International Rally 2008 Kuala Lumpur: Re-live the Excitement!

Hi! I'm very excited to share with you some photos from International Rally 2008. It's an annual gathering that honours our family members and top distributors from SkyQuestCom. It's like the Academy Awards that recognises the very best in our business. The rally was held at KL's famous Sunway Resort Hotel and Spa which travel writers hail as a "Resort-in-the-City". True to its famed reputation, it's one of the best venues in the world to stage a grand event. Let the photos speak for themselves:

What more can I say... truly a grand event! You should have been there!

Cultural dancers dazzling us with their glittering costumes and graceful moves. Encore!

That's me doing a celebratory dance of my own with some of our SkyQuestCom family members. They were such a fun lot!

Me and Roger Hamilton. Roger's a leading wealth consultant in Asia.

Steve Linder also took some time off his busy schedule to be with us. Steve's a peak performance coach with Anthony Robbins' companies. Thanks Steve.

That's me again. See the strobe ball? It's actually a special switch that reveals a hidden logo of SkyQuestCom on stage. High-tech stuff!

On stage with SkyQuestCom's top distributors from Singapore, Japan and China. Well done!

I truly believe that if we join our hands together and celebrate the multi-cutural world we live in, we can end all wars on this planet.

Hope you like the photos! If you want to see more, please click here >>

What is your net worth ?

I am at the airport now waiting for my flight to Singapore.

Last night, I did a presentation in Malaysia to 150 people on acquiring businesses and property with no money down. It is an interesting topic that attracted a wide audience. There are those that come and learn and also skeptics who think it is a myth. I shared with them my experiences on how I have acquired businesses and properties with no money or little money. Most of the ideas that I shared are not what ordinary people do. Successful people don't do ordinary things too.

At the end of the talk, I also encouraged them to attend the Financial Mastery seminar on this coming 12-13 May. This seminar is based on the teachings of Robert Kiyosaki.

At the end of the presentation, 25 people rushed to sign up for the seminar. During the question and answer time, one participant asked me what my net worth is. This is the first time someone has asked me this question. It is a very interesting question. Most people do not know how much they are worth. They do not take time to do an audit of themselves. There is also another group of people who are too afraid to know their net worth because they do not want to know the truth. The truth will hurt. They are the escapists. These two groups normally do not plan their finances and their lives. If you do not plan, you will very likely not go anywhere.

Your worth is not necessarily measured in the area of money. To the people who love you, you are priceless. To God, your parents, your children, your friends, you are priceless.
You are not necessarily measured by how much money you have made but how you have contributed to people’s lives. For example, if you provide financial help to a child from a poor family to help him finish his education, he will never forget your kindness.

No one really cares if you have millions for just yourself. If you give to the world your time and money, your net worth will be measured by your legacy.

For the next few months, I will be working on listing one of my businesses. I will be sharing with you the progress. It is hard work but very interesting.

You are invited to comment on my blogs.

Thank you, Richard

Don’t get fooled today

Do you realize that today is April fool’s Day? So be on guard, lest you be taken in by an April Fools’ joke. Haha, it would be wise to remember that not everyone has a sense of humor. I must confess that I have played harmless jokes on my friends, college and family on this day. After being serious for more than 300 plus days a year, it is nice to have a day off for jokes. You should be prepared to be fooled on April 1 and not take it to heart.

This morning, I played one joke on Veronica. She was taken in for a few minutes before she realized that it might be an April Fools’ joke. Others were not so fortunate.

The big one was played in front of 200 participants in the seminar we held at the Crown Plaza Riverside Hotel today. I went up to the stage and spoke with a serious tone. “Today is a very unfortunate day. One of you here thinks that you are a smart Alec. During the break, you went to the staff room and tried to be fresh with one of our female staff. You tried to get onto her and tried to kiss her... Even though she told you that she has absolutely no interest, you still persisted on. During the struggle, she took a sharp pencil and struck you and injured your palm. We know who you are. We have informed the police. After this announcement. I'd like to see you behind.” The whole room was in dead silence. Then I took out my hand from my pocket and it was bandaged in red ink. They all started to laugh.

We played a joke on Phoebe. First, I asked Shirlynn to text her and pretend to be Ben, a good looking Chinese guy from Australia whom Phoebe just met. We tricked her to believe that Ben was trying to date her. From the way she responsed, we could feel her heart pounding. She almost freaked out. Kekeke, she will be more careful next year.

We played a joke on Yang Po too. As she is still recovering from her illness, we only planned a mild joke. Hope she laughed at the joke and recovers sooner.

We played a joke on June Yuen. Shirlynn texted June and told her that the seminar was badly organized and that Jessie has broke down, cried and now cannot be found. We were all worried for her. We just managed to stop June as she was booking her air ticket to fly to Kuching to help.

