Year 2005, I graduated from university and joined ST Microelectronics in Muar as Product Engineer. I remember a girl, Jasmine gives me a Christian name, “Wayne”. I never used it until I joined Hypertronics in Aug 2005… An admin girl, Esther (not Esther Joan… ) suggested me to get a Christian name for easy calling. Actually I don’t really wanted to be called other name than my name, but since I was being asked, I answered.. “Wayne”. I thought it will be just a name to be used in Hypertronics, which is supposed to be called by my colleague, those who I interact just because of work related issue… But I was wrong…..

First… There was a guy who stays in Bedok (I stays in Bedok too for the first few weeks). Everyday I met him in interchange waiting for the bus 87. I knew he is my colleague, but because I am new and nobody introduce him to me, he was rather a stranger than a colleague to me. He always listen to his iPod and sit at the last row in the bus, and sleep all the way when onboard the bus until alighting… sometimes even overslept and have to alight at the next bus stop… a stupid funny guy. Now he is one of my best buddy, I never know this could be happened. He calls me Wayne because we knew each other in Hypertronics. Secondly, my old big… which became extremely close to me after two super tough business trips in Philippines. Thirdly, the whole gang of close friends in Hypertronics calls me Wayne too… Again, because we knew each other in Hypertronics…

Now I have left Hypertronics, a place where I have worked for 4 years. But the name, “Wayne” still following me… “Wayne” is supposed to be called in Hypertronics, by my colleague ONLY! Initially I drawn a line between friends and colleagues, I won’t feel warm if they call me “Wayne”, instead its more like a colleague is calling me. But it turned out not to be like that, I never expect I can be so close to the colleagues in Hypertronics. If I know this could be happened, I won’t want them to call me “Wayne”…

Few days ago, I get to know a guy in my first class of CREST course, his name is Charles Chia. He is a head hunter. I introduce myself as JenHuei… I gave up my nick “Wayne” although I know that it could be much better in this industry if I keep this nick. Sometimes I hesitated… But in the end I still insisted not to use it… Today, during the break in CREST course lesson #3, I was queueing for a cup of water in vending machine, suddenly someone calls me, “JenHuei!”.. he is Charles, the only guy I knew in CREST course. He offered me to buy a cup of coffee for me, but I just wanted a cup of plain water so I rejected. However, I have a warm feeling like a close friend is calling me although I just know him few days ago.

With this incident, I am 100% sure that I won’t want any of my new friends to call me “Wayne” anymore. I don’t want to reject any possibility that everyone can become very close to me in the future. I accept everyone to be a very good friend to me in the future. He might be my client, might be someone I just meet in Shopping mall when he is promoting his product, might be someone I meet in photography forum, or even might be someone I meet in bus stop everyday when I am going to office… I want them to know me as “JenHuei”, my real name…

Good Bye, “Wayne”…

Frankly speaking, I was exposed to the idea of direct sales since about 13 years ago. My secondary school friend PL who was one of the member of Forever Living MLM company shared the idea of MLM to me. First, she showed me the idea of saving enough with full time job salary for retirement is impossible. How? Easy, use the current engineer annual salary multiply by number of years you are going to work before you retired, to compare with the amount you need to cover your BASIC expenses after retirement for the remaining of your life, with some inflation rate going on, and medical expenses, etc… Nobody will be able to retire at the desired age. Secondly, she then showed me the marketing plan, how could the company help me to achieve retirement (at that time, Financial Freedom is not that “hot” yet… or maybe not that “hot” to me, I was still a kid anyway). Thirdly, she started to tell me how good the product was, how the team could help me achieve the goal, bla bla bla…

I had thought of joining direct sales for many years, and I did try before: After my SPM paper, I joined an MLM company which sells mobile prepaid top up; and another MLM company which sells health product (coffee…health? -_-”…) during my study in university. The reason I join is really simple: $$$. I seriously know that MLM will definitely bring wealth to someone, but with conditions such as you must work hard, with correct guidance, and most importantly, tune your own mindset. I know MLM works, I have no doubt on that. But after few years of understanding and tried in MLM, I told myself, if I am going to work in direct sales, I need to find a good company and work really hard and smart on it. I don’t want to work like hell and in the end the company bankrupt or the management run away. From there I know, my choice will only be Amway, which is a strong and good MLM company. No doubt, it is the best and most sustainable MLM company that ever exists. (Hei, I am not part of the Amway, okie? At least, not now… )

