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Business Life Lessons

5 Powerful Business Secrets Revealed from Playing the Facebook App Restaurant City

Have you ever played Restaurant City in Facebook? If yes, you might have been staring at powerful business secrets all this time! If not, then this is your chance to discover the 5 powerful business secrets hidden in this popular online social game as they are finally revealed to you!

What is Restaurant City?

Restaurant City is a popular online social game in Facebook.  Your goal as a player is to build your own restaurant.   It is both fun and addicting.  While playing the game, I discovered 5 powerful business secrets that when applied and done right, you not only win in Restaurant City, you also win in real-life!

Here are 5 powerful business secrets revealed from playing the Facebook App Restaurant City!

Secret #1:  Start small…dream BIG!
When you start playing Restaurant City, you are given a small space, enough to setup a few tables and hire a cook and a waiter.  Everyone playing the game starts at the same place – small.  When you think about it, this is actually closer to real life than it seems.  Billionaire tycoons we look up to today started from small beginnings.  Henry Sy, the richest man in the Philippines according to Forbes’ list, started with a small footwear store decades ago.  Now, he owns the biggest and most frequented malls in the Philippines.  Jollibee, the proud Filipino burger icon, started as a small ice cream parlor. Everyone starts at the same place.  It is up to you to dream and make it BIG!

Secret #2:  Delight your customers!
In the online game Restaurant City, when your customer is delighted, he will give up a thumbs up sign and your customer satisfaction level goes up.  If the customer is dissatisfied due to late service, no available chair, or no comfort room, he will give a thumbs down sign.

The more thumbs up signs you get, the higher your customer satisfaction level will be, and the more people will come to your restaurant.  The same applies to real-life.  The more people you delight with great product and service, the more people will come to you and pay you to delight them again and again.  Because they are so delighted, they will share their experience with their friends and invite them along the next time they want you to delight them one more time.  The key is to delight your customers each and every time they come to you.

Secret #3:  Take care of your people!
In the online game Restaurant City, each of your employees has its own energy level.  When your employee cooks a meal, waits tables, or cleans up the restaurant, he consumes energy and his energy level goes down.  Once your employee’s energy level is depleted, your business goes down as well.

To resolve this, you have to restore the energy of your employees by doing any of the following: 1) buy a sandwich so your employee can have a quick bite, 2) buy drinks for your employee, 3) buy a full meal for your employee to eat or 4) have your employee rest or sleep.

In real-life, you can also do the same things.  Aside from these four ideas, you can also pay them well, care for their well-being, train them and let them grow with you.  The key is to really care for your people.  As Abraham Lincoln, aptly described,

“If you would win a man to your cause, first convince him that you are his sincere friend. Therein is a drop of honey that catches his heart, which, say what you will, is the great high-road to his reason, and which, when once gained, you will find but little trouble in convincing his judgment of the justice of your cause.”

Secret #4:  Grow and expand!
Maximize the arrangement of your tables to serve more customers better and faster! Offer more appetizing food to level up and earn more money!  Hire more employees! These are some of the strategies in playing Restaurant City to grow and expand your restaurant faster!  This is the exciting part because you learn to optimize everything you have.  You learn to waste nothing.

As you become more efficient with your operations, your money will also grow exponentially. In real-life, some people utilize the concept of franchising to expand their business.  Others offer the same excellent service to a different location.  While the rest just simply build a larger grocery store, or a mall with annex, or a wider selection of goods.  These strategies will take you to the next level and take your small business into something BIG.

Secret #5:  Celebrate your own style!
In the online game Restaurant City, you earn money every time you serve a meal to your customers.  Once your restaurant is big enough, more money is coming to you than you can ever expect to spend.  At first, it is both exciting and a cause for celebration!  But after a while, it starts to become boring. When this happens, your focus changes from “growing your business” to “showcasing your own style”.  Buy a new set of furniture! Decorate and re-arrange your restaurant! Put your name on it.  Paint it with your favorite colors!  Have fun!  Enjoy!

In real-life, some people buy “new cars” or a “new house” to celebrate and enjoy!  Others, just continue to grow but look for other exciting opportunities to keep their hunger alive!  While the really blessed ones gain satisfaction in utilizing their growing business to serve and bless more people.  They donate to charities.  They create a foundation to help bring opportunities to less fortunate people.  They share their success secrets to inspire other people to achieve even more. As Bo Sanchez aptly puts it, “the ultimate purpose of money is to serve other people.”

You’ve just learned 5 powerful business secrets you can readily apply to grow and expand your business! Go out and play the game of life!

Categories
Business Life Lessons Money Mindset Personal Finance

Building Rich Money Habits 101: My personal finance story

I have always thought there’s only one formula in making money.  That is work hard and at the end of each month, you get your paycheck.  Growing up in a family of farmers, I have seen what working hard really means.  I’ve experienced waking up early in the morning, go to the farm, plant or harvest rice until the sun sets in.  When you go home after a long day of working, the aching muscles says it all.  It is HARD work.  I’ve learned from my parents that if you want to have some money, you have to work  for it.  Often times, I’d go along with my mom to harvest tobacco leaves from a nearby town, and afterwards, she’d pay me for how much I was able to harvest.  That’s always been my training in terms of making money.  That was my first money habit – work to earn.

When I was in College, I wanted very much to help my parents pay for my education.  I was fortunate to have been granted a full scholarship, so that took care of the tuition.  Even then, making money from a far away province, and spending it in the most expensive city in the country is no easy task.  It is an uphill battle similar to walking up to a going down escalator.  So in my own little way, I also tried to make money by applying as student assistant to one of the university’s projects.  It doesn’t pay much since it is a government project but enough to pay some of my daily expenses and grow my confidence.