The seminar ended at about 7 pm and we went for dinner behind the hotel. Along the way, we bumped into Kelvin and Michael from Hong Kong. We went back to the same place that Simon took us last night. The seafood is very good there. The only thing lacking is a good dessert. After the dinner, Fabian suggested we go to the Starbuck's nearby.

As we were waiting for the coffee, Douglas whispered in my ear that one of the speakers, Sam has requested that he does not want another speaker, Francis to be in the room when he speaks tomorrow. The reason is that, he does not want Francis to copy his speech. It is a serious matter and can be a potential time bomb if we do not address the issue immediately. I suggested to Douglas that we should call both Sam and Francis to sit together and iron out the differences. Douglas said he will meet them and handle it. We went back to our room. I was worried.

It was 11.50 pm when my phone rang. Alice, Sam’s lovely wife called. “Richard, Douglas and Sam met and Sam was very upset. He has gone to Francis’s room. I am afraid. He might punch him”. My heart dropped to my toe. Sam is a big rough American. Francis will be no match for him. “Where is Douglas?” I asked. The last thing I wanted is to have 2 professional men pounding on one another. “He is going after Sam” Alice replied. “What do you think is the best thing to do?” I asked, at a loss for words. “I don’t know. I thought I'd just let you know”, Alice replied. “Is there anything that Francis did today that upset Sam?” I asked, trying to think hard about my next move. I wanted to go stop the fight but I don’t know in which room Francis is staying. He is on the 17 floor. I am sure there will be a commotion and it will be easy to spot.

“What is the day today?” Alice added. “1 April?, ahhhhhhhhhhhhh .. Alice you fooled me”. I could hear roaring laugher in the background. Only then, I realized that the last joke of the day was played on me.

It is now 11.58pm. 2 minutes to midnite. I don’t have time to get back at them. Alice/Sam/Douglas, I will remember you next year.

PS: I am trying to upload photos of Phoebe, YangPo, Veronica, Ben, Douglas, Jessie and Shirlynn but for some reason I encountered an error. Maybe I will upload later.

How can an ordinary person made a million in one day ....

I made a million in one day. In fact in 2004, I did that 3 times. Recently was another example.

Last week we did a Internet marketing program in Singapore. In the program, Stephen Pierce asked me how much should he price his backend product? He wanted to sell his product at US $10,000. There were 3 different suggestions from the team. June, our database manager from Malaysia, suggested we price it in Malaysia Ringget at RM 10,000 - equivalent to S $4,300 or US $2,687. One Singapore staff suggested we should price it in Singapore dollars at S $10,000 equivalent to RM 23,000 or US $6250.

I spoke to Stephen Pierce. His offer was very very compelling. I am confident that he can sell it higher. So I voted to price his product at US $10,000 or equivalent to RM 40,000 or S $16,500.

In the end, Stephen sold 50 products at US$10,000 each and grossed US$500,000 or equivalent to RM 2,000,000 or S$825,000 in just 1 hour.

If we had priced it at June's suggestion of RM 10,000 (US$2,687), we would have sold only RM 500,000 and make less money by an amount of RM 1,500,000. (US$400,000) This is more than what 85% of Malaysians would make in their whole working life.

Is Stephen Pierce just lucky that he made an extra RM1,500,000 or US$400,000 without spending a single cent or effort more? NO, I don't believe luck has anything to do with it.

I believe that he can make a million a day because of his belief in himself and his self-esteem. Its funny how self-esteem works. If you have high self-esteem and believe in yourself, you get paid more. How much money you have in your bank account can be a reflection of your self-esteem too. It may not be too scientific but I think it is pretty accurate.

You realise that it does not take more effort to make more money than little money. In this case, just by believing in yourself you make more money.

You deserve to be successful. Have confidence in yourself. You can do it.

I pray he don't fall asleep along the way.

It is still raining. I have just finished my presentation at the Marriott Hotel in KL. With this rain and traffic jam, I am happy that the program started on time. More then 120 people braved the rain and traffic to come to my talk.

The car was waiting in the lobby to drive me back to Singapore. The night drive usually takes 3-4 hours from KL to Singapore. In this weather, I will probably be in Singapore at 4 or 5 am in the morning. I have a morning meeting with Yang Po (YP) and Siew Chong on the IPO listing issues. I jumped into the car. The driver is an elderly man with thick glasses. I prayed he doesn’t fall asleep as easily as I do. My thought floated to thinking of YP and the IPO listing. Better take a nap first so that I can be ready for the morning IPO meeting.

Those of you who are at the Marriott Hotel and are reading this, just bear with me for a day or two. I will upload the presentation powerpoint when I get back.