So, when my brother approached me, and when I am actively looking for a new job. (I consider myself to reaching a junction in my career path, here, I need to decide what do I want to do in the remaining of my life, engineer forever? business? investment?) So, I was really working hard to storm my own brain to get the answer. I have rejected a lot of people who tried to recruit me to their sales forces. Nobody understand why I don’t want to join. My bro suggested me to meet and talk with his leader who has succeed in direct sales. He told me that his leader won’t ask me to join, so just take it as like talking to a successful entrepreneur to find out the possible answer. Well, seriously I won’t want to meet with such people. The reason is simple: I am looking for an answer which is given by a neutral people. What is such a “Neutral” people you asked? Pretty hard to describe. For example, the successful leader in direct sales is NOT the neutral people that should answer my question of “Should I join direct sales”. Why? Because they are from direct sales, no matter how wise they are, they will tend to give you an answer which will direct you to JOIN direct sales. These kind of people, is non-neutral to my question, so I won’t listen to these kind of advise. A kid without any idea on what is direct sales would probably give an even better answer to my question. Now you ask, what is so special about my question to need a neutral people to answer it?

To succeed in direct sales industry, you need to be ready to change yourself to someone that you dislike before. For example, you don’t like those sales men came to your house and knock your door to sell you something, now you have to become one of them. You don’t like your friend suddenly rings you up and asks for a meal but actually he brings along his up-line and promote the product to you, now you have to become one of them. If you are not ready and not wanted to transform yourself to such characteristic, you better don’t join direct sales, you will not success. Really, you will not success. Don’t be too silly to think that you can have your own current characteristic but still success in direct sales, it won’t work this way. That’s why those who failed in direct sales are much more than those who succeed.

“Do I want myself to become such a person?”. This is my question. Imagine after I joined, in order to success, I need to be the best sales, need to work hard. So, whoever I met, I will try to make him my prospect, my customer, my potential partner. During gathering with my friend even though I knew they don’t like direct sales, but just because I joined and I learnt the product so much that I believe this product will definitely benefit them… So, I will try to relate all the topics to my products.. “Oh, actually Amway got a product that can cure this, improve your health, clean your shirts, wash your dish, bla bla bla….”. Even though my intention is really to share the good thing to my friends, my friends will still feel unhappy with my altitude…. If you are one of my friend, would you still like to meet me next time? My answer is “No, I don’t want to be like that…”.

The next day after a long conversation with my bro, he throws me a VCD, the content is about the sharing from a successful leader of Amway. I watched it with the intention to find out more about my answer. At first, the guy said that he should have retired, but he is still working in Amway. Why? Because he found that what he is doing is very meaningful: he is helping so many of people to achieve their dream, helping them to become more successful! His role in Amway, is not for money anymore, but for guiding people and leading them towards their dream. I am very impressed, seriously impressed. I want to be like him, I want to help people to success too! Deep in my mind, I was thinking: I think I should join… He then shared about 3 things: First, how to convince people; second, how to motivate your down-line when they are upset; and third, the power of duplicate, how to follow the correct way in direct sales industry to achieve your goal.

But I stopped the movie after about 30mins. Why? Because of the first sharing: How to convince people… to join Amway. My admire on him changed 180 degrees because of the phrase “to join Amway”. For me, I want to help people to success, but not in the way that I control how they should success. I sincerely believe that everyone must have their own way to success. What I want to do is just to push them, to motivate them, to encourage them to do whatever they are more interested to do, instead of persuade them to join Amway. Amway is not the only way that they can achieve their goal, and I won’t know that Amway is suitable to them or not, I will propose them they might consider to join Amway, but find out more before joining, and they make the choice themselves. Everyone should choose their own path to succeed! I am more keen on helping people to success in their own way and get nothing from them, as compare to persuade them to join under my group, and use them as a step stone to become success… (In Amway, they like to say that when you help other people success, you success too… I say you are using those people as your step stone to become success… For myself, I can be unsuccessful, but those who I approached or helped will still able to success…) Right after I switched off the TV, I wrote a note to my brother: “Thanks bro, I found my answer….”.

