Author: akosiallan

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Life Lessons

I want good Filipinos to be wealthy

Today, I heared one of my mentors said, "I want good Filipinos to be wealthy." Then she added, the reason God entrusted you those blessings is because He knows you will take care of them.

While thinking about my mentor’s dream, I realized it is my dream too.  The reason I started this blog, Rich Money Habits by akosiallan.com is because I want to share the lessons I learned in my financial journey with you.  I want you to be inspired by the stories from this blog so that you can take action in pursuing your own financial goals as well, knowing that if I and many others were able to make it so can you.

My mentor’s statement made me reflect on my experiences over the past few years ever since I embarked on this journey of financial literacy.  I remember how in 2003 I read the book Rich Dad Poor Dad by Robert Kiyosaki. That book changed the way I see how money works.  Interestingly, whenever I meet people who are also very successful in business, they somehow came across the same book and that has also started them to the path of financial freedom.

From the get go, I knew pursuing this path is not going to be easy.  But  anything worth pursuing in life needs commitment, hardwork and persistence to achieve.  All I knew was that God wanted me to be in this situation for a purpose.  Just like Steve Jobs, I too simply hoped that somehow in the future, the dots will finally connect to make sense of all the experiences I’ve had to go through.

I ventured into a lot of things ever since my mind was opened to the idea of business and investing.  In the pursuit of financial freedom, I devoured hundreds of books in the same topics, invested tens of thousands in attending various seminars, met friends and mentors in real-estate investing, internet marketing, network marketing, stocks investing and business.  Some of my ventures failed while some earned me decent income.  Until finally, I came across something that has allowed me to quit my job of almost a decade as IT consultant for a multinational company.

More than a year ago, I embarked on a journey I call "Project 100".  My simple goal at that time was to help 100 people earn at least $100 a month.  One thing I realized is that it is easier said than done.  It is easier to do it for yourself than teach it to others so they can do the same.  I learned that it takes a team to make it work.  I realized the value of the saying, "when the student is ready, the teacher will appear." Most of the time, I was the student.  I needed to learn how to lead people and build a great team to make my dream work.

technomarine

Fast forward today, more than 104 people from all over the world have earned $40 – $600 a month as part of the project. One of them even reached $1,000 a month.  It feels great to have been part of the journey of these amazing people.  What I am most proud of is that they have earned those blessings with integrity, legally and ethically without the need to compromise their principles on what is right and wrong. God knows they deserve these blessings and more.  It’s about time good people become rich as well so that God’s blessings can reach out to more people who need it. 

Inspired by the success of the original project, I decided to launch a new and enhanced Project 100.  During the past weeks, it was in soft-launch mode to a few of my inner circle friends.  Now, it is finally being launched and opened to you.  The goal of the new and enchanced Project 100 is to help 100 people earn at least $1,000 a month.  One person I have helped coach has already made it.  There are 99 slots left.  If you think you have what it takes to be part of the 99 people who can earn $1,000 with the right opportunity and right mentoring, you can click here to find out how to be part of the project.

P.S. One of the great things about what I do now is it allows me to travel whenever I want, wherever I want, with the people I want to be with.  I don’t have a boss so I don’t need to wait for approval or file a leave.  I can take off for a week and leave on a Wednesday morning when most people are still busy working.  Of course, I also get a chance to meet you if you happen to be in the same place where I am going.  I will be in Hong Kong this coming March 20 – 25 to attend a business conference.  If you are curious on what I do and you are in HK, let’s have coffee and chat.  Add me as friend in Facebook and PM me for my itinerary.  I may have limited time to check my email and Facebook during my stay in Hong Kong so please be kind if I am not able to respond to you immediately. God bless you.

P.P.S. Still thinking whether Project 100 is for you or not? Click here to read more about Project 100.

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How To Tutorials Money Mindset Personal Growth

How To Overcome Fear of Failure and Analysis Paralysis

Have you ever felt like it’s taking you forever to make progress? Have you experienced playing out all the scenarios in your head for so long you ended up getting exhausted without having done anything yet to get you out of your situation? I was in a similar scenario a few years back…After working for almost 9 years as IT consultant, enduring all the stress and demands of work, I finally got fed up.  I wanted CHANGE to happen in my life.

Way back 2003, I read the book Rich Dad, Poor Dad and it started to CHANGE the way I viewed the world of money.  I felt like a new door was opening right in front of my eyes…and I was beginning to enter a new world I never knew before.  Ever since then, I’ve read lots and lots of books by the same author Robert Kiyosaki.  When I got sent to the US for a 6-month stint in my company, believe it or not, my “balikbayan box” was full of books about financial literacy like Multiple Streams of Income, Nothing Down, and other books by Robert Allen.  I even bought my own Cashflow 101 Board Game (around P10,000 when converted to peso) at that time.  I was a business book junkie.  I was reading up a lot on business.  But I had nothing to show for it.

Over the years, after coming back from the US, I was still reading up on a lot of business books.  It became like a hobby for me that whenever I went to the mall, I would always checkout what’s new in the bookstore.  That went on for years…when I resigned from my first job and pursued a career overseas, going to bookstore became more frequent.

After a while, I felt like I was getting nowhere.  I had these gazillions of ideas in my head it was about to explode.  And still…I had nothing to show for it.

When I came back to the Philippines in 2009 after my 2 and half years stay overseas, I started to get to the next level of learning.  From reading books, I then went on attending seminars.  My wife and I were beginning to explore how we would be able to grow the money we saved up from overseas.   We first attended Bo Sanchez’ Truly Rich Seminar.  The funny thing was, we were already a member of the Truly Rich Club at that time and we already had a video recording of the same seminar.  But I insisted to attend the same seminar in person.  That’s when I first met brother Bo Sanchez.  It’s true, when you get to meet the people you look up to, you get star-struck a bit.  My wife and I then attended the Truly Rich Financial Coaching…and then months after, the Truly Rich Entrepreneur’s Workshop.  I went on to enroll in Jomar Hilario’s Online Mentoring Program afterwards. I also attended Money Summit and Wealth Expo seminars almost every year.  There are lots of other seminars and workshops I’ve attended since then. You could say I was a seminar junkie, or what my friend would call a “seminarista.”  Again, at that point, I still did NOT have anything to show for it.

I was starting to get frustrated with myself for not being able to put them to use.  I was NOT able to apply the knowledge to create financial results for me.  I felt like my patience was really being tested.

Then something happened.

I started to feel DISGUSTED with my lack of results.  I was AFRAID of failure and of what others might say, but the lingering feeling of DISAPPOINTMENT and FRUSTRATION was now BIGGER than my fear. At that point, I could finally say to myself ENOUGH is ENOUGH, I was now willing to accept the consequences of whatever decision I made.  Whatever ACTION I made, even if it FAILED, I would still LEARN something.  ANY KIND OF RESULT, EVEN IF IT IS FAILURE, IS BETTER THAN NO RESULT AT ALL.

TIP #1 – Be Disgusted With Your Current Results

There’s just one thing I know that can get you out of your COMFORT ZONE…You have to be DISGUSTED with what you have and where you are RIGHT NOW…You have to tell yourself this is NO LONGER OK.

That helped me get the courage to start something.  Back then, my wife and I were looking for a SAFE investment…and the safest we could try was in Retail Treasury Bonds (RTBs).  We got a 7% interest rate.  We invested a portion of our porfolio there…and that started it all.  The next thing we know, my wife and I were already investing in real-estate…and then in stocks…and then moved on to other more rewarding ventures afterwards.

