1

Congratulations for making the investment!

Because of purchasing this book for 10USD,
you are entitled to:

- a free membership in our exclusive

business club: True North Business Club. Just
present the receipt of deposit on our
Facebook page “Mix Jose Page” and like the
page to join. (Valued at 10 USD). We will add
you manually to the secret group.

- A seat on our exclusive webinar “Shipboard

money management”. The good news? You can bring your spouse with you! (Valued
at 100USD).

- A seat on our exclusive webinar “Mastery of emotions”. This could help you manage
your business better and reduce the stress on-board. (Valued at 300USD).

- All the seminars are coordinated through the True North Business Club. The
schedules for our free seminars can be found there. We are still cooking up more
surprises for you. There are going to be more follow up seminars after this book so
make sure you are added to the secret group!

These are my gifts to you. Thank you for patronising our book.
 3

SIGN OFF!
Retire Rich and Early from Seafaring

Copyright © 2018 by Rene Mikail Jose. All rights reserved

4
 5

To Fudge, Ma, Dad, Anj and Bells. You made this all possible!
 6

TABLE OF CONTENTS
Part I. Rediscovering wealth

Chapter I. What is being rich? 14

Chapter II. Absolute VS. relative income 16

Chapter III. The cycle of never ending sign-ons 18

Chapter IV. Designing your life 21

Part II. The gateway to riches

Chapter V. How do you become rich? 25

Chapter VI. The two sides of the coin 29

Chapter VII. Study the right way 34

Chapter VIII. Focus on assets 38

Chapter IX. Money is not the solution to money problems 45

Chapter X. The power of exponential growth 47

Chapter XI. Reducing your contract months to zero 51

Part III. The 23 principles of wealth

Chapter XII. The 23 principles of wealth 54

Principle I. Develop the unbreakable will to win 57

 7

Principle II. Make firm decisions 72

Principle III. Establish an unshakeable belief 79

Principle IV. Walk by faith not by sight 84

Principle V. The past does not determine the future 89

Principle VI. Develop the mindset of a champion 95

Principle VII. Become an expert 108

Principle VIII. Put logic over emotions 112

Principle IX. Practice Proactivity 117

Principle X. Determine the end of the journey 124

Principle XI. Remove procrastination 130

Principle XII. Nurture an unwavering courage 135

Principle XIII. Focus on your value 141

Principle XIV. Have the will to sacrifice 146

Principle XV. Be like the bamboo 153

Principle XVI. Be different 158

Principle XVII. Develop clear thinking 163

Principle XVIII. Take the leap of faith 167

Principle XIX. Pick your master group 172

Principle XX. Adopt the attitude of gratitude 176

Principle XXI. Have a longer time perspective 181

Principle XXII. Leave the comfort zone 187

Principle XXIII. Get past the filter 193

 8

Part IV. Creating your business

Chapter XIII. Getting started 200

Chapter XIV. What is the right business for you? 205

Chapter XV. Buying a business 212

Chapter XVI. Doing your market research 216

Chapter XVII. Estimating your startup cost 224

Chapter XVIII. Making a business plan 230

Chapter XIX. Structuring your business 241

Chapter XX. Picking your location 247

Chapter XXI. Further Education 252

9
 10

INTRODUCTION
 11

INTRODUCTION

Flight PR 509 bound to Singapore on a business trip. As I am writing this book, 30,000
Ft. above ground, I look at the window and see the clouds and the stars in the beautiful
night sky. Sirius, Polaris the north star, I used to get star fixes from those! The last time
I went to Singapore we went for bunkering and provisions. Time flies really fast, I
remember those days when I was navigating the Singapore Strait screaming at the top
of my lungs while small vessels and converging traffic appears to come from every
direction. It is amazing where the smallest decisions can take you. Making those hard
decisions and giving it my full commitment, it really changed my life. Now I am running
multiple businesses and happily retired!

I wrote this book for one reason; to help my fellow seafarers create more options here
on land. Maybe you want to have a small business to help support longer vacations
before signing on again? This book is for you. You aim high and you want to push your
income on land higher to match what you earn on-board and retire immediately? This
book is for you. You have big dreams and want to become a billionaire? Then this is for
you. You want to stop sailing and just travel the world with your loved one while your
business runs and takes care of all the expenses? Then this is for you.

When the seas are rough and most of us are puking all over the place, what we usually
talk about is starting a business. 90% of seafarers want to start a business. But the
problem is we don’t know which business to start and we have no idea how to run a
business! This book is a good way to get you started. There are different aspects of
running a business, from the mindset, to the attitude, to the skills and the specifics,
we will cover most of them.
 12

The dynamics of doing business when you are on-board are tricky. Its unlike building a
business and staying at the Philippines. But it is certainly doable. No matter what age
or stage you are in your career, no matter the obligations and responsibilities, if you
apply these principles and learn the techniques I am about to teach you, you can live
the life of your dreams. From navigating the Singapore strait to driving my own sports
car in the streets of Makati, from sleeping in my cabin to starting my dream beach side
resort. From flying a 24-hour flight to embark on the US, to flying to Maldives and
relaxing in the best resort in the world. From taking a position fix at 6AM to sky diving
14,000 feet above the great barrier reef, one of the seven wonders of the world. All
my secrets are on the palm of your hands. Years of experience, hundreds of books and
seminars, all my talks and training modules, compressed right here in this book.

Let me take you on a journey that will change your life! Let’s set the passage plan.
Smooth seas, fair winds, clear skies and may your last sign off come soon!

Mix Jose,

Retired Seafarer, Entrepreneur, Motivational speaker, Mentor

Author of SIGN OFF: Retire Rich and Early from Seafaring

 13

PART I
Rediscovering wealth
 14

Chapter I. What is being rich?

Rich in all aspects

When you hear the word “rich” what comes to your mind? Is it stacks of money? Sports
cars and yachts? Is being rich really all about possessions and income? Or is there more
to it? I read one of the posts while scrolling on the news feed of my Facebook account,
a rich woman with her money scattered all over the floor. She looks at the doctor with
teary eyes, “What is the use of all this money if it can’t make me heal this cancer. I
have lost my family, now divorced with my husband, and I am sick and dying”.

Being rich is not all about money. Success comes from all aspects of life, financial,
spiritual, time, family and health. You may have success with your financial portfolio,
but you are in bad terms with your children. You may have a complete family, but you
are starving and barely surviving. We seafarers have the money, but many of the
 15

aspects of our lives are sacrificed. We have a house, but we don’t live in it. We have a
car but we don’t drive it. We have a lovely wife, but she sleeps alone in the bedroom.
Unfortunately, on some cases, from a few seafarers that I know, someone else is
sleeping with their wife. “Si Kumpare!”.

The goal here is to enjoy the things money can buy and the things that it can’t. Money
can buy you a house, but not a home. You could have a happy family, but you live under
a bridge. You can have a house and a home at the same time!

The goal is to have more options. If you follow these principles it can happen. You can
eat fried tilapia if you want, or you can eat lobster at a five-star hotel. You can go on-
board, or you can stay at home for the rest of your life. You can bring the kids to school
this coming Monday or you can have the driver do it and just enjoy gardening the
whole day.

There is a win-win scenario. You can have both money and time. You can have both
health and significance at the same time. There is no need to sacrifice one aspect of
life in favour of another. The principles found in this book can make you rich in all
aspects. Seafaring I believe is good tool to bring forth all types of wealth, provided you
do it the right way. Believe me that I personally cannot wait for the day that you finally
find holistic wealth in your life.
 16

Chapter II. Absolute VS. relative income

Which income bigger? 4,000 USD in a business or 10,000 USD per month as a seafarer?
If you passed elementary math like I did, I am sure you know the answer. The seafarer’s
salary is bigger. He is “richer”. But let me change the conditions a bit. What if I told you
its 10,000 USD and 10 hours of work every day for ten months compared to 4,000 USD,
one minute a week of work monitoring your business. Which is bigger now? Relative
to time, its 33 USD per hour for the seafarer, and its 1000 USD a minute for the
entrepreneur.

What if I told you its 10,000 USD but your so stressed from work you want to rip your
own hair off while its 4,000 USD but your sitting pretty looking at your online shop
summarizing all the orders you got selling imported clothes?

10,000 USD but you are in the middle of nowhere, working with people you do not
know. Some of them you are pretty sure is partially insane. You earn 4,000 USD but
you are home with family, watching television and playing with your kids.
 17

What is my point? Absolute income is not the definition of being rich. I know people
earning millions of pesos a month while spending zero time in their business because
they worked hard and established it already. When a person’s income is subjected to
time, stress, location and comfort, that is when you can tell if a person is rich. A deck
rating who runs a burger restaurant and earns 1000 USD a month with a manager
looking over his business while he is staying home is relatively richer than a second
officer earning 4000 USD.

I also know business owners who are earning millions, but are so locked into their
business that they can’t go out of their shop. Their businesses own them. Still that is
not ideal. In business your goal is to get leverage. That means you get other people to
do the job, you mentor and teach them so that relative to time you are rich because
they do all the work!

While working on-board and If you rely solely on it, that’s absolute income all day
every day. No chance of having the ideal 1 minute a week workload, no chance of being
at home and DEFINITELY no chance of not getting stressed. I really encourage everyone
to strive for a great RELATIVE income. Manage your own business and be rich in all
aspects while earning money is the best way to go.
 18

Chapter III. The cycle of never ending sign-ons.

“ If a man wants to get his dreams he must first wake up”

-Habeeb Akande

Jordan entered the academy for seafarers. He did not like seafaring at all, but seeing it
is the best opportunity left for him he decided to just be practical. “I can choose
another course, choose my passion, but my family is going to starve. We don’t have
the money to go to a nice university after all. I won’t get far; I won’t be able to provide.
I’d rather sacrifice for the sake of my family and take this career. It pays good and it’s
all that matters”.

It was going to be hard Jordan says, but it’s free. So he went in, took the exam and
passed. He went thru rigorous military training and was able to graduate with honors.
“Great! I’m going to earn big now!”

As time went by he experienced the hardships of the sea. He got promoted, learned
the trade and went up the ranks. He got married and had two children. His expenses
started increasing. It is a good thing he got promoted again, now a 2nd officer! With
the extra money, he purchased a house. He got the biggest loan he can get to buy that
dream house. Of course it isn’t a house without a garage, and a garage is not a garage
without a car. Eventually his budget becomes tight.

“I have to get promoted again!”. He takes the exam, passes and becomes a chief-
mate. “Since I got promoted I guess this is a good time to buy another property”.
His income increases, but so does his expenses.
 19

His children go to high school; his expenses rise again. “I’m tired of this, I want more
options. Maybe I should start a business and take a longer vacation?” The problem
is that his expenses are too high, his savings go down the drain after two months on
vacation. The car and house mortgage is eating up his savings. His wife serves him
coffee, when he looks inside the cup there’s no coffee. It’s his passport and seaman’s
book inside that cup. “Go on-board” she says. That’s 2 months’ vacation done and
half of it goes to training in Manila. “Sigh. I’ll start a business next time for sure!” He
goes on-board again. “When will I go home? I want to sign off now!” He realizes
there is 9 months and 26 days left till the end of his contract. “I want to start a
business!” Finally, he goes home. He doesn't start a business because the funds went
to their trip to Boracay. “I’ll do it next year I promise!” Next year comes but again,
he spent the money for a new car and the money ran out. He was forced to go on-
board in just a month. This goes on for thirty-five years more, never starts a business,
always running out of money on the first month of vacation. When finally, his career is
over, “I am home!” No one is inside the house. All of his children are already working,
no more source of money but his pension, he asks himself “what the hell happened
to my life?” Later on he discovers he is sick, because of all the stress and fumes he
inhaled on-board a chemical tanker. “Geez, what a way to end the career.”
 20

Sounds familiar to you? This unfortunately is the reality of many seafarers I know. This
is the cycle we go through and I have to say it is not for me. You can choose not to
make this your future. There is a way to enjoy the best of both worlds. To gain huge
income, but stay with your family.

Most probably you are depressed right now. Sorry about that. But do not fret! There
is good news, the principles of this book are universal. Whatever stage you are in your
career, I know full well that it will work. It has been tried and tested and with the high
salary coming from our career, you can create a system that would sustain your dream
lifestyle indefinitely. You can still go on-board if you want, but it will never be an
obligation. It will be optional!
 21

Chapter IV. Designing your life

Looking fresh and excited, Gani walks out of his brand new red mustang. “Here is my
ship. Let us embark!” Boarding a cruise ship to enjoy the fruits of his labor, he went
with his mom and brother, relaxing while still earning passively from his business. It is
hard to imagine that a year ago, he was sleepless, working fifteen hours a day with a
3-on-3 off contract and was very, very unhappy. “ I hate my job. I don’t see myself
doing this for thirty years more. What’s the point? I am the chief officer of the largest
container ship of Maersk line, I earn good money, but is this all there is to life?”

What would you do if money was not an issue? This is a question that very few people
ask themselves. People assume that money is going to be the problem for the rest of
their life. It is going to be if you don't do something about it.

You can design your life the way you want. What does your ideal life look like? If money
was not an issue and you had unlimited amounts, would you go travel the world?
Would you stay at home and take care of the kids? Would you buy a Lamborghini?
Would you setup a gaming rig and lock yourself inside your room? I’d do that!

I’d like you to get a piece of paper and write down your top four dreams. Right now
we will design your dream lifestyle.

For example, it might look like this:

 22

1. Buy a Land Cruiser

2. Stay at home at take care of the kids and play computer games

3. Travel twice a year

4. Live in a 10-million-peso mansion

Now the goals are set, we have to know how much this will cost. I am a firm believer
of building a business and letting the business pay for everything. To make these
dreams come true, I have to know how much my business needs to earn to maintain
these expenses per month.
 23

You will be surprised that just by earning 168 000 pesos in the Philippines, you will be
living in beautiful mansion in the province, staying at home with your kids playing
games, traveling twice to thrice a year and driving your dream car. All of these for
168,000 pesos monthly. Believe it or not that is not impossible through business. It’s
very doable. Gani was able to earn more than that in five months. You just need
coaching and guidance and the right mentor, and you could be living your dream
lifestyle very soon. Eight units of taxis and you can earn that business income. Set up
eleven food carts and hire a manager, or build and loan three apartment buildings.

The 168,000 pesos can be earned in many ways. There are businesses that are
applicable for seafarers, some are easier with our situation, some harder and require
the assistance of our spouse. More on that on the later chapter.

Are you excited? I definitely am. It is clear that you don’t really need to earn that
much to live the life of your dreams. All you need is the guts to take the first step and
the commitment to follow through. Write your top four dreams right now! Most
people would not do the activity. I know you are different!
 24

PART II.

The gateway to riches

 25

Chapter V. How do you become rich?

“By perseverance, the snail reached the ark”

- Charles Spurgeon

Wilfredo Pareto is an outstanding person. He taught me a lot if things and you would
know the guy is great because up to now people use his principles, considering that’s
he has been dead for over a century. He is a French sociologist and economist and he
said that 80% of the world’s money is enjoyed by the upper class; the 20% of the
population. The remaining 20% of the money is being shared by the mass of the people;
the 80%. Sounds complicated? See the illustration below.
 26

To become rich, we must work our way up to the upper 20%. It is not going to be easy,
but it will definitely be worth it.

I’ve seen the smoky mountains in the Philippines. We have one right in Tondo Manila.
When I was young, it is a sight I always see every time I go to school. I remember asking
my mother “Why are there people living beside the heap of trash?” She said because
they were poor and they had no place to live. “Life is unfair” I said. I knew they
were all victims of life and it looks like they were going to be poor the rest of their lives.
Until one day I saw the news. People who were picking up trash when they were kids,
suddenly earning hundreds of thousands in the junk-scrap business. They had huge
houses near their shop, and it made me realize that you can actually refuse to become
a victim of life! You can go and get your dreams regardless of your situation!

There might be a chance that you come from the poorest of the poor. That is
unfortunate. You know, if you were born poor it is not your fault. If you die poor, it is
totally your fault.

Isn’t it sad that only 20% are enjoying most of the resources? The majority are just
barely surviving, trying to take a piece of the remaining 20%. I believe that being
responsible people it is our job to elevate ourselves to the top, so we can help these
people who have barely anything.

The world has always been unfair. If you feel like you are part of the 80% (which most
seafarers are), I have good news for you. Majority of the upper 20% are self-made.
Their wealth was not inherited. They started from nothing, just like us, and made a
success out of their lives. People say “oh it’s because they were rich already.”
 27

That is not true! Have you heard of the saying “easy come, easy go”? Those who
inherit wealth or get the money easily, lose the money easily. Those who are rich now
are the ones who fought for their dreams, regardless of their situation.

Do not blame poverty, if you blame it as the cause of your misery, and you treat
yourself a victim of life, you will never get ahead. Make yourself accountable for your
success and never blame anyone else. Do this and you are in the right path.

Today’s rich are either world class athletes, celebrities or businessmen. If you are not
a world class boxer, or a future Elvis Presley, then our only chance as seafarers really is
business. It’s very exciting in our part that the elite athletes and celebrities are a
minority of the successful. Majority belongs to the businessmen. We have a good
fighting chance! Remember that being seafarers, we earn bigger than most! It is so
easy for us to come up with the capital. We must turn that to our advantage. Some
people who are aspiring to become entrepreneurs come from a job with minimum
wage and yet they were still able to do it. I know a security guard who knew nothing
in business, had 50 friends in Facebook, had a hard time communicating, and is now
running a multi-million-peso business. The capital was so hard to accumulate, and it
took a lot of courage to start a business in his part, but he persevered and he won. If a
security guard can start a business and accumulate capital, I’m sure we can too. There
are no excuses anymore. It is clear that business is the only way to go.

“If they can do it, you can”

-Mix Jose
 28

We can have a business even if we are on-board, provided that we study together with
our spouses on how to get started and how to get better. Unless you are willing to steal
from tax payer’s money or to star in an action film, I don’t see any other way we can
become rich in all aspects. The way to go is to handle your own business. How about
investments? They work out as well! But the problem with investments is that you
need to have a huge pool of money in order to profit from it. To earn good in long term
stock investments you need to have millions. If you are still building wealth, save up
money and start a business and aim to leverage, that is the secret to getting rich in all
aspects.
 29

Chapter VI. The two sides of the coin

“Iv’e been rich, and Iv’e been poor. Rich is better.”

- Scholom Aleichem

Remember the 80-20 rule? It does not only apply in the division of the worlds’ wealth;
it also applies to the recipe of success. 80% of the right attitude and mindset, plus 20%
of the skill required to run your business results to 100% success rate. Skills can be
learned given enough time. Changing the way our mind thinks comes first and
foremost. Changing your attitude towards life and business is crucial to success.

Let’s talk about the mindset first, which is by the way the most important. If you have
no business and capital now, but you have the right mindset, you will still be rich
eventually. How do rich people think compared to the poor people?
 30

Making money work for you

It was a nice and beautiful day. I was getting ready to run off and play with paper planes,
it is 5 minutes before recess time after all. The best time of the day for a grade 2
student. The teacher says “okay guys recess time! Off you go and see you in a while”.
I was over joyed, I ran outside, ate my snack, and started playing. I love running around
the car parks and playing with a particular friend, he had a very snotty nose, but he
was very kind. Only this time, he was missing in action. “Where the heck is he?!” I
said. I ran around, went to the basketball courts, to the cafeteria, he was nowhere to
be found. “Sigh. It’s no fun when you are playing alone.” It’s 5 minutes before recess
was done and as I was walking back to the classroom I heard someone screaming,
“Make way, make way! There is an accident!” I saw Mang John, our beloved janitor,
running towards the comfort room. I got curious and I peeked inside the comfort room
and there was my friend, crying with his pants soiled with poop. He was especially
snotty this time. What a way to start the day for a janitor. Mang John fixed him up and
escorted him back to the classroom.

Mang John was very hard working. He was there in the mornings cleaning and when
everyone was home he was there securing the rooms. He was the first one to enter
and the last one to leave. He had to deal with everything, cleaning hallways, fixing
broken stuff, wiping floors and the occasional “pooped my pants accident”. I respect
the guy because he had crazy work ethics but he always seemed tired. Sometimes he
looked unhappy. He works, he gets paid, he goes home. He has to deal with the same
money problems over and over and as life went by, it got harder and harder. It became
especially hard when his kids started going to college. No amount of hard work can
help in buying those huge and thick college books. It just wasn't enough.
 31

“When you work hard, you will be successful”. We often hear this and there is some
degree of truth to it. When you work hard you get a much higher chance in succeeding
than everyone else. But the recipe is still incomplete. If you have the wrong
opportunity, no matter how hard you work, it is not going to give you the financial
success you want. You have to make sure you are in the right opportunity first! You
have to make sure someone else in the world was able to get what you want through
the same opportunity. Mang John works hard yes, but being a janitor, it is not an
opportunity that will give him massive financial success.

When we arrived at Singapore the first thing we bought was a sim card. Of course we
have to stay connected with family and friends, and we need to monitor our businesses
and take a peak once in a while. We were at Universal Studios Singapore, just after
riding the crazy Battle Star Galactica roller coaster, using my new sim I checked my
account. “Nice. We did nothing yesterday and we made 7000 pesos on our online
business. That’s a good start of the week.” We were there enjoying and eating lots
of food and our businesses were running to sustain our vacation. I was not physically
present, but that was money working for me.
 32

The basic principle of the rich is this; don’t work for money, let money work for you.
Do not be a slave of money. Money is a tool, but it should never be our master. When
you work for money, money dictates when you wake up. Money dictates what you
eat and when you eat. Money dictates when you should leave for work. Money
dictates when you should go home. Money dictates what you do for the rest of the
week. Money dictates what happens with your life. Money dictates when you sign on
and when you sign off.

Starting a business and making money work for you is a form of liberation from the
grasp of money. When you aim for high income and financial success, it is not being
materialistic, it is not being selfish. It’s freeing yourself from the “six - six” work
cycle and having more options in life. Your goal is to have a business sustain whatever
it is that you really want to do.

You want to teach in a training center on Monday and go to Japan this Wednesday,
then play on a band by Saturday? Take the kids to school, watch a basketball game
when you get home, travel with them on the weekends and do this for the rest of your
life? You can do this, but you have to liberate yourself first. Free yourself from the
bonds of money and life truly begins after that.

My mentor told me “If I were to give you 10 million pesos but you need to cut your
arm off, would you go for that deal?” “Of course not! I’ll keep my arm thank you
very much. It is not worth it.” He told me “let’s sweeten the deal then. 50 million
pesos for those two, nice arms. Deal?” Again, I said no. It’s not worth it, no amount
of money can convince me to cut my own arm off. He looked at me, smiling.
 33

He took a sip of coffee and gently told me “then why are you giving your whole body,
your time, your family and your whole life for 4000 USD? That’s the salary of a second
mate right?”

It stunned me. That was precisely what was happening to me and a lot of seafarers I
know. Our whole life is given to the sea, with barely enough time for us and our families.
Did you know that if you sailed for 30 years the average time you spent at home is 5
years? Considering you don't have any trainings in Manila which is unlikely, it is 25
years taken off your life just like that.

Look at it at the bright side, if you are 40 years old right now that is 25 more years of
trial and error to find the business that can help you sustain your dream lifestyle. That’s
still a long time, as long as you keep trying you will hit the jackpot. Don’t be like the
others who think that they will start a business after retirement. When you do that the
income stops and the capacity to build capital stops too. If you fail on your first
business after retiring, then it’s going to hurt. You might be forced to go back on the
ship because you lost all the money.

“To see an opportunity we must be open to all thoughts.”

-Catherine Pulsifer
 34

Chapter VII. Study the right way

I never understood why I had to study calculus. I don't use it, I never had to even in
seafaring. So why should I study it? It’s because I need to, if I don't I will fail the subject
and there goes my sailing career. Should we study just because we need to? Should we
not study because we need to learn?

I remember talking to Jerwin, a rich Chinese friend who runs a big family owned
jewelry business. He told me that during college he considered working for Jollibee as
a service crew. He came from a rich family and some of his Filipino friends were
confused. "This guy is wealthy and he wants to work in a fast food chain? Is he crazy?”

