Beginning April, Goal Setting College has tied up with Tradepub to offer a comprehensive selection of highly informative career, business & trade magazines in various industries inhouse. From Travel, IT, Finance & Insurance, Sales & Marketing, Small Business to even Casino Management!

Regardless of what your career & economic goals are, I’m sure you’ll be able to find something that’s helpful here. There are renowned titles such as The Economist, BusinessWeek, PC Magazine to more industry specific magazines and whitepapers. And best of all, they’re free.

Due to distribution & logistical limitations, all of them have geographical restrictions. Make sure you’re eligible before filling up the subscription form completely. Incomplete applications may be rejected so in case you’re wondering why you didn’t receive the magazine in the (e)mail, do take a minute to doublecheck your entries before clicking the Submit button.

Here are the different geographical selections :

US Eligible
Canada Eligible
Mexico Eligible
International Eligible

Enjoy reading your magazines!

But it wasn’t long before she came popping by our table again. In fact, she came to us at least 3 times before my friend eventually bought from her!

Perhaps you may be thinking “What’s up with these sales people? Don’t they understand that others need privacy?” I don’t deny feeling a bit affected by her disregard of that. But I was more impressed with her perseverance more than anything else. What could have made a 60 year old lady stick through her rounds again and again every night, ignoring “millions” of rejection just to sell a few packets of napkins?

Sheer iron will? Or strong burning desire?

Amazing Forerunners of Perseverance

As I think of this, I can’t help recalling some of the famous stories we’ve heard so much before. Kentucky Fried Chicken’s founder cold called 1009 restaurants before he secured his first franchise. J.K. Rowling worked on the Harry Potter novel in cafes while bringing her baby out for a walk in cold winter evenings. She only managed to get the book printed after being rejected by 12 publishing houses! Despite failing umpteen times in his experiments, Thomas Edison went on to discover the electric bulb and own 1,093 patents for his other inventions.

Think about it. What could have propelled those people to continue what they were doing in the face of such seemingly unsurmountable obstacles? Would you’ve ploughed on like Colonel Sanders when you were rejected by your 100th prospect? Do you’ve the vision to write a novel when you’ve a small baby to raise and bills to pay? Or would you honestly tell yourself “I have not failed. I’ve just found 10,000 ways that wouldn’t work?” and still brace up for more failures?

Frankly, I might not have been. But then again, isn’t that energy driving me to quit my job and write articles on Goal Setting College every other week, similar to the one giving them the strength to continue?

“Perseverance is the key to success” they say. But,

What’s Perseverance … Really?

I used to think perseverance is a conscious effort. You need to push yourself to avoid reading your emails so that you can complete the to-do list for the day. You must make an effort to get outside your comfort zone before you can stretch yourself. You have to keep working hard before you get recognized for your efforts in the office. You’ve to do this. You’ve to do that.

Don’t get me wrong, perseverance is important. I never doubted that. You definitely need to keep doing certain things up to a point until your goal is attained. But contrary to popular belief, perseverance doesn’t have to be intentional.

In fact, if you’ve implemented the first 3 steps of The Hidden Secret in Think and Grow Rich correctly, perseverance is natural. You’ll consistently see good progress that you become motivated to stick through your plan. There’s no need to force things at all.

What’s the Hidden Secret?

I remembered reading Napoleon Hill’s Think & Grow Rich in 2003. Back then, I was furiously devouring any personal development book that looked interesting to me. And even though I couldn’t recall most of the details in that 1937 classic then, a very important idea stuck with me : everyone is capable of achieving anything his mind can conceive.

In fact, I was so fascinated with that earth shattering piece of information and the many terms Napoleon mentioned in the book – such as DESIRE, FAITH, PERSISTENCE, IMAGINATION, auto suggestion, – that I shared with everyone I knew. My ex-colleagues, my siblings, my friends. You name it, I had probably mentioned it to them.

I thought that was the hidden secret. I knew the bits and pieces. But I never really got the big picture.