After graduating, I immediately started work as a mainframe programmer for a multinational IT company.  The offer I got then was around 16,000 pesos which was BIG money then for someone who’s fresh out of college and don’t have much working experience.  I worked very hard and was fortunate enough to be promoted almost every year.

As my paycheck increased, my appetite for consumption also increased.  I bought a refrigerator, a washing machine, gas stove, shoes, etc, ALL at the same time, EVEN when I didn’t have the money to pay for it.  I just used my new credit card!  That’s when my debt started to pile up.  The “easy” monthly payments never lived up to its promise.  No monthly payment was easy, especially when you only have your paycheck to rely on.  As my debt seemingly increased every month, I also had to worry about paying my monthly house rental, buying groceries, eating out with friends, and more.  There were times I was so out of money I even had to do “cash advance” on my credit card.  As some of you might know, you get to pay a hefty “fee” for doing a cash advance.  This is on top of the amount of money you actually “advanced”.  My already big debt, ballooned even more!  I was so ashamed of having to do cash advance, I promised right there and then, I had to pay for my debt no matter what.  It was like a having compound interest working against me.  I had to learn how money works.  I had to figure it out no matter what.  I had no choice.

While pondering my huge debt, I tried to look for ways to earn more money.  I tried doing some programming projects for friends.  I even entered the world of network marketing, tried selling wellness products and failed miserably.  I remember that my only “downlines” (a term indicating those you’ve recruited into the business) was my mother, my aunt, and a few of my friends.  It was a learning experience.  The thing that struck me most, was that my “need” for money, was being transferred to my “clients”, without me being conscious of it.  It was hard “selling” something you don’t 100% believe in and it’s even harder when your motivation is “making” more money without necessarily helping other people.  I think this mindset barrier is one of the reasons why I was not able to make it work.  Everyday, I had to battle with myself.  Am I here to really help other people?  Or is it just because of the money?

One time, while me and my friends were hanging out at a bookstore, I saw the book Rich Dad, Poor Dad by Robert Kiyosaki.  I heard my friend say it’s a great book, so I bought it, took it home and devoured the stories and financial lessons in the book.   The book opened my eyes to the world of money I never knew existed before.  That’s when I realized that the rich have different sets of money habits from the poor and the middle class.  For the first time, it finally made sense why I can’t seem to be making a dent on my credit card debt; why I can’t seem to sell anything at all.  Because I had the wrong money habits.  I had to learn rich money habits to achieve financial freedom.

After that, it got me excited to learn more about money. First, I signed-up for our company’s savings plan.  I started really small. At first, only about 2% of my paycheck is automatically deducted and kept under my savings account.  I don’t even get to hold the money.  After a month, I increased it to 5%, then to 10%. After a year of saving, I was able to set aside 20% of my paycheck without necessarily scrimping myself too much.  That was rich money habit #1 – pay yourself first.

With the savings, I had, I was able to pay my debt slowly buy surely.  More than that, it gave me confidence to know that I can do it, with the proper discipline and rich money habit.  When the opportunity came for me to be assigned to the US for a 6-month stint in my company, I was able to save even more and pay-off the rest of my credit card debt. That was rich money habit #2 – get out of bad debt as soon as possible!

I also started to take serious notice of the numerous calls I got from insurance agents offering life insurance.  Before, I would always make up numerous excuses just to avoid talking to them.  But now, I wanted to know more how I can use the different insurance products to protect myself and my family.  I also started reading more on business, money, investing and personal finance.  After a few years, I managed to save up for an emergency fund.  That’s rich money habit #3 – Get some protection!

I’m still a long way to go from financial freedom.  That is my goal.  I am in the process of learning how to build passive and semi-passive income, and I am loving every minute of it.  In this website, I will share whatever I learned so that you too can build your own rich money habits and ensure your financial success and freedom!

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Business Investing Personal Finance Stocks Truly Rich Club

Bo Sanchez's Truly Rich Financial Coaching Program (Day 2)

Since my wife and I were late during the first day of the Truly Rich Financial Coaching Program, we wanted to make the most of the seminar by being early on the second day. Before 8AM, we were already on our way to Valle Verde Country Club. Since it was a Saturday, there was not much traffic jam and we arrived a little around 8:15AM. Thinking that we were early, my wife and I sat on one of the benches outside the room. I saw the room where we had the seminar yesterday and noticed that some people were already preparing the place. I thought to myself, maybe in no time they’d be done preparing the place and we will be sitting comfortably inside the room. After a few minutes, brother Bo arrived with his usual winning smile. He saw us and invited us to go inside. Thinking that he was going to where the waiters were preparing, we hesitated a bit. Only when he entered the OTHER room beside it did we realize that we were looking at the wrong room. When we followed Bo and entered the room, there were already many people inside, some of them having a great time drinking their morning coffee. I couldn’t keep from laughing at myself for thinking and being proud that we were the early birds for the day. 🙂

Basic Foundation of Financial Planning

DSC_0617 The first speaker was Noel Arandilla, from International Marketing Group (IMG).  He talked about the basic foundation of financial planning.  He shared some tips to having better finances like increasing your cash flow, building long term asset allocation, how to compute the right amount of insurance that you need, and more.

I learned that there are only two things you can use to generate cash flow: time and money.  We all have 24 hours in a day.  But how you use your time determines whether you become rich or poor.  For most people, the only time available to become rich is after work or during weekends, that is – spare time.  It is very important to utilize the spare time that you have in money-making generating activities and not waste it on watching TV, sleeping, gossiping, and more.

Noel also shared that a person normally starts out in life with very little or no money but with lots of responsibilities.  For example, he has to help his parents with household chores, he may need to send his younger bother or sister to school, or earn a living to help with the family’s finances .  After a few years of getting his paycheck, the typical person would earn a little bit more each year while his responsibility gradually  decreases.  Once he reaches retirement age, all of his kids have probably graduated by then, hence he would have minimal responsibility.  At this stage, he’s supposed to have money working for him to fully enjoy the remaining years of his life.  That is the purpose of financial planning.