The study of the rich is a bit different from ours. I study calculus to pass, he goes to
work for Jollibee to study how the food business works. I do my homework so I could
graduate, he attends seminars to learn more about money. The study of being rich
focuses on the skills and the mindset that makes a person wealthy. These are not
taught at school and even in business school. Many business school graduates end up
as employees. You learn these by yourself. Through investing in seminars, through
experience, through books like this.

Did you know that 60% of the Filipino people never open another book after college?
If you are reading this book, then you are one step ahead of the rest. The average C.E.O.
reads sixty books per year and it looks like you’re on your way to becoming a C.E.O. I
start my day by reading books. Do I enjoy reading? Not particularly. In fact, at first I
hated it. But every rich person was doing it so I started reading and learned to love it
the more I do it.
 35

I remember reading my first book, I was always falling asleep midway. I’d tell myself I’d
rather play games. This reading thing was a torture for me. But the more I learned the
bigger my business got. The bigger it got the more I enjoyed reading. It was a price
that I needed to pay for success, 30 minutes of reading a day.

Was it worth it? Definitely. Though it can get a bit pricey, on our first year of doing
business I spent 60,000 pesos in seminars and books. From those learnings we earned
1.6 million pesos. Not bad right? It pays when you educate yourself.

In school they teach us how to work for someone else. Doesn't it make you wonder;
no one teaches how to make money. We work for someone and that person becomes
rich. Parents even tell us that we need to study hard because if we do, we will get
successful and rich in the future. Nowadays that’s not accurate anymore. During the
1960's if you become a doctor, then you are automatically rich. There is almost no
competition, professionals are few and when you graduate you are sure to succeed.
Now, there are thousands of nurses, doctors, lawyers and teachers. The same strategy
will not work anymore.
 36

Unfortunately, the teaching of "study hard in school and become rich" was still passed
down to us. We studied thinking that it’s going to make us rich and successful. I scored
high in calculus by the way and it got me nowhere.

Learn the ways of the rich, what they study and do and you will get closer to financial
freedom. Teach this concept to your children as well. Am I saying they should not study?
Of course not, but they should not be studying for the purpose of just passing the exam.
They study medicine, not to be a doctor, but to be the owner of the hospital. Study
law? Do it to own a law firm. That’s the top of the career, to be the owner.
 37

A friend of mine, Aaron went to the academy to pursue the seafaring career. He went
inside the academy to undergo regimental training and it was a shock to him. Before,
everything was done for him. Somebody ironed his clothes, prepared his food, drove
him to school and back. Growing up in a business oriented family, he was very
uncomfortable with what we did in the academy and everything was so hard for him
but he did not quit. Where others who did their own laundry, ironed their own clothes
and were used to a hard life before the academy quit immediately after experiencing
the first few hours of military life, Aaron stood tall and persevered. Imagine the degree
of suffering he must have felt, having his new life in the academy so completely in
contrast with his previous life. So what made Aaron withstand the tortures of
regimental training? He wanted to work as a seafarer to manage their family business
eventually, which is a maritime training centre and a shipping company. He had to be
a seafarer in order to know the ins and outs of his industry and eventually grow their
business even more. He worked as a seafarer not for the salary, he worked to learn his
business. Aaron came from a lineage of rich Chinese businessmen and the mindset of
the rich was passed down to him. He is now a master mariner, the C.E.O. Of Winzelle
hotels and the Executive Vice President of Zamboanga Maritime Training Centre. I
always admired the person for his bravery and vision. He could have chosen not to
enter the academy. He could have quit on the first day, but he chose to study the right
way and that’s the reason why he is so successful right now.
 38

Chapter VIII. Focus on assets

Greg was about to sign off. “Yes! Finally!” after a 9-month contract, it was just 6
days away from disembarkation. Good thing the port of call was in Houston, Texas. Just
a few minutes away from the Seaman’s Centre and Walmart. We went to shore leave
together, and Greg took 3000 USD with him. He was an able bodied seaman.

The moment we arrived at the mall, it was a crazy shopping spree for him. New gadgets,
new toys, an iPad, a new cellphone, new pairs of shoes, new sets of clothes, bags of
chocolates and some goodies to bring back home. “That’s a lot of stuff” I said. “Yeah,
this is the new iPhone model. Looks cool right? And I got this top of the line laptop.
It’s insane, it’s so powerful and thin. Look at this, it’s an Air Jordan, very rare. Looks
good on me right? Those chocolate? For the family of course. You know that!”

We signed off together, went back to our families and a few weeks after, I received a
call from Greg. “Dude can I borrow 1000 USD from you? I’m here in the office asking
for a line-up, it looks like it’s going be 3 months’ vacation for me. I cannot stay that
long. Too much bills to pay!”

This is the pattern of many seafarers. Before signing off or upon going home, we live
like “one-day millionaires”. The extra money we earn we spend on gadgets, short
vacations trips and gifts. Our major purchases usually are big houses, cars and things
that don’t make money for us while on vacation. To understand the way of the rich,
I want to illustrate how the different aspects of money work. Let me introduce you to
the secret formula of wealth. These four words lay the foundation of all the benefits
and wealth we enjoy today.
 39

1. Income- the money we earn from work.

2. Expenses - the money we spend to survive. Food, shelter, clothing, education, bills.

3. Liabilities - the money we spend for our wants. These are not mandatory
expenditures; we can live without it. We just choose to spend on it. For example, fancy
cars, top of the line gadgets, over the top houses, trips to somewhere, gifts for loved
ones etc.

4. Assets- anything aside from work that gives you money. These are purchases that
leads to wealth accumulation. Apartment houses, water refilling stations, restaurants,
investments, stocks, mutual funds, bonds, shares etc.

Proper use of these four quadrants can lead to massive amounts of wealth. Use it the
wrong way and it traps you to the never ending cycle of sign-ons. I want to show you
how the poor use their money. Say a person who works as a janitor in the
Philippines, one of the hardest and lowest paying jobs. Once the money is earned by
working the normal 7am-6pm cycle, he spends the money to take care of his family.
The income he earns is almost equal to the expenses incurred at home. Almost nothing
is left to spend on wants. Once the money is spent, he works again, earns, then spends
it again. The cycle goes on.

POOR
Income= Expense
 40

Poor is when income is equal to expense and there is nothing left. Sometimes the
income is even less than the expense. A poor man’s solution to this problem is to
borrow money, not knowing that the problem lies within the flow of his money. Have
you heard of poor people having 8-10 babies? If you are working a minimum wage job
and you have 8 kids, you will have one heck of a time. More mouths to feed, more
expenses, the more jobs you need to take. That’s why I believe family planning is
important. If a person does not have the financial capacity to raise a child right, they
shouldn't rush it.

Even a master mariner can be poor. If he has a very high lifestyle and income is equal
to expense, there will be nothing left to add for assets. A bosun can be richer, if he
knows how to manage his expenses and has already started at making money work for
him. Let’s look below to see how seafarers run their money.
 41

How seafarer money works

Seafarer Cycle
Income = Expense + Liabilities
We work on-board, do a 10-month contract, we send all the money to our families for
allotments, school fees and house bills. What is left of the money we spend to buy cars,
a big house, buy gadgets, things we don’t really need. We run out of money and go
back on-board and the cycle continues. When we get promoted, the income increases,
but our expenses (lifestyle increase, better house, better food, more air conditioning)
and liabilities increase as well. Sometimes the money flows to the assets column but
a little setback or road-block and we quit immediately. We fail on our first try and
conclude that business will never work for us. ON THE FIRST ATTEMPT. But at least
some actually started. Most plan on starting a business but very few actually do it.
 42

How the rich make their money flow

Rich Seafarer
Income + Asset > Expense + Liabilities
 43

The last time I went to the province with my cousin, it was a blast. It is now voted as
one of the most beautiful islands in the world. The moment I stepped foot in the island,
I saw the waters beside the ship and boy was it clear. It was so clear than when we
went to the light house, I went inside, up to the platform and I can still see fish! I met
plenty of people, but one I will never forget was Uncle Mike. He wore a white shirt,
shorts, slippers and was riding a bicycle around town. A very simple and friendly guy.
When we boarded the ship back to Manila my cousin told me,“Oh I forgot to mention,
Uncle Mike owns this ship. Well part of it. As well as those gasoline stations we passed
by and those restaurants as well. The hardware shop near the ship too. I was shocked!
The guy lived very simply and I did not realize he was actually a big business man. He
believed in living simply first and focusing on growing his business. Later on he bought
a huge house near the beach and was living there comfortably while his business runs
itself. “What a guy” I said. That is how it’s done!

There is a lesson to be learned with Uncle Mike. He used his money well. To relate this
to us, our income comes in after a contract but a rich in mindset seafarer will keep his
expenses to the minimum. As his income and rank increases, the expenses and the
lifestyle remain the same. All the money that is left goes to the asset column and when
their business earns, it goes back to the asset column again. They start another branch,
or build another apartment or buy another taxi. The rich use the profits from their
business to expand their business more and the cycle continues. This is where many
seafarers mess up, when their business earns its either they will increase their
expenses or buy liabilities. Again its Income+ Asset= Expense + Liabilities. A rich person
would buy all of these liabilities when their business is stable already.

It’s okay to live in a simple house. It’s okay to commute. It’s okay if there are no yearly
travels. There is a time to buy fancy things and travel, but the priority is increasing their
 44

assets. When they have fifty taxis earning 45,000 USD a month, that’s when they buy
the mansion. The sports car. The beach house. They travel one year straight around
the world. They smile, knowing that the sacrifice has been worth it.

One of the biggest weapons and also one of the biggest dangers on-board is being
promoted. Promotion increases our income and potentially increases out capability to
invest in the asset column. The problem is that when we advance in rank, we also
advance in lifestyle. The food gets more delicious, the cars get better, electricity bills
increases, and everything else gets more expensive. I urge you to live the simple
lifestyle first. Have patience. Use the promotion as an advantage to try out more
businesses. Wasting money every time you get promoted, acquiring new debts is a
sure way of getting stuck at sea indefinitely.

“Great achievement is usually born of great sacrifice,

and is never the result of selfishness.”

- Napoleon Hill
 45

Chapter IX. Money is not the solution to money problems

Therese was a good person. She had 3 kids, and was raising them as a single parent.
She has a really nice paying job, 5000 USD a month. Not bad especially when you are
living in the Philippines. She always seems happy, but almost always she would panic
every end of the month. “Here comes the bills again...” She would always complain
about how hard life is despite the high earnings and she always seems to have that
complain of never having enough money. She was complaining about the same thing
too 15 years ago. “If only I earned more than 1000USD then life would be so easy.”

To solve the lack of money, she would borrow from friends and relatives. It is the
solution to the problem right? With more money she would be able to pay the bills,
but she would rack up debt. “It’s okay. I am about to get that promotion anyway.
Pretty soon I’ll be able to pay all my debts and there will be no more problems!”.

She got the promotion eventually. She got more money. So does that mean she has no
more problems with her bills? Unfortunately, 10 years after, with her kids done with
college and her income higher than ever, she still is troubled. 7000 USD in salary and
she still has the same problem. How is this happening? More money should have made
her problems go away right?

Michael was a garbage collector. He had a problem with money, at 19 years old he was
not earning enough to sustain his needs and wants. He would frequently complain
about it to his colleagues and he became frustrated. To solve it he will borrow from
others, gamble or take a chance in the lottery. Life was hard. Money was the problem
and it was all solved when he won 15 million USD in the lottery. “Problem solved!”
he said. He went on to party in the clubs, bought fancy cars and hired prostitutes. Five
 46

years later he was back to square one. Back to the beginning, with debt and the same
money problems.

The solution to money problems is not more money. More money on the wrong hands
is one big party. Even if you give them loads of cash, the financially illiterate will waste
it as soon as they get it. The other way goes too. Even if you have no cash now, with
knowledge and training you can make your savings grow and you’re your business self-
sustainable. The knowledge of budgeting, using the four quadrants is the first step to
transitioning from seafarer to established businessman. You could be highly educated
like Therese, with all the degrees and attachments to your name and still be horrible
in financial literacy.

“Wisdom is not the product of schooling

but of the lifelong attempt to acquire it”

-Albert Einstein
 47

Chapter X. The power of exponential growth

Timothy got promoted to third officer. He was so happy with the huge amount of
money he earned that he bought a house worth 5 million pesos. He applied for a 15-
year loan and starts paying it. On the other hand, we have Joe, who upon getting
promoted to third officer bought a taxi. Let’s see their progress through the years.

When you buy a house, it comes with additional expenses. Timothy bought his dream
house and he started putting furnitures, televisions, fixtures and all the stuff you would
put in a dream house. A huge portion of the income usually goes into the property as
you would need to complete every room and every part of the house. Decorating your
home is actually very addicting. So much so that even after its done, you will spend
changing and replacing designs already completed. Majority of Tim’s money went into
the house for many years. As time went by his rank rose and was able to get more stuff.
 48

By 32 years old he bought his first car. When he turned 36, he bought a second one
and had his first child. By 38 he had two children. So far that is 11 years of Timothy’s
life.

Joe on the other hand did not spend his money on a house, nor a car. He rents a small
apartment and decides to start pouring money into his assets. He bought a taxi for
500,000 pesos. In a perfect world, to make the math easier in our part, let’s say he
earns 42,000 a month with 1 unit of taxi. Theoretically he would reach Return On
Investment or R.O.I. within a year. He earned 500,000 pesos in his first year and instead
of buying a house or spending it on liabilities, he bought another taxi unit. By 29 years
old he had two taxis running. He decides to continue growing his business. The two
units after a year earned 500,000 each, so that makes one million. He decides to buy
another two units so that makes it four taxis by 30 years old. He keeps doing this
process for 10 years, his business grew exponentially and by 38 he has 1024 taxis. With
these numbers he makes 25 million pesos a month. He decides to buy a 100 million
house, let someone smarter than him handle the taxi business, sail off to the
Caribbean and retires from seafaring completely.

That’s too much, it’s unrealistic you say? Okay, in a more probable scenario, let’s say
he has 50 instead of 1024 taxis, investing in the asset column for ten years. Each taxi
earning 30,000 pesos a month. How much would he be making? Approximately 1.5
million pesos a month. Staggering. Can he now buy a house worth 5 million? Yeah, he
can buy one every 3 months.
 49

The beauty of starting now is the factor of time. If you could invest early, the more
time your business grows. The longer you delay, the more money you waste. I started
doing business at the age of 18, that’s why I was already retired before 30 years old.
Imagine if you start 5 years from now, the business could have grown in 5 years. You
did not only lose time, you lost money as well. Do not delay it. You could start small,
but the point is you got started. Remember that sometimes later becomes never. To
most of us seafarers, we never really get started. I know you are different. That’s why
you are reading this book.

The common mistake seafarers like Timothy do is they go all out on houses and cars.
Many think of it as an investment. Remember that your house cannot make money for
you so by definition it’s a not an asset, contrary to the popular belief. You can buy a
basic house first, just so you have a place to live in and be mindful of how much you
are spending. Shopping for furniture and designing your house can get out of control,
you don’t want the house to be where all your money goes. Anyways you can buy a
house worth 50 Million pesos when your business is big already. Settle for a simpler
one, then buy your dream house later. That’s the way to go.

What traps most seafarers in our endless cycle is when your income is less than what
you have to pay for both expense and liability. When you run out of money in the first
couple of weeks and you have to go on-board already, it will be very challenging to find
a way to retire unless your spouse works really hard to make your assets boom. It is
very typical of us to buy huge houses, condominium units we need to pay monthly,
fancy cars and put all our money into liabilities that it restricts our vacation time. If no
income comes in during vacation and the money runs out in a couple of days, how can
you establish your assets then? The key is starting the right way, avoid expensive
purchases and focus on assets as early as possible. It can lead to massive wealth given
the factor of exponential growth.
 50

Seafaring is perfect if you want to accumulate wealth, you just have to do it the right
way. What if you are already trapped in the cycle? What can you do? The best way to
approach this problem is either sell your liabilities, or reduce your lifestyle. If you do
this, you will have the extra money and the extra time to build your assets. There are
no hopeless situations, only people who feel hopeless.

“A journey of a thousand miles starts with a single step”

- Lao Tzu
 51

Chapter XI. Reducing your contract months to zero

The key to reducing your contracts on-board is to focus on your income here in the
Philippines. How much are you earning in a year while on-board? If for example you
are earning 1.8 million pesos a year as an officer (180k a month on a tanker vessel) and
your business earns 360k a year (30k a month grocery), technically that’s 2 months’
worth of shipboard income that you can deduct on your contract time and you still
earn the same amount per year. Only this time, you spend less months on-board the
ship.

If you open another branch, that’s another 2 months deducted to your shipboard
contract and you would still earn 1.8 million pesos a year only this time you go on-
board 7 months on and 5 months off. The secret is treating each branch or each
business as an opportunity to lessen your contract time. In theory you would only need
5 branches to earn 1.8 million a year and you can stop seafaring already.
 52

Can you start a grocery, a taxi business or a restaurant business? Of course you can!
500k worth of capital isn’t that hard to accumulate. If you have a simple house, just 1
car and a simple way of life, you can save that amount in less than a year if you are an
officer. If you are a rating then it may take more time, but it is still possible. That is
what makes this so exciting. Utilising our earning power, the right way, you can actually
stop sailing in less than 5 years. You just have to do it right.

We seafarers are very generous. We tend to give everything our family wants. If they
ask for a gadget, they don’t even need to convince us. We buy it straight away from
Walmart. It’s okay to help, but I would suggest that you help yourself first. Otherwise,
you would be stuck in the endless cycle of sailing. Invest in your assets, make it big,
and if you are earning 10 million pesos a month already, then help each and every
person you meet. Fill the cup first then give the overflow. Instead of only helping your
close family members, be successful and you can help an entire village. Maybe even
the whole country.

This is how I did it. Every business I open; I treat it as a way to reduce my months on-
board. If your business starts earning well you can slowly transition your seafaring
career to staying land based and managing your business. Later on the last chapter I
will teach you how you can plan and start your own small business, how to do a quick
market study by yourself, how to start a franchise and all the things you need to get
started, step by step. But before that, I am a firm believer of fixing the mindset first.
When the mindset is right, the income follows. What you lack in skill you can
compensate with the right outlook and right mindset. That is what we are going to talk
about in the next chapter.

“The secret to getting ahead is getting started”

-Mark Twain
 53

PART III.

The 23 principles of wealth

 54

Chapter XII. The 23 principles of wealth

“Your attitude determines your altitude.”

-Zig Ziglar

Anthony Tud was from Bicol, he was a deck rating when he started thinking of business.
He had no skills, no talent in business, nor the connections to make it grow. But he had
one thing right. The attitude of learning and the mindset of winning. He started early
and he was able to retire early. Finished with the career as early as third mate. “I
have a long way to go.” he says. “I may not be the best now, but I will be in the
future.” He went through many trials and obstacles, months when his business did
not earn. Times when he doubted his vision and was about to give up on his business.
With the right mindset fortified by education, training and consistent study, he was
able to push through. His attitude was right and the business became right because of
it. On a good month his business earns roughly around half a million pesos. It is still
growing up to now. He travels around the country with his wife Tep and they are a
beautiful couple. One of the few seafarers I know who was able to get out of the cycle.
He is so skilled now that if you knew him before, you wouldn't recognize him. He has
grown to be amazing in what he does.

Do you really need to be good in managing, accounting, speaking, marketing and all
these skills to get started? Anthony did not have any of these, in fact he was worse
than everyone else. Why is it that he is more successful now than those who started
off better than him?
 55

Isagani was a valedictorian since he was in grade school. He was top 1 during high
school. Chairman saber, top 1 in the academy. Top 1 in the OIC-NW licensure exams
and top 1 in the Chief-mate licensure exams. He knew everything about sailing, but he
did not have any idea about business. He had absolutely no skills and no background
in business. So why is he so successful now?

I have studied those people who became successful especially the seafarers like us
who made a fortune while staying here in the Philippines. There are many things you
can find in common with them. These are our greatest secrets. I call them the 23
principles of wealth. You must remember this; having the right mindset and applying
these principles of wealth is a sure way to becoming victorious in life. Take away
Isagani’s business, all his clients and customers, if he still has the right mindset and the
skills he honed consistently will he be able to bring his business from the ground up?
Of course! It’s just a matter of time and it will be up and running again. Ahead of skill,
we will now talk about the 23 principles of wealth and how you could apply it to your
life.
 56

Principle I

Develop the unbreakable will to win

 57

Principle I. Develop the unbreakable will to win

“the starting point of all achievement is desire.”

- Napoleon Hill

Isagani Marquina signed off at April 2017 and he was excited to take a well-deserved
vacation. He usually goes to different parts of the Philippines and outside the country
when is not on-board. “Traveling is my passion” he says, and so he did travel. Since
2008 to 2017, he goes out traveling, experiencing life and the world. Until we met it
was always like that. The good thing is once a person changes his mindset and beliefs,
his whole life changes as well.

Gani attended business seminars, workshops and trainings with us to learn more about
business. “I want to retire as soon as possible. I need to study” he says. Meeting
very successful entrepreneurs somehow ignited a spark within him. He developed the
desire to succeed. He stopped traveling and focused in his business. The desire to win
was so strong that he delayed all the things that were not connected to it. Going to
Palawan again? “Not this time” he said. “Out of the country?” maybe next year.

In order to succeed, you need to develop a desire to win that supersedes everything
else. You want to play games but you want to succeed more, so you forget about
gaming first. You want to travel? But now you want to win even more, so you forget
about it first. You want to relax? But you want to win more so what do you do? You
hustle first, you relax later.
 58

The desire to win that topples the desire to quit. It’s very powerful, it makes you
persevere despite the challenges you face. This is very important because I will tell you;
it is impossible that the path to success will be smooth sailing. You will face a lot of
challenges and you need to want to win. You need that unbendable desire. You need
to let it build your momentum.

Billy had been doing business since he was 18. Unfortunately, he failed most of the
ventures he went in. He was working in Red Ribbon before but he always had that
desire to win. One of the hardest challenge he faced was when he failed to pass his
licensure exams. Twice. Most people are taken aback by failure, he wasn't. It was 7
years of consistent fails; no money, no results. A year with no results usually is enough
to make someone quit. A failed first venture would make others think twice of starting
a business again. Those few seafarers who actually have the guts to start a business,
when they fail on their first attempt, they instantly conclude that business success is
not for them. It was the year of 2009 that Billy finally boomed in business, he was able
to break through. Now he is earning more than anyone else I know.

Driving his Camaro and Maserati Gran Turismo around the streets of Manila, looking
at him now, the level of success he reached is unbelievable. He and his wife Pin
travelled the world last 2016-2017 and is still earning millions per month while their
business runs itself.

People have the habit of quitting when they encounter a setback. Remember that all
people who succeeded encountered obstacles, it is part of the journey. When you start
your business, you will be tested. You will encounter a challenge; you will get beaten
up. Those who have that desire to win above everything else, will withstand that
temporary hurt and get that permanent success.
 59

“Pressure creates diamonds. Fire refines gold.”

-George Patton Jr.

R.U. Darby was going to join the gold rush. This was the time when everyone was going
in the gold trade as James Marshall found gold in Coloma California. It brought 300,000
people into the state to look and find treasure.

R.U. Darby was business minded but he did not have any money. He was decided to
do start his gold business so he went borrowing money from relatives and friends. He
was able to come up with the cash, bought all the equipment and started the mining.
He was very excited as the first couple of weeks showed a lot of promise. After a while
the gold that was mined decreased in quantity. After a couple of weeks, there were no
more. Darby continued mining again and again and there was nothing. He then finally
decided to quit. He sold everything to a junk man for a few hundred dollars and went
away. He sold everything without even returning his capital. This particular junk man
was smart, he continued the drilling while looking for a place to move the equipment.
After a couple of days of digging, they found a deposit. Literally 3 feet under from
where Darby stopped digging, they found a huge deposit of gold worth millions of
dollars. The junkman got extremely rich, while Darby learning of this became hysterical.
“Oh my god just 3 feet away! Why?!” From then on he promised himself that he will
never ever quit, as he might be just 3 feet away from gold. He did not become
successful in the mining business but because of that lesson he became successful in
selling insurance. He is one of the few people in the insurance industry that sells more
than a million dollars per year. Every time he feels like quitting, he always gets back to
that principle. “If I quit, I might be just 3 feet away from gold. I’ll never quit again.
Ever.”
 60

“You could never quit. Winners never quit. Quitters never win.”