Unless 2 weeks ago.

I was scouring for some writing inspiration when I stumbled upon an old copy of Brian Kim’s The Hidden Secret in Think and Grow Rich ebook in my computer archives. A gift for being selected in his first blog carnival a year ago. I re-read it again. And I finally got it.

The hidden secret is all about executing the 4 steps advocated by Napoleon Hill in a correct sequence on a consistent basis. When you start doing so, everything will fall in place nicely to catapult your goal achievement.

You’ve to be consistent with each step. And what’s most amazing is, if you’ve implemented the first 3 steps effectively, perseverance comes naturally. Like in the case of the 60 year old napkins seller.

She had a strong urge to sell her wares. Maybe she depended on the income for a livelihood. And I’m sure she had faith she would succeed. Since there were many elderly people doing the same in the neighbourhood. Her good progress with her plan – to go around tables promoting her napkins coupled by her secondary observation that the same customer would buy after being asked 3 times or more – would have kept her going and going.

Ask yourself, if you recall some of the major achievements in your life,

Have You Been Using this Hidden Secret Too?

For me, it’s a definite yes.

When I failed to quality for the Pre-university of my choice many years ago, I was devastated. That soon turned into a strong burning desire to prove to myself that I could do it. I remembered setting targets to become an architect. And visualize working in one of the top architectural firms in my country. Even though I eventually switched to the accountancy faculty later for personal reasons, all that while, I really put my heart and soul in making my dream a reality.

For example, I would read newspapers on my bus ride to the school every day to improve my general knowledge. During exam periods, I would stay back and study with my goal buddies. I reworked the past year ten year series at least 4 times or more. I studied through the nights.

On hindsight, I’m still pretty amazed at the course of the events. I discovered the hidden secret only 2 weeks ago. Yet all that while, I’ve been using it to achieve some of my wildest dreams. I didn’t force it. The perseverance just came naturally.

What Brian said in The Hidden Secret in Think and Grow Rich is so compellingly true that if there’s only one personal development book you have to read – other than the original 1937 classic – make this the one.

It will definitely change your life.

My fellow blogger friend, Karen Lynch is offering an ebook version of this book free on her blog, Live the Power for a limited time. Yes, completely free! If you’re interested to know more about what your subconscious is capable of, sign up for it now before she takes down this awesome offer.

After you’ve downloaded this ebook, take a moment to read my review of why I think it’s a good book not to be missed.

The Review

The moment you flip open this ebook, Karen welcomes you with a warm message that’s most inspiring. What she says is very true “… If you incorporate these truths into your life, your life can’t help but change for the better…”.

But the question is, will you do it?

Will you take action and apply what you read from this book and manifest these improvements in your life?

If you know you won’t, don’t bother reading it. Because you’ll probably find Dr Murphy’s style of writing to be too detailed. The fact is, this book was written in 1961 and a lot of the earlier chapters such as the ones below were spent explaining the metaphysical concepts (that were largely unknown then) and its impact on your health, which were already made quite popular now by movies such as “The Secret” and classics like Think & Grow Rich. I’m pretty sure Dr Murphy knew a lot of people might not digest such information readily because he actually wrote a summary at the end of each chapter, highlighting the key ideas.

Chapter 1 – The Treasure House Within You
Chapter 2 – How Your Own Mind Works
Chapter 3 – The Miracle Working Power Of Your Subconscious
Chapter 4 – Mental Healings in Ancient Times
Chapter 5 – Mental Healings in Modern Times
Chapter 6 – Practical Techniques in Mental Healings
Chapter 7 – The Tendency of the Subconscious is Lifeward

But if you know you will or don’t mind giving the ideas in this book a try, the later pages will give you real life examples and anecdotes convincing you why that’s the right decision. As you read, you’ll find yourself unknowingly exclaiming “Oh my goodness, he or she actually did that?”. I attest to it because that’s the same reaction I had when I first read it.

