My Take On Property Seminars
Let me start by relating my recent experience at a 3 day property seminar by Robert Allen in Kuala Lumpur and the main topic was “Multiple Streams of Income”.
There was a lot of hype and fanfare promoting this seminar during the National Achievers Congress 2010. It was my first experience at this congress that is held yearly and what can I say – it was also an expensive affair! My wallet was considerably lighter after that event…Anyway, that story is for another day..
Let me get back to the seminar …
I was really looking forward to attending it as Robert Allen was supposed to be one of the top gurus in property investing, and being a liberated investor (will have to explain that too one fine day), I was all eager and excited. Well, so much so that I could not sleep that night..almost as excited as when I had my first date! Well, almost..
I got there a little early and there was already a long queue of people waiting to get into the hall. So finally I registered myself and lo behold, we were all given a cheap looking binder with some blank pieces of paper in it..That should have given everyone an idea what to expect from the event..well, at that time, I did not put one and one together but after the event, I did…yes, a little too late I must say..
The second kind of “warning” of what was to come was when I spotted another guy whose seminar I attended as well and I went up to him to ask him what was he going to speak about..He said “no idea” – depends on the moment or something like that..wow, so much for preparation, I thought to myself..
A binder with blank paper and a speaker who does not know what he is going to talk about….tee too tee too..warning bells should be ringing off by now..you think…well, no I was still in the “zone’ so to speak..
Finally, the seminar started and there were a few hundred people in the room and who paid big bucks to attend and I could sense the air of expectation and excitement in the air..
Anyway, Bob (we were given “permission” to call him Bob as he said we, the attendees are his friends now) more or less started the seminar by showing us a slide of his current house with swimming pool and all. Yes, that included his study room and library, and how one fortunate soul amongst us will get the opportunity to stay in his house..I dont remember how that one person will be chosen – well I was not interested so me being me, when I am in that disinterested mode, my memory is rather short ! Like my height..
I was thinking to myself as to why he would assume that all of us would want to stay in his house – yes, it huge and has a swimming pool but to fly 20+ hrs for that?? Well maybe for the chance to be close to Bob and his family …but again to fly 20+ hours for that?? Ok I have to confess – I hate flying..maybe that is the problem..Maybe not..I would fly 20+hours to get a chance to spend time with Suze Orman or Hillary Clinton…
Bob then proceeded to ask if we have managed to get hold of his USD1 million dollar notes that he distributed at the congress. Some of the participants were literally flying off their chairs to get to the stage to get the dollar note! Wow, I thought to myself..imagine if the dollar notes were REAL that would be mayhem for sure – I imagine I would even sprout wings and fly across the hall to get my hands on the notes! I just sat and watch bemused thinking that Bob is just warming us up…whatever that means..
Moving on, we were then separated in groups of 7 depending on what we have selected as our main streams of income – real estate, network marketing, internet marketing or infopreneuring. I thought – yes, good, now we getting somewhere. I chose real estate and in my group there was a lawyer, 2 real estate guys, a banker, a plastic surgeon, another young lady from Singapore and myself. We were then told to come up with a name and a logo for our group and this info will be put up at the side of the hall for all to see. Ours was called “SYNERGY” – yes sounds quite good until we discovered another group having the same name across the hall..so much for our creativity..Anyway, it reminded me of my school days when we were given a theme of some sort and we had to come up with a drawing as well. These were also pinned on the class board for all to see..same same..deja vu I thought..
We were also told that for our home assignment we have to think of a personal logo and each one of us has to place that below our group logo the next morning. I have to admit that by that time I was less than enthusiastic about the whole idea as I just dont see the point of it. Yes, I did finally submit mine which was done in a big rush in the morning of the 2nd day, and well, even a 2 year girl could do better but what the heck, I thought! No one would noticed anyway in a sea of drawings…
Forgot to mention that even the promise of a “huge reward” from Bob for the best drawing/logo did not get me any excited..just as well, I did not bother…More of that later..
A guest speaker from Singapore came on stage and his name was Jerome. I “know” him as I also attended his seminar prevously. So okay, that was another deja vu for me as most of the stuff he has to say were just a repeat from the seminar I attended. At the end of it, he was trying to recruit some attendees for a tour of some Penang properties that he was trying to market up north. I thought what a good way to leverage on each other ..
