From breakfast, morning tea break, lunch, afternoon tea break, dinner and another supper late at night, these are the common five meals of the day where Asians indulge themselves in. The people in Asia really live to eat! To cater to ever growing population, the Food & Beverages industry (F&B for short), is scrambling to satisfy even the most gastronomical appetite! Seeing such great demands, many people jump into the F&B business, hoping to make large profits from this food fad. We see restaurants and cafes mushrooming. Some got really successful with full house customers at every meal times, but most we see them closing their shutters quietly after frail attempts of a short struggling business.

The question is, what made some F&B business so successful while some didn’t make it? Here, we get to have a chat with Mr. HENG ZEE SOON, who has been with the F & B industry for over 18 years having open up all kinds of outlets from cafés to Chinese restaurants to specialty eateries from Malaysia to China and now forthcoming author of his own book on the F & B industry in Asia. Mr. Heng hails from a Hainanese Chinese family who runs a successful restaurant business for fifty years. Prior to him taking over the family business, he was the Head of Country Manager based in China for a company with multiple F&B and restaurant brands.

Q: Tell us a little bit about your background in the F&B industry.
A: I was born into a traditional Hainanese family where we run “Kopitiams” in every generation since my grandfather’s time. I grew up helping out in the family-run restaurant. However, I’ve never wanted to work in the F&B industry seeing how hard my family has to work. So I graduated with a Human Resource Management degree and went into HR instead. The amusing thing is, I was recruited into a F&B company as the HR manager in 1995. My experiences with this company lead me to learn everything about being an operational manager to being promoted to the Head of Country Manager in charged of new setups in F&B. I’ve opened up to 30 new outlets under the same company with multiple restaurant branding in the span of 4 years. Seeing how F&B businesses can make profits and now knowing the technical aspects of running a F&B business, my grandfather retired and I took over the reign of the family restaurant business. My partners and I took over a year to upgrade and revamp the whole business model and the restaurant business is now doing even better than before. I now oversee the operations, management and every business areas of the restaurant. I’ve never looked back since and enjoyed my work tremendously being in this F&B industry.

Q: What is the crucial success factor in starting a F&B business?
A: In any successful F&B businesses, the most crucial part is to first have a solid business plan and products. In the F&B industry, it is a business where you must commit to it and be willing to see through it with persistency. This is not one business where you just invest your money and stand aside and watch it grow by itself. There are also many experienced chefs who left the hotel line and started up their own restaurants when investors came in to partner with them. The investors have no experience in the F&B industry while the good chefs may not necessarily have the knowledge to manage and operate a business. These kinds of restaurants may have very good food but with the wrong business plan. If the business plan does not match the food products, it most likely will have a very low success rate. Good food products must come hand in hand with a solid business plan for a successful F&B. To formulate a successful business plan for your food products, one has to know the targeted audience, the theme of the restaurant right down to how and where you’re going to serve your customers. The success of a F&B business does not just rely on good food alone but must come with its business strategy.

Q: What are the three biggest pitfalls in starting an F&B business?
A: The No. 1 pitfall that most F&B business starters make is jumping into the business without knowing their business model and numbers. At any time, a F&B investment is a big investment. Even with a very conservative business model, we are often looking at nothing less than USD40,000. Without the knowledge and plan to handle both the food and business operation areas, we can see many F&B startups getting into trouble within the first six months of their operations. F&B business starters not only must have the food and recipes, they must also know all the numbers that includes everything about the business operations.
The No. 2 pitfall happens to investors who buy and take over existing restaurant business without having a long term plan. Often there are existing restaurants, which have been struggling, and the owners just wanted to cut their loss by selling their business at a low price. Many would consider this a great opportunity to jump right in and become a restaurant owner. However, there need to be a long term plan knowing if they will be using the same menu, business model, same chefs and staff, or else the business will fail just like before.
The No. 3 pitfall occurs to business starters who just want to invest but not manage the business. They just want to hire other people to run it for them. This is one particular business that simply does not work this way. The F&B business is a food and service industry where customers want to have contact with the restaurant owner to build a relationship to improve the quality of the business for long run. Successful restaurants are ones with loyal customers who come back again and again. So people who want to start a F&B business need to put in the heart and soul in order for the business to be successful, or at the least have a partner who will do that.