It’s true, until you feel like you’re still ok with your situation, the easier thing to do is ignore it.  Most people want to do something to change their situation.  But reality sinks in.  They say, “I need this job to pay my bills.” Or say to themselves silently, “perhaps, this is not so bad…I can still ENDURE this.”

It is a trap.  They say most companies pay just enough so that their employees won’t quit their jobs, and employees do just enough in order not to get fired.  It’s a sad thing to think that you are not giving it your all in something.  We only live once.  The day you feel like you don’t have a choice is the day you lose your freedom to live the way you want it.

You must first come to grips with the reality that YOU WANT SOMETHING BETTER FOR YOUR LIFE.

Unless you can say to yourself that this is no longer working…and ENOUGH IS ENOUGH, you have not reached the point where you are convinced that you NEED TO DO SOMETHING DIFFERENT to change your situation.

TIP #2 – Learn to dream BIG DREAMS

But something was still missing. It took me quite some time to figure it out.  I was already investing in stocks, bonds and real-estate…but I felt like my learning was lacking in something I couldn’t put my finger on.

I was COMFORTABLE with what I had…a nice job, a beautiful wife, a stressful but financially rewarding career, but I felt like there’s more out there I haven’t been able to reach. After a while, you will get to the point where you have STOPPED DREAMING…and the HUNGER is gone.

I remember watching Steve Job’s commencement speech in Stanford say, “Stay Hungry…Stay Foolish.” I did not get it at first.  I wasn’t sure why you had to stay hungry…and why stay foolish? But when I got comfortable, I came to realize that life can be so BORING if you don’t have DREAMS to pursue anymore.  Staying HUNGRY is the key if you want to succeed.

One of my mentors, Simon Chan said, “Success is a let down, the thrill is in the pursuit.”

Don’t get me wrong.  I am NOT ultra-successful yet.  It just so happened that I had SMALL dreams…and they were starting to get fulfilled one by one.  I was someone who was easy to please and did not need to have a lot of things to be contented.  I learned later on that the key is to be contented with what you have…but never be contented on who you can become.

Being disgusted with what you have NOT only applies to a life of hard reality.  You need to be disgusted, even if you’re already comfortable, by realizing that YOU HAVE YET TO FULFILL YOUR FULL POTENTIAL.  Your disgust will PUSH YOU up to your dreams…but you need BIG DREAMS as well, to PULL YOU UP!

BIG DREAMS gives you the energy to get up in the morning with a spring on your feet.  It gives you that EXCITEMENT to look forward to the future with hope.  BIG DREAMS gives you something to pursue and realize your highest potential.  Sometimes, it’s not even so much about being able to reach for your dreams…it’s also about WHO YOU BECOME in the process of reaching for it.

Tip #3 – Just Do It

Like the tag line of a famous shoe brand said, you “just do it.” There’s no trying.  There’s just doing it.  For example, when you need to go to the bathroom, do you “try” to go to the bathroom? Do you analyze if you’re going or not? Of course not! If the call of nature calls, you JUST DO IT! 🙂

Some people put off doing something because they are waiting for PERFECT TIMING. Here’s the truth.  There is NO PERFECT timing.  The traffic lights will not be green all at the same time.  You have to just do it.  The path to success is a zigzag, not a straight line.

All successful people have one thing in common – they have STRONG BIAS TOWARDS ACTION.  They love acting on their ideas.  Even if it fails, they are still grateful.  The famous inventor Thomas Edison was asked after inventing the light bulb on his 1,000th try…he was called on to the 999 failures he had before, to which he responded, those were not failures…each of those, he said, was one way he found out how NOT to invent a lightbulb.  He was not afraid to fail, for he knew that each result was a step in the right direction.

Sometimes, the fear of failure is only inside our minds.  It’s uncanny how people are able to do the same ordinary things easily without pressure…but when pressure kicks in, all hell breaks lose.  There’s getting your memory blank when asked a 30-second question on national television.  There’s the time when you can’t sleep the night before a big event for fear of not being able to wake up on time.  There’s the heart beating so fast you can’t hardly think straight upon meeting the girl of your dreams.

Nothing changed in the situation except how you made it BIG in your own mind.  The thing is, you can always change how you think of it, it is after all just inside your mind.  You have CONTROL over it.  Make it ordinary.  Have faith.  Sometimes, all you need to do is close your eyes, and let go.  Just do it.

P.S. Tired of the results you’re getting? Do you feel you deserve more if only you are able to channel the same dedication and commitment to something more financially rewarding? Do you want to take action now and CHANGE your life for the better TODAY? CLICK here to email me. Let’s schedule some time to discuss and see if we can work something out to help you stop analyzing and start getting towards your dreams.

P.P.S. If you want to get to know me better, you can still add me as friend through my personal page at http://www.facebook.com/akosiallan.  I can still accept up to 3,100+ friends until Facebook stops me from adding some more.  If you only want the business tips, you can like my Facebook Fan Page @ http://www.facebook.com/allaninocente and receive tips from me there.

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Life Updates

Exciting Things Ahead: My Personal, Business, Health and Spiritual Goals for 2013

Today, I am celebrating my birthday.  One thing about getting a year older, you tend to reflect a little bit more about your own goals.  So today, I’d like to share with you some of my personal, business, health and spiritual goals for 2013.  In sharing my goals, I hope to inspire you to write yours as well.

Personal Goal: Write 3 new books. 

I haven’t had much time to spend in writing the past year.  I missed writing to you.  Sharing my stories.  Sharing the experiences I’ve been through.  These books will be more about the experiences I’ve gone through the past few years venturing into different things.  I will share to you some intimate details, the failures along the way, and some of the exciting things that have happened to me as a result of the decisions I made.

Why 3 books?  Because I think I have so much to share that one book will not be enough.  Besides, my books will not be as long as some of the textbooks you read in College anyway.  Because then, you will not read mine anymore.  I like it short, inspiring and based from real-world experiences.  I like to write books that I’d love to read for myself. If you have already bought and read my book at www.richmoneyhabits.com, you know what I am talking about.

Business Goal: Triple business income from 2012.

I am enjoying my time being a young entrepreneur.  Year 2012 has been great for my business.  I’ve learned a lot last year from my every day conversations with my mentors, customers and business partners. I am very fortunate to be given the chance to change the lives of many people…Of course, business income was great as well.  This year, I want my business to have explosive growth, that is to triple the income from last year.  I am very confident it will become a reality because of the solid team behind me in XTRM 1-11.

Last year, project 100 was a success.  There were 104 people who earned $40/week – $1,000/week income as part of the project.  Unfortunately, the project is now closed.  The good news is that I will be launching a new and improved version 2.0 of the project soon. I’m really excited to share it with you but I’m still finalizing a few details.  Watch out for my announcements about the new project in the coming weeks.

One thing I realized about business is that it is like any other thing in this world, it can be learned. As long as you put in the effort, the time, and be willing to let go of your pride, something is bound to happen and you will learn whatever you need to learn so your business will grow.  Granted, 9 out of 10 businesses fail in their first 5 years.  Out of those left, 9 out of 10 will eventually fail within 10 years.  But why look at those which failed?  Look at the one business that succeeded! Ask the owner how he made it happen so you will know how to build a successful business as well.   

