Business Approach to Wealth Maximisation

I had a wonderful weekend. There was Mega-Sales all over the shopping malls. They were packed with people spending money. Goshh..spending money is so easy. It is engrained in our head to spend money all the time. Thinking about it in a business context, there's opportunities all around us simply because people spend money.

Several weeks ago, I read an article on New Sunday Times newspaper and I saw an article about "The Ways of Rockefellar and Carnegie are still relevant". If you not so familiar about the business world, Rockefellar and Carnegie is a total stranger. I've just know the two names last two years. Who are these people? Simply saying, they are ultra rich people who don't have to go to work like us in the rat race. ;-)

So, what does it have to do for you? Well, wealth maximisation is generally not for me because I'm broke physically, however we can always have a virtual mindset that is set to a 'wealth' mode. It's like what Napoleon Hill famous quote, "Whatever the mind of man can conceive and believe, it can achieve.". If you didn't know, Napoleon Hill eventually became broke. Oh well, everything in life must come to an end sooner or later.

Seperation of tasks

Studying about wealth maximisation, here's a number of job function that needs to be fullfilled:

• CEO (chief executive officer)
• COO (chief operating officer)
• Administration & IT manager
• Plan development manager
• Operations manager
• Review and control manager
• Research and development manager
• Various products and service specialists

All the job function is the traditional hierarchy as shown on the below image:

Coming down to our own personal wealth, we need to choose smartly which hat to choose to put on to ensure our own wealth maximisation method. Some of the role can be delegated but we need to becareful of that. It reminds me of the outsourcing job that is mushrooming in our world and taking away small tasks that normally big businesses used to handle.

So, as a conclusion, your personal wealth is the most important business. We should all be wealthy.

;-)

What Blogging Buys Me

I've been blogging since May 2004 and there are times that I've almost gave up blogging. While sometimes, I've been blogging crap. I now see a constant traffic coming from keyword search from search engines. I guess, when the database is getting bigger, the search engine's spider especially googlebot loves to come and see what's going on here. Anyway, let's see what blogging has bought me:

NOTHING!

You should read this blog posting by one of the most influential blogger in the blogosphere, Problogger Darren Rowse:

What Blogging Bought You
More On What Blogging Is Buying Bloggers

I guess because I have no strategy of blogging, it became sort of like a hobby. I think I'll analyze and model on why these bloggers could achieve something that I could not. However, using my blog's PR4 on Google Toolbar, I can easily link website that I've created and in a short while, the website will get listed in Google. I think that is an advantage of having a blog that grows over time.

Well, need to do more reading and more action to get what I want. Work hard and play hard..

Why Is The 2nd Lesson Getting Harder?

Each Saturday, I now take an extra class. So last Saturday, I went to my second class for my one year Cisco Certified Network Associate certification attempt. Since I'm taking the class on a part time basis, 4 hours of class once a week is not enough. I think I'm struggling to keep up with the huge amount of knowledge and information that I have to gain in order to answer each assesment test correctly. At first, the 1st class was easy. There was nothing much to think and memorize.

During the second class, there was 2 new assessment test and I had to answer the test eventhough I haven't read and understand the syllabus. Because of the time constraintment, I had to do what busy office people do, 'multitask'. Multitasking itself is another practice which requires time and perseverence to master. Since the course is done over a computer with an internet connection, it's not that difficult to open up another browser and try to search the answer by minimizing the test. With the use of search engines and the 'find' function on the browser, it made searching for the required answer way much faster.

Being fast doesn't really mean you can answer the question correctly. You still need to understand what the question is in order to answer each question correctly. It reminds me when I was in school where I was eager to learn during the first subject taught in class. In my mind at that time was, I could score an "A" for the subject with no problem. It then wears off after as the lesson get more and more advance. Well, I think I should take one step at a time rather than just doing an express study/revision or more better known as 'the last minute study'.

Should I Respond or Not?

Yesterday, the Celebrity Fitness call person tried to call me. I purposely didn't pick up my phone because I don't want to upset the sales consultant. Am I too kind or what?

I also made a phone call to the workshop and my insurance company where my car is stored after the theft of my car accessories at the KTM Komuter Segambut Car Park early this month. She said that they are still waiting for the insurance company's approval before they could proceed the job. Since I haven't call my insurance company yet, I made an enquiry call and discovered that the workshop just submitted the documents required 3 days ago. Should I ask the workshop office assistant what the hell did she do? or should I just wait for the approval. So many things to think and so many decisions to make.

