I would really like to share with everyone the power of sharing and the power of synergy. Some of you may have noticed my face appearing in alot more ads as usual. In fact, many of the ads my face appears in are the ads of ERC (Entrepreneur’s Resource Centre) which runs leading entrepreneurship programs (both Diploma and Degree).

Well, the reason this is happening is because AKLTG and ERC recently had a strategic alliance where we are now promoting each other’s courses and programs. For example ERC’s Diploma in Entreprise Development has incorporated my ‘Patterns of Excellence Program as one of its core modules. ERC’s Diploma in Wealth Management has incorporated my Wealth Academy as one of its core modules. As such, Whenever ERC sells their Diploma programs, they are effectively sellings seats in my seminars! These additional students that come to me as a result of ERC’s diploma program easily adds an extra $1 million + in revenue to AKLTG.

At the same time, I actively promote ERC’s diploma programs whenever I run previews for my Wealth Academy and Patterns of Excellence Programs, adding to their revenue as well. In addition, by leveraging on my brand name, ERC gets to further build their already strong credibility and are able to reach out to the studnet’s segment which they are new in.

The funny thing is that before I met up with the founder Andy Ong (who happens to also be a super high achiever, self made millionaire and author of 7 books), we saw each other as indirect competitors. In additon, he had the impression that I was an egotistical asshole and I too was told that he was an egotistical asshole.

So we had bad impression with each other before we met, which is one of the reasons we never ever attempted to get together. We found out later it was a mutual acquaintance who painted this totally inaccurate picture we had of each other. Turns out, Andy is really a nice guy…and has the same vision, values and srive as me (we found out is was the mutual acquaintance who was the real asshole who played us both out). I guess one big lesson to learn is that we should never form generalizations of other people (no matter what others say) until we really get to meet them ourselves.

After just one round of golf, we really hit it off and decided to forge this alliance which has proven a super big win-win for both parties. Although, we have to now share the profits of our participants with each other, the resultant comined marketing effort has resulted in the pie growing even BIGGER for both of us. The result? higher profits for both parties.

I have always believed that it is important to share. Some of you may not know this, but I only own 50% of AKLTG and I only own 30%-50% of all my other 7 companies (all consolidated into 3 main holding companies). In fact, I came up with ALL THE INVESTMENT money and gave away free shares to my partners. Some people think I am stupid as I would be earning less profits by giving away shares.

However, I have learnt in life that when you give shares to good partners, they will add so much value to your company that they will grow the original pie so many fold that you will find that everyone earns more and benefits more in the end. The reason I see so many businessmen remaining as one-man shows and never being able to expand their businesses is because they are so afraid of sharing their ideas, shares and profits. So although they hold 100% of the shares, it is 100% of a very small pie. However, because I gave away 50% of my company to great partners, they have increased my pie to 100th fold so that 100% of this super pie is much much more than 100% of a tiny pie.

I always like to give the example of Bill Gates and Microsoft. Bill Gates is the richest man in the world. Yet, does he own 100% of Microsoft? No! He started out owning only 50% and now, he owns less than 20% of the company. In fact, out of the 10 riches men in the world, 3 of them (i.e. Bill Gates, Steve Balmer & Paul Allen) come from the SAME company, Mircosoft! I always say, it is always better to own 10% of a $100 million company than 100% of nothing!

Whenever I run my Wealth Academy programs (next one coming up 5-8 october 2006, Singapore Expo), the biggets fear I hear from my participants in their business development proces is ,’ what if I share my ideas with people like investors, partners, friends and they STEAL IT?’ Well, let me say that IDEAS are CHEAP and FREE. If you never share your ideas and network with the right people, keeping that idea to yourself is worth nothing. YOu have to have the confidence to share your ideas, get feedback, get people on yoru team and turn that idea into reality. Wealth = 1% inspiration and 99% perspiration.

The trouble I find with the Asian (Especially Chinese culture) is a very selfish one. Traditionally, when a Chinese family discovers a new secret, they tend to want to ‘KEEP IT IN THE FAMILY ONLY’ and ‘KEEP IT AS A SECRET’, only to be passed down from one generation to the next. However, American’s mentality is very different. When an American discovers a new idea/investion/secret, they will go all out and share it with everyone and earns millions of dollars in royalty payments! This is probably why most of the world’s inventions were developed by the Chinese but made famous and cmmerically exploited by the Ang Mohs