One particular story that I still remember even till today was about a teacher who was married 3 times. She asked Dr Murphy why she always attracted men like her ex-husbands who had been passive, submissive and dependent on her. She didn’t know that her masculine personality make-up was unconsciously suggesting that she find someone like such so that she could be dominant.

Following Dr Murphy’s advice, she started reaffirming a specific message to break her negative pattern. After several months and many dates, while working as a receptionist in a doctor’s office, she met the man of her dreams : the physician. In fact, the minute she saw him, she knew he was the man she had been looking for. Interestingly, the guy knew that too because he proposed just 1 week after meeting her.

Mystical, isn’t it?

How This Book Will Work Miracles In Your Life

In the preface of the same title, Dr Joseph Murphy went on to assert that life’s phenomenons are actual workings of your conscious and subconscious minds and how your destiny can change if you know how to tap on this miraculous energy. He shared a personal life changing experience where he recovered from a malignant sarcoma 42 years ago through the same approach.

Now, when I recapped this, I can’t help noticing the similarity to what Morris Goodman, the Miracle Man and Betty Goodman featured in ‘The Secret’ went through. Both used their mental faculties to recover from a plane crash and breast cancer in 3 months respectively. It’s too much of a coincidence, isn’t it?

So, if what Dr Murphy said is true, then what is this approach he’s talking about?

I found this answer in the introduction : scientific prayer. And it certainly sounds fascinating.

In the realm of scientific prayer, it’s irrelevant which faith you belong to. You can be a Buddhist, Christian, Free Thinker but only when you learn how to pray effectively, can you engage your infinite intelligence to work in your favour. Even from a logical point of view, it does make sense. When you constantly think, feel and believe in what you had prayed for, you’ll inadvertently take up certain action that will help in manifesting your intention.

He further clarified that your desires are like prayers. Whatever that you’ve always wanted, be it toning a healthier body, buying a new car, mending a broken relationship are all in a way subtle prayers and only when you master the right technique to send that message across can you be on your way to boundless joy and abundance.

Do you want to know what’s the right way to engage this scientific prayer?

Read Chapter 6.

In that chapter, he discussed the following techniques to set the stage for your prayers :

1. Visualization or Mental Movie method

   You can build an idea in your imagination and make it as real as possible. Then sustain it as a mental story where you hear sounds and voices coming out from people in the picture or movie.

2. Baudoin or Sleeping Technique

   Something like hypnosis, this method requires the repeating of a prayer in a sleepy drowsy like state. Some people call that state “in a trance’. It’s believed that when you’re in such a condition, your conscious mind is too relaxed to interfere with the injection of positive suggestions.

3. Thank You Technique

   You express gratitude for something you desire in your life as if it has already happened. This tricks the subconscious into believing that you already had what you want and catalyze the process.

4. Affirmative Method

   You affirm universal truths as fundamentals of your being, your mind works to expel the negative elements in your subconscious mind based on your faith and understanding which you affirm.

5. Argumentative Method

   You reason with the person involved that his situation is due to his false belief, groundless fears and negative patterns lodged. In my opinion, that person could be yourself too.

6. Absolute Method

   You say prayers to a divine higher self in accordance to your religion and engage his assistance in helping you.

7. Decree Method.

   When you recite your prayers with power backed by strong faith, you assume strong confidence that they will be answered. And it will. But it’s important not to confuse power with coercion or brutal force.

In my opinion, not all chapters in “The Power of Your Subconscious Mind” may be relevant to everyone. My advice is to just go for a general read and should you want specific prayer suggestions later in areas such as getting the results you want, wealth, martial issues, problem solving, improving creativity, eradicating fear or staying young, refer to the relevant chapter below directly for a detailed recap.