Q: If I were to go into F&B, what are the key knowledge that I need to know?
A: For anyone who wants to start an F&B business, your key knowledge should cover two areas: Food Production Management and Business Management. Food management refers to setting the menu, the food preparation process and every other matters that go on in the kitchen. Always start small with a menu with a few really outstanding product items. This will allow you better control and focus in keeping the quality of your products. Other than that, learning the Business Management of the restaurants is vital to ensure the whole operation of the restaurant runs smoothly. This includes the finance and accounts, purchasing, the service control and marketing and promotions.

Q: Are there any critical advices to follow to ensure better success for the business?
A: In Asia’s diverse culture, it is important to cater your food products for all major races. Imagine if your products are high in demand just for one race, when you can produce the food for all three races, you will capture a bigger market share, thus increasing the success rate of your business. With Asians’ all-day eating habit, it is also important to devise a business model that caters to providing multiple meals a day, not just only lunch and dinner. With longer running daily business hours, your business will attract a wider customer base, ensuring a good continuous customer flow for your business success.

Q: Any golden words for F&B business starters?
A: Always keep your customers happy and satisfied!

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Consumers today are skeptical lots unlike 20 years ago when they would believe your marketing messages and your claims of what your product or services promises. As Doug Hall Doug Hall in his book “Jump Start you Business Brain” puts it; you need to give them a “real reason to believe”. It is therefore not enough for you to tell your potential market how good your products or services are and how much better you are than your competitors. In a very ‘noisy‘ world where we are bombarded with endless advertising and promotions, we become partially deaf. Not unless you can show me that you can indeed deliver what you promise. However the consumer‘s reality is often a perception rather than a fact. So if we can get the market to ‘perceive’ that we can deliver as we promises, we can win the battle of the mind or at least part of it. Eventually the promise has to be delivered in order to gain long-term customer’s loyalty.

One of the strategies to gain ‘beliefs’ is  “personal experience”. This involves providing the potential customers with an opportunity to see, feel and experience what your products or services can do and what benefits can be derived. This calls for an engagement of some sort.

Perhaps the most common way to do that is sampling. Sampling is done in different industry in different forms. Sampling can be seen from consumer products been tested and in some cases, ‘tasted’ in supermarkets to free ‘previews’ in the seminar business. Even in the online business; you get a certain amount of free usage up to appoint where you will have to pay money for it…once you are ‘hooked’.

So when you tried that ‘new’ juice that they let you taste at the supermarket does it taste better than the one you had before. You walk away carrying a perception and the likelihood that you will probably pick up a bottle when you leave.

The other way to gain your personal experience is using demonstration. This is meant to give product or services a visual impact and enables the vendor to show off what they can do. I am sure; most of us have seen demonstrations in the shopping malls of various kinds. From the ‘ wonder’ knife that cuts everything to the ‘wok’ that does not stick and fries without oil. How about that ‘before and after‘ look when you sat down at the cosmetic counter to get a ‘free’ makeover? All designed to get you to believe. Demonstrations are powerful ways to move products. Designing a ‘killer’ demonstration could be the corner stone of success for some companies.

One other way to gain consumer’s confidence through personal experience is sensory feedback. This involves providing potential customers with inputs that reinforce effectiveness of your product or services. Touching their senses through what they can see, feel, smell, taste or touch enhances the experiences.

My favorite example is the doughnut business. The first doughnut brand that came into Asia in a big way is Dunkin’ Donuts. Over the last few years there are a couple of brands that can successfully gain market share, namely Big Apple and J Co; both very similar to the U. S giant; Krispy Kremes. So what is the difference with these newer entrants? The big difference is that these new brands have their outlets designed whereby you can ‘see’ their people making the doughnuts right in front of you and therefore giving you the perception of freshness. Does it mean that Dunkin Donuts are not as fresh? Well probably not but the perception is different.

Similarly how do you know that a Famous Amos outlet is nearby when you walk into a shopping mall? Well you can ‘smell’ them before you can see them. Impacting the senses creates perceptions of reality. So why do you think that the clever sale assistant in the department store prompts you to ‘touch’ the soft leather of that expensive bag that she trying to get you to buy.

Entrepreneurs are generally passionate people. Once they get hooked onto something they believe in they will go somewhat blindly and fervently towards that dream regardless of whether it sounds plausible or not. This is especially when they start falling in love with an idea.

