Serve, Learn & Lead with Raymond Tay

What Makes A Young Champion?

I am very excited to share with you this marvelous event that I have attended on 7 & 8 August. This forum discussed about “What Makes A Young Champion?” and it is organised by National University of Singapore (NUS) and The University of Sydney, Center for The Mind @ NUS, University Cultural Centre. The delegates are students from Secondary Schools, Polytechnics and Junior Colleges. The Creator of this forum is Professor Allan Snyder, director of Center for The Mind. I am very impressed of the chosen speakers (a.k.a. Young Champions) and delighted to listen about their successful stories and how they view champions or life. Let me introduced some of them to you:

Bambang Reguna (aka Bams), Rock Star, 27
Indonesian

Bams is the lead singer of popular Indonesian band, Samsons, which has gained a wide-spread popularity due to their squeaky clean image. Apart from his musical inclinations, he is also the ambassador in Indonesia in the campaign against drugs and narcotics abuse and delicates time to many social causes.

Caroline Bird, Writer, 24
British

An up-and-coming young writer, Caroline has published two collections of poetry and six plays, garnering numerous prizes. Her work has been published regularly in PN Review, Poetry Review and The North magazine and has been broadcast on BBC Radio. In her spare time, Caroline conducts poetry workshops for other aspiring writers from primary and secondary schools in England.

Listen to her poem:

Johnny Strange, Mountaineer, 18
American

Climbing Antarctica’s Mount Vinson at twelve, Johnny became the youngest person to ever scale the Seven Summits on the seven continents. Advocating the message to stop genocide from the top of Mount Everest, Johnny combines his passion for climbing with calls for social change.

Leanna Archer, Entrepreneur, 14
American

At nine, Leanna founded her company, Leanna’s Inc, producing all-natural hair products, and she hasn’t looked back since. Today, Leanna’s Inc grosses over $600,000 a year and Leanna has been featured on numerous television shows including NBC’s The Today Show, Fox News and MSNBC. In her free time, Leanna also dedicates herself to social causes. In 2008, the Leanna Archer Foundation was set up to help provide schooling, food and other support to Haiti’s underprivileged children.

Louis Barnett, Chocolatier, 18
British

Having dropped out of school at eleven due to learning difficulties, Louis soon became a licensed chocolatier who was also the youngest supplier of both the Sainsbury’s and Waitrose supermarket chains at the age of fourteen. Since then, he has received Lord Carter Award for excellence in the food industry and also numerous nominations for showing promise as a young entrepreneur. An environmentalist, Louis is also actively involved in the conservation of the Chester Zoo’s Bornean Orangutan Conservation Programme.

Reese Fernandez, Social Entrepreneur, 25
Filipina

Reese Fernandez is the caring and enterprising co-founder of Rags2Riches, a social enterprise company that empowers woman who live in Manila’s Payatas waste dump by enabling them to sell their fashion products directly to retailers. These women have access to training in personal finance, health insurance and nutrition. Rags2Riches also provides mothers with the “Quality of Life” programme in which they can save a part of their income.

Besides the sharing from these Young Champions, there is also a showcase of the winning videos on “What Makes a Young Champion?”. I am happy to have a photo with one of the winners, Hannah Klassek, 19, Australian who created “Believe in Me“.

Take a look:

Ding Mingzhe, 20, Chinese, has also created a meaningful video, “A Frog’s Adventure“:

I love another video as well, by Phuong Anh Pham, 19, Vietnamese. Very touching. Title: “Marathon“.

Finally, below is a graphic representation of the entire event:

An amazing event for all esp. young people. Be inspired and be the next champion.

Whose Books Have Sold More Than 400 Million Copies?

I believe most of you will be able to answer me is, “It’s J. K. Rowling!!” or “The Harry Potter Author!!”. This post will be another one of my favourite articles as I can learn so much from someone who is shy and once relied on welfare benefits to survive but determined, focused, hopeful and persistent.

“Harry Potter”, J. K. Rowling, “Ron” and “Hermione”

Someone asked her, “Who did she write for?”. Her reply was “It’s for me. Just for me. I’m very selfish: I just write for me. So the humor in the books is really what I find funny.” A bit surprised but not really shocked by her response, as I think that’s why she is willing to take almost 17 years (from an idea of Harry Potter to the completion of 7 books) to write the series.

