Making a Fortune while Sipping Coffee

Here are some sample pages taken off the book 'Making a Fortune while Sipping Coffee'

Shortcuts To Success

People often say that there are no shortcuts to success, yet ironically, many of the people who repeat this statement are themselves not terribly successful. Perhaps they gave up trying to find these shortcuts. So are the shortcuts really out there? If we placed five doors in front of you and told you that behind one of those doors was a pot of gold and asked you to find it, you would most likely randomly choose one of the five doors and work your way through all the doors until you found the gold. You would probably take between 2 to 3 tries before finding the gold and perhaps up to 5 tries to retrieve the Gold. But what if we pointed out to you that that pot of gold was behind door number 4? You wouldn’t hesitate to go directly to that door and get it, right? By telling you the exact location of what you’re looking for, we’ve saved you 80% of the effort and time. If you had access to the right information, you’d find your pot of gold by the shortest possible route. This book is designed to show you exactly how to do that. To remove the unnecessary movements in your life.

Thought leaders can offer you lessons in life and you will be able to take precise action and succeed in record time.

Meeting with a Property Guru

I took my chances and emailed Mohd Ismail Gafoor, the PropNex CEO to see if he could share some of his valuable time with me. Ismail Gafoor is the CEO of Singapore’s largest local real estate company with over 4000 real estate agents. It was with great excitement and anticipation that I received a positive reply to meet him at his office.

Despite his enormous success, Ismail Gafoor is a friendly, down-to-earth person with absolutely no airs about him. He has a big heart for the people he nurtures and he and his team have even built and donated 2 schools in Cambodia. I asked Ismail what drives him despite his ability to have retired a long time ago. Here is an abstract from my interview with him. His words to me were this,

“To me, leaving a legacy isn’t about leaving behind tall buildings and monuments with your name on it. It isn’t about showing people how great a person was during his existence, but rather how your legacy can benefit the people of the next generation. I want to leave a legacy of knowledge and wisdom that can transform lives. I have greater joy in seeing the holistic happiness I bring to others rather than the material happiness I bring to myself. Many people chase awards and recognition, to me awards and recognition are just by-products of your hard work, passion and your ability to add value to the lives of others. By this I mean people shouldn’t merely focus on awards to validate themselves, rather, be someone who has the passion and drive in what you do and still have a heart for others. The recognition will automatically come to you when you excel in these beliefs”.

I went on to ask Ismail for some real estate advice that he would be willing to share with me. These were his words,

“Many buyers do not know about real estate investment and are making uninformed decisions. They should do a lot more homework and attend real estate investment training. Real estate investment is a MUST. Be it a small unit or a large unit, get your foot in and watch your investment grow”.

After my hour-long meeting with Ismail Gafoor, I sat down with a cup of coffee pondering and reflecting on what he had shared with me. There were countless “If only I had...if only I had...” type thoughts running through my mind. I have looked at so many properties over the last decade and, to me at least, none had seemed like a fantastic investment at the time. Ten years on, I look back and realise that any one of those properties would have yielded handsome returns.

If property investment is a skill and knowledge that can last you a lifetime, knowledge that you can pass on to your children, investment decisions that could dramatically change your financial standing, wouldn’t investing in such a skill be worth your time? The most expensive item most people buy in their lifetime is their home, yet most people hardly do the required investment in educating themselves before they make that purchase. As I finished the last of my coffee, I recalled one of Ismail Gafoor’s phrases, “No millionaire ever became rich from saving pennies, most became rich because their initial investment grew to millions”.

Opportunities may appear from the most surprising encounters.

Some time ago, I was driving through a private residential estate looking for some real estate to invest in. Carelessly, I rammed my car into a stationary car parked in front of a 15,000 square foot bungalow. From the commotion, the lady living in the bungalow ran out to investigate. As luck would have it, I had run into the back of her car. When she saw that I had damaged her car, she started yelling at me. Her yelling apparently woke her husband who also came out to see what all the noise was about. I thought to myself, “Oh no, it is twice the trouble now for sure.” The man looked at me for a moment, sized me up and then spoke “Are you looking for real estate?” I was surprised by his intuitiveness and replied with some hesitation (I had just hit his car), “Yes sir, I am.”

“I knew it! I’m just like you! I drive around from time to time looking for undervalued properties and I become so engrossed this happens to me all the time!” He gestured for me to look towards the front of the car I had just hit. It was damaged as well. By this time, his wife had calmed down somewhat. The man then said to his wife, “Honey, why don’t you go back into the house, I would like to speak with this gentleman for a while. Don’t worry I’ll settle the car issue with him.”

The man then introduced himself and said it was a great opportunity to meet someone as interested in property as he was. He then shared with me that he had had his eye on a plot of land for some time now which he intended to develop into a pair of semi-detached houses. He asked me if I was interested in co-developing the plot with him. I was stunned for a few minutes. I simply wasn’t expecting that. I was expecting a good telling off from someone whose car I had just damaged and certainly not a business offer.

Opportunities can appear when you least expect it.

When I was still actively running my printing business, I received a sales call from the director of a large multinational company. He enquired if I was willing to provide him with a free sales consultation, but said that he could not promise any sale. Despite our offices being located at opposite ends of the country, I agreed to see him. Mr Yeo was a friendly and upfront guy and told me straight out what he was looking for. I immediately indentified that I had the knowledge which he was seeking but the products he was looking for were something which my business could not supply to him. This meant that despite me travelling halfway across the country, this was going to be a free consultation and I would be walking away from this meeting empty handed. Mr Yeo understood this but asked if I was willing to help him anyway. Though I was disappointed as a salesperson, I couldn’t resist my urge to help Mr Yeo, and despite my instincts as a salesperson to cut my losses, I decided to help him anyway.

Mr Yeo offered me some coffee and spent the next hour asking me very specific questions related to the printing business. He listened intently and absorbed my knowledge of my industry as I shared openly. After an hour, he was really satisfied and thanked me for my help. I left his premises and was still wondering if I had done the right thing as a salesperson.

I drove across the country back to my office and as I sat in my chair, I started pondering over what had just happened, when the phone rang. It was Mr Yeo, “Chris, I was really impressed with your attitude. I actually do have some orders for you, but what I wanted to make sure of was that the supplier we engaged had the heart to help and was not merely profit-driven. Would you please come back to my office, I promise that I will not waste your time.” Even more stunned than I was previously, I drove back to the office and received an order that was the largest single order for my business at that point.

More than 10 years later, Mr Yeo’s company continues to be a loyal supporter of my business and I just can’t imagine the amount of business that I would have missed had I been less helpful back then. We really can’t be certain of how our environment will react to our input. If we embrace what at first appears to be a negative encounter, we just might be surprised at how profitable things could turn out.

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