I often tell my students never to fall in love with their ideas but rather that they should fall in love with the intended customers, the target market and who they want to serve. Having said that I still admire the steadfastness of some of these passionately driven people when they can’t stop talking about that great idea of theirs. They would keep on pounding on that “next great thing”, only to have people around them smile to themselves thinking “they must have gone nuts to think this would work”. In Asia you might not get anyone who will be honest enough to express their skepticism and doubts, even friends. They might just acknowledge the idea and might even say it sounds great (even when is it a pretty silly one). In some cases their enthusiasm is fueled by others around them who are just merely diplomatic and don’t want to kill that energy.

Having said that isn’t true to say that some of the so called silliest ideas become great products or services like, trying to deliver a parcel any where in the States by the next morning( Federal Express) or trying to build a phone with only one button (Iphone) or selling silly yellow paper with some not-so-sticky glue on it (yellow pads).

So what about Steve Jobs, Mark Zuckerberg and Fred Smith who when they first started pursuing their ‘silly’ dreams of theirs, probably faced the same reactions? They were probably flooded with skepticism, disbelief, sniggering and even ridicule. But they came through. So how would you draw a line between a simply crazy idea and one which become the Facebook , the Apple and the Federal Express of tomorrow?

Yet we also know that while they are those who against all odds make it big with ideas nobody believed in, there are also thousands who never made it and their idea just got buried in the Mountain of Dead Ideas. When do we put that would-be-great entrepreneur on his feet and wake him up and when do you encourage him and support him? I could not really tell … and some times I have work hard to hold my self back and suppress my own biasness and tendency to become discouraging when the idea they share with me seems incredulous.

At best I would ask a series of questions to help validate that idea including the following:

1.    What problems are you or your product or service solving and for who?

2.    What exactly is the value you provide with your product or service?

3.    Why would some one want to pay for your product or services?

4.    Why do you want to do this business?

5.    Who exactly would you be marketing your product or service to?

6.    Is some one else doing this? And if not why do you think no one is?

7.    What make you different from someone else out there providing something similar?

8.    What kind of resources do you need to get this off the ground and do you have any ideas where to get them?

9.    What makes you the right person to do this?

10.    What has changed out there that make this idea works now and not before?

For the person with a Business Idea: Here are some of my suggestions if you want to know if the idea you have is worth putting all your money in it and quit your job for:

1.    Find 5 persons who are not related to you in any ways to be willing to pay you money for your product or services, or

2.    Find at least one person who will be willing to put money into your venture and would be ready to sign a check for you to buy a piece of your intended business, or

3.    Try convincing at least two persons who would be willing to quit their job to join you in your business.

If you can’t get any of the things above done it still does not mean that your idea is not do-able.  But if you do get one of that done it sure add fuel to that fire within you.

In my years of working with entrepreneurs from startup to going IPO, the most common challenge faced by most of them is not necessarily external. Most of the time the problems that wreck a business and some times to the point of self-destruction are internal. A large part of this comes from conflict between the owners or partners. Often, businesses break down not because the business is not doing well or that it is not viable. In fact it has been said that when a business makes money the owners turn their attention to each other and bicker over the spoils of their success. So choosing partners is a critical step in business; as important as building the business itself. Here are some suggestions:

1.    Don’t confine your choice of partners to your best friends only
I am of the opinion that best friends do not always make best business partners. There are exceptions of course but I am sure we have come across so many cases of friends going into business and ending up as enemies. So not only do they lose their friendship, they also lose money. If these friends of yours are merely investors and does not get involved in the operations of the company ,it will probably stand a better chance of success.
A partnership last because there is inter-dependency; there is a need for each other and that there is a role for each person to play. Hence my second suggestion….

2.    Choose people who have what you don’t have; Leverage
I define leverage as finding people who have what you don’t have and work with them. This applies to alliances, collaborations and to partnerships as well. I teach my students the RICE formula; R: Resources which cover Time and Money, I: for Ideas, C: for Contacts and E: for Expertise.
So when we choose a partner we need to be clear which part of the equation the person is contributing. When every one of the partners has an important part to contribute; interdependency is fostered and that is the strongest glue that would bind people together.

3.    Set clear expectations from the very beginning
Partnerships breaks down when the partners feel that what they want (expect) out of the partnership is not fulfilled. They begin to feel that they are getting the short end of the stick. This feeling of being unfairly treated or not getting their fair share or doing more than the others are the virus that start the disease.
It is paramount for a successful partnership to start with clarifying the partners’ expectations from the very beginning. Unfortunately, most Asians have a tendency to keep things in their head and feel ‘not nice’ to bring these stuff out in the beginning. After all, it looks like a happy union of good people.
The issue of expectation is not only when the business start but also when it is doing well. When a business do well, expectations can change. So constant communication and openness amongst the partners are ingredients to maintain a long-term partnership.