Be the Bank!

May I tell you a little secret?  Do you know how the bank earns money?  Let me illustrate the answer by using an example.  After spending 2 years as an OFW, you have a little extra cash that you don’t really expect to use for the next 30 years.  Let’s say you have  100,000 pesos in total.  Now, being a saver, you deposited the whole 100,000 pesos into a time-deposit account at 5% annual interest for 30 years.  Right after you left the bank, a business man came in, asked the banker for a loan of 100,000 pesos payable in 30 years at 15% annual interest.  The banker than says “OK”, took the 100,000 pesos from your time-deposit and gave it to the business man.  After 30 years, the bank’s 100,000 pesos loaned to the businessman has already earned around 6.4 million pesos including interest, while your 100,000 pesos invested in time-deposit earned only about 400,000 pesos.  When you claim your time-deposit earnings, the bank give’s you the 400,000 pesos, then keeps the remaining 6 million as profit.  I’d love to be bank! 🙂

How you’re losing money from your savings account

In the Philippines, most people still invest by saving their money into banks over a long period of time.  The bad news is this. Banks are offering very minimal interest rate on savings and time deposits.   With less than 1% annual interest rate on your savings account, what future does your money hold?  Counting average inflation of 7% per year, you are actually losing money at the rate of -6%. This is because of inflation.  Inflation is the effect of steadily appreciating prices of goods.  For example, your 100 pesos can buy 5 loaves of bread 20 years ago.  But today, the same 100 pesos could NOT even buy 1 loaf of bread.  The same thing is happening, when people say “if only I bought that piece of land 20 years ago, today, I would already be a millionaire!”

Start early.  Invest your money for the long term.

tarlacroad I love the way Noel spoke about ordinary experiences and making them as great examples of interesting financial decisions.  For example, you get your 13th and 14th month bonus today worth around 40,000 pesos. The question is, would you save and invest it on a mutual fund at 10% average interest rate?  Or would you buy another NEW mobile phone? For some, the answer is simple – buy a mobile phone for “pogi” (handsome) points. For others, they would hesitate quite a bit but eventually give in, saying “I’ll just invest my next year’s 13th and 14th month bonus. For now, I’ll buy myself a gift.  I deserve it.  My brand new cellphone, here I come!” For those a little bit financially savvy, they might invest it through mutual funds, or stocks, potentially earning even better average annual returns around 15 – 20%.  For most people, it is hard to invest because earning an interest over a long period of time is NOT tangible RIGHT NOW and you need time to make it work. The delusion of instant gratification is the enemy of long-term investing.

Money is flowing

The second speaker is also from IMG.  He shared his personal observation about how rich people in the Philippines spend their money.  He noticed that Henry Sy, Lucio Tan and other billionaire tycoons move their money around.  In a way, they are actually just buying from themselves.  For example, Henry Sy who owns the very popular SM department stores, is renting mall space for his department stores from SM properties, which is a different company but still owned by the same family.  When SM properties build new malls or residential buildings and need money, who do they ask money from?  Instead of borrowing from other banks, they borrow from their own bank – BDO, which, is owned by the same man, Henry Sy.  The same is true with Lucio Tan.  When his Philippine Airlines and several tobacco companies need money to finance its projects and investments, from which bank does it borrow money?  Of course, through Allied Bank or Philippine National Bank, which Lucio Tan owns a stake.  So you see, money is just flowing around, being controlled by the same rich people who owns most businesses, selling high quality goods and providing world-class services for our countrymen.  Wouldn’t it be nice to be able to do the same thing?  Wouldn’t it be nice to buy from yourself and save on costs?  You might even want to give yourself a hefty discount as part of your loyalty program. Who wouldn’t want to be a loyal customer to one’s self? 🙂

Mutual funds

The idea of mutual funds, I learned, is making investing available to ordinary citizens.  Each person invests a small amount, as little as 5000 pesos.  The money from all the investors are then pooled together and invested into money generating assets like bonds, stocks or both.  The money is managed by professional fund managers.  The goal of the fund manager is to make money for the small investors.  Whether you invested big money or not, you earn the same profit percentage as that of the group.

This is particularly beneficial for ordinary citizens who don’t have much time and money to participate actively in managing the investment and content to just leave their money to professional fund managers.

One way to minimize risk, is to use an investing method called peso cost averaging.  It is an investing technique based on the assumption that since you’re unable to time the market, you just try to average out the risk by investing same amount of money every month or every quarter  to take advantage of the times when the price of the stock/net asset value per share (for mutual funds) becomes very low.  Even though the price is fluctuating, or is going roller coaster, the risk is minimized as the same amount of money can buy more shares when the stock price is low.  When the price is up you can either take away your profit/earnings or leave it there to earn compound interest.  It is advisable to maintain a long term outlook on your investments like a 10 or 20 year time frame in this scenario.  If you need the money within 1 year or 3 years, it is best to leave it at the bank where it is safe and liquid.

There are also different types of mutual funds: 1) bonds & securities, 2) stocks & equities, and 3) combined.  Mutual funds which invest in company or government bonds & securities are stable but offer limited earning potential.  These funds are especially designed for those that are risk-averse and those that are already retiring and don’t want to spend their time analyzing funds for themselves.  The mutual funds which invest in stocks have high growth potential but also entails higher risk especially during times of booms and recessions.  This is advantageous for those still young and can tolerate the swings in the market that even if they lose money, they can still go back up.   The upside is that if they make money, they earnings is also big.

Passion, Hardwork & “Angel” Investors in Business

The third speaker was a successful businessman.  His name is Ronnie Siyasoyco.  He has built several successful businesses to which he attributes most of his success today. He shared personal stories on his many ups and downs and a little bit of luck dealing with business failures, learning from them and enjoying his successes.

