National
Achiever’s Conference 2014
13-14 September 2014
Pursuit of human excellence is my passion. So when I got an
opportunity to attend a 2 day National achievers conference in New Delhi I knew
I couldn’t miss this.
These 2 days were awesome where I listened to some of the
best minds from various industries and soaked their knowledge.
I will share my experiences and key learning points from
each speaker so this can also add value to the readers.
Day 1
I reached at around 7:10 at Thygaraj stadium and got parking
easily as I realized I was an early bird, though there were many people around.
Slowly people started adding up, we went to the registration counter and saw
Success Gyan/Success Resources staff, unfortunately they were all clueless on
which counter is for GOLD and which for SILVER. Toilets were not opened up so
people started complaining and shouting about the miss management of the event.
Event staff was college going girls and boys and they themselves were not trained
to handle this kind of mob. Finally things started to fall into place and
registrations began. I was waiting for my friend and when he came we both
registered they gave us a wrist band and a thick workbook for the conference. I
saw one of my uncle there, he came with his son (ohh people from all walks of
life were coming) I appreciate he brought his son who is in college now. I met
two other mentors of mine whom I didn’t expect there. So I was surprised to see
people with a common goal (which is learning) from uncommon backgrounds there.
We took seat in the auditorium by around 8:15 and the
program started sharp at 8:45 AM. The environment was electric as they played
uplifting music and videos. Though I saw less than expected people in the
auditorium (approx 1500-2000) may be the audi was much bigger.
We were sitting just behind DIAMOND class which was 50K
ticket. Master of ceremony Mr. Mike Attram kicked off the 1’st National
achievers conference in India (it is running in its 22’nd year now and India
got its taste in 2014)
Speaker 1: Les Brown
I have heard about him and may be also read 1 or 2 books
written by him. He is a 70 year old speaker on stage and my god he was
thundering on stage. Each one of the audience was captivated by his presence
and speech. He spoke for 90 mins and promised to come back again next morning.
He has beaten cancer recently.
Some notes from his session:
·
Most people have entertainment driven mindset-
If this was a rock show the numbers would be much higher.
·
Make your move before you are ready
·
I never worked for major corporations but today
I train AT&T, IBM, McDonalds etc.
·
Develop your mind- Improve your communication
skills
·
OQP- Only quality people (Who is in your ears)
·
2 types of relationships we have:
a. Nurturing
relationships
b. Toxic
relationships
c. Ask
yourself what this relationship is doing to me
·
Possibility blindness
·
Live full- Die empty
·
If you die today what things, ideas,
possibilities dies with you.
·
When things go wrong, don’t go with them
·
If you do what is easy your life will be heard,
if you do what is hard your life will be easy
·
You have to make tough decisions- You can’t
anticipate life.
·
Dreams come with a price- what are your 5
compelling reasons to go on when life catches you on the blind side.
·
People who are successful today are willing to
do things today others won’t do.
·
Indiscipline life is insane life- Socrates
·
You are going to fail yourself to success
·
AND ALWAYS REMEMBER you have greatness in you.
Speaker 2- Sidra Jafri
She is from Pakistani origin and living in UK for many
years. She is the founder of The Awakening & Global Leader in
Consciousness. Honestly I never heard of her before. I found her dress slightly
distracting as it was shimmering and focus was diverted because of that.
She talked at length about women empowerment, importance of
women to be financially independent and how she found her calling in her
current work. A little bit about abuse she faced from the society and her
father as they desperately wanted a boy. Her parents were never blessed with a
boy as 3 of them are all daughters and irony of life is that she has got 2 boys
now.
Some notes from her session:
·
If a women is struggling in her life how can she
raise kids with high self esteem
·
Men are head of family, Women are neck of
family. Head move where neck want it to move.
·
Start playing more roles into your life. Take up
different projects – business/ social/ hobby so you have other things to fall
back to when people criticize you in 1 field you have others to support you.
