Two Years of My Life – Part 10: Drilling the mindset

How did I even stay in this place for two years?

Maybe some things that Director Rath taught to us might make more sense to you.

• “Remember that MLM is a way of life. You must live, and breathe MLM, in order to succeed in it. You must not let any opposition or criticism get in your way. There will definitely be people who are negative about it. George Bush won the presidential election with 51% of the vote (note: he did not, but this was used more as an anecdote than scientific evidence). This means that 49% of the people are against him. If you want to succeed in MLM, you have to be prepared to have 49% of the people against you.”
• “The mindset is the most important thing for you to succeed. Without the why, even if you have the how, you won’t be able to succeed. Like what T. Harv Eker says, without the toolbox, there is no use even if you have the tools.”
• “As long as you listen fully, and execute what the system states perfectly, you will succeed in this business. It doesn’t take intelligence. It takes conformity. That is why it is so much easier to succeed in this rather than a business somewhere else.”

Welcome to the mindset of multi-level marketing.

• You didn’t need to think in this business – in fact, MLMs would probably be the most realistic experiment of penalizing people who think. In a system where conformity is the norm and breaking away is a devilish act, people think they’re succeeding when they’re actually stagnating.
• You lie. A lot. And the worst part is, you start justifying to yourself. I know for myself I started to think like this:

I was part of a very special movement, a movement where everybody was working feverishly towards their goal; there was no one else who was willing to sacrifice all their leisure time to succeed. Yet, MLM is a much-maligned system that I was out to defend. I was like a warrior. And if a warrior has to lie about his “business” when it actually means MLM, so be it. And when I lie, I tell myself that I’m not really lying, but just phrasing things “in a different way”.

Reflecting on all this makes me feel thoroughly guilty about myself. I was part of a group of people who were working towards a goal – to make the person on top of the pyramid rich, but pretending that we were getting closer, every day, to becoming a millionaire.

Two Years of My Life – Part 9: The basics and the twists

The two weeks that passed from the moment I decided to join and the moment I was officially IN MLM are intensely private moments. In short, I raised a five-figure sum in Singaporean dollars, and became officially accepted in the hierarchy.

My rank – the Colleague rank – was just below the Manager, who was below the Director. Here was how the system worked:

You’ve raised a five-figure sum to become a Colleague. This may be the best choice you’ve ever made in your life. Now, what you have to do is to promote this business to people. Remember, you’re not trying to peddle products, you are looking for business partners. People willing to share in your vision for financial freedom.

Once you’ve got 5 business partners all registered as Colleagues under you, you will gain a 15% commission from them for joining, and you’ll be able to challenge for Managership.

If your network manages to grow by 10 Colleagues’ worth of initial investment, congratulations, you are now a Manager!

We will follow the 1-2-3 system – the first month, you look to get just one business partner. Once you have a Colleague in your network, you’ll have the confidence to have 2 more people under you. Then, you can build on that to have 3 more Colleagues in your subsequent month. Within 3 months, we expect you to challenge.

Remember, this is not a get-rich-quick scheme. We don’t expect you to make money within the first month. You need to put in effort if you want to succeed.

I think I understood all of that. I was eagerly anticipating my next move. I’d done up the name list of all the contacts that I had – which meant literally everybody that I knew, from girls I used to have crushes on, business partners, and aunts I only met once a year.

I’d even done up the work plan – who I planned to contact this month, and who I expected would join the business along with me. I was ready. Or, I thought I was.

The twist

My upline, Bee pulled me aside one day after meeting Director Rath.

“Do you want to succeed in this business?” I would soon realize that this is one of the questions used ad nauseam in MLM. Obviously, I said yes.

He asked me to drop all the commitments I had up till then, except the MLM.

“If you really want to succeed,” he said, “You need to be focused.” Right now, he said, I had way too many things on my plate to make it. The schedule currently read like this:

Mon	Tues	Wed	Thurs	Fri	Sat	Sun
7.30am-5.30pm: Work	7.30am-5.30pm: Work	7.30am-5.30pm: Work	7.30am-5.30pm: Work	7.30am-5.30pm: Work	10am – 7pm: Cashflow Workshop	1pm-10pm: Home Party*
7pm – 9.30pm: Japanese lessons	7pm – 9pm: Tuition	6pm – 11pm: Cashflow Workshop	7pm – 10pm: Opportunity and Product Presentation	7pm – 11pm: Discussion with Director Rath	8pm – 12am: Discussion with Director Rath

• Scouts: My longstanding commitment with the Boy Scout unit in my school would be one of the first things to go. This is one of the things that I regret immensely. I didn’t know the impact of what I did until I rejoined the unit last year. You just can’t leave the unit and expect the dynamics of the unit to remain the same. I think my good friend and fellow Scout leader Alaric has done an excellent job by staying, although I am struggling to make a comeback as a leader right now.
• Leadership workshops business: This is another commitment that I removed myself from with a lot of disappointment and regret. I believed a lot in improving the education of children, and while I wasn’t the best teacher, I was passionate about it and wanted to do my best in it. Unfortunately, I gave the wrong thing up – Kenny has taken some of my ideas and combined them with some of his own to create an influential presence in Singapore schools.
• Japanese lessons: I’d learnt Japanese before, and given it up in secondary school – hence I told myself this time that I wasn’t going to give up, ever. Weeks earlier, I even told a classmate who was planning to quit not to do so, because he would probably regret it later. Ironically, I ended up quitting earlier than him, citing other commitments.
• Scholarships. I told myself that I wouldn’t attempt to pursue other scholarships, that MLM was the best chance I had at making money and securing the financial freedom that I wanted. Because of this, I gave up on many of the opportunities that were offered to me.

