writing it...

It was really a great experience having to attend this conference organized by the CPA ASC. The event was sponsored by 'Money Tree' Asia Pacific Limited, a company which offers & conducts programs on improving financial, investment and entrepreneurship amongst the young. The CEO of Money Tree was among the speakers for the conference. A great man with great entrepreneur experience.

First off, we were thought what entrepreneur really is. Instead of entrepreneur, intrapreneur on the other hand was not left out. Intrapreneur is in regards to the betterment of the organization itself. Michael Reyes, the CEO of Money Tree, told us that there was a serious problem with the asian teaching culture or would he say around the world. The problem itself was that the students does not express themselves. That's why he came out with the Money Tree concept which helps kids from age 6-26 to deal with their finance and reward them in term of 'money' for each task and assignment fulfilled. With the 'money' earned, they can use it to bid for an auction within the Money Tree. This concept would not be practical without much acquaintances.

That's why there's a need for us to reach out to people we don't know and that someone might be the one who help us build our career. Michael Reyes use to operate his own flight agency and he wanted to advertise his agency in an international style. So he requested 'white people' to advertise in his ad. An agency sent him 2 top polish student for his ad. Obliviously, the 2 polish students ask him to make a study in polish and make a survey to build up a certain company there. Few years later, the company was listed in Poland.

It's very funny how we live our daily life. As a student, there is plenty if time(when you're taking 4 subjects a semester). Michael Reyes took 19 papers in one semester during his 2nd year in university just to get himself a double major. Life wasn't easy for him back then. Taking 4 subjects a semester might seem hard on us because we restrain ourselves to live to the fullest by making every moment of our life count. Much time has been wasted like facebook-ing, youtube-ing, etc. Make use of every moment building a strong foundation for the future.

Nobody was born perfect. Everybody makes mistakes but don't make the same mistakes twice. Even leaders make mistakes but mistakes are subtle. Every leaders needs to make decision and every decision comes with a risk. The matter for the leader is to minimize the risk involved.

Michael Reyes might have done talks which he needs to confront thousand of audience. But he can't talk to thousands at a time. He talks 1-on-1 and look them in the eye and the rest will happen to be listening. Switch target alternately. When explaining, go to the details. People who listens are painters. Every word that comes out from the mouth gives the listener a picture in their mind. So let them remember what you told them by letting them paint the picture. Use body gestures to help them paint the picture.

To convince investors to invest into your project, you need to excite them. That's when the 'elevator pitch' principle takes the play. If the investor press level 39 on the elevator, you press 40. When the door shuts, the executive summary of the whole project is explained to the investor in 30 seconds. If the investor is excited about the project, he'll ask you to elaborate further in his office when it reaches level 39.

Other than having the privilege to listen to his talks, we were given a entrepreneurship challenge. In a group of 12, we need to come out with a new idea in 2 hours time that Michael Reyes himself would invest with the amount of RM500, 000. It was tough. During the presentation, all we heard was criticism and sarcastic words spitting out from his mouth. But overall it was great to learn from mistakes.