Ronnie got started selling “uling” (charcoal) one summer day.  He and his brothers experienced being laughed at by their friends because of their dirty clothes which was battered from their having to lift several sacks of charcoal each day.  The painful thing, according to Ronnie, was seeing their friends make fun of them, and them not being able to enjoy the seemingly “easy” lives that their friends had.   Many times,  he went home crying, asking himself, why they are very poor.  But with a powerful & positive attitude, he worked hard, ignored the joke from their friends, even hired some of them to do the charcoal delivery themselves and earn extra money. That summer, he and his brothers were able to sell 3 truck loads of charcoal.  Not an easy feat for 3 young high school boys.

In those early days, he learned the value of hard and honest work.  Growing up in a family of entrepreneurs, breakfast and dinner time was shared and business ideas were freely discussed among the family members.  His mother would always ask him if there’s anything he needs to do for the day.  When he starts answering “nothing”, he would be scolded and the words “there is ALWAYS something to do” would then be ingrained in his head.  If you have nothing to do, you find something to do.

Very early in his life, he had asked his parents why they were so poor.  His mom would say that they are NOT poor.  They eat 3 times a day.  They go to school.  They have the necessities of life.  His dad would add that the only legacy that their parents can pass on to their children is good education.  So it was in their hands to make the most out of it.  If they squander the opportunity, their lose will be their own doing, not the fault of their parents.

Ronnie also shared his personal story on how he lost 80 million pesos through a cancelled deal and several outside forces devaluating the peso and skyrocketing the value of his loans.  For one month, he was not able to sleep very well.  That went on and on, until he prayed and surrendered his problems all to God and a miracle happened.  Since he was not doing anything one day, his friend invited him to drive him to meet up someone.  He was  just listening there watching his friend speak to this very rich businessman, when the businessman suddenly asked him, “you, gentleman, what are you doing here?” To which he replied that he was accompanying his friend.  He asked again, “what do you do? what business are you in?” and so he answered again and provided a background on his business.  And so on until the businessman asked how his business was doing and how he can be of help.  At the end of the conversation the businessman offered to help by giving him a cheque, enough to help him pay back his loans and get his business moving again.  He referred to this businessman as an “angel investor”.  The moral of the story he says, is saying “yes” to your friends when they ask you to drive them. You never know, an angel might be waiting on the other side for you. 🙂

What I appreciated about Ronnie is how he passionately shared about his ups and downs.  His story is truly inspiring.

Internet Marketing

The last speaker of the day was Bo Sanchez’s internet marketing mentor, Jomar Hilario.  Jomar talks fast and is very entertaining.  He shared his experiences selling concert tickets through online internet marketing.  He also mentioned his initial attempts to enter the world of marketing through selling “forever living” products, carrying a big box with him, seemingly always in “high” state, shouting positive affirmations to himself.

After reading from Robert Kiyosaki’s book that one needs to visit at least 100 properties to buy just 1 house, he visited houses one after another and took a lot of pictures of those houses using his old film camera.  At the end of the day, he was exhausted.

At some point, he also mentioned the story on how he spent 80,000 pesos to attend a wealth seminar in Singapore, bought the training materials, only to find out that the ideas on the training materials are the same ideas he had already done before when he promoted concert tickets in 30 days to fill a whole coliseum, all by himself.

Lastly, Jomar extended an invitation to his upcoming Internet Marketing Seminar and his Online Marketing Workshop Club.  You may learn more about his seminars by visiting  www.jomarhilario.com.

Action starts now!

It was long day.  With lots of financial information to digest, I had to prevent myself from suffering “information overload”.  Overall, the Truly Rich Financial Coaching Program was a very good seminar, showcasing the different financial vehicles and opportunities on how to invest and make money.  From here, the only thing to do is take action!

Watch out for the next articles in the coming weeks and months, as I try to share my progress and experience taking action on some of these financial lessons.

Do you like to attend Bo’s Truly Rich financial seminars but you are based outside the Philippines? Here’s your chance!

Join the Truly Rich Club!
Join the Truly Rich Club

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Bonds Business Investing Money Mindset Personal Finance Stocks Truly Rich Club

Bo Sanchez's Truly Rich Financial Coaching Program (Day 1)

Last Friday and Saturday, my wife and I attended Bo Sanchez’s Truly Rich Financial Coaching Program.  The event is a two-day seminar showcasing financial lessons and tips from Bo Sanchez and his mentors on business, real-estate, stocks, mutual funds and internet marketing. In this 2-part series, I will try to share what I’ve personally learned from the seminar. This is part 1 which includes the insights I’ve learned during the first day of the coaching program.

The ARRIVAL

“The journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.” – Confucius

We arrived at Valle Verde Country Club around 2pm Friday.  We were actually late because we came all the way from Makati and we still had to drop by our house in Mandaluyong, have lunch and take a taxi going to the venue.

When we arrived, the seminar already started.  We were just in time for the first talk of the day.  Thanks to the small note outside the room and a little luck, we managed to find which room the seminar was being held.   The funny thing was, we actually arrived at around the same time as the first speaker.  When the speaker entered the door, we took a quick peek inside and saw that the organizers and the other participants were already inside the room.  We registered right away, took our seats, settled down and prepared ourselves for a very exciting and interesting financial coaching seminar.

Online Stocks Investing

The first speaker was Juan ‘Juanis’ Barredo, the VP of CitisecOnline, which is an online stock brokerage firm in the Philippines.  He has 18 years of experience in the stock market.  What struck me about Juanis is the way he spoke very fluent English.  I thought – “this guy can speak!”.  The way he captures the right words to explain the most intricate subject of stock investing is excellent.