I dropped all these commitments almost immediately after Bee told me to (on hindsight, it probably wasn’t him who wanted it – it was Director Rath, whom I’ll talk about in another post). It was a test of commitment, and I wasn’t going to let Director Rath down, whom I now trusted as a father figure, somebody who was truly successful. Nope, I was going to make it this time, and in my mind I told myself I was willing to go through everything just to succeed.

I was beginning to change.

Two Years of My Life – Part 8

How I joined remains particularly strange to me every time I thought about it. The only reason that seems to sound credible is that I was desperate to prove myself. I was in a family where my father had achieved a respectable level of success that I, at the age of 19 with little experience in the real world, wanted to emulate. I was at a period in time where I thought I was invincible.

Most of these things are now like fragments in my memory, and as such I present them as little “blurbs” rather than a more coherent story.

**

After that first meeting, I began my series of long correspondences – call it apprenticeship if you will – with Director Rath. He did seem like a very humble man. And, of course, with every humble man that made it to the pinnacle of success, he had a story to tell.

“I didn’t really do well in school,” Director Rath told me. “But I did well enough to get myself a diploma in engineering, and like most of the teenage guys at the time I was hoping to get myself excused from National Service.

“I didn’t manage to, however, and I then narrowly missed out to become an officer. So, there I was, sent to become a sergeant.”

A sergeant’s life was supposed to be all right – until the last three months of his army, when Rath was sent by the officer-in-command for his camp to go beyond his call of duty and attend the Ranger course.

At that point in time, no sergeant ever attended the Ranger course, not especially a soldier on the verge of ORD.

He had a culture shock on the first day of attending the course, when he saw that someone’s bed was thrown out of the bunk, from the third floor. He said that made him realise how serious the course was about.

While he didn’t have the respect of the commanders at first, an incident made them change their minds. The officer in command for the course had given him an impossible task to complete – yet, despite the challenge, Rath chose to follow the officer’s orders rather than give up. During the mission he had to walk through a swamp that no other officer would ever have dared to. He became one of the few sergeants to pass a course that not many other soldiers from his vocation would have done.

“That built me. Army was a major influence on the person I am today,” He told me quite a number of times.

**

“You must find the reason you want to succeed in this business,” Rath told me for the umpteenth time.

It was probably several meetings after that – I was already coming in to the “Entrepreneurship Centre” (or, in Chinese, 会场 – HC) every day to “explore the business”, in their terminology. These meetings were like attempts to “tune” my mindset to the right operating mindset. Without the right mindset, the directors often told me, it would be impossible to succeed.

“I do want to succeed,” I said. I was rather tired, but I did want to succeed, so I told him. “I am just worried about my other commitments.”

“What other commitments do you have?”

“I’m currently taking Japanese lessons. They’re held every Monday, until 9.30pm. And I am currently a Scout leader and am supposed to be involved with the troop and the responsibilities. Also, I’m giving tuition to two students and pursuing a scholarship. I also have my own business outside that I’m doing with a group of friends…”

Rath nodded. He stared at you when you talked to him sometimes, while at other times he looked down, his fingers criss-crossed, while the golden Buddha statue that he placed on the altar in his office gave off the smell of sandalwood. From my conversations with the other associates in the HC, Rath always had an answer. He was a saint-like figure in the network, the founder and the soul of the business.

“Well, Owen,” He said, “You will have to think of what is really important to you. What are the things that can bring you closer to your goal? What are the things that will bring you further from it?

“But, Owen,” he continued, “Remember that this business does not demand all of the time that you have. It is not an S-quadrant business*. You are your own business leader now. Plan your own time. Think about it.”

**

“Let me talk to you about the marketing and compensation plan.”

Sure, we’ve talked enough about all the mindset stuff. Now, it seemed like I was ready to succeed. I was ready to join the team of very able associates that I can stick with through thick and thin. I was ready for the techniques.

The 80/20 rule – this was continually emphasised in the Cashflow workshops that I attended. Pareto couldn’t have been more proud of the way the presentation was conducted. 20% of the population hold 80% of the wealth. 20% was about the technique to success, while 80% was about the mindset. So, I was done with the tuning of the mindset. Now came the technique, the marketing and compensation plans, that could bring me to success.

The mystery of Celergen

You will need to read my previous posts to know why I am so interested in writing about particular health products in the market that you haven’t really heard about but are purported to be excellent for you. In any case, as with any article that you read on the Internet, read this post with a pinch of salt and a lot of research.

I’ve been out of MLM for close to a year now. There were some things that I had so much faith in that I had never doubted their capabilities. One of these things was, of course, the nature and the capability of the products that I used to sell. I had never doubted in the ability to restore health to all the people around me. I felt close to being a saint when I gave those products away for free. I had so much faith in TCM essential oils that I used them on my brother, who had acute stomach pain, and I thought he’d get better. 12 hours later, he ended up on the hospital bed, awaiting surgery for severe appendicitis*.

Despite that, my faith in the products were never shaken. One year on, however, I decided to do what I’d call an “itchy-hand” investigation on the latest product that had been circling around through emailers from the company that I used to be with: Celergen.

I found the following on the website about Celergen:

Researched and developed by prestigious Swiss, French and German Anti-Aging Experts, Cell Therapists, gerontologists, biotech chemists, scientists and pharmaceutical professionals, CELERGEN is a powerful, multi-faceted cell therapy treatment system that helps intercept and prevent, repair and maintain, rebuild and rehabilitate your body irrespective of your age.

There have been loads of testimonials on Celergen on its website: Benefits include alleviating one’s depression, quick recuperation from strenuous activities, alleviating back pain, increasing sexual satisfaction etc.

