Continued from Part 2,
With the initial rejection, I persisted on with Alex and instead, proposed a sharing presentation with his network of investors. He agreed and gave me a 15 minute time slot in one of his regular sessions.
From a positive perspective, this 15 minutes slot reinforces that one very important life principle that makes successful people successful, ‘In life, Success Depends Entirely On You, And Not Others.’
In Chinese proverb, ‘Kao Ren Bu Ru Kao Ji’
15 minutes.
Sometimes, this is all it takes for one to have a dramatic revelation for a simple solution to a problem.
A revelation that will lead one to connect the many dots that brings one to his/her path of accomplishment or success. The dots that initially look unrelated and unconnected, but are brought together like a connecting the dots puzzle and fused to form a complete picture.
Never underestimate the little things you do in your everyday life. They may look insignificant, meaningless and disconnected to your bigger life goals, but are in fact significantly important as the millions of kilometres in electrical wirings that run a plane safely.
15 minutes. Short but timeless and powerful, a lesson that will stay with me for life and will be shared. And hopefully it will for you and your family.
I had to do the short but convincing enough summary presentation to a small audience of about 50 people that evening.
Tough, given only 15 minutes. But I had faced tougher sales presentations in the past dealing with high-level company executives. And as the Number #1 salesman with a large direct sales company, I’ve mastered the gift of grasping the attention of the person opening his or her door within 2 minutes, allowing me to talk further or risk having the door shut on my face.
So, I presented and ended my 15 minute pitch with confidence and ease.
Alex came up to the front and with his ‘guru’ presence to his network, I thought he was going to help add in some great pointers of his own.
Instead, he said openly to everyone in the audience, “I don’t think USA is a good place to invest. Certainly not now in my opinion.”
I was dumbfounded and caught completely off guard!
Alex is considered a ‘guru’ or expert in the eyes of his audience. His network looks at him for directions in the market. It takes only 10 seconds for his ‘guru’ comments to offset what I have spoken during the past 15 minutes of my presentation.
I remembered Alex had promoted USA properties to his network the last month, and I failed to understand how this investment view of his can simply change overnight. So what happened to those in his network who had bought into his new USA property sales?
Is he implying he had promoted a bad investment to them but not honestly admitting his wrong judgment? Or is he simply putting my idea down for self-interest reasons?
He and his property agents proceeded to sell a UK property after my 15 min presentation.
For thoughts, I appreciated Alex for giving me that 15 minutes sharing to his audience. I’m certainly not someone who bears grudges and sit around complaining because no one helps me achieve my desired outcome.
Complaining is never a trait for successful people. It is not in their dictionary of wisdom and it certainly should never be in yours either.
The 15 minutes certainly reinforces the notion of standing up to our beliefs, our actions and the life we want to lead. Nobody owes us anything in life. Your destiny is in your hands.
‘In life, Success Depends Entirely on You, and not Others.’
In Chinese proverb, ‘Kao Ren Bu Ru Kao Ji’
Over the coming months, I worked hard to secure a group of committed and savvy investors. I was excited that things seemed to be moving on to my expectations, but unfortunately I encountered more obstacles…
2 Key Learnings for Part 3:
The 1st Key Learning (I mentioned in the first para but a gentle reminder again)
Sometimes, this is all it takes for one to have a dramatic revelation for a simple solution to a problem.
A revelation that will lead one to connect the many dots that brings one to that path of accomplishment or success. The dots that initially look unrelated and unconnected, but are brought together like a connecting the dots puzzle and fused to form that complete picture.
Never underestimate the little things you do in your everyday life. They may look insignificant, meaningless and disconnected to your bigger life goals, but are in fact significantly important as the millions of kilometres in electrical wirings that run a plane safely.
The 2nd Key Learning (Investing in a foreign country)
Invest in Partnership, Never Salesmanship.
This is an important investment mantra I learned from my personal experiences and from my late grandfather.
When large companies expand their overseas operations to a foreign country, they would always find reliable foreign partners of that country they are entering to be co-partners. For obvious reasons, they don’t know enough of that country and its foreign market.
I‘ve not heard any successes of companies daring it alone venturing into foreign territory without enough expertise of that market and with an experienced partner.
In property investment, this applies too. However, I see mom & pop investors buying their overseas property investments from property seminars and exhibitions. They rather believe in themselves and the ignorant sales guy or that ‘guru’, than trust their ability to source and find a good foreign partner themselves with the right expertise and experience.
Take Alex Tan for example. One moment he is introducing USA properties, and one moment he is introducing the different type of UK properties (student accommodation, hotel) to promote to his network.
How much does he really understand each complex real estate market with different customs, policies and various buying mind-sets of the locals?
But yet, these ‘gurus’ are constantly promoting foreign investment properties to their network.
Some of these ‘gurus’ promoted questionable foreign properties even as far as Brazil and Germany to their network!
Are some of these property seminar ‘gurus’ simply making good sales commissions from the generous overseas developers who desperate to sell their unwanted properties, or taking advantage of the buying hype from Asian investors? Are they standing in the interest of their investors or their own pockets?
I’ve received invitations from overseas developers to help promote their properties to my network (CREI Academy Group). They offered me generous sales commissions, even free property units and other incentives if I can convince enough buyers for them.
Naturally, I turned all of them down. For a simple reason, if those foreign properties were that good, they would have been snapped by savvy local investors, rather than the need to out of their own country to be marketed in Singapore and rest of Asia.
I’ll be doing a huge disfavour to my many coaching clients who have put their trust in me.
Second, I never buy investments from sales people. I work only with those who have the skin in the game with me and they are personally experienced with the market I’m entering into.
Our USA commercial deals are large co-investment deals (US$2M-US$5M) with experience and local expertise and certainly not one of those companies selling some retail properties to mom & pop buyers.
I urge you to look only for reliable and experienced co-partners for your overseas investments, and avoid buying into the hype of questionable investments from property seminars and exhibitions.
Some of these overseas properties that are promoted may not lose money, but they certainly do not make lots of money either. They are ‘ok’ investments and ‘ok’ investments are for mediocre investors.
If you want to be a serious investor, then re-consider investing into a foreign investment on partnership, tapping on the foreign partner for his extensive knowledge and experience of that market.
Follow up on my next sharing, The Hardest Obstacle in Part 4: Sharing – My Investment Journey.
Over 500 Students have Profitted! Are You the Next?
Be Part of Our Highly Successful Property Wealth PRIVATE Mentorship Programme TODAY:
Σχόλια