Bro, thanks for the VCD, without this, and without you, I will never found the answer that had been influenced me since 13 years ago. Now I know that I will never want to join any MLM company anymore, regardless of money or helping other to success, MLM is not the path to success that I want. Thanks…

Luckily, WK got his MBP repaired for free due to the defect in NVDIA chipset, Apple recalled those parts and provide FOC part replacement and larbour on that. SC and I then brought our MBP for repair with the hope of getting the same free repair under the same program too. But too bad the Apple Service Provider (a third party company, named Sapura in Funan center) claimed that my case is not under recall program! I bet he actually turned on my MBP, and see no problem (it happens intermittent, so sometimes you won’t see…) so he concluded that mine is not under recall program.

Frustated, I withdrawn the service request.. The next day (Monday), I then make a call to Apple Support Center. A courteous guy answered my call. He listens to my problem slowly and then guided me along with some troubleshooting steps. First, we reset the PRAM, but the problem still happen. Then we run Apple Hardware Test program to see is there any problem on the hardware part or not. (it might be due to software problem, although i knew that it can’t be software problem because I have reinstalled the MacOS, but it still happens.. ) We need to hang up our conversation here as this test might takes 3 hours. I need to enable Loop test by pressing Cmd + L and then check the extended test, so it became extended loop test… The test begins with memory test, for about 10mins… and the test stopped about 5minutes later with the error on VGA controller. Fantastic! it is now proved that there is something wrong in my VGA controller, and my MBP actually fit exactly what is described here (except the blank screen)!  I then called Apple Support Center again and this time another courteous guy picks up the call. After he listened to my case, he suggested me to bring the MBP to service center to have a look. I asked him, is that FOC? The guy understand exactly what happened to my MBP and he knows about the recall program, so he answered Yes, should be FOC… ^^

However, few days later after I sent in to repair, the tech guy called me and told me that he needs to escalate this case to Apple, if it’s fall under the recall program, Apple will send in the part. The next day, I made a call to the service center and yes, they are waiting for the part to arrive!! Wow! Apple is so efficient!

Today, I got my MBP back from Sapura, and YES! Its Free service! hohohoooo!! Thank you Apple Support for so efficient and super good support! I Love Apple!

To understand what my friends understood about Financial Freedom, I created a simple survey on this topic, consists of a series of five questions, these survey looks similar to what a direct sales personal would like to use to approach their prospect (I was being asked a few times, “Hei, are you doing some direct sales thingy like Amway or so?”). Well, I just wanted to understand what people understand, and at the same time, I am seeking for an answer for myself too…

These are the questions in the survey, together with some answer (I asked about 11 people only, mostly close to me and always keep in touch, I dare not to approach someone and ask these questions right away, I believe I will be black listed… )
Q1. How do you define “Financial Freedom”?
- Don’t need to work for money to survive.
- Have stable income to cover daily expenses including insurance premium, travelling, entertainment.. etc.
- Free will to make financial decision.
- Passive Income > Expenses.
- No need to worry about income to pay for expenses
- No need to work / flexible working time but still got money
- Earning > Expenses
- No need to think about his and his family daily expenses.
- Means rich, can spend on whatever you like.
- No debt, no loan, got savings.

Q2. Do you want to achieve Financial Freedom?
- Eventually, everybody answer “Yes”. haha..

Q3. How much income per month do you think you need to earn to achieve Financial Freedom? How do you know that you need that amount?
- $10k, Wife does not need to work hard, got 2 children, house, car, insurance.
- RM 50K,
- $5k, simply pick an amount
- $50k, expenses + all necessary (Really luxurious necessary…)
- $3k for now, but it will change from time to time when I get married, got children, inflation… etc
- $20k should be enough, my current expenses is $3k.
- $7k, $1k parent, $500 insurance, $1k saving, $2k housing, $500 expenses, $2k other
- $3.5k, but it will increase with inflation…
- $5k, $5k…
- Answer actually varies from as low as S$3.5k to as high as S$50k!!

Q4. What are you doing now to achieve Financial Freedom?
- Lost
- Doing nothing, maybe lottery…
- Nothing, lazy
- My business
- Improve my financial knowledge, then create business or idea that can bring income.
- Nothing, although regret, but still nothing… ^^”
- Mainly do business, investment, property, direct sales.