Celergen’s ingredients include BioDNA Cellular Marine Complex (unable to find on Wikipedia), Peptide E Collagen – which is a high-elastin collagen that is supposed to help reinforce skin texture and elasticity, and Hydro MN Peptide. According to the Celergen website, it reduces conversion of carbohydrates to fats by 37%, and also helps in improving the biodynamics of the body.

I just thought that this must be a heck of a wonderful supplement (I initially thought it was a drug, but the corporate video stated that it’s actually an enteric coated supplement). Think about it, it sounds absolutely brilliant. And what sounds good is that it’s been rigorously tested and certified:

Celergen is an extensively certified anti aging supplement with full conformity to international stringent standards of current Good Manufacturing Practice, Organic Farming and Non-GMO (Genetically Modified Organisms) compliance, European certifications and Total Environmental Free Quality Management.

It is clinically tested by Bio-HC, one of Europe’s largest and most sophisticated Clinical Test Research Centres in Pessac, France under Good Laboratories Practice conditions. Bio-HC comprises professionals which include physicians, Pharmacists, dermatologists, allergologists, biochemists and bacteriologists.

The website of Bio-HC is a relatively simple one. The laboratory analyses a range of different health supplements and methods and determines if they are safe enough to end up in the market. Interestingly, however, there are no supplements that are listed on the website. That isn’t really important as long as we know the process by which the supplement was made, which you can find from the official Celergen website:

The science of cell therapy is not a recent phenomenon. In the Eber papyrus of medicine written in 1600 B.C., the Egyptians recommended the injection of animal organs to improve human vitality. – Somehow, I have my doubts about that. But anyway, I just continued reading:

At the end of the 19th century, Paris physiologist Brown Sequard also pronounced the potent effects of cellular therapy when he experienced a significant increase in virility through an injection of cellular extracts from the testicles of a bull. In the late 19th century, remarkable research on Cell Therapy by the French Novel (sic) laureate Dr. Alexis Carrel not only stunned the medical world but had a profound effect on Professor Dr. Paul von Niehans, a world renowned Swiss surgeon.

I highlighted these three characters because they are supposed to be the pioneers of Celergen. A simple search on Wikipedia, however, seems to suggest that not only do they not support Celergen, but their studies did not really suggest that cell therapy was effective.

Brown Sequard is really Charles-Édouard Brown-Séquard, a Mauritian-born physiologist. In his extreme old age, he advocated the hypodermic injection of a fluid prepared from the testicles of guinea pigs and dogs, as a means of prolonging human life. It was known, among scientists, derisively, as the Brown-Séquard Elixir. - Well, I really don’t know if this actually works, the Brown-Sequard Elixir. Even so, injecting testicular fluids into the human body MIGHT only prolong human life in the sense that it contains testosterone, nothing more. I’ll update this page when I do a Google search.

Dr. Alexis Carrel was indeed a Nobel laureate: His work on cellular senescence (aging), however, did not really “stun” the world as mentioned inside the facts given on the website. Carrel believed that the cells could grow indefinitely with proper nutrition and proceeded to demonstrate using chicken cells that they could grow indefinitely (and, interestingly, he did prove it; unfortunately, no other scientist has been able to conclusively demonstrate this procedure). However, two other scientists (Hayflick and Moorhead) proved that this wasn’t possible. Their conclusion – that cells have a limited number of divisions before they die – is now called the Hayflick limit. Today scientists conclude that Carrel’s study could most likely have been confounded by other substances inside the test tube without his knowledge.

That brings me to the last of the three “famous” scientists: Dr. Paul von Niehans. Interestingly, I couldn’t find von Niehans inside the English version of Wikipedia. I delved further into Google (ah, the wonders of Google for a cynic), and I found this – translated into English:

Paul Niehans (November 21 1882 in Bern, † September 1st 1971 in Montreux) was a Swiss physician. He is the inventor of the live cell (life cell therapy or cell therapy).

Niehans conducted in 1931, the process of live cell as cellular therapy book. Suspensions of fetal cells from sheep are injected while the patient. It is a non-surgical form of xenotransplantation in humans, which today has only a minor role.

Read the last paragraph carefully: Xenotransplantation means the usage of animal cells, tissues or organs to transplant into a human body. The procedure has involved many ethical and medical issues. Of course, xenotransplantation now appears to become more and more feasible with the advance in technology: you are now able to “trick” a pig organ, for instance, to behave like a human organ in a body. But questions have been raised about whether an animal organ can live as long as a human one.

So where in the world did Celergen even get those wonderful testimonials of its supposedly groundbreaking research? Unless Bio-HC comes out with something spectacular to counter my argument, I find it doubtful that Celergen is trustworthy enough to observe any sort of usefulness – beyond the placebo effect, of course.

P.S. I am not implying that Celergen does not work. I am only talking about the inconsistency of the historical background of cell therapy that they’ve placed on their website. In any case, do your own research before consulting with anybody, even if the person is a trusted friend, when he or she is selling you a particular product.

*I am also not implying a causation: my brother, obviously, did not contract appendicitis because of the essential oil. But he might have had a less painful experience if we had sent him to the hospital earlier rather than relying blindly on the oils instead.

Two Years of My Life – Part VII

Suddenly, I realize that since I decided to come clean about the two years that I spent in MLM, that it is now easier to talk about this to my friends, and sometimes even have a good laugh about it.

It’s made me recover a bit of my confidence back.