·
Whenever people start communicating relations
become toxic
·
Person who controls finances, controls
relationships (That’s why women should work)
·
Man’s self esteem is plugged into his bank
account, women’s self esteem is plugged into 2 things- How beautiful she looks
and how much money she makes.
·
To learn tools of success in your life have FUN
– Finally understands nothing (be playful like a child)
·
Don’t let emotions guide you, use STOP:
Stop-Think- Options- Proceed
·
We all have 4 bodies:
a. Physical
b. Mental
c. Emotional
d. Spiritual
·
What I appreciate, it appreciates
·
Steps for awakening
a. Step
1: Become an observer of life
b. Step
2: Have a reality check
c. Step
3: Forgive the past
d. Step
4: Align personal will with divine will
e. Step
5: Take inspired actions
·
You spirits agenda is to experience life.
I found her session not at par with Les Brown’s session as I
connected with her on few points. She is in this business for last 7 years only
and will only improve with time. In the end she promoted Naturals (Life style
partner of the event)
Speaker 3- Dr. Rohan Weerasinghe
He looked Indian but he is from Srilanka and now settled in
UK. Dr. Rohan is a Global Property and investment guru. He asked the audience
to call him “Bawldy” as he had no hair. He used the word “CHA- CHING” to
condition our mind for sound of money. So whenever we like anything that he is
speaking we were supposed to say “CHA-CHING”
Some notes from his session:
·
No point in getting into business if there is no
problem to be solved.
·
Equity does not feed your kids
·
Work hard or work smart- choice is yours
·
Property pays you for life
Brick 1: Education and
Strategy
·
Either you own the property or you own the
contract
·
Financial freedom is achieved when your passive
income exceeds your expenses
·
Cash strategy
·
Passive income strategy
·
Re-educate yourself
·
Mentor- 40 deals first
·
Have a system in place
·
Focus on continued professional development
Brick 2: Market
research
·
House price ratio –
a. Low
3 to 5 (Best time to buy)
b. Medium
5 to 7
c. High
7 and above (Never buy)
·
(1) Strategy (2) Area (3) Property (SAP) in this
order
·
Don’t get emotionally attached to where you live
Brick 3: Raising Money
·
OPM- Other people’s Money
·
Money raising script- will teach in his 3 day
course
Brick 4: Source and
Analyze – Cash flow, Yield and profit (ROI), cash flow is most important
·
Identify distress/desperate sellers
Brick 5: Negotiate and
creativity
Brick 6: Business tax
and purchase
Honestly his focus was to sell his main course for Rs.
59000/- Lot of people was interested in his course but many things he told
works in London for eg. There govt. will keep on giving you loan based on the
price of your previous properties not matter how much loan you have taken
previously, but that doesn’t work in India. So he was advising to come and
invest more in London than any other place. Good thing is he will help analyze
each market within India and abroad, so I guess a lot of property dealers,
investors may be benefitted from his work.
Speaker 4- Peng Joon
He is a young digital marketer from Malaysia. He shared his
story how he screwed-up his life before making it big in internet business. He
looked like a 17 year old kid. He showed lot of video testimonials and also
shown his Gmail account where he receive payment confirmation from the sales of
his online product business.
Some notes from his session:
·
He sells only 2 things on internet and makes
millions
a. E-books
b. Membership
sites
·
Benefits of this business:
a. Low
cost + High profit margins
b. Only
need domain name + hosting charges
c. Fully
automated
d. No
limit
·
Strategy to succeed in this business
a. Automat
a niche- He says identify a niche audience, first select a topic and google it,
see how many results it shows then go to relevant forums where people ask lot
of questions on that topic. Once you have identified the product for a niche
audience.
b. Build
a product- Forum is a great place for solutions. You should address top 10
solutions to the problem, hire experts to build product.
c. Convert
customers- Launch it well, get as many customers as possible. One strategy to
do that is to contact the forum owner and work out a revenue sharing model with
him. If you give him 75% of the earnings he will be motivated to sell it for
you
and you will keep on generating 25% of the revenue for long term basis.
This book helps him because his customers are getting the answers of frequently
asked questions.
