Just how fun work can be when you do it right.

When I talk to my friends about my entrepreneurial aspirations, sometimes they tell me that they want to start their own businesses too. However, most of the time, I hear that response with one short caveat – that they’ll only do so after a few years of working experience in some large multinational company, supposedly to gain experience and to be more financially stable.

I never quite agreed with that line of thought and by beliefs were further confirmed when my supervising professor for my professional attachment paid me a visit at the Jipaban office. My supervising professor had been involved in dot coms since way back before the turn of the millennium, before the dot-com crash, and was extremely eager to hear all about the Jipaban.com.

Somewhere in our conversation, he mentioned this – that he had many students who also similarly told him that they wanted start their own businesses. When he asked them how they were working towards their aspirations, they told him that they’ll go start out working for a large, stable firm, gain experience and finally come out, 10 years later and start out a business of their own.

His reply was simple. It was – why do you think that the experience you gain at working for a large firm would be the most relevant to your future entrepreneurial exploits in the future? Really, would experience in spending your day focused on solving someone else’s problems and working on making that person rich be the best teacher at teaching how to make yourself rich? I really don’t think so.

Why I don’t believe that this is the way to go.

When you work for someone, it’s your job to make your boss rich, not the other way around. Always remember that.

When you spend the majority of your time thinking about how to maximize someone else’s profit and not your own, I believe that it’s easy to get caught up constantly focusing on that issue and not on what’s efficient – increasing your personal wealth and working towards financial freedom. Working to make others rich is vastly different from working for yourself.

When you work for yourself, you make all the decisions, but you reap all the benefits (and losses) incurred by your actions; when you work for others, an artificial safety net is put under you. When you work for yourself, it’s so much easier to be motivated to understand every aspect of your business – you try to understand it from a macroeconomic point of view, you analyze customer feedback, you check the data religiously; when you work for others, that kind of intense motivation to master the business just isn’t there.

I believe that the only way to really teach yourself business is to immerse yourself inside a business that you really care about, and experience the pure joy of working hard to make it all come together. That’s just something I don’t see happening much if you decide to work at a large firm where the red tape just ties you down.

The red tape, politics, and artificial safety net does more than limits your potential to shine, but I also believe that it is one more additional barrier that stands in the way of you learning good business habits. Getting used to the wrong level of thinking, a totally different level of decision making, would not only hold you back but may go on further to negatively affect the business decisions you make! You may have been better off starting with a blank slate as you might have incorrect perceptions and habits you may have acquired about business by immersing yourself inside an employee culture!

Money ties you down.

Another reason I don’t want to apply for a job in a big multinational the moment I graduate is because money just ties you down. Holding a high paying, “stable” job is quite a bit like giving in to the urge to just lie down in an extremely comfortable sofa – it’s really comfortable to get into it, and very hard to get out.

I have always believed that the worst thing that can happen to someone is to get too comfortable. When you’re too comfortable, there’s nothing forcing you to get faster, smarter and better – you just take it easy. As a result, you just end up sloppy, lazy and inefficient.

Life’s short – you gotta be efficient.

All in all, I strongly feel that working for someone else just happens to be the roundabout way of doing things should you want to start your own business in the future. I believe that it’s not only inefficient, but also that being trained to be a good employee might not make you a good boss. I guess that’s exactly why I’m so happy during my internship over the past 10 weeks at Jipaban – I’m right on track to getting to where I want to be.

Now I’ve just got to apply those lessons I’ve learnt with diligence and focus!

What do you do about your problems?

Life can be hard, and no living person can claim to have gone through life without facing problems.

What really matters however, is the way that we treat our problems. Do we treat our problems as something that frustrate us, piss us off and cause us to hurt emotionally, or is there a more empowering way of looking at problems?

Yes there is.

Problems can be immensely empowering when you look at them the right way. Instead of letting them piss you off, ask yourself this simple question – how can I help others solve this problem that I now face in an easy and efficient manner?

The fact of the matter is that if you’re facing a problem, it is highly unlikely that you’re the only person out there hurting because of that particular problem. Think about it, almost every problem that you face in your daily life has been encountered by countless other people before. The reality is that the problem persists because no one out there has taken the initiative to solve it in a creative and effective manner.

So go solve it! The greatest thinkers, the greatest entrepreneurs, the greatest contributors to society are men who felt that they could not accept the status quo and took it upon themselves to do something about mankind’s problems! Solving a previously unsolved problem is a sure-fire way of adding great value into the lives of others and is in fact a fundamental part of entrepreneurship.

