late, must trot all day, and shall scarce overtake his business at night
5. Drive thy business, let not that drive thee
6. Industry need not wish
7. He that lives upon hope will die fasting
8. There are no gains, without pains
9. Plough deep, while sluggards sleep, and you shall have corn to sell and to keep
10. One today is worth two tomorrows
11. Have you somewhat to do tomorrow, do it today
12. Be ashamed to catch yourself idle
13. Let not the sun look down and say, inglorious here he lies

How often do we waste time complaining about a lack of opportunity? The reason you find no opportunity is that you waste time you should be using to build. The more we are idle the rustier we get. Laziness makes taking action more difficult. Through industriousness you create opportunities.

1. He that hath a trade hath an estate
2. He that hath a calling hath an office of profit and honor

Here Franklin states that you need to develop a specialization that is valuable to others. A specialization provides a permanent source of income. No one is going to give you money. You need to give people value in exchange for it.

1. At the working man’s house hunger looks in, but dares not enter
2. For industry pays debts, while despair encreaseth them
3. Constant dropping wears away stones
4. By diligence and patience the mouse ate in two the cable
5. Little strokes fell great oaks

Don’t be discouraged by the size of a task. Don’t make excuses because something looks difficult. Great accomplishments are built in tiny increments. You need to remember that the work you do builds up over time. People are often discouraged because they don’t achieve instant success. It is important to think of your work as a long-term investment. This will help you stay motivated during the painful early stages. Remember that most successful people toil for years in obscurity before reaching the tipping point when their hard work starts to pay dividends.

1. Employ thy time well if thou meanest to gain leisure
2. Since thou art not sure of a minute, throw not away an hour
3. A life of leisure and a life of laziness are two things. Do you imagine that sloth will afford you more comfort than labor?
4. Trouble springs from idleness, and grievous toil from needless ease.
5. Many without labor would live by their wits only, but they break for want of stock
6. Industry gives comfort, and plenty, and respect: fly pleasures, and they’ll follow you

Many people don’t like to work, especially if they have boring jobs. Everyone wants to live a life of leisure so we work as little as we have to. This is understandable; everyone prefers leisure to work. In truth, this is an extremely shortsighted attitude. Who do you think has the time play golf during the week or the flexibility to travel abroad? It is the people who worked hard, became successful, and are now reaping the benefits of wealth and leisure. You need to work hard now to gain leisure later. If you are lazy now you will miss out on leisure in the long run.

1. Keep the shop, and thy shop will keep thee
2. If you would have your business done, go; if not, send
3. He that by the plough would thrive, Himself must either hold or drive.
4. The eye of a master will do more work than both his hands
5. Want of care does us more damage than want of knowledge
6. Not to oversee workmen is to leave them your purse open
7. In the affairs of this world men are saved not by faith, but by the want of it
8. Learning is to the studious, and riches to the careful, as well as power to the bold, and Heaven to the virtuous
9. If you would have a faithful servant, and one that you like, serve yourself
10. For want of a nail the shoe was lost; for want of a shoe the horse was lost, and for want of a horse the rider was lost

The point of these maxims is that working hard alone is not enough. You must also keep your business inline with care and attention. Don’t let all your hard work go to waste for a lack of organization. Don’t take anything for granted because small problems are the root of failure.

I cannot state with another emphasis how important these ideas are. Most people will recognize that this is nothing new and ignore it. These ideas aren’t complicated. The challenge is to live by them. If you try being truly industrious for one complete day you will understand what I mean.

The first half of becoming wealthy is Industry: working hard, using time wisely, and paying careful attention to your business. Industry generates revenue. The next step is turning revenue into profit. The second part of Franklin’s Way to Wealth explains the importance of saving what you gain.

-- Improve Your Life Right Now! --