Visualized.Feel.Abundance

Hey Folks,

Last night I caught a show about the real life story of a local entrepreneur, Mr Mustaq Ahmad, who runs the hugely successful retail mall Mustafa. I have a real soft spot for any stories on successful people, especially successful entrepreneurs.

The show was very short, just 30 minutes but it focus on Mr Mustaq’s childhood days and significant lessons that he learn since young. From milking cow in India to selling teh terik (milk tea with foaming bubbles) to selling textiles in his later years!

What Mr Mustaq Learned
Here are some lessons he learn as I appreciate them:

1) If the price of your merchandise is fixed by external source, sell more to increase your income.
- He learned that from a milk man collecting milk that his mum milked from their cow in India. “One rupee per bucket. You want to earn more, get me more bucket of milk” says the milk man.

2) Be honest in your business dealings.
- His father taught him that whatever he wants to do in business, he must remember to be honest. They were so honest, they even refused to pay street gangs “protection fee” (that’s 1970’s Singapore). By the way, the mall is named after his father.

3) Fixed a price that is lowest in the market for your merchandise and sell lots of it.
- In 1970’s Singapore, price haggling is probably the default mentality of consumers. They haggle over any purchases, even a cup of tea! He noticed the trend and decided that he wants to focus on selling and not price haggling. He did that by fixing a non-negotiable price that is lowest in the market for his merchandise.

4) He never gives up!
- While operating their road side stall, they were frequently harassed by street gangs and even the police (in the later years when street hawking became illegal). It was actually at this point when he got his first shop space, just 500 sq feet but he bought it - never even considering rental!

5) Treat Your Customer Well and Listen To Their Needs
- His father taught him to treat each customer with respect and he, in his later years, taught his father to listen to their customers need. He say “If they want henna (a type of hand paint), we get henna. If it proves a mistake, we learn from it.”

It was at this point the story ended and it showed how successful Mr Mustaq Ahmad has become. Click here to take a look at his website and his retail mall. The story of what happened after the first shop can be found under history on their website.

What I Learned
So why am I telling his story here? This certainly is not a paid post (maybe I should contact him to see if he is willing to advertise here :P). What I wanted to share was what I saw on the show and how it relates to the Law of Attraction and Positivity.

Mr Mustaq is a positive man. In the show (that’s all I can tell since I don’t know him personally) he has a simple objective - to make himself rich (it’s every migrants dream). He choose to focus on things he has control of (fixing the price and sell more) and ignoring the things that waste his time (price haggling).

He set a goal where Mustafa (his company) will be known as the cheapest place you can get the best merchandise and he sets out to achieve it. His action speaks louder then anything he could have said. His father was not agreeable to price fixing and even laughed at him when he started selling silk handkerchiefs at fixed price. He was mocked by customers too for the same reason but they ultimately came back to him when they found that he was the cheapest in the market!

His goal set almost 40 years ago continues to be the pillar of his business and he continues to innovate by listening to customers feedback! It is the only retail mall in Singapore to operate 24 hours and it made the news for being the first and probably the only retail mall in Singapore to sell automobiles as part of their merchandise. Customer who feels appreciated will come back to buy from you. Another good example of like attracts like.

I love his story and I hope you love it too

Love,
James

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Hey Folks,

Today I would like to ask you, How Do You Get Motivated?

There are basically 2 types of motivation:

Self Motivation
This is arguably the best form of motivation and it is commonly found in entrepreneurs. In this form, you create or find the reason(s) to be motivated. You know what you desire and usually, your goal or the results of achieving your goal IS your motivation.

People in this category are always looking for challenges, goals, objective, new things to achieve. It does not matter if they failed a hundred times, they will try new ways, new approach or new methods until they succeed!

Also, by being self motivated, you will tend to attraction opportunities as you are always on the look out for them.

Motivated By External Factors
This is the most common type of motivation. You fall into this category if your motivation is due to:

- Wanting to fulfill the expectations of other people
- Force by circumstances beyond your control to do something
- Promise of a great reward (Lottery falls into this category)

People in this category will not take any action unless there is a reason rewarding enough or more typically painful enough for them to take action and do something. Their motivation will only last long enough for them to achieve the minimum requirements to satisfy and remove the external factors (pushing or pulling them).

The people in this group tend to attract more external factors that will push/pull them by virtue that they wait for something to happen!

Illustration
Lets say if you have a kid who is self motivated, they study on their own, request for help if they need, join study groups and generally get good grades (because they put in the effort). Would you bother as much to push them? Probably not.

Lets say again that you have another kid that just study enough to pass test and exams and occasionally fails exam but do not put in the effort to study harder. Would you, as parent set targets for him, send him to tuition classes, nag at him, force him to study? Probably so.

Could you see how the the Law of Attraction is working here? I think you would

So Which Do You Belong Too?
I used to be in the second group. Now I am somewhere in between but moving slowly but surely into the first group of motivators. What about you?

Share your thoughts simply by voting in this small survey that I have set up.

Cheers,
James

PS: I’m still trying to figure out how to change the color of the button

Popularity: 8% [?]