One of the first things I learned from his talk is that less than 1% of the Philippine population invests in the stock market.  Which is really very small compared to other countries like US, Hong Kong, and even for our neighboring countries such as Indonesia.  In the US, even cab drivers invest in the stock market.

The main idea of stock investing is – you buy “shares” of a company to become a part-owner.  That means you are actually investing on a business.  Just like in business, one of the strategies used to gain a profit is to buy “low”, then sell “high”.  The tricky thing about stocks is how to know if the company’s shares are being sold “low” or “high”.  Is it based on the “market price”?  Or is it based on the “actual value” computed from analysis of the company’s earnings and performance?  Or is it both?

I realized that investing in the stock market is a lot like buying a pair of jeans on sale.  How do you know if it’s on sale?  First, you need to know, how much is it truly worth?  That is, how much is it really selling for when it’s not on sale?  For jeans, usually it’s around 1,000 to 2,000 pesos.  Of course, you can buy cheaper jeans from Divisoria, or more high-end jeans from branded stores.  So if they say it’s 70% off, they’re selling the 1000 peso worth jeans for only 300 pesos.  Would you buy?  If it fits and you like it, why not?!  The same is true with stocks.  When a share of the company is worth 1000 pesos and they are selling it for 300 pesos only, would you buy?  If you like the company, and based on your analysis it is really worth 1000 pesos, why not?  Among other things, it should also fit you.  Is the company something you want to be involved in?  Do you and those people running the company share the same core values?  If you have all the money in the world, would you build the same business?

During the seminar, I asked Juanis which companies he personally invests in. Many people in the room laughed. I’m guessing because it’s a familiar territory almost similar to asking your classmate what the correct answer to a question on your exam is.  The main reason I asked is because I wanted to know if he is practicing what he is saying.  To me, more than the information that he shares, it’s the integrity he exudes that really matters.  When he shared what he personally invests in without hesitation, I knew he was someone who really walks his talk.

Business is about relationships

The second speaker was actually the owner of CitisecOnline. His name is Edward Lee.  Actually, I already saw him in one of Bo Sanchez’s videos for Truly Rich Club.  When I spoke to Bo during one of the coffer breaks, I said it was kind of surreal to be able to actually see some of the guys in person, where before we only saw them from the DVDs that we received as a member of Truly Rich Club.

Edward Lee has a very long track record of business success and he shared with us some of the key things he learned as an entrepreneur.  What struck me was that here was a man who’s very successful and wealthy.  But when he speaks, you can see the integrity and passion in his voice.  He’s really excited in sharing the lessons that he learned, occasionally sharing  some personal stories from which he derived most of his business success.

One very important thing I learned from him is that – business is all about relationships.  It’s building relationships with your people, your customers, and your suppliers.  As Bo mentioned later, “you buy from your friend”.  Upon reflection, I realized that “yes, I am like everyone else, I really buy from my friends.”  When I want to know something, I ask my friends.  When there’s something I want to buy, I try to find out who from my friends are into that business.

I realized we are just one piece of a big puzzle.  We do our share.  When we buy from our friends, what we’re really doing is sharing what we have to the world.  It’s the same thing when we sell.  Because we address a problem that our friends are facing, we’re making their life a little bit easier.

Business is about Integrity

The second thing I learned from Edward is that it’s very important to be very trustworthy and keep your word.  Even if it losses you money.  Even if it costs an arm or a leg.  This is a core value that rings very close to my heart.   I like to deal with those I trust.  I realized that when I don’t really believe in something, I hesitate to share it to my friends.  I am a silent man, but when I share, I want to make sure it is something my friends will benefit.  More than the money, it’s because they are my friends.  Friends look out for each other.  We want the best for them. Isn’t it great to give and be able to share something valuable with your friends?

Real Estate

The third speaker was Larry Gamboa, the author of Think Rich Pinoy.  He shared about the idea of franchising in the world of real estate.  Perhaps because it was something new and still in its infancy, I had a hard time following where the talk was going.  I guess because it is something that was still in the works, it was also hard for him to explain.  What I appreciated about him is that he realizes what people are going through.   He recommends learning while also earning at the same time to shorten the gap between dreaming and execution.

Internet Marketing part 1

Bo also shared some tips on internet marketing.  He mentioned that Kerygmafamily.com is making money through donations, all through the power of the internet and marketing. The website is actually making lots of money from those donations which all goes to the many programs that Bo is organizing to help those in need like the Anawim – a place for abandoned elderly, or the charity that aims to help pregnant women.  This is a very good example of showing that the ultimate purpose of money is to help and love other people.

This is only day 1 but there were already so many things I’ve learned. Watch out for the part 2 of this blog post where I’ll share personal insights I’ve learned from day 2 of the Truly Rich Financial Coaching Program.

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What's so great with Nintendo Wii?

Last week, me and my teammates played Nintendo Wii at one of my tea mate’s house. It was my first time to play the game. And I was hooked!

It’s been quite a while since I touched anything related to computer games. I still remember when I was still a kid. I would hang out at my friends house a lot, playing games on Nintendo Entertainment System, commonly known as family computer.   I loved playing super mario, spartan x, 1942, and more!  At that time, it was the coolest thing on earth!  Even though I did not own one, I was addicted to family computer games.  I was almost always at my friend’s house.

When I went to College and got my own personal computer, I got hooked playing StarCraft, a PC game of aliens, humans and funny looking planktons called zoids (was that the term, I can’t remember)?  Anyway, I would play the game the whole night until the sunshine comes out. Then I’d sleep the whole day.  Don’t tell my parents but I actually missed my class a few times because I was busy sleeping. 🙂

Now, let’s go back to Wii.

