Ryan Ho's Entrepreneurship Blog

Integrity is something that is considered to be worthless in majority of the people but considered priceless in the minority professionals.

Worthless in the sense whereby there are immediate return on investment also know as profits, mark-ups and margins do not show up instantly thus majority of the employed and self-employed individuals have experienced what all working adults would least like to be faced with, and that is office politics.

It is a unpleasant, ugly politics battle, making an office environment hostile, changing individuals with happy to sad in a matter of seconds.

Yet it is considered to be priceless in the minority professionals. Reason being so is have you ever seen any wealthy individuals with bad office politics? Never, and you will not observe anything like that in their business operations at any point of time. The office environment might be hostile, but it’s considered a battle of survival of the fittest with the best sales closing etc.

Not many people will actually pay attention to this word, it’s more of a morals and ethical principles to differentiate character, reputation of an individual, business or around a brand label.  It is what separates the successful minority professionals from the unsuccessful majority of the individuals fail to excel in.

For having a negative reputation, integrity, it is equivalent to lower possibilities of closing a deal with a client based on past record. When you are not worthy to be of a positive influence among your immediate social circle of peers, friends and family members, chances are you will only attract the same group of individuals similar to you in character and personality. That is why there is these phrase “Great minds think a like”, and the reason you see both the wealthy individuals (business owners, venture capitalist) and the mafia leaders hang out together.

Even within the mafia syndicate, they must also observed integrity and disciplinary issues among the ranks which makes that look awesome, attracting numerous recruitment globally among the young and gullible into committing crimes and being scapegoats of the experienced and seasoned leader.

So what happens in between where no integrity are being followed, that’s where you are faced with office politics, arguments, disputes, fights that can be easily avoided by a peaceful discussion to exchange ideas.

If you forgo and choose to ignore to value integrity, you put yourself at risk of spoiling your interpersonal relationships with your friends, peers, colleagues, family members, relatives thus in-directly spoiling your own future. Why so, because once the people who know you in the past, when you are fouling, ill-manned, your past friends who may not even know how you have changed and improved for the better ends up spread word of mouth on how bad you used to be in the past when you and them were still young. So in the process, ruin your chances of leaving a positive impression on any potential lead, prospect who may be considering securing a business deal with you in future.

Start to foster good relationships from young, if you have a negative record, start repairing them as soon as possible to prepare for a brighter future.

Preparation, laying the basics right.

Start things off on the right foot, if you want to be wealthy might as well get the basics right.

Popularity: 2% [?]

Battle is the contest of strength and merits of individuals in a hostile engagement in any environment.

It is not simply a fight, instead it consist of many other factors and hopes pin onto that single or group battle of participants where dreams, hopes, dignity, reputation and pride are on the line.

Emerging victorious from a battle with valour is the pride of the winner representing not only himself, and also the coach, people who believe in the contestant/fighter, the same race and even the country he is representing.

When a contestant is selected, he no longer represents himself but represents all the people and is wearing the national flat in a battle. Living the dream and living up to the nation’s reputation, pushing themselves forward at times even if they themselves want to surrender at times.

That is when moral support, motivation, cheers works on the contestant who represents their dreams to push on and fight harder than before the results are announced.

In the technology era, there is no longer the physical battle. Instead it has all switched to the use of media, wanting to emerge as the winner in respective fields to be acknowledge as the global champion without engaging in fights which is also known as politics.

There are two concurrent wars happening in every single country on earth, the war of politics and government fighting on two fronts but using the same soldiers.

The top cabinet ministers are the politicians wanting to establish themselves as the good person helping other nations in need thus they go for bilateral ties and treaties with respective nations with mutual beneficial terms.

On the other hand, the same cabinet ministers are fighting their own battle with the civilians who are their boss and may pass the rights to run the country to another political group if they fail to satisfy their needs which are employment and ensuring everyone gets paid.

This is what I myself view as a losing battle, one person cannot fight on two fronts, moreover they don’t even understand what the external nations wants with their own country and there they are trying to win on both sides and are sinking on both ships with each leg stuck in a ship each, sinking along with them.

What kind of battle are you up against with? Who are your competitors? Are you representing yourself or your parents or even your own organization? What is it that you seek? Before you even have the desire for battle, what is the purpose?

Battle is the same in business, fighting everyday for profits, sales, clients, and with the objective in mind to win and emerge victorious thus growing rich, affluent into big companies and businesses.

