- I was born in Hong Kong and that's my baby photo.
Everybody say, "ah" (crowd ahs)
Thank you.
And I was born in Hong Kong,
I came to Canada years ago with no money,
no connections and not a word of English language on my lips
as you can hear, I still speak with an accent.
And some of my friends,
they say I still speak like Jackie Chan. (laughter)
I think I'm better than Jackie Chan.
More tickler than Jackie Chan.
And, that's me, playing at the piano.
I don't know why, when I was very young, my mom
always dressed me in pink and light blue
and stuff like that, don't know why,
but she just likes to do that.
And, when I was growing up my parent and I,
my parent, my mom and dad got divorced
when I was 16 years old.
And that's one of the reasons why we immigrated
to Vancouver, Canada.
Because my mom didn't want to stay in the relationship
because unfortunately, my dad had an affair.
And that's what happened.
So, if you could imagine,
going to a new country where
you don't speak the language.
So, growing up, I didn't have a lot of confidence.
I wasn't one of those people that
had big dreams that I was gonna do this,
I was gonna do that.
I wasn't one of those people that
had great talents.
I wasn't one of those people that
know all the right people in all the right places.
'Cause when I first came to Canada,
I didn't know anybody, I did not know anybody.
So, growing up, I was a loner.
A loner all the way through high school.
I remember I was going to the high school in Surrey,
at the time, called Guildford Park.
When I was going there, I was one of the only three
Chinese in my school.
And I got beat up quite a few times
by just the kids, they're gonna tease me,
they made fun of me.
How many of you still have friends
from those high school days, just curious?
Wow, good for you, 'cause I have none. (laughs)
None, like none.
I have a few enemies though. (laughs)
But that's it. (laughs)
And I started my first business, when I was in high school,
with a couple of my buddies.
Mowing lawns for people in our neighborhood.
I got into business by pure accident.
I got into business because I didn't have a choice.
I don't believe I am a born entrepreneur, that's not,
money has never been a big motivator for me.
When I was young, all I thought was,
'cause at the time I was getting beat up.
So, I was into martial arts, I was taking a lot of different
martial art classes.
I thought, you know what?
One day, I would just be a martial art instructor.
I thought that would be my life, that would be it.
And then I found out as a martial art instructor,
you cannot actually make a living. (laughter)
'Cause my Sensei, my instructor at the time,
was making $300 a month.
Okay, so, and he was teaching it in his garage.
I thought, yeah, Sensei, I love you
and maybe that's not the life I want.
And I know at the time that I couldn't provide for my family
working like that, so I had to find a better way.
So, that's how why I got into business.
At the time, I only had a very simple thought,
and this is,
I basically got started on the failure equation.
What kind of equation?
[Audience] Fail equation.
- Failed equation, at the time, I had this thought,
that you know what, DJ? (beep)
Feedback, thank you.
That, what if, I got into business.
What if it takes me
10 years to learn how to succeed in business?
What if I fail these millionaire's income by 90%?
Well, I will still be a lot better off
if I continue working at this dead-end job.
That was my thought process, if I fail by 90%,
if it takes me 10 years, if I'm the dumbest person,
it takes me 10 years to learn how to succeed in the business
I would still be a lot better off
versus working at this dead-end job.
So at the time, the only job I've ever had
was working at a grocery market as a grocery bagger.
You know, the guy's who you were checking out
and then they put your clothes in the bag.
That was the only job I ever had.
I had that job for one year.
How long?
- [Audience] One year.
- One year, and that was the only job.
I've never worked for anyone else but myself since then.
But I've learned something very, very,
very important from that job.
Would you like to know what that is?
(inaudible)
Would you like to know what that is?
- [Audience] Yes.
- I've learned a very important lesson about myself,
and that is this:
I am unemployable. (laughter)
How many of you are unemployable?
(laughter)
I just can't work for anybody else.
I just don't want to have a boss telling me what to do,
what time I get off work, when I can have vacations,
how much I want to make, it's just not my thing.
It's not my thing.
So, I didn't know, so at the time, the business was okay,
lawn mowing business, but a lot of things,
the business wasn't making money.
It wasn't producing, we had nice lawn mower.
We printed out all these flyers,
we were trying to grow the business.
But I just wasn't making enough profit.
Now, at the time, I didn't know
because I didn't know anything about marketing,
I didn't know how to get customers.
And I was being a victim.
A what?
- [Audience] A victim.
- A victim, I was blaming the economy.
I was blaming the customers,
why are they so cheap.
I was blaming the competitors.
I was blaming everyone else but who?
- [Woman] You.
- Me, and then one day I was talking to a mentor of mine.
And, I was asking, "Hey, you know what?
"How come my business is not working, I don't understand.