Chapter 8 – How to get the Results You Want
Chapter 9 – How to use the Power of Your Subconscious for Wealth
Chapter 10 – Your Right to be Rich
Chapter 11 – Your Subconscious Mind as a Partner in Success
Chapter 12 – Scientists Use the Subconscious Mind
Chapter 13 – Your Subconscious and the Wonders of Sleep
Chapter 14 – Your Subconscious Mind and Martial Problems
Chapter 15 – Your Subconscious Mind and Your Happiness
Chapter 16 – Your Subconscious Mind and Harmonious Human Relations
Chapter 17 – How to Use Your Subconscious Mind for Forgiveness
Chapter 18 – How Your Subconscious Mind Removes Mental Blocks
Chapter 19 – How to Use Your Subconscious Mind to Remove Fear
Chapter 20 – How to Stay Young in Spirit Forever

I can’t recall how many times I’ve read Chapter 10, but it’s definitely one of the earlier literature (including Rich Dad Poor Dad and Think & Grow Rich) that has helped to hone my financial mentality. Well, not exactly the millionaire mindset but one that has allowed me to ditch a corporate 9 to 5 job for an opportunity to work for myself doing something I love with great contribution. To me, it’s a significant benefit considering that, that was never my intention when I first picked up the book.

What This Book Will Not Do

If you think reading this book will make you an overnight expert in tapping the capabilities of your subconscious mind. The answer is a definite no.

A lot of the people cited in Dr Murphy’s examples had put in years of trial and error practice and the first thing you can do after reading this book is to try setting your own prayer and select a method you’re comfortable with to put it to work.

Dr Murphy reiterated that the power to live the life you want lies nowhere else. It’s in YOU. You’re the diligent gardener manning a fertile piece of soil (i.e subconscious mind). If you plant seeds of happiness, abundance and joy, you’ll reap a wonderful harvest of the same. And vice versa.

By picking up the “The Power of Your Subconscious Mind“, you’re already planting the first positive seed.

Cornelis’ support has slightly changed the format of this trial. Instead of creating a hard copy poster board, plastered with magazine, newspaper cuttings and inspirational sayings, I’ll make use of the Vision Board software and demonstrate how it’s possible to do the same tapping on the power of technology. I’m pretty comfortable with this idea as it complements my lifestyle very well, especially since I work on the computer for at least 16 hours a day! Having an electronic version of the Vision Board also means, I’ll be able to whip it out on my laptop for a quick boost in the office, the library or at home. Cool! If you’re someone who prefers to work with the traditional poster board, no worries as I’ll cover that as well!

Now, before I start, here a promised preview of 5 main aspects of my life to set the stage for this exercise. As mentioned, this preview will be important in helping me gauge the results of my trial and I’ll suggest that you’d do the same if you’re going to follow through this experiment and take it as tutorial for creating your own Vision Board. Not only will it provide good comparison later in assessing your own Vision Board experience, personally, I think it’s a great way to get more in tune with yourself. I remembered when I first completed this exercise, which was included in Anthony Robbin’s paperback, Awaken the Giant Within, I was totally amazed about how various parts of my life was stagnating. I didn’t know that all those late nights watching silly drama serials would cause so much damage to my health. I wouldn’t have realized that I was spending so little quality time with my parents. Most interestingly, I wouldn’t have taken a more active role in kick starting own personal development revolution (since reading Robert Kiyosaki’s Rich Dad Poor Dad!) and sharing with others through Goal Setting College! You can get a copy of this preview checklist in my Goal Setting Tutorial. Here’s my preview.

Health & Fitness

When I was younger, a close classmate’s elder sister used to give me a nickname “skinny”. I wasn’t impressed with that then but the thought of it now brings fond memories. Ha ha. Perhaps, it was my figure giving the subconscious (and my friends too!) the false belief but you’re right to assume that I had never really considered myself unfit and had sort of taken that for granted. Until the strain and stress of work life started taking its toll on me, of course.