-Ted Turner

Learn from Mr. Darbys’ experience. Remember that the temptation to quit is highest
when success is just around the corner. Whatever you experience in starting your
business, even if the initial result is horrible, do not stop. Do not adjust and change the
goal, change the strategy. Change the approach. I failed on my previous businesses, I
had one that I invested a lot of money and it made me 0 dollars. It was a year of work
and it made me 0. I actually lost a lot of money and was not even able to get the capital
back. Did I stop attempting? No. Did I stop doing business? No. All successful
entrepreneurs pass through this test and you will too.
 61

The good news is we have seafaring, if we lose capital, we can replenish it and try again.
Albert Einstein once said that he was not that smart actually, he just stays with
problems longer. He does not stop until he solves the problem. Where others try an
equation and say “this will not work”, he stays on it and says “How can I make this
work?”

How to develop that unbreakable will to win?

If you feel that you are still lacking in motivation and will, do not fret. That desire can
be developed and nurtured. If you develop the desire to win, it will give you motivation
to get started. The motivation to move forward. The will to persist, even if there are
still no signs of success.

1. Set really high goals

The first thing you need to do is to set your goals really high. So high that the mere
thought of achieving it makes you crazy. Grant Cordone is one of the top CEO’s in the
world. The author of the 10X rule, he says that when you dream, multiply it by 10. If
you dream of owning a house, multiply its value by 10. “Go big, or go broke” he says.
The higher you aim the bigger the chance of winning. If you aim for the stars you might
land in the moon and the moon might not be so bad. I believe that there really are no
lazy people, they just have impotent goals. Their goal does not inspire them because
it’s too small.
 62

Why are people afraid of setting high goals? It’s because they are afraid they will fail.
They think that if they set their goals too high, they will fail for sure. Well I have news
for you, of course you will fail. Of course when the goal is high, you will fail. Everyone
with a high goal fails first. You cannot be a world champion without losing a few
matches. You cannot be a great dancer without twisting a few ankles. You cannot be a
great businessman without losing money. Remember that. Success and failure go hand
in hand. You cannot have one without the other. I can go as far as to say that failure
and success are equal. They are one and the same. Failing means winning, winning
means failing.

So do not be afraid to aim high and accept that failure is part of the process. When you
fail, you won’t die anyway. You're still alive, you lose a few dollars and that’s okay. In
the general spectrum of life, it is a small amount. Have peace in the thought that you
tried and you learned a lesson. It is all good because you are one step closer to your
goal.

There is a poem that I love, it really displays the essence of what I’m trying to say here.
The poem says that if you ask of life little, it gives you little. You ask it something big
and it gives you something big. Some seafarers say that “I want a simple life”. That’s
true and that’s why I urge you to be financially free. Establish a business that makes
your life simple. A life where you don’t need to go away, a life where you can go
anywhere you want anytime you want. A life where there are no vetting inspections.
A life where there is no commercial pressure. If you turn out to be massively successful
and you don’t need the money anymore because you have everything you want
already, maybe it’s time to give back and help others who are in need. Remember, you
cannot give what you do not have. It’s hard to help when the money we earn is just
enough to feed our family.
 63

“I bargained with Life for a penny,

And Life would pay no more,

However, I begged at evening

When I counted my scanty store;

For Life is just an employer,

He gives you what you ask,

But once you have set the wages,

Why, you must bear the task.

I worked for a menial's hire,

Only to learn, dismayed,

That any wage I had asked of Life,

Life would have paid.”

-Jessie Rittenhouse
 64

2. Make your vision board

Your dreams should be clear to you. In fact, it has to be so clear that you can smell it,
feel it, touch it, hear it and see it. That is where a vision board comes in. It is a collection
of all the things you want in life, posted at the wall every time you wake up. It consists
mostly of pictures and words, a collage of some sorts. I made my first one back at 2011
and just after a couple of years it all came true. How come?

When you set the ship on it’s course, after a while we need to check it again. Why?
Because the winds and the seas divert the direction of the ship and without constant
monitoring, the distance between the ship and the course line will be big. We might
end up lost! The same principle applies to your dreams; the vision board aligns you
every day to what you want. You only need to look at it and it reminds you why you do
what you do. Why you sacrifice, why you work long hours. It reminds you what you are
fighting for.

Using the vision board requires you to tap all your senses. Stand in front of it for a
couple of minutes and feel as if you already have it. Visualize that trip to Maldives
every day. Imagine bathing in the crystal clear water, hearing the waves and diving with
the fishes. Imagine jumping off that airplane above the pyramids of Giza. While your
eyes are closed, feel the winds passing through your cheek as you gaze at the Aurora
Borealis in the cold winter night. Smell that food prepared for you in the five-star hotel.
You have to feel it in order for it to work. In needs to affect you positively and push you
off the right direction.
 65

Again do not limit yourself when you put something in your dream board. When you
see it, your mind will figure out a way of getting it. Your job is not to understand how
it’s going to happen, your job is to just put it there and eventually you will find the way.
Once the direction is set, you only need to walk it slowly and be pushed to that
direction every day.

You can actually put this in your cabin while on-board. It gives you a reminder why you
should save money and it makes you think in the long term. People can get so stuck in
the idea of 9 months on 3 months off that they only see time in that span. They don’
t see ahead. They don’t see the next 5 to 10 years. The vision board makes you think
of what you can do now to push you nearer to your goals. Without direction your
money goes everywhere. It’s no surprise that many people spend their money as fast
as they can earn it. Put a vision board inside the master bedroom so that you and your
spouse can see it. Let them know what you want in life, and show them your dedication
to those goals.
 66

When I put the sports car into my dream board, I did not know how I was going to get
it. The way was shown to me and I thought “Hey! This might be the way!” Sometimes
you are shown the way but you forget the destination so you don't walk that path.
Using a dream board makes you more observant to opportunities, where otherwise
you will just ignore it if you had no direction.

“I may not see, but my vision is very clear”

- Hellen Keller

Hellen Keller said it beautifully. She is blind, deaf and mute but her vision for her life
was so clear that she was able to succeed. She is an inspiration to many. She has shown
that a person, even if severely disabled, can make his or her dreams come true. Many
people have perfect eye sight but their vision of the future is dim. They don’t see it
because they don’t dream it. Make your dreams clear to you, envision it coming true.
Every day for the next couple of years, do this activity and you might be surprised how
far you've come.

I have updated my dream board twice already. All of it came true twice over. Now I am
up to my third dream board. It’s fun to see all the pictures getting ticked one by one.
The final picture which is retirement was ticked off and I couldn't be happier. Make
one right now, do not delay it and your results will not delay as well.
 67

3. Replenish motivation

Rob, one of the people I was coaching was part of my business team. He started off
with no skills and no talent in business, but now he is very successful. I remember one
of our conversations when he was still new in business, he told me “Coach whenever
I feel down, I always listen to one of your talks I recorded previously. It lifts me up and
it motivates me to move forward again.” I looked at him with a blank expression and
asked him “is that really a good idea?” He said yes it is. He feels down, therefore
he does something about it. “Can you drive?” I asked him, he looked at me confused.
“Yes I can.” I asked him “When do you gas up? Do you wait for your car to run out
of gas in the middle of the road before you refill?” He says “of course not that’s
stupid. I usually refill at 25% before empty. Why would you wait for it to run out? That
will be a terrible hassle.” he looks at me with eyes open, seemingly confused.
“ Exactly. Why would you allow yourself to get depressed before you motivate
yourself again? Why not refill it as soon as possible? Why allow yourself to reach that
point when you are so down and low you are in danger of quitting?”

Create the habit of motivation. A routine that makes you motivated every day. The
vision board is actually part of my habit of motivation, I look at it every morning. Every
week I make sure I attend at least one seminar where I can learn something new and
every day I read books for 30 minutes. This habit prevents me from losing enthusiasm
for prolonged periods of time. That is the key to success.

“Success is going through failure after failure without losing enthusiasm”

- Winston Churchill
 68

I was in the Star Hotel at Dagupan, Pangasinan to give a series of talks. “I’ve been
doing this for so long, I can do this.” There were almost a thousand people waiting
to hear me talk and a few minutes before the talk I started sweating. My heart started
beating faster and I started hearing words “You can’t do it. You will probably mess
up. All of them are going to judge you. You should back out now.” I started sweating
even more. Then I realized there was no basis where my brain was getting all these
scenarios. I’ve been giving talks for a long time and with that amount of experience
and my mastery of the material, it should not be a problem. My brain was playing tricks
on me.
 69

I believe that in business your brain is your greatest weapon, but it can also be your
worst enemy. Most of the time your brain is negative, it tells you many nasty stuff. It
tells you that you cannot do it. It tells you that it’s better to stay at home and do
nothing, to not risk and be average. Creating a habit of motivation helps you combat
these scenarios. Anticipate that there will be a time when your brain is going to tell
you different things to discourage you and with anticipation you can prepare yourself.

In my experience these kinds of thoughts appear when the mind is idle. When it’s not
working. If you just stay at home and do nothing, this is the minds territory and it will
begin to trick you. While running a business, develop the habit of always doing
something. Do not be idle. Be intentional in relaxing, or watching TV or reading or
doing business, but don’t be idle for prolonged periods of time. This is when the mind
strikes, you start hearing from it and most people gets affected by it.

I believe one of the keys to happiness and success is disassociating yourself from your
mind. You are not your mind. You have the choice to listen to it and cross examine it.
Our negative feelings come from the mind and you don’t necessarily have to accept
those feelings. You can just ignore it. Happiness comes from dominating your own
mind, taking control of it and treating it as a tool, not a master. The slave of his own
mind is always subjected to unhappiness and negativity. A person who chooses to be
happy regardless of the situation is a person who has conquered the mind. He is a step
closer to success than everyone else.
 70

If you do not charge your phone and you are not able to use it the next day, whose
fault is it? It is yours right? If you feel down in the dumps while building your business
and you don’t feel like moving and working, whose fault is it? If you know that
motivation runs out, isn’t it then your responsibility to replenish it? If you feel down,
it is kind of your fault.

“If you realized how powerful

your thoughts are, you would never

think a negative thought.”

- Peace Pilgrim
 71

Principle II

Make firm decisions

 72

Principle II. Make firm decisions

“I’m going to succeed in this business and I won’t be going back on-board ever again”
said Capt. Arlo Batiduan. He had a lot of experience in the shipping industry and served
as master mariner for several companies. One day in a business convention we met
and he told me he was decided to win. “I am doing it for my family. I want to catch
up with my children. I want to make up for the lost time.” He had been earning good
on-board but he knew money is not all there is to life. With the same things going on
again and again, missing the most important events in his children's life, he was not
going to let his life be wasted like that. “You were able to do it” he told me. “There
is no reason why I can’t do it as well.”

He walked out of that business convention determined. Every challenge thrown at him
and his wife they were able to face. His decision to win remained the same. When he
fell short of a goal, his decision remained the same. He was decided that he was going
to win. When he was discouraged by his fellow seafarers to just focus on his career, his
decision remained the same. He is now very successful and there are months he is
earning more than what he was earning on-board.

“It really is doable. I have escaped the cycle.” Bathing in the beautiful swimming
pools of The Palm, Atlantis Hotel in Dubai, taking a vacation with his wife, he knew he
made the right decision. He stuck with it and followed through.
 73

People who don’t succeed are hard to make decisions. It takes them a long time to
decide what they want to do with their life. When they finally decide, they change
their decisions easily and frequently. “I want to be rich! I am going to start a business.”
When they are faced with a challenge, they suddenly don’t want to start a business
anymore.

“I’ll take a vacation first.” When they start a business they say “This is it, I am going
to be rich.” After a month of no results they would say “business is not for me. I
am not going to be rich.”

Sometimes they even get their decisions from other people. They cannot decide for
themselves what they want to do with their life. They rely on others to do the deciding
for them and therefore they give others control over their destiny. Why would you
hand over the wheel of your life? Would you trust another person to drive your vehicle
and lead you towards a destination that you might not like? It’s better if you do the
driving, if you see you are going the wrong way, you can adjust.

Every karaoke session on-board we sing the song “My Way” by Frank Sinatra. Most
probably at one point of your life on-board you sang this song too and most probably
you were drunk by then. Have you truly listened to it? We heard it a thousand times
already and very few know what it means. I love singing this song. A lot of people laugh
when I sing this from the heart, but hey the wisdom behind the song is beautiful.
 74

And now, the end is near

And so I face the final curtain

My friend, I’ll say it clear

I’ll state my case, of which I’m certain

I've lived a life that's full

I've traveled each and every highway

But more, much more than this

I did it my way

Regrets, I've had a few

But then again, too few to mention

I did what I had to do

And saw it through without exemption

I planned each charted course

Each careful step along the byway

And more, much more than this

I did it my way

Yes, there were times, I’m sure you knew

When I bit off more than I could chew

But through it all, when there was doubt

I ate it up and spit it out

 75

I faced it all and I stood tall

And did it my way

I've loved, I've laughed and cried

I've had my fill my share of losing

And now, as tears subside

I find it all so amusing

To think I did all that

And may I say - not in a shy way

Oh no, oh no, not me

I did it my way

For what is a man, what has he got

If not himself, then he has naught

To say the things, he truly feels

And not the words of one who kneels

The record shows I took the blows

And did it my way

Yes, it was my way

 76

You were singing the lyrics weren’t you? That’s how we are seafarers. I was singing this
while I was writing it. Learn from Frank Sinatra. You decide for yourself and be firm
with it. Do not allow any other person to decide for you and therefore control your
destiny. That is how you live your life your way. Only then can you say “I did it my
way”, so decide for yourself. There is a lot of wisdom in the songs we sing on-board.
You should try to listen to all those songs carefully and you will be surprised of all the
learnings you will get. But of all those songs definitely, “Modelong charing” is an
exception. You won’t learn anything from that song.

In a new venture there would be doubt, there would be uncertainty, but facing it all
and standing tall is what makes a successful entrepreneur. The people who are
pioneers, innovators, people who start revolutions, they were brave enough to venture
to uncharted waters. To withstand the winds and the waves, one needs a very
committed decision to push forward whatever it takes.

People who succeed are those like Captain Arlo, they make decisions fast and they
stick with them. It takes a long time for them to change their decision, if they even
change it at all. Whatever you throw at them, their decision will not change. If they say
they are going to win, they are. No amount of obstacles and road blocks can stop a
man who is decided.

“Your decisions shape you destiny”

-Anthony Robbins
 77

If you are slow at making decisions, what can you do? Is there still a chance of
succeeding? Of course there is! Luckily, decisiveness can be developed. You can start
with small decisions first. When your friends ask you where to eat, do not rely on them.
You decide for the group. When asked what you prefer to eat, decide immediately and
don’t let others decide for you. Even if it is a small decision, at least you made it. Now
you are starting to take control of your destiny. These small acts of decision can
improve your decisiveness and you can start making bigger decisions. Eventually even
unpopular decisions which are the hardest to make.
 78

Principle III

Establish an unshakeable belief

 79

Principle III. Establish an unshakeable Belief

Capt. Cresente did not know what to do. He had no idea of running a business. He had
a serious face, an introverted attitude and he was a man of few words. In other
people’s opinion he would not be able to market his business and grow it. He is in the
distribution business. Some people who know him would say “Of all the business he
was going to start, why would it be a business that includes marketing and selling?”
Capt. Cres Polvorosa is now a retired seafarer and he is not even forty years of age. He
succeeded in his business and learned all the skills necessary to grow it. He is earning
good money and now does business while teaching on the side.

What did Capt. Polvorosa had that made him succeed despite the lack of skill in his
chosen business? His belief in himself that he too can do it.

Anthony Robins said in his book Awaken the Giant Within, great leaders make great
references. Find a person that was least likely to succeed and make them your
reference. A lot of people just like you were able to get past their obstacles. You need
to find them and make them your reference. In fact, I will bet that there are even
disabled people who were able to do what you are dreaming of right now. Finding
these people who faced all the odds and won shows us that we too can do it. Every
time you would question yourself, go back to these people and remember that they
had a situation that was worse than yours, do not give up! Whatever we are aiming for
is within the reach of human capability. It is not impossible.
 80

There are many nay-sayers, people who would discourage you from what you are
doing. “Oh that idea wouldn't work.” They pass on their fears to you, destroying
your dreams as well. I call them dream stealers, they have given up on their dreams
and they try to bring you along with them. Believe me when I say that they are
everywhere, sometimes they are within your family as well and belief in what you do
and your capabilities will protect you from this people. A person who does not believe
in himself would be destroyed by the dream stealers. Dream stealers are also given the
natural ability to convince, they are persuasive. Some of them would even make a
presentation “why you could not do it.” They will explain to you in perfect detail, why
your idea would not work.

Let me tell you about Jhen. She is one the people I was coaching before. She was trying
to get out of the 8-5 employment cycle. Seeing her out of the office early to handle
her business, one of her colleagues told her “Why would you do business anyway?
Those people, your coach, they were already rich before. That is why they have those
results. Can’t you just accept that this is our limit? We are just mediocre people, our
lives will just be ordinary, we will die mediocre and this is all there is to life. Why do
you resist?” Now, after a year in her business, she can earn up to six digits a month.
Ten times more than what she earned in her previous work.

You might ask me “What is the dream stealer’s intention? If they would not help her
out, why do they need to pull her down?” It’s because dream stealers get their self-
esteem from other people. They are doing good as long as their circle remains
mediocre, but if someone tries to get ahead, they panic. “If my friend gets an increase,
I become less than mediocre, I become poor.” That’s why they pull people down,
that’s why they pull you down. “Nobody gets ahead, otherwise my self-esteem goes
down.” Remember when you were about to get promoted and there’s this one person
always getting jealous and he would try to sabotage you and tell gossips about you?
 81

There is always a guy like this on-board and he is the perfect example of a dream stealer.
When you meet one, run away as far you can and strengthen your belief. They are the
poison to your dreams and it would bring you no benefit sitting around with them.

I remember a friend of mine, while I was establishing my business told me “are you
rich yet? Why do you even bother with that? Your income is big already. Come join us
out of town!” He was a close friend but he was a dream stealer as well. I always hear
negativity from him, complaints, nagging etc. I chose to stay away first, I see him from
time to time but I decided to hang out with him again when I got my dreams already.
I don’t want him dragging me down. When I become successful already, then maybe I
will inspire him to get his dreams, instead of him getting mine.

Were there people around Capt. Polvorosa who were trying to steal his dreams from
him? For sure. So why is he successful now? It’s because he did not listen to them and
he stayed away from them. You listen to a dream stealer; you allow them to steal your
dreams from you. In the end it is still your choice if you would accept what they say.
Having that belief in yourself and a clear vision of the future, a desire to win and the
choice to ignore them would ensure your victory. Prepare yourself because they are
out there to steal from you. They will not go away, no matter how successful you
become.
 82

Will Smith in the film pursuit of happiness said it perfectly;

“Don’t ever let someone tell you

that you can’t do something.

Not even me. You got a dream

You got to protect it.

When people can’t do something

themselves, they’re gonna tell you

that you can’t do it.

You want something, go get it.

Period.”
 83

Principle IV

Walk by faith not by sight

 84

Principle IV. Walk by faith not by sight

The first time I went on-board I told my fellow cadet “I am going to be a millionaire.
I am going to be rich. I am going to start a taxi company, and I will retire from seafaring
early.” Van is a good guy, he was there to support me and as he lay down his bed he
told me “You can do it bro. I believe in you.” We were in staying in one room, being
cadets we still did not have the luxury of having our own cabins. I showed him the
outline of how I was going to do it, just a few words and little scribbles on a sheet of
paper. No business words, no technical strategies, no sophisticated feasibility studies.
Just that faith in myself and in my dreams. He smiled at me and said “okay man that’s
good. Now let’s go get some sleep we are going to start early tomorrow.” I lay down
my bed to rest and before I slept came a thought; “Okay. Let’s do this. I have no idea
how this is going to work, but I will study and definitely get this started.”
 85

Life is like a long drive. At night you do not see anything, only the next 150 feet that
your headlight shows you but somehow as you drive, given that you are on the right
direction, you will arrive eventually as long as you keep driving. Dreams work that way
too. You might not know how it is going to work out, but set your dreams and go at
the right direction and you will get your dreams eventually.

If you set your course and direction already, do not doubt the destination. Have faith
in the journey and even if you don’t see how it’s going to happen, continuously
adjusting your heading to counter the wind and waves will lead you to your next port
of call.

Seafarers don’t start a business because they are afraid that it may not work out.
“I don’t have the right skills yet. I can’t start that.” This is a common thought that
we have, we doubt ourselves just because we cannot see the whole process. The
whole map to success. I’ll tell you this, there is “whole map to success” where you can
see everything. The journey to the top will be full of uncertainties. I am a deck officer
and I started a jeepney business. I have no background in medicine and sales and I
started a pharmaceutical business. Captain Polvorosa is not a farmer, but he has a
mushroom business. Everyone has their own journey. You don't need to see the whole
process, you just need to have faith in yourself and just do it. You will learn the ins and
outs of your business when you start it. That grocery you want to start? Educate
yourself and just do it. In any business there is no guarantee of success, but as long as
you keep trying you will eventually hit the jackpot.
 86

Remember that ships are safe inside a harbor. But that is not what ships are made for.
Ships are made for the harsh and dangerous environment of the sea. You are safe when
you do not risk. But that is not what you are made for. You are made for greatness, to
get your dreams and be with your family. In fact, nowadays, the safer you are the riskier
it gets. The safer you play, the more at risk you are. If you do not risk and always play
it safe, then that’s 40 years out of your life retiring at the age of 65.

That’s the true loss for me. Believe me when I say that you have incredible potential,
have faith in yourself and your capabilities and success is sure to follow.

“Take the first step in faith. You do

not need to see the whole stair case.

Just take the first step.”

- Martin Luther King Jr.

“There is always light at the end of the tunnel.” Commander Elchico calmly said as
we were doing push-ups and squat thrusts at midnight. I felt my sweat pouring while
the cold wind blows on our almost broken formation. “Up. Down. Up. Down. Up.
Down.” These were the words we heard for the rest of the night. My biceps were
dying, I was short of breath, I was so tired, but I held on.
 87

There is wisdom in Commander Elchico’s words. While on your journey to business

success it will be dark in a sense that you cannot see what’s going to happen. It will be
dark because you will be tested and challenged. But as long as you continue walking
through the tunnel, at the end you will see light. It will not be dark anymore. Suddenly
the puzzle will be solved, the pieces are put together and you see everything clearly.
“Aha! So that is how it works!”

Unfortunately, many seafarers, when they are midway inside the tunnel they get
scared or impatient. “The light is never going to come.” They turn back and return
to the entrance. If it’s a long tunnel, it will take time for you to see its end. Just because
you cannot see it now, it doesn't mean it’s not going to be there right? Do not be like
most of the people who turn back to early. The light is there; you just need to continue
walking. Have faith that you are in the right direction, others were able to cross it, so
can you.

“ Keep your dreams alive. Understand

to achieve anything requires faith and belief

in yourself, vision, hard work, determination

and dedication. Remember all things are

possible for those who believe.”

- Gail Devers
 88

Principle V

The past does not determine the future

 89

Principle V. The past does not determine the future

It was a beautiful sunny day as Alex boarded a small fishing boat. It is at the province
of Buruanga Aklan that he lived his early years with his parents. They were not rich,
his mother being a teacher and his father a fisherman, he had to help them for the
sake of the family. “Let’s go fishing dad!” He was always at sea helping his father
fish even at a young age and that is where he got familiar with the sea. That is where
he got the idea he was going to be a seafarer someday.