Peng Joon run a 3 day program called Internet income
intensive where he will help us create our website, give us tools and software.
Overall his session was good as he shared new ideas and
showed what’s working for him. One major learning is that you don’t have to be
an expert to write an e-book. Hire the subject matter expert and pay him. E.g.
someone hired a piano teacher and recorded her for 8 hours, then broke it up
with 15 min. each lesson and created a home study course on how to play piano
like an expert. I liked the idea but decided not to pay Rs. 60000/- for his
course of 3 days.
Speaker 5- J.T Foxx
Now this was one speaker who was only selling and that too
very aggressively. He was a smooth talking American who wanted to impress
everyone by showing his photos and videos with Richard Branson, Donald trump
and Arnold Schwarzenegger etc. He is a wealth coach and helps other businesses
in marketing, branding and positioning to increase revenue.
Some notes from his session:
·
Never quit on yourself
·
Whatever it takes
·
Go big or Go home
·
Earn more work less
·
Speed of implementation matters
·
The moment you come up with an idea and you take
action that determines how successful you become.
5 keys to your
first million:
a. Marketing
b. Branding
c. Attract
buyers
d. Raising
capital
e. Networking
with millionaires
·
My network is my net-worth
·
Personal brand- How great you are
·
Company brand- How great you are to your client
·
Awareness | Education | Consideration | Action
·
First to market
·
IDEA- Innovation | Determination | Engagement |
Action
·
What gets measured gets managed
·
What gets rewarded gets repeated
·
If it’s meant to be, it’s up to me
I could see a lot of people were impressed by his delivery
which I found to be too high pitched and aggressive. I desperately needed a cup
of tea after this session.
Few branding stunts I got from him were- Click photos with
every famous man and use it unapologetically everywhere. He has his tie company
so what he also does is-he ask the celebrities like Arnold or Steve Wozniak
(Co-founder Apple) to wear them when they come to his events. Next year he is
calling Al-Pachino and Silvestre Stallone to his event called mega partnering.
Speaker 6- Mahatria Ra
Now apart from internationally acclaimed speakers like
Robert Kiyosaki and Les brown I was definitely looking forward for this man’s
session- Mahatria Ra. Few years back I stumbled upon his monthly magazines
called Frozen thoughts and took an
yearly subscription. The magazines were really good, the message was clear. His
style was backed by substance. Later I came to know that the magazine is no
more in circulation and Mr. TT Rangarajan has now transformed into Mahatria Ra
and formed a cult called Infitheism.
I got skeptical that is this next OSHO in making. I watched his youtube video
and was impressed by his delivery and simplicity of message. Only thing that
kept me at distance was fear of getting into scientology type cult (in this
case infinithism). As they say learn good things from anywhere I sat through
his session. By the way during lunch while talking to some people we came to
know a lot of people have come to listen only him. Atleast 40 ppl came from
Pune alone. When we asked Why Delhi, they told me that he is not coming to the
Bangalore event. Surprisingly we couldn’t see those ppl on Day 2 (I think they
went back after his session). Before he came on stage lot of people started
waving blue ribbon which I guess was color of infitheism. But man putting all
the logics and reasons and apparent fanaticism aside when the man came and
spoke he was divine (No I am not joining Infitheism but surely I will keep a
close tab on his teachings and soak as much as possible.
Some notes from his session:
·
You challenging yourself
·
Great manufacturer don’t create ordinary
products. E.g. When new Apple phone launches you rush to buy one, but you
haven’t tried that product still you trust the manufacturer. Similarly God is a
great manufacturer he has created only extra ordinary product- which is you. We
are all great products but underutilized human potential
·
Past does not equal future
·
Possibility of infinite
·
Don’t think you have come up from “Where to
where” start asking yourself from “here to where” E.g. Narendra Modi Chai wala
to PM is a great story to read in autobiography but now we are interested in
from here to where. Sachin Tendulkar, Barak Obama.