I think we all need to be constantly reminded and motivated to get things moving swiftly without delays.

What? Another Gym?

I just got a call from another gym called Celebrity Fitness, Subang Parade. Telemarketers are relentless, I hate them. Oh I forgot, I was a telemarketer before. I know how they feel. Anyway, I guess my contact number just became a victim of someone who knows me and refered me as a potential lead to them. Probably the person just wanted the 7 days trial and paid the gym my handphone number along with a few others I guess. I'm not going to waste my time trying to find who that person is.

If you want to see the review of Celebrity Fitness, I present you the link below:

Free Trial at Celebrity Fitness

I've set an appointment on Wednesday evening to go and see the sales lady. I think I'm going to cancel them and gave up a number of people I hate..haha..Gosh, it was like last two years when I got numerous calls to join business opportunities and Multi-Level Marketing. I wonder who else would call me next?

Are You Health Conscious?

Two days ago, I received a call from a lady who said she was from some kind of fitness centre. At first I thought it was from Fitness First because I didn't hear the other word apart from Fitness. After clarifying, it was from True Fitness another operator of modern gymnasium for urban citizen which is popping out in KL City. As a former telemarketer, I know how and what they are going to do, however I think it wouldn't hurt to make an appointment to see what they have to offer.

I went to True Fitness which is located at Desa Sri Hartamas. I normally go back and forth over the same route and see the Fitness Centre everyday but I haven't had the interest to see what it's like inside there. So, the consultant that made an appointment with me was named Vera, I'm not sure if she is a Chinese or a Malay or other races but she was nice. She gave me a tour of the facilities. The place is huge. It was bigger than the Fitness First Centre at Damansara Uptown and Subang Jaya where I went 2 years ago. They also have a lot of classes going on almost the same as Fitness First but the unique part is, there's Yoga Classes. They also have plenty of spaces for the members to do their workout.

So, after all the tour and sightseeing around the vicinity, now comes the hard part, The Membership Payment. I have no whatsoever budget to join a gym club yet. The consultant went ahead and showed me the catalog and the price. As expected, the price is too steep for me. Imagine RM500 just for the joining fees, RM90 for the application fees and RM215 per month, my god..I would have to bootstrap like crazy if I were to join this club. The consultant then act if she was going to help me with the payment, yeah she was right, she slashed a few ringgit here and there. That's not helping, that's just downsizing the figures and hope that I feel gratitude of her helping me. She then did the dissapearing act, as if she went to the managers room to get even a lower price. She's not going to fool me, I know that she didn't go and see her manager, she just went inside her staff room and waited a few minutes before coming out and pretend to bring good news. So, what I did, I did my dissapearing act while she was away. I ran out the gym, started my car and drove away. Oh, I also switched off my handphone so that she couldn't reach me. My phone then got an sms that she tried and called me 5 times. I have a feeling that she'll contact me again pretty soon.

What have I learned? I learned that I need to exercise to build up my body strength. I am becoming weak just by sitting down in front of this laptop. I have a free gym facility down at my office but I hardly ever use it. I'm so ashamed of myself. I need to change.

If you like to read more about gym reviews around Kuala Lumpur. There is one blog that I recommend:

Mun Blog | The site for the gym goers. Be Strong. Be Fit.

I not sure if the blogger is a 'he' or a 'she' but the reviews Mun Blog gave is very good. Read Free Trial at True Fitness (1). You can see pictures and other related stuff about the gym that I went.

Be Strong. Be Fit.

P/S: You don't need to have membership of a gym to have a healthy lifestyle. Save money and go for a jog at the park is sufficient enough to maintain a healthy body.

A Refreshing Weekend

I had a great weekend last Saturday and Sunday. Apart from watching The World Cup, I also went to great places with a few of my friends. On Saturday, I went to Cineleisure Damansara. The place is a brand new shopping complex surrounded by a few other shopping complexes. The crowd there was huge and cars were lining up to fill up the parking spaces there. If you have no idea where it is, here's a map for you to digest:

There's only a few shops open inside the complex. One of them is the Cathay Cineplexes where I watched Superman Returns. The cinema is a brand new cinema place so it's something for me to check it out. The best part of the cinema that I like was the spacious couple seats. I have no idea it was a couple seat when I first bought the tickets. Eventhough Superman Returns didn't turn out to be a great movie for me, I did had a great time on the couple seat with my lovely girlfriend..hehe..