The good thing about business is that once you learn the skills, no one can take it away from you.  Even if that business collapses and you lose everything, as long as you know how to build a successful business, you can do it all over again.  That’s one of the reasons why I ventured into business myself.  No amount of reading books or attending seminars will replace the learning you get by actually being there in the field, starting and growing your own business.  I am still a newbie and have a lot to learn…but in my few years doing business, I feel I have gained more knowledge than all the books I’ve read over the years combined simply because I now have a little bit more real-world experience.

Health Goal: Lose weight to reduce waistline by 4 inches. 

Don’t ask what my waistline is now because I will not share it with you.  🙂  The reality is that when you have a lot of time to enjoy eating, you tend to eat…a lot. Of course, it’s not an excuse to over eat.  I feel I will be even more productive and have more energy when I have a lot less weight to carry around with me. 🙂

My new fitness goal of course is to make my waistline a little bit more fitting, down by 4 inches to be exact.  The paradox of time is that people think having a lot of time will allow them to do the things they want to do.  I don’t think so.  The reality is that if someone gives you more time right now, you will not know what to do with it, worst case you will think of other excuse like sleeping or watching tv for you to not do the things you "think" you want to do like exercising or doing something more productive.  Trust me.  I’ve been there.  I thought resigning from my job will give me more time to do the stuffs I "thought" I wanted to do.  It will work for a few weeks, but after that, something is bound to come up to take the time that was freed up. There’s laziness.  There’s procrastination.  There’s hundreds of reasons to convince yourself that putting it off for later is the best thing to do.

Spiritual Goal: Attend the Feast every Sunday.

This year I want to be more consistent in attending services of my spiritual community.  Bo Sanchez’ Light of Jesus community is holding Feasts at different days of the week all over the world.  Normally, I attend the PICC Feast during Sundays.  If you are there, may be we will bump into each other once in a while.  Anyway, sometimes something will come up…or sometimes because of laziness I am not able to go to the Feast.  I find attending the Feast very nurturing for my soul.  I appreciate the talks by Bo Sanchez and his other fellow Feast Builders…I learn a thing or two about dealing with different kinds of people, how to develop your emotional maturity, etc.  More importantly, I get to spend some time just being in the presence of the Lord with my family, enjoying the experience of a spiritual community.  This year, I want it to be more consistent and perhaps finally be able to complete the sessions of a Caring Group….and maybe get a chance to be more actively involved in the community as well. 🙂

That’s it for now.  I am very excited to be going after my goals for this year 2013.  I feel the abundance of blessings this year is going to be overflowing.

How about you?  What are your goals for this year?

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2012: A Year of Miracles, Life Changing Events and Blessings in Time and Finances

In about an hour, the hands of the clock will tick and another year will come to pass.  The year 2012 is filled with great memories that will forever be etched in my heart.  It’s the year that overhauled my personal and professional life.

The Greatest Miracle and Life Being a New Dad

On the personal level, I have witnessed the greatest miracle in the world (for me) in the birth of my first born son, Ethan Gabriel.  Nothing prepares you to becoming a new parent.  I am very proud of my wife Anna for her sacrifices for the 9 months that Ethan Gabriel was in her womb, and the many months of sleepless nights that followed after he was born.  Even though it was a challenging time for both my wife and I and our baby boy, I wouldn’t trade it for the whole world.  The experience bonded us together.  It gave us a deeper appreciation of how fragile life really is, and at a blink of an eye all the blessings can be taken away from you.  If not for God’s grace, everything would lose its meaning.

Being a new dad is really life changing. It has touched my life on a deeper level.  Now I feel I have a deeper understanding on how fragile it is to be caring for another life who is your own flesh and blood.  There were nights when I rarely got a decent sleep especially in the first few months…but eventually I learned to adjust.  Now, my baby boy is 8 months old and he is growing very rapidly.  His sweet smile can light up a room! Every day, he seems to be learning a new thing or two.  I’m enjoying every moment I spend with him.

First Year in Business

This year was my first year being a full-time entrepreneur.  In February, our business hit a milestone of earning $1,000 in a single week.  Thanks to our great team who made it happen.  We wouldn’t have made it had it not been for the support of each one of our business partners.  Thank you.

I’m still a baby in terms of running a business, and I feel very fortunate to have met a lot of great mentors who helped shape me to become a better leader, a better business partner and a better friend to those around me.  Thanks to XTRM 1-11 and its team of mentors.

Transitioning from employment to business is not an easy thing to do.  There were a lot of challenges, mostly in shifting my core values away from security to embracing the promise of financial and time freedom.  There were times when I certainly had doubts in my mind whether I made the right decision or not.  But every time I watch my son in my arms, I remember why I ventured into business in the first place.  I want to learn to become a better businessman, so that I can give the life without limits to my family.  There’s no greater joy than seeing them have all the opportunities and possibilities that life has to offer.

A Taste of Time Freedom

One thing I am very grateful about what I do is that it has allowed me the opportunity to spend some time with my wife and new baby especially during the first months after my wife gave birth…and the great thing was even though I was not working, the money still kept coming in.  I wouldn’t have experienced that in my job as an IT consultant where the motto is “no work, no pay.”  Every day was like holiday.

I remember a funny thing happened to me on my 2nd week at the hospital.  I was asked 3 times on 3 days if I was on leave.  Only on the 3rd time did I realize that perhaps it was unusual for a husband to be beside her wife and baby every day, for 24 hours/day because most dad’s only had 1 week of paternity leave and I was already on my 2nd week.  I felt really blessed to say the least.

When the greatest miracle happened in our lives, I felt really fortunate to have been able to save up for emergency fund which allowed us to cope up with the hospital expenses.  Yes, it was a challenging time, but having something to rely on financially allowed us to focus on the more important stuffs, and that is being there for one another physically, emotionally and spiritually.  We prayed together.  We cried together.  We were physically exhausted together.  We were blessed for we had each other.

It is true when they say, money is not the most important thing in life, but it affects the most important things.

Status of Project 100

This year also marked the completion of project 100. As of the time of this writing, there are now 104 people who have earned $40/week – $1,000/week as part of the project.  Besides the financial blessings that come with it, what gives me greater joy is in having the chance to elevate the lives of the people who have been part of the project.

It’s not been an easy journey trying to coach people with different backgrounds, different goals, different levels of maturity in their journey to financial freedom, but it is all worth it.  In the process, I’ve learned a lot of things about myself, about my weaknesses, about the things I love to do, and about life in general.  I’ve been blessed to have a great team with me who have helped project 100 become successful.

What’s next? In my next article on goals, I will reveal to you what’s next for project 100.

What to Expect in Rich Money Habits Blog?

With the changes that have happened in my life I have had very little progress made in this blog.  I apologize for not being able to contribute a lot to your financial growth through this blog.  Soon, I will share a lot more about my business adventures here.  As you might have observed, I have shifted my focus of this blog from stocks investing and personal finance to focus more on business.  I will share more about the reasons in the next articles.

Now, I’d like to take this time to personally thank you for your very warm support for this blog.  If not for you, I would not have had the confidence to continue down this path.

Thank you for your emails.  I appreciate you letting me get a glimpse of your life.  Thank you for sharing your dreams and struggles with me.  Event though I fail to respond to you on a timely manner sometimes, please know that I read each of your emails personally and your stories remain in my thoughts and in my heart.

I wish you well this coming year 2013.  May the good Lord bless your family not only financially but also in being able to spend time and celebrate with one another! Cheers to a great year that passed and to an even better year to come!

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Life Lessons

5 Things You Need To Know Before You Quit Your Job

Do you ever ask yourself “is this all there is to life?”