4.    Nurture the partnership and pay attention to the other person’s needs
As the previous point states, there a need for certain ‘ingredient’ to maintain a long-term partnership. There are as follows:
a.    Constant communication and openness
Keeping each other informed of what we do help to build trust and a culture of openness. This would enable the partnership to clear misunderstanding and miscommunication early. I always say: Silence breeds suspicions.
b.    Give in order to receive
Be willing to put your partner’s interest as important as your own or even more important. This is one sure way of building strong partnerships. Long-term relationship comes from every one winning. Nobody can sustain a relationship if he keeps on losing( or feel that he is losing). So the perennial question we should ask ourselves when we go into a partnership is whether our partner is getting what they want rather than whether we are getting what we want. If every partner in a partnership gives; every one receives. Be the one to start giving.
c.    Emphasize brightness of the future
If the realization that the future is great, if we stick together rather than to do it otherwise, the thoughts of breaking up will probably reduce. Having a vision and constantly driving the partners’ energies towards a common vision will take their mind from small petty stuff, which tends to get in the way. Hence when business is successful and there fore sometimes become complacent, that is when the problem begins. It would be better to set big audacious goals that would challenge the partners and there fore harness their focus.

5.    Carry out periodic reviews.
It is important for partners to sit down and do periodic reviews to give each other an opportunity to bring any issues of concerns out for clarification and for resolution. The faster these are taken cared of, the better it will be for the business. Pretending that these concerns do not exist will not help. So when we allow operational priorities to be more important; these problems will grow and undermine the entire fabric of the partnership.

So you think partnership is troublesome and you want to do alone? Well you can if you think you can do everything by yourself. However you will need to wear your underwear outside.

Most of us realize that becoming a successful entrepreneur requires one to put in a lot of hard work into your idea, venture or business. Yet we also realize that there are many who does that and still have not accomplish much. We begin to realize that to be successful as an entrepreneur takes more than just sheer hard work, diligence and dedication. Granted that these are important qualities but then we are also aware that there are many who worked very hard but never seem to make much progress.
We also realize that the outstanding entrepreneurs and those who fail all have one thing in common; they all have only 24 hours a day. We can safely concluded that what they put their time to, determine their success.

In a very competitive business environment, the challenge we have as entrepreneurs is to be able to achieve results in lesser time or to achieve better results within the time we have, or better still, better results in lesser time. Under such demanding situations one has got to take another look at the way we do things.

The issue these days is no longer how much work or items or jobs we can complete in a day. After all… work can never really be completed. There are always more things to do. The issue now is how much result can we achieve in a normal workday. The key is to think in terms of results, not just the number of items or jobs done.

The ability to get a lot of work done could mean that one is fairly efficient. But being efficient is not enough… the way to success lies in effectiveness. The question becomes: how effective are you? What is the difference?

Efficiency relates to performing a particular task within a certain performance criteria, eg. see three customers in a day. Effectiveness involves determining what should be done and how results can be best achieved. So to be effective we ask…which customer should we give our time to? What do we want to achieve with each customer? Is there another way to do achieve that? How do we measure the success of each visit? The effective entrepreneur focuses on the results. The hard working entrepreneur focus on getting things done

In short, I suggest that we work smarter and not just harder. The question is how?

Here’s how:

1.    Keep focus on objective and results. In whatever work you’re doing, two questions should always be kept in mind;
a)    What is the objective?
b)    What results do I want to get out of this?

This is necessary, particularly when one is under pressure. There are some who end up in a frenzy, rushing about and in great haste, getting what appears to be work… done. The concentration is on completing rather than achieving. The focus on results will not be there and ultimately, results will not be achieved. As they say, much ado about nothing.

One also finds this deficiency common among new entrepreneurs who migrate from a job to a business. They are often hard workers but they may lose sight of what they have to achieve. They often lose sight of their goals and get caught up with “busi-ness”.
It is important therefore, to know how to differentiate between activities and results. Activities does not always guarantee results especially if we lose sight of its purpose and its measurement of success … which leads to Principle No. 2.

