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The first step of the quest for a million pesos is “how to earn 1 peso?” because without that 1 peso you can never create that 1 million. Our task is to create 1Million starting from ZERO following the rules of engagement.
It was a Sunday morning and the race to a million has begun. We went outside the building and it was like a ghost town in the back streets of Makati. Because it was a Sunday plus the fact that Manny Pacquiao’s fight was being televised, naturally there were very few people walking in the streets and that equates to fewer opportunities (or so we thought). We went on our separate ways and I met 2 very nice ladies who I asked for 1 peso. Naturally they were curious as to why I needed 1 peso and I told them the truth. “Ma’am I need your 1 peso to create my 1Million.” “Hahahaha!!” is the answer that I would have gotten if I told them that. So this is what I said “I need to ask people for 1 peso for this activity in our seminar.” which is also the truth. And they gladly gave me 2 pesos.
Sounds easy enough right? But mind you this first step is usually the hardest for most people. We needed to build our confidence and this first step is the beginning for anyone who seeks financial freedom. If we doubt ourselves it shows and others will not believe in you and your capabilities no matter where you go. Being confident doesn’t happen overnight. We should practice it in every single opportunity that is given to us especially for anyone who plans to go on business.
Hi, I am Kenneth and this is my quest for my 1st million pesos. Just a short intro, I am 25 yrs old and an entrepreneur in my heart and soul. I graduated from Ateneo de Manila University with a Bachelor’s Degree in Interdisciplinary Studies (no… we do not major in discipline.) and after graduation I immediately worked for a very well known snack food manufacturer across Asia (OISHI). I worked for them for almost 3 years and resigned from the company last year to pursue something I strongly feel is the right path for me and that is creating my own business. Join me on my path from zero to a million pesos and I am positive that we will all learn life lessons from this journey.
“-it is not the destination but the journey which is more important.”
The Objective: From 0 to 1MILLION PESOS
How I make this project work is solely on me and on the time i spent on it. Aside from the rules above there is no strict guidelines as to how I make my money or which industry I make it from. So let us begin the journey to a Million pesos.
The bigger money you need, the more complicated it gets. It’s easier to get money when it is small. You can just ask for it, you can offer your services (where they would pay you 5 pesos gladly), or anything simple enough that can be done in a few minutes. However, when you want something bigger, you need to upgrade your offers. Remember the part where I made up a story to sell, in a way you should upgrade your story, too.
Advertise
Using this blog, we got pledges from individuals who agreed to pay us when we post their company and contacts in the blog. So far we are doing well with it and even had to setup interviews about our sponsors’ success stories (they are also millionaires already, so it might be well to learn from them too!). But it became too easy again.
The Cycle
By this time you’ll be seeing the pattern on how your attitude on money works:
1. You do small things for small money.
2. Then it gets boring when you become good at it.
3. Then you look for ways to increase what you get.
4. After you get good results at the increased value, you get bored again.
And the cycle goes on and on until (this is just a conclusion for now) you are satisfied.
Satisfaction
So when should you be satisfied? I think people tend to feel satisfied [about money] when what they make covers their “wanted” lifestyle. But why do people don’t stop wanting money? Because they upgrade their lifestyle whenever paychecks increase. When you get a raise, people tend to think of luxury/expenses first like upgrading their cellphones, installing cable tv, upgrading the tv, a vacation, [type here all the luxuries you want in life], etc. Instead of, and what I’m doing right now, saving it or investing or buying assets (more of the assets in a while). But what you tend to think about when you get a raise, whether it be an expense or asset, will largely fall on what you “think” would satisfy you. People who buy luxuries tend to satisfy themselves when they get them while those who save finds themselves satisfied whenever they have savings (it can also be called delayed gratification). These two different types of people are separated by the type of “thinking” they have on satisfaction, one thinks instant gratification, the other thinks delayed gratification. But if you want to accumulate so much money that is more than your lifestyle (regardless of your thoughts on gratification), I call that “greed”.
Asset and Liabilities
One of Robert Kiyosaki’s discussion on Assets and Liabilities takes us to a different perspective on our spending habits. Normally, people regard assets as things that increases your net worth and liabilities as things that decreases your net worth. Now Kiyosaki doesn’t have any problem with that. The problem lies on the things which we consider assets or liabilities. When you purchase a house, for example, you increase your net worth so that the house is considered an asset. However, paying your mortgage, maintenance of the house, repainting, cleaning, house keeping, all of these are expenses linked to the house you bought. Now Kiyosaki explains that the difference between an asset and liability is that assets put money in your pocket while a liabilities take money out of your pocket. So clearly, even if the house is considered an asset, by Kiyosaki’s definition, it would be considered a liability. I’m not saying you shouldn’t buy a house but you should consider the after-purchase-expenses if your income could support it with your lifestyle.
Back to the Quest
So here I am trying to think of ways to increase money and ideas are just overflowing (by this time, keep pen and paper close by). But the things that are popping out of your head requires something (well, not all, but most of it). It requires you to upgrade your knowledge. Sweeping the floor, running errands, etc. are too easy to deserve more than 5 pesos (it requires a small amount of knowledge). So in order for you to deserve a larger amount of money, you should know more than just sweeping.