Have you ever dreamed of getting out of all the mediocrity in life to pursue your own bliss and start a new adventure?

If you answered yes, welcome to the club!  I was in a similar stage more than year ago…and what I can tell you looking back, pursuing the new chapter in my life is one of the most exciting, most fulfilling adventure I’ve had in years.  I’m glad I took the leap of faith and pursued my own bliss.

But it didn’t start out that way.

When I started working I was contented.   My idea of a simple life back then was that I was able to feed myself, had a nice place to sleep in, and had a work to go to every day.  I didn’t mind riding on a raging tricycle going to work which was always zig-zaging on a busy street, driving against traffic.  I was scared of course, but still contented.

When my company sent me to the US, I enjoyed riding an airplane for the first time.  For the next 6 months, I enjoyed a very very comfortable life.  For the first time, I was able to drive my own car to the office, swim in a jacuzzi every night with friends, have my own TV inside my room, and to top it all have an stay out house cleaner who came by once a week to clean the house.  My situation jumped from being contented to being overwhelmed in an instant.  I didn’t know a life like this was possible.

I wished it were like that forever.  But after 6 months, my stay in the US was over.  I went home to the Philippines and suddenly something changed in me.  Now, I felt like I have been short changed.  In my mind, I was practically doing the same thing when I was in the US as I was back home in the Philippines, but the pay was not reflecting the same.  Suddenly, I felt like it is no longer OK to have the kind of results that I was getting from my job.  The irony was that my work back home in the Philippines was even more exhausting than when I was in the US.  It dawned on me, I had to do something about my situation if I want to have a chance of experiencing the comfortable life I’ve had in the past 6 months again.

It’s true. Until you feel you are losing out on something, you will not feel the urge to do something about your own situation.

It took me around 3 years before I realized this is not the life I wanted to do.

It’s been a year since I quit my job of almost a decade working for a multinational financial services company.  Looking back, it’s one the single biggest decision I’ve had to face in my career. I’m glad I took the plunge for I have been having the best time of my life. I feel I have grown more as a person mentally, emotionally, financially and with a deeper appreciation of all the blessings that life has to offer.

Many people ask me how I came up with the decision to give up my comfortable job in order to pursue starting my own business.  Most often than not, I end up seeing more confused faces after telling them my story. I can’t blame them.  They haven’t gone through the same experience I’ve had.  They didn’t go through the same seminars that opened up my mind.  They have different goals than mine at this point in their lives.

Perhaps one of the greatest realization I’ve had over the past year, is a deeper appreciation on how unique each one of us really are.  We have different hopes and dreams.  But we are also very similar.  We all want a better life.

Here are some of the realizations I’ve had that has helped me get through all the challenges and appreciate the blessings along the way.

1.  There’s no perfect time to quit your job

I’ve waited for years to get the green light before finally tendering my resignation.  There were countless hours in the wee hours of the night I’ve spent with my wife, trying to gather the courage to do it.  In the end, I realized, the lights on a street will never go green all at the same time.  Something will come up.  Something will change your plans.  If you don’t do it, it will never be done.  There’s no perfect timing to doing something worthwhile.  All you need to do is trust that all the dots will somehow connect when the time comes for you to look back.  And when that happens, almost always, it will point to a decision you made years ago that has changed the course of your life.

2.  Having an emergency fund helps

The key to quitting your job is to prepare as much as you can, hold your breath, dive in and plunge into the unknown.  It is risky but in order to manage the risk, you should have an emergency fund equal to or more than 6 months of your monthly expenses.  If you ask me, 6 months may not even be enough.  So prepare as much as you can.  The more emergency fund you have, the better, especially if you’re burning your bridges from employment.  The 6 months emergency fund was designed that way because it normally takes 6 months for a normal employee to find another job in the event that he loses his job.  But you are different.  You quit.  You are not going back to employment.  You have to be prepared to have other sources of income apart from your job because it can take a while until you get the time or financial freedom that you dream of.

3.  It’s best to get a loan before you quit your job

Getting a loan from the bank as a business man is a lot harder than being an employee.  When you are an employee, the bank is essentially approving your loan based on the stability of the company and in the hope that your company is stable enough that you will have a steady source of income to pay off your monthly payments.  Even if your business is earning twice than your pay from your current job, it is possible that the bank still won’t approve your loans, because now they are essentially taking a risk on you, not on your company’s earning capability.  So if you can, much better to get a loan before you quit your job for big ticket items like house or car (after assessing your own financial situation of course.)

4.  Master your emotions instead of the other way around

They say you should never make a decision while on an extreme state of emotion.  If you’re very sad, don’t make a rushed decision.  When you’re very happy, don’t make a decision you will regret after the excitement subsides.  The thing about extreme emotions is that it can cloud your judgement.  Getting a decision to quit your job or not is not a spur of the moment kind of thing.  It is a deliberate process of preparing yourself mentally, emotionally and financially until the day comes that you say you are ready. It takes a lot more courage to get through the state of mediocrity.  They say companies pay just enough so employees won’t quit; and employees do just enough so they don’t get fired.  I think there’s a certain degree of truth to that, that’s why it’s harder to quit when you can still convince yourself that enduring is better than quitting.  Understanding your own emotions helps prepare you to the challenges ahead.

5.  The hardest part is not financial

The hardest part of quitting your job is inside your head.  It’s not the money that will get you.  It’s the thoughts in your head wondering every second of the day whether you made the right decision or not…whether clinging to a steady paycheck is better than risking it all to pursue time and financial freedom.  The hardest part is breaking through the decades of mind conditioning from families, friends, and schools that earning money by getting a safe secure job with benefits is the way to go.  It’s normal to cling to job security.  Unfortunately, we all know job security is no longer possible at this time of information age.  It is in finding yourself against what is normal sometimes that you get a chance to discover enough courage within you to venture out and pursue the taste of freedom.

It’s been more than a year since I’ve last held a job.  There were a lot of challenges.  There were a lot of blessings.  One thing is for sure, if I had to do it all over again, I would do exactly the same thing.  No one truly knows what will happen after the decision is made, we only make the best out of it with all the available information we’ve had at that moment.  That makes life very interesting and full of exciting surprises.

Living your dream takes a decision.  It is not luck.  It is pursued.

The easier route is to do the same thing you’ve done for the past x number of years.  While it is certainly up to you whether to go that route or change course, I definitely agree with Albert Einstein that doing the same things over and over again and expecting a different result is insane.  You need to do something different to achieve something different.  You need to do something out of the ordinary if you are aiming a life that is better than what you have right now.  And for that you need guts more than anything else.  God is an abundant God that has blessed your heart with that dream to pursue and see you through to its completion.  All you have to do is take that first step in faith.

P.S. Are you tired working for your job?  Do you want to quit? Looking for other options?  Click here to contact me.

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Prequel to the Greatest Miracle in the World

I can still remember as if it was just yesterday.  After trying to have a baby for almost 4 years and patiently going back and forth to our doctor’s appointments, I can still remember how anxious we were, hoping and waiting for the good news on our goal to have a baby.

I can still feel the heart ache my wife went through when well meaning loved ones were asking her why we don’t have a baby yet.  I can only imagine the pressure that she had to go through every time she hears the same question over and over again. That’s why I am very proud of my wife. Through all the challenges, even when her faith was failing her, he kept holding on to her dream, our dream to have a baby.