Are you rich or in the process of making it? How do you plan to strategically move yourself up there and where are your alliances? Identify all these to increase your odds of success.

If you don’t plan, you plan to fail.

Failure is not a option but a chance to do self-reflection.

Popularity: 3% [?]

Unity is to be undivided or unbroken completeness. It is the state of being completed as a whole, combining parts into one with the absence of diversity without and having a common goal or focus.

Together as a whole, in quantity, it translates to quality in terms of strength and a force not to be reckon with. Following the updates of Thailand demonstration that has lasted for the past month, it has come to the attention that even military is helpless against the united group of demonstrators.

While the politicians wanted to capture the red shirt leaders, the red shirt demonstrators successful defended their leaders and even assisted in their escape.

Military going up against the civilians might sounds a strange because one side is fully armed for combat while the other party isn’t, but with time and news reports, it have proved that without weapons, and sheer numbers, military can be push over when people come in numbers as reported in news.

It is the cooperation of all individual demonstrators of the red shirts which made the demonstration successful and cause the military helpless plus tourism in Thailand suffered millions losses in terms of revenue. That is a classic example of unity, and power that represents the people, civilians are the boss of the politicians.

Looking at the model of the boss or employment, while it’s true that we work for money, and our boss are paying us income in return for service, the biggest boss which refers to the politicians and governments of every nation still have to listen to their bigger boss who are paying them their income in the form of taxes, which is ordinary civilians.

Upset the real boss, and politicians will have a tough time clearing up the mess. The real power lies in the people, not the politicians, as they are still serving the people.

Politics and government is a people business, the rich politicians have to listen to their real boss the civilians and their requests else they will be forced to leave their post, especially when votes and elections are being made.

Communication and listening to what our clients wants and needs are important if we want to be rich and successful and at the same time earning the respect of our real boss.

Ironic but true.

Popularity: 2% [?]

Provocateurs are people who are employed by an entity to act as a undercover and to entice, provoke another person, group or business to commit wrong and rash actions.

It is a strategic and intelligent move by taking advantage of the weakest link.

It is a silent killer in politics everywhere, from home, schools to office politics and even businesses, such people are always around, and how often are you able to spot and identify such people?

They are under-cover agents or spies wanting to frame an individual or a group to achieve their personal gains and benefit from a chaotic situation. An example is the most talked about demonstration in Thailand.

Live ammunition were used in the demonstration, with many eye witnesses saying that soldiers using it while others remarks saying there were people who were from neither the demonstrators or the military force who were using live rounds, instead it was from people who were firing at innocent people form rooftops.

Remarks came from a former cabinet minister Suranand Vejjajiva now a respected political commentator as reported in Straits Time Newspapers.

Unknown gunmen were taking advantage of the hostility between the red shirt demonstrators and the opposition military force compromising of police and army.

From my humble opinion, instead of focusing on the violence, lost of lives, both parties, the red shirt demonstrators and the military police and army should join hands and come to a mutual agreement to save lives.

By having a agreement which is to weed out, capture those gunmen and soldiers caught using live ammunition and bring such provocateurs to justice who are trying to make matters worse by taking advantage of the situation.

While there’s chaos, agreement should be focus on peaceful demonstration and reducing the numbers of lives lost due to such gunmen.  To learn how to handle such issues, just stay tuned to get yourself updated on the news from Channel News Asia.

Popularity: 1% [?]

Power is the ability, capacity or authority to carry out an order, action or command to have any task completed either done legally or illegally.

It is the strength, force to influence to accomplish tasks via being in a authoritative position to order subordinates to complete their assignments/tasks on time.

It is a force not to be reckoned with, especially with nature especially with the forces of natural disasters, the power and impact is damaging.

It is what many people would dream of having, the power to control almost anything and everything by being in an authoritative position. Power struggle is usually the result of not having reached an agreement and both either sides are happy with the terms and conditions being proposed.

In the most recent example, Thailand, the red shirts peaceful riot that changed into partial violence. While it looks like the military has got the weapons, and are in the authority position to defend them but without the command from their leader, they cannot carry out anything.

The people participating in the riot on the other hand has the advantage, whatever steps the military and government do, they still win because they are taking away their rights, restricting their movements and forcing them into a corner by force.

By using force, such as bullets, water guns against the protestors who started with ladies and even children, military has no reasons to fire bullets against them, but they still did, thus they are in the wrong. For pushing them backwards, they are bullying the weak, thus the protestors return what they receive from the military.

