Author Archives: Issa

Why Do Some People Succeed?

July 31 4:39 pm ,

Sailing Away

Sailing Away

And why only some?  Aren’t we all genetically predisposed to be the best that we can be?

The answer, simply, is no.  Otherwise, no one would be successful.  And our journeys would all be, for lack of a better word, boring.

Here are some speakers in the Money Summit 2011 who defied the odds and became masters in their own fields:

NOLI ALLEJE

I was into everything before I started doing real estate.  As an entrepreneur, I started off with window furnishing in the late 70’s, then went into knitwear in the 80’s and a PR company that focused on beauty contests … We handled Triumph Court of Fashion, Palmolive Circle of 10, Mutya ng Pilipinas and Miss Asia Pacific plus Eupohoria Disco … in the early 90’s, Iwi Laurel and myself put up the first real estate talk show on nationwide television … sometime thru those years, I became the Philippine representative for Joe Weider products (muscle building drinks) and regular jobs in financial institutions such as Bancom Philippine Holdings, Union Bank and ULTRA, the concert and sport venue.

It was only when I started selling real estate and investing in real estate that I can say that I reached financial maturity.  The Property Forum was granted exclusive marketing contracts in the mid 90’s which was right smack in the Asian Crisis period … That is the time I realized that my expertise was on distressed properties since our sales was great during bad times … So the years after, I started doing auctions with the major universal and commercial banks …

We began doing bulk investment from bank assets 3 years ago and last year, we decided to buy the asset management company of GE money bank from GE Investment in Norway … As an investor, I basically buy and hold while I wait for nature to solve the headaches … Sometimes dump the lousy assets and just collect the good ones …

Lesson:  I like what Noli Alleje said here – that in real estate investing, particularly in investing in distressed properties – one technique is just to buy and hold while waiting for nature to solve the headaches.  So if applied to the US real estate market (or to stocks), the time to buy is now.  But many are still scared.  And that is why people like Noli Alleje emerge the winner.

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Posted in: Financial Education , Tagged: , , , , , ,

Why I Asked the Questions I Asked: the 2011 Money Summit Interviews

July 28 12:03 am ,
Discovering the Beauty Within

Discovering the Beauty Within

Those who are larger than life, and seemingly possessed with superpowers, are humans too, like the rest of us.

This is what I learned when I engaged some of the speakers of the 2011 Money Summit in a conversation via Facebook messaging.  Some of them are downright funny (hilarious even), and all are inspired and inspiring.

Here were the questions I asked:

1.     Who were you before you became successful?

2.     What interests you apart from your business or your career?

Why those 2 questions?

I want to find out if successful people have a common trait which made them successful, and I wanted to find this “special trait” by looking at what they have written and how they wrote it.  The things and events a person discloses about himself and his life, what a person gives importance to, gives a glimpse of that which sets him apart (I was pleasantly surprised at the glimpses some have allowed me).

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Posted in: Financial Education, Rescue72 Disaster Preparedness , Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , ,

Should You Lose Your (Difficult) Customer?

July 24 1:49 am ,
Disconnect

Disconnet

An email ruined your day.

It came from a particularly annoying customer whom you cannot please.  Cannot may even be an understatement.  You have done everything short of moving heaven and earth and yet he is unhappy.    The sun is hot, he says.  My cat is meowing, he cries.  The grass is greener on the other side, he complains.  And the ultimate: I am disappointed. What you have done is below my standards.  You cannot please me.  Why can’t you please me?  I don’t think you ever will.

You jump and have jumped at every bark of that voice, adjusted things a little, bent over backwards, overdelivered, allowed yourself to lose a little dignity, for nothing.  Your nerves still get frazzled every time he calls or he emails (and he calls and emails to make sure you know about his unhappiness).

So what do you do?

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Posted in: Financial Education, The Basics of Finance

Disaster Preparedness: Why You Have to Be Prepared

July 20 12:30 am ,

[bubblecast id=302798 thumbnail=475×375 player=475×375]

Two years ago, many people witnessed on television a family of 5 sitting on top of a floating roof.

A wave came, and only one family member remained.  But it was not a film or a teleserye everyone was watching, but real life, and Ondoy (Ketsana). It was then that everyone realized that during extreme weather conditions – which are happening more and more frequently (super typhoons, earthquakes – one that spawned the recent tsunami in Japan) – no one is safe.  Unless people are prepared.

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Posted in: Advocacies, Rescue72 Disaster Preparedness , Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , ,

The Book Hubby Could Not Put Down

July 10 12:04 am ,

Are you -Able?

Are you - Able?

Hubby likes men’s magazines and comic books and art books and Sun Tzu.  And that is perhaps the entire repertoire of stuff that he reads.

So it was a surprise to me when he picked up my book -Able, one of the books sent to me for review (one of the more wonderful perks of being a blogger) and surprise, surprise – hubby could not put it down.

What’s to love: the lessons are bite-size, easy to remember, relevant, easy to apply.

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Posted in: Advocacies, Book Review, Financial Education, Mentors , Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

What Many Entrepreneurs Do Not Know (or Realize)

June 26 11:01 am ,

 

Without the Pomp and Circumstance

Without the Pomp and Circumstance

In making the ad that sells, it is not about you, or your product, or your company.

Yes, branding is okay.  Being perceived as the expert, as trustworthy, is okay.

Having a great product is okay – even great.

But before all the smoke and mirrors, before the hype about your product and its features and its details and what sets it apart from everything else – you have to zero in on what is important, zero in on the hero in the story.

The customers.

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Posted in: Financial Education , Tagged: , , , , , , , , ,

A Matter of Time

June 17 10:27 am ,
Touch Down and then Take Flight

Touch Down and then Take Flight

Everyone is obsessed with time.

It is both a cross and deliverance.  It flies and drags.  But like an illusion, it does not exist.  There is only now.

But what do you do with your time?

Like everyone else, you are probably not very good with it.  You probably spend at least 2 hours of your everyday on reading your email (and clicking links), 2 hours for television or gaming, 4 hours on driving, 8 hours on sleeping and 8 hours on figuring out what to do and what happened to your day. 

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Posted in: Financial Education, Time Management , Tagged: , , , , , , , , ,

Nothing Goes In Until Something Comes Out

June 10 9:27 pm ,

 

Creating Order

Creating Order

 

You have a mission.

You look at your closet and then in it – really look – and you cannot fight the overwhelming feeling that there is just too much that you have allowed yourself to accumulate.  Yes, it is a testament to how much money you have had and spent, of the good life that you are trying to craft for yourself and your family.  But why is it making your head ache?  You heave a sigh, barely manage to control a cringe, and start – but you do not know how and where to begin.  You do not even know what your mission is.

Is it just to put things in order?  Once again?  Until you carelessly pull out an old shirt and the clumsy movement wreaks havoc to other perfectly laid clothes.  And then another bad, harried, hurried day comes and your closet is once again in shambles.

Is it to look for things to be given away?  But that dress cannot go.  You wore it in one of your anniversary celebrations and he said you looked stunning in it.  Cannot give those knee high boots away too, they are just way too expensive.  Or that sweater, because it was a gift from your boss (what if he asks about it?).  Or that blouse, because it still looks kind of pretty.  Or that shirt, because you got it on sale and just have not had the opportunity to wear it.  Right?

Stop.

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Posted in: Life Stories, Minimalism, Random Thoughts , Tagged: , , , , , , , ,