Our well meaning friends and relatives told her not eat too much for her to lose weight to have a better chance of conceiving.  Of course, they don’t know that my wife was having a hormonal imbalance…and that having a voluptous figure can be because of other things not related to overeating.  In fact, she has already done that, eating only “half-rice” at every meal.  On top of that, she even went through a strenous dance class  in the hope of shedding a few pounds which only made her cry and trembling in exhaustion after a few gruelling sessions.  If it were me, I may not have the emotional strength to go on and continue with what she went through.  My wife is a strong woman.  In spite of her fun-loving, amiable and high-spirited front is a fragile lady with a loving heart full of dreams.  She’s the first miracle in my life.

The First Glimmer of Hope

After years of trying, my wife went through the next stage of the work-up as advised by her doctor.  She was told to take a medication, which she had to inject on herself everyday for the next week or so.  One injection is worth PhP 3,000, and when I last counted, it was 10 injections that she had to take.  Not only was it painful physically for my wife…but also painful financially. That’s when I realized that if you have a dream big enough, you really don’t mind spending more than you normally would.  It is an emotional thing.

Finally, the good news arrived.  My wife was tested positive!!! Yehey!!! We’re finally going to have a baby.

But the good news didn’t last for very long.  The next few days were some of the most trying times of our lives.  Everyday for the next week, she had spotting. She was losing blood.  Exactly 7 days after, I had to take her to Medical City at 3am in the morning. I remember vividly holding her tight as we walked and asked a cab in EDSA Mandaluyong to take us to the emergency unit of the hospital.  She was losing blood, a lot of blood.  In the end, the baby was lost.

Without sleep, depressed, numbed from the whole experience, my wife and I went out of the hospital past noon with no clue what to do next.  All I can remember was that we took a cab and went to my in-laws’ house to deliver the bad news.

While in the cab, I remembered that I had a scheduled appointment at 3pm on the same day with a friend of mine.  At first, I really didn’t want to go, but as luck would have it, that appointment would pave the way for God’s healing and the greatest miracle to happen in our lives.

The Making of the Greatest Miracle in the World

After some chit chat with my friend, she showed me what she was busy with at that time. My friend even introduced me to her mentors. That meeting proved to be a turning point in my life.  I didn’t recognize it at first, but luckily I suspended my disbelief long enough to have a clearer view of what it really meant…and soon 6 months after the greatest miracle happened in our 4 years of married life.

It was March 2011 after having gone through the tragedy when my wife and I decided to temporarily stop the work up consultation with our OBGYNE doctor.  At times, I would see my wife, still feeling the emotional stress from the whole event, crying at her own corner feeling depressed.  It pricked my heart seeing her so sad.

My wife stopped going to the doctor, stopped taking medications, and sometimes even stopped going to work in days she could not contain her emotional depression. As a loving husband, all I could do was watch her helplessly go through deep emotions that only a woman who losed a part of her own would know.

When my friend recommended a weight loss program for us, we really didn’t expect any result from it.  In fact, because my wife was depressed, there were times we would not be able to follow the program and eat out heavily in an eat-all-you-can restaurant.  Until one night, my wife accidentally saw our anniversary pictures on her laptop.  On that same night, we were really surprised to see the difference in her.  I was so excited, I asked her to put on the same dress and voila, here’s the picture I got. 🙂

That encouraged us to take a deeper look at what we have stumbled into. Because of the miscarriage, my wife and I were extra careful in what we were taking.  In order to prepare the body for conceiving, it is important to have a healthy lifestyle especially for the 9 months the baby is inside the womb. Also with all the medications she was under as part of the workup, she’s afraid it would take its toll on her kidneys and liver. We discovered that nourishing your total body health is important, and taking a high-quality vitamin supplement like Cellsentials is key especially nowadays that eating healthy is so hard to do. We learned that Omega 3 is good for those wanting to get pregnant, so we decided to take it.  We learned that Coenzyme Q10 is good for those with ‘hormonal imbalance’ and those wanting to enhance fertility, and also took some of it.  And so on..

After 6 months, my mother-in-law who is already a senior-citizen and still without a grandchild, prodded my wife for us to try again.  My wife, being a very obedient child who can’t say no to her parents, obliged on one condition – that she won’t have to go back to the same clinic and doctor again.  My mother-in-law referred another doctor to her. My wife went to the doctor bringing with her her very long medical history of PCOS (Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome). The doctor did a new ultrasound scan, and much to my wife’s surpise the doctor said, “Oh, normal ka naman. Ok na siya. Wala nang PCOS” (You’re normal, there’s no longer any PCOS). My wife was stunned.  She couldn’t believe it. She kept going back to the past 6 months and asked herself what changed.  All she could think of were the healthy lifestyle changes that we went through.

The doctor advised her of the timing, and when she can do a pregnancy test.  My wife was so excited she did the test a week early.  One morning, she woke me up crying while holding on one hand the pregnancy test kit result.  I was still half-asleep when I checked the test kit from her hand.  I don’t know if it was because I just got off from sleep, I saw one solid line and I thought I saw another very faint one but wasn’t really sure.  I couldn’t ask my wife because she was already crying profusely at this point. I didn’t have the courage to ask her whether she was crying because it’s already positive or she was crying because it’s negative again.  All I could do then was hug her and not utter any word.

Another week passed and my wife did another test on the day the doctor advised us to do so.  The lines were more pronounced at this point so we were getting very excited.  After another week, we went through the doctor and it was confirmed! We are going to have a BABY!!! We were so ecstatic!!!

Past forward more than a year after, my son is now 5 months old.

Sometimes I still can’t believe I am now holding my own child in my arms while he lay soundly asleep.  I still can’t believe that what was only a dream a year ago is now a reality.  Truly there’s no impossible to the Lord.

Everything happens for a reason. Even tragedies have a purpose. When I look back, perhaps it was really meant to be for us to experience feeling the loss so we will know how to value what we have when the blessing finally arrives.

I feel really blessed.  My son Ethan Gabriel is the Greatest Miracle in the World in my heart.  Everyday, when I see my son smile back at me, it reminds me how much God loves me and my family. Amidst all the financial blessings that we have received, truly there are blessings that are PRICELESS.  This is one of them. No amount of money can compare to the happiness my wife and I feel every time we see our son Ethan Gabriel smile.

All glory to God in the highest!

P.S. I hope Ethan’s story inspires you in your journey as you experience the greatest miracle in your life.  Hold on to that dream for God would not have put it in your heart if it was not meant to be fulfilled in its own proper time.

P.P.S. If you want to know more about the products we took that has helped us improve our health to have a healthy baby after 6 months of taking them, you can contact me here.

P.P.S. If you want to try out the products and avail a 20% discount, you can CLICK HERE.

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Baby Steps to Financial Riches Part 5 – The Opportunity That Changed My Life

Last weekend, I had a chance to facilitate a cashflow game with my friends in Think Rich Pinoy. It’s always amazing to meet new people who are open-minded about the opportunities around them, be it in real-estate, stocks or business.  While speaking with one of the participants, I was reminded about a similar experience I had way back 2003 when I first played the game Casfhlow 101.  That marked the first time the new world of business opened up for me. 

The First Try.

From that workshop, I met someone who later introduced me to a business opportunity which can potentially give passive income.  I checked it out, thought it was a sound business idea and went on to start my own network marketing business. At that time, I was heavily in debt so I joined simply because I needed money.  To cut the long story short, I failed.  Miserably. I was so pathetic I thought I was really not meant to be in this industry.