When he learned that he was adopted, it made a mark on him. He told himself “I was
left behind by my real parents. What if my adoptive parents leave me as well?” He
was afraid, although he knew his adoptive parents loved him, there was always this
fear of “what if?” This is when he decided that he was going to succeed no matter
what, he had to fend for himself and make it despite the poverty and him being
adopted.

At grade 3 he moved to Antique and he met the love of his life Ailyn. She was also a
fisherman's daughter and she sold the fish herself around the barangay. The school
they went to was 8km away from his house and having no money, he had to ride a bike
up and down the rough roads, sometimes walking and it was tiring just to come to
school and back. He had a strong resolve to finish his studies so even though it was
hard, he graduated.

He went to college in Las Pinas and had to live with his cousins. They had their own
expenses, so Alex had to fend for his own again. He had to go through ROTC military
training to be a scholar. If he did not, they won’t have anything to pay for the tuition
fee and he won’t be able to graduate. “It was so hard” he said. ROTC Cadets are
 90

usually treated like animals, they undergo rigid military style training and it is very
strenuous to the mind and the body.

Alex also had to come up with the money for living expenses and school miscellaneous
fees so he had to find work. After school at 3pm he would be a tricycle driver and he
had to wake up 3am to drive again so he could eat. When he was already of legal age,
he applied at Jollibee as a delivery boy. He had to be a good student, fulfill his
responsibilities as an ROTC officer for his scholarship and he went to Jollibee in the
evenings and did his homework when he got home. “I barely have time for sleep”
Alex says. It’s in this time he got a taste of life, how hard it is to make a living and he
did not wish the same fate to happen to his future family.

One day he was doing his usual delivery for Jollibee when suddenly a car came out of
the garage and hit him. He almost died. He was taken to the hospital unconscious and
he was unable to attend school for a month. “It was devastating. I was working so
hard, life was so challenging and now this?” He almost did not graduate. It’s a good
thing that the instructor gave him consideration and passed his subjects.

He was not that smart, he was not that skilled, but he worked really hard. He was
accepted in a German Company but when he went on-board the boiler and the ship
exploded. The ship went on fire and it was a horrible experience for him. Many of his
friends on-board that ship never went on-board again, having trauma that a major
accident can cause. He was part of the ratings then, but he knew how dangerous the
work was, that he needed to get promoted. He went through the ranks and eventually
became a master mariner and even did self-piloting. He went to become one of the
highest paid master mariners in the Philippines. He was an off shore captain.

When his children were growing, he knew the importance of doing business here in
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the Philippines, as he was missing the most important events of his children's lives. He
lives simply, saving all the money, maintaining his simple lifestyle and investing most
of his money in business. He started his Copra business with his wife and was slow at
first, just selling 150 bags a month. But when you have the will to win, you can do
anything. He is now selling 7000 bags per month, has many properties around Antique,
he has a farm, trucking business, a meat shop and a few restaurants. In a few years
Capt. Alex Malayas would retire from shipping and he is only at his 40’s. He will spend
the rest of his days taking care of his children and catching up with the lost time.

“ If you can dream it, you can achieve it.”

- Walt Disney

Lendel was born in Manila, with an upper middle class family. He was the only child so
he was taken good care of. He had a nice car to fetch him every time school finishes.
He had gifts every Christmas, would travel once a year and was generally happy. He is
not a working student. Every expense was taken care of by his family. He had no
accidents, no troubles. He had skills in communication and was talented in marketing
and business. He worked in the corporate world and after a few years in the job is now
imprisoned because of drug trafficking. He will be able to come out of jail 40 years
from now and the future for him isn’t looking very bright.

What is my point here? It does not matter where you came from, what matters is
where you are going. There are people like Alex who were given a huge disadvantage
in life, having very poor family background, life threatening accidents and even
explosions on-board but were able to create massive success in their life. There are
also people who came from a huge advantage but fail to unleash their full potential.
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Some of them even end up in jail. People say “If only I had started like this. If only I
had the proper connections. If only I knew how to do business. If only I had the skills.”
Remember that whatever your starting point is, even if you start with nothing, with
the application of these principles you can achieve your goal.

Successful people do not blame the circumstance, they take full charge of it. Some
people say the reason why they can’t succeed is because of their upbringing. It’s
because of their parents, that’s why they can’t win. It’s because of their spouse, that’s
why they can’t get their dreams. If you want to become successful in business and in
life, you have to realize that your background does not matter. Your past does not
matter. Your lack of skills does not matter. What matters here is where you are going.
What are you planning?

Learn from Capt. Alex Malayas. Aside from the fact that his asset column is huge and
his expenses and liabilities are low, do not let circumstance bring you down. Do not
blame the wrong cause, because if you do you remove all possible solutions. If you
blame other people or external factors, that means your destiny is within their hands
not yours.

Rejoice in the fact that even if you had a horrible past, you can still do it. That truly
what matters is what you do now. Yesterday is done already, the past failures are over
now, the sad memories are done and the future is looking bright because it is
determined by what you do now. The mere fact that you are reading this book means
change is coming for your life and I am excited for you!
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“Let today be the day you stop

being a victim of your circumstances

and start taking action towards the life

you want. You have the power and

the time to shape your life. Break free

from the poisonous victim mentality

and embrace the truth of your greatness.

You were not meant for a

mundane or mediocre life!”

-Steve Maraboli
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Principle VI

Develop the mindset of a champion

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Principle VI. Develop the mindset of a champion

Below are a couple of statements. Choose which statement you agree the most.

1. Intelligence is fixed; what you have you must accept.

2. Intelligence can be increased but not too much, you generally still have the same
level just with incremental increases.

3. Intelligence can be increased greatly if one wants to.

Hang on to your answers and I will explain this to you in a while.

A research was made on young students solving puzzles. The puzzles were arranged
by difficulty and the researchers observed how the students reacted as the puzzles got
harder and harder. All of the students enjoyed the first few sets, but as the puzzles
grew harder the students started reacting differently.

One girl asked if she could have the easier puzzles back. She hated the harder ones
and quickly lost interest. One boy solved a few puzzles and as it got harder, he started
scratching his head and lost his focus. He ignored the puzzles and did not comply to
the researchers. A few of the students, as the puzzles grew harder and they started
failing, actually enjoyed the process. “Wow this is a challenge! I’d love to solve this”.
They kept on trying to solve the harder puzzles and when asked if they want to tone
down the difficulty they said “No. Why would I want to solve the same easier puzzles?
What’s the point?” Most of the students wanted to just solve the easier ones, it’s no
fun when you can’t get it right away.
 96

What does this mean? Why do people react with failure and challenges differently?
The difference lies within the mindset. The fixed mindset and the growth mindset.

The fixed mindset believes in a world of fixed traits. There are things that you can do
and things you cannot. The fixed mindset values talent above all else, success means
you have to be naturally good. You can’t be good at something if it’s not natural to
you. Success means there should be no effort. Why would you need effort if you are
good? Being talented means exerting little effort, winning and being better than
everyone else. Failing means not being talented, so they hate failure and tend to avoid
it. The fixed mindset looks for opportunities to validate their talent.

The growth mindset believes in hard work and growth. You can learn and excel on
something as long as you are willing to put in a lot of effort. Talent means putting in a
lot of work and growing. Failing does not make you untalented, failing means growing
and becoming better. To them the worst thing in life is getting stuck and not growing.
Effort is what makes you talented and smart.

Is talent and natural ability really important to win in business? What if you have no
inherent skills or talent, can you win and excel in that field?

Have you heard of the word natural talent? “He is a natural at what he does.” The
term “natural” actually came from the world of sports. Sports talent scouts look for
these so called naturals, people who start with the talent and seems to learn
everything so fast. They are the crème of the crop, the only people allowed in the elite
teams that compete on a national level.
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Billy Bean was a natural, in fact he

was so good he was the best
shooter in basketball, captain of the
football team and best batter in
baseball all during his high school
years. The athletes who played with
him were amazed that even his
physical build, speed and strength
were on a different level than the
others. He excelled during his high
school years, but during college the
competition grew stiffer and Billy
Bean started losing.

His coach said in one interview that it seems like Billy Bean did not know the concept
of losing. He absolutely hated it. Every time he would lose he would break something.
He would throw tantrums and go in a rage when he misses a ball. He could not handle
losing. With every miss and every failed batting his fear grew until finally he wasn't
able to play anymore. Every missed shot questioned his talent, he lost interest and
wasn't able to succeed in baseball anymore.

What happened to Billy Bean? Did he succeed in life? Yes, but he succeeded through
scouting and managing a team. Billy Bean succeeded because he met Lenny Deikstra,
the growth mindset athlete.
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Lenny was not great, he was not brilliant

nor naturally talented, in fact he is average
in baseball. But every time he missed a
shot, he smiles and grows even more
motivated. Every time he loses he rises
back up again. His attitude towards failure
was outstanding. “ He was more of a
baseball player than I was.” Billy said.
Here is a person who took failure as an
opportunity, here is a person who was
average but was putting in all the hours to
become better. He believes that the harder you work the more talented you become.

Billy Bean’s philosophy changed as he watched Lenny play, he recruited players who
had no talent, he looked for the people who had the growth mindset. His team was
the second lowest paid in the whole league. He had average players, not talented but
with the growth mindset.

So what happened? The team won 102 victories and became the division champion.
Throughout Lenny Deikstra ’ s career he became MVP twice. Billy Bean while
establishing his team did not buy talent, he bought mindset.

“Talent is cheaper than table salt. What separates the

talented individual from the successful one is a lot

of hard work”
- Stephen King
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How tall do you need to be to enter the NBA? I am 5’8” and I think I will have a hard
time in the NBA. You should be at least 6 feet tall to be able to play normally right? I
want to introduce you then to Mugsy Bogues. One of the smallest players in NBA
history.

The guy is 5’3” and is one of the NBA

Greats. Do you think Mugsy’s parents
told him “ Son you are made for
basketball! You should join the NBA!”
Do you think at 5’3” it was logical for
him to compete and put his whole life
and career as an NBA player? Of course
not, so why is he so successful? In
Mugsy’s case his barrier was not talent,
it is a physical barrier. He cannot train
himself to get taller. This was a physical
limitation. But did that stop him? No.
He was able to play admirably in the NBA. He was even able to block a shot from Patrick
Ewing who stands at 7 feet tall! In an interview he said “I do not want to be
remembered as the smallest in the NBA. I want to be remembered as the fastest.”
 100

“There is no talent here, there is hard work.

This is an obsession. Talent does not exist,

we are all equal as human beings. You could

be anyone if you put in the time. You will

reach the top, and that is that. I am not talented,

I am obsessed.”

- Conor McGregor

How about Glenn Cunningham? He

was an American middle distance
runner, who was considered as the
greatest American miler of all time.
He received the James Sullvian award
as the top amateur athlete in the US
at 1933. His legs were very badly
burned in an explosion caused when
someone accidentally put gasoline
instead of kerosene in the can at his
schoolhouse when he was eight and
his brother Floyd was thirteen. Floyd
died in the fire. The doctors
recommended amputating Glenn’s
legs but his parents would not allow
it. The doctors predicted that he will never be able to walk again. He had lost all the
flesh in his knees and shins and all the toes on his left foot. The arch on his foot that
makes you balance and run faster was practically destroyed.
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Do you think with a burnt leg; anyone would recommend Glenn to pursue a career in
running? Do you think it’s natural for him to win a running competition with a burnt
foot? It was through his growth mindset and sheer determination that he was able to
walk again. It was through consistent hard work that he was able to be at par with the
great athletes and even surpass them. Remember that walking again was thought
impossible, but even with that disability he was able to make something out of his life.

“My disability has opened my eyes to see my true abilities”

- Anonymous

How about Pete Gray? He was an American professional baseball outfielder who
played during the 1940’s despite having lost his right arm in a childhood accident. He
was right handed until he lost his right arm at the age of eight in a wagon accident. His
arm was amputated above the elbow. He was treated differently and bullied at school
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because of having just one arm and people ridiculed him of pursuing baseball. “One
armed baseball player. What the heck is that?”

Despite the disability, his mindset was the reason why he is now a baseball legend. It
was hard for him to play baseball and he lost again and again. That’s the beauty of
having the growth mindset, every failure leads you closer to your goal. As long as Pete
gave his 100%, he knew had growth and he was happy with that.

It’s crazy when you see people like Billy Bean who had all the talent, all the god-like
abilities in their specific field fail and these people who had physical barriers,
disabilities but won because of their mindset.

Why am I telling this to you? Because some seafarers say “I was just not born to win in
business. I just don’t have it in me.” I just simply cannot understand this statement;
it is the most fixed mindset statement I have ever heard. Do you think Mugsy Bogues
was born to be great in the NBA? Pete Gray having one arm was designed for baseball?
If you work hard enough, study long enough, adopt the growth mindset I am sure you
can get your dreams.

“There are no secrets to success. It is the

result of preparation, hard work and

learning from failure”

-Colin Powell
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Talent is over rated. It is not

enough for you to win. It gives you
a good advantage, but overall
what carries you to the top is the
right mindset and the proper work
ethic.

Have you heard of the tales of the

tape? This is when boxer’s stats
are compared to one another,
height, reach, weight and all the
physical qualities of the boxer. It
usually flashes before a fight starts.
Before this is the only thing that
matters. They size up boxers based
on their stats and the winners usually are predicted based on who had the better reach
or height etc. A person who has poor reach was considered inadequate and will not
be able to perform in boxing properly.
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Sonny Liston was an American

professional boxer who competed in
the 1950’s. When you look at his
tales of the tape, he is as natural as
you can get. He dominated his era
and became the world Heavy weight
champion in 1962 after knocking
out Floyd Patterson in the first
round. He was a natural athlete with
a well-endowed body made for
boxing. He was known for his
toughness, incredible punching
power, his long reach and
intimidating presence.

He was matched up with Cassius Clay A.K.A. Muhammad Ali in 1964. The match was
considered ridiculous. The odds were 8-1 with Ali being the underdog. The tales of the
tape told everything, Sonny Liston was at an advantage on many aspects. He was
stronger, had a longer reach and was more powerful. Ali only had his speed. The match
up was so lop sided that the arena was not even half-full.

Ali prepared intensely for the fight. He watched all of Sonny’s videos, watched how
he moved. He even studied how he thinks! Ali knew that physically Sonny was at an
advantage, but you can never stop a growth minded athlete. He was interviewed why
he seemed to act crazy before the fight, he said “Listen, I had to think I was crazy. I
had to believe I could win. The enemy has all the advantage and I am the underdog.”
 105

Ali was not strong, he had poor stats and according to some boxing coaches, he boxed
all wrong. “Ali dodges punches like he is dodging a train. Only he evades the train not
by moving sideways, but by running backwards.” His methods were unorthodox and
were not normal in a sense. Ali did not listen to the critics, he believed in working hard
and playing his strengths.

“Float like a butterfly, sting like a bee.

Your eyes can’t hit what your eyes can’t see.”

-Muhammad Ali

It was the biggest upset in boxing

history. This is when Ali showed the
world that it is not the “tales of the
tape” that determines a champion, it
is his mindset and work ethics. It is not
natural talent, nor physical attributes
that made him win against Sonny, in a
sense he was disadvantaged in every
way, but he used his speed and his
brains to knock him out.

Sonny Liston, before the fight was reported just running 1 mile a day instead of the
usual 5. He was eating hotdogs and drinking beer, convinced that his talent alone can
bring down Ali in the first 2 rounds. “Why would I need to work hard? I am good at
this; Ali would not stand a chance.”
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The mindset of a champion disregards talent and does not focus on physical and
natural abilities. It focuses on growth, effort, hard work and learning from failure. We
seafarers have the capacity to learn business, and what will make us successful is our
attitude towards it. The more we are willing to learn, the more we accept failure and
learn from it, the closer we are to our goals.

I remember messing up within the first few months of my business. Talking to 10

Chinese nationals and trying to make a deal with them, they walked out of the meeting
room within a few minutes. It was devastating for me. It was an absolute fail, thinking
that I would make a deal of a lifetime. I was a bit depressed, I almost quit but I
remembered that as long as I gave it my all and I grew I was one step closer to my goal.
The growth mindset encourages failure, in fact the more failures you get the better. It
is because of failure that you grow and learn, and you come out better because of it.
As a wise man once said “What doesn't kill you makes you stronger.”

“ I can accept failure, everyone fails

at something. But I can’t accept not trying.”

-Michael Jordan
 107

Principle VII

Become an expert
 108

Principle VII. Become an expert

A man sits inside the doctor’s office. He was about to get operated and he was pretty
nervous. The doctor comes inside the room smiling. “I am very excited to do this
operation with you! We will do the best we can so you should not worry!” The man
smiles in relief. “Geez doc, you are very positive and passionate with what you do. How
long have you been doing this?” The doctor says “Actually I am an accountant. I have
never done an operation before, but I read the manuals before I came here so it should
be okay.” The patient screams and runs away.

How long do you need to work in order to become a surgeon? It takes years of study
and work to become a consultant. Of course it is well worth it, surgeons are one of the
highest paid professions in the country. They start studying at the age of 16 for pre-
med and then become consultants around the age of 40. That is a long time.

You would need to read all the books, attend all the seminars, undergo all the trainings
and spend all those hours doing the job learning from senior surgeons then you finally
become a consultant. It takes years to become an expert in something, approximately
10,000 hours according to Malcolm Gladwell. It is good to see that many seafarers
want to become rich and earn a lot from business. But what’s sad is when you tell
them “You need to study. Attend seminars. Listen to audio tapes” they won’t spend
even 2 hours doing it.

Decide to become an expert at your chosen business. Study everything about it. Attend
seminars, learn from the experts, attend all the conventions and spend the necessary
time for you to be good at it. “But Mix I am on-board!”. You can still study and read
while off-duty, you can research and learn when you are docked and with internet. You
 109

can still progress that 10,000 hours’ even if you are at sea. What is important is you
start doing it. That 10,000 hours will only count while you are learning and running
your business. Idle time does not count. So you better get started.

Nikko came from a poor family. Having a father who worked as a farmer and a mother
who teaches in an elementary school, he did not have the privilege most kids enjoy
today. The school was 30 to 40 km away from their house and their commute to the
school is a challenge by itself. He had always been doing business since he was a kid,
selling vegetables, ice candies and even fireworks during the holiday season. He had
an entrepreneurial mind and he wanted to become an expert at it. Unfortunately, they
did not have enough money to support a normal college education so he entered the
academy because there was no choice. As he started going on-board and the salary
started coming in, he saw an opportunity in seafaring, a chance to be massively
wealthy. “If you use your money well in seafaring, you can retire early and earn really
big.” He has decided to focus on creating wealth through his salary on-board and
started investing. He decided to become an expert on the field and eventually was able
to start his own business. He is now the president of Maritime City, a corporation that
handles the mobile app SEAKER and the review centre St. Nicholas. He told himself,
“study business and start yours as early as you can. You will eventually be good at it.
Your health will not always be at its peak. Remove the wants first and focus on the
needs!”
 110

Some say, “I suck at business and I am going to quit.” Let me ask you first, have you
spent that 10,000 hours already? No? Then you should not stop. The reason why you
are not earning big yet is because you haven’t spent that 10,000 hours yet. The millions
are earned by those people who have studied and sacrificed for their business. Those
who are patient enough to wait, learn and undergo the process are rewarded
immensely. Just be patient. Every day you work takes off a couple of hours on that
10,000 and you are a step closer to expert level. As long as you do not quit, it will come
and you will figure it out. Then it becomes so easy for you that it is like breathing. You
don’t even need to think about it. I am excited when that day comes for you!

“Don’t judge each day by the harvest

you reap but by the seeds that you plant.”

–Robert Louis Stevenson

 111

Principle VIII

Put logic over emotions

 112

Principle VIII. Put logic over emotions

“Coach, I am going to be rich! I am so excited!” Junard told me as he wrote his business

plans. “Looks promising” I said. He wanted to start a small grocery business, a water
refilling station, an apartment business and a piggery. He has been preparing and
researching for a couple of years. Even while on-board he has been learning and going
the extra mile when it comes to leadership and business books. He planned to start his
businesses around 2014 and after that coaching session we went our separate ways.
He had a certain spark in his eyes, he wanted to win.

We met again 2018 and I had the opportunity to listen to his story. He educated his
wife why they need to do business because his wife was not inclined to business and
did not want to risk his husbands hard-earned money. I met his wife and gave her a
little coaching on why risking nothing means losing everything. She was convinced on
the idea of investing into assets and started becoming passionate about it.

They started according to plan, got their first business up and running by 2014 and it
was ok. The grocery was making money, not a lot, but was providing extra cash to
produce the capital for the water refilling station. “I don’t care if it’s not making that
much, I just need to stick with it and learn it. I am sure in 10 years I will figure this type
of business out” Junard said. He knew that by spending time on running it, he will
eventually learn it. “The first year was horrible. We barely made any money, but you
can’t have emotions overcome your logic. I am sure in 10 years we will figure this out
and this will boom. When we were feeling down we would always remind ourselves
that emotions have no place in running a business. Logic must apply.”
 113

The grocery now is making at least 2000 USD a month. They attended seminars on
marketing, how to run a grocery store and figured it out at the year 2017. The grocery
was able to finance the water refilling station and it is now running by 2018.

Let me ask you a question. If you start a piggery and you study it for 10 years, attend
all the seminars, conventions, learn all the updates in the industry what are the
chances that you would have figured it out already? 50%? 80% or a 100%? If you
answer more than 70% then you should trust in that logic no matter what you feel. In
business you would feel all sorts of emotions, you might feel happy or sad or frustrated
but what’s important is you stick to that logic that if you spend enough time on it you
will eventually learn it. Ultimately what kills most of the businesses is the owner’s
drama and susceptibility to negative emotions. When the business does not earn they
lock themselves inside a room and cry. They believe their dreams are ruined already,
that the future is looking grim and you ask them “how long have you been running the
business?” they would say 5 months. Junard was not earning in the first year, in fact
he told me he even lost money. He felt all kinds of emotions, but he never trusted it.
“I don’t trust my emotions; it will lead me nowhere. I felt like quitting in the first year.
The good thing is I don’t believe what I feel.”

I have a friend who approached me for coaching, he was depressed. He was trying to
break through the half- million a month net profit and he was frustrated. “I can’t break
it” he says. “I’ve been trying and trying and I can’t seem to solve it. I always fall short,
only up to 300 000 a month. What am I doing wrong?” he was miserable. He has been
attempting for 4 years and he was sad. “Sometimes people are winning but they feel
like losing” I told him. “You are winning but you are so focused on the negative that
you remove all your blessings and you conclude that life is miserable.”
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Would you want to earn that much? Isn’t he blessed? Logically if you just count all your
wins in life and focus on it, you will realise that you are actually doing pretty well. If
you focus on the negative and get eaten by it, you will see only the negatives in life.
The mere fact you are able to read this and actually are considering starting a business
is a blessing on its own. Many people cannot read, and many are not even alive to read
this.

What do you see inside this box? Most people say a black dot. But have you noticed
the white? Most people don’t see the white. What’s inside the box is 99.95% white
and just 00.05% black and people only see the dot.
 115

That’s how we are human beings. We tend to see the dot and forget about the white,
and that’s how we look at business too. Focusing on your negative emotions and
unimpressive initial results make you evaluate your life horribly. If you make a habit of
evaluating life like this box, pretty soon you will see only negatives. You won’t be able
to start your business or make it boom.

Commonly the mind makes poor evaluations of our situations. With bad evaluations
of course you get negative feelings. To overcome this use logic, you are blessed and
you just need time for your business to flourish. You will learn all of it eventually.
Evaluate your life better and suddenly life becomes more colourful. Your business is
doing well and you are more likely to persevere.

“Mix isn’t counting your blessings ignoring your problems? What if because I focused
on the positive, I lose the energy and the attention in solving the problem?” That is a
good question. Remember using logic doesn't mean you are ignoring the problem, it
means you are putting yourself in a better state to solve all these problems and figure
your business out. Being happy means better performance, better outlook in life.
Being happy means you are more motivated to move and act. Being happy means 30%
more sales closed. Being happy means having the right mental state to learn and try a
different approach.