**

The definitive part of MLM is, almost certainly, the continual discussion of your “dreams” – that is, your aspirations. And that was something that was also definitive of naive 19-year-olds like myself, I think: the mistaken assumption that just because I was awaiting entrance into university, that I already had the required ability to make a living for myself in the outside world. I came from a family where my father had managed to climb out from losing his job to become relatively successful, and I naturally thought that setting up a business would be easy.

When I went back to the dilapidated building where the Cashflow workshop was held (you should by now naturally assume that Deem was always by my side during any meeting), Jingle was there once again, the young lady who had spoken to me during the badminton tournament. This time, she was dressed in a blazer, and had a pin (they call it the “Manager’s Pin”, where you will only qualify after making it to the ranking of Manager). So, Manager Jingle (that’s what Deem introduced her to me, anyway – I realized that the people whom I spoke to were all the successful Managers, except that prior to my going for the presentation they had never introduced them as Managers) sat me down at one of the tables and began to talk to me.

She was studying Engineering in NTU, and it was during her university years (I think – it’s been a long time so I can’t exactly remember if it was during or before her university) that her father suffered an accident and had to go for an operation. She now had to pay for her own school fees and expenses, because her father was no longer able to work. Manager Jingle became a different person – a driven person, trying to make more money to support the family. Then, she joined an insurance company as an agent and made a decent amount of money (from what she claimed, she regularly made $5,000-$6,000 a month). Like me, she said, she was skeptical of MLM before she joined, and took one year to join it. Yet eventually she did, when she realized that “she looked at the ROI”, and understood the importance of having the ability to make the money in the long run.

“You don’t want to be the people who only look short-term when it comes to investment,” That was her parting words to me.

After Jingle left, Deem moved from sitting beside me to face me directly. He then asked me how I felt about the entire talk. I admitted that it made sense, and was willing to listen to more about what exactly this business encompassed. He then told me – this would be repeated ad nauseam in later conversations with everyone else inside MLM – that it wasn’t about how the business operated that was important, but rather the why. Why was it that you wanted to join this business?

I told him that I had dreams, and then he took out his clipboard and said, “Very well. Why don’t you write them down?”

He passed me the clipboard, then left somewhere. I looked at the clipboard and I thought to myself that this was oddly familiar. When I was teaching in my educational workshops that I conducted, I was telling children to write down their dreams. Over here, the roles were reversed – Deem was now the person telling me to write down my dreams. The irony didn’t stop me from creating a concept map of all the dreams that I had, though.

I’ll share them with you, and you can probably look at them and say “Wow. You’re nuts.”

• Contribute to Singapore – Think up of strategies (or be part of the process) in making Singapore the most exciting place to come
• Set up an educational business for children – Doing something that MindChamps is currently doing (but with a fresh perspective of things, of course)
• Become a bestselling author – Damn, I’ve always wanted to write my own biography, maybe my “success story” to empower people to realize their dreams!
• Pay for my own university education – Initially, I thought this could be done if I manage to get my scholarship, but things were to change…
• Retire at the age of 35 – Sounded damn cool to me. While people were at their prime of their working careers, I would already have reached the pinnacle, and retired comfortably.

Deep down, I really didn’t want to depend on my family for financial support anymore. I felt as though I was sponging on my parents, who had spoilt me since I was young, and I really wanted to make some money on my own so I didn’t have to.

Multi-level marketing, at that point in time at least, presented a golden opportunity for me to make the money that I wanted to be independent. Looking back, I realize it wasn’t really the money I wanted, but the need to “be my own man” and not be influenced by my family was the important thing for me. And that made me vulnerable.

Writing down all my dreams, I passed them to Deem, and I was quite sure that his eyeballs bulged a little when he looked at the sheer audacity of the dreams that I had. He didn’t say much, but then told me to watch a video.

It was a video of MLM called Brilliant Compensation – and it was about how the MLM system was the fairest of them all. They raise out some “typical” objections that people have prior to their joining MLM, and rebutted those objections. (I’ll talk more about Brilliant Compensation in my next entry.)

The video “corrected” my perspective of MLM and made it seem like it really was not a bad system to join. I began to think of the possibilities. If I had a network of 1,000 associates under me, I could make a heck of a lot of money if I got just $5 from them every month…

“Owen, I think it’s time to go.” I stirred from my daydream – night, to be more precise, since MLM meetings are rarely held in the day – and packed my stuff. “There’s someone I’d like you to meet.”

At the entrance, a tall, well-built man who looked like he was in his 30s was standing. He was wearing a black Nike jacket and had his hands in its pockets.

“Owen, this is Director Rath,” Deem spoke enthusiastically, almost unnaturally. “He is the Director of our entrepreneurship centre, and the leader of our entire network here.”

Prior to meeting Rath, of course, I had already been given a piece of the man’s success – in almost every meeting, Deem had spoke of the founder of the entrepreneurship centre and how inspiring this man was, and that he had businesses all across the region and the black Mercedes that was parked outside the centre belonged to him. After my discovery that the place was actually an MLM, Deem updated the history a little – he was the leader of a network spanning across to Myanmar, Malaysia and China. But now that he was such a “successful entrepreneur, he wants to step down and help others to become successful as well”. A millionaire, and a mentor to many. “He makes a five-figure sum from Vie every month – and that figure does not start with 1 or 2,” Deem said (but not in the presence of Rath, of course).

I shook hands with Rath. He commended my desire in wanting to find out more about the business, and hoped that I could really have an open mind and see for myself what the business is all about before accepting or rejecting it. After the short exchange of words, he raised out his hand as though he was holding on to an invisible trumpet, which I was supposed to mimic. We then clasped our hands together.

