Sharing: My Investment Journey (Part 1)

All of us have our personal exciting success stories to share.

I’ll like to share with you some of my most memorable life experiences in my years of property investment and business career.

I hope this sharing will inspire you in many ways, to think life is not always about achieving the successes we want, but more importantly, what lessons we can learn to be a better person in society.

Some of my successes and embarrassing failures

My past 20 over years in the harsh trenches of the corporate world was met with extremely tough challenges, dealing with all kinds of people politics and power-seizing frenzy in business.

• Numerous partnership and political problems in businesses.

• Countless ‘nerve-racking’ sales presentations with high-level company CEOs. One of the most memorable experiences was how I managed to do a sales presentation and turn it into a success deal with the CEO of Hyflux Limited, a humble lady named Ms Olivia Lum many years ago.

• My first public speaking sales presentation to a 100-crowd of high-level company executives back in 2001 Vietnam, was an embarrassing failure but a great learning experience.

• Tons and tons of rejections in the face from retail, corporate, to countless door-to-door sales from age of 15 years old.

• How I used to be fit, grew fat in the later years because of work (I weighed as heavy as 75 kg for a 1.68m tall guy), and become fit again today… (I’m at 60kg with a lean 4-pack)

I fought the trenches bravely and left as eagerly.

An introvert by choice

Like yourself, a simple ‘hermit’ life to spend a quiet time with our family while doing the things that we love is what I desire too – Not fighting and dodging bullets or have someone unethically kicking you in the ‘groin’ (You know what I mean)

I love being an introvert by choice and believe it, this is the real me.

But I was pulled back into the ‘battlefields’ and gotten a couple of nasty kicks in the ‘groin’ with the challenges I had to face head-on with my upcoming investment deals.  How ironic is that for someone who wants a personal and quiet life?

The World is constantly changing…and we’ve to adapt to survive or get eliminated!

Believe it or not, the hardest part of my 18 years investment journey in property came after my early retirement in early 2010 and the next following 3 and a half years until today.

I’m sure the strategy of pooling a group of investors to co-own a bunch of properties is something you’re familiar with or heard of at least.

But, are you aware the process of structuring a large investment deal and putting investors together may sound sexy, yet requires one to put in plenty of hard and dirty work to carry it to from nothing to success?

In early 2010, structuring a co-investment deal for me was as new as riding a bicycle for the first time. In the past, I’ve never thought of the important need to structure such deals as credit was easily available before the 2007/8 world financial crisis. One could borrow up to 90% with a loan tenure up to 75 years old and a 5% cash downpayment to own a private property back then.

But why did I want to get into the dirt of structuring co-investment deals then?

The economic world moves just like tectonic plates. I thought it was easy. But how dreadfully wrong was I .…

Key Learning for Part 1

Everyone has their fair share of failure to success stories to share, in career, personal investments, marriage, family, or even love life, etc.

Failures has taught us to reflect on ourselves, learn from them, and pick ourselves up, so we can move up to the next higher level and become more ‘enlightened’ in life.

Follow up on my next sharing, my first attempt to approach potential investors for the deals and how I encountered and overcame the many rejections and obstacles……..