Hey Guys,
new Fastlane member here, all the way from Hong Kong! Although I'm already in the Fastlane, as MJ says in his book, education is never-ending. Looking for new ways/ideas to increase sales with one of our subsidiaries, I stumbled across the The Millionaire Fastlane, purchased and read the whole book within a few hours. Although a lot of the content I already knew and agree with, the book did light-up some bulbs in my head. Thank You MJ
now, onto my very long story (hope you don't get bored reading it!):
Born and raised in the UK to a very traditional Chinese family (i.e Study, study and more study. Socialising? Dating? Not if I want a roof over my head), life was not-so-simple. Back then (80's), inter-racial populations were only really just starting to grow, so being 1 of only 5 Chinese people in my entire primary & secondary school (Elementary, Junior and Senior High for those in the US), you can imagine the daily onslaught of bullying and name-calling.
To make things worse, being Chinese automatically meant you were classified as a Swot (Nerd in the US) and, being Chinese automatically meant you were classified as having Rich parents. Yup, you guessed it, we were Spoiled Swots. Sigh...
Of course, that was far from the truth. My parents, from Hong Kong, immigrated to the UK back in the 70's solely for the purpose of starting a family and to provide their children with the best education possible. Being from a poor background, they worked their asses off, 12hrs per day, 6 days per week for 24 years to make sure my elder brother and myself had a chance at education, a chance that they never had. Unlike the parents of all my fellow Caucasian students, my parents never got to study past primary school, and had to start work in their early teens just to support my grandparents/uncles/aunts. Swot...ok, I can give you that, but Rich parents? It was called hard work and not having to rely on dole (government allowance in the UK to those who don't work)
But anyway, made my way through primary, secondary then university and graduated as a legal drug dealer (i.e Pharmacist
) by the time I was 20. Dealt drugs for around 12 months, got fed up of the low wages (legal drug dealing only made you around £1200/month pre-tax back then. Maybe I should have went illegal? lol), so went back to university. This time, it was for my Software Engineering degree and I can tell you this right now, unless you live life in the Slowlane and need your name on a bit of paper to get a job, this is the biggest waste of 4 years in my entire life. I ended up teaching the professor how to teach his own classes (just so you know, I started playing around with computers back in the 80's. Basic, Atari, Sinclair, Commodore etc)!
During the final year of my 2nd degree, I had my first taste of Entrepreneurship and started my own software development company (which I still own/run to this day). Tapping into, what was then, a very rapidly growing internet (before the dotcom crash), like most, my company ventured into freelance web-programming.
Life at this point was great. I was only 23 years old, the business was on 90% auto-pilot making £3-4k/month pre-tax, and drove the car of my dreams (Honda Integra Type-R). And this was the start of my downfall. Being so much into cars and tuning, I decided to do what most young adults "want" to do, and that is, start a business based on "what you love". This meant opening up a Tuning Shop and selling JDM car parts. Slowly but surely, this ended up taking up most of my time and my software company was dying a quick death. To make things worse, my income started declining over the next 3 years. £3-4k/month -> £2-3k/month -> £1-2k/month -> £0-1k/month.
Doing "what I love" put me into financial ruin, with < £1k/month income and over £10k in debt! Lesson to be learned (Read p207: Commandment of Need). Thank You Mum for saving my butt!
Deciding enough was enough (v1), a change of scenery was in order; somewhere where I could leave everything behind and start afresh. With less than £1k to my name after selling that wretched car, I set about on my journey through the Fastlane. And what better a place than to move to Hong Kong!
To this day, I still remember it. Exactly 10 years to this day (coincidence?), I got off the plane at Chek Lap Kok International Airport at 8am and the first thing I done was take a bus over to Mong Kok (The "shopping centre" of Hong Kong) and visit one of my suppliers from the Tuning Shop business. Young, enthusiastic, but utterly unprepared, I knocked on their office door and gave the owner a surprise visit. And what a surprise indeed! The first thing that came out of my mouth after we sat down was: "I want to start a new global trading company; just You and Me". With less than £1k to my name, I seriously thought he was going to just shove my proposal back in my face and tell me to go back to where I came from! But to my surprise, he actually said "OK"! Turns out, it was actually my English and Programming skills that sold him; not my enthusiasm
So over the next 24 months, business was started, relationships were forged with suppliers in China & Taiwan, relationships were established with customers around the globe. Still in the automotive industry, we picked up a few good contracts and turned a tidy profit every month. During this time, I met the girl of my dreams and, although things were tough financially at times, she stuck with me throughout (not very common for a HK girl btw). She eventually became Mrs YCW, and still is the love of my life.