In the mid-1990s, when she was raising her daughter alone and could not afford to buy a used typewriter (don’t even talk about computer), she wrote the earliest drafts of “Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone” using just pen and paper. It was a time when she was travelling to London on a crowded train, the idea for Harry Potter fell into her mind. Unfortunately, she didn’t have a functioning pen to start writing and she was too shy to ask anyone for a pen. Just had to keep all her ideas in her brain for the entire 4-hr journey, till she reached home.

Therefore if you think your shy personality will stop you from succeeding, just think of J. K. Rowling!!

Why people fail? Lack of resources or lack of resourcefulness? Rowling did not have the money, contacts and opportunity but her creativity, imagination and her passion of writing led her into the success she has now. Who say writing children book would sell? Her seventh and final book, “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows” was sold 11 million copies in the first 24 hrs of release in 2007. One of the limited copies of her latest “The Tales of Beedle the Bard” book was auctioned and bought for $3.98 million by Amazon.

When you’ve found your passion/talents/gift/strengths, dare to dream and don’t give up. You’ll find the success you want.  Success doesn’t mean must sell million copies of books but it is following your heart and people will eventually love and cherish your work!! She has inspired me to write my own book too (one of my dreams in life).

I’ve also listened to her speech at the 2008 Commencement in Harvard University and below is a part where I liked the most:

“If you choose to use your status and influence to raise your voice on behalf of those who have no voice;

if you choose to identify not only with the powerful, but with the powerless;

if you retain the ability to imagine yourself into the lives of those who do not have your advantages, then it will not only be your proud families who celebrate your existence, but thousands and millions of people whose reality you have helped change.

We do not need magic to change the world, we carry all the power we need inside ourselves already: we have the power to imagine better.”

Fighting Spirit of East Asia’s Richest Man

I always enjoy learning from successful people and like to widen my horizon by discovering new persceptives. So I found out one of the Asia’s Wealthiest People, Li Ka-shing (nickname: “Superman”) who is ranked 16th richest man in the world by Forbes in 2009. He started with nothing and did not have a chance to go to school but was self-educated.

Dr. Li founded Cheung Kong Holdings (in real estate, life sciences, hotels, telecom., IT, etc.) and acquired Hutchison Whampoa Limited (owner of the world’s biggest port). I began watching a series of interviews on him and I’m totally immersed into it. He is a humble, determined, optimistic, approachable and visionary leader. He is like the Chinese “Warren Buffett” who invests a lot when the times are bad and people are losing confidence in the market. There are many valuable life, management and business insights that we can learn from.  Here are some golden quotes from Dr. Li:

• “Simply speaking, you are the commander in chief, the head of a group of armies, you can never be better with a machine gun than a machine-gunner or better than a gunner at operating a cannon. But as a commander, you don’t do these things. Your job is mapping out strategy.”
• “When I started my business, I almost certainly did not rely on luck. I relied on work, hard work and ability to make money.
• “You need to be interested in your business. If you are interested in your business, you bound to do well.”
• “Something that seems to be a loss can often turn out to be a gain.”
• “The secret of management is simply identifying and making use of talent. But you must in principle make them feel they belong and like you first.”
• If the university were destroyed by a bomb tomorrow or demolised by an accident, I would have it rebuilt.”

Dr Li Ka-shing (on the left) with Singapore Minister Mentor, Mr. Lee Kuan Yew

In 2002, his foundation and Hutchison Whampoa Limited has given S$19.5 million gift to SMU (one of the universities in our country) for the endowment of the library and scholarships to support scholars from Hong Kong and China. SMU’s library was named after him.

An incredible man for us to respect and model!!

Money = Happiness?

Today, I came across an article that surprised me and it was about an Austrian Millionaire, Karl Rabeder, who wants to sell away all his assets so that he can feel free & happy again.

Or click here to read more about him.

Before you read further, let me say something first. My following comments are not meant to intimidate or make him look bad. The purpose is to let us re-examine our own drivers of happiness and the meaning of wealth.

The article has led me to ask these questions: “Is money equal to happiness?” or “Getting  rich makes you happy?“ From my understanding, he seems like he is not very happy of what he is doing (e.g. doing biz – selling interior furnishings and accessories, acquiring more wealth).

He might have these beliefs: “Working is just work, nothing more.”, ”Money represents unhappiness” and “Owning luxury items can’t let you do what you love.”

Through my years of reading & learning from successful people, successful people don’t treat work as work but they are doing what they love, challenge themselves and look for opportunities to grow. Some says “WORK IS PLAY!!“. Doing biz itself also provides ample opportunities to fulfill our human needs (e.g. variety/surprises, growth, contribution). Like interacting with people, developing your creative self, learn new skills.