The Game for Everyone

The Wii is a game meant to be enjoyed by everyone: kids, teens, adults, grannies, etc.  It doesn’t take long to learn how to play the game.  The first game I played was tennis.  I already saw the game while watching an episode of One Tree Hill, where the little kid was playing with his uncle Skiles (not sure if I spelled that out correctly).  They were obviously having fun.

Now, it’s my turn to play Wii tennis!  I grabbed the controller, which looked more like a pair of dumbles than a gamepad, then swung my way to the tennis ball.   I felt a vibration in the controller which seemed like a ball hitting a tennis racket.  The ball came back.  I swung a again…but it was too late.  The ball went off the sidelines.  I couldn’t believe it.  This is so cool!

Don’t Play the Game Alone

The greatest thing about this game is that it is meant to be enjoyed with other people.  I certainly had fun, laughing at myself when I tried to roll the bowling ball but released it too early, hence, went to my back instead.  So all those watching from behind, had to jump their feet off to avoid the bowling ball from hitting them.  Good thing it’s only a computer game.  Otherwise, no one would play with me anymore.  I don’t recommend doing the same thing with a “real” bowling ball.  You might hit someone in real life. 🙂

My wife and I was enjoying ourselves with our friends.  I could not imagine having to play this game alone.  It would be too depressing.  Who would laugh?  Only me?

Easy to Learn

The next thing we played was boxing.  At first, I really didn’t know how to play it.   But I tried it on anyway.  I was suprised to know that it was very easy to learn.  I only needed to hold the two controllers with both of my hands and throw a punch as if I am a boxer.  I didn’t need to learn any game mechanics like when you do puzzles.  I threw punches to my hearts desire and I scored a knockout.  I enjoyed it so much I was so thirsty after our game.

We also played a racing game.  But this time, we rode cattles.  It was amazing just flipping the controller and the cow would  jump so high it looked like it could touch the sky.  When I turned the controller downwards, the cow went into turbo mode and ran like hell it could easily be running against an F1 car.  The great thing about this is that I didn’t need to learn a thing to start enjoying the game.  I learned everything along the way.  Isn’t that the way we humans learn?

It’s fun

At the end of the day, I really had lots of fun playing Wii.  I was laughing my hearts out.  I was jumping, throwing my hands all over the place.  It was fantastic!  I thought of buying one for myself. However, I realized that it would not be fun if I play the game alone.  I’d rather have fun losing with other people, making all sorts of mistakes than winning by myself.  The fun is meant to be shared.

Now it’s your turn!  Go have fun playing Wii with your family and friends!

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Business Life Lessons Money Mindset Personal Finance

5 tips on how to fish effectively – things I learned while fishing at Taman Jaya Park

Recently, my wife and I went fishing with our friends at a nearby park walking distance from Taman Jaya LRT station.   It was  Saturday morning and the sun has just risen.   When we got there, there were already many people jogging around the area.   We hurriedly went to look for a place to put the food our friends prepared and start eating.  Didn’t I say we love to eat?  We had lots of fun eating, laughing and enjoying the experience.

Our friends brought along some fishing equipments they bought from Pudu.    So after we finished eating, we went to look for a place to cast out the nets and start fishing.

tamanjayapark

Use a bait the fish loves to eat

While we were preparing, I was surprised to know that the fishing rod we were using only has a net.  It did not have any hook or anything similar to that.  At first I had some doubts whether it could really catch some fish.  But I was soon proved otherwise.  My friend just catched a big fish with that same net without any bait!  I guess the fish was that hungry.

But that was the only fish we catched that day.  In comparison, the other guy beside us had a bountiful catch.  Every other minute or so, his fishing rod would go up and another fish would jump out of the water.   When we saw the basket he had, we were amazed to see it overflowing with maybe more than a dozen fish.  It made me think, what was he doing that we were not?  Then I noticed, he was putting something which looked like a bait on his fishing equipment’s hook.   I could not exactly tell what it was at the time what but when I saw him scraping something green at a nearby stream, I realized it’s moss.  Aha!  Maybe that is the secret!

Use a bait the fish loves to eat.  It seems obvious now just talking about it.

When I was a a child.  I had a fond memory with my Dad as we went fishing at a nearby fish pond in our school.  At the time, we used earthworms as bait in a hook to catch some fish.  In no time at all, the fish were devouring the bait we put into our fishing equipments.   Starting then, I knew fish loves earthworms.

At another time, me and my college friends went fishing at one of my friend’s fish pond.  As I was looking for an earthworm to use as bait, I came to realize that we were suppose to use leftover bread instead.  Initially, I didn’t think fish would like to eat the bread.  I thought they liked only earthworms.  I was pleasantly surprised to see the fish were as eager to eat the bread as if it were an earthworm.  They were attacking the bread ferociously and in no time at all we’ve managed to catch a lot of fish for a sumptuous lunch.  I guess in that part of the world, fish loves to eat bread!

Go where the hungry fish are

At one point, we cast the fishing nets near where we were having a picnic even though it didn’t look like any fish was nearby.  We waited for quite some time while were were busy eating hoping that maybe some fish might accidentally bump into one of the nets.   We had finished eating but the nets were as empty as before.   There were no fish in the area.  And there was no catch.

So after we finished eating, we went beside one of the fisherman, near a stream of water.  It didn’t take long for us to see that in that part of the pond, there were a lot of fish.   There was a school of fish swimming, catching some breathe on the surface every now and then.  More importantly, we saw the other fisherman was catching a lot of them.  We wanted a piece of the action too!

After a settling down and casting our nets, we were rewarded with our first and only catch for the day.  It really pays to be where the hungry fish are!

Learn from someone successful at what you intend to do

I guess we wouldn’t have caught that fish if we didn’t see the other guy was catching a lot.  In this respect, he was the successful fisherman.  My wife even thought he was a “professional” fisherman.  It seemed to me, here was a guy who knew what he was doing and he is pretty good at it.  Maybe someday, I too will.