Remember that as long as you keep trying you will figure this out. You have a 100%
chance of winning, you just have to stick to logic and not trust your emotions. Start
making better evaluations of life and you will see the world in a better light. You will
be less prone to negative emotions. You will be happier. Logic will prevail.

“Logic is the beginning of wisdom, not the end”

- Leonard Nimoy
 116

Principle IX

Practice Proactivity
 117

Principle IX. Practice Proactivity

Viktor Frankl was a Jew living during Hitler’s era. It was hell on earth for him. He saw
his child being shot in front of him. He was sent to the concentration camps and
tortured for a long time. He was alone, naked in a dark room, uncertain if he will live
or die. He listened to the howls and cries of his fellow prisoners, most of them going
insane as they were tortured indefinitely. Everything was taken from Viktor, but as he
sat there alone in his dark room he told himself “You can take away everything from
me. My child, my wife, my family but you will never be able to take away my ability to
respond to everything you do to me.” He was not broken, in fact while the Germans
were torturing him, he would often imagine himself doing his passion; educating
young students. He imagined being able to survive the camp and live off to tell his
story and inspire people. He imagined himself being happy. He remained strong. The
other prisoners were crying and saying “What did I do to deserve this? There is no
more hope for me.” Most of them succumbed to the torture. They killed themselves.
Most of them went insane. In a sense Viktor Frankl was more free than the prison
guards, he chose how to respond to the situation, he was free in his mind. The people
around him started to get inspired, even the guards! With that kind of mindset he was
able to survive. He chose how everything that happened to him was going to affect
him. Viktor Frankl was subjected to the worst human condition possible. He was
deprived of everything but he was still able to choose his response. It was the reason
why he was able to share his story to all of us.

“Between stimulus and response, man has the freedom to choose.”

- Stephen Covey
 118

This is one of the most powerful statements Stephen Covey said in his book. Whatever
happens to you, you have the power to respond to it. If there is a traffic jam, bad
weather or a crazy neighbour, successful people choose their response to different
situations. Unsuccessful people are played upon by life, reacting to everything that
happens to them. They let those situations affect them and therefore their
performance. Always the victim of circumstance, accepting and reacting to every
situation. That’s the reason why the other prisoners died. “There is nothing I can do.”
This is called being “reactive”. To become an effective businessman, you must be able
to choose your response to most of life’s situations. In fact, adopting this mindset, you
can be promoted on-board the ship fast. You cannot choose the people you work with
on-board. People say “I can’t be promoted because the captain is...”. Reactive people
blame external factors and say “that’s just the way it is”, rather than focusing on things
they can control. “How can I be promoted in a work environment like this?” is the
proper approach.

Reactive people let the world happen to them. They believe that the problem is out
there, instead of focusing what’s in them. They adopt the victim mindset and wish “if
only things were different.” They feel their life is out of control.

Most of us say “I can’t get off the cycle of seafaring because.... *insert reason*.” If the
problem is out there and not in us, then we can never get out of the seafaring cycle.
Outside factors, the world and other people we cannot control. We can only control
ourselves. Proactivity gives you control of your life. If you do not like your circumstance,
you only need to change yourself and your actions and the results will change.
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Life should not happen to you; you should make life happen! Reactive people are angry
when the weather is bad, proactive people do not care about the weather because the
weather is within. Whether it is sunny or rainy, it does not matter. Proactive people
would always be able to choose their response. They are never victimised and they are
the most free people in this era. Look at the word responsibility. If you look at it
carefully, it actually means response-ability. Your ability to respond. Proactive people
have the ability to respond to any stimuli, they would get affected by negative
situations but their response is conscious. It is always their choice.

I remember a friend of mine; his name is Don. He’s been so angry at his captain. In fact,
the captain is all that he was talking about. How miserable he was under the command
of that person. How the captain was so toxic and negative. He was on-board together
with that captain for multiple contracts and his next ship assignment was still on the
same captain on the same ship. He was so miserable that he lost weight because the
captain requires them to work more than the regular working hours. He fixes his
working hours so that on record he was complying the ILO requirement. When I told
him about proactivity, that he had the choice if it would affect him and it was his fault
he was miserable, he became upset. He told me “This person has made my life
miserable for 8 contracts already. I was always unfortunate to be on the same ship as
him. Now you are telling me it’s my fault? I chose to be miserable? Isn’t it the captains
fault?” He remained quiet for a while then he really thought about it. He realised he
had the power to choose, he had the ability to respond, he can choose to be affected
and he can also choose to remain happy. He was enlightened. “I feel free now! I can’t
imagine that it was actually me all along! I will have him as my captain again this next
contract, but I know it will not be the same like last time. This time I have the power. I
am no longer a victim of another person. I am free”
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Remember that what happens to you is not what hurts you. It’s your response to it
that hurts you. This kind of mentality is very important in building your business. In a
world where traffic gets worse, politics gets crazy, increased shipboard training
requirements and business competition rises, proactivity gets you to the top and
makes you stay there. We have so many things going on every sign off, children to take
care of, trainings to do and a business to build. It can be quite stressful. But hey, if you
are proactive, you are not a victim of circumstance anymore. You can focus more, you
blame others less, and you solve more problems!
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The best way to stay proactive according to Stephen Covey is to focus on the circle of
influence. The circle of concern is everything that happens in your life that you are
unable to control. Traffic, politics, weather and everything that you have no influence
over. No matter how much you scream, traffic will not change. No matter how much
you curse, that rain is not going to stop. If you want to stay focused on building your
future and getting out of our seafaring cycle, you need to focus on what you can
control. Anything that is out of your influence, forget about it and do not dwell on it.
When you see that politician you hate speaking in the television, ask yourself “can I do
something about this? Is this inside my circle of influence?” If the answer is no, then
don’t worry about it anymore. The less things you are engaged on, the higher the
chance of succeeding. Why? Because you dwell only on the few but important things.
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When you focus on the circle of concern you actually lose some of your power to act.
When you dwell on things that are outside the realm of your control, you are easily
distracted and you lose productivity. I believe that we can only focus on so many things.
If you have too many things in your mind you really can’t bring out the best in you. The
more you focus on things you can control the more you expand your circle of influence.
You become more efficient and therefore abler to influence and control your situation.

“No one can hurt you without your consent”

-Eleanor Roosevelt
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Principle X

Determine the end of the journey

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Principle X. Determine the end of the journey

The secret to getting ahead in life is knowing your destination. The end of the journey.
What do you really want to get in life? That is a question people rarely ask themselves.
Most people go on with life, up to the day they die, not knowing what they really want.
Successful people begin their journey knowing what the end is and every step and
every effort contributes to their major goal in life. It is so easy to get caught up with
life, becoming busy, going on-board, complying training requirements that we tend to
forget what we really want in the end.

I remember this story of a teacher who always goes to work with a smile. He is the
most cheerful teacher in that school and he was very vibrant. Every day he would go
to school to teach and everyday he would go home fulfilled. “That was one busy day”
he said smiling. He never got tired because he loved working in the school so much.
One day a promotion was offered to him because he was doing so well and everyone
knew he would be a great principal. He accepted the offer and worked in his new
position.

A few years later he was so depressed that he almost committed suicide. Why?
Because he did not know what he truly wanted, he thought it was working in the
school. He had counselling to combat his depression and he later found out what he
truly wanted. It was actually teaching and inspiring the next generation, and he
almost lost his life because he got promoted. He did not know what he truly wanted
and it almost cost him his life. One way to know what you really want is to do this
activity. I would recommend you do this alone, in a quiet room with time to reflect and
a notebook beside you.
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“How can you hit a target you don’t even have?”

-Zig Ziglar

Imagine you are in a hallway, full of candles on the side and a huge door at the end.
You walk across the hallway and it’s very quiet. You open the door to see a huge room
with a lot of people sitting down facing the end of the room. You walk towards the end
and you see a coffin and inside you see yourself laying there peacefully. You look on
the left and you see the most important people in your life and they are about to give
a eulogy. A speech of how they knew you as a person and how you contributed to their
lives.

The question is what do you want them to say? What words do you want to come from
their mouth? For each person, write it down in your notebook. This exercise is a bit
morbid and gloomy, but it gives your insight in what you really want to achieve in your
life. Remember that our relationship with friends, family and what we want to
contribute to them is the most important. Imagine your children, what would you want
them to say? Your wife? Do you want them all to say?

I did this exercise myself and I want my children to say that I was there for them. I want
them to say that I was the best father, I was able to provide financially and to give my
full attention and time to them. I want them to say that I was present in every
important event in their life. I want them to say that they felt secure, because I got
their backs. I want my parents to say that I was able to support them and be there for
them when they needed me. I want my friends to say that I was able to inspire them
to become greater people.
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I thought about my career as a seafarer and how it can help me achieve these goals. I
knew that it can be a great opportunity to gather capital and start a business so I could
be with my family. So that all of those things I wrote would come true. It gave me more
motivation to start a business and my action is now more aligned because I know
where I wanted to go. I did not see myself growing old in the career because I know it
will not lead me to my ideal end result.

That foresight influenced all my decisions as I was going on-board. Every day I was
focused on the end result, the money I spent was dedicated in pursuit of the end goal.
I was fixated at my end goal and that gave me power and determination to ignore the
temptations of spending on liabilities and wasting time.

Sometimes people forget the reason why they started seafaring in the first place. Is it
to buy a nice car? A new gadget? A new condo Unit? Or in the end is it about family?
Isn’t it about the welfare of our loved ones?

Things in our life manifests in 2 steps. The first step is in the mind. You have to think it
first, then through the body, you need to act. It’s very important that you get the first
step right. You’ve got to plan out what you want to happen with your life, what you
really want to achieve personally. When the plan is solid, then you execute it.

I remember this case where a team of surgeons were inside the operating room to do
an amputation. They were going to cut off the left leg of the patient. They were very
precise and the technique was flawless. “Nice work guys, the amputation was
successful” the lead surgeon said. Later on they found out that the operation that was
supposed to be done was on the right leg. The hospital and the doctors were sued for
malpractice.
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How often does this happen? When people work excellently only to find out that the
result they wanted was different? If you have the wrong destination and you drive
excellently, you will just arrive in the wrong place faster.

“People with goals succeed because they know where they are going”

- Earl Nightingale

I encourage you to make your own personal mission statement and write down your
goals for each role you play in life. If you are a father, what do you want to accomplish?
If you are a teacher, what is your goal and the end result you are after? Having a
personal mission statement gives you direction in life and makes you more likely to be
on the right path.

Making a personal mission statement helps you:

1. Set your direction every morning

2. You can be reminded of your ultimate goal and you can check if you are still on track

3. Makes you creative and think of ways to align yourself more with your goal

4. Assures fulfilment in life

5. Makes you motivated to act

6. Gives you a sense of purpose

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There are very few people who have their own mission statement. Those few are way
ahead of the others. I encourage you to make your own and post it in your cabin. As
you sail the Atlantic, every time you wake up, before going to duty read your mission
statement out loud. This helps you see what you want in the future and it will make
sure you arrive in your ideal destination.

“Setting goals is the first step in turning the invisible to visible”

- Tony Robbins
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Principle XI

Remove Procrastination
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Principle XI. Remove Procrastination

Kevin was a good OS; he was knowledgeable in what he should do inside the bridge if
ever he was to be promoted as officer. After his regular 12-4 watch, he stays overtime
to observe how the officers navigate the ship. He was very eager to learn. I signed on
the same time as him and we signed off together as well. The good thing about Kevin
is he was a graduate of Marine Transportation, the only thing he needs to do is to take
the exam and he is good to go as an officer. He received many recommendations for
promotion and what’s stopping his it is his lack of license.

“When are you going to take the exam?” I told him.

“When we sign off sir, I will take the review and pass the exam.”

“That’s good! You are ready to be promoted, if you study well enough I am sure you
can pass it.”

A few months after we signed off I had the opportunity to talk to him.

“So how is it? How is the review?”

“Sir I did not realise it was our wedding anniversary so I had to spend money for the
special occasion. I’ll do it on the next contract.”

Next year I saw him in the office.

“So how’s the new third mate?”

“Sir! Unfortunately, I still don’t have the license. When I signed off it was the start of
the semester for my kids. I had to spend money on that unfortunately and I was not
able to start the review. Next year I promise!”
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“Let your dreams be bigger than your excuses.”

-Anonymous

After a few years I saw him again.

“How are you? Have you passed the exam already?”

“Well the last sign off I had, it was Christmas time. You know sir, Christmas can be very
expensive. It was a long time since I experienced Christmas here so I had to enjoy it
with family. You know very well that family is our priority. Sir, I know what you are
thinking. You are thinking I won’t take the exam anymore right? Well let me tell you
that I will for sure! Unfortunately, the timing these past couple of years was awful but
this coming year I am sure, this time 100% I will take it.”

After a few months...

“How are you Kevin?”

“Sir I did not realise it was our wedding anniversary so I had to spend money for the
special occasion.”

We are back to the same reason after a couple of years. It is unfortunate that all the
reasons Kevin had was valid, it is true that you have to spend time for your wedding
anniversary. It is true that we need to value family time, especially during Christmas.
All our reasons are valid. But if we have the same excuses before, and the same reasons
before, we will have the same results as before. Usually it is the same excuse over and
over again why a person cannot do something he plans to get his dreams started. This
will still boil down to proactivity. If you wait for external factors to change before you
change what is inside, you will always be frustrated.
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The same story goes with seafarers who want to start their own business. They always
have a valid reason why they cannot start it. Remember that you will never have the
right timing. A wise man said it beautifully, if you wait for all the lights to turn green
you will never be able to move forward. Have you ever experienced a drive where all
the traffic lights were green? That you never had to stop and the entire journey was
full of right timing?

In my long experience in business I have discovered that our brains can be very
convincing. Our brains always try to justify why we are not able to do things. It will
always provide the most beautiful rationalisation, the most elaborate excuse why
things are the way they are. Why certain things are not possible and why we cannot
start now. That is why I don’t trust my brain, I trust myself and my spirit.

We as human beings love procrastination; it is natural to us. Especially for Filipinos it

is part of our culture. “Mañana habit” as we call it. The frightening thing about
procrastination is that it is an endless cycle. Like Kevin he has been delaying what he
needs to do and continuously justifying his actions. You have to catch yourself because
unless you are aware of this you will not realise it’s happening to you. I have friends
on-board who had been continuously planning to start a business and unconsciously
they are also rationalising why they won’t do it. I remember a fellow officer who had
been talking about business every time I met him, it was all that was coming out of his
mouth. It’s funny because the first time I met him he was so passionate about it and
up to now he is, but he never was able to start his own business. He was a victim of
rationalisation and “mañana” habit.
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What’s beautiful about procrastination is that there are techniques to counter it.
Whenever my brain rationalises why I should delay my work, I use the 3 second rule.
When you think of doing something and you have a tendency to delay it, count one to
three then do it immediately. This way you don’t allow your brain to rationalise and
think. When you start moving you stop rationalising and you accomplish your task. This
has been very effective especially when I was trying to get myself to exercise. I knew I
had to study to become successful in business but I always rationalise why there is not
enough time to read. Using the 3 second rule I was able to remove all my excuses and
just start doing what I needed to do. Trust in what Nike says, “just do it.”
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Principle XII

Nurture an unwavering courage

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Principle XII. Nurture an unwavering courage

Isagani had his heart beating fast. “I am about to open my first provincial satellite office.
Am I ready to do this? Can I really pull this off?” There was so much running in his mind.
He kept asking himself if he was ready to run a business, if he had the skills necessary
to pull it off. “Do not get affected by emotions. You know you can do this. Do not get
influenced by fear. It is the greatest dream killer; you can do this. You can do this.”
Despite the fear, he started his branch anyway and ended up having 6 hospitals as his
client, 27 affiliate doctors and a huge amount of sales that same year. There was so
much uncertainty but he stood courageous and it paid off.

Are you familiar with the lay out of your house? If I tell you to describe it to me, the
way your house looks, where the utensils are, the arrangement of the furniture, can
you describe it to me in detail? If I turned off the electricity and there were no lights,
can you move from your room to the outside of the house? If you lived in the same
house for a long time, I am sure you can. But what if I put you inside my house and
turn off the lights, can you get out?

I believe that in business you have to be courageous. Starting a business is like walking
around another person’s house and there is no light. There is uncertainty because you
can’t see what is going to happen. It can be scary and you will be stumbling a lot
because you can’t see, but you have to face your fears in order to get out. Try different
approaches, bump your head a few times but be courageous enough to walk even if
there is no light. You might be walking and you end up in a dead end, a courageous
person would try again and look for another way out. A person who let’s fear consume
him would just give up and yell “Why are there no lights! I give up!”

Is starting a business scary? Definitely! Anything that is new to us, anything that we
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are not familiar with can instil fear in our hearts. I want to tell you that this is normal.
When I shelled out my three hundred-thousand-peso savings and some borrowed
money to buy my first jeepney at 19 years old, I was scared to death. I had no idea how
to run a jeepney business. It would be easier if I was a marine engineer but I was a
future deck officer. But I knew that in order to win, I had to face those fears. “What if
my jeepney gets into an accident and hits a person and I end up losing all my money?
What if the driver I get sells all my parts and replaces it with old ones? What if it doesn't
work out? What if I end up with a lot of debt?”

Let me tell you, those thoughts will be there and there will be a lot of uncertainties. A
lot of negative self-talk and moments where you will doubt your decisions. All business
owners had the same fears, but they were courageous enough to face it and overcome
it. Remember that courage is not the absence of fear, it is your ability to face those
fears.

One of the biggest culprits why people fail to achieve their dreams is fear. Fear of the
unknown. The fear of losing. I think that it’s very natural for us to be afraid. Your brain
is hard-wired to protect you from failure, it is because of our evolution where in
prehistoric times, if you commit a mistake, it means getting eaten by a sabre-toothed
tiger. The same goes for us seafarers. You’ve worked hard for that money and your
brain will protect you from the possibility of losing those hard-earned resources. That
is why when a person is about to start a business that would have made him rich, he
backs out at the last second and the opportunity disappears.
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Whenever you feel that fear, remember that it is in the moments of your decision that
your destiny will be shaped. What will determine your future is what you do with that
fear. Do you get influenced by fear? Or do you face it?

If you were to have a boxing match with Manny Pacquiao without gloves would you
be afraid? I know I will be. It might mean my early death! He is a professional boxer
and I know I would get crushed. I would probably wet my pants in that fight. But what
If Mayweather fights him? Would he be as afraid as I am? Of course not!

Why? Because he knows he has the skills to fight against Manny. What’s my point? If
you know what you are doing, you won’t be afraid anymore. Knowledge combats fear.
If you think you still cannot start a business because you are afraid then allot the time
to develop your skills and study more about the business you want to start.

Fear is inversely proportional to knowledge; the more knowledge you have the less
fear you feel. That is why I encourage my fellow seafarers to start small. Don’t go all
out investing your life savings into one business. Start small and learn the basic skills
you need to run it properly then when you finally figure out how you can make money
out of that business, expand it and learn it again. Start from a small sari-sari store, then
buy a bigger grocery, then eventually buy a second one. Spend a few years building
that business and you will be surprised you might be managing a mall already!

To nurture that courage inside you, you have to understand how fear works in our
hearts and how knowledge combats those fears. You want to start that agriculture
business? I suggest attending a seminar about it when you sign off and read a couple
of books on the subject and you will be surprised you will have the confidence to get
started. When you are about to shell out that money and you feel the fear inside your
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heart, accept that this is natural and be courageous enough to take the first step.
Isagani spent a lot of time studying his business, he had a lot of coaching and that is
why he was courageous enough to get started.

Fear is actually an acronym for something. This had been my guiding principle
whenever I feel that fear is trying to stop me in doing something I know is important
in the pursuit of getting my dreams.

F-alse

E-xpectations

A-ppearing

R-eal

When you are about to do something you are not comfortable doing, your mind gives
you the worst case scenario possible and try to talk you out of doing it. You are about
to give a presentation on your possible client, and your mind tells you that the client
most probably won’t like your presentation and will reject you the worst possible way.
These are false expectations and they appear real to you but in reality, these made up
scenarios don’t usually happen in my experience. I remember talking to this one big
businessman, we were about to make a deal and when I was closing the sale I felt this
insanely huge amount of self-doubt “He won’t like it. I will get rejected.” My heart
started beating faster, I started to shake but before I even speak he said “Okay how
much do I need to shell out? Let us start this partnership now. I want to get this started
as soon as possible.” All those stupid thoughts and predictions of rejection turned out
to be completely inaccurate.
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He said yes even without finishing my presentation. All those negative expectations
didn't happen. I was afraid for nothing. He did not even object to anything. I have come
to realise that these worst case scenarios that my mind makes up are completely
inaccurate and I have learned not to trust it. I have come to learn that facing your fears
and not getting affected by emotion pays off in the process of achieving your dreams.

Let me tell you that I am afraid. I am afraid of missing out on all the best moments in
my life. I am afraid of not having time for my family. Afraid on missing my son’s
graduation day. Afraid of not enjoying my prime years and making the most of my time
where I still have the peak of my health. I am afraid of celebrating those anniversaries
on-board. I am afraid of not getting my dreams. Therefore, I had to be courageous. For
my sake, and the sake of my family.

“Do what you fear the most, and the death of fear is certain.”
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Principle XIII

Focus on your value

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Principle XIII. Focus on your value

“Coach Mix, I want to increase my profits in my business.”

“Okay. What do you plan on doing?” I asked Joseph.

“I don’t know. I tried changing my employees, it didn't work. I tried putting promotions
and it still didn’t work. I am lost. I don’t know what to do.”

“Have you been studying?”

“Studying what exactly?”

This is a common problem for people who are running a business. They expect an
increase in income without having an increase in their personal value. Remember that
an increase of profits is the by-product of your increase in knowledge and skills. Have
you learned anything new? Are you continuously studying and growing yourself? You
cannot increase the income of your future business if you don’t grow yourself. The
limiter of your business is you. When you increase your limit, the business expands
with you.

I have spent a fortune in investing on myself. I have attended hundreds of paid

seminars, I took modules abroad and invested heavily on books and improving myself.
After my duty on-board, I study about business whereas the other crew members
watch soap operas. Some seminars can even cost up to fifty thousand pesos for a mere
3 days. I did not hesitate on these learning opportunities and I had promised myself
that if it is money spent on myself, it is money well spent. If you want to earn money,
then you have to spend money. The best way to spend money is to spend it on yourself
and on what you know. The best time spent in business is the time you spend growing
yourself. I never miss out on opportunities where I can learn something new because
I know my income would most probably go up after a seminar.
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I rarely listen to the radio and have invested my time and money on audio books where
I can learn something. I think this is one of my greatest secrets. Instead of listening to
Papa Jack in the radio and hearing these love stories that can get me nowhere, I listen
to Zig Ziglar’s talks and learn more about my business every day. Imagine doing this
every time you commute, every time you fall in line fixing your papers, every time you
ride the train, after a couple of months you would be way better than when you started.
Doing this for an entire year is like attending one semester in the university.

Did you know that 60% of Filipinos stop studying and reading after college? Those who
stop educating themselves after college are doomed to be mediocre. They would be
ordinary for the rest of their lives. Reading this book makes you one step ahead of the
others and I hope after you finish this, you would continue educating yourself and
striving to become even better. I started my learning since I was 18 years old, I had
been reading and learning ever since. In school they would teach you how to make a
living, studying by yourself will teach you how to make a fortune.

Have you passed your algebra exams during high school? I did, but I have to say that I
am not that good in math. If you took the hardest equation you solved in high school
and make you solve it right now, are you still confident you will be able to solve that
problem? Some would say yes but most would say no. I know I won’t be able to.

