How I Made My First Million…And How You Can Too

I made my first million by the age of 26 from a combination of royalty income (from my first book, ‘I Am Gifted, So Are You!’), business profits (event management, mobile disco and kids training businesses) and investments in property and the stock market.

What I am extremely grateful for is that I was very fortunate to have started at a very young age. After attending a teen-motivational camp at the age of 13, I became super obsessed with being successful and becoming very very rich.

While most kids my age were reading comic books and lifestyle mags, I read books by Donald Trump (he was my childhood idol), Anthony Robbins and Napolean Hill (who wrote think and grow rich). By the age of 16, I began reading more sophisticated books on financial planning, real estate investing, stock market investing, business valuation etc…

It also helped that I grew up in a family where my dad and his three brothers (my uncles) are all multi-millionaires. When you grow up in an environment where it is ‘normal’ to make a few million a year, live in a bungalow with a swimming pool and have a few cars, it shapes your beliefs that becoming rich is actually possible for everybody.

Before you think that I am a lucky rich bastard who inherited a fortune and had all the money to start business and investing, I am proud to tell you that my father gave me NOTHING to start with…except advice and encouragement. See, my father and my uncles all started with nothing (in fact, my father doesn’t even have a degree). And so my father knew the importance of hardship to build character and resilience. Two important traits to build sustainable wealth. He knew that the best way to kill my hunger and fighting spirit was to give me a cushy life when I was young.

So, he did the opposite of what most parents did. Instead of making me happy by giving me what I wanted. He gave me less money than most of my friends (from average income families). He refused to buy me a pager (in the old days, no handophone) or computer games when I asked for them. His motto was, ‘I don’t owe you anything. If you want something, go earn it yourself’. And so, I was one of those kids who worked during my school holidays. I worked as a waiter, as a salesman (selling stationary door to door), a technician, a DJ for a mobile disco company and later,  a tuition teacher and even a part time emcee-cum magician (yes, magic was a hobby of mine).

Although I cursed and swore at the time, I now realize that I learnt more about business, money and success from all that part-time work than I did studying in school. The combination of all these experiences, ideas and advice drove me to start my first business (a mobile disco) at the age of 15. I started my second business (a training company that focused on study skills) at the age of 21 and wrote my first book at the age of 24. However my wealth really started growing exponentially when I started investing.

I started investing in stocks at the age of 15 (through my mum’s account) and bought my first apartment at the age of 22 (and rented it out). I made lots and lots of mistakes in the stock market initially because I did not know what I was doing (like most people, I was buying by blindly following ‘hot tips’ and other’s advice). Luckily, when I made all these mistakes, I did not have that much money to lose.

After a couple of years of learning from my mistakes, reading lots of investing books and applying what I learnt through trial and error, I finally learnt the RIGHT way of making consistent profits in the stock market. That final piece of the puzzle was what allowed me to grow my wealth exponentially to what it is today. The most important thing I learnt throughout this journey was that the most important investment I ever made was in myself.

When I spent thousands of my hard earned on books, seminars and hours getting advice from mentors etc.., many of my friends laughed and criticized me. Many of them found it made more sense to spend their dollars on upgrading their cars and handphones. Looking back, the money I spent was the greatest investment I ever made. I remember buying a book called ‘Buffettology- Warren Buffett’s investing secrets’ for about $30+ years ago. The ideas from that book allowed me not only to stop losing money, it gave me the insights to make a few million dollars in the stock market for the last few years. So, what is $6 million from a $30 investment? It’s huge isn’t it?

Since then, I have been very passionate about wanting to share my ideas and strategies with people from all over the world through my BLOGs, books and seminars. I believe that if I could achieve my financial dreams, then anyone can. They just need to have the same opportunity to learn like I have. I am so grateful to all the mentors that have taught me the right way all these years and I feel the need to pass on this knowledge. I think everyone deserves this chance to learn.