Acquiring knowledge
Acquiring knowledge doesn’t need much money (schooling is a different story, don’t argue with me on that), but it takes up so much time. So as you do the same boring things you are doing to increase wealth, you should spend time upgrading your knowledge so that more ideas would come in handy when you need it. Right now, the idea that came across requires both money and knowledge about it, the knowledge I already have (after reading some tutorials on the internet) but the money not yet. So now we continue with the boring things until we get the money…
So how do you make a million? This is a question that many people find very difficult to answer and it is! It’s a question that has been daunting me for years and years and I never got to any single solid answer. An answer that you can apply anywhere and guaranteed to work 100%. Well my friend our quest starts here.
Day One
After attending Tim Bennett of Millionaire Anonymous seminar, we guys gave it a shot. The requirement is “just” to make a million from zero. how you get it is completely up to you. Of course you can’t do any illegal stuff because dirty money is never worth it. Remember the money you took from your parents’ drawer without asking permission? Well, it’s going to bite you back in one way or another. And here’s what happens, when you get a small money that way, you tend to get big money at the same way and I tell you, nobody is going to do business with you (well, i won’t). So the premise is it should be legal, moral and ethical. And you can’t sell anything that you currently own, you can’t ask from your parents, etc. So it will simply be zero to a million.
So where do we start? When you have nothing, you start small. Do you think one peso would be hard to produce? Of course not! (But I will take that back later on as you will read a little bit later). So we start there. But to make things harder a little bit, i made a twist. You see I’ve always believed that money will never be given to you freely, there should be something in exchange for that. So what do I have at this very moment that people will give me one peso for? I’m not really sure so I tried to find out.
The Hard Part
Remember when I said ‘Of course not!’? Well, I’m taking it back… I said to myself, how in the world are you suppose to get a peso from somebody if you don’t look like you need it? I was dressed casually in Makati streets trying to figure out they’d believe me. I found a woman passing by and I told her ‘Miss, can do anything for you just for one peso’? She told me she was busy and have no time for this. So I said ok but in my head i was yelling ‘how can you make this work?! you are on your quest to a million and you have a problem getting a peso?!’, but I said, ‘Ok Hermie let’s try again’. I went pass to a car which has a driver in it and an open window. But right before I was about to ask, something pulled my legs and I went straight passing him and I told myself, ‘this is really embarrassing, why am I doing this? I could easily earn a thousand a day but I’m having problems generating one peso’. But I went anyway (and by then i really felt more stupid because he has seen me almost stop there and walk away) with the same lines and he went, ‘No I don’t have time for that, I’m just waiting for somebody’. I said to myself, ‘ok Hermie, there must be something wrong with how you do it’, by this time i was already sweating because it’s pass 10am and the sun is really killing me. What am i doing wrong? Well, there’s nothing wrong with what I’m doing but there’s probably something wrong in how I present it. People tend to put you away when you don’t have any story. So to make up for it, I invented a story, my story.
What’s Your Story
‘Hello, good morning, I’m Hermie, a psychology student trying to make an experiment on how people value services, what can i do for you in exchange of one peso?’ For the first time, a security guard that i’m talking to thought for a while. I said to myself, ‘what a success, now people are trying to think rather than putting you away’ Then the security guard said, you could’ve brought me medicine but somebody came before you and did it for me, do you know him? ‘Oh my god, somebody else came before me and did the same thing and got the one peso, i must be on the right track!’. So i hurried and went to the next guy I could see across the street.
There where two guys talking and laughing over a conversation so I went in and did the same line (notice that my this time, i wasn’t ashamed because i knew i had a story i could sell). They thought for a while like three minutes and they said, why not give your opinion about the ZTE scandal? (Ok, my answer was completely my opinion and I don’t want it shared here because it’s not in any way going to get us to a million, believe me) So i told my opinion and they gave me 5 pesos. By this time i felt weird, why would somebody pay me for my opinion, for talking crap for 3 mins? The it hit me, editorial pages in the newspaper, showbiz magazines, tabloids, all of these make money just posting their opinion on something… Hmm, I wonder what else can they pay me for.
It Becomes Easy
Second one told me to buy bottled water that was just at their back! I didn’t have move my legs that much, but you see how people use their money? They’ll pay you 4 pesos just because their too lazy to stand up (hmm, what other things are people lazy with?). Third one told me to sweep their area but here they where so embarrassed for letting me sweep the floor. Well, it’s because of how i dress up but the thing is, I was embarrassed to ask for money on the first time, now they are embarrassed to have you do your job. By this time I’m thinking people are really weird. They didn’t want me to finish the other half and just give me the 5 pesos, but i did it anyway because that’s the service you promised to give, and i believe you should give it 100% because it’s the only way to have return customers. Fourth one just gave it as donation, and I accepted it whole-heartedly because I was getting tired for walking.
By this time I had, 16 pesos all in all for 2 hours of work. And i tell you it’s going to get boring. When you passed through the shyness stage, creating small money becomes easy so you eventually want to increase it in a way that doesn’t tire you so much. But what can you do with 16 pesos? you can’t do trade at this moment (you don’t have enough to sell anything worth buying), so I went back to Tim and found my team mates there.
Brainstorming
One of Tim’s stories inspired us where you can get money… Advertisements… Well, where are you going to have people advertise with you with just 16 pesos per person (and Robin had 3 pesos, he never passed through the shy stage by this time). We can’t think of anything free but the Internet… Thus we have this blog.
About This Blog
Well, we thought of, ‘hey, if other people are getting money from this talking crap, why can’t we’? Well, we do not intend to sell crap here, what we sell is our story and our quest to a million pesos, so far (and I’m really hoping), advertisements would come in and fill our humble pockets with cash to get us to the next level.
So what’s the plan after this? That one we will be discussing on our next blog entry…
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