2.    Challenge the “obvious” and be creative. Challenge the “obvious” because nothing remains static for long. Circumstances changes, so do the environment and the people and even the objectives. One should always test and challenge what appears to be obvious.

With objectives and results to be achieved in mind, one could always look for a better way to do things. This can be done by releasing oneself from the norm and the accepted while keeping focused on what needs to be achieved. Keep asking” how can I do this better, easier, faster?” I call this the Kaizen mentality

The idea is to be creative while remaining purposeful. Being creative brings out the best in you and will set you apart from the rest… most of whom could be just simply hard working entrepreneurs.

3.    Focus on what counts; the 80-20 rule. Some of you may be familiar with Pareto’s Principle which states that “80 percent of the value of a group of items is generally concentrated in only 20 percent of the items.” For instances, 80 percent of the sales of a business would probably come from 20 percent of the customers. In the case of phone calls, 80 percent of your calls would come from 20 percent of your callers.

If you find it difficult to disagree with Vifredo Pareto, you will therefore agree that 80 percent of your effectiveness comes from achieving 20 percent of the work to be done.

Smart entrepreneurs know that it is not the number of things you do every day that determines your success but the number of things that you do which generate results that will determine your success.

In short, spend 80 percent of your time on 20 percent of the work that will bring 80 percent of the results. It is foolhardy to try to do everything. Just do the right things the right way. But of course, you have to know which are the important items that constitute the 20 percent and which the 80 percent. If you don’t know it, you must find out.

4.    Manage your time. There is a proliferation of books and seminars on time management and all of them have one principle in common. The principle is best expressed by Benjamin Franklin who said, “If you want to enjoy the greatest luxuries in life – of having enough time to rest, think things through, get things done and know that you have done them to the best of your ability – there is only one way: TAKE TIME TO THINK AND PLAN ACTIVITIES IN THE ORDER OF THEIR IMPORTANCE.

The key to better time management, better life and eventually better health is to learn to prioritize. Prioritizing is an exercise in determining what’s more important and getting them done.

One should guide one’s daily life in terms of priorities. To this end, one should consider:

a)    Making a daily list of things to do. The famous TO DO list is a well-known and proven tool, but it takes determination to make it work for you. And it will only work if the list is based on the priority of things to do.
b)    Stop procrastinating. Procrastination is a common disease that brings other diseases, such as ulcers and heart diseases that are due to stress. The idea is to make everyday in your life meaningful and not to waste it by procrastinating. There’s no time to say you don’t have time. It’s just an excuse because it is a question of priority.
c)    Learn to say no. The smart entrepreneur knows how to say no. Steve Jobs famously says” I am proud of what we don’t do as I am of what we do. Innovation comes from saying no to 1000 things to make sure we don’t get on the wrong track or try to do too much”
If you can’t say no because you have to please others at your own expense, then you have to live by that decision. If you decide to put away your own priorities for others, that may be well and good. There’s certainly a time and place for that but the ability to say no may just save you from the deluge of obligations that you have reaped for yourself. The trick is learning how to say no and yet remain pleasant. It’s difficult, but very possible.
a)    Delegate. The entrepreneur who tries to do every thing himself is surely going to head towards a disaster. It will be the death of your effectiveness as an entrepreneur. You can’t hope to achieve results all by yourself. Learning to extend results from what you yourself can do to what you can control is a smart entrepreneur’s key tool.

5.    Know yourself. This principle calls for you to
Know yourself.
Know your strengths and weaknesses.
Know what you like.
Know what you want.
Set goals.
Ultimately you should find a business that utilize your strengths and that you love. Confucius once said: “Find a job you love and you will never have to work for the rest of your life.”

If you love what you do, you will do well in it. The smart entrepreneur is a happy entrepreneur… she knows what she loves and wants, she does what she loves and she does it with greater effectiveness and productivity. She’s working smart. Are you?