After getting a bruised ego and healing my wounds from that failed business venture, I decided to focus in doing a great work at my job. I became good at it and got promoted almost every year.  But the lingering feeling I have about starting my own business just won’t go away.  I tried starting my own TV show VCD retailing business which also failed, but proved to be very critical in my business education.  Frustrated I attended a lot of seminars, read a lot of books, but I still lacked EXPERIENCE.  I wanted to learn hands-on how to build a successful business. With no one to go to, I tried to go at it on my own…until an opportunity came my way that has been one of the best thing that ever happened to me.

Courage to Act In Spite of Fear.

In March 2011, my friend invited me over for coffee to discuss some ideas she wanted to check with me.  Being a very helpful friend, I, of course, went along to check what my friend was up to.  I checked it out.  Lo and behold, it’s yet another network marketing business. Since I have already tried starting my own network marketing business before and failed miserably, I had a lot of hesitations at first.  Truth be told, I was skeptic at first and did not really understand it at the time because my mind was still clouded by my previous experiences way back when I failed in my first network marketing business.  I did not think of it much that day but I promised to bring along my wife to check it out again a few days after.

My wife listened to the presentation, we spoke to the leaders of the company, and other people who were just starting out as well.  In the end we decided to try the products out.  After a few weeks of trying out the weight management products, here’s what I got.

In my mind, I was at least convinced that the products are really good.  But I was still reluctant to do the business.  With nothing much to lose, I tried to check the business out again and gave it a try. I was still working full-time at my job as IT consultant for a multinational company at that time. I really did not have much time to spare to do another business on top of my internet marketing gigs.  I already invested some of my money in real-estate and stocks at that time so I already have an idea how to compare it against other investment vehicles. 

When I earned my investment back in one and half month, I then decided to study the business even more.  It was the first time I really put in a serious effort in finding out how this kind of business works.  I then realized that there’s more to this business than meets the eye.  I discovered the 5 questions you need to ask before joining a network marketing company.  How to differentiate a legitimate companies from the scams, and how to look at it from a perspective of a business owner, not an employee working at a job.

The more I learned about the business, the more I appreciated its unique strengths compared to other businesses as well as my other income streams that I’ve built over the years.  I was even amazed after a few months when I realized that my income from my business was more than the income coming from my stocks, real-estate and internet marketing COMBINED.  That was the time I took a real notice to this new opportunity I discovered.

I wish I could tell you all the things that have happened to me ever since that faithful day in March 2011 up to the present.  But words could not describe all the challenges that I’ve had to overcome, the joy of watching your business grow in front of your eyes, the continuous learning along the way, the discovery of what I value most and what I can deliver in helping other people earn at least $100 a month.  Here are some of the things that have happened to me so far.

Last day working for a JOB.

After doing the business part-time for 6 months, I was able to pursue it full time.  September 30, 2011 was my last day working for a job at my previous company.  It was the day I earned more in a week in my part-time business than my IT job for almost a decade. 

Goal to help 100 people earn $100/month each.

October 2011 when I decided to set a goal for myself to help a hundred people earn at least $100/month.  As of today, there are now more than 80 people who are earning $40/wk – $600/wk. 

Here’s what those who have been part of my project has to say.

If you want to take part in my project and be one of the 20 remaining people who will get a chance to be personally mentored by me and my team of leaders to earn at least $100/month before the year ends, click here to email me. 

Get featured in a magazine.

In helping people earn their $100/month, my business grew as well.  For the first, time my wife and I were featured in a magazine.   We were also recognized on stage in front of thousands of people.  It was a proud moment for me especially since my whole family was there with me to celebrate.

Mentoring from successful business people.

Through my business, I also got to enjoy meeting a lot of my business mentors.  Some of them already own Mang Inasal stores, some Minute Burgers, while another one owns the first 24/7 gym for ELITE athletes like PBA players, and more. Others are ordinary employees from big companies like Meralco, HP, Accenture, and others.  They have different backgrounds, IT professionals, Certified Public Accountants, Engineers, Nurses, Doctors, etc.  Some are board topnotchers and Magna Cum Laude graduates from prestigious universities like UP, UST, FEU, and more.  Some are much younger than me at only 18 years old, but already millionaires.

I think there’s a growing trend nowadays where the industry is undergoing a radical change thanks to XTRM 1-11 Inc.  More and more, I see people eager to look at opportunities around them that can give them back their dreams.  If you are one who’s open to looking at opportunities other than what you’re currently doing and would like to check out what I do, you can simply email me here.

There are a lot of more great things that have happened to me while pursuing my bliss of entrepreneurship, and helping other’s make the same leap from employment to business, but those will be shared with you some other time, perhaps in one of my future articles.  The baby steps to financial richers series will come to a close, but a new journey is only just beginning.

To end, I’d like to share with you one thing I’ve been asked a few times after I resigned from my job.  Not once have I been asked this intriguing question, "do you want to go back to employment?" The short answer is — No. At this time, I am still enjoying the time of my life, learning and getting a lot of business experience that I won’t be able to learn otherwise.  It’s only been a year in my journey to entrepreneurship but I won’t trade it for anything else.  Imagine what will happen in the next 3 to 5 years.  I am excited to share everything with you! Let’s go make our dreams happen! 🙂

P.S. I’m currently expanding my business in Makati and Singapore at the moment.  I am looking for 20 serious people who would like to pursue a home-based business earning an initial $40/wk – $200/wk part-time in the first 90 days.  If you would like to check if this business is something you can do, email me so we can schedule some time to get to know each other and see if we can do business together.  This business is obviously not for everyone, only for those people who want to work hard and pursue a legal and ethical way to earn money.  Not for those looking for a get-rich-quick scheme.  The first time I opened up the slots, my mailbox got so many inquiries that it took me 3 days to go through all of them.  So if you don’t receive a reply from me within 24 – 48 hours, please resend your email again as I might have missed it or it got buried along with the other emails.  God bless!

 

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Work Smart

Today, we will temporarily take a break from our ongoing Baby Steps to Financial Riches Series to give way to a guest article ‘Work Smart’ by one of my friends Sha Nacino.  Read on and enjoy!

Work Smart
By Sha Nacino

We always hear the phrase “work hard.” Yes, working hard is very important. However, I think working hard is not enough. One needs to work smart as well.

I am a poor singer. My father and brother would always tease me when I sing. When I was in High School, I auditioned for our school choir. No matter how hard I practiced, I didn’t pass the audition because I was tone deaf and my voice was sintonado. In fact, I was lucky if I could finish a song without revising its tune.

John Maxwell said, “Don’t work on your weaknesses”. By weaknesses, he is referring to our talents and skills. For example if you rate yourself 3 in singing in a scale of 1 to 10, 10 being the highest and 1 being the lowest, then pursue another career other than singing. Because companies only reward excellence! Assuming that you work hard to improve your singing and you raise your score by 2 points, your rate is just average at 5.

It’s the same thing with work. You may be doing a job that is not in line with your skills. No matter how hard you would try, the best that you could achieve is an average performance.

It may also be that you want to augment your income because you want to provide a more comfortable lifestyle to your family. So you decide to work overtime on weekends. Then you begin to think about rewarding yourself for your hard work. You then treat yourself to a nice movie or a sumptuous meal, or an expensive watch. You are too busy and tired to realize that though you’re earning extra from your overtime, you also spend a lot.

I therefore suggest that you work smart aside from working hard. If possible, try to commit working only 5 days a week. Use the one day to feed your mind regarding financial management and the other one day to bond with your loved ones. Read lots of financial books from best-selling authors. Look for mentors and take time to talk to them and learn from them.