All smooth? I guess if you were in the Slowlane. Not only was the business held back by our "partnership", income just was not flowing in like I wanted it to be. Don't get me wrong, money was flowing in, but it was like a trickle in a pond, compared to the sea currents that I wanted. Lesson to be learned (Read p151: Own yourself First)
By this time, I was 28 years old, with nothing to show and I still hadn't got the car of my dreams (BMW M3), far from it. If I kept this up, I would be in the Slowlane forever, and would not be able to give my wife the life that she deserves. However, having forged some solid contacts in China & Taiwan, and educating myself a LOT on how things work over here, I decided enough was enough (v2)
With £10k in hand, I decided to divorce from my partnership, give my brain a recharge, and what better time than now to take our 6-month overdue Honeymoon. So back to the UK we went for 6 weeks, with a 1 week romantic getaway in Paris. It wasn't all R&R though, unfortunately. Throughout the whole time, my mind was rampant with how to setup my new company, and how to continue my quest through the Fastlane. Fast-forward a few weeks later, we were back in Hong Kong, staying with my gran, and I needed to get off my butt and put my plans into action. Good thing setting up a business in HK only takes a couple of days. Thank You Grandma for being a loving grandparent!
Searching for the cheapest flights available, I bought my plane ticket and headed to Taiwan for 1 week. Getting off the plane, this time was different though as I had a solid plan. I knew exactly where I wanted to go and who I wanted to see, and in what order. What was my plan?
- Meet and establish a new relationship with the key component factories necessary to setup my own engineering company
- Knowing there were still strong currents in the sea, I had decided to stay within the Automotive sector
From start to finish (ideas, planning, implementation), it took around 3 months to get my new business up and running. However, finding customers was not so easy... for the first 6 months of my business, I would say I was only making around US$1-2k/month. This had to change!
Being semi-proficient with software programming, I set about implementing software solutions to handle my everyday menial tasks and, at the same time, self-educating on both programming and sales/marketing (remember, you don't learn jack from university). And this was the turnaround point (Read p130: The Five Fastlane Business Seedlings)
Through the power of automation, I had succeeded in turning expended time (time spent on menial tasks) into free time, time that I could now use to concentrate on growing my business. Within the space of 5 years, business income went from a measly US$1-2k/month to over US$200k/month.
Don't get me wrong; I had to work my butt off during those 5 years. I was lucky to be home 2 weeks of the month, as I was constantly back and forth between the US, Europe and South-East Asia.
Of course, not being happy with just strong currents from the sea, I'm now chasing Tsunamis from the Ocean. Due to heavy investments back into the business, my business assets have went from zero to just over US$8m within the space of 2 years, making us one of the largest performance transmission companies in the world (we specialise in racing transmission components). Of course, this leaves me with not much personal assets, and I am not yet at the point where I can live that "extravagant lifestyle", although I am not "poor" by any means:
- US$500k house (paid for) in a quiet area of Hong Kong. You guys would laugh at the size though (500sqft)
- Finally got the car of my dreams (bought then sold the M3 after 5 months! lol): Ferrari F430 Spider
- I like my timepieces, so Rolex and Patek Philippe's for me
- Other than the above, I don't have anything else of "materialistic" value. I'm probably the only Fastlane CEO in Hong Kong that goes to work in $20 outlet store T-Shirt, Shorts and Flip-Flops on a daily basis. To top it off, I take the train to work lol
To conclude...
- My Dream? My business has 2 direct competitors for my market segment. I am going to take them out...
- My Passion? To make my wife the happiest woman on the planet. She is my sole purpose in life, and my sole reason for being. Everything I do, I do it for her.