Last Sunday, I went to Ulu Yam Recreational Area. Since it was a weekend, the place is full of people. Still, the water is icy cool on a hot afternoon. It was just so nice to be there:

I think I'm going back to that place pretty soon. Wishing you a nice week.

Getting My Car Out From The Police Station

I took 2 days off just to make sure my process to get the car out from the police station and insurance claim run smoothly. Lucky for me I could adjust my days off with my boss and had everything covered by my team members. Nevertheless, I could work from home since most of my work involves stuff using the computer.

So, what did happened the past 2 days? A very good question to answer. Let's rewind back to the day after I did the police report at Balai Polis Jinjang. After my police report was printed out, a sergeant from the Balai Polis Sentul called me and asked me if I could arrange for the car to be sent to the his place (Balai Polis Sentul). I replied, I could find a tow truck and send the car as requested. I don't really know any tow truck so I called AAM (I'm a member since 2002) and they said they don't do towing for cars that involve police & insurance case. So, they refered me a panel agent. So, I called the man and luckily he was a nice and calm man and he said he could arrange everything. I was so relief after that.

The car was towed to Sentul and parked inside the police station. The nice sergeant processed my case and said that this could take some time and asked me to go home and come back in the morning. He said that at night the finger print and pictures are hard to see so they'll look for it in the morning.

The next morning, I went back. The sergeant then brought his colleague (the photographer) and took pictures of my car. He then said nicely to me to go home since this case is rather unusual and they'll look into it in in depth. I went back home and waited while doing my stuff online. At 4pm, I called the photographer (since the sergeant asked him to be in charge of my case) and he said the process is done so I could now proceed to get my car out to the workshop. He also explained that he didn't find any fingerprints in the car, which means that the culprits are professionals using gloves to cover up their act. The process explained the officer would probably take no less than 2-3 hours. I hardly believe that because it could take less time if done by 2-3 person.

I went to the police station and met with my appointed agent for AAM. He said that after the adjuster from the insurance company had taken pictures and process the case, the car will be towed out. I thought that would have been a quick process but then, the agent told me that I would have to come back again the next day to the office and bring along the necessary documents. The necessary document would be:

1. Car registration (I had to go the bank and ask for a copy)
2. Insurance cover note (mine was at the car dealer where I bought)
3. A copy driving license
4. A copy of my IC
5. A copy of my Hire & Purchase Agreement (I bought this car using a loan)

I got all of this done and the next day, I sent all this document to the office where my agent is from. My agent was at the police station when I arrived at the office. After submitting all the documents, I then waited for my agent. I waited for half an hour before one of the office assistant call me and asked me if I had called the insurance company and let them know about the situation. I then said, "I haven't called them up yet. I thought you were the one who was suppose to take care them for me". So, they called my insurance company and let them know. I wonder why was I supposed to call since it would have took me a long process to find the right person and stuff. I know how to deal with this type of calls because of my job but imagine if a shy person doing it. It wouldn't be a pleasant thing to do plus it is too time consuming.

After that, I was told that the 'adjuster' would call me before they could evaluate my car in order to get my car out of the police compound. I went back home and waited for the call. The adjuster never called, instead my agent called and told me to surrender the keys so that the car can be towed away. So, I sent my keys but I couldn't find my agent, only the tow truck operator was there. I called up my agent and asked about the process, my agent replied and said that the insurance adjuster will evaluate my car at their workshop (located somewhere in Wangsa Maju). He should have told me that earlier instead of making me confused. He said the facilities is well guarded with CCTV and limited access, so I can be rest assured over my car's safety. So, now I only have to wait and see what will happen next. It's a very long process though.

I was fortunate enough I could settle my documents fast because I borrowed my father's car (he was away from the country at the moment) and I could be there on time and could take a leave. Imagine if I'm caught up in some kind of project or meeting, that would have been a nightmare to juggle through. I just hope my car would be settled quickly.

My Proton Iswara Aeroback 1.3 Got Hacked

DBKL KTM Komuter Segambut Car Park Daylight Thieving

If you are tempted to "Park and Ride", then you are at risk even more than saving pennies from taking the public transportation in Kuala Lumpur. My attempt to save some money by avoiding the traffic proved to cost me a lot more than when I drive to work. Imagine this, you go to work every morning, you park your car at the nearest Komuter Station (of course you'll try to find a nice free spot instead of the paid parking), for my case it is at the Segambut DBKL KTM Komuter Station Free Car Park:

At the end of the day, you came back from work heading towards your car and saw this:

I almost got a heart attack. My seats are GONE!! I was so devastated. Who the hell do this kind of thievery on a broad daylight in a public place. I had to check out my car. Since the car is mine, my prints are already all over the car, so I decided to take more pictures and I also tried to avoid contaminate the crime evidence.