One of which was throwing back a smoke grenade back to the military, thus they cannot say that it is the protestors who started the violence with they throwing grenade into the government protected places as reported in Channel News Asia.

There are lots of political Dos and Not Dos which we can learn by watching the news. If you want to succeed and win in the war of business or politics, you will like to switch your channel and get the latest insights to their progress.

Who is right or wrong, it is all based on personal perception and views. To win, we not only need to know business but also politics.

Popularity: 1% [?]

Politics, a group of people within the government that makes key decisions which will affect and implicate many parties involved.

Politicians function and operate differently from businessmen. Politicians are like the parents of a big household, with the responsibility of taking care of every single person under her care, respect is given and once they are successful in winning the votes. Businessmen on the other hand is like a adult who has just moved out and is going independent, without wanting to rely on others, thus those who make it successful often gain wealth and authority thus earning respect.

Politics is a fun topic to learn, but not a good employment to be in due to its complexity and the laws associated with it plus mountains of restrictions and limitations, thus businessmen never ever get into politics. Thaksin is an exception who has since paid a hefty price for breaking the culture of not doing both politics and business together.

Popularity: 1% [?]

Tension is a strained relationship between both parties between individuals, groups or nations. It is the disagreements which both parties fail to come up with a mutually beneficial terms causing the relationship to be stretched and the bonding goes from thick to thin with each escalating issues surfacing.

It creates emotional strain, intense anxiety among everyone among those affected by the disagreements.

Tensions are everywhere, from average person walking on the streets to businesses, and even nations. All the way from the smallest average people like you and I to the biggest most powerful nations, all of us are living in a tensed up society these days with lots hidden unhappiness stored inside each nation waiting for eruption like a volcano. Each new failed or sour business relationship between two countries is like the sill of the volcano, the unhappiness among both countries is like the large magma chamber.

When a failed sour business caused relationships to take a slight turn for the worse, causing job losses in businesses affecting large scale especially among different countries, a parasitic cone is formed with lava flowing out from the parasitic cone slowly increasing the damage as it waits for the magma chamber to erupt with time.

There are so many examples to look at among different nations.

First up most frequently appeared in news media is China US bilateral ties issue which goes a long way, and is made worse with white house support Google from getting bullied by Baidu who is protecting the China identity at home and online.

Next up is US versus Iran, the quest to sweep the root of the terrorist clean and flush them out but it still has a long way to go. USA once missed the chance to plug out Osama Bin Laden as reported in one of the news reports last time, wanting to silence the ring leader, father of the terrorist who was personally trained by the US themselves.

Up next will be Thailand politics chaos situation, with the red shirt versus the yellow shirt. Former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra who made billions upon using his politics influence to increase his wealth, avoided paying tax and accused by current prime minister Abhisit Vejjajiva who is constantly digging for new evidence to upset and reduce his influence in Thailand wanting to silence the opposition the red shirt but has yet to see any improvement, in fact he made the Thailand economy worse following the recent demonstration just in front of the Thailand airport causing it to be closed for a day, out of business suffering huge losses.

Up next closely is Korea, North and South Korea always appear in the news yearly due to tensions between cross-border with communist and democratic country respectively with the display of their military might and protection from strong nations from Russia and US respectively as backing.

The rest that follows are just minor national tensions purely for profits and tourism competition that not as important as those above.

Tensions arise for many reasons, without early antidote, it will escalate bigger and bigger over time like a volcano, once erupted, serious damage will be felt and casualties and business losses of people who live around the volcano area suffers.

Tensions are just identical to our health. A cold may be a minor issue which can heal and thus often overlooked, but it is leaves any after-effects, it will lead to serious complications, as cold, flu and cough are the minor symptoms.

Health is the core problem for individuals. Business tensions is the core problems for countries while politics and military related concerns affects the whole world if not at least the surrounding countries when there’s a surge in military might with purchase of weapons.

The next time you get into any disagreement, solve it instantly if not as soon as possible, else it will escalate into another business war whereby companies lose, profits reduced and only the consumers benefit from business battle. If it’s individual, sooner or later there will be more stares, arguments before turning to catfights or business sabotage depending on the genders.

So handle any arguments addressing right to the root of the problem, look at what caused the problem, don’t solve it only from the surface which will not help.