I know it's been a long read (if you even made it this far! lol), but thank you for taking a moment of your time to read my story and, if you have any questions at all about me, my business, or whatever, feel free to ask
new Fastlane member here, all the way from Hong Kong! Although I'm already in the Fastlane, as MJ says in his book, education is never-ending. Looking for new ways/ideas to increase sales with one of our subsidiaries, I stumbled across the The Millionaire Fastlane, purchased and read the whole book within a few hours. Although a lot of the content I already knew and agree with, the book did light-up some bulbs in my head. Thank You MJ
now, onto my very long story (hope you don't get bored reading it!):
Born and raised in the UK to a very traditional Chinese family (i.e Study, study and more study. Socialising? Dating? Not if I want a roof over my head), life was not-so-simple. Back then (80's), inter-racial populations were only really just starting to grow, so being 1 of only 5 Chinese people in my entire primary & secondary school (Elementary, Junior and Senior High for those in the US), you can imagine the daily onslaught of bullying and name-calling.
To make things worse, being Chinese automatically meant you were classified as a Swot (Nerd in the US) and, being Chinese automatically meant you were classified as having Rich parents. Yup, you guessed it, we were Spoiled Swots. Sigh...
Of course, that was far from the truth. My parents, from Hong Kong, immigrated to the UK back in the 70's solely for the purpose of starting a family and to provide their children with the best education possible. Being from a poor background, they worked their asses off, 12hrs per day, 6 days per week for 24 years to make sure my elder brother and myself had a chance at education, a chance that they never had. Unlike the parents of all my fellow Caucasian students, my parents never got to study past primary school, and had to start work in their early teens just to support my grandparents/uncles/aunts. Swot...ok, I can give you that, but Rich parents? It was called hard work and not having to rely on dole (government allowance in the UK to those who don't work)
But anyway, made my way through primary, secondary then university and graduated as a legal drug dealer (i.e Pharmacist
) by the time I was 20. Dealt drugs for around 12 months, got fed up of the low wages (legal drug dealing only made you around £1200/month pre-tax back then. Maybe I should have went illegal? lol), so went back to university. This time, it was for my Software Engineering degree and I can tell you this right now, unless you live life in the Slowlane and need your name on a bit of paper to get a job, this is the biggest waste of 4 years in my entire life. I ended up teaching the professor how to teach his own classes (just so you know, I started playing around with computers back in the 80's. Basic, Atari, Sinclair, Commodore etc)!During the final year of my 2nd degree, I had my first taste of Entrepreneurship and started my own software development company (which I still own/run to this day). Tapping into, what was then, a very rapidly growing internet (before the dotcom crash), like most, my company ventured into freelance web-programming.
Life at this point was great. I was only 23 years old, the business was on 90% auto-pilot making £3-4k/month pre-tax, and drove the car of my dreams (Honda Integra Type-R). And this was the start of my downfall. Being so much into cars and tuning, I decided to do what most young adults "want" to do, and that is, start a business based on "what you love". This meant opening up a Tuning Shop and selling JDM car parts. Slowly but surely, this ended up taking up most of my time and my software company was dying a quick death. To make things worse, my income started declining over the next 3 years. £3-4k/month -> £2-3k/month -> £1-2k/month -> £0-1k/month.
Doing "what I love" put me into financial ruin, with < £1k/month income and over £10k in debt! Lesson to be learned (Read p207: Commandment of Need). Thank You Mum for saving my butt!
Deciding enough was enough (v1), a change of scenery was in order; somewhere where I could leave everything behind and start afresh. With less than £1k to my name after selling that wretched car, I set about on my journey through the Fastlane. And what better a place than to move to Hong Kong!