 Working Smart Principle No.3

Focus 80% of your time on 20% of the work that gives
you 80% of the Results

History of Masterminding
Andrew Carnegie had a team around him and built the world’s biggest steel manufacturing company. Carnegie went on to become the first great philanthropist – funding over three thousand public libraries throughout the world. Likewise, Bill Gates masterminds regularly with Warren Buffet and others. They have also done the same with their businesses and other ventures…all with help of forming mastermind teams although they may not call it by that name..
Thomas Edison, the world’s greatest inventor, had many mastermind partners. In fact his most famous mastermind partner was Henry Ford. When Mr. Edison’s New Jersey laboratory burnt to the ground, Mr. Ford arrived the next morning and handed Edison a check for $750,000 and encouraged him to “Start building again.” Ford would not accept interest on his loan; he just wanted his best friend to get back to work. Such relationship does not come overnight but takes efforts and maybe years of masterminding.
Great success is only achieved as the result of great teamwork that comes with good masterminding practice. Walt Disney and his brother, Roy. Steven Spielberg and George Lucas. Jack Canfield and Mark Victor Hansen combined, activated and accentuated each others’ talent to create the phenomenally successful Chicken Soup for the Soul series which has sold more than eighty million books worldwide with 29 best selling licensed products including calendars, greeting cards and games.
In my opinion the self-made millionaire simply does not exist….
So what exactly is masterminding?

Masterminding is what happens when several people, in a spirit of harmony, tap into a creative source far more than the collective power of the ones present. Masterminding is the process of individuals connecting with each other in a structured way, united by a common platform and then allowing the interactions to create more solutions than they ever could on their own.
Napoleon Hill coined the concept of the mastermind alliance in his classic book “Think and Grow Rich”. He believed that a group of like-minded, achievement-oriented individuals could dramatically leverage each other’s success.
It is said that “the sum of the whole is greater than its parts” or “two heads are better than one”. You will find that more and more people, in corporations or independent businesses are leveraging and harnessing the power of the mastermind groups to think and achieve bigger.
“One plus one, doesn’t equal two. It becomes the power of eleven.” Mark Victor Hansen
Your greatness lies in your ability to attract to yourself a great team. Unfortunatel;y not every one is capable of starting or sustaining a mastermind team. It needs learning.
With masterminding in practice, you will find yourself on the way to creating more and more streams of income. Remember we need to have MSIs (Multiple Streams/Sources of Income) and not just depend on our PSI (Primary Source of Income).The reason is obvious…in a fast moving market environment you cannot possibly do everything by yourself.

Benefits of Participating in Mastermind

When you mastermind with your team of like-minded people, you are in a safe and non-judgemental environment. Thus you can talk and be listened to safely without worrying about being judged or being exposed. You will have the support and encouragement of a network of successful people to move your business or project forward. This dramatically helps to increase your chances of reaching your financial goals, as this group of people will assist you in the brainstorming process and in finding good solutions and in taking relevant action steps to make it work.

Also when you share your goals and results, you are motivated by accountability. On your own, at times you may let go or slack in the process but when you are with a team, you will take more effort to be responsible for what you have planned to do because if you don’t, the team will make sure you do.

Of course, working in a team will be more fun and when you do get results…there will be more cheers and positive reinforcement towards even greater achievements.

One key benefit of masterminding includes getting helpful feedback & the ability to bounce ideas off the group before you implement action, saving yourself time energy and money. Being in a group with similar objective to succeed, everyone will want the best for the team and you will find solutions to problems from proactive and objective-minded people who want you to succeed at the same time. Synergy of mastermind group lies not in individual success or failures but in the team’s success which means every team member will be successful.

You can then gain increased self-mastery and leadership skills as you support and coach other group members. All these lead you to being a part of something special, a part of something that has continuous growth and long term success. In the long run you will be able to develop meaningful relationships with others. And at times, these relationships may have more impact on your life than any materialistic success.

Getting started
The Mastermind can be directed toward any objective, with one single purpose or each member having different goals. You can start a Mastermind group by having each one discussing their objectives for their business with the group.

Masterminding is how you make more happen in one day than is “realistically possible,” because you’ve got people who have agreed, in the spirit of harmony and good will, to putting focus and energy into the cause.
Have Mastermind groups hold the promise of helping you to deliver on your own commitments to yourself. When everyone puts positive charge in the team, it harnesses an unlimited source of energy and group synergism. You will be building supportive and competent relationships. Masterminding helps you go beyond goal setting to goal GETTING and turns turn stumbling blocks into stepping-stones for success.