As a financial systems implementation consultant with a multinational corporation, I’m often required to travel across Asia implementing accounting software for the subsidiary companies and training the users on its usage. The frequent traveling on the job, tight schedules on projects exposed me to a lot professionally but at the same time introduced a series of work related ailments such as severe migraines and fatigue. And it certainly doesn’t help that sometimes, I’ll catch drama serials on DVDs into the wee hours of the night. I recalled once during a 2-day personal extension on a business trip to Cambodia, my migraine acted up and it was so bad that I was cooped up the whole day in my room. Luckily, I managed to recover the next day and visited Angkor Wat. Otherwise, it would have been a holiday all spent sleeping in a Siem Reap’s backpacker’s hostel room!

That incident was like an awakening call. Since the past year, I have started to make modifications to my lifestyle. I’ve followed a more regular sleep routine, waking up at about 7am and going off to bed at about 12pm as well. I’ve been popping by the gym occasionally for a short run on the treadmill and I’ll also play an hour or two’s squash with some of my friends when I yearn for some competitive sport. Squash is a great game and trust me, it really stretches every single strand of your muscle as I’ll usually end up with sore muscles. Darn!

With the lifestyle changes, indeed, I’ve noticed a significant improvement in my health. At least the occurrence of such migraines has reduced! And it has also increased my concentration level allowing me to focus better at work and increasing my productivity. Now, with so many benefits of a consistent exercise regime and a better sleeping routine, it definitely makes it important to continue with them, isn’t it? Now, that’s where the challenge comes in. Due to work commitments, I often work late in the office and by the time I finish, I’m usually so exhausted to go to the gym or participate in the weekly squash sessions with my friends. And the ironic thing is, it’s a vicious cycle. I realize that the less exercise I do, the more tired I feel and the later I work due to reduced productivity!

I know I had to do something to break this cycle.

Living Environment

Since young, I’ve been living in a flat with my parents and siblings in one of the older residential districts in Singapore. It’s relatively common here for singles to stay with their families before marriage, so frankly speaking, it has never occurred to me that I’ll consider moving out one day. But with my niece’s birth, the impending arrival of another baby nephew and a dream for me to setup a SOHO office for my new business venture, everything seems to point towards that direction. My current abode may seem a bit small for such a growing extended family and I do foresee facing a lot of distractions if I do work from home in the same flat in the future.

I’m pretty easy when it comes to accommodation, so long as it’s comfortable and clean. It doesn’t even have to be in a premier location but it helps if it is conveniently located to some of the MRT (a.k.a subway) stations and near my current place so that I’ll continue to visit my parents regularly.

The plan to move out is probably not something I’ve set to achieve in the immediate future since I probably can’t afford to purchase a property now, but it’s definitely part of a long term 5 to 10 year arrangement to be independent.

Social Activeness

That day, I received an mobile text message from a friend, “Hey, It’s been a long time since all of us met up with you! Let’s catch up someday?” When I read this, I can’t help feeling guilty again. Alright, I admit. I’ve indeed been rejecting so many social gathering requests that I’ve lost count. Family, work and my recent motivation to contribute via Goal Setting College has set me in a schedule that I’ve less time for friends and social gatherings. Friendships, like other forms of relationships have to be nurtured. So, one of the areas that I’ll like to improve is to manage my time effectively so that I’ll get to spend more time with my friends. Be it just a short catch up over coffee or a heart warming mobile text message, I’m sure such small efforts will slowly build up.

On a side note, I guess being more active socially also helps me to find that “someone” in my life too. Seriously, whenever friends ask me questions like “What do you look for in your future husband?” or “What are your expectations?”, it never fail to get me stumped. The truth is, I may be pretty clear of the things that I want to achieve many years down the road, but I don’t have the slightest clue on the attributes of the person that I want to attract into my life. And the irony is, I know what kind of guys I don’t want (usually after dating them ). Perhaps that’s why I keep attracting the wrong guys. Ha ha. The paradox of life!

But I believe this is one area where the Vision Board can work well in. Unlike Goal Setting, you don’t have to know exactly what you want. You just need to have a notion of the things you are thinking of attracting. So, I guess I’ll keep the “affairs of the heart” department relatively simple, direct but fun. Want to know what it is? Stay tuned.