To this day, I still remember it. Exactly 10 years to this day (coincidence?), I got off the plane at Chek Lap Kok International Airport at 8am and the first thing I done was take a bus over to Mong Kok (The "shopping centre" of Hong Kong) and visit one of my suppliers from the Tuning Shop business. Young, enthusiastic, but utterly unprepared, I knocked on their office door and gave the owner a surprise visit. And what a surprise indeed! The first thing that came out of my mouth after we sat down was: "I want to start a new global trading company; just You and Me". With less than £1k to my name, I seriously thought he was going to just shove my proposal back in my face and tell me to go back to where I came from! But to my surprise, he actually said "OK"! Turns out, it was actually my English and Programming skills that sold him; not my enthusiasm
So over the next 24 months, business was started, relationships were forged with suppliers in China & Taiwan, relationships were established with customers around the globe. Still in the automotive industry, we picked up a few good contracts and turned a tidy profit every month. During this time, I met the girl of my dreams and, although things were tough financially at times, she stuck with me throughout (not very common for a HK girl btw
). She eventually became Mrs YCW, and still is the love of my life.All smooth? I guess if you were in the Slowlane. Not only was the business held back by our "partnership", income just was not flowing in like I wanted it to be. Don't get me wrong, money was flowing in, but it was like a trickle in a pond, compared to the sea currents that I wanted. Lesson to be learned (Read p151: Own yourself First)
By this time, I was 28 years old, with nothing to show and I still hadn't got the car of my dreams (BMW M3), far from it. If I kept this up, I would be in the Slowlane forever, and would not be able to give my wife the life that she deserves. However, having forged some solid contacts in China & Taiwan, and educating myself a LOT on how things work over here, I decided enough was enough (v2
)With £10k in hand, I decided to divorce from my partnership, give my brain a recharge, and what better time than now to take our 6-month overdue Honeymoon. So back to the UK we went for 6 weeks, with a 1 week romantic getaway in Paris. It wasn't all R&R though, unfortunately. Throughout the whole time, my mind was rampant with how to setup my new company, and how to continue my quest through the Fastlane. Fast-forward a few weeks later, we were back in Hong Kong, staying with my gran, and I needed to get off my butt and put my plans into action. Good thing setting up a business in HK only takes a couple of days. Thank You Grandma for being a loving grandparent!
Searching for the cheapest flights available, I bought my plane ticket and headed to Taiwan for 1 week. Getting off the plane, this time was different though as I had a solid plan. I knew exactly where I wanted to go and who I wanted to see, and in what order. What was my plan?
- Meet and establish a new relationship with the key component factories necessary to setup my own engineering company
- Knowing there were still strong currents in the sea, I had decided to stay within the Automotive sector
From start to finish (ideas, planning, implementation), it took around 3 months to get my new business up and running. However, finding customers was not so easy... for the first 6 months of my business, I would say I was only making around US$1-2k/month. This had to change!
Being semi-proficient with software programming, I set about implementing software solutions to handle my everyday menial tasks and, at the same time, self-educating on both programming and sales/marketing (remember, you don't learn jack from university). And this was the turnaround point (Read p130: The Five Fastlane Business Seedlings)
Through the power of automation, I had succeeded in turning expended time (time spent on menial tasks) into free time, time that I could now use to concentrate on growing my business. Within the space of 5 years, business income went from a measly US$1-2k/month to over US$200k/month.
Don't get me wrong; I had to work my butt off during those 5 years. I was lucky to be home 2 weeks of the month, as I was constantly back and forth between the US, Europe and South-East Asia.
Of course, not being happy with just strong currents from the sea, I'm now chasing Tsunamis from the Ocean. Due to heavy investments back into the business, my business assets have went from zero to just over US$8m within the space of 2 years, making us one of the largest performance transmission companies in the world (we specialise in racing transmission components). Of course, this leaves me with not much personal assets, and I am not yet at the point where I can live that "extravagant lifestyle", although I am not "poor" by any means:
- US$500k house (paid for) in a quiet area of Hong Kong. You guys would laugh at the size though (500sqft)
- Finally got the car of my dreams (bought then sold the M3 after 5 months! lol): Ferrari F430 Spider
- I like my timepieces, so Rolex and Patek Philippe's for me
- Other than the above, I don't have anything else of "materialistic" value. I'm probably the only Fastlane CEO in Hong Kong that goes to work in $20 outlet store T-Shirt, Shorts and Flip-Flops on a daily basis. To top it off, I take the train to work
lolTo conclude...
- My Dream? My business has 2 direct competitors for my market segment. I am going to take them out...
- My Passion? To make my wife the happiest woman on the planet. She is my sole purpose in life, and my sole reason for being. Everything I do, I do it for her.
I know it's been a long read (if you even made it this far! lol), but thank you for taking a moment of your time to read my story and, if you have any questions at all about me, my business, or whatever, feel free to ask
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