Can humans do nothing? No. A “Boredom” research proved something. Researchers from University College London went to study about 7,000 civil servants aged between 35 and 55 in the mid ’80s and then checked whether they had died by April 2009. They found that people who complain “high levels” of boredom in their lives were nearly 40% more likely to have died than those who did not. Reason might be turning to unhealthy habits.

Thus only through working, it makes us alive!!

Do you love money? If you say “No.”, you are merely surviving or broke. Actually, if you have been reading my previous wealth posts, you will find out more about wealth thinking. I agree to some extents that money will not bring happiness. They are just paper but they give you the right to buy more things that can led to happiness (e.g. giving roses to your lover, buying birthday cake, going for a holiday with your family). Without money, you can’t enjoy the lifestyle that you want and have to struggle day-to-day. Even helping people needs money esp. the poors.  

Of course, different people have different wealth standards (like Warren Buffett and Donald Trump will not settle being just a millionaire). Therefore, it’s important for each of us to find the right level of wealth that let us feel good and live well. Maybe Karl Rabeder wants to lower his wealth in order to match his ideal lifestyle. However, wealth can also described as a state of mind, not what you own.

Hope my sharing has led you to some real thinking about yourself and your own wealth. =)

Focus on Small & Consistent Gains!!

Is stock investment risky?

Yes, indeed when we did not have the necessary knowledge and discipline. I’ve started stock & options trading since 2007 and have experienced good profits and bad lossess too. After reviewing my trading performance, I need to improve and learn to apply the right investment strategy/ plan. Thus I went to seek for more knowledge and find out an Millionaire Trader, Mirriam MacWilliams.

Mirriam made over US$2 million in less than 2 years in the options trading with a starting capital of just US$10,000. She is the former National Director of Education of the largest non-profit investment club in USA.

After listening to her tips & advice, I’ve discovered my own mistakes and she really opened up my mind the possibilities & new concepts (esp. Focus on Small & Consistent Gains). I’ve not been in control of my greed & fear towards trading. An automated stop loss & target price need to implement to make us an objective investor. If you can make at least 7 out of 10 trades profitable, your strategy is good.

Also, I never knew that the top 10 rated companies (by the StockScouter in Money Central, MSN) actually outperformed S&P 500 index by 22% since 2001. I’ll make use of it from now on.

Make an informed decision!!

Invest in your education first:

Getting Inspiration to Keep Moving

I always have a strong interest to read/listen/watch any valuable materials that give inspiration & ideas to make my life better. If you share this common interest with me, I welcome you to visit my blog regularly. Today, when I did a search on “wealth“, this man appears again and certainly, he’ll consistently be the one being top of the list. Hopefully, you can guess correctly. None other than Bill Gates, Founder of Microsoft. If you think you are introvert and don’t believe that you can make a difference, he’s the Richest Introvert Man in the World. I enjoy listening to him and see how he uses his passion & determination to grow Microsoft. Personally, I think it’s not just about setting a software company at the right time but you love what you are doing and continuously seek improvements. That’s really the key of success. One more thing: ”He empowers people and train up leaders!!” A wealth quote that I can relate to him is “If you want to help the poor, don’t be like them.“ Can a poor person help a poor person? Of course can, but it will be very tough. You need to help yourself first, get wealthy and then you can be help more people. Watch the video and keep moving:

Michael Dell is in the video too. =)

Time to Set Compelling Goals for 2010

Every year without fail, I’ll find time to sit down and write down my goals for the new year. With computer/laptop nowadays, I can easily search and select several empowering pictures for my Vision Wallpaper (instead of a real board) and I think it’s good enough (esp. I need to face my laptop daily). My vision wallpaper will act as a reminder for me to focus and continue to stay motivated & hopeful to reach my goals.

You can follow me or choose the most practical way for yourself. As usual, I have set goals for all aspects of my life (e.g. relationship, financial, business, health and other personal development goals). I encourage you to do so too and not to neglect any areas of your life as we’ll not feel fulfilled if there’s still an area that you are not happy about. My favourite words are “To Be A Complete Human!!”

I believe most of you already know the importance & benefits of goal setting (if you don’t, can drop me some comments) and thus I’ll not elucidate over here.

Have you heard of the 1953 Yale Goal Study? I have read this study in a couple of books and curious whether it really exists. To my surprise, after spending some time in researching, I saw my articles stating that it’s actually a fiction or myth and there are even like-minded people went to ask Tony Robbins/Zig Ziglar/ Yale University about the evidence of this study. It seems like no one can provide the facts or reports. Quite disappointed but still enjoyed the story.