Career Development

After graduation, I worked in a local audit firm for about 9 months before making a career switch to join a Global Distributions Systems provider in the Travel Industry as a IT business analyst, writing specifications, conducting implementations and managing projects for a financial application. Friends and acquaintances marveled at my courage to make such a bold career move. Some were skeptical that I was ditching a potentially lucrative accounting career for a position in a domain where I would professionally disadvantaged (because I do not have technical skills). But I’ve never regretted it. During the course of the job, I’ve traveled much of Asia and one part of the US, exposing myself to various cultures and experiences that in my own account are more precious than what the monetary rewards of an accounting career can buy. I continued this “jet-setter” working style for about 4 years before joining the multinational cooperation that I’m with now, in a similar capacity.

I guess life has been pretty fair to me when it comes to my career, even though I’ve taken it slightly off tangent. But as my values and beliefs changed, my job, though financially rewarding is no longer in alignment with my values. My urge to spend more time at home chatting with my parents, playing with my niece is often robbed by overseas traveling schedules that cross over the weekends. My plan to take up more ownership in my financial independence is often disrupted by the many tasks that I’ve to complete even after office hours. The career I’ve chosen takes up too much of my time such that I’ve little to do things that I yearn to, that may have an ever more lasting impact on my life ahead. That’s when the thought of quitting my job surface and idea of starting my own business blossom. At the back of my mind, I want to create a business which can still carry on with minimal involvement from my end. I want to create a business that allows myself freedom to do what I want to achieve in life. Most importantly, I want to create a business that allows me to contribute back to society.

Is this possible? Yes. And I seriously think so.

Financial Wealth

I believe most of you are aware that my personal development revolution was kick started because of 1 book I’ve read in 2002. And that’s none other than Robert Kiyosaki’s Rich Dad Poor Dad. Because of the very nature of this book, I’ve also taken a keen interest in enhancing my own financial literacy. Luckily, I’m a pretty thrifty person so saving up for rainy days and paying my credit card bills promptly come quite naturally to me. Since my financial committment as a single is minimal, the main challenge is learning how to invest my money smartly so that I’ll have enough to for an early retirement. To help me with this, I’ve previously sat down with my financial planner to review my insurance plans 2 years ago. The result? A replacement of my then investment linked insurance policy with a term insurance plan and a complete re-look into my retirement planning needs.

Personally, I’ve read up more about investments and dabbled in unit trusts or mutual funds with limited success. It definitely helps that I’m an accountant by training! Strategically however, I’m actually looking forward to construct my own stocks portfolio investing in good companies with strong fundamentals and have tried digesting such knowledge by reading Value Investing philosophies and learning from investment mentors or gurus such as Warren Buffet through their books.

Going forward, I’m looking into redefining this strategy and step up on the efforts to setup a trial portfolio.

Update : For your convenience, here are all the links to the Vision Board Experiment logs :

• Want to Join Me in a Vision Board Experiment?
• Preparing for my Vision Board…
• How I Created My Vision Board – Revealed!
• 5 Steps to Getting More Out of Your Vision Board Experience
• Vision Board Experiment: Interesting Spate of Events
• Vision Board Experiment: How’s Your Vision Boarding Coming Along?
• Vision Board Experiment: One Year Later…

But these days, I’ve got another reason to peer into my laptop for hours. Well, the title has said it all. I’ve been watching The Success Training Network programs.

Now, What is this The Success Training Network You’re Talking About?

The Success Training Network (“TSTN”) is the first broadband television channel that allows its subscribers to watch and listen to the world’s top success motivational speakers and trainers via the Internet. It has got some of the best speakers that I’ve known and liked, such as Brian Tracy, Jim Rohn, Bob Tractor (I knew him from The Secret – The movie about the Law of Attraction!), Stephen Covey and covers a wide spectrum of topics from self improvement areas such as goal setting, success creation, time management, motivation to other subjects like health & nutrition, real estate investment and sales & marketing.