"Just give him this money and come back.” I told Melvin

I felt terrible today. Almost like another wake up call. I will share with you more another time.

I am staying at the Marriott hotel in Kuala Lumpur. I need to go to my office in Dataram Prima about 30 minutes away. The taxi stand is quite empty. I don’t want to bother my staff to come pick me up so I decided to take a cab to the office. In front of me was a Caucasian man with his girlfriend. The first cab came and they took it.

Another cab was queuing behind. I told the bell man that I'd like to go to Dataram Prima. The bell man opened the cab door for me and I hopped in. I repeated to the cab driver “Dataram Prima please”.

The driver is an Indian man. He started to drive off without acknowledging me. I said again “Dataram Prima, do you know the place?” I could sense that he is uncertain but he keeps driving. “It is somewhere in PJ, do you know the place?” I asked.

"The fare is RM 30” He said. “That is ok.” I replied.

Usually I can take a cab from Marriott Hotel to my office for only RM 25. I am not in the mood for bargaining because I have to call into a conference call from my mobile phone and I am opening my computer to read the notes first.

Tom Hua, Brett, Phoebe and Veronica are already on the conference call. I called in but I could not hear them clearly. The phone reception on the highway is not clear. Halfway there, the cab driver asked if I'd like him to wait to take me back. I told him there is no need to wait for me.

Then he commented, “The place is very far, should be RM35, not RM30.” I just ignored him. He drove past the Motorola factory, then Yamaha School. “Further down please, turn right after you pass the Catholic Church. My office is around the corner.” I directed him.

“Wow... so far, should be RM 40” he grumbled. He raised the fare from RM30 to RM35 and now to RM40. We passed the main gate and entered block D where my office is located. “Please stop in front of the silver Volvo” I said. That is Jennifer’s, our senior manager, Volvo. He stopped. I took out a RM 50 bill and handled it to him.

“It is RM 40.” He held on to the RM50 bill and wanted to give me just RM 10 change. “No, it is RM 30 as you have quoted in the beginning,” I said calmly. “Very far lah, must be RM 40, still holding on to the RM 50 bill. “Hey”, I raised my voice. “You are trying to cheat.” I raised my voice louder.

On that, I snapped back the RM 50 bill from his hand, opened the cab door and just walked away. “ok, ok ok” I could hear him agreeing from behind me. I ignored him, walk into the building and took a lift to my office.

Cab drivers like this one give the tourist industries a bad name and damages even a nation’s reputation. In this case, it is Malaysia. I want to teach him a lesson. I am not going to pay him.
Not everyone is so easily taken advantage of.

15 minutes must have passed. I looked at the money I snapped back; there was another RM10 bill with the RM 50 bill. The RM10 does not belong to me. Aiyah, I not only did not pay him but I must have also snapped his money by accident.

I felt better now. Instead of making some money, now the Indian Cab driver loses money. He must be down there in a shock.

“Melvin”, I called. Melvin is the project executive in the office. “Can you take RM 35, and go down and look for an Indian cab driver. Just give him this money and come back.”

You have to "stand up for what you believe" and yet also "do the right thing."

Don't judge a preson just by their dressing

Earlier, I just took a stroll along the polluted river. My heart goes to the new found species of clouded leopard that lived in the Borneo jungle.

Wearing jeans and an ordinary shirt, HK is sitting at the back of the room, diligently taking notes as I speak about “making money on the internet”.. He must be about 50 plus in age.

There are about 100 professionals in the room. I have done this same presentation many times the last two week as I traveled across Asia. The responses have been overwhelming. I am overwhelming by the people I meet, especially in small towns. They are very friendly.

In Surabaya, a lady gave me a small handmade pouch for my hand phone. In Bali, a lady sent home cook meals for my breakfast, lunch and dinner. Not only for me but my whole team of staff.

My presentation ended at about 9.30 pm.

After my presentation, HK offered to show me the town. I told him I have to wake up early to go to the airport. “Sibu is a small place, it is very fast, only takes a few minutes” said HK. “If only a while, it is ok”. I said. I left my computer at the hotel reception and hopped into his car. He drove around enthusiastically briefing me like a professional tour guide. Occasionally, he slowed his car to explain some location.

“Are you hungry?” he asked. “Oh, I can go back to the hotel and order room service” I said. “Just around the corner only, got very good food.” He point to a shop with lights on. “Ok if it is fast,” I said. “It is very fast, don’t worry." "What do you like to eat?" He asked. “I don’t mind some simple food, not too much” I replied. When the food came, it was for an army of people. “What drink do you like?” he asked. “Do they have soda here?” I asked. “Sure, they have the world's best soda here, you should try them” and he ordered the soda drink for me.. When the bottled soda drink arrived, I tasted it. “Very nice” I said.