I can't even drive the car. I'm so pissed. I've dedicated a gallery for all the shots I've taken. You can access it here:
Ashrufzz Red Proton Iswara Aeroback 1.3 Accessories Thievery Victim

My car is now at the police station and at the moment is undergoing some dusting and printing process. I'll write more about this when I have settle the paper work for my car.

I'm so sad ;-(

The Affiliate Business

I've been wearing a lot of hats eversince I started joining the employment world. I wish I only wear just one hat but I couldn't resist having high ambitions for myself. The only problem is I have too many ambitions and I don't know where do I start off. Some of them I've already started but I got lost somewhere. I had my share of success but the only success I haven't achieve yet is financial success.

I am very fortunate to have a team, so I'm not that lonely. The most touching part is, they stood up behind me. They are very supportive of me for whatever decisions that I've made. Unfortunately, I still haven't been able to provide them with the dreams that we have put up in our mind which is to form our own R&D Office doing online activities. We love the web technology but we were still unable to find resources to operate our operations.

Anyway, last Friday we went to the Securities Commission Malaysia at Bukit Kiara, Kuala Lumpur. The building is huge and they have great facilities there. I wish I had an office there however there were only a cafe there so it is hard to get food if you are starving. The seminar that we went to was titled "Online Biz Event" done by The Affiliate Solutions. Primarily is was a talk by a guy named Dennis. Oh, BTW here's a few shot taken at the event:

This is all of my team mate. They really stand behind me, I'm not really sure why but it's fun to have loyal friends.

This is the guy doing the talk. He really knows what he is talking about.

Let me recap a little bit of what he deliver in his speech. By the way, if you are interested to check out the website, you can go to The Affiliate Solutions website. The affiliate marketing business is said to be the next business model that is going to shape the internet business world. According to MarketingSherpa a research firm publishing, this year alone is USD6 billion in revenue is going to take place. That's huge ammount of money to tap to. If I could make a mere small percentage of that, I could be set off for life.

So, what is affiliate marketing? I'm not going to go further deep into that, you can download this free e-book to learn everything about affiliate marketing 101 and how you can actually make money out of it. You can also read about Affiliate Marketing Guide by Janet Meiners, awesome stuff she wrote.

Okay now back to the seminar, of course a seminar needs to sell something in order to make money. This is because they are doing business. So what did they offer? They offered an affiliate marketing coaching. Interestingly, the coaching only cost RM1,800 which covers a period of 6 months. That's so bloody cheap!! I was almost sold on the price alone because I've been to a more expensive course before. However, since most of the content of the seminar was about Pay Per Click (PPC) Advertisement, it's not something which I can't afford or do at the moment. I know the power of using PPC because two years ago, I did them for 4 months. It's very profitable if it is executed and strategized well. I think I better go for other methods before I could resume my PPC activities again.

I recently listened to a recorded tele-seminar and one thing that really catched my interest. It's a classic story of a reporter asking a robber/thieve "why did you robbed the bank?", the robber simply replied "That is where the money is". So, we should go where the money is which is "In Business".

Have a great productive day.

Am I Mad About Blogging?

I found this interesting self discovery quiz and the title was "Does your weblog owns you?". I don't think I'm too devoting myself for my blogs but it doesn't hurt to take a shot of the questionnaires and see what the outcome would turn out. Here it is:

37.5 %

My weblog owns 37.5 % of me.
Does your weblog own you?

I was a bit surprised to see that result. I thought I wasn't so self embrace with my blogs but seeing the percentage that I scored, it is a quite significant. Anyway, I should see this a sign of strength rather than a weakness. Take on this quiz and see what you score.

Ashrufzz New Blog Layout

I have difficulties designing my layout. As you know, I am not a designer so what I normally do is I copycat other people's design and customize it to my own preferences or I search for templates and customize it. Thanks to Gecko&Fly, I now have a great layout which I like it very much. I wonder how a webdesigner brain works?

But the most important thing a website should have is of course a good and original content. Anyway, I captured a comparison between my old layout with my new layout:

Yesterday I went to a great place and attended a great talk. I'll blog on that in my next post. Tell me what you think if you have any comments for my new blog layout.