·
Yesterday’s success do not deserve today’s
applause
·
Be contended about your past and be ambitious
about your future
·
When source meets object with intensity
transformation happens
·
6 Step formula:
Expect more from
myself-
a. Expectations
over which you have no control is a wish e.g. City pollution should be less
b. Expectations
over which you have control is a desire e.g. I will raise my immunity level so
that pollution don’t affect me.
c. Do
not settle for an ordinary life
d. Aspire
to completely do justice to human potential
Align myself with
highest work ethics
e. If
I take up something I will not leave it incomplete so that someone else don’t
need to complete it
f.
I will not compromise on the standards I set for
myself
g. Look
forward for Mondays in life. Whatever lifestyle you live or have is because of
your work. (Thank God it’s Monday)
Back it up with
relentless intelligent effort
h. What
can be done by others should be done by others, then only you can do what only
you can do. E.g. Child can learn Maths by a Maths tutor but loving a child only
you can do.
Treat short term
success as motivation
i.
Let it not feed your Ego.
Treat short term
failures as maturity gains
j.
Never analyze yesterday’s decision with today’s
maturity
k. Keep
going- Keep growing
Find a way to
factor those divine vibrations into your dreams
l.
(Energy + Effort + Faith)
m. Arjuna
couldn’t fight the war
n. Krishna
wouldn’t fight the war
o. With
Krishna (energy), Arjuna (Effort) and Arjuna’s faith in Krishna it happened
This was the best thing that happened to me on Day 1
Day 2
Day 2 started early as I reached the venue at 7:30 still
early bird. Anyway the entry started at 8:30 only. Today also I was able to
grab the first row just like yesterday (I has to sprint for it)
Program started on 8:45 sharp again with Mr. Les brown
Speaker 1: Les Brown
Almost all of these speakers weaved their story with
personal photographs of their early childhood, growing up years etc. Their
slides only contain 1 line or 1 word with a full size photograph. Mr. Brown
shared many stories and incidents from his life establishing his credibility
and passion towards his work- which is to make us successful.
Some notes from his session:
·
Your ability to communicate is your passport to
your world
·
Find a compelling why- His “why” was to give his
mother financial security
·
Be the
voice of your business
a. Not
just “a” speaker but “the” speaker
b. When
you pursue greatness you don’t know what your limits are so you act like you
don’t have any
c. Never
make a point without a story and never tell a story without a point
·
Be
coachable: Some time you have to believe in someone’s belief in you
till your own belief kicks in.
·
Be
creative: Find ways to make yourself stand out- e.g how he got his
first break as a Radio jockey
·
Be
determined: Giving up is not an option
·
Be
thankful: Best is yet to come
·
Be
thoughtful: Reflect, next move, strategies
·
Be
Active: I am Unstoppable
·
Be
connected: Don’t be the smartest person in the group- move to another
group. Surround yourself with people more intelligent than yourself
·
Be
patient: See it through
·
Be
passionate: You have got to be hungry
·
Provide more services than you are paid for
·
Give something before you ask, get the foot
inside the door
Mr. Brown shared
about his 2 day course on how to use effective story telling techniques and be
a powerful communicator. Quite a few people registered in his program.
Speaker 2- Sidra Jafri
This time I only
listened to her and not made any notes. She told some stories like Freddie the
frog- where a frog’s indecision to get out of the boiling water lead to his
death.
She also promoted
her 2 day program which she will conduct later this year.
Overall I felt she
was okay nothing much.
Speaker 3- Courtney Smith
He is a history making stock market
investor. As I didn’t had any interest in stock broking I went out of his
session to have tea and snacks. Later when I came back he was explaining about
his program, what I liked about was that first he will teach the basics of
trading, then he will give some of his money to trade if we do well then he
will give more money to play with. What I liked as a trainer was generally
people learn concepts but do not practice it later hence new skills learned are
lost. When the practice phase is inbuilt in your learning program then inertia
to start can be overcome and confidence will be built. Secondly if the trainer
is giving his money to play with then the relationship changes from
teacher-student to business partner. He will be equally interested in the
students’ success. Another selling point he shared of the course was that
during the practice phase whatever profit we will make it will share between him
and us. Whatever loss we make it will be absorbed by him.