"I work very hard, I put in long hours,
"what's missing here?"
And then, my mentor was asking me,
"Well, tell me your problem."
"Well, let me tell you what my problem is,
"my customer is cheap,
"the government is taking too much of my money,
"I gotta pay taxes, I've gotta,
"the economy's bad and there's too many competitions,
"they undercut my prices and my customers,
"they're just a pain in the ass to deal with anyway."
And my mentor was listening and listening and listening.
And he goes, "Dan, I know what your problem is."
I said, "Please, please tell me."
He said, "I can help you."
"Yes, please, tell me what's the problem."
He said, something I'll never forget, he said,
"Dan, your business sucks, because as a business person
"you suck." (laughter)
Ouch, ouch.
I was looking for some empathy, for God's sakes.
I was for some support, some mentor support, at least.
And he thought, "Yeah, as a business person, you suck."
And I was pissed.
I went home and I thought I couldn't sleep that night.
And I was thinking about what he said.
And I thought to myself, maybe, as business person,
there is something I don't know.
There is something I don't know.
So, what I'm saying to you is,
if you are not getting the results you want
in business right now,
maybe there's something we don't know.
You might be missing just a few key pieces
of information.
You may be very close to it and you don't even know it yet.
You don't even know it yet.
And at the time, the only asset that I had,
I don't know if you can see the word,
was a white Ford Escort Sedan with 150,000 miles on it.
It's a piece of crap. (laughter)
And I bought the car from a friend from my mom,
my mom's friend, for $2,500, $2,500.
How many believe I overpaid? (laughter)
Yes, I overpaid, now you can't see,
but actually the passenger door doesn't work.
So when I had to drive my mom to buy groceries
and stuff like that,
she'd have to go through the driver seat.
So every time she has to go in there
and then go in here
and then she'll do the rush hour thing coming up--
every time, every time.
And, but at the time, that's all that I could afford.
That was the only asset that I had.
And, at one point, because I lost so much money
in my business ventures,
I was living off credit cards, I had multiple credit cards
and I would take one credit card and max it out.
And I would get a second credit card and max that one out.
I was borrowing money from friends and family just
to pay off all these debts, all these losses I had
in my business.
And every time I'd call my friends,
I was asking if I could borrow some money.
Eventually, I joined the N-F-L club,
do you know what that is?
(inaudible)
No friends left, some of you are familiar with that.
So no friends left, they wouldn't take my call anymore.
They wouldn't take my (laughs) call anymore.
And
how many of you have been in a place where
you felt that there's just
no hope coming from anywhere? (beeps)
Oh, that's my feedback, it's good, good?
Thank you, so no hope from anywhere?
At the time, I was
I hit rock bottom and I didn't know.
I didn't know if I should kept going.
I was doubting myself if this is for me.
Am I cut out to be an entrepreneur?
And I didn't know.
'Cause there was no place coming from anywhere.
There's no hope, there's no help coming from anyone.
I was just all by myself.
But I never gave up.
Do you know why I didn't give up?
Do you know why?
- [Man] Why?
- 'Cause I couldn't afford to. (laughter)
And that's the truth.
I couldn't afford to.
Because of all the debt, if I was just to get a job
to pay off those debts it would take decades.
And I couldn't afford to because I know,
at the time, the only goal that I had, at the time,
was to buy my mom a home.
That was that.
And I know I couldn't afford to purchase a home
working, to have a J-O-B, a job.
So, I couldn't, I couldn't afford to give up.
So I kept going and I kept going, I kept going.
So I want you to know, maybe,
if you are struggling right now,
if you hit rock bottom of your business right now,
that's okay.
Because I've been there,
I've been there.
Because sometimes in life, you know what I've learned?
Sometimes in life you break down before you break through.
Sometimes in life, just when you thought
you couldn't get any worse,
because success, write this down,
success is on the razor's edge of failure.
Success is on the razor's edge of failure.
When you thought it couldn't get any worse.
When you thought it just couldn't get any darker.
When you were just like, you know what I can't keep going,
I just want to give up.
When you're that close, if you just hang in there
just a little longer, just a little longer.
That's when breakthroughs happen.
I started and failed at 13 businesses
before having my first success.
13 businesses.
Most people would have given up
on the third one, the fourth one, the fifth one,
the sixth one.
I became a millionaire by the age of 27,
multi-millionaire by the age of 30s.
Who'd have thought a poor immigrant boy
could accomplish all this?
And it's not because I'm so smart.
It's not because of that.
It's because I did not give up.
I would've tried 20 businesses, if I had to.
I would've tried 30 businesses, if i had to.
Because, what I've learned is,
once you have that entrepreneurial bug,
you just can't go back.
How many follow what I'm saying, yes?