National Achievers Congress 2015 Day Three

Well, continuing from Day One.

I skipped Day Two, so I thought I would come for Day Three where at least Chris Gardner and Koji Ikematsu would be speaking.

Speakers for today were:

• Koji Ikematsu (イエイ!)
• Michelle Mone 
• Spencer Li
• Mario Singh
• James Macneil (YES, but why so late =( )
• Chris Gardner (Too late for me =( )

I came at heard half of Richard's morning lecture :p , I heard some of it on Friday but I kinda got tired and zoned off because he was more of trying to be cheerful and joking around.

Richard is the CEO of Success Resources. I'll show his words for this year's event (in case you don't know how he looks like, there's a picture there).

But his speech today was very powerful and motivating!

By the time I got my seat, he was on Li Ka-shing.

He spoke about the power drive and motivation of Li Ka-shing.

Whenever Li Ka-shing was facing difficulty or hardship, he tell himself:
I am:

1. Hardworking (willing to work harder than everyone)
2. Steadfast and Frugal (we must be firm and frugal, no need to splurge unnecessarily)
3. Willing to learn (throw away your ego, be open and learn from others to improve yourself)
4. Building a credible name/reputation (build relationships with trust and integrity)

He continued to talk about Li Ka-shing money management strategy:

• 30% Living Expenses (live frugally and eat healthy)
• 20% Networking+Phone Bill (to mix with people more successful than you, build relations and reputation)
• 15% Education (always seek to learn and improve, then share your knowledge with others)
• 10% Travelling/Long Term Spending (broaden your horizons and recharge yourself)
• 25% Investment (to create financial security and build a business)

Also on other of Li Ka-shing's ideas:

• Investments in properties are not like investments in antiques. There's only one or a few antique and you might have to kill yourself for it. But you have a lot of properties everywhere! If one deal doesn't work, go to the next one, there's many opportunities everywhere. I can relate to it from my equity investments as well, they say opportunities are like streetcars, when one passes you, another one is around the corner. This is to foster a "anti-scarcity" mentality (unlike many people) that there are many opportunities out there for you, don't be disgruntled if you miss one, you'll never know you'll see another better one, just keep looking and working hard. =)
• There is a story about Li Ka-shing dropping a HKD$10 coin into a gutter at a hotel. When he bent over to look for it, a security guard came and upon realising Li Ka-shing was looking for a HK$10 coin, he picked it up for Li Ka-shing. Li Ka-shing was pleased and gave him a HK$100 tip. Seeing the surprised look, Li Ka-shing said: "One shouldn't waste money, but money can be well spent"
• The last point is about some protest against Li Ka-shing previously (can't remember the whole thing) and his words were: "Keep your promises and they should keep their promises". It shows that a promise is not just a contract for a person, it involves both parties. When we make promises, be it owing people money or books, we have a strong obligation to return them. But when the role are reversed, we feel shy to get them to return what was rightfully ours. I believe many of us have friends who borrow stuff and have never returned them yet. We must DEMAND them to keep their end of their promises (or bargain) when we have fulfilled our side of the promise! Go to them and demand them to return your $10, your book, whatever! GET IT BACK!

There ended Li Ka-shing section then he continued to talk about Robert Kiyosaki.

My take home lessons were:

• Everything is a habit, say you come late once, then you thought it is okay. You keep repeating it, it becomes a habit! You must wake up and break those habits!
• It is not how much money you make, but how fast do you make money.
• You have big dreams/great intentions to do good, be it giving your parents a trip around the world or creating this big business. But yet when you are older, why hasn't it materialised? WHY? Because you think that YOU HAVE A LOT OF TIME. That's why you procrastinate. And that's why it is not done. By the time you are going to do it, it is TOO LATE. GET MOVING NOW.
• It takes the same effort to make a little money or a lot of money, then why are you making a little money? (I feel it applies to life too.)

And there ended Richard's speech (more or less).


And there came Koji Ikematsu XD

Real hoping for leadership lessons! If you don't know who he is, he's an awesome guy. I think the scans will do better justice than me =)


He begins with a statistic of suicides rates in Singapore, 487 a year I think, that's about slightly more than 1 a day.