Interestingly, there was a “Written Goal Study“ by Gail Matthews, from Dominican University. This study consisted of 267 participants from  United States, Belgium, England, India, Australia and Japan and they were made up of entrepreneurs, educators, healthcare professionals, artists, attorneys, bankers, marketers, human services providers, managers, vice presidents, directors of non-profits, etc.

The participants were randomly assigned into these 5 groups:

• Group 1- Unwritten Goal (thinking about what they wanted to accomplish over the next 4 weeks)
• Group 2- Written Goal
• Group 3- Written Goal & Action Commitments
• Group 4- Written Goal, Action Commitments to a Friend
• Group 5- Written Goal, Action Commitments & Progress Reports to a Friend

The results of this study concluded that:

1. The positive effect of accountability was supported: those who sent weekly progress reports to their friend accomplished significantly more than those who had unwritten goals, wrote their goals, formulated action commitments or sent those action commitments to a friend.
2. There was support for the role of public commitment: those who sent their commitments to a friend accomplished significantly more than those who wrote action commitments or did not write their goals.
3. The positive effect of written goals was supported: Those who wrote their goals accomplished significantly more than those who did not write their goals.

Now there’s this substantial research to support the impact of written goals. As expected, we have been told and understand the Power of Goals. So why wait if you haven’t start to write down your goals? It’s free anyway and nothing to lose. =)

Also, Performance is maximized even when the goal is not achieved!

Take ACTION now!!

“Think little goals and expect little achievements. Think big goals and win big success.“ – David Joseph Schwartz

“You measure the size of the accomplishment by the obstacles you had to overcome to reach your goals.” – Booker T. Washington

Giving Matters!!

This Christmas season I attended my friend’s church and watched their awesome performance about love story & the birth of Jesus. In the recent years, I’ve been spending my X’mas days in church as the origin of this festival is created by Him and I feel really peaceful & happy to join their celebration. I’m still a free-thinker and respect all religions. Just enjoy some of the Christianity’s preachings and their followers’ personal stories. At that church, they were issuing their magazines and after the service, I began to read a few articles in it.

There is an article talked about Arthur Brooks, a researcher and professor, and his book, “Who Really Cares: The Surprising Truth About Compasionate Conservatism Who Gives, Who Doesn’t, and Why It Matters“. It has struck me about the benefits of GIVING.

“In terms of physical health and happiness, Brooks notes that people who give more charitably are 43 percent more likely to say they are “very happy” than non-givers, while non-givers are three and a half times more likely than givers to report they are “not happy at all.”

In addition, several large studies have also found that senior citizens who volunteer have a 40 percent lower probability of dying in a given year than people of the same age and health level.

Giving also increases personal and well as national prosperity. Pointing to a survey conducted in 2000 that controlled for education, age, race and all the other outside explanations for giving and income increases, Brooks reports that a dollar donated to charity was associated with $4.35 in extra income.

Of this additional income, $3.75 was due to the dollar given to charity. At the national level, a 1 percent increase in national giving appeared to increase real GDP by about $36 billion.”

(Adapted from The Heritage Foundation)

After reading this, we should strive to give whenever we can (esp. when somebody’s doing fundraising). It makes us feel good and let us know that we have more than enough.

How To Become Millionaire Kids?

I’m very excited to share with you what I have read & learnt about. This post is going to be one of my favourite write-ups. You might hear of many success stories of adults who become millionaires but not many stories of kids who have started a biz and earning more money than an average adult. Want to know the Kids’ ideas & secrets? I’ll touch on this topic, “How To Become Millionaire Kids?” into 3 categories:

1) Grooming Kids into Millionaires (specially for parents)

When I got know “Young Bucks” by Troy Dunn, I was stunned and surprised that there is actually a book that teaches kids to earn money. I think it is an incredible book and it lets me realise how influential our parents are in shaping our destiny. Do your parents make such statements?

Study hard and you will have a good future.
Stop dreaming to be your own boss.
You will never be a millionaire.
Only rich people can make more money.
Investing is very risky and you will burn your hands.
Money doesn’t grow on trees. (Trees can be like a biz and small biz can grow.)

My parents do. These comments have affected me a bit. Fortunately, I have found successful role models and believe in personal development. Thus I keep them away and avoid such discussions (which will lead to arguements) with my parents. If your parents are different, congratulations to you, you should be in a better state. There are also three Myths that Troy Dunn talks about:

Myth #1: A college education is the key to business success.
Heard of the stories of Bill Gates, Steve Jobs and Michael Dell.