In the group, you are tapping the true source of Group Mind Power. With that you are creating strong, healthy self-image that never lets you down, thus helping you to develop an unflappable belief in yourself and your abilities.
Suggested Guidelines
1. Invite ‘givers’ ONLY. In other words, find people who understands the need to give in order to receive. If they don’t have the ‘giving’ nature they will end up destroying the harmony of the group.
2. Coordinate in the spirit of harmony. Complaining or whining, arguing with or negating anyone else’s ideas is not productive. Gently remind people to express positive solutions.
3. Plan a mastermind session bi-weekly or once per month, and make them fun. Try lunches, dinners before or after the weekly conference calls when the energy of the group is naturally high.
4. Start each session with a time “Good News”, Success Stories, or Joke of the day, from the group or even Chicken Soup Books. This generates incredible synergy for the group.
5. Encourage team members to determine their “Top Challenges.” One person can facilitate and lists the challenges out on a board, overhead, or shared electronic media.
6. Keep asking the person ‘what do you need to overcome the challenge?”. Have others contribute ideas as to what he might need.
7. The facilitator can then ask the group, “Who can help him with what he needs?” Then, brainstorm all of the solutions on the overhead/board/media.

One very important fundamental that must be in place in order for mastermind to work is the adoption of the practice of ‘Giving in order to Receive”. The mastermind members must go into every meeting ready and willing to ‘give’ and not focus on their own agenda. The power of this concept is easy to understand when you realise that when everyone gives….every one receives.

So how does learning to create wealth works?

In my case I did not learn these things, just from my sifu, Robert Kiyosaki’s seminar and certainly not in three days. It is the on-going dialogue with Robert over two years; the questions and answer sessions, the observations and his Mentorship that helps me make the ‘shift’; shifting from what I called the Making Money concept to the Wealth Creation concept. From becoming a Money Making Machine to building Money Making Machines.

Learning how to create wealth is more than just attending seminars. It is a good start but you need more than that. One of the most powerful platforms for my learning was the mastermind group that I formed back in 1995. Our mastermind group meets for three years every month without fail. We focus on one thing; how we can apply what we learned to help each other improve our business and income. Much of my personal ‘shifts’ comes from the sharing and learning with this group. The results that we get are substantial. However masterminding only works if the member understood and practise one principle; to receive you must be willing to give.

I call this whole arena of learning wealth creation; the Wealth Pot.

Learning how to create wealth is like learning how to pour more water into a pot and over time create a big Wealth Pot for yourself.

There is therefore two parts to it. You must first learn how to pour a lot of water. This means you must learn how to create Multiple Streams of income. The more income sources you have; the more water you can pour into your pot. BUT POURING MORE WATER INTO A SMALL POT OR A POT FULL OF HOLES WILL NOT CREATE THAT WEALTH POT FOR YOU IN THE LONG RUN.

So other than pouring lots of water, you need to learn how to build a bigger pot and make sure that your pot is not full of holes. Otherwise these would be fruitless efforts. I know; I spent ten year pouring water into a leaking small pot.

What is the Wealth Pot?
This is your foundation of Wealth. This is your money habits and your money beliefs. You need to ensure that you hold productive and good money beliefs and habits in order for all your efforts to bear fruits.

NOTE: IT DOES NOT MATTER HOW MUCH MONEY YOU MAKE, IF YOU HAVE POOR MONEY HABITS AND POOR MONEY BELIEFS YOU CAN STILL BE POOR.

And for most people money habits and beliefs cannot change in three days. Can you? What are some of the things you need to learn to create a BIG Wealth pot? You need to learn how to manage, multiply and protect your Wealth. So is there a place for all these money making seminars? Certainly but we need a lot of help, from learning some money-making ideas to making it work for us and ultimately making money and creating wealth. So what do we need?

We need the following tools:
1. A mentor or a process coach to challenge our old paradigms and to help us make the “shift”. A good process coach would kick us in the butts when we need a kick and pad our backs when we need a pad.
2. A pool of experts, advisors or what I call an expert coach to show us to get there faster and avoid all the possible pot holes. These are the content experts ; people who has done it , make all the mistakes and show us how not to do it.
3. A mastermind group to support us and help us make the journey together, rather than alone.
4. A community to whom you are a part of and from where you can attract the support you need.
5. A resource base where you can have access to systems and tools such as template, work sheets, processes and check lists.

Pouring Water is a question of choices
Making a decision on which income streams to put your efforts on is a critical decision. So many has went into all kinds of income opportunities only to find out that it is not what they really like to do or good at. Here is the key; if the income source is not passive; it is important that it must be a passion. The only exception is if it is only a short term venture to create cash flow. Unfortunately many people are not too clear what their passion is. This is an important first step. If you are making money doing what you don’t like to do……….well may be you should find better use of your most scarce resource…TIME.