“It’s our culture,” said Rath. “In every organisation, you know there’s a culture. And it’s the same over here for us. Most importantly, have an empty cup mindset…”

Somehow, those words sounded so familiar that I had this strange feeling they were reading off a tape recorder. But the positive vibes of the place left me with a good feeling. Everyone here was in the pursuit of their “dreams”, without the apathy or the already given-up feeling that most of my peers had. Subconsciously, I had already given this business a chance, and it was the next few meetings that would seal the deal for me.

Two Years of My Life – Part VI

After a little hiatus in writing, I decided that perhaps I should just continue during Econometrics class (though I think I’m letting my professor down, he’s darn good).

I went back to work. At that point in time I was still serving my National Service – in my second year – and I considered myself quite a good-performing clerk. No, honestly. I had done a couple of pretty decent projects (that my eventual understudy, who was a diploma graduate in IT had me know, could have reaped me a neat profit had I done it for any external organization). I was one of those people who always sought improvement for anything that I thought wasn’t performing good enough.

Joining MLM, however, would be the turning point of my NS career. At this point I’d like to acknowledge how patient my superiors and colleagues were towards my performance (even though I knew that it had significantly dipped in the second year, and not entirely due to what most of my colleagues would call the infamous ‘ORD mood’).

A few months ago, my friend had asked me if I knew anything about multi-level marketing. I told him that “Well, you really have to consider carefully before joining MLM. I mean, sure, you can definitely make a lot of money, but you’ve first got to put in a lot of effort – and it’s going to take up a lot of your time”.

He didn’t join in the end. I did.

Back in the office, people were listening intently to what I had to say about the presentation and how I was hoodwinked into everything. We were laughing over it, to be honest. Some of us had had experience with people in MLM and had advised me to stay clear of all their meetings afterward.

I told them, no. I wanted to find out what their story was – and, I convinced myself happily, there wouldn’t be any harm listening to them since I was always in control, wasn’t I? After all, I was going to be the one to sign on the dotted line.

To be continued. (Apologies, I know it’s too short to actually be considered a post.)

Two Years of My Life – Part V

It’s been quite tough for me to hide about doing multi-level marketing to the people around me, because of the many objections that I faced. It gets harder to write as I continue telling the story of my journey.

The talk

This was the first of the series of MLM presentations that I attended. Vie’s* presentation (*Note: Vie is not the real name of the company) was something like the Saturday variety shows that Chen Shucheng hosted on Channel 8 – there was a lucky draw at the beginning for guests to win prizes: products made by Vie which should have cost you a bomb should you have chosen to purchase it off the counter. They threw a huge soft toy all about the room, which was filled from the front row all the way to the back with people dressed in black suits.

At first, Deem brought me to sit down just beside a few people who were just as smartly dressed as he was and introduced me to them. They really didn’t need much introduction – I had known them all from playing the badminton tournament a month earlier, and they had all attended the Cashflow workshop at some point. Or, perhaps, they were the organizers. Most of them told me to keep an open mind and really put away all the preconceived notions that I may have had of network marketing up to that point. Deem also told me that it was important to differentiate between network marketing and multi-level marketing. (Now, however, having done more research, I realize that there really isn’t a difference between NM and MLM – the only distinction is in the name that you give it.)

A voice suddenly blasted from the speakers inside the room – which smelt of a very strong flowery smell. I would recognize later that it was a mix of eucalyptus and rose, emanating from the aromatherapy diffusers strategically placed all over the room.

“Ladies and gentlemen, presenting to you your emcee for tonight, Mr. Oh!”

Mr. Oh, of course, was none other than the Gamemaster for the first Cashflow workshop that I attended. As he ran up on stage a loud, grand entrance music played and he ran up on stage and shouted, “Dear associates!”

“YO!” Came the reply from the suit-wearing audience.

“How are you feeling this morning?” Oh shouted again.

“Good, very good, YES!” The audience replied, but this time with an elaborate arm-rolling action which was synchronized with their replies.

(It’s been a while since I was in MLM – I can’t really remember the entire repertoire of the cheers and songs and dances that we used to do, but I’ll just post what I do remember. None of this was dreamed up – it actually happened.)

“My name is Oh!”

“Oh, Oh, 你是最棒的 (ni3 shi4 zui4 bang4 de4 – Chinese for “You are the best”)!” The reply came from the audience, with another elaborate clap that was synchronized with the reply.

“Yes, I am the best, because every one of us here is the best!” To this there was another rapturous round of applause from the seated audience, which the guests – clearly distinguishable with their lack of “proper” dressing – politely clapped together.

He then told a joke to crack the audience up – Oh was actually quite a good storyteller (this is not on hindsight – I seriously thought he does have some fantastic speaking ability) – and after which he told us the moral of the story, which was to “seize the opportunity whenever it’s present”.

“After all, you never know when the next opportunity will arise,” he said.

He then spoke about this very special mentor that he had. I was already prepared for the introduction – Deem had given me a very detailed introduction (which is, in MLM circles, called a “tee-up” – I’ll explain in another entry) about the speaker for tonight. He had graduated from a local university with an engineering degree (“With honours,” he also added), and could have chosen to take over his family business if he could. Yet, he took the “path less chosen” and joined Vie as an associate just four or five years ago. Now, he said, he was one of the youngest amongst the high-ranking associates in the company. He is already a millionaire and has hundreds of associates under his network.

“And he is a truly dynamic speaker,” Deem said. I could hardly wait, I thought.

But to be honest, I wasn’t that impressed with the way Mr. Huay, the “dynamic speaker” spoke – he raised his eyebrows and swallowed at strange moments – and his eyes narrowed whenever he swallowed, giving a choked expression every few minutes, and made me rather uncomfortable.