The point here is that you don’t actually retain your intelligence, when you don’t study
you actually lose intelligence. You dumb down. Imagine not studying after graduation
till the day you die. That would be an endless spiral of dumbing down and that will
make you mediocre. Do not allow that! Start investing in yourself right now and make
it a commitment that you would prioritise your personal growth and value.
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“A person who does not read is not better off than a person who can’t”

- Anonymous

Imagine increasing your value because of studying at least 1% every week. Dedicate
time and effort and even at 1% increase in value a week you would be 4% better every
month, 48% better a year, 480% better in ten years. I was able to stop sailing and earn
my first million profit within a year in business at the age of 25. It is because I started
learning and improving, even at a slow pace of 1% a week since I was 18 years old. If
you start now, imagine what 5 to 10 years from now looks like!

If you don’t know anything about marketing, if you study now in a few years you will
be good. Eventually you would become an expert. If you are having a hard time dealing
with people and employees, start studying on the subject, increase your value and in
a few years you would be extremely proficient.

Did you know that most of today’s successful people do not stop studying even up to
the day they pass away? They have a certain percentage in their budget allotted for
personal development and growth, and if they eventually earn millions of dollars a
month, they keep that percentage and start investing on more expensive seminars.
They start with books first, eventually they attend personal growth seminars, then they
hire personal coaches and they get mentors. They would find ways to spend that
percentage and doing so increases their income and their budget even more. They
become even better and they earn even more. The cycle of continuous improvement
goes on until they become the most successful people in the world. You will see them
riding yachts, enjoying quality time with their family and living the life of their dreams
because they focused on their value.
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Remember, to increase your profits, you have to increase your value. Ask yourself,
“What do I personally have to offer and how can I make me better?” You become better,
the business performs better and you are a step closer to your dreams!
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Principle XIV

Have the will to sacrifice

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Principle XIV. Have the will to sacrifice

“Most people want to succeed in life until they see what it takes.”

-Anonymous

I am very passionate when it comes to playing games. Ever since I was a kid, I have
been playing computer games every day. I still studied, I still worked, and I still grew
but there was never a day when I did not touch a gamepad. I remember when I was in
the academy, every time we would get a shore leave I would make sure I’d sleep only
a few hours to finish the games I wanted to play.

One of my biggest dreams was owning a beautiful computer rig. I’d always dreamt of
having the most high-end gaming desktop ever. I would research computer parts, find
out the best one, think of custom lighting and pick the strongest graphics card and
imagine building my rig. Fortunately, when we earned big in our business, that dream
became a reality. I was able to build my rig and while it cost me a fortune, it was still
fulfilling knowing that it was my business that bought the set up.

One day I was walking in Makati and by chance I met Billy, my mentor. He
complimented my gaming set up, he saw it in Facebook because I posted it. He
appreciated the way I built the rig and before we parted ways he told me “Mix, you
should play games when you are earning 10 million pesos a month already. Now is not
the time to play. Focus on your business first and when you are living in a mansion with
money you cannot count anymore, then play games all your life.” Then he left.
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I understood what he meant. It was a short message but I realised that in order for me
to get the success I want, I should reduce the time I was spending playing computer
games and allot my focus on achieving my goals first. I needed to pay the price in order
to reach my goal and the price was letting go of gaming first.

Each of us have our own obstacles to fight. Mine was playing computer games. I had 3
to 4 hours a day and the whole weekend dedicated in playing the games I want. It took
a lot of my focus away from my business and it had negative effects in our progress.
You may have a different obstacle, maybe it’s going out to party, maybe it’s cock-
fighting or maybe it’s an internal challenge you need to conquer. But these obstacles,
once you beat it, you become a whole lot better.

I realised that I don’t necessarily have to let go of gaming completely. I was still going
to game, but now is not the time for it. I can game in the future, but until my business
is stable and earning millions and I don’t need to go on-board anymore, I won’t play
games just yet. When all is set and I have accomplished my goal then I would play
games 18 hours a day, forever.

Remember that the greatest challenge you will face in business is yourself. These
battles are fought inside you and a person who conquers himself will eventually
conquer any situation. What do you think your challenge is? Try to figure it out and
make a plan on eventually overcoming it. Most people have one to two internal
obstacles that they need to topple and the people who succeeded in life are those who
had mastery over themselves.
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My journey in business taught me a lot of things. I came to realise that the thing we
want to do the most is precisely the thing we need to sacrifice temporarily in order to
get more of it in the future. If I want to play games, I need to sacrifice it now so
eventually I could play 18 hours a day. If I want to spend time with family, I’d have to
lessen it first so I could stay in the Philippines permanently and spend the whole year
with my children. The good news is that this price must be paid only temporarily. It is
not as if I am going to stop gaming forever. I just need to pay the price first and the
rewards will overflow in the future.

Most people want the result but hate the process. They want cake, but if you give them
eggs, butter, milk, chocolate, sugar and an oven they will storm out of the kitchen.
They want to be successful, everyone does! But very few are actually willing to sacrifice
their time and effort in order to make those dreams a reality. When you tell them that
they have to study, allot time in building their business, invest money in nurturing
themselves and increase their value they run away. “I want to stay land based! I want
to start a business!” but when you tell them to allot some time studying during their
vacation they would say “I just don’t have the time right now. I am busy with my kids
and my trainings. Maybe next time.” Of course that next time never happens.

Anthony Robbins said that in order to be successful you must:

1. Set your goals

2. Determine the price you need to pay in order to achieve those goals

3. Decide to pay the price

4. Continuously pay the price and be flexible until you get the results you want.
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A few people set their goals seriously. Even fewer determine the price they need to
pay and actually pay it continuously. Have you written down your goals in life? If you
did the exercise earlier in this book, you would have a general idea what you want to
accomplish during your lifetime. I suggest that you determine the price needed to
achieve those goals and decide to pay it.

When I was a cadet I saw the other crew members buy laptops and new expensive
things and I was stuck with my old stuff. They all went ashore and I was stuck on-board.
They would notice my cash statement every month and it grew and grew. I was barely
spending any money; I was gathering funds to start my first venture. They did not
understand my course of action. They would often tease me that I was the richest
person on-board even if I had the lowest rank, because I was such a miser that I did
not even allot budget for myself. They called my “boksingero.” I held a tight grip on my
money because I know where I wanted to use it.

How was I able to do this? Where my fellow cadets who got their first taste of money
and were first timers on-board spend all their cash buying gadgets and new clothes, I
was saving the money and stopping myself from spending. How can an 18-year-old do
this? It is because I knew I wanted to retire early from seafaring. I knew I had to keep
my expenses low, not to spend too much during shore leave and dedicate my vacation
studying. I knew I had to pay the price. Otherwise I would be stuck on-board for the
rest of my life.

I often am envious when I see my friends in Facebook travelling and buying new
gadgets. I see them having the time of their lives especially during vacation, they would
go to Palawan and to different places here in the Philippines. They would visit other
countries while I was stuck in Manila studying and doing business. I was able to keep
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paying the price because I knew that in the future I would be able to do all of those
things. “Stay patient. Live a simple life. Study. Eventually you will succeed then you can
travel the world. You can disappear for five years, visit every country, taste every food
available, stay in the most luxurious hotels. But for now, put your head down and get
to work. Sacrifice. It will pay off.” It certainly did.

Some people say “Mix you are very lucky in business. I wish I could be as lucky as you!”
I would not attribute my success to luck. All those sleepless nights, times when I was
working as an instructor, wake up 4 A.M. and go to work at 6 A.M. After classes at 2
P.M. I would go straight to business and arrive home by midnight. I would wake up
again and start the process all over. That is not luck. That is pure sacrifice and
continuous paying of the price. Was it hard? Definitely. Was it worth it? A big
resounding YES!

“The tragedy of life is not so much on what we suffer, but rather what we miss.”

-Thomas Carlyle

The biggest price that we seafarers need to pay in my opinion is the time for family
and leisure during vacation. It is a very tough decision to start working in a business
instead of just staying at home and being with family. Staying for 8 months on-board,
our natural tendency is to just relax and unwind. But doing this every vacation will set
you up in a cycle of sign-ons that never ends. Without a way to earn money in the
Philippines, we would be forced to live out the rest of our lives on-board. Reducing the
time we spend with our families is almost unthinkable but consider this, would you
rather have 45 years on-board or 5 years of sacrifice and 40 years of freedom?
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I’d rather sacrifice for a few years than spend the rest of my life on-board. I’d rather
spend time studying instead of watching Korea novela’s so I can spend more time with
family. I’d rather sacrifice 5 to 10 vacations in order to set up my business and
eventually retire. I’d rather invest money to train my partner and myself in order to get
the success we want as fast as possible.

You can pay the price now and play later or play now and pay the price forever. Pay the
price now and sacrifice a few of your vacations or pay the price of going on-board till
you are 65 years old when you retire. You are going to pay the price anyway. You
choose. I made the decision when I was 18. I hope you make the hard decision as well.
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Principle XV

Be like the bamboo

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Principle XV. Be like the bamboo

We talked about setting your goals seriously, determining the end of the journey. I
encourage you to write it down on a piece of paper and make a plan on how you are
going to get those goals. In seminars I’ve heard this so many times from so many
speakers. Gurus say that your goals have to be SMART.

S- simple

M- Measurable

A- Attainable

R - Realistic

T- Time bound

Your goals have to be well defined and simple that you could understand it clearly. It
cannot be vague or too general, it has to be specific. There must be a well-defined
scenario, an end result that you are expecting so it can turn into reality. When you say
“I want to be rich” there must be a clear picture on what this goal is, what do you mean
by rich? How can you tell if you are rich already? What is the end result you see?

Your goals have to be at least measurable so you would now if you are any closer to
your goal or if you have already achieved it. There should be parameters so you can
measure your progress. If you want to be rich, then you should state how much you
want to earn in order to say that you have met your goal. If you want to have time
freedom, you have to determine what that means exactly. “I am time free if I could
spend 18 hours a day doing what I want and still making enough money to sustain my
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wants and needs.”

It has to be attainable and within the realms of human possibility. If you put goals that
are impossible, then you won’t be able to get it. It’s common sense. If your goal is to
live in Jupiter, then you are doomed to fail. Check your goal if it’s truly attainable. But
do not use this as an excuse not to dream big. There is a clear line between attainable
and impossible. To know for sure just ask yourself “has anyone with the same situation
and condition as I have attained the goals that I am striving for?” If the answer is yes,
then it is certainly doable. They were able to do it, so can you. If you say” I can’t retire
early. It’s just not possible for me.” that is inaccurate. Some people who are in worse
conditions as you made it. I don’t see any reason why you can’t.

It has to be realistic in your current situation, you cannot expect to be the president of
the Philippines next week, you have to prepare for it. The time and the manner in
which you plan on achieving those goals must be within reasonable parameters.
Lastly it needs to be time-bound. There should be a time limit for your goals. Without
a time limit you would delay the goal forever.

When you set goals, remember that it will not always work out the way you expect it.
There will be a time when you set your goals and expect to make a million this year
and you end up earning not even half of the expected amount. You expect to have your
return on investment by this year and the projection shows it’s going to be 2 years
from now. Most people get frustrated when they don’t hit a goal. “By this time my
business should have been earning 100k monthly. Why am I not getting the result I
want? Maybe this business will not work out for me. Maybe I should stop.”

“Rest if you must, but don’t you quit.”

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The key to business is flexibility. You have to be flexible enough to adjust your approach
and change strategy. Most people change the goal. The goal should remain the same
and you should adjust, change your approach, learn more and invest in your value. If
you start a business and everything goes your way without any resistance and it’s all
millions since you started, please teach me. That makes you the best businessman this
world has ever seen. Never encountering any resistance and just wins every day, this
is how most starting entrepreneurs expect their business to progress and if it doesn't
work out this way, for them that means the business has failed.

“The might oak cracks where the bamboo bends”

-Chinese Proverb

If you are hard as an oak, never bending and adjusting, you are bound to break.
Flexibility and patience are your friends in business, it gives you the edge in figuring
out your business and eventually putting the pieces together, making it boom. When
you set your goals do not be too hard on yourself. If you don’t hit the goal now, just
adjust the time frame and the approach. “What can I do better? What do I need to
learn? What do I need to change in order to make this work?” Be like the bamboo!

The solution to a problem is most definitely not quitting. The solution is there; you just
have to figure out the right approach. Thomas Edison did not give up even when the
light bulbs he tested exploded. His experiments in creating light failed a thousand
times. Despite that he said “Why would I get discouraged? I just figured out a thousand
ways this would not work. Every attempt gets me closer to my goal.” With an insane
amount of flexibility, he eventually succeeded and up to this day people talk about him.
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“Success is just a matter of holding on when others have already let go.”

-Thomas Edison
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Principle XVI

Be different
 158

Principle XVI. Be different

“Things don’t get better by chance; it gets better with change”

- Jim Rohn

When I was teaching in the training centre I had a student, he was a Master mariner,
a very interesting person that I will never forget. We had the chance of talking to each
other during break time and he told me about all the places he and his wife travelled
to. All the cars he bought and the houses he built. He was proud of the purchases and
the travels he invested in, and at the age of 65 he was still going on-board. He was still
strong so he was allowed to go on-board and he had no problems with his health at
that time. I asked him “Captain you are a very charismatic guy. You look strong and
healthy. When are you going to retire from sailing?” His facial expression changed from
happy to serious. “Sir Mix I am just enjoying the rest of my seafaring days...” then he
walked away.

Later I found out from a friend who sailed with him that he was always angry on-board.
He did not enjoy the career, in fact he often told his crew he was bored. He had so
many expenses, condo units being paid and a new car he loaned from the bank. He
typically spends a few days in the Philippines and is forced to go on-board again
because of the lack of funds. Even at the age of 65 he was paying for something and
that’s why he still has to go on-board even with his old age.

I realised that the Captains answer was probably not true. He was not enjoying it; in
fact, he was trapped. He did what a normal seafarer would do, sign off and enjoy, then
go on-board. He did nothing different, so he had the same results as everyone else.
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“The definition of insanity is doing the same

things while expecting different results.”

- Albert Einstein

You have to realise that in order to have different results, you need to change
something. You need to be different. Different in your mindset, different in your
approach to life and different in your actions. This is hard to do because we human
beings want to do what is popular. What is generally accepted. Normally we should
just rest and relax during vacation because that is what normal people do. Normal
people shouldn't stay up late working till midnight in their business, they should rest
up so they could work in their jobs tomorrow. Young people shouldn't do business yet,
they are still young they should enjoy life and worry about their future later. Y.O.L.O.
Seafarers should not stop sailing at such a young age. Normal people should not risk,
normal people must always play it safe. What if you fail? What happens then?

I remember when my friends told me “You are not sailing anymore? What about your
career? What a waste! Stop sailing when you are fifty or sixty already, just like normal
seafarers do. You are wasting your time in that business of yours, besides you are only
at your 20’s, enjoy life and go on-board. That’s the way to go!” I did not listen to them.
I did not want to do what the rest were doing because I wanted something different
from my life. It’s funny that I was earning 7 figures net profit yearly at the age of 25. I
used the money I earned from seafaring to start businesses and design the life of my
dreams. I was retired before 30 years old.
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I learned that not conforming to the status quo, or what is generally accepted makes
you successful. If everyone is turning left, you should turn right. Only follow the crowd
when you want their destination. My mentor told me that if you want to see your
future, check out what happened to those people ahead of you in your chosen path.
Look at their life and what they have achieved. If you follow their path, that’s you in
the future. If you don’t change anything, that’s you 100%. If you like what you see,
then continue. If that is not the life you want, then you better start making changes.

People say “maybe someday it’s going to be better. I am not going to be like everyone
else. Soon I will see the changes I want in my life.” If you want different results, then
you better start changing. People hope for a better future and they pray a lot, but they
never change what they do. They do the same things over and over again and they get
disappointed again and again.

What if I told you that your life would be exactly the same 10 years from now? That
money is still going to be the problem, we will still miss out on Christmas and things
will stay the way they are with no significant improvement? Ten years from now it’s
still going to be the same stressful life and two months on land is too long a vacation
that we are reporting in the offices looking for a line up because of the lack of funds?
Doesn't sound good right? Then why are we so afraid of change? Why are we so afraid
of doing something different? If we are afraid of having the same results the next ten
or twenty years, then shouldn't we embrace changing and start being different?
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The hard thing about being in a different path is that people will try to pull you back.
They would advise you to do what everyone else is doing. If they see you walk a
different path, they would convince you and talk you out of it. Be aware of this and
focus on your goal, do not be distracted! It is only when you’ve gotten all your dreams
already and you stand successful that they will realise you made the right choice.

“Be daring, be different, be impractical,

be anything that will assert integrity of

purpose and imaginative vision against

the play-it-safers, the creatures of the

commonplace, the slaves of the ordinary.

-Cecil Beaton
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Principle XVII

Develop clear thinking

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Principle XVII. Develop clear thinking

The highest paid job nowadays is to think. CEO’s think of ways on how they can make
their companies bigger. The big bosses in our shipping companies think of different
approaches to help our ships become more efficient. The senior officers on-board
think of good safety practices and brainstorm ways on how we can run the ship better.
We are constantly thinking of ways on how we can make the ship a safer place to work.
The job of the ratings is to do the manual labour and the highest paid people in the
whole ship is the people who do the thinking and strategizing. In fact, on-board the
ship we have tool box meetings, a dedicated thinking time to make sure the work on-
board is understood and well planned.

These managers and big bosses think a lot about their industry. Their job requires a lot
of thinking because their decisions can mean the life or death of the company. It’s very
important to think clearly. Would you agree that your life is also very important? Then
why is it that very few people give time to think about their life and their direction?
We all think that our life is important right? Why don’t people stop, think and reflect?
They don’t sit down, write down where they are, take a position fix on their life and
adjust their course heading if they are adrift already.

To think clearly you must set a specific time every day to do just that, think. Reflect on
the things that are happening in your life. What are the things you are doing right and
what could you do better? Are you still on the right path to success or are you losing
track? What improvements can you make to get you closer to your dreams? This
practice becomes even more beneficial when you write down your ideas. I have a
practice of writing down all my thoughts in a notebook and review them from time to
time. I suggest having this notebook with you all the time because sometimes good
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ideas spring during unexpected times. I’ve had one of the best ideas of my life during
a long drive. I used the time to think and ponder about my life, and I’ve gotten crazy
good ideas from it. Good thing I have my notebook with me!

Nowadays we are bombarded by too much sensory inputs. We leave the house looking
at our phones and when it’s in our pockets we are disturbed by constant notifications
from different social media platforms. When we drive there are so many billboards
that catch our attention, we listen to the radio and text all at the same time! It’s almost
impossible to have clear thinking with all these things going on in our lives that I think
it’s very important to really allot that time on thinking. There is very little time in our
whole day that there are no distractions so very few people really get that time to think
clearly. You really have to set a time where you won’t do anything, just think.

When thinking about your life and your goals you must open your mind to the
possibility of fault in your part. I think clear thinking includes asking yourself “is there
any possibility that what I am doing right now is not beneficial to my long term goal?
That there are certain things I am doing wrong?” This question helps you catch yourself
just in case you are getting off track. Having a mentor or a business coach also helps
you correct your course. Having someone more experienced than you can actually
make your development faster and you will definitely get better results. A coach helps
you see the blind spots in your business that is normally impossible to see for
beginners. Thinking outside the box and assessing your overall progress I believe is
very important.
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Reading books is also another way to achieve clear thinking. Reading during the
mornings set you up in the right direction. There is something about learning new
things that makes you dedicate the whole day to your bigger goals. Whenever I read
books I always feel energised and motivated to pursue my dreams. It helps me keep
away from distractions. Remember that when you start your day watching television
and YouTube, you most probably would spend the rest of the day wasting time. I tried
starting the day with TV and at the end of it seems that I wasted the whole day doing
nothing. I also tried starting the day right by reading books and my thinking and action
was clearer. I had better results.
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Principle XVIII

Take the leap of faith

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Principle XVIII. Take the leap of faith

“Can we consider this your formal resignation?” The HR manager at Maersk Line asked
Gani when he was filing for his indefinite leave. It was risky in his part because the
position of chief mate in a triple E vessel was sought after by many. In fact, he had
many additional trainings to qualify in navigating the biggest ship in the world and to
give it up in order to focus in his business was confusing to many. It’s the turning point
of his life, to continue being employed or to risk it all and pursue his dreams. Gani took
a deep breath and firmly said “Yes”. There was no turning back.

Most people did not understand his way of thinking. “You are too young to do that!
What a waste! Your plans may not work out and tendering your resignation was a
pretty dumb move” they said. Gani saw something in his business. A clear vision of the
future and the possibility of having his dreams come true. He saw the potential and he
risked it all. He believed that these moments in life when you are given a choice to play
it safe or take a leap of faith was crucial and these often dictates who becomes
successful and who doesn't. “If you always play it safe, you will always be average” he
said.

Was it scary on Gani’s part to resign even if his business was still not stable? Definitely.
He was not sure if it was going to work out. He had no idea what lies ahead. He took a
big risk and it resulted to being retired early at the age of 31. Very few people are able
to retire this early in their career because very few people take risks.
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“Take a chance! All life is a chance.

The man who goes farthest is generally

the one who is willing to do and dare.”

-Dale Carnegie

In any business you would start, there will always be risks and I think risk tolerance is
very important. Many people shy away from risk, always trying to play it safe. People
want to get those dreams but are not able to stomach the possibility of failure. If you
want to live the life of your dreams, you have to risk a bit. Risk money, risk time, risk
effort and uncertainty. “I can’t do it. It’s too risky” is a common objection we have in
starting a business. Let me tell you that those risks will not go away and always looking
on the negative side of things will stop you from starting anything.

If you are a first timer in business and are afraid of risks, I recommend starting small
first. Many seafarers think that if they are to shell out money in starting a business it
should be at least a million pesos. It’s either they don’t start because they think the
savings they have is too small for a decent business or they would start giving every
penny they have and invest huge amounts of money thinking that to earn big your
need to start with a huge capital. I beg to disagree. I am a firm believer in starting small
and learning the basics of your business first. Once you have a clear idea of how it is
going to work, you can slowly scale up your budget, increasing gradually until it grows
to a multi-million-peso business.

Bong Marcos started like any other seafarer. He was going on-board to pursue his
dreams, but he always had this passion for teaching others. He wanted to help and
contribute in the maritime industry his own way and decided to risk his hard earned
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money. He started EXACT training centre in a small building in Sampaloc teaching just
a few seafarers. He did not have much experience in business but his vision was very
clear. He wanted to fight for his dreams and that’s exactly what he did. Twenty years
after, EXACT is one of the best training centres in the industry and a worldwide leader
in maritime training. Every seafarer knows what EXACT is. There is a good chance that
you have taken some of your trainings in EXACT. Would this training centre be
successful if Bong did not risk it? Would it come to fruition and become the multi-
million business it is today if Bong said “it’s too risky?”

“There are many talented people who haven't

fulfilled their dreams because they over thought it,

or they were too cautious, and were unwilling

to make the leap of faith”

-James Cameron

I remember having trouble with one of my ventures. We were engaged in buy and sell
and at the first month it was earning well, the second and third month it failed
miserably. We were at a deficit, we had some items left unsold and my friend wanted
to give up. “Well this was a huge waste of time. I won’t do business ever again.” I
understood why he felt that way, we had high hopes in what we were doing and we
firmly believed it was going to earn money. My friend asked me “why are you still
smiling? Aren’t we in trouble? If this continues we need to stop selling and stop our
business...” I looked at him smiling. “There is something we learned from this
experience. I know we can be better because of this. Let’s keep learning this business
and not give up yet and if it truly is a loss, there was still so much we gained in the end.
The experience we gained will be the reason why we will end up as billionaires in the
future.”
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If you think about it, risking money and time in getting started with your dreams is
really not that dangerous. If you lose a couple of thousand dollars, you can still go on-
board. What is 2000 USD? You can still get it back in your next contract. What’s
important is that you tried and you learned something. Learning and getting
experience is the most important. Getting those few steps and learning from it should
be your main goal when you are just starting in business, not the profit. If you don’t
earn anything from the venture, consider it a success because you started already and
definitely there is something you learned in that process. Regardless of the results, the
aim should be growth, learning and experience.

“Failure will never overtake me if my determination

to succeed is strong enough.”