Be Patient

It was a bit frustrating seeing the other guy next to us catching a lot of fish, while our net seemed to be lost in oblivion, never making any movement at all.  We went to the left of the guy who was catching fish.  No luck.  We went to his left.  No luck.  Then we went further left.  As we were joking around laughing, suddenly my friend noticed the movement in his fishing net.  He pulled it up and there it was!  The biggest (and the only) fish we had that day!

tamanjayaparkcatchoftheday

Have fun

It is no fun fishing alone.   It is exciting to enjoy fishing with friends and loved ones.  It’s a nice experience to just talk about things while waiting for the net to catch some fish.  I had a lot fun that Saturday morning.  It was a nice experience learning a thing or two about fishing and life itself.

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Business Life Updates Money Mindset

Escapade to Malaysia's Pangkor Island Beach Resort

To celebrate my wife’s birthday, my wife and I wanted to go out of town.  Take some time off.  Relax. We’ve both been very busy at work the past month and thought we both needed a break – a perfect getaway.

There were a couple of things we had in mind.  First, it had to be near.  We don’t want to take another 8-hour bus ride to a very far island, only to go back again the day after.  That’s what we did last year.  After that experience, I don’t want to have to sit inside a bus again.

One option we thought of was to go to Port Dickson, a short 2-hour bus ride from Kuala Lumpur.  Port Dickson, or P.D. as commonly referred by locals, is a very nice place, with a few beach fronts.   I only knew “The Legends Water Chalet”, a hotel in PD as my team mates and I had a team building there last year.   The hotel is very nice but it’s a bit pricey.  Besides, my wife and I already went to PD a couple of months back.  We spent the night at another place, a western cowboy style resort they call “Eagle Ranch”.  We had lots of fun there.

For this year, we both wanted to try something new.

Then we heard about Pangkor Island.  The island is a 4-hour bus ride from KL.  It’s not as near as PD but it certainly better than an 8-hour bus ride to east coast Malaysia.  The bus ticket is about 25 ringgit one way.

Early Friday morning, we boarded the Plusliner bus going to Lumut.   Since it was a weekday, there were only a few of us in the bus.  The bus left on time.  Soon enough, we were already coasting along the highway going to Lumut.  My wife was busy listening to her  i-pod while I tried to catch some sleep.  As we came near the Lumut town, my wife and I noticed that there were only 3 of us in the bus.  Me, my wife, and the driver.  We were the only passengers left.

It was around 1pm when we reached Lumut town.  My wife and I were both hungry, and excited at the same time.  The bus terminal is walking distance to the ferry station.  We hurriedly went to look for the ferry going to Pangkor Island Beach Resort.  We were lucky to find very friendly locals who pointed us to the right direction.  The next ferry is 1:45pm, so my wife and I had an extra time to spare and have lunch.

We went back to the plaza to look for a place to eat.  There were a lot of stores offering local delicacies, but we wanted to have something else.  We looked around and found the only familiar fast food chain in the area, a local KFC store.  We wasted no time and went immediately to have lunch. It’s nice to finally eat something after hours of travel.

After lunch, we went back to the ferry station.  When we got there, there were already other tourists waiting for the ferry to arrive.  From what I heard, it is a half-hour ferry ride to the Island.  We were both excited as we boarded the ferry.  We took some pictures left and right.  Smiling. Laughing.
pangkorjettystation
It was only 30 minutes but it seemed like an eternity.  I was glancing at my watch every minute or so.  When I finally saw the shores, it took my breath away.  The fine white sand is inviting and looks very good to walk on.  The sound of the waves are calming.  It’s a paradise.

The hotel staffs were very courteous.  Within a few minutes, we were on our room.  The room is very spacious, adorned in the middle by a lovely king-size bed.  The bathroom is very clean and I couldn’t wait to soak myself in the tub.  From our room, we could see the infinity pool,  overlooking the beach front and the enchanting sea. It’s a very nice place.

The resort is very secluded. It’s the only resort covering the whole beach front. The resort is enclosed like a cove, making it a very very peaceful, with only the sound of the small waves singing like a lullaby.

My wife and I enjoyed the walk on the beach early morning the next day.  We even took a picture of the dazzling moonlight on the beach.

pangkorbeachmorning

In the afternoon, we rented a bike and went around the resort.  There were a lot of trees along side the beach.   There was also a swing hanging on an umbrella tree.  We went over, had fun sitting on the swing, taking some pictures, just having lots of fun watching the sea and time go by.   This place is nice.

I really enjoyed my stay in the resort.  I’m specially fond of these 3 things.

  1. The place is secluded, peaceful and relaxing.
  2. The staffs are very courteous
  3. The resort facilities are very nice and clean

On the other end, I also had some reservations to recommend the place as it might not be for everyone.

  1. It’s a bit pricey
  2. There were not much choice for food
  3. The beach is not very clear like those in East Coast Malaysia

If you’re looking for a place to relax with family and friends, and you have the money to spare, you will like it here.  But if you’re on a budget and would like to do a lot of things, you might get a better deal somewhere else.

In the end, what matters is you enjoy it with someone you love.  Have fun at Pangkor Island!

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Books Business Life Lessons Money Mindset Personal Finance

How to ride a bike? Learning reflections on Robert Kiyosaki's 'If you want to be rich and happy, don't go to school'

Earlier, I was reading a book by Robert Kiyosaki, titled If You Want to Be Rich & Happy Don’t Go to School.  In the book, Robert mentions something about a quote from Dr. Buckminster Fuller,

Human beings were given a left foot and a right foot to make a mistake first to the left, then to the right, left again and repeat.