Find your passion then find the money to do what you want to do, meanwhile build passive income sources.

The other issue is we need to have absolute clarity as to what kind of income that we need to build. If we use the metaphor of pouring water and borrowing the concept from another mentor of mine, Burke Hedges; you either build bucket income or pipeline income. In other words you can pour water using a bucket or you build a pipeline. Some people can’t differentiate them and as a result end up carrying a lot of buckets.

In the short run you may need some bucket incomes but ultimately we should ‘shift’ to pipeline income. Obvious reason is; we cannot carry too many buckets for the rest of our life. The only bucket income that you want to carry forever is your passion. Unfortunately many SME’s business model are bucket carrying.

KC See
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And now that too is dying a slow death.

I had the opportunity of meeting three gurus in this arena. I met the founder of Wikipedia, Jimmy Wales; the founder of Sim City, Will Wright and the founder of Flickr, Stewart Butterfield; and their thoughts and achievements reaffirm what I have learnt. Further my good friend Willie Lim reinforced this. This is what I learnt:

1. The new social media marketing is causing ripple effects; jumping tracks from online destinations and insidiously making their mark onto the real world. The strategy is swiftly overtaking the PR route. And if you’re not part of the new media (or — gasp — you don’t even know what it is!) you’ll be biting the dust of your competitors who are leveraging on this new strategy pretty soon.

2. Facebook, MySpace and even Twitter are part of the new social media connection; all of them a tool to connect an audience who are already tuned in; which essentially means a targeted audience at your disposal. Use them wisely and you’ll be on your way. Everything is done in a heartbeat, and because everyone is able to dictate what filters through their lens, they are able to decide when to tune out – as in the case of advertising.

3. The new social media method is a more subtle approach. Brands talk to customers as if they are their friends; companies employ bloggers to help spread the message about their product; and that veterinarian you go to has an online forum for pet-lovers. The spreading of message usually comes from someone they trust – a blog they regularly read, or from someone who they trust who have used that brand before. People band together to rally a message and that is a tool more powerful than billion-dollar advertising campaigns or a slickly packaged PR exposure.

The one caveat with using social media marketing is that your product or service has to be as good as you say. The new era brings with it the quick and easy route of dissemination of ideas; if you’re good, they’ll know it and if you’re bad, well, you better start packing before news spreads like wildfire.

The golden rule? Engage your customers; share your knowledge and resources and be open about your ideas. And if you play your cards right, pretty soon you’ll find old customers — and new ones — beating down that path to your door. And if you play it really well, they’ll bring their friends along with them too.

Some of us have started on this social media marketing and I would love to hear from you on this…please give your comments.

The common answer is 8 to 12 years and this very fact got his coachee to be more resilient and more motivated. Well I like to relate that to training and ask; “How long does it really take for us to become “Championship-class” Trainers?

Won’t be very different; I guess.

And then two days later I got this story on the internet that is equally inspiring;

The Bamboo and the Fern

One day I decided to quit … I quit my job, my relationship, my spirituality.
I wanted to quit my life. I went to the woods to have one last talk with God.
“God”, I said. “Can you give me one good reason not to quit?”
His answer surprised me. “Look around,” he said. “Do you see the fern and the bamboo?”
“Yes”, I replied.

“When I planted the fern and the bamboo seeds, I took very good care of them.
I gave them light. I gave them water. The fern quickly grew from the earth.
Its brilliant green covered the floor. Yet nothing came from the bamboo seed.
But I did not quit on the bamboo.

In the second year the Fern grew more vibrant and plentiful.
And again, nothing came from the bamboo seed. But I did not quit on the bamboo.
In the third year, there was still nothing from the bamboo seed. But I would not quit.
In the fourth year, again, there was nothing from the bamboo seed. But I would not quit.

Then in the fifth year a tiny sprout emerged from the earth.
Compared to the fern it was seemingly small and insignificant.

But just 6 months later the bamboo rose to over 100 feet tall. It had spent the five years growing roots.
Those roots made it strong and gave it what it needed to survive.”

He then said to me, “Did you know, my child, that all this time you have been struggling, you have actually been growing roots.
I would not quit on the bamboo. I will never quit on you. Don’t compare yourself to others.

The bamboo had a different purpose than the fern, yet, they both make the forest beautiful.
Your time will come and you will rise high!”

Good days give you happiness.
Bad days give you experiences.
Both are essential to life, so keep going.