-Og Mandino
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Principle XIX

Pick your master group

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Principle XIX. Pick your master group

Lester was a smart kid. We were good friends during grade school and he was the
kindest friend I had. We would often play at the assembly grounds during recess and
had a lot of memories together. He would tell me of his dreams and goals in life and
he was very optimistic about it. He had high grades, in fact he is one of the top people
in our class. It’s funny that after many years of not meeting, we met each other
accidentally in a mall. We talked about many things and got connected again in
Facebook. He was so different from before, the optimistic person with high goals
ended up just drinking in a bar every weekend with his friends. His posts mostly were
negative. He had no permanent job, always jumping from company to company. “What
the heck happened to Lester?” Later on when we met again I asked him “You have
changed so much? What do you think happened?” I found out that it is because of
hanging out with the wrong crowd. He was spending too much time with people who
had no goals and dreams, people who just wasted their time doing nothing. That’s
when he started to spiral down. He lost his direction because of his master group, the
people he spent the most of his time with.

You become the average of the first 5 people you spend the most of your time with. If
you hang out with people who smoke a lot, then you will end up smoking. If you hang
out with people better than you, you become better as well. When you hang out with
negative people, guess how you would turn out? Most probably after some time you
will end up just like them, even if originally you are optimistic and positive.

Picking your master group is very important. You would want to position yourself in a
group of people who are better than you because they will pull you up. Find people in
your chosen business, maybe in a Rotary Club or an organisation of businessmen and
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find a way to bond with them. There really is something about spending time with like-
minded people, you get to be reminded of the dreams you are fighting for.

What are the benefits of having a good master group?

1. You get to see the possible future for you if you work hard.

2. You get to learn from them and their past experiences and mistakes.

3. They encourage you to fight for your dreams.

4. They provide support in your endeavour.

5. They would serve as an inspiration for you to work harder.

6. Their positive vibes and outlook will influence you.

Most people are not aware of their master group and they pick them unconsciously.
People are very random with regards to whom they spend their time with because
they do not know that they also play a factor in their success. I am not saying that you
should not befriend anyone who has no benefit in your future. We are free to make
friends to as many people as we can, but choose the people you would spend the most
of your time with.

Imagine meeting your friends and the first thing you hear from their mouth is “Come
let’s drink and party!” In the spirit of friendship, most people would not think twice in
complying. It’s because their friends are doing it, that’s why they are doing it. If you
have high goals and dreams and you share it to people who have given up on theirs,
they would tell you why you can’t reach yours as well.
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“If I were you, I would just take it easy, drink a couple of shots and stop thinking of
your future. Just sit here with us. Y.O.L.O.” Do you think these types of messages can
help you achieve your dreams? What if you hear these messages on a daily basis?
What if the people you choose to hang around with are all like these?

I advise you to pick your circle carefully. Your circle can be an advantage that helps you
win in life, or it can be a reason why you cannot move forward. I chose to spend time
with people who are better than me. Better than me in skills, in mindset, in outlook
and in experience and it helped me reach where I am today.
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Principle XX

Adopt the attitude of gratitude

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Principle XX. Adopt the attitude of gratitude

When I was still teaching in a training centre, I often asked my students the reason why
they pursued a maritime career. Most of them would say that it’s for their families. To
help them live this life more comfortably. To buy a house for their loved ones. To buy
a car, to have more money etc. Behind all these reasons, if you dig deeper, is the intent
to be happy. Why would you buy a house for your parents? To make them happy right?
In turn it also makes you happy. Why would you buy a new car? So that you don’t need
to commute anymore and traveling is a lot easier. With a better traveling experience,
you become happier. Human beings are motivated towards getting happiness and
pleasure and avoiding pain. In fact, everything we do revolves around the pain and
pleasure principle.

Happiness is why we are motivated to do things. In a normal person’s mind, happiness

is a result of what you achieve. Most people think that you need to work hard, then
become successful then be happy as a result. But let me tell you that if you want to
succeed in business, happiness must be a choice for you, not a result. That you must
be happy first, then work hard in order to be successful. Being happy is a choice that a
person must make. If a person chooses to be happy, he will not allow external factors
to change his decision. Happiness is within.

Is being happy important in business? Of course! Because there will be a lot of times
where you will be tested and a happy person can withstand all the challenges. It’s
important to smile while still figuring out what to do in order for your business to work.
People who are easily saddened have a bigger chance of quitting too early. If you
maintain your happiness, you will have a better outlook in life. You see the stars
brighter, you taste the food better, your spouse looks more attractive, the business is
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growing faster and everything seems to be in order. Being sad does the opposite, the
skies look darker, the food tastes horrible, your spouse looks ugly, the business is failing
and everything is a mess.

In order to win you must be happy. Happy people close 30% more sales, they have a
higher chance of getting promoted, they deal with other people easier, they tend to
be healthier and they are more likely to succeed in life according to studies.

Do you think the happiest people on Earth are happy because they do not have
problems like ours? Do you think somehow the world has given them only smooth
roads, with all the wealth they need and no problems in life? The happiest people on
earth have the same problems as you and I, many of them even have worse. The only
difference is that they make happiness a conscious decision. They decide to be happy
regardless of the situation and so they perform a lot better to solve those problems in
life and they deal with it faster than everyone else. You would be surprised that a lot
of people who are doing well financially are committing suicide. This is proof that even
if you are blessed by all the material things and you are the luckiest person in the world,
if your happiness still depends on external factors, you would still feel sad and lonely.

Can you imagine happiness being internal? Wouldn't it be liberating to feel that
nothing can mess up your good mood? That even a poorly timed stand-by
manoeuvring cannot ruin your day? That even if your boss on-board has the worst
attitude ever, your happiness is not affected. That is the best feeling in the world. To
have complete control over your happiness. As Eleanor Roosevelt once said, no one
can hurt you unless you allow them to.”
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I love the smell of freshly baked bread in the morning. Especially when it’s raining, you
eat hot champorado, with coffee and pandesal, it’s the perfect combination while
staying home during our vacations. I love talking with my family members about
random stuff, how was their day yesterday, anything new about them that I need to
know about. I think these simple events are priceless memories that we need to
treasure. That smell of fresh pandesal really brightens up my day. Can you imagine the
smell? How long do you smell that pandesal until the scent fades away? 5 minutes?

This is what we call acclimation. You can smell the pandesal but after a few minutes,
when your nose has acclimated to it, you do not smell it anymore. If someone farts
and you smell it, the smell disappears after a few minutes. If you paint the whole day,
you smell the paint only for a couple of minutes but after a while you get acclimated
to it and you are used to it. You can also be acclimated to the blessings you receive and
the success you reach. You are blessed with a beautiful house and you are happy, but
after a while the happiness fades and you get acclimated to it, then you are not happy
anymore. The happiness is temporary because of acclimation. Do you remember the
feeling when you get a new gadget? Feels nice right? But only after a few weeks you
are used to it and you don’t feel happy anymore.

People tend to forget they are blessed because of acclimation. You get used to the
level of success that you have that you forget you are actually already quite blessed.
The best way to counter acclimation is gratitude. Being thankful for what you have and
saying thanks through a prayer or thru writing, you get to be reminded of the things
you already have and become happier. You remember the saying “you only appreciate
the things that you have once you lose it”? This happens because the acclimation is
gone and now you long for what you lost.
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This is the same when you say thanks for the things you have, you lose the acclimation
and you remember why you are blessed. Sometimes we get so focused on the things
that are going wrong that we eliminate in our minds the things that are going right.

My recommendation is to bring with you a gratitude notebook before you go to bed

and every time you wake up. Write down what you are thankful for the past few days.
Why are you blessed? What things are you happy about? It can be something as small
as free coffee during a meeting. It can be as simple as someone greeting you good
morning on your way to the bridge. If you think about it, there really are plenty of
things to be thankful for, you just need to review your day and you will see that
blessings truly are pouring. Do this exercise continuously and you will be happier. You
will be more efficient and you will have more direction.

You will have a spring in your step. Imagine being grateful every day for even the little
things and being genuinely happy just because you woke up this morning. Wouldn't
the journey to business success be more fun if you choose to be happy? Wouldn't the
negativity and the worries just fade away when you face it with a smile and a spring to
your step. I believe that everything becomes easier when you are happy. Just
remember that happiness is a choice. You have the power to refuse sadness and
negativity, you have the choice of remaining happy and focused on your goals. This is
a crucial step if you want to reach overall success. You have to find happiness within
you, then you will be successful.

Even in managing your funds and investing, you have to be happy. When you are
unhappy, you tend to spend more on things that really don't matter. You spend your
money more on liabilities because you are trying to find happiness on gadgets, cars,
gambling etc. When you are happy and content, you make better decisions and you
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invest more. If you are happy with what you have in the moment you can choose to
live in a simple house and stay there for a long time and focus on putting your funds
in investments that can help you retire earlier. Unhappy people buy liabilities all the
time. They depend their happiness on material things and sadly that happiness doesn't
last long anyway. Even if there is a road block in your business, you are less likely to
quit and you persevere because you face all those challenges with a smile. Make it a
personal choice to be happy and I am sure it will take you closer to that retirement
year!

“Gratitude makes sense of our past, brings peace for today,

and creates a vision for tomorrow.”

- Melody Beattie
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Principle XXI

Have a longer time perspective

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Principle XXI. Longer time perspective

I was on-board my first ship and everyone was wondering “why the heck is cadet not
going ashore?” I remained on-board most of the time because I was thinking that I had
to purchase my first jeepney before 20 years old. I needed to have 10 units of jeepney
by 25 years old. I had to be retired from shipping at 40 years old. “Don’t you get lonely?”
My fellow cadet asked me. “Nope. I want my allowance to matter in the long run. I
need to start the business as soon as I can because I see my life 10 years from now, if I
don’t start saving and investing now, I will stay on-board longer. My desire to start my
business is stronger than the desire to spend my money and buy gadgets. Of course I
want a new laptop, of course I want to go ashore and spend money, of course I want
that new cell phone. But this money I have must count in the long run.”

My fellow cadet agreed, I don’t know if he truly understood what I said, but for sure
the crew members were wondering if there was something wrong with me. Nobody
understood me, because they had a very short vision of the future. I was seeing 20
years in advance, they were thinking only in weeks.

Successful people see the longer picture. They see farther down the road and monitor
their progress continuously. They make decisions based on those long term goals.
Unsuccessful people only see up to days ahead. They don’t see what’s going to happen
in the long run, they only see what to do after signing off. If you want to be successful,
you have to plan out the journey and see ahead. The longer your vision is the more
successful you become.
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If you only see days ahead, what would you do on the weekend? If you work hard for
five days and only see what happens in a week, what would you do this weekend?
Working hard for five days, of course you would spend your time partying and
travelling. You've worked hard those five days, you deserve it.

If you only saw months ahead, you've already worked for eight months on-board.
What would you do for the next four months of vacation? Of course go around the
country with your family, you deserve it right? You've worked so hard and you've
missed them so much, isn’t it only natural to have fun and have a nice treat for yourself?
That is natural of course, when you have short term vision.

I had the same experience before, every time I sign off the urge to travel and party was
strong. We deserve to enjoy. But adopting the long term vision, I had to make 2011,
2012, 2013, 2014, 2015 vacations count. I wanted to spend those few months studying
because I saw further down the road. I had to make those vacations count because I
saw twenty years to thirty years ahead of that time that is why I was able to make
those decisions. Where everyone was partying I was working. Where everyone was
spending their hard earned cash on useless things, I was buying parts for my jeepney
and managing my business. Where others were travelling and taking a vacation, I was
in my office focused on getting those profits and learning my business.

It’s very hard to decide to work hard in your business when you only see a couple of
days ahead. I suggest that you look further into the future and decide that everything
you do must contribute to the end goal. That if you pay the price now and see the
entirety of your life, you can retire earlier by making the first few years of your career
count. If you see the general flow of our life as seafarers, spending 40 years on-board
actually only gives us roughly 10 years of the time with our families. Ten years if you
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have no trainings to finish, no papers to process, no documents to renew. Roughly in

a two-month vacation, we spend half of it processing the requirements for our next
vessel assignment. They say life has to be balanced, that’s why you have to enjoy your
vacation every time you are here in the Philippines. I agree that life has to be balanced,
but not in the short term. Life has to be balanced in the long term. Where is the
balance when you have to spend 35 years in seafaring and only 5 with your family?
Isn't sacrificing 5 years of your vacations, making it count and spending the rest of your
life with your family the more balanced life? I’d rather have a few vacations and my
funds contributing to the bigger goal than spending my vacations wasting money and
never contributing to my larger goal. I was able to save money, avoid all those
temptations to spend and ignore the travels and the fun others are enjoying because
I saw further down the road.

Some people have very short time perspective that they only see today. If I work in the
morning, isn’t it natural to just waste my time relaxing in the evening? There is no point
in sacrificing and working hard for a person that only sees today. There will be no
concept of delayed gratification, if I work now then I have to rest later. The cycle goes
on until he or she gets stuck in his work, generally being unhappy. It’s amazing that a
person’s success can actually be determined on what he does during his spare time. If
a person just wastes his time after work and does not have a general goal, he will most
probably live a mediocre life. The reason why I was able to read books during my off
duty hours on-board is because I wanted to contribute that time in my future. I had to
be prepared when I start a business, those few hours of spare time can help me retire
earlier. I wanted all of those to matter. I wanted to win!
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Every time you are about to spend ask yourself, “how can this help me in the long run?
How can this benefit my goal for my future?” If it does not help you contribute to the
larger goal, then don’t spend on it. If you are about to book a vacation to Japan, ask
yourself would this benefit the larger goal? If the answer is no, then don’t do it now.
Always make the decisions you have in the long run and I am sure you will make better
decisions.
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Principle XXII

Leave the comfort zone

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Principle XXII. Leave the comfort zone

Marine Superintendent and Chief Mate Mike Venancio was about to give a huge
presentation to a large group of people. He was sweating a lot, his hands were wet
and his heart was beating fast. “Lord give me the strength to do this.” He prayed inside
the bathroom cubicle, hoping to get courage from above. He went inside the room
with fear, he started his presentation nervous, he conquered it and he walked out a
changed man. “The more nervous you are the bigger the growth you get. You
overcome your fears and do what you fear the most and you get the best deal in
personal growth and improvement. Push it.” I told him. We had been doing mentoring
sessions once in a while, as a starting entrepreneur he needed to learn the skills of
presenting and marketing his products. It was not natural to him; in fact, he was a man
of few words. Now he is so good in presentations that he can move hundreds of
thousands of sales in a day. Selling and marketing was not natural to him, he was so
uncomfortable with it. But he knew he needed to learn it. He stepped out of his
comfort zone and now he is just a few years away from retirement. He grew to a great
presenter and marketer. He is not even 40 years old and now the owner and C.E.O. Of
Lanz Pizza.

I also remember how I started developing my skills in marketing. I was so scared to

give away fliers that I spent hours circling the venue without handing over anything. I
actually am an introvert as well, I would rather stay home during the weekends,
handling my business or reading books. Rejection was so scary in my part. “Man, I can’t
do this!” My hands were trembling in the mere thought of talking to strangers. Finally,
after an hour of contemplating and wasting time I finally mustered enough courage to
talk to someone, and my worst fears were dispelled. The person I handed the flier to
was actually nice.
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He smiled as I was approaching him and appreciated my effort and time. I was more
confident. “I can do this all day!” I talked to a lot of people that day, I was proud of
myself. I pushed myself to do what I feared the most, and I was so sure I grew as a
person. “I’ve learned a few things today. Rejection isn’t that bad! I am still alive after a
lot of no’s. But at least, I got a few yeses!”

Everyone wants to relax. Everyone wants to just do what they are comfortable to do.
Nobody wants to give out fliers or read books after working so hard on-board. If people
don’t have the proficiency on doing something yet, they would rather not do it. People
love being on the safe side, very few people are able to risk it and go for their dreams.
It’s more fun to just stay home and log in to Facebook the whole day, spending your
vacation inside the house doing nothing. This place is called the comfort zone. This is
what we are used to do, this is where we feel safe and at home. If you want to have
massive success in the long run and be retired early from your employment, the only
thing that could make that happen is going out of your comfort zone. Nobody ever got
rich and successful in the comfort zone.
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This is where the majority of the people are, if you remember the Pareto principle, 80%
of the people are there because they never go out of this zone. For the champions and
the winners, they know that growth is outside of the comfort zone. Growth and
improvement comes from doing things that make you uncomfortable, things that
make you sweat and hyperventilate. Growth is when your heart is beating so fast
because you are trying to fight and face that fear, this is where your growth happens.
This is where your dreams come true.

Doing what you fear the most, handing over that flier or making that phone call on a
possible client or presenting in front of hundreds of people, that is where the riches
lie. The growth zone forces you to become better, it improves your skills and makes
you stronger. Imagine a body builder only carrying 5 lbs of weight throughout his whole
career. If you spend 20 years lifting a 5 lbs weight, can you become a world class body
builder? Would you be able to develop the strength and the physique required to join
world class level competitions? The only way you could qualify to world class is if you
break those muscles and carry heavier and heavier weights. You need to step out of
what is comfortable, start lifting more and more and eventually you would become
the best in your gym. You improve and grow enough then you start qualifying locally.
Break those muscle tissues some more and you start qualifying on the world
championships. People who become the greatest are those who make the
uncomfortable, comfortable to them. Eventually the hard things become easy and it
becomes comfortable to you. If you want to grow, then you need to add more and
more weight. This is where you reach your personal peak. The highest potential you
can achieve as a person. Believe me when you reach this point, you become the best
at what you do. The people who stop growing are those who get stuck in their current
position.
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I remember having this third mate with us who never got promoted. He wanted to just
do what is comfortable to him. Never learning anything new, just doing what he was
used to. He never wanted to risk it, never wanted to commit mistakes. He just did what
he was doing all those years, and he never got the promotion he wanted. He was
always complaining why he was stuck at third mate, but if you look at him, he never
tried anything new. He was afraid of new responsibilities and things that were
unfamiliar to him. He was given the opportunity to learn, the opportunity to make
mistakes and he never took it. That is the reason why he was stuck at that position for
twenty years.

All of our dreams are accessible once you leave the comfort zone. That dream house?
You will never find it staying at home. That business profit in the Philippines that
compares to our salary on-board? You will never find it while watching television. All
of those things you want to happen in your life, the dreams you have for your family,
the dreams you have for yourself, all of these are within your reach. You just have to
step forward and choose to grow. Choose to leave that comfortable place, there is no
growth there. The comfort zone is stagnant and poisonous. In fact, I believe that
staying in the comfort zone too long actually makes you weaker, slower and farther
away from your dreams. The comfort zone is like a vortex, sucking you in and trying to
halt your progress. Your own mind loves the comfort zone. It loves the idea of safety
and will prevent you to leave it. That is why you feel nervous when you are about to
step into growth. That is the reason why your heart pounds like crazy before giving a
talk. Now you are aware of this phenomenon. If you are wondering why you are stuck,
or you are thinking how you can get closer to those dreams, then ask yourself “What
haven’t I already done? What am I most afraid to do?”
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Do what you fear the most and the death of fear is certain. I remember my first seminar.
My knees were shaking and I wanted to back out and go home. I faced it. Now I have
given talks to thousands of people, and even writing a book about the subject. Do
something you have never done before! Do something that wrenches your heart and
makes you sweat buckets. You conquer your fears, you become better, you stretch, you
add weight, you improve and pretty soon you become a champion.

“The best things in life are often

waiting for you at the exit ramp

of your comfort zone.”

-Karen Salmansohn
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Principle XXIII

Get past the filter

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Principle XXIII. Get past the filter

My first years in business was not glamorous. In fact, there were more times I looked
like a lost puppy who doesn't know where he is going. I had no idea what I was doing,
and the first few years were a bit rough. I was earning, but I also had those thoughts
when my business was stagnant that I was doubting If I were to ever reach my dreams.
It was only two years; it was too early to tell if the business was a failure but my mind
was already playing tricks on me. I had thoughts of stopping and quitting and just going
on-board. I remember talking to my Chinese mentor, his name is Emman and he told
me that all businesses pass through this phase; that time when you are still figuring it
out, maybe not earning money and even losing money. He told me that no business
got big immediately. In fact, he underwent the same phase, but what makes a winner
is being able to pass through this phase and enduring.

A friend of mine owns a restaurant and he closed shop at the year 2017. I had a chance
to meet him and we talked. He underwent the same plateau as I did, he lost hope in
the business and he closed shop. He went through the same filter. Later on I met
another friend of mine and it turns out he owned a restaurant business as well. He was
riding a beautiful BMW. It was cool. I got curious on how he grew his business and he
told me he almost closed his shop as well. “The manager that we had for a long time
suddenly had an accident. We did not know what to do. A lot of our customers knew
him and he was the reason why people went inside to eat. He was such a nice person.
When we lost him we did not know what to do. The income was stagnant and we were
panicking. The business suffered for a few years but it eventually recovered and now
it’s bigger than before! Good thing I did not close shop. We lost some money, but now
the business grew even more and I don’t have problems with it anymore.”
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He went through a similar problem with my other friend, a stagnant business. The
other closed shop and returned to employment, the other became a millionaire.

I realised throughout my years in business that there is indeed a filter. Something that
filters out the rest of the population from success. These are the challenges that one’s
face in pursuit of their dreams. I think the first filter is the risk in starting the business.
Most people, roughly around 70% are already filtered out because they don't like to
risk anything. Did you know that more than 90% of seafarers have thought of starting
a business and retiring early? How come so many plan on starting a business, but very
few actually get it started? It’s because most seafarers get cut off as early as the first
filter. When they see the risk, they run away. Even from the first filter majority of the
population gets cut off. Only a few people make it through to the next stage. The next
filter can be stagnation. The stage where you are still figuring out how your business
could earn and flourish. Many people get filtered out in this stage. They quit because
of impatience and short-term vision. Those who finally figure it out make it through
and pass another filter. Maybe a crisis within the organisation? A conflict between the
leaders and executives? When conflict comes into the business, some would leave and
some would close shop. Conflict is inevitable in a large organisation and those who
make it to the next filter may face another one. Maybe the loss of a key personnel? An
accident in the office? A fire burning the factories? There would always be a filter that
sorts out who makes it to the end. I have come to realise that my job as an
entrepreneur is to make it through those filters and withstand it. The very few people
who have realised the existence of these filters and have made it a commitment that
they would withstand it no matter what are those who are most likely to succeed.
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Make it a commitment that you would pass through these filters. It’s the same as
seafaring. You undergo your first time on-board, you meet a terrible boss and many
people get filtered out and they don’t want to go on-board anymore. A person
experiences a failure in one of the exams, most people would quit on retaking the
exam, where others make it through that filter and don’t stop until they pass it.

“You can tell the size of a man based

On the challenge that can put him down.”

-Eric Worre

I remember one of my classmates in the academy, he never stopped taking the exams
until he passed. He attempted to get in the academy five times and he failed on the
first four. A lot of people got filtered out when they failed the first time, those who
made it through were able to enjoy the benefits of being a scholar in the academy.
Those who were persistent enough to try and try again and those who have anticipated
the challenge are those who succeed in life.

You have to anticipate opposition and filters when you are aiming high. There is bound
to be a challenge the higher in level you go. My mentor had a challenge in his huge
organisation, some of his key leaders left the team. It was hard for him. Being the
charismatic and visionary leader he was, he was able to solve the problem and it
turned out that the team became happier and more successful when those leaders
disappeared. The greater the degree of problems you solve, the farther you get ahead
in life. A person with a small business doesn't need to worry about his executive vice
president transferring to a Forbes 100 top competitor.
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A sari-sari store doesn't need to solve a problem of a conflict between the H.R.
department and the accounting department. The people who get ahead in life are
those who were able to pass through the first filters and become better in the process.
Remember that if a filter arises and you pass through it, you learn more and you are
able to solve more problems. The bigger the business becomes; the harder problems
you are able to solve. So if you have your executive vice president transferring to a
competitor, rejoice! Don’t close shop, don’t get filtered out. Realise that the reason
why you are having that kind of filter, is because you are doing well already. You are
blessed so be happy. Face that filter and move forward and you will be amazed in the
end how far you’ve come.