While reflecting on this quote, I remembered when I rode a bike for the first time.  At first, I my dad had to hold on to the seat, while I try to drive.  My heart was pumping with excitement.  Unfortunately, just when I hopped on the bike,  I realized it was going to the left.  I didn’t know what to do.   I panicked.  I fell.  That was the first time.  The second time I tried, the bike was again going haywire.  But now, it’s going to the right.  I panicked again.  And again, I fell.  On the third try, I noticed the bike was again going to the left.  In my panic, I immediately steered the bike to the left.  To my surprise, the bike went to the other direction.  So again, I had to steer it to the right.  And again it went to the left.  And so I repeated what I just did – to the left, then to the right.  Until, suddenly, I realized, my dad was no longer holding the bike.  I was driving the bike on my own! It’s one of the glorious moments of my life.  I knew then that no matter what happens,  I can do it.   I thought then that if I could ride a bike, I can do anything.  I can fail many times.  But I can also learn.  I can take what life gives me and find out what works.

When I was in College, me and my friends participated in a contest about creating the fastest line-following mobile robot.  We competed against students from other schools.   When I was studying the design, I was very amazed at the simplicity of the logic on how to make the robot follow the 2-inch wide black line they call “track” against the very clean white floor.   The robot, is basically a remote controlled car, with all its circuitry removed and replaced with a microcontroller which acts as its “brain”.  At the front of the car are two sensors.  Depending on what color each of the two sensor sees on the floor (white) or track (black), the “brain” would know whether it is going out of track or not.  When the car is going out of the track to the left, the brain tells the car to steer to the right.  If its going out the other way, it steers to the left.  It’s like riding the bicycle again.  If you fall to the right, you go to the left.  If you fall to the left, you go to the right.

Can life really be this simple?  How about you?  Have you experienced the same thing when you learned to ride a bike?

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Books Business Life Lessons Personal Finance

The secret to becoming an outlier – 10,000 hours

It’s been quite a while since I posted something in my blog.  I’ve been busy for the past couple of weeks at work and had a lot of things in my mind, especially with the current financial crisis and how it impacts me and my wife’s life.

The one thing, though, that I am always fond of doing, is reading books.  I read from a blog about this new book of Malcolm Gladwell titled “Outliers – the story of success”.

The new book by Malcolm Gladwell aims to explain how successful people become successful, not by identifying their traits, or what they do, but by examining their past, their history, whether they got to be successful by their own talents or by chance.  I was fascinated to see the story of Bill Gates in that book.  According to Malcolm Gladwell, the number of hours it takes to become an “Outlier” (exceptionally successful) is 10,000 hours.  That number of hours is the magic number to become an expert in a chosen field.  Long before Bill Gates became the richest man in the world, he was just a kid, who loved to program day and night, who had the extraordinary opportunity to be exposed to this technology, in a time where a PC was still an idea and computer is synonymous to BIG mainframes occupying entire rooms.

10,000 hours.  That’s a lot.  No wonder, the very successful people start out very young.  It made me think, if I want to spend the 10,000 hours to become a master in what I do, I must REALLY LOVE what I’m doing.  Otherwise, it will be such a drag and it will seem to be a punishment instead of a blessing.  The more I think of it, the more I question myself whether I’ve already earned my 10,000 hours.  And whether I really love what I do for a living.  And if I find out I don’t really like what I do, whether I would want to finish earning the 10,000 hours.

How about you?  What would you do for 10,000 hours?

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Business Life Updates

Is Facebook now more popular than Friendster in the Philippines?

During the past few weeks, I’ve discovered that more and more of my friends are now in Facebook.  Just a year ago, I still didn’t have a Facebook profile.  The past few years, I’ve been pretty much satisfied with Friendster.  As most of my friends are also there, I didn’t find the need to create a profile on another “social networking” website.  But ever since I joined Facebook, I’ve seen a gradual increase in the number of my fiends who were in Friendster that are now also using Facebook.  And the more friends I am connected to, the more I am fascinated with the features of Facebook.

What are you doing right now?

One of the more popular features used by Facebook members is the status update labelled “What are you doing right now?”.  I guess a lot of people want to let the whole world know what they’ve been up to the last few days, or hours…or even minutes.  Some users drop a one liner status like “having the greatest time of my life in …” while other can speak more in just one word like “zzzzz”.  Others like to be profound but barely making sense, while others like to be funny. 

The wonderful thing about these status updates is the ongoing comments from friends and colleagues.  Sometimes, the comments border on wild and funny ideas, but often times, people just want to say they’re there to listen.

I am a fan!

Another thing that I find interesting in Facebook is the numerous ways on how people can express what they like.  For example, I am a fan of Roger Federer, so obviously, I want my friends to know that about me.  What better way to do that than just clicking the “I am a fan” button in Roger Federer’s facebook profile?  Others, would like to find causes that inspire them.  Just a few days ago, the passing away of a great nationalistic Filipino Rapper, Francis Magalona, inspired a lot of Filipinos to voice out their support and love through fan profiles.  On the other end, oher people just want to let the world know of their favorite movies, TV shows, or even favorite food. 

I am tagged in a Photo

One of the most popular uses of social networking sites is to share photos with friends.  One of my college friends, for example, posted a photo of our “barkada” [a group of friends] about 10 years ago.  It’s a nice feeling to be able to remember what we were like then.  It certainly made me miss college and left a big smile on my face. 

The one thing I am amazed in Facebook photos is the tagging.  Thanks to Facebook, I can now be “tagged” on my friends’ photos.  Now, I don’t have to copy the same photo into my profile.  It automatically links those photos to me.  Sweet!

I am still fairly new with Facebook.  To be honest I haven’t really been that active with it.  But I am constantly amazed with the buzz and activity within my friend’s network.  It’s surprising.  It’s exciting.  And it’s definitely a lot of fun. 

So, is Facebook now more popular than Friendster in the Philippines?  What do you think?