If you need examples: Look at hospitals around the whole world, the patients get sicker and more illness especially terminal and expensive illness find their way onto the patients increasing their burden. Have you ever heard of patients suffering from TCM, not even once at all since history?

Look at the difference, which medical practice should you seek help from, answer is obvious, if you want to save more money, choose TCM, but start early, and it will save you mountains of money bit by bit starting from young as TCM is all about healing all weakness of the body that cause a illness to surface, while western drugs only help heal the illness which has surface and not the root of the problem.

Understand the cause and effect, and entrepreneurship will be a breeze for those who understand it, building a strong mind with the right foundation as basics.

Good habits start from young.

Popularity: 1% [?]

Thanks to the book “Why we want you to be Rich” from Donald J.Trump and Robert T. Kiyosaki, it has help me cleared most if not all of the blocks, riddles and reasons why becoming rich is no longer a want but a need to do so. In fact it is such a strong need that most countries ought to do so. If you want to know and find out reasons why you should be rich, either buy or borrow this book to read.

At page 248 of the book, there’s a section which talks about living below your means or expand your means. Most of the poor people would choice the former as the latter is out of the question to them having little to zero financial education. The latter will than be chosen by people who aspire to be rich one day if not are people who desire to be even richer.

While it’s true that rich people can also live in a simple lifestyle below their means but it comes with a heavy price tag to be able to buy a land, grow the plants, vegetables and be self-sufficient but in Singapore and land scarce nation, it’s nearly impossible already except for the existing kampongs which both government and developers have no say in, rejecting their offer to sell their land which has at least the size of few soccer field big.

Left with no choice than, the poor has to bow down to fate and the destiny that awaits them for being poor – no choices and living below their means, one standing phrase among all the poor minds’ are “Study hard, get a job, work hard and save your money for rainy days.”

I’m so sick and tired of such words, like wise for the majority of the people who took up MLM hoping to change their destiny, but it somehow seems far reach as most sales distributors are still dreams and not entrepreneurs themselves.

The poor mind works simple, they seek only not to lose, and not to gain, just living each day to the bare minimal hoping to be able to fill their stomach and nothing more than that. The simpler thinking each poor mind has, the worst their lives will be having their savings slaughtered like pigs in the farms by banks, governments, insurance agents, and financial advisers.

Look at the banks; list me anybody who has went become a Millionaire by just purely savings – no one, the only people getting rich from banks are the top management people getting paid high salary for making wrong investments at times with our money and being directed the way to the exit.

Look at the government, poor investor mind sets, only squeezing the poor, ripping our hard earn savings, make and squeezing us dry like loan sharks just that they do so legally by law due to lack of financial education. Which is why global educational institutions and governments do not and will never ever encourage people to take up financial sectors instead hire only people who chose the path themselves.

Government people are poor individuals with only knowledge in politics and academically smart yet holding high paying jobs making costly mistakes sucking us dry yet playing with trillions worth of money from respective nation’s citizens’ savings. Making a few mistakes with millions, and at times billions worth of mistakes does not warrant their immediate resignation due to primarily lack of politicians so they are free to make costly mistakes with our hard savings yet the poor can’t complain nor do anything because they don’t even know that government are not helping them at all.

Here comes the best part – insurance agents and financial advisors – they are the group of ‘trusted agents’ with nothing more than a paper qualification getting paid for each policy and financial package signed under them. With no prior experience of investments, they are just copycats, following the leader who tells them what to invest in, what to look out for etc. In short, they are not trained nor taught to help us get rich. They get rich by simply selling your paper services that help themselves get rich. Is this the world that you want to be in getting squeezed by those ill-trained advisers in different fields?

Quoting from a phrase said by Robert in the same book page 119 “Wall Street is the only place that people drive in a Rolls Royce to take advice from people who ride the subway.” This is truth that even a rich nation like US is taking advices from the wrong advisers, so what will become of the future in terms of dollars and cents? Do you want your money to be managed by ill-trained financial advisers or would you like them to be place in trusted people in the hands of entrepreneurs who knows the secrets of doubling if not helping you with increase your wealth?

To get rich, it’s as simple as knowing who to place your trusts in with your hard earn money. I have identified five mentors (in property, financial, and businesses) who will help me increase my wealth but first I got to proof my own worth first. While I have identified my own future mentors who will assist me, have you found yours yet? If your answer is no, I suggest you read this book “Why we want you to be RICH” It’s available at National Libraries in Singapore which can be loaned for free.

Popularity: 1% [?]