I first knew about TSTN through another motivational site back in July 2006. But being prudent and cautious, I usually refrained from subscribing to such paid services until I’ve done adequate research on them. TSTN’s 14 7 days free trial, which was started a few months back made it a no brainer, though I scoffed initially at the idea of providing my credit card information at the point of registration. Well, they said it’s to ensure that the service will not be interrupted should I decide to continue with the subscription. In my opinion, I choose to think of it as a measure to prevent people from exploiting the free trial.

How’s their Service and errhhh… Content?

Upon registering and confirming my email address, I was notified to download the TSTN SplashStream Player. SplashStream delivers the TSTN interactive guide with Live and on Demand functionality. That means, with this nifty piece of software, I’ll be able to access the new or telecasted shows on my laptop. Cool yeh?

Before you start thinking that I’d been having a nice time watching the shows since day one, I’d to admit that there were some technical glitches with installing the player. But the technical support staff at SplashStream was pretty helpful and knowledgeable. He sent me a detailed guide to install and configure the latest Microsoft Media Player on my laptop. If not for the fact that I’m located in Singapore, I’m sure he’d give me a call to resolve that issue. Eventually, he did a remote access to my laptop, checked the settings and confirmed that it’s a bandwidth problem. I was quite impressed with their dedication to make things work for their customers. Great work! Nonetheless, it’s always “safe” to know that there’s an alternative to watching the shows via the SplashStream. You can login to their secured subscriber page to access only their live shows.

Content wise, all the programmes on TSTN are original productions that you can’t find elsewhere and I’ve got to say they’re of a certain quality. The other day, I was just watching this show “Maximize Your Memory” Part 2 (Ep 2) - by Ron White and I was pretty intrigued with the way he interacted with the audience. He revised the memory maximization techniques with the crowd and tested a few members’ newly acquired memory skills on the spot. While I was viewing the show, I felt as if I was attending a thousand-odd-dollars’ paid seminar, very entertaining and informative. But it was rather difficult for me to follow the entire structure of the talk because I’ve missed out the 1st part of the series. So, if you’re signing up for this service, do make sure you keep track of the program sheet to ensure that you don’t miss out any of the good stuff.

Want to download the programs to your iPod Video or laptop for viewing offline? Ditch the idea because currently, TSTN does not have any recording function on their SplashMedia player nor does it provide offline downloads on their subscriber page. Seriously, I don’t think subscribers are allowed to use commercial recording software to tape the programme to prevent any copyright privacy issues (but I may be wrong). So, if you want to view the programmes offline, you’ll probably have to purchase the faculties’ DVDs, CDs from TSTN’s web store.

So, Overall, Do You Like It?

Well, yes. If you’re someone who’s looking for a dash of motivation every day and consistently on the lookout for new inspirations and ways to improve yourself like me, you’ll like TSTN. You’ll also find the new perspective that TSTN’s offering as refreshing. But one warning though. Don’t get addicted. Or else, you’ll find yourself having dark circles like I now do.

Join TSTN’s 14 7 day Free Trial here

The 2 of them looked at each other for 3 seconds and suddenly burst out laughing. “Nobody would rate Robert Kiyosaki’s Rich Dad Poor Dad as a life changing book! I’ve read it, it’s nice but in my opinion, it’s too hyped up.” Karen took a sip from the cup of cappuccino on the table in front of her “And besides, I don’t believe in any book promoting materialism.”

Seriously, it wasn’t the first time that I’d heard nasty comments about Robert Kiyosaki Rich Dad Poor Dad. If you do a search for “Robert Kiyosaki” in Google, you’ll probably come across a few sites that condemn this book. In fact, there is this pretty impressive article written by John T. Reed that literally crucify Kiyosaki and seem to imply many parts of his book as a compilation of lies.