Myth #2: A job with a good corporation will secure your child’s financial future.
In today’s world, who can guarantee/secure your job?

Myth #3: Children should not have to “worry” about money when they’re young. There’s plenty of time to focus on finances when they’re adults.
What is the best gift to give to kids? Wouldn’t it be the capability of earning his/her own money? Then he/she will not have to worry when he/she grows up.

Tips to Raise a Millionaire:

• Don’t pay your kids an allowance.
• Stop projecting your own money fears onto your kids.
• Give your kids the gift of “want”. (as “want”  drives us)
• Don’t grudge about your job to your kids.

2) Small Businesses for Small Children

How can kids earn money? The only limit is your imagination. Here are some brilliant ideas that anyone can take up:

• Babysitting
• Gardening
• Dog washing
• Selling things on eBay
• Blogging
• Creating websites
• Buying bulk candy and selling individual pieces
• Comic book rental library
• Toy rental library
• Making jewellery
• Washing cars
• Baking for busy working mothers
• Entertainers at kids’ parties
• Collecting aluminium cans
• Cleaning swimming pools
• Removing garbage
• Sewing
• and many more…

From what I noticed, it is not about how good your idea is but how much you love doing it. If you are a parent, pay attention to what talents your child has. Almost every talents can turn into a lucrative business. Of course, this also applies to anybody who wanted to start a biz.
3) Learn from Successful Kids (identify someone to be your role model)

I love to read biographies of successful individuals and I’m very happy & impressed by these outstanding kids (some have grown up) who really take steps to make it happen. If you think you lack of confidence, determination, abilities or money, you really need to learn from them. Model them!!

Dr. Farrah Gray (Self-made Millionaire at 14)
“At age six, he was selling home-made body lotion and his own hand-painted rocks as book-ends door-to-door, and carried homemade business cards in his “briefcase” (a plastic lunch box). At eight, he started a business club. At ten, he suffered his first major setback. At eleven, he was co-hosting a national television-radio simulcast. At fourteen, he was a millionaire – the kind that wears a suit, addresses his elders with respect, but still hangs out at the mall. At sixteen,  he was reallionaire – a businessman dedicated not just to money, but to giving back and inspiring others. At the age of 21, Farrah Gray received an Honorary Doctorate degree of Humane Letters from Allen University.”

Cameron Johnson
“At age 7, he would sell vegetables from his red wagon door-to-door to neighbors. When he was nine years old and in the fourth grade, he was the top-seller for raffle ticket in his K-12 school, selling several hundred in only a matter of weeks. When he was in the fifth grade, it was wrapping paper the students were selling and yet again, Cameron was the top-seller and he sold more than twice as much as the runner-up. At age 9, he started his first business, making greeting cards and party invitations on the Compaq computer he got for Christmas. 3 years later, the Virginia native was making $50,000 a year selling Beanie Babies online from his parents’ garage. For Christmas, when he was eleven years old, he received several shares of stock in various companies including Disney and CSX Railroad. At 15, after flying to Tokyo to advise a large corporation, Johnson was an instant media sensation there and had his biography published in Japanese.”

Ways to Save Another Extra Dollar

Recently, my expenses are going up and I have a warning/unpleasant feeling that I have overspent. Thus this post is a reminder for us to track and reduce our outflow of cash. “Money saved is as good as money gained.” I have researched and found out the following useful saving tips by Ben Steverman:

1. Track Every Expense

Financial advisors say the best way to control your spending is to know precisely where all your cash is going each month. There are several options: Make a budget; keep a spreadsheet of all spending; or buy a computer program designed to help manage your finances.

2. Cut Back on Eating Out

Food is a daily expense that can add up quickly over time, so office workers can save a lot just by bringing their lunches to work rather than buying every day. Meals eaten at home almost always cost less than evenings out, even at more casual restaurants.

3. Cut Utility Bills, Especially Electricity

Experts are full of advice on lowering electricity and heating bills: Buy efficient light bulbs; lower the thermostat; turn off the air conditioning whenever possible; turn off lights and unplug appliances when not needed.

4. Make Sure You Don’t Have Too Much Insurance

Life insurance can be a bad deal if you don’t have dependents. For auto and home insurance, deductibles are often too low, advisors say. “You can save quite a bit by going from a $250 to $1,000 deductible,” says Kirk Kinder of Picket Fence Financial in Bel Air, Md. “Also, shopping these for prices every couple years is important.”

5. Find Cheaper Beverages to Drink