Find a problem, apply a generous helping of creativity and thought to it, and who knows, maybe it’ll be your next big business idea!

The next time you start to feel frustrated when something goes wrong with your life, know that you have the power to turn it around and convert that problem into a gift, a resource of new insight and value that you can use to improve your current circumstance.

That new girl you hired just suddenly quit on you? Do you get all hot and bothered about it, or do you think about how you can create a system that reduces the probability of hiring such irresponsible people?

Another irritating person flaming you and your business on Facebook? Do you start whining about how irritating such immature people are, or do you think about how you can go about converting that vocal dissenter into your most ardent fan?

Don’t let that treasure trove of great ideas go to waste. Keep a record of the different problems you face every day and spend some time thinking about how to solve them and improve the overall human condition.

Everyone loves a problem-solver because such people add immense value into our lives. So decide to stop being someone who complains about problems today and become a problem-solver instead. You’ll be a problem solving master in no time if you spent some time thinking creatively about solutions every time you face a problem. Now to start thinking creatively about how to pack for my trip back home later today…

According to the Boston Consulting Group, the two countries with the highest growth of millionaires over the last year are the two countries that I’m based in - Singapore with a 35% increase in millionaires from 2009 to 2010 and Malaysia with a 33% increase! Read the full article here.

This is amazing!

That millionaire dream is possible. Just gotta work at it one step at a time, building the necessary competencies to achieve my objective.

That’s all there is to it.

Conventional wisdom tells you that people react to tangible, material rewards. The bigger the carrot you dangle in front of a person, the harder they work. So is it true that the more money you put in front of a person, the harder they work?

Well, this very interesting video suggests otherwise.

Ain’t this presentation style just so awesome? I just couldn’t bring myself to stop watching it!

Anyway, the main takeaway for this video was this – what people really want isn’t money. It’s really things like autonomy over their work, a sense of mastery as well as being in a position to make a contribution.

I’m not saying that money isn’t important, it still is, but when people start getting sufficient money to meet their needs, it really isn’t what’s going to push them to run that extra mile.

Remember this, economists – human beings aren’t just profit maximizers, we’re purpose maximizers too.

Do what makes you happy!

I’ve realized that the days that I feel the most down are the days that I don’t really have anything to do or anyone to meet. Days like that can feel pretty darn depressing.

When I really thought about it, it occurred to me that most of what we call modern entertainment doesn’t really make you happy, but are just temporary distractions to life.

Really, just take a moment to think about it.

A movie in the cinema, partying the night away in a club, escaping the country for a holiday – yes these things can be fun, but it sometimes seems that we do these things as a form of escape from reality, and escape from our sometimes less than satisfying lives.

What really makes you happy? What are the keys to happiness then?

Victor Frankl wrote in Man’s Search for Meaning that:

“Happiness cannot be pursued; it must ensue, and it only does so as the unintended side effect of one’s personal dedication to a cause greater than oneself or as the by-product of one’s surrender to a person other than oneself.”

And I think that’s a very big hint to that big secret. Happiness usually requires action of some kind. I’ve realised that I’m the most happy when I am working on something that is important to me, and close to my heart.

I’m happy when I feel that I’m going somewhere with my work and achieving my purpose in life.

I’m happy when I feel that what I’m doing is positively impacting others.

I’m happy when I’m achieving goals that are important to me.

I’m happy when I’m cultivating a successful relationship with someone dear to me.

But I’m definitely not happy sitting around and doing nothing. Some people may say that it’s the best thing ever to not have anything to do, but sloth is a very real sin. Possibly the worst sin that you can commit against yourself.

Finding true joy and happiness in your life will never be about inaction. Hopefully, you’ll find your calling in life – that something that makes you wake up early in the morning just because you can’t wait to continue working on it, that one project that you can’t stop thinking about.

Don’t settle and spend your life doing anything less than that.

Well, it if that’s what you call investing, it really sounds like gambling to me.

In my opinion, there’s no free lunch. If you want to make money out of something, you have to be able to offer some kind of value, or possess some kind of competitive advantage that other people don’t. When it comes to investing, it all boils down to having superior knowledge to make superior decisions. People very often invest large sums of money in hopes that they’ll just “strike it rich” – that’s gambling for you – but what they also need to invest, if they want to make it big is something way more precious than money – time.