I did try to listen to what he had to say though – after all, he was a millionaire, and I wasn’t – and he spoke about the emerging trend that aromatherapy had compared with the other types of markets. “It is up to you,” he concluded, “If you want to seize on this opportunity that is presented to you.” He went off the stage to a great round of applause from that suit-wearing audience once more (everyone standing up, mind you), while Oh went up and reminded us of the “opportunity” that awaits us.

“Remember – in life, there are three life-changing opportunities. The thing is, you don’t know if the opportunity that you face now is the first one, or the last.”

After the talk

Deem didn’t really tell me where I was going – except that I was going to be hitching a ride in one of the associates’ cars somewhere. It turned out that his Corolla Altis parked at the carpark just opposite the food centre that we had eaten just that evening.

We sat down, where the entire food centre was now filled with blazer-clad ladies and gentlemen ordering beancurd and grass jelly drinks. It would have been quite an incredible sight for me if I wasn’t thinking about what in the world just happened in the past few hours – dinner seemed a long time ago and I wanted to just get the hell out of there. The associate with the Corolla Altis – let’s just call him Berto – ordered beancurd and drinks for us, while Deem had lighted up his aromatherapy diffuser and put it just between where both of us were seating facing each other. It was giving off a strong fragrant scent (which I eventually learned to be sandalwood – the scent is good for concentration).

“How did you find the talk?” I tink Deem had asked me that for the nth time that evening and I said I had a few questions which someone could help me answer.

Just at that moment, someone tall and familiar in a black suit walked over. I recognized who that was immediately – it was Mr. Ay, the first table leader for the Cashflow workshop that I had. He put a hand on Deem’s shoulder and asked, “Hi Deem, how is everything going?”

At this point Deem almost jumped up from the table to shake Mr. Ay’s hand. I was convinced that he only just stopped short of kissing his hand by a fraction, with the enthusiasm that he showed. “Owen, let me introduce Mr. Ay to you. He is one of the higher-ranking associates in the company and also one of the unnamed shareholders. Mr. Ay, do you…?”

“Yes, Owen,” He said and smiled. “I remember you.” Deem ushered Mr. Ay to his seat, while he sat at the side.

“Okay, Owen, how did you find the talk just now?” He asked. “Do you have any questions that you want to ask?”

I noticed a gleaming silver brooch attached to his blazer. Deem later explained that only the Managers, the mid-ranking shareholder associates, would be given this brooch to differentiate themselves from the rest of the lower-ranking ones.

“I have three,” I said. “First, isn’t MLM all a scam? I have heard of other companies before and all of them had sounded very suspicious to me. Second, how do you make money from this if it isn’t a scam? And third, how much money do you have to put into this to make this work?”

At my questions, Mr. Ay nodded and acknowledged them with an “Mm-hmm.”

How my objections were cleared

1. MLM was a scam.

“What are the companies that you have heard about?”

“NTI Paris, Amway, Sunshine Empire…”

“What made it uncomfortable?”

“They didn’t have a product, kept forcing me to sign so they could quickly start to ‘recruit’ people into the cause…”

“See, that’s what makes us different. Owen, you must understand that every industry has its bad eggs. And even though MLM does seem to have a lot of bad eggs, you cannot simply generalize and say that all MLMs are like that. Actually, there are some good MLMs around. You have to notice the calibre of the people inside our network. People here can go outside and work and easily earn a good income. Yet they decided that they want a better life and chose to join this business. Do you think that doctors and lawyers will join network marketing if they thought it was a scam?”

2. How do you make money from this if it wasn’t a scam?

“All these questions that you are asking, Owen, are only the techniques. More importantly, you must find your why. Why do you want to become rich? Find a good reason why, then once the why is clear, the how will become clear. If you read Robert Kiyosaki, he’ll tell you that even though he was a bankrupt, he still managed to get out of the Rat Race in his real life, at the age of 47. The only way he could do that was that he changed his mindset! So you must find your why, first.

I can tell you how to make money from this, but I can guarantee you it won’t be the answer that you are most looking for. Plus, I am only a Manager and I think the person best suited for explaining the marketing plan will be someone far more successful and with more experience.

And in this business, it’s not just about selling products or hunting for people. We are looking for partners, people who have the same hunger as you and I and are willing to bring this business to another level. You see, Owen, it’s not other people choosing which company they want to join: it’s us who are choosing which people are most suitable to be our partners to move to the next level. This is not a get-rich-quick scam as you may think. It’s a long-term business. It doesn’t mean you will make a lot of money one year down the road, but as long as you put in the effort, you will be able to succeed in this business.

Duplication – the power of franchising

You know that there’s a famous Peking Duck restaurant called 全聚德 (quan2 ju4 de2) which serves excellent Peking Duck. It is already renowned the restaurants that serves one of the world’s finest Peking Duck. It was established in 1864 and has a history stretching much further than many other restaurants, yet today it has only slightly more than 50 franchises in China and in neighbouring countries. It’s annual revenue is close to US$500m, quite decent.

Think of another famous restaurant, called McDonald’s. Today it’s also known as the world’s biggest fast food chain, and has 31,000 restaurants all around the world. That is close to 600 times more than Quanjude and certainly its brand name isn’t as old – it was set up in 1940, almost a century after Quanjude.

But McDonald’s succeeded because its business model could be easily duplicated. Similarly, in network marketing, we teach you to be a business leader so that eventually when you have your own downlines and associates, you also can duplicate what you have learnt and pass it on to the next generation. This will ensure that your network builds quickly and smoothly, given a good system that you can learn from.”