Speaker 4- Clinton Swaine
Now I was specially waiting for this
speaker because he is from my profession i.e. trainings. So when I came to know
that he is marketed as world leader in experiential business trainings my
interest for his session was high.
He started with a simple phrase
PARTICIPATION=VALUE
Then he gave the example to 2 boys
billy and Johhny who visited Disney house for the first time. Billy was excited
for everything he was reading the map, planning his rides, trying different
rides and was immersed in every moment. On the other had Johnny was sitting
aside making faces as the ride he wanted to take had a long queue. At the end
of the day when their parents asked how was their day. Billy said- I had the
best day of my life. Johhny said- I had the worst day of my life.
He conducted 2
experiential learning activities which I will explain after the notes.
Some notes from his session:
·
When you read any contract, circle all the
numbers mentioned because every number is negotiable
·
RAB: Rules Are Breakable not Laws are breakable
·
Rules are made for the masses- To keep the flock
together and move at the slowest speed
·
Evaluate consequences upfront before breaking
the rules
·
Always be HFC: Hungry for Coaching
·
Feedback is the breakfast for champions
·
Growth happens in struggle
·
Steps to Mastery:
o Commitment-
Knowing Vs owning
o Excellence
e.g. Michelangelo
o Intensity
o Repetition
o Frequency
o Innovation
·
Steps to become Elite:
o Mastery
o Genius-
Ability to accumulate little distinctions as you go along
o Artistry-
Your unique way of doing things
o Driven-
Desire to push had towards your goal. Difference between commitment and Drive
is- When you put an alarm for 6’o clock and you get up at 6 that is called
commitment. When you are driven you wake before 6 and wait for alarm to ring so
you can shut it off.
o Demanding-
Need for resources
o Legacy-
Leaving a unique body of work that lives on after you pass on
·
ECC- Embrace Constant Change
Game 1:
Change the story
2 people will be
paired together. One is called Amazing (for A) and other will be called
Brilliant (For B). A will start any story to tell B and at any point B will
shout change. A have to change the course of the story and adapt. This goes on
for 3 mins ultimately the story becomes very funny. Then after 3 mins B will
start and A will shout change.
The activity focus
on being adaptable to change as in business and life things changes
unexpectedly.
There was not
debrief from Clinton, but I debriefed my partner J
Game 2: Pay to Play
On a page there were
18 conditions like:
·
Born in October
·
Eye Glasses
·
Painted toenails
·
Masonic ring etc.
We had Rs. 200,000
to spend and in other coloum we can write what we earned.
The objective was to
collect signatures on 18 items from people who have those things.
Keep as much money
as possible in Bank (so negotiation can happen)
Earn as much money
as possible
E.g. I have to find someone who wears an
eyeglass and ask him to sign my copy. He will charge some amount for his
service which I will pay from my bank account. Lets say he charged 2000 for his
sign, then rs 2000 is deducted from my total available balance and he can add
those 2000 in his register under money earned.
So I was able to
take 11 signatures in the allotted time.
During debrief the
trainer asked who has done this activity most out of everyone present, people
said “you” then he asked so how many of you came to me for coaching, I would
have guided you and your path would have been simpler. Secondly have you found
anyone in the room with Masonic ring- No one knew what was Masonic ring was.
Only he was wearing Masonic ring. So actually this activity could not be
completed without asking for help from the trainer. Which no one did.
However, next day I
Googled and came to know what a Masonic ring is.
Finally he was
pitching his course, later I went to him and asked whether we can use your
material for our training he said no, it is his intellectual property. So I
guess I was not interested in spending 20K to attend his program. I clicked a
photo with him J
Speaker 5- Mac Attram
Now he was the master of ceremony and we thought he will not
take a separate session. He spoke at length on the work of T Harv Eker- The
author of “Secrets of millionaire mind” which I have read and admire a lot.
Psychology of wealth (Inner laws of money)
In a tree we see fruits which are results. It comes because of roots.