“So if you want to invest with very low risk and high returns, you have to pay the price. And the price involves study, lots of study.”
- Rich Dad, Rich Dad’s Guide to Investing

To be able to make good decisions and good calls, you have to thoroughly understand your investments. You should understand how the company whose shares you are buying generates revenue, what it’s capital structure is like and where it derives the majority of it’s cash flow and a host of other important factors before you get your broker to buy those shares. Warren Buffett, the most highly acclaimed investor of our time claims that he “never invests in a business he doesn’t understand”, and neither should we. Only through properly understanding the ins and outs of a business can we be able to make a solid evaluation of how sound a business proposition or model is.

But even if you have thoroughly researched your subject, when we’re dealing with something that people can get really, really emotional about – money – it’s easy to make wrong decisions due to fear and peer pressure. I think it is really important that one learn to make good, sound investment decisions on his own, and not have to rely on market sentiment and “hot investor tips” to make decisions. When decisions are based on weak information like this, it definitely can’t be a good decision that you’re making.

“The number one control you must have to be an investor is control over yourself. If you cannot control yourself, the highs and lows of the market will run you and you will lose during one of these ups and downs. The number one reason people are not good investors is that they lack control over themselves and their emotions. Their desire for security and comfort takes control over their heart, their soul, their mind, their view of the world, and their actions. As I said, a true investor does not care which way the market goes. A true investor will make money in either direction. So ‘control over yourself’ is the first and most important control. Got it?”
- Rich Dad, Rich Dad’s Guide to Investing

Investing is something that is really important to me as it is definitely something I have to go into for my million-dollar plan to work. But before I go into it, I know I have to learn all I can know about it first. So let me know if you guys know of any good books to read about concerning investing! I’ll love to learn more!

But I digress.

Today I just want to share with you guys out there just  on what I believe to be the very most important criteria that any business plan you want to succeed in should possess in copious quantities – passion.

Be passionate in what you do!

Yes, you got me right. It’s passion, not what’s most feasible or easy to carry out that should decide your entrepreneurial exploits.

Passion: What’s so important?

Not too long ago, I came to the conclusion that finding that one right business plan that you want to carry out is really a lot like falling in love with that perfect someone – you just know and just cannot deny it.

Finding the right idea for your business plan is just like falling in love with that special someone – you know because you get so excited about it that it’s just impossible to ignore.

- http://kevinc.net/article/special-idea/

Why do I think passion is so important? Firstly I strongly believe that passion is what keeps you going when times are tough. Willpower can only get you so far, but if you don’t already love what you are doing, it’s going to be one long, uphill battle relying solely on your willpower.

Starting a business is not easy, and in the process of growing a successful, first class business you will definitely face challenges and obstacles, so why handicap yourself and do something you aren’t passionate about?

It may be more tempting to choose that one idea that seems easy to implement, but know that if you really want to go all out in developing your first class products, you will definitely run into difficult, trying times, and in the long run, it will be so much easier to stick with that idea that you are passionate about.

Creative solutions

Another reason I believe in choosing ideas using passion as my main criteria is that other criteria people usually work with like criteria like feasibility or ease of implementation don’t help you make that good a decision.

Why? Simply because you really need to spend time thinking and brooding about an idea before you manage to come up with creative solutions to he problems you face. If you’re going to just judge the various ideas on the drawing board based on feasibility alone, you’re going to just end up with cookie cutter ideas that every other Tom, Dick and Harry can come up with.

Real pioneers in the industry make it big and are remembered simply because they dared to venture into the unknown and creatively envision solutions that we unheard of before them. Edision’s lightbulb ventures weren’t the most feasible or easy of ventures to go into, but it really paid off when he managed to put his mind to it and come up with creative solutions to his problem.

You better love what you do

The final reason I have here for really making sure you’re only working on the things that you seriously are passionate about is simply because we don’t have time to waste doing things that we aren’t passionate about. Seriously, time is precious and our days left here on this planet are numbered.

Do you really want to work on that project that you dread working on? Or would you rather pour your time and energy working on something that energizes you and gives you a reason to wake up feeling driven every morning? It is possible to feel that way!

I sometimes feel that many people in our modern society have become so accustomed to associating work as something to be dreaded and avoided that they don’t see that it is possible to actually do work that they enjoy, but it is possible! You just have to keep that in mind and slowly make changes in your life to reach such a goal.

***

Passion is something that I wouldn’t want to do without in my current and future business ventures. Life’s short, and to make the most out of it, work should be play.

What’s the point if it isn’t?