Speaking of books, I wrote an eBook titled How to Earn While on Vacation with a Foreword by Bo Sanchez. You can visit http://seminarphilippines.com/free-ebook/ to get the eBook for FREE.

I wrote this eBook because I wanted more people to know about passive income and how it is earned. I am giving this book away for free. If you don’t have a copy of the eBook yet, you may log on to http://seminarphilippines.com/free-ebook/.

About the Author:
Sha Nacino is an author and a blogger. You may visit her at www.seminarphilippines.com or www.happysha.com.

 

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Baby Steps to Financial Riches Part 4 – Starting Your Own Business

My mentor Simon Chan once said, “as an employee, you are overpaid in the beginning but underpaid for the rest of your life… as an ENTREPRENEUR, you are underpaid in the beginning but overpaid for the rest of your life”. Now I realize how true this statement is, having spent almost a decade of my life as an employee, and more now as I continue my young career as an entrepreneur of a global business.

My family’s background are employees.  I was raised in an environment where the only way to earn your keep, is to work and work hard on your job.  That’s the reason I tried to do good in school. My goal was to get good grades so I can get into a good company and help my parents financially as much as I can. Fortunately, I was able to graduate with a degree in Computer Engineering in one of the best university in the country in University of the Philippines, Diliman.  Right after graduation, I was offered a job to work for a multinational IT firm for a monthly salary of P16,000.  A huge sum for someone like me who was fresh out of college without any experience back then.  After a month of training, my pay was even raised to P17,000. Imagine, I haven’t done anything yet and I got a raise! Wow, this must be how it feels to get overpaid! Employment was a bliss.

On Overcoming Shyness and My First Attempt At Selling

Having been raised in the northern province of the Philippines, in what people call Ilocandia, I had a nice laid back life growing up.  I was a very shy kid back then.  Perhaps spending a lot of time alone has both cultivated my independence at an early age but also prevented me from going out of my own shell.  I can still remember I was so scared even to go to the nearby store (in what Filipinos call ‘sari-sari’ store) just to buy my favorite snacks.  I didn’t know what to say, or how to ask. It would take forever for me to even walk to the store, my mind going wild with all the tragic mistakes that can happen.  What if I say something stupid and they will laugh at me?  What if they get angry at me? What if they ignore me? It took quite some time for me to overcome those fearful thoughts, but I guess one must need to learn to overcome his fears eventually.

My first attempt at selling was when I was 6 years old.  My aunt who cooked banana cue asked me to sell in school.  I was a very shy kid back then, so I didn’t even attempt to sell the banana cue.  All I did was sit beside the plate of banana cue my aunt asked me to sell with a sign “banana cue for sale” the whole time.  When someone bought, I just gave them one and received the money. I can’t remember if I was even able to sell half of the banana cue with me at that time.  I was a lousy salesman to say the least. 🙂

It went on for quite some time.  Growing up, I didn’t speak that much.  I remember my first day in school, I was so silent.  I didn’t know anyone so I watched the other kids the whole time, amazed at how good they were being able to speak to the whole class confidently.  My teacher bothered by my silence the whole time, decided to put me in a lower section, assuming that perhaps I just needed to be around people like me and get more comfortable around people.  A year after, I returned her favor back when I topped the class and got promoted to the higher section the next school year.  Life is looking brighter and brighter everyday. It was the first time I felt really good around other people.  My selling career just got a boost.  Now I can talk. 🙂

Three Powerful Lessons in Business

My next venture happened only after I got off from school.  It was one business I am not very proud of, but was key for me in learning my first 3 powerful lessons in business.  It happened at a time when I was desperate to earn extra income to pay off my balooning credit card debt.  When you are desperate, you can do stupid things which I ended up doing much to my regret. My hope is that this story inspire you to build a strong foundation for your business.

When I read rich dad poor dad by Robert Kiyosaki, I was busy looking for a way to get involved in a business of my own. I was busy surfing the internet one night and saw someone selling pirated VCDs of my favorite TV show over the internet in an auction site.  Needless to say, I bought one for myself for P25/CD at that time. So a full season of 22 eposides would be around P550.  Then it dawned on me, I could actually buy the blank CDs at a nearby wholesale store for only around P5/CD, burn the same TV shows, sell it to my friends for P20/CD instead of P25 and I would get the P15 profit for myself.  At that time, it really made sense.  The numbers worked.  Naive as I was, I went on and started my venture of selling pirated VCDs of TV shows.

For a while, business was really great.  Orders were pouring in like crazy.  All night I was busy burning all the TV shows that were ordered from me.  During the day, I would meet with the customers to hand over the VCDs and get the payment in what we call in the Philippines as “kaliwaan”.  It’s cash on delivery (COD).

I was still working full-time at my daytime job at that time and it was really a challenge managing all of them together.  Yes, income was coming in, but the reality was because I was so busy with everything I didn’t have anytime to sleep at all.  First lesson I realized is that I never could do everything on my own.  I realized the value of TEAMWORK. I needed to hire my first employee.  Fast.  Otherwise, I would collapse.  Because of the nature of my business being “underground”, I can’t really hire a regular employee.  My first employee was my sister who agreed to work for me and help me burn the VCDs after I pay her a cut of the profit for every VCD that she burned.  It was ok for a little while until she also had other activities she needed to attend to.  For a while I managed to have the business stay afloat…albeit barely.

The next lesson I learned is how QUALITY is very important and how to handle customer complaints.  One fanatic of a TV show complained to me one day after the VCDs that he got had portions which were badly damaged.  I apologized of course, but the great thing was he was very professional and he even gave me great inputs on why quality was important and how to give a better service next time.  I was ashamed initially but I took it all in stride because this was the price to pay for the lessons I needed to learn very fast.

The third and the most important lesson I learned is having an INTEGRITY.  After a while, the fatigue and stress was catching up on me when a BIG new client ordered a lot of shows from me.  Being very trusting and naive, I burned all the VCDs, spent quite a lot of money for the blank VCDs and did everything even without sleeping for consecutive nights in the hope of having a nice profit.  Lo and behold, at the time when my client and I were supposed to meet so I can hand over his order and get the payment from him, he was nowhere in sight. I waited and waited, for hours, until it dawned on me that I was deceived.  The worse thing is that I had nobody to blame but myself.

The funny thing is that since my business is illegal in the first place, I couldn’t really grow it into a BIG enterprise one day without getting into trouble with the law. That was a HUGE and painful lesson I needed to learn.  After that I decided to stop the business once and for all, I contacted all my clients and informed them of my decision.  Up to this day, I am still very thankful for that experience because it taught me a very valuable lesson — a business needs to be founded the right way so you can grow it to something you can really be proud of in the long run.

My First $100 Dollar 

After getting myself burned and having learned painful lessons in my prior venture, I concentrated on my full-time job as an IT professional.  It paid off quite well for me, getting myself promoted almost every year in the process.  But the more I climbed the corporate ladder, the more I got convinced that I needed to go back to building my own business.  I hardly felt the increase in my paycheck after getting a promotion since my tax rate also went up along with it.  I tried to save as much as I can, but I soon realized that there is a limit to how much I can save, or else I would die from not eating anything at all. 🙂

When the time came for me and my then girlfriend (now my wife) to get married, all I could think off was to go abroad to save up the money for the wedding.  I was still closed to other opportunities back then. After spending 2 and half years overseas, my wife and I were able to save up quite a bit of money, we started looking for ways to have that money grow.  That’s when I opened up to the opportunities around me, in real-estate, stocks, internet marketing, and more.  Internet marketing appealed to me because I had an IT background.  I thought it will be an easy transition for me having spent years of my life in IT. I started putting up a blog via blogger @ http://akosiallan.blogspot.com to get myself acquainted on how this whole thing works.  It was purely a way for me to share my stories, like a diary of my thoughts back then.

