Have you been thinking lately?
Bill Gates, the world’s richest man.
He is worth $136.5 billion dollars.
Patrick Grove, one of 50 most richest
entrepreneurs in Malaysia.
He is worth $365 million dollars.
Dan Lok, one of the richest speakers
in the world. He is worth $104 million dollars.
You know what these three men have
in common besides the money?
They spend A LOT of time – alone – to think.
In Netflix’s Inside Bill’s Brain, I learnt that
Bill will often take weeks off his busy schedule
to read and think in his private cabin – alone.
He calls that the think week.
Even today in his capacity as a philanthropist,
he will often be seen in front of his big
whiteboard – with a pen in his mouth –
thinking and scribbling ideas to help him
solve big world issues like sanitation, climate
and energy.
Patrick Grove does the same. He is the
founder of Iflix, an on-demand video service
that operates in 22 countries in SE Asia,
South Asia, North Africa and Middle East.
He shared in one of the recent Mindvalley
interviews that he thought his way to his first
ten million dollars.
During the early days, he will be seen regularly
in different Starbucks of KLCC, journaling.
On the top of his notepad, he will write the
money he wants to make, say $10 million.
And he will start thinking about how he can
achieve this big hairy audacious goal. He will
scribble, sketch and strategize for hours.
And then spend the rest of the year, taking
massive action until he achieve his goal.
He still makes time to think even till today.
The only difference is the extra zeros at
the top of his notepad.
Then there is Dan Lok with 3.87 million
subscribers on YouTube, his content being
watched more than 1.7 billion times.
In one of his YouTube video, he shared that
he will often go on vacations to think.
It helps him create space between where
he is at now with where he wants to be.
And during his vacations, he will think
about the following questions:
Where am I at with reference to my goals?
What assumptions am I making?
What do I not know?
What am I not seeing?
What should I be focusing on?
You probably already know this.
Success always leaves clues.
And in this email, you see a very big clue
to your success in 2022.
Set aside time to think.
You don’t have to overwhelm yourself with
a whole list of questions to think about.
This will be counter-productive.
Here’s my recommendation.
Start by setting aside time daily, weekly
and monthly to think.
Every month, pick one day to date yourself.
Go somewhere relaxing.
Treat yourself to a nice meal.
Take out your notepad and start thinking.
A few questions to help you get started:
What is happening in my life?
What is working / not working in my life?
Am I getting closer to living the life I want?
What are my goals? What are my strategies?
Am I progressing?
Every week, set aside an hour (perhaps
weekend or Monday morning?) to plan
your week.
What are your weekly wins?
What tasks were not completed?
What have you learnt?
How can you do better this week?
If there are problems, use this time to
think about possible solutions too.
Then every day, set aside 10 minutes to think.
Preferably in the morning.
Here’s a fun way to think in the morning and
I promise you this – you will have an
AMAZING day! You will find yourself more
focused, even happier.
My friend, business is an intellectual sport!
It’s THINK and grow rich.
Not Netflix and grow rich
or Mobile Legends and grow rich.
So as we near the end of 2021, make time
to think and 2022 will be the year where
all your dreams will come true!
Your #1 fan,
Eric Feng
P.S. I am planning to write to you more often
because I really want you to do well.
So here’s the plan.
On weekends (likely Sat), I will send an email
relating to topics on self-mastery. Many of
these emails will be based on my personal
experiences and observations.
On Thursdays, I will send you emails that
are more business related. Focus will be on
helping you deal with the unique challenges
of 2022.
(1) Omicron variant and the possible lockdown
(2) Growing popularity of robo-advisors
(3) Changing consumer values because of
the pandemic (in particular with millennials
and Gen Z, the digital native)
(4) Increasing competition in your industry
(competition including influencers trying to
steal market share away from you)
(5) Massive changes to social media platforms
and how we must adapt to the ever-changing
algorithm and content preferences