Being someone who is trying to start up a business venture of my own, I personally feel that one of the most crucial things that you must have to make your venture work is at the very least a partner that shares your enthusiasm, values and priorities. It’s very easy to get excited about a certain project after talking it through with your best buddies over supper, but if you have ever tried to implement such an idea, you will find that your best friends aren’t always your best business partners.

Here are just some factors that I have found important when choosing a business partner to carry out that special business plan you just can’t ignore.

Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak (sitting) in Jobs’ garage in 1975

Enthusiasm

If you have to work with a partner that does not share the same enthusiasm and commitment to making your business plan a success, how do you think that you are going to feel? On one hand you will be raving on and on about how clever your idea is and you will have your partner be a wet blanket during your discussions, feeling disinterested and not actively contributing to the discussion. A less than interested partner would also be an energy vampire that soaks up your energy during the discussion as you find yourself having to spend extra effort getting him to get on the same page you are, making your efforts less efficient.

Being an entrepreneur who is just starting out also means that you have like a million things to do and to attend to. Having even part of your energy soaked up by your very own associates just sounds like a bad idea to me. However, if you have a partner who is as enthusiastic about your special project as you are, things will be radically different! The hours and hours of work will fly by because working on your venture will be just so much more fun with an equally enthusiastic partner! Being full of energy and enthusiasm makes working so much more of a joy, which of course definitely increases your chances of success.

Having an enthusiastic partner is also important simply because energy is contagious! Entrepreneurship is definitely hard work and there are bound to be times when you just feel like giving up. Having an enthusiastic and positive partner is going to help you out of those times and keep you moving right on track. Just be sure that you be that source of energy and strength for your partner when he/she needs that extra push too!

Warren Buffett & Charlie Munger - The Unshakable Duo of Berkshire Hathaway

Values

Working with a partner that does not share the same core values as you do is also another source of pain. When your values are not in sync with your partner’s, what happen is that more likely than not, the two of you are going to spend time arguing over how things should be done and why they should be done. Values are important because they are the underlying principle that guide our actions in life – and when they are out of sync in a business context, it could be the root cause of the breaking down of a business relationship.

For instance, a business relationship could be seriously strained if one partner sees nothing wrong with bribing officials to secure a project while the other cannot tolerate it. When personal and ethical values do not match, the partners would find it difficult to make decisions without consulting the other, making the whole process of decision making even more time and energy consuming. However, when the partners involved are very clear about each other’s values and opinions concerning the running of the business, things run smoother and more congruently.

One lesson to learn here is that it is important to take time to know your business partner before creating a business relationship. Values are intangible, invisible and take us time to understand but are all so important.

Bill Gates and Paul Allen (1981)

Priorities

Finally, both you and your partner should have perfectly aligned goals and priorities when it comes to business.

Very often close friends come together to start a business, but fail and even strain their relationship simply because they do not have the same priorities when it comes to their joint venture – one side may see it as just something to do to pass the time, while the other may see it as something he truly wants to invest his life in. And when it comes to entrepreneurship, to be successful, we really need partners that can go all out with us. Would Microsoft be the multi-billion powerhouse that it now is if Paul Allen didn’t go all out with Bill Gates when they were starting out? It would definitely be way harder for Gates to be where he is today if that were the case, being without a partner that he could really work with.

When such a disparity is present, conflict will definitely arise as one party claims that there is too much to do while the other claims that the business is doing too little! This will inevitably lead to frustration, pain and even the possibility of the dissolution of the friendship should the conflict not be handled well.

One thing I believe that we can learn from this is that it is important that we be transparent with our business partners concerning our priorities from day one. There’s just no point trying to hide our true intentions where this is concerned as lying would only result in frustration and heartache for the both of you. This is definitely a situation where I feel that honesty is really the best policy.

***

No man is an island, and we often find ourselves needing to work with like minded people to make our grandiose plans  come to fruition.

Look for people who want to achieve the same goals as you do, but also keep in mind that they should be more than that – they should also share your enthusiasm, values and priorities. It may seem like a difficult task but when you find those partners you will find that they will motivate you, inspire you, and push you along the path you need to tread in times when you just feel like giving up so much.

And I really believe that it would make all the difference.

Why don’t we just try this exercise for just a minute – close your eyes and see the richest millionaire in your mind’s eye. See the clothes that he has on, the car he drives and the house he lives in.

What did you see?

Did you see a person dressed in the most expensive, haute couture? Did you see a fast, expensive luxury car? Did you see an enormous estate spanning acres and acres of prime land?

Sharp suit and fast car?