Now, if this book is really that bad, why did millions of readers (including myself) who had bought his book, still read it?

Who is Robert Kiyosaki?

The first time I get to see Robert Kiyosaki in person was in 2005 when he came down to Singapore for an Asia world tour. A roly poly man in his late fifties, Kiyosaki first shot to fame in 1997 when he published his famous paperback Rich Dad Poor Dad. Since then, he has written 18 books with a combined sale of over 26 million copies. I must admit I wasn’t too overly impressed with his performance during the world tour seminar. The whole talk seemed more like a sales pitch for his other workshops and books than anything motivational or inspiring, a very different experience from what I’ve gone through reading his books.

Prior to becoming an author and motivational speaker, Robert Kiyosaki served in the Marine Corps as a helicopter gunship pilot during the Vietnam War. In 1974, he left the Marine Corps and landed in a sales position with Xerox Corporation selling copier machines. His first success in the business world came with a company started in 1977, which sells the first Nylon and Velcro “surfer” wallets. Competition was stifle and he was forced to close down the business.

In the early 1980s, however, Robert Kiyosaki had to declare bankruptcy after a failed business venture to sell licensed T-shirts for Heavy Metal rock bands. He became homeless.

Against all odds, he decided to tap into the buoyant business and investment education industry and started his own company in 1985 that educates students all over the world about financial literacy. In 1994, at the age of 47, Robert Kiyosaki sold his business and officially “retired”. Around 1996 or 1997 he formed Cashflow Technologies, Inc. which operates and owns the Rich Dad (and Cashflow) brand.

Coinciding with the books, Robert Kiyosaki also invented a board game for the financially illiterate, Cashflow 101, which is the first of two board games designed to educate people about accounting, investing and finance, with Cashflow for Kids being the second game.

What’s the Rich Dad Poor Dad Story About?

Robert Kiyosaki starts by narrating his childhood story about the 2 Dads that he had: his real Dad, a highly educated academic who followed strict conventions, principles and felt that one should get a good education, a job for a higher earned income and so on; his best friend’s Dad who taught him principles about “making money work for you”, which evidently became the fundamentals in the book.

Personally, I felt one of the reasons why this book is a success is because it puts across financial concepts simple enough for the man on the streets to comprehend. If you choose to digest this story as if it’s a fictional novel, you’ll probably enjoy it as much as I do.

Here’s my 2 cents worth about Robert Kiyosaki’s Rich Dad Poor Dad:

• If You Are Expecting A Step by Step Winning Formula To Getting Rich,

  cast this book away, because you will likely be disappointed. However, the thought provoking concepts will probably inspire you to think out of the box and search for the “ways” yourself. Well, at least that was what it had done for me. Not only did I finish the book within 2 days, I’ve noticed a paradigm shift in my mindset towards certain values in my life. For example, previously I thought the only way to gainfully succeed was to slog your guts out on a job and endure somewhat unrealistic deadlines or demands that your boss was piling onto you, at the expense of losing sleep or precious time with loved ones. Now, come to think of it. It’s sad. We break our health to earn wealth only to use this wealth to gain back our health when we are old?

• Be Prepared for A Reality Check

  as you may find yourself much poorer than you think you are. Why? Because Robert Kiyosaki will tell you that your home is a liability instead of an asset and if your expenses are more than your income, you are having a negative cash flow every month that will leave you stranded in the “rat race”.

• This Book Is Not Just About Money

  It talks about making money work for you through a carefully researched financial education so that you have more time to manage other personal areas of your life. This underlying message is the main reason why I actively promote this book. Life is not just about money, but the value of what money can bring to us, especially time. Time to “be there” for your kids through their growing up years, time to care for your elderly parents, time to spend on weekday escapades with your spouse etc.

At the end of the day, how you infer from Robert T. Kiyosaki’s Rich Dad Poor Dad really depends on how aligned his concepts are with your values. For me, there’s more to life than money, and that is what struck a chord.

Read it and decide for yourself.