3. How much money do I have to put in?

“Remember, Owen, it’s not about the money. You’ve played Cashflow before, right? Think about the ROI, the return on investment – that’s what you should be thinking about, not just about the downpayment. What do you do when you’re stuck with not enough money but a very good deal on the table?”

“Borrow money from the bank.”

“Exactly! If there is an opportunity for you to earn more than double, five times, or even ten times the amount of money you’ll put in, does it really matter how much money you need to put inside the business?”

**

After answering the questions that I had, Mr. Ay left, and I was about to leave but Deem wanted to share with me a piece of his mind.

“I think that was very rude of you,” Deem said. “Mr. Ay is a very busy man, but he still took the time out to explain the business and how it operates to you. And you were constantly looking at your phone. I mean, I really hope that you take this opportunity seriously because we have all specially arranged our time to help you understand.”

I was flabbergasted. I was getting scolded for getting lured into an MLM talk. But I bit my tongue and waited for him to finish, before I told him that I was very tired, and I wanted to go home.

It was 11pm.

Two Years of My Life – Hindsight bias?

I look back at the MLM experience with a bit of sadness. For close to two years of my life, I was like “serving National Service” – that was what one of the leaders in the business spoke to me when I joined – and sometimes people ask me what would have happened had I chosen to put my money in a high-interest fixed deposit.

Sure, I could have made more money, but while people may claim that I am writing my entries only with a hindsight bias – because I failed, that’s why I don’t encourage people to join – let me just disclaim that.

1. Hell, joining MLM was one of the basic – though unfortunately flawed – step for me to move towards the financial freedom that I desired. Sure, I made a few steps back with that investment, but I did mature as a person and think that did benefit me a lot.

2. The sales experience was incredible. It was crap, but priceless. There is truly no other platform which can allow you to be exposed to so many different types of people – and I say this with confidence.

3. It made me realize that it’s really important to be doing something you love to make money and not trying to fit the money-making into doing something you love. There’s a huge difference. Okay, remember to take your emotions out of the business, but for sure, you want to be doing something that you have confidence and are interested in.

4. It made me become more cynical as a person – a double-edged sword, perhaps? But certainly, a lot safer. And I think this level-up in cynicism will serve me well to protect against the malicious world under all the good stuff that you may hear from these people in suits. (Or, depending on the occasion, shorts.)

Two Years of My Life: Part IV

By April 2007, I had already gone for close to four or five workshops, and even a badminton tournament with a group of workshop organizers who seemed to have extraordinary camaraderie together. It was approximately this time, after yet another Cashflow workshop, that I was invited for a business opportunity.

But prior to that, I had started to get a little cheesed from the repeated reasoning that I wasn’t focusing in the game, which was why I couldn’t get out of the Rat Race; my determination to do so once more always got me to come back, and even though I wanted my friends to come along for the workshop, I remembered them saying that “Why don’t you try to get out of the Rat Race again? When you have really absorbed the essence of the workshop it won’t be too late to invite your friends, right?”

It seemed to make sense to me at that time, but now I knew why they wanted me to come exclusively: I was close to being one with potential, someone called the focus. But of course, I didn’t know it yet.

Bee and Deem wanted to meet me for dinner one day. I thought, okay, I didn’t mind meeting them. After all they seemed to be rather nice people (though occasionally, a little weird, but I couldn’t really pick out anything that was too much of a put-off). So I got myself to meet them at Bugis Junction and we had dinner at Parklane Yun Tun Mee at North Bridge Commercial Complex, one of the few places in the city where they served decent food at an affordable price.

It was also relatively quiet, a good place to talk about stuff.

Once again they got myself into the mood where I talked about things happily, and with Bee and Deem being comfortable audiences. I spoke about my scholarship application and how I hoped it will go through, so that I will have the opportunity to go to Japan for my studies. Also, my plans for expansion in my education business. At this point I asked them what business they were doing (during the conversation, Bee and Deem had revealed they were business partners).

Bee looks at Deem, expecting him to answer.

“Biotechnology,” Deem answered after a short pause. “We deal in biotechnology and nanotechnology.”

“Wow,” I said. “Right on top of the trends, huh? Think you must be doing quite well!” At this point their faces turned serious, but I didn’t notice as I continued, “Hmmm, how long have you been doing it?”

Bee answered this time. “For about a year or two.”

I don’t remember much of the conversation after that – but what I knew is, the topic definitely did switch, but towards the end of the evening Deem remarked, “You’re always welcome to come over and look at our office.”

I said, “Sure. I’ve always been looking forward to learning about businesses.”

Two days later

“Keep your Thursday free,” Bee said after the Cashflow workshop. Once again, I hadn’t been able to get out of the Rat Race. It seemed to be getting harder and harder for some reason. “If you’re interested in the business opportunity, there is a presentation this Thursday and I will arrange my time to pick you up at 6.30pm at the MRT station.”

Thursday

I wore a polo T-shirt and khakis, my favourite book-out attire last time, but when I saw Bee wear a long-sleeved shirt I thought to myself, darn, I’m underdressed again for the occasion.

(What I hadn’t mentioned earlier: Every workshop that I went to, every one of the organizers were dressed in formal attire. It was mentioned that it will be a very relaxed, casual session, yet every one was dressed in long-sleeved shirts and office pants.)

He asked me how I was feeling, and I remembered saying I was feeling great. I wondered why. I was always easily excited when it came to business opportunities.

We had dinner at a food centre nearby, before Deem arrived (in a blazer and tie, no less). Bee then mentioned that his grandmother had just passed away and he had to leave for the wake which was going to be held tonight. I offered my condolences, which he acknowledged and left.

Deem then asked me how I felt. He looked rather nervous, and was perspiring. I said fine, but I thought to myself again – why did they keep asking whether I was all right? It was just supposed to be a presentation, wasn’t it?