That’s exactly what most people see. And what people see and envision is exactly what they do. That is exactly why many people today are not really wealthy.

We’ve been brainwashed by the media from a young age to believe that that’s just how a millionaire lives – he drives a fast sports car, dines at the best restaurants, flies first class and spends weekends relaxing on his luxury yacht with his supermodel trophy wife – and we grow up aspiring to be just like him.

We learn to spend, spend and spend, learning to buy the best and most expensive things in life but we ignore the less glamorous habits of real life, self made millionaires like living within our means, investing prudently and hard work.

And since we model the habits of these imaginary millionaires as portrayed by the media, and not the real life, wealth accumulating habits of real millionaires, is it any wonder that most of us are not rich and wealthy?

I too, am extremely guilty of this.

I always envied the kids whose parents bought them toy after toy after toy at Toys-R-Us. While my parents really showered my brothers and I with truly unconditional love and provided everything necessary for us, one thing they never really liked doing was spoiling us with the flashy, expensive toys from the toyshop.

I can remember walking up and down the aisles of the toyshop, picking up each Transformers action figure and reading the back label, imagining myself playing with it, having it transform and fighting for a great war in battlefield Home. But I never did ask my parents to get them for me as I was just dead certain that they’ll just say no. So I spent hours just looking and imagining myself with the many toys and action figures I knew I’ll never play with, telling myself that I will some day make up for it.

Fast forward a decade. I was studying away from home in Singapore now. I have my own money, my own personal budget to spend on whatever I so desire. Without my parents to curb my spending, I tried to live the ‘rich’ life – I spent good money on the best looking things with little regard to how much I spent! Rebelling against my upbringing in a way, I spent and spent and spent, spending quite a bit more than the average Malaysian scholar.

I was young, foolish, and I didn’t understand what it meant to save, invest and minimize my expenses to work towards financial freedom.

But now I understand that most self made millionaires don’t live their lives with meaningless spending because they, above all others understand the merits of living within their means and investing their money so that their money works for them.

He, above all people, understands that fact.

So I guess that I should take some time out to talk about some real-life millionaire (also billionaire) habits that we can all practice become one someday.

Millionaires know the time-value of their money

One reason that the wealthy don’t simply spend their money on the things that they don’t need is because that they understand that if they invested that money instead, they would end up even richer and wealthier, which would make them happier than the immediate short-term gratification spending that money would have brought.

Warren Buffett is famous for once refusing to buy his wife Susie a new car because the $40,000 cost of the car invested with his company over just 5 years would about to nearly $150,000, which is in his opinion, way too much to spend on a car!

One key difference between the self-made millionaires and the working class who are one step away from being broke is this – the rich can deal with delaying immediate gratification and invest their money for greater returns! They put off buying things they don’t need to invest that money wisely so that their money works for them to generate even more money.

If we can model Warren Buffett’s behaviour and see the future value of the money we hold with us, I’m quite sure we would really spend much less and invest much more!

Millionaires work towards financial freedom

Financial freedom is the state where one is free to not work and still have enough money to survive comfortably.

Just how is that possible to have an income when we don’t work?

It’s definitely possible when the passive income you receive is greater than your expenses.

Passive income is defined as the income we receive even though we don’t actively work to receive it. Such income flows into our pockets regardless of whatever we do. Examples of sources of passive income would be rental payments we receive from leasing out properties we own, royalties from the sales of our intellectual property and even monthly dividends from the shares that one owns.

So when one’s passive income is greater that one’s expenses, that person would no longer have to work! That person would then be financially free, and that person spent working can be better used to work on other things that he or she deems more meaningful than working!

That’s why the financially intelligent work towards minimizing their expenses whilst working to increase their passive income – they’re working to that fabled financial freedom that so many of us seek, but so rarely attain.

***

Now that I am older and wiser, I can see just why my parents have always taught me to spend wisely and carefully – it’s one crucial step towards achieving that millionaire dream I always had.

Chains of habit are too light to be felt until they are too heavy to be broken.

- Warren Buffett

I’m a little behind, but I’ll break those chains. Just you wait.

That one special idea.

Finding the right idea for your business plan is just like falling in love with that special someone – you know because you get so excited about it that it’s just impossible to ignore.

I’ve spent my weekend pretty productively, attending a Cashflow 101 workshop organized by the NTU-NUS Alumni Entrepreneurship club as well as fallen in love with two very special business ideas.

Now it’s just time to put my plans into action for I can ignore them no more.