I learned that you could earn money from putting up ads on your blog, so I tried putting in Google Adsense Ads.  But I soon realized how hard it is to make money from ads when there’s only one or two people a day reading your blog.  Frustrated on how I can build up the readership of my blog, I even thought of going to an internet cafe one time and just pull up my blog from one PC to another. 🙂

It took me a few years and one seminar to really understand what it takes to build a following, and learn the fine art of ‘marketing’.  One thing I realized is that most technical folks like me who are familiar with IT are not very familiar with how marketing works.  I soon found out that in order to get noticed, you have to focus.  As for me, my articles on ‘fishing escapades‘ and my thoughts on ‘american idol‘ needed to be expressed in other channels, not from this blog. Or if I really can’t help it, it must be in one way or another relate it to business, investments or making money.

September 2009 marked a drastic improvement in the readership of this blog.  After applying the techniques I learned from Jomar Hilario’s Online Mentoring Club, the number of people reading my blog went up steadily as you can see in the screenshot of this site’s visitor statistics from then up to present. Never mind the dip sometime July 2011, it was when my old hosting account got hacked and I had to rebuild the whole site over again.  It was another painful learning experience for me but I managed to get back up quite nicely, don’t you think?

When the number of readers of my blog increased, my Google Adsense earnings went up as well.  It is quite exhilirating watching your account go from $0 to $100.60 after 1 year and 5 months.  You can read more about the story on how I earned my first $100 by clicking here.  My next project which was selling my own ebook, I learned how to earn the same $100 in a week instead of a year.  But I soon came upon another opportunity which would prove to be more lucrative and more exhilirating than all of my earnings from my stocks investments, real-estate investments and internet marketing income COMBINED.   The same opportunity has allowed me to not only quit my job and go full-time as an entrepreneur within only 6 months, but also brought me tremendous learning experience in building a global business empire.  I will discuss how I stumbled upon that opportunity in my next article.

P.S. If you can’t wait for the next article, and curious to find out what it is, you can simply email me or add me as friend in Facebook.  Unfortunately, with so many emails flooding my inbox whenever I send out an article, I might not be able to get back to you right away.  If you don’t receive a reply from me within 24-48 hours, please resend your email as it might have gotten buried with the many other inquiries.

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Baby Steps to Financial Riches Series Part 3 – Stocks vs Real-Estate vs Business

More than 2 years ago, I was a very busy IT consultant of a mutinational company.  I was stressed out for sure.  In my 9 years working as an IT professional, not a day would go by that I would not ask myself “is this all there is to life?”.  There were many times I questioned myself whether it’s really all worth the effort to endure all the long commute to work and back home everyday, the stress of enduring an unreasonable boss, the pressure of working in a fast-paced 24/7 environment, the sacrifice of not being able to spend more time with your loved ones, and the dying of my own soul wondering if there’s a hidden meaning to all these unbearable challenges.

When I couldn’t bear it any longer, that’s when I started to search for other options that might help me get my goals without having to endure the same thing that I’ve gone through the past 9 years of my life.  I tried venturing into real-estate, stocks investing, bonds, internet marketing, and more.  But the more I became aware of the many options available out there, the more I realized I keep on going back to the same stumbling block that I couldn’t seem to get over with.  Every opportunity I came across, at its core is solid business system.

Stocks and bonds are simply a way for companies or the government to borrow money from other people they call investors or stockholders in order to grow the company.  Income-producing real-estate is a business system at its core. The landlord is the CEO of that little company, and the tenants are its customers.  Internet marketing is just one piece of a BIG online business ecosystem where each corporation big and small are interacting everyday with the likes of Google, Amazon, Ebay, Apple and more.  Each company is selling its own product, whether it’s the infrastructure they are selling, or a physical product like a book, or a digital version (ebook), or what have you.  The only question now is where you are in that whole ecosystem, and how you operate your own business system.

I realized early on that if I really want to understand how this thing works, I need to become familiar with the one focal point where everything opens up for you — that is, how to build a successful business.

If you don’t know something, what would you do?  First thing I did?  Read.  Read.  and read some more until my mind was already aching with so many ideas…but after so many books, with nothing to show for it, I got depressed and frustrated with myself.  I got the classic case for “analysis paralysis”.

If you’ve been on this same situation before, I can’t blame you.  Especially if you are in a technical field like me who does a lot of analysis on a daily basis as part of your work.  To give you an idea how many books I’ve read over the years, here’s a picture of my mini-library at home. 🙂

When I got fed up of reading without any results to show for it, I got into the next level of learning — I attended seminars.  Lots and lots of seminars.  Some of them I attended live.  Some I couldn’t attend because of location, but I managed to grab a copy of the video recording of the seminars.   I even signed-up for a lot of online coaching classes.  And after so many of those, I still didn’t have anything to show for it.  I paid for those seminars, out of my own pocket. I was frustrated, of course, but I thought of them as investments in myself.  Someday, they will bring dividends, I told myself.

When you’re disgusted with your results, when you’re so frustrated you feel like any result is better than nothing, that’s when you free yourself up to learn.  In my case, I simply wanted to “experience” for myself what it feels like to be “investing” and “starting a business”.  I was willing to lose some of my money for that experience.  So I tried investing, in Retail Treasury Bonds at first.  Then into stocks.  Real-estate.  Internet businesses.  I lost some money in the process, but I feel I gained something more money can’t buy.  I gained confidence.  I gained experience.  I don’t claim to be successful in any of those.  Truth be told, I am still learning, and learning a lot as each day passes.  I’m sure I’ll make mistakes along the way.  Lots and lots of mistakes.  The thing is, I realized mistakes is part of success.  I am now even more excited to make mistakes, because then I know I am one step closer to my goals.

If you ask me what is better stocks, real-estate, or businesses, I will say there’s an advantage and disadvantage for each one.  From what I know, I feel investing in stocks is good especially if you have other assets like a business which can give you the cash flow to invest in stocks.  The same goes for real-estate.  The thing with real-estate is that you have tremendous leverage if you know what you’re doing.  But if you don’t you can also get into serious trouble.  Having a business is a great way to build cashflow for your other investments like real-estate, stocks and other businesses.

As for me, my strategy right now is to build my own business, while steadily investing little by little in my portfolio of stocks, bonds and real-estate.  At this point in my life, my time is currently focused on 80% business, 10% stocks and 10% real-estate. It will not work for everyone especially since we all have different dreams and goals, different skills, different stages in our lives.  If the thing you do works for you, and you feel you will be able to achieve your goals in a reasonable amount of time, then go for it.  Otherwise, maybe it’s time to look for other options.

In my next article, I will be sharing with you one of those options and my journey of building my own business.

P.S. Some of you have emailed me about my last article and asked how you can become like RJ and Jacq who were able to get married in one year without going abroad, and without asking a single penny from their parents.  I have another exciting news for you.  RJ and Jacq has just bought their very first Apple Macbook Pro yesterday!  I’m very proud of the results that they have achieved so far.  Here’s a picture of them together. 🙂

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