If you have already started even a small business, let me congratulate you for being
ahead of the rest. Starting a business, even if it failed in the end, earned you valuable
experience that you can use in starting and growing another one.
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Most people shy away from the risk and are doomed to stay ordinary for the rest of
their lives. Never really reaching their maximum potential. I believe the biggest tragedy
in life is when you know a person has the capability of winning but never really reaches
his maximum potential because of fear. If only he got started, if only he mustered
enough courage to push that start up you know he could have won. Another casualty
of fear. There will be filters along the way, but when you get past it, you reach the
winner zone and you emerge victorious.

Now you have my 23 principles of wealth. These are the most vital things to adapt
within yourself when starting a business. “Knowledge is power” said the late Ernie
Baron. I believe that nowadays this is not true anymore. Knowledge is potential power.
You have to act on those learnings to make it count. To learn but not to do is really not
to learn, you have to apply it first. Remember that a key is useless unless a person uses
it to open a door. I hope these keys open the door for you leading to your dreams!
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PART IV.

Creating your business

 199

CHAPTER XIII

Getting started
 200

CHAPTER XIII. Getting Started

Now you know the principles of wealth. These principles are universal and if applied is
sure to work. Many have tried to start a business but without these principles it would
be very hard to make a business boom. When people ask me “Mix how can I be
successful in business?”, they usually expect an answer that involves skills and abilities.
I believe these principles are more important. A lot of people are skilled in
communication, persuasion and with numbers but they end up poor. Many people
have innate skills in marketing and a good business sense but they never start a
business and never reach their dreams.

Now I am sure you are motivated to get those dreams started! The question now is
“how?” This chapter is dedicated in helping you get started in your venture. How do
you pick your business? Which business is good for you? How do you calculate your
start-up costs? How do you decide where to locate your business? These are some of
the many questions we have on-board and I will teach all of them to you. Most of us
don’t know how to get started. Don’t worry, I will guide you every step of the way. We
will also conduct webinars in our exclusive group to help you even more and make the
journey a lot easier.

The steps here can get a little intimidating. Some of it may sound technical, but you
will not learn unless you give it a shot. I had no idea how to do this at first but
remember, as long as you are willing to try, you will eventually get a hang of this. These
are the basic steps you can take in order to get you started. Have courage, fight for
those dreams and let’s get it on
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“If you have a dream, you can spend a lifetime

studying, planning, and getting ready for it. What you

should be doing is getting started.”

-Drew Houston

I. Getting you set up for your business

The first thing you need to do is to study. Study your specific field and get courses in
order to learn more about it. Most people usually start a business based on their
passion. If you love motorcycles, then you might be considering starting a buy and sell
business of used motorcycles. If you are like most people who starts a business, you
have knowledge on how motorcycles work but you don’t know anything about
entrepreneurship. How to start and run your enterprise, marketing and sales and all
other important things to know and master as you run your business, these are all very
important. You can’t rely on your knowledge on motorcycles alone. The best way to
make your business boom is to mix both these types of knowledge.

It’s a good practice to learn your business in its entirety. How the ins and outs of it
works. If one topic in business scares you, the more you should go for it. You don’t
know anything about selling? Go ahead and push yourself to do it. Remember that as
a business owner, you will fulfil all the roles in the beginning. You will be the accountant,
manager, owner, HR manager, security guard and employee of your business. Even if
some parts of it are uncomfortable to you, it is a must that you need to know at least
the basics of it. That will increase the probability of your success drastically.

Aside from theoretical knowledge, you also must have actual experience. If you plan
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on starting a restaurant, it would be wise for you to work in one! It may sound crazy,
but having work experience on a business that you intend to start is very important in
the process of studying it. That is why I think it’s very important to educate our spouses
as well. They can get a job in that specific type of business before pushing to start that
business on your own. They can utilise the time we are on-board to study and work in
the same line of business. Commonly our spouses take care of the house and our
children and they can be busy, but spending a few weeks working on a successful
restaurant can give them valuable insights in making your business big.

When you sign off and you have a 6-month vacation, why not spend some time
working in a restaurant. Never mind the pay. That is not why we would work in the first
place. Get the basic idea how the business operates, it will be very vital in your journey
to business success.

If you know people who made it big in the same business you are planning to start, it’s
important that you get insights from them. Get an appointment from them, maybe
treat them for lunch so you could have valuable start up tips that can make the early
phase more manageable. You can start looking for these people online, there are
groups for different types of businesses. It goes without saying that you can’t interview
a person with the same market as you, they won’t teach you their techniques because
you are a competitor. Go outside of the city and look for people who have a totally
different market. You can ask them the following:
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1. What part of the business they love the most

2. How much was the capital

3. What were the challenges when they were starting

4. What are the possible pitfalls in that business

5. How much can you expect to make

6. If they were to start again what would they do differently

Remember that even though you make a thorough research and watch a lot of videos
in YouTube about your dream business, there will be nothing more valuable than an
insight from someone who is already running the business you are dreaming of starting.
This will consume time yes, but it will be worth it. The moment you start your business,
you will have a better idea how to make it work and your chances of success will be
higher.
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CHAPTER XIV

What is the right business for you?

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Chapter XIV. What is the right business for you?

I believe that in the world of business there are two types of businessmen. I hear the
business “agriculture” or “farming” from our fellow seafarers a lot. Typically, we want
to start a very specific business that maybe was the same business our grandfather
started or something we did with our fathers as kids. Most of us are called type-specific
businessmen. There is one specific business we want to start because of background
or preference. Chief cook naturally wants to start a restaurant. Chief engineer wants
to run a car shop and captain wants to have a review centre. There is also another type
of businessman. Someone who wants to start a business for the sake of having one
and it can be anything, as long as they are their own boss and they are earning good
money. They are willing to try new things and venture out on the unfamiliar because
they do not have anything specific in mind. There are positives and negatives for each
type of businessman, the type- specific and the flexible. Let us talk about this more.

Starting a business with your passion

A lot of people think that if you love playing games, then you should start a computer
shop. Do what you love doing, make a business out of it and get rich. Would you really
earn from starting a business that you love? Of course! If you start something based
on what you love, you will be more passionate in doing it. Imagine doing something
you love and earning from it, most people only dream of having that happen to them.
So ask yourself, what is your passion? List it down and think of businesses surrounding
that passion of yours. For example, if you love games then these could be your options:
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Make your mind work and write down everything involved with your passion. Let’s
write down those dreams and do not limit yourself. Do not be afraid to write down a
huge goal, there is definitely a way to that. This time you don’t need to know the how,
it’s just writing down those ideas and possibly working on them in the future. What’s
important now is brainstorming and seeing all the possibilities for you.

Once you figure out the business that is right for you, you must determine if that
business will make sufficient money for. Starting a business of course at the end of the
day is still about making a profit. Will it be enough to earn you good money? It’s useless
starting something that doesn't earn you anything. You might end up starting the
dream then closing it in a few months. Starting a business based on your passion
definitely is good. Although of course, you have to be realistic as well. If you love high
end gaming and would want to start a high end computer shop in the province, that
will be a poor choice because no one can afford it. You have to make the math and
make sure it yields enough profit for you to thrive.
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I remember passing thru Greenbelt in Makati and seeing one of the high end
restaurants closing. With such a beautiful set up and good food, the restaurant still
closed because the overhead most probably was too high and there were not enough
customers. Before starting that business, compute those numbers first and make the
math, make sure the profit is high enough to sustain your business and earn from it.
Make an estimate how much you are going to spend in running the business and how
much you need to sell in order to earn. If you think the margins are acceptable, then
go for it.

“If you have a dream, you can spend

a lifetime studying, planning and

getting ready. What you should be

doing is getting started.”

- Drew Houston

Most of the seafarers who were actually able to start a business think that their idea
is the best in the world. The dream business will work for sure and it’s the only way to
go. Do not be like this. Be as objective as possible. You must ask around, get feedback
from people experienced in business as well. Do the math and study it to lessen the
risk of failing in business.

The good thing is that you have an idea already. You have the general idea of what you
want to start, but the harder part is yet to come. When you finish the planning stage,
what comes next is the execution. This is where the majority of this chapter is, getting
started. Ideas are good, but they will never be a reality without action. The biggest
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businesses were once ideas, and they are here now because of the work given by the
person who thought about the idea.

Do you have a business that is similar to many? If not, then maybe you are an innovator.
Maybe your business is the first of its kind and you are going to change the world.
Maybe it’s a good idea, but maybe it’s also terrible one. If you want to be a market
leader, it’s going to be risky but if it pays off you are going to earn massive income.
Amazon was an innovator, it involved a lot of risks and that’s why it’s so big today. If
you are not that risk tolerant, you can be a follower first. Getting an idea, making it
your own and improving it might be a better idea for you if you. The good thing about
being a follower is that you can get plenty of materials and references on how to make
it big in that specific business. There are many people whom you can ask, trade groups
you can join, and online resource you can study. If you are just starting, I encourage
you to try something that has been done before. If you get rich and you are retired
from seafaring already and you have a lot of funds, you can experiment and innovate
as many times as you want. But when you are just starting and learning, it’s a good
idea to learn from the experiences of others and get a feel of doing business first. Start
small then innovate later.

Starting a business based on needs

Now let us talk about the second type of businessman, the person who wants to start
a business without something specific in mind. They just want to start a business and
be their own boss, stay in the Philippines and good earn money. I did not love water
refilling specifically, or even the jeepney business but I saw the opportunity in doing it
and earned money. Isagani Marquina did not love managing people and running a
provincial branch of his business, but he did so anyway because he loved the idea of
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staying in the Philippines and being in control of his time. He did not want sign-ons
anymore and that is why he started a business. Many seafarers are like this, they want
to do business and are just waiting for the right opportunity to invest in.

I personally am open to any opportunities that come my way, whatever earns me more
money is good for me. I love being an entrepreneur, the freedom of time and the
journey of learning something new is precious to me.

So what is a good business for you? It’s very simple. It’s a business that fulfils a need.
This should be your guiding principle in starting a business. If there is a need and you
are able to supply it, you will earn money. If your village does not have a good supply
of water and you start a water refilling station that provides clean water to the village
at an affordable price, you would make profit. Do this and every business you start,
given that you run it properly, is going to be successful. Figure out what pains your
customers and relieve them of it, that should be your motto.

Here are the steps in finding the right business for you.

1. Study- look around your city and see what is lacking. What do the people here need?
What is missing? What are the opportunities booming on the more progressive places
and how can I adapt it in my place? What is interesting enough for me and is profitable
as well?

2. Would you go for a product or would you start a service business?

There are two types of business, it’s either you sell a product or you provide a service.
A plumbing business is a service type of business. You go inside a house and do their
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plumbing for them. An online shop is a product business. You buy products and you
sell them on a higher price. What type of business you start depends on your
preference.

3. Determine your options and list them down

What do you have in mind? Write down all the options you have and make a short list.
You can start by buying a franchise. Maybe starting your own? There are many choices,
but what’s important is that you list down all the advantages and disadvantages in
starting that specific business.

4. Decide on your choices

At the end of the day you must decide which among all your ideas are worth starting.
Think about this step carefully and make sure you have prepared yourself and studied
enough. Make sure you made the analysis, you asked the questions, you’ve done the
math and you’ve compared it to your other ideas. Once you make the decision, stick
with it.

5. Get started

Remember that all of these are useless if you don’t start that business. Get moving
and write down the first action step required to progress this idea to reality. Find those
people who have started the same business as yours and make that interview happen.
Spend time with them and learn from them. Researching is a good idea, but nothing
beats feedback from someone experienced in what you are about to do.
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Chapter XV.

Buying a business
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Chapter XV. Buying a business

You can definitely start a business from scratch. It’s going to be hard but is going to be
worth it. But sometime during your career someone might offer to sell you his or her
business. You can also just look for an existing business and buy it, skipping all the hard
parts. Is it advisable to buy another person’s business? Well, it depends. The positive
side is that you don’t need to start from zero. Everything is already set, you just have
to run it. The business, if it is doing okay, will have previous customers and an on-going
reputation, you will just continue where they left off and make it grow some more. It
also reduces the risk involved because you can check the progress and the
performance of the business before you take over. It’s also good that you can check
the performance of the business the previous year and you would have a pretty
accurate estimate how much you would make this year.

Getting started on buying a business

If you are to buy a business, consider what strengths and weaknesses you have. Ideally
you should start a business that involves your strengths, but many times this is not the
case. If there are skills you must learn in order to run a business properly and you think
it’s a good opportunity, consider enrolling on business seminars that focuses on what
you lack in order to still make the opportunity work. Being seafarers, there is a good
chance you have absolutely no idea what to do, but I believe as long as you are willing
to learn, you will eventually be proficient at it.
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How do you find businesses for sale?

1. You can type it in google search and you will actually see a lot.

2. From OLX, there are plenty of businesses for sale.

3. Even on the classified ads in a newspaper, you could also see businesses for sale.

4. In Facebook market place

5. Facebook groups

6. Business organisations

Factors to consider in buying a business

In starting a business from scratch, it’s a little hard to estimate how much you are going
to make. But in buying an existing business, you can get a general estimate. What you
need to consider in checking out a business is how much you need to make to cover
all your overhead expenses, your personal income, any credits that needs to be paid
and your annual return on investment.

In purchasing the business, you have to know:

1. The reason why the business is for sale.

Are they selling the business because they are losing money? If that is the case, then
it might not be a good idea to buy that business. Are they selling it because they are
moving out of the country? That may be a good reason. Find out why they would want
to sell it, and if the reason is anything else aside from bankruptcy, that might be a good
reason to buy it.
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2. Similar businesses in the area and possible competitors

Who do you need to beat? I started my water refilling and after a couple of years’ other
water refilling stations opened near me. Definitely that is not the best time to buy a
business like mine since there are so many competitors. You have to consider all the
players in a market place and how your business beats the others when it comes to
quality and price.

3. Are there any intangibles that cannot be transferred to you?

There are certain things that cannot be transferred to you once you buy a business. If
the owner of the restaurant is also the head chef and he is the reason why the food is
good, then you have to consider that. If the owner of the business has plenty of
connections and that is the reason why the business is selling, you have to make sure
that those contacts gets transferred to you properly.

4. Will there be any major changes in the area

There is a chance that maybe a big change is about to happen in an area. If you buy a
grocery store and an SM branch is about to open nearby, you might want to consider
that. Will there be any changes in the government, any new rules that will apply soon
that involves your business?

5. The assets of the business

What is the status of the business? All of the assets and the equipment, are they still
in good working condition? Is there any equipment that needs to be changed? How
about the building itself? Is there flooding in the area. Are there any pending expenses
that you need to worry about?
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6. Performance

How is the business doing? You must check all the accounting books and make sure
the business really is making money. You don’t want to end up just paying bills. Go
back track as far as you can to check all the money that went in and went out in the
business. It is advisable that you bring an accountant with you to be sure.

How do you determine a business’s value? I prefer using the Return on Investment
method. If the business total capital is 1,000,000, and it earns 500,000 a year, then the
R.O.I is 50%. You will be able to get your money back most probably in 2 years. This is
fast and few businesses can offer up to 50% in R.O.I. You get a general idea if the
purchase is good depending on how fast you can get the capital back. If the business
can return your money fast, then that’s a good purchase. Remember that you have to
consider all these things, but take note that no business performs perfectly. Your job
is to find the strengths and weaknesses of the business and decide if it’s the right
balance for you. Also consider the business transition of how it’s going to work.
Suggest that the owner stays for a while so that you could get guidance and have a
smooth transition and hand over.
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Chapter XVI.

Doing your market research

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Chapter XVI. Doing your market research

To many the word research sounds intimidating. It gives off an impression that you
need to have taken an MBA to do it properly that’s why people usually skip this phase.
Will your business work without research? Maybe, but you lessen the odds of failing
when you do your homework.

There are many ways you can study your market. There are five basic methods; surveys,
focus groups, personal interviews, observation and field trials. Depending on the
budget, you can choose which one is more applicable to you.

1. Surveys - send out questionnaires. Do a basic survey and ask the people you plan
on being customers directly. Figure out what they want and if the service or your
product has a place in their budget. In creating a survey, you must:

A. Set a clear goal

Why are you doing this survey? Set a clear goal and figure out what you really want to
find out. Are you selling a product that is new and you want to know if there is a need
for it? Are the customers willing to pay the price for the product you are offering? The
goal has to be precise in order to get a precise answer.

B. Know what market to survey

Do you have a target market? Naturally these are the people you need to conduct the
survey to. Figure out which people are most likely to become your customers and
people who are in the vicinity of your business. You can’t just have a business and
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target everyone. The more specific the market you target, the better your chances in
making a profit.

C. Make a quality questionnaire

The survey depends on the kinds of questions you ask. If your questionnaire is wrong,
then the results will also be wrong. Here are a few tips in making your questionnaire
as effective as possible.

- Use simple language. Avoid complicated words, make it as basic as you can.

- Be specific. Instead of “do you eat fruits regularly?” ask “how many times on average
do you eat fruits in a week?”

- Break down broad ideas to specific questions. For example, you want to learn if your
market is satisfied with a specific service you can break it down to three questions like:

I enjoy this service.

The service fitted all my needs.

I would avail of this service again.

- Avoid leading questions. Some researchers lead the respondents to answer in a

certain way that compromises the accuracy of the research. For example, asking “Do
you think shipping companies should add a budget for improving the health of
seafarers to reduce the numbers of medical repatriation on-board?” Your questions
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should be as neutral as possible and should have no “right or wrong” answers. Leading
questions can make your survey useless.

- ask one topic per question. Don't ask multiple questions in one item

- put a scale on your survey. Instead of yes or no, get a strongly disagree to strongly
agree scale. Typically, a scale of 1-5 is used by researchers.

- Ask complete questions and if you plan on giving multiple choice surveys, add an
“other” option.

- if you use an online survey, put a progress bar to let your respondents know that
your survey is short and will be finished very quickly.
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D. Analyse the data you have

When you have the results, you can get a general idea of what the respondents want.
Analyse all the data and you have more information now that you can use in starting
your business. Now it’s a bit safer and now you understand your market better. If the
survey shows that there is no need for the product you are planning to sell, then maybe
it’s time to go back to the drawing board and devise another plan.

2. Interviews - Do one on one interviews with a potential client. Nowadays this is very
easy because of social media. You can call a person and ask them directly about their
wants and needs. The common mistake of new entrepreneurs is they only ask their
close family and friends. Do not fall into this trap. Ask people you don’t know; the more
people you do interviews with the more accurate the research becomes. You can
actually also use the guidelines in creating a survey and use that to make a good
interview questionnaire.

3. Focus groups- Get a specific group of people and do a discussion with them. Talk
about the service they get or the products they use, how you can improve it and find
out what parts they love the most in their current provider and what they hate. The
discussion is videotaped and analysed and data is taken from the discussion.

4. Observation- When you use surveys sometimes it’s different to what the customers
really want. Sometimes they give a different answer compared to what they actually
do or want. Getting a good observation through video or actually observing people
buying at stores, you can get a pretty accurate idea of what people want. You can
spend time observing your market and figuring out how they make their purchasing
decisions. Just get a notebook and spend time taking notes, this can be useful to you
in planning out your business venture.
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5. Field trials- You can test out your products by really putting them in stores and
seeing how they perform. The good thing about this is that you can test this out in a
small scale first to check if your product or service is going to sell and make
adjustments accordingly. You can try adjusting the price or change the packaging and
see how each adjustment perform in increasing your sales. Talking to small shop
owners and making rapport with them is also a good idea so that they would allow you
to test out your products in their stores.

The three c’s

To improve your chances of success in business it is important that you determine the
3 c’s of your new venture: the company, the customers and the competitors.
Determining these three and making a thorough analysis will improve your chances of
winning

1. Company- what is the company’s goal? What products or service do you want to
provide? What vision do you have for your company? What is your competitive edge?
What makes you different from the rest?

2. Customers- who is going to avail the product or service? Are they seafarers like us?
Are they policemen in your local area? Are they the people in a specific subdivision?
Are they male or female? What social class are you targeting? Are you on the high end
or low end side? The more specific you are, the better. You will know more about your
target market, their buying patterns and their preferences if you have set your target
market seriously and if it is well defined. Of course the more you know them, the more
chances they will avail of your product or service.
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3. Competitors- who are the players in the market place? Do you know how many you
are competing in the area? Do you know what their strengths and weaknesses are?
How can you provide a better service than them? Can you give a higher quality service
with a lower price? What can you do that they can’t?

After doing all these analysis and research it’s time to summarise and make a decision.
Is there a need for the business your thinking of starting? Will there be customers who
can afford your proposal? It’s time to decide if you are going to push through or not.
Make a pro’s and con’s list, sit down and think. In the deciding process try to be as
objective as possible, do not let fear influence your decision. Remember that there will
always be risks, but the blessings of this world belong to the risk takers, the innovators.

If you think it’s feasible and you think you are going to earn, there is no way of really
knowing unless you try. Start it! Commit to it and now let’s make an estimate how
much this business is going to cost you.
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Chapter XVII

Estimating your start-up cost

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Chapter XVII. How much will be the start-up cost

Now you made the study and you know that this is going to be a profitable venture.
What to do next? It’s time to calculate how much money we are going to prepare to
start this business and how much we need to keep this business going. We are going
to list down all the assets, the start-up expenses, and the monthly expenditures to
come up with a figure and a plan to accumulate this money.

This is a four step process, the first three will tell you what you need to get started and
the last one what you need to break even and earn. In making these estimations, I
recommend being conservative in planning out your start-up cost. If you can save
money and buy second hand, or if you can start small first the better. Remember that
the most important thing is getting started and having the experience, you can
upgrade your equipment along the way but especially if you are just starting, start
small. Take care of your hard earned money.
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STEP 1. Start-up investment- put an estimate amount of how much you will spend in
each category

A. Legal structure- is this a sole proprietorship or a corporation?

B. Accountant fees for tax etc.

C. The shop space- construction, rent, furnishing

D. Permits from the government

E. Branding, logo design etc.

F. Advertising

G. Insurance

H. Internet, communication etc.

I. Company website

TOTAL:
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STEP 2: Buying your assets to run your business

What materials do you need to have your business running?

A. Your shop and its furniture and fixtures

B. All equipment

C. Machines

D. Stationary

E. Office supplies

G. Product stock

H. Inventory

TOTAL:
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STEP 3: Operational Expenses

This is how much you need to operate the business monthly. This amount might be
intimidating because you will add up a lot of money as you make this computation, but
that is how new businesses work. You need to calculate this amount to get an estimate
of how much you need to make in order to survive.

A. Rent N. Accounting fees

B. Utilities O. Debt Payment

C. Payroll P. Working Capital

D. Your income Q. Others

E. Restock of supplies TOTAL:

F. Monthly insurance bills

G. Transportation fees

H. Shipping fees

I. Legal fees

J. Ads

K. Inventory restock

L. Tax

M. Production cost

Now you have your estimate cost. It’s a good practice to multiply the total in step 3 by
six months to know how much your money you need to prepare as buffer money.
Assuming that your business does not earn a single coin, you can survive for the first
6 months.
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If you plan on starting the computer shop, this is how it would look like

Step 1: Start up investment: 200,000 pesos

Step 2: Buying your business assets: 300,000 pesos

Step 3: Operational expenses: 20, 000 pesos

Having determined the total amount of all steps, we set up a budget of six months’
buffer money by multiplying step 3 to six and you need a grand total of 620,000 pesos
in order to start your computer shop. The buffer money is for the start-up phase of
your business. Usually it takes months to establish a steady client base, but with your
buffer money you can run your business continuously assuming you don't get even a
single customer for six months.

Step 4: Calculating minimum sales to break even

In order for you profit in your business, you need to at least make more than you
monthly expenditures. If you need 20,000 pesos to break even that means the
business needs to make 666.666 pesos daily. If per computer you earn 10 pesos per
hour (charging your customers 20 pesos per hour), then that means you need a total
of 66 hours paid by your customers in order for your computer shop to break even. If
you have 20 computer units then each computer only has to be occupied for 