Wasn’t it?

**

We then walked towards one of the office buildings near the road, just opposite the MRT station – and then I began to see quite an amazing sight. You could have believed that there was a massive congregation of triad leaders, with everyone donning their blazers and ties proceeding inside their office. There was a French name emblazoned outside an office which they called the “showroom”.

“This is our office,” Deem said, nervous but proud. “Welcome to Vie.” (Tempted as I may to reveal the name of the company publicly, the fact – or rumour – that it is backed up by a powerful attorney tells me that I should remain cautious. Hence, any reference to the name ‘Vie’ being a multi-level marketing firm is purely coincidental.)

Upon entering the showroom, everything dawned on me. The glass showcases containing the strange-looking Chinese sculptures that gave out smoke and scent – Deem explained that these were their “star products”, the aromatherapy diffusers. This reminded me of something very familiar – the people in suits, the tables that were big enough to seat three or four people, but not more, the products in the showcases: it smelled like multi-level marketing to me, something I’d seen in the days of NTI Paris and Sunshine Empire.

And when I saw the “organizers” of the Cashflow workshop all there, smartly dressed and smiling, I realized that I’d just been part of a very elaborate plot to invite people into the business opportunity session.

It wasn’t all. Deem explained that the office downstairs was merely a showroom, and he wanted to bring me up to the actual offices, on another part of the building in the second floor, where the talk was going to be held. My eyes were glazed and I was increasingly feeling cheated as the people who organized the workshop looked at me and talked to me – some of them, according to Deem, have made some money from the business and are quite successful.

Part of me wanted to leave immediately; yet part of me was intrigued to stay on. Since everyone in the company appeared to be smiling and happy, and they honestly looked quite sincere in the way they believed that the business had benefited them, I wanted to know what secret it was that these people were holding on. Perhaps it was also due to the fact that Deem continually reminded me that “these people are not the kucing kurap (some losers on the street) type – yet somehow they decided to give this business a chance. Don’t you want to find out why?”

I did. And so I stayed for the talk.

Two Years of My Life – Part III

The third workshop (February 2007)

This was the third workshop when I started to get pissed off. I didn’t manage to get out of the Rat Race this time – strangely the opportunities refused to present themselves to me, and my dice throws didn’t seem to work (yes, Cashflow 101 works on dice throws, like Monopoly).

“You didn’t focus,” said the table leader. I was really cheesed off this time. It wasn’t a matter of bloody focusing, I told myself. It was luck! And I just didn’t happen to have it this time! Focus, she said, was about following one course until succeeding. So I got really pissed off then and thought that perhaps the game didn’t really teach me that much this time. It still doesn’t make sense today – think about it, the only difference between that minute percentage of people who are successful and the rest who are not is just a matter of focus? It’s much more than that.

Badminton tournament (March 2007)

I can’t really remember whether this was in March or February, but it certainly was a few workshops later. You should know by now that the workshops were organized by a group of people (or so it was claimed) representing the NUS and NTU Entrepreneurship Club, and some of the successful entrepreneurs were alumni from the club and currently are providing space to conduct these events. Well, apparently the following day after the workshop there was a badminton tournament, and I didn’t think I would have the time to come down for it, but Deem basically just called me and said that “You also need to relax, right?”

The badminton tournament was held at the recreation hall in Tan Tock Seng Hospital – interestingly, one of the people in the entrepreneurship club is a doctor, and she managed to book the facility – and I was grouped together with Deem. There was an ice-breaking session prior to the match proper, and there was a fascinating mix of people – financial advisors, entrepreneurs, managers, students, army regulars, and full-time NSFs (myself). And I didn’t think I played really well, but somehow Deem (and the rest of the people there) kept praising my skills. I began to be convinced that I had made a rapid improvement despite a lack of practice – another warning sign of flattery that I failed to acknowledge.

After the tournament

We did well enough to win the tournament – I was amazed – and after that Deem and I went downstairs for a drink. I started to talk about my family and my life and how I’d always wanted to start a business myself. I remembered that I basically told him almost everything about the educational business that I was currently helping – and I think I told him a lot that time. After that, we were asked to congregate at the food court in TTSH.

We were asked to join this group where there were quite a number of girls – all girls, actually – and then I was asked to introduce myself again to the lady who introduced herself as Jingle. Jingle said that she’d seen me reading this book on neuro-linguistic programming and she was interested, especially since she’d once been an insurance agent. She asked me a bit about my life and a little probing later I started telling her about my ambitions, how I’d always wanted to start a business and how this education business was a fantastic opportunity to get started.

I was too engrossed on telling my story to a captivated audience that I didn’t even realize one very strange fact – that they looked captivated. It was strange, they seemed to be listening very intently to what I was saying as though I was worth a lot of money. But I took it for granted that I must probably have the makings of being a darned good speaker (which my close friends and my girlfriend might probably strongly deny, but that’s besides the point), and continued anyway.

It was after this when Jingle spoke. It was the first time that I realized she had some power behind her innocent, sweet young face. “You know, Owen, we are an entrepreneurship club and that also means we have business opportunities around here which might be what you’re looking for. I mean, you’re planning to retire by 35 and this means you need a plan. Are you open to opportunities that can help you to achieve this target you’ve set for yourself?”

Of course I was. I nodded.

“Okay, hope to see you more often for our activities!” She listed out some of the programmes we were having – the Book Sharing session on Mondays, which I couldn’t go for because of my Japanese lessons, the Cashflow workshop on Wednesdays and Saturdays. I told her I’d go for the Cashflow workshop on Wednesday.

“See you then!”