Results are visible but reasons of those results (roots) are invisible.
We have 4 worlds
·
Outer world
o Physical
·
Inner world
o Mental
o Spiritual
Emotional
Physical world is merely a printout of what’s going on in
the inner world.
Money blueprint- Main program focus a lot on this
Thoughts>> Feelings>> Actions>> Results
Then he was selling T Harv Eker’s signature program which I
would have definitely attended if it was happening in Delhi. Unfortunately it
was happening in Chennai and Bangalore.
Speaker 6- Gerry Robert
Bestselling Author, Mentor and international speaker
Gerry started with jokes and humorous videos. Participants
were really enjoying his humor.
The focus of Gerry’s talk was to innovatively use book as a
marketing tool. He asked how many of you have been thinking of writing a book
for years?
What holds people back?
I shared some statistics of writing your book and publishing
it yourself.
8 steps to publishing
success:
1. Identify
your primary objective of writing a book- Let your primary objective determine
your content, not the other way round.
2. Write
the right content- Find out challenges your target audience face and provide
solutions. Conduct Interviews of people who are successful in their field. Let
go of the literary genius complex.
3. Design
an awesome cover- He will create a cover for us if we do his course
4. Capture
leads- Use it as a marketing tool on your website to capture leads. Create a
lead capturing video- 25-20 seconds max. Give downloadable version for free.
The money is in the database.
5. Boost
sales- Offer it free to prospects. Make it your business card.
6. Get
free publicity- Author announcement campaign
7. Boost
your income- Sell a chapter or sell advt. space in your book
8. Decide
to take action- Which is joining boot camp
I finally decided to join his course and paid the money.
Let’s see how things go in the boot camp which is in October’14. I will add some of his slides in this
section.
Speaker 7- Robert and Kim Kiyosaki
Robert is famous for his best seller book Rich dad poor dad,
which I read many years back and found it useful. He was the main attraction of
the 2 day event. In other words he was the biggest star of national achievers
conference.
Some of his statements were- Rich don’t work for money, Then
what do they work for? | Savers are loosers | House is not an asset but
liability
He gave 8 points in his speech:
·
Value good education- Not school education
infact according to him school education hampers people from growing
financially. Most super successful people never went to school or college
dropouts – E.g. Michel dell, Bill gates, steve jobs etc.
·
Mission- What are you here for
·
Dream Big- Entrepreneur spirit Vs Paycheck
spirit
·
Opposite- In school they say cheating, I say
co-operation| They say use your money, I say use debts
·
Team- Asking for help is cooperation and not
cheating. Don’t be afraid of asking for help from others
·
Mistakes- In school we are punished for our
mistakes. How in the world do we learn if we don’t make mistakes
·
Spiritual- It guides you.
·
Generous- All rich people are generous in
giving. They share their thoughts, ideas and money generously and it comes back
many folds
Assets produce cashflow
Assets
|
Liability
|
Business
|
Home
|
Real
Estate
|
|
Paper
Assets
|
|
Commodities
|
|
I would recommend reading
more work of Robert kiyosaki to understand his concepts.
He differentiates
each earner in one of the four quadrants.
Get out of quadrant
E and S and move to quadrant B or I. When your passive income is more than your
expenses then you are financially free.
Robert and Kim with
their team will do a training program in London in Sept end. He softly promoted
that. RICH DAD POOR DAD also have games and apps he promoted those also. He has
written many books including one with Donald trump, he showed us all. Overall
his teachings are radical but effective however you can’t blindly replicate
everything in India. Interest rates and rents are much different here than the
US. I will surly read his book again sometime this year.
So this was my whole
experience of 2 days of attending National achievers conference. I am going
there next year if it’s happening. I will use 5 things from this knowledge bank
and apply in my life. Will share what’s working for me or not. This whole
exercise of documenting was amazing. I desire to do that often going forward.
If you have reached
this place I salute you man, you have patience. It’s a long document. Thanks
for reading hope it has given some insights to you and you may have taken some
learning from here.
Aseem Gupta
September 2014
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