That more or less covered the first day of the seminar, and I remembered thinking to myself in bed that night as to what I had learned and I could not think of anything significant. Well, maybe I should pay more attention the next day, I thought…it has to be me..well, it was not me as I discovered on the 2nd and 3rd day!
2nd day came rolling along and the main “highlight” of the day was when a successful internet marketer, Patric, came on stage. For the first hour, he was narrating to us regarding his humble background and showing us slides of his holidays overseas, his first fancy car and second fancy car. That was for one full hour..by that time, I was hearing rumblings of discontent from my team mates. One started opening a newspaper and reading some property article which I was also trying to read but was unsuccessful..Then another team member’s head started rolling from left to right as he dozed off! By that time I was cracking up! That was the “highlight” for me ..After that we went off for a short break, and when I came back, both the team mates have disappeared. One to watch the Thomas Cup match, and the other, I have no idea where he went to.
Then Bob came on again. Bob then touched on the topic of “fears” as he said that most of us would have some fear that is stopping us from achieving our goals. So we have to write down our fears which we did. Then he selected a few attendees that had chronic fear of public speaking and proceeded to make them speak up about what was it that they fear and whether this had something to do with a traumatic childhood incident of some sort. He seemed to be able to “cure” a couple of people of their fear of public speaking – I thought that this should be a separate session on its own at the very least..I just dont buy it that you can really get over a life long fear within that few minutes. I could well be wrong but I dont think so.
3rd day – whew, finally the last day. We were given like 10 minutes to present our team logo and the winning teams will be awarded prizes. Wow, I thought to myself – this was the great prize that Bob mentioned earlier and I wonder if it was a trip to Bora Bora or maybe to Hawaii..That would be cool. After everyone has presented and I must say ours was quite lame really. Step to the left, step to the right and then to the front, throw your arms up and yell out your team/s logo – that was the gist of our “show”.
Anyway, just as well, we did not break our brains to come up with some winning presentation – first prize was a grand RM100 (for those of you who earns and think in USD that would be about USD30), 2nd prize was RM50 /USD15 and RM10 (wont even bother to convert in USD). All to be shared among 7 team members. Come to think of it, we wouldnt have won even if we wanted to as we did not have the oldest attendee in our team or someone young and thin enough we could throw in the air! Just kidding..
Bob brought up the fear subject again from yesterday’s session and brought a woman who had a chronic fear of speaking in public up on stage. She seemed to claim that she had overcome her fear but as she continued stammering along, it was apparent that she was still as nervous as before.
We were then given a wooden board each and then we had to write our fears on one side and on the other, we had to write what we thought we will become after our fears were gone. Then we had to break the board with our bare hand.Get this – we first have to sign an indemnity form to say that we will not hold the organizers of the seminar responsible should we sustain injuries from breaking the board – that was more or last the gist of it. Duh..since we were given a hammer to “help” us along, I opt to use the hammer instead. Not worthwhile breaking my wrist for that – I may have a new fear after that!
Well the big question is – did it work? At least for me, it didnt..
I have to talk about the Inner Circle..Bob announced that he will be “selecting” a small group of people to be part of his Inner Circle who will have the priviledge of staying in the new house that he is building in the States. Earlier he had showed us some slides of his huge new house that he was building with a 7ft or so fire place and stone carving from Bali. So whoever gets into the Inner circle will be given the opportunity to spend time with Bob in his current and new homes and access to his library, study room, swimming pools and what not. All for a price of course..A cool USD11K for each person. One of my team members said that for that money, he might as well just take his whole family to Disneyland! Ahem..I said, I dont like flying so I will pass..:)
So who wants to be in Bob’s inner circle? Hands went up in the audience and Bob said – whoever gave him their credit cards would get the chance to be “selected” to be a member of his Inner Circle. Some people rushed up to give their credit cards. One said – can I give my ATM card? That too was accepted.
I dont know what was the criteria of selection if it was based on credit cards and even bank cards. Maybe the color of your credit card? I dont know, I was just wondering aloud..
I remembered Bob asking some of us what was our “aha” moment..my “aha” moment came when I realised I have paid good money for nothing … Ouch..!
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