Q5. Are you happy with what you are currently earning?
- Some yes, but mostly no.

In my personal opinion, financial freedom is to have a passive income that allows you to live comfortably, live the way you like and enjoy. (Passive income is the consistent income that earned not by working full time, maybe part time counts.) Passive incomes includes the earning from stock market, dividend, property margin or rental, and even those direct sales earning which you worked hard to achieve. When talked about “Living comfortably”, then the topic became very subjective: some said they need to earn S$100k per month to live comfortably, some said they just need S$3k per month. While both are human, why someone needs S$100k to live and other just need S$3k? While you are reading this part, how much do you think you need to earn for your comfortable living style? No idea? Don’t worry, those with S$100k target does not have any idea either, that’s why they think S$100k will be enough for them to live comfortably…

Living comfortably, is just as simple as what you are living as now. Most people will argue on that, because their current living style is not considered as comfortable for them. They worry about their job, they worry about sudden expenses that emptied their all saving, they worry about everything… The problem is on the mind itself, people tend to spend more and more when they earn more and more, and they won’t realize it. I remember a story: In year 2005 when my friend and I just entered our career life, our starting paid is around S$1800 only. Our living standard is consider okie: Afford to buy a PC, can go travel to nearby countries, can eat luxurious food few times a month, can have nice gadget after few months saving.. But after a while we complained, “How good will that be if our salary was S$2500? We will definitely able to save about S$700 per month by maintaining the living standard same as now!” While I was listening to this, I deeply believe that if we are earning S$2500, we will not be able to save S$700, and we will ask for S$3000 or even higher. Why? Our living standard increased, instead of buying a S$1000 cheap PC, now I want a S$2000 better PC, instead of travelling overseas once a year, now I want to travel twice or  more a year. We are in a better life. Why not?

What I really wanted to emphasize is, live according to what you NEED but not what you want, and do not be extravagant. With this in mind, you will have an idea how much do you need to earn every month to achieve financial freedom, that’s why some of the people just need as low as S$3000 for financial freedom. (An incident happened, while I am writing this part, my wife already disagreed with me on this idea, her opinion is some people want more things, they want to eat good food, they want to drive BMW, that is consider as financial freedom to them… ) Hmm… yes, she is right. But, my point is, to have a better chance of success, don’t set an unrealistic target for yourself. Simple mindset game, if you need to walk 100m away to take a free computer, you might not want to go; however, if there is a free PSP just 5m away in front of you, you will think that it’s not hard to walk those 5m so you got your PSP! The idea is, set yourself a realistic target, which you think is comfortable (recommended would be less than S$5000), once you started and finally achieved your first goal, then only set another higher goal for yourself. Yes, you are right… The first step is always the most important, and to make yourself take the first step is to let yourself believe it that you could do it!

Ok, at this point, let’s cool down and ask yourself, how much you NEED? I will share about method that I know to achieve the goal next time…

Cape Reinga

North Island – Part IV, V (End)
* Click on the links below to download the PDF file of our blog..
Part IV – North Island I
Part V – North Island II

South Island – Part I, II & III

* Click on the links below and download the PDF file of our blog… ^^
Part I – South Island I
Part II – South Island II
Part III – South Island III

Our journey from Singapore to Christchurch is not easy: Actually we just bought 2 different air ticket and thinking to change flight in Melbourne (due to save cost), so we bought the ticket from Singapore to Melbourne and then another from Melbourne to Christchurch, we thought we need to change flight ONCE only. BUT, the flight from Singapore to Melbourne by Jetstar will actually transit in Darwin; and then the flight from Melbourne to Christchurch by Virgin Blue / Pacific Blue will transit in Sydney.. In the end, our flight path is like… Singapore – Darwin – Melbourne – Sydney – Christchurch… -_-”… (Yeah, its not easy, I told you right? )

Okie, at this moment, it’s time for us to go airport already, hehe… muahahaha, so excited!! Muahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahhaa….. x infinity… (This is just to express how excited we are!!)

Well, it’s not easy to take this step, and it’s not hard to take this step too… It’s not easy nor hard, depend on how you look at it… Wish whoever has the dream or mind to go explore the world, the earth, other countries.. will take this simple step: Put down ur burden, pack your back pack… and go to somewhere that is totally strange to you!

Time to go! Muahahahahahah x infinity… XD

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