He says that number is no where near Japan where about 70 people commit suicide everyday.

He began talking about he had an awful life. At the age of 6, he was bullied by adults and made him consider to want to kill himself. This series of failures went on for his whole life at age of 26, where he tried to change the environment (moving to US and HK) and stuff around him (he calls himself the master of failure because he failed at everything until then). Nothing seemed to work, he was depressed. At age 26, in HK, he finally struck success in a apparel business, he was overjoyed. But he became complacent and then his partner (Lily) betrayed him and left him with nothing except for a 3 million dollar personal debt.

Again, he considered to kill himself, contemplating on how to kill himself in the most painless way, for the last time, since it was his last. Then his friend gave him Napoleon Hill's "Think and Grow Rich". That stopped him to read it. He recalled reading the quote: "You are the master of your destiny. You can influence, direct and control your own environment. You can make your life what you want it to be."

He recalled that he immediately exclaimed, "THIS IS BULLSHIT!"

Remembering his life, he could not believe in that quote, but he thought since he was going to die, why not I just try and follow everything in this book as a last resort? If it fails again, I'll just go commit suicide.
That turned his life around. He was also introduced to a course by his friend, while he was in debt, but he thought it was too expensive and couldn't afford it. The trainer told him to try swiping his card for it and after he was successful he could pay off that credit card debt. Koji-san said that his cards should be disabled. The trainer said, "You never know until you've tried." And swiped all his cards and his AMEX went thru! He was elated!

He says that he want us to be sick of being average/unsuccessful.

He said that people have stories that stop themselves from doing things (or you would call it excuses).

He says Success is 80% Psychology and 20% Work.

Also, no self made millionaire has a book or life story that says why can't they make a million, instead they have a life story of why can they make a million.

He showed this chart:

(I adapted it slightly to make the meaning more obvious)

It shows that everyone has a story to tell themselves to stop them from doing something. It is only when you make the Decision to Change, will you take Action. Repeating that Action, becomes a Habit (he likened to kids learning how to brush their teeth, needing conscious effort to do it, but because they do it everyday, now as an adult, it is done quite automatically, subsconsciously). Habits creates Results, which will enforce your Story/Beliefs.

He followed on with the Statistics of Success.

Pretty self-explanatory =)

He put on another chart too.

Just to highlight, Fear refers to fear of the unknown, Self refers to ego, and Truth refers to the principle of the universe.

He says that you must first learn to overcome ignorance, take action in face of fear, then understand and overcome your ego then have a mission and vision to understand the principles of the universe.

But he warns that after having success, one must be wary of one's self. Else you will regress to the deep shit stage.

Koji-san reminds us that we have limited time, what are we gonna do and what are we gonna leave behind, when we finally leave.

He tells us that his mission is to give dreams and hope to the people.
He trains kids to achieve their dreams and they achieve it easily because they are very open and will blindly do and follow.

He kinda ran out of time and reminded us to "rewrite the story in us, our actions and behaviors will automatically change."

He asked us to place our hands on our hearts and closed our eyes. "Can you feel it? That beating will not stop even if we will it. Because it is subconscious. Your True Self is in your Heart. The Story is stopping you from being who you are, rewrite the story."

He invited some of his students to talk, then sold his course.

But he said that he can't train all of us, so for those of us who are unable to go, he hopes that we will take action and rewrite the stories in us.

And sadly, nothing about his notes.

Probably what can be extracted would be: "Procrastination and indecision wastes money & Life"

As well as this picture.

Well, I learnt loads just not what I wanted, though still appreciative. =)

But after his talk, I kinda gave up on what the other speakers would cover, where they will not give much content and sell the course.

So I went home for the day.

If this is the NAC of the future, I guess I won't bother to go anymore.

But overall, it was pretty okay, pretty motivating =)

My blog may be a finance blog as well as a small record of my tiny life in the middle of billions, but those who are reading, do remember: "Money is a means to the End and not the End itself" This is a means where I get freedom and wealth to enjoy life in the future. Short Term Pain for Long Term Pleasure.

I hope this post serves to motivate many of you out there!