The waitress nearby heard me and said “He is the owner of the soda bottling plant, the biggest here, like Coca Cola.” If the waitress had not mentioned it, I would never know that I was having dinner with the owner of a successful soft drink business. Wow, I learned to never judge a person by the cloth he wear.

HK dressed very simply but he is a very humble and successful person. I fly toKL, Malaysia tomorrow morning.

"Want to go for a drink later?" one asked. "I'd love to, but I have to give a talk tonight". I sighed.

I was inside the 52 seater plane to Sibu. A small plane, there is no first class or business class. It's all the same class. Usually when I hit the plane, I will fall asleep and wake up when I reach the destination. The other passengers are streaming in. The airline crew is leading them to their seats.

For a short flight, I like to be on the window seat. The aisle seat was taken by a Chinese man who was chatting on the mobile phone. I could figure out that he was speaking to his office about some business deal. He stood up to let me in while still talking on his phone. I placed my computer bag under the front seat. I wondered if this small plane provided you with some magazine or a newspaper. The man next to me is still on his phone. A female air crew stopped by and politely requested the man to stop talking. “Ok” he said as he tilts his head a little but he is still on his phone. Another female air crew passed by and tells the man to switch off his phone. Just then the man finished. The captain's voice is now on the PA system. “Toooo...” the man’s phone rang. He answered and started to talk again. I felt a little irritated now.

The first lady aircrew stopped by and requested again for the man to shut off his phone. The man turned to her "Heh, talk awhile won't die lah, plane also hasn’t fly" and is still talking. The female aircrew was taken aback. I suddenly turned to him, "What is wrong with you? This lady is doing her job." I raised my voice. I could see he was taken aback and quickly shut off his phone. The female aircrew smiled. She said "thank you" and walked away.


The plane is now flying over the Borneo jungle. I read in this morning's newspaper that a new species of cat was found in the jungle. As I looked out of the window, I could see a vast primary forest. Could the new found cat be just down there?

Then I saw a curved river. What shocked me was the color of the river. It is brown and muddy. I was expecting to see a blue or clear river not brown and muddy. ....how come it is like that? Where did the source of pollution come from? Hmmmm I took a few aerial photos from the plane. After I landed, a car took me to the hotel. Behind my hotel there is a river. I was even more shocked to see the pollution. You can see the above photos I have taken. A few boys were fishing from the muddy polluted river. I don't think they are going to find any fish.

I felt sad for the environment, and for the new found cat. With this pollution the species of new found cat may be extinct soon. Mankind needs to live on the earth. We may be the only species that kills the earth too.

This brought me to recall the time that I had a chance meeting with the famous Japanese wrestler, Inoki san, whose mission is to protect the environment. We had lunch together. If we have more people like him, we will have more people saving this earth.

When I returned to the hotel, I met the two female aircrew checking in the hotel too. "You want to go for a drink later?" one asked.

"I love to, but I have to give a talk tonight". I sighed.

How does Kuching, which means Cat come about?

Yesterday, I told you that I am in the beautiful town of Kuching in East Malaysia. Kuching is the capital city of Sarawak. The people here are kind and friendly. Kuching means cat in the local language. I have been here many times and I don’t see many cats around. I am determined to find out how the name came about.

I finished giving a talk to about 100 people who were looking to learn how to start an online business and make money online. I asked some of them to go to http://www.skyquestcom.com and http://www.preenroller.com to look at an example of a proven business system.

The last few days has been hectic for me. Today, my flight to Sibu is in the afternoon. For the first time, I have a few hours to myself. I took a walk along the Kuching River front. I am surprised by the beauty of the green environment. This river separating the north and the south called the "Sarawak River". I could see a spectacular view of a gorgeous mountainous background. There was an elderly gentleman sitting on the bench resting. He must have finished his morning exercise. I walked over to ask him how “Kuching” the name is originated.

He said that Kuching originated from the Chinese word "Gu Chin" which means harbour. Hmmmm .. that made sense since I am standing at the river front. This should be it. I smiled and was excited that I found the answer. If there is a will, there is a way, I said to myself.

I walked back to the hotel. The hotel bell boy cheerfully greeted me “good morning, Mr. Richard Tan” and he opened the glass door for me. I responded back“Gooooood morning Andrew” “By the way, do you know how the name Kuching was originated?” I took the opportunity to ask him. He said “Kuching is named after a lychee like fruit called Mata Kuching (Cat's eye).” “A fruit??, What about the Chinese word which means harbour”, I replied. “Never heard that nonsense before” He shook his head.

Back to square one.

Maybe I better go ask my MD, Yang Po, she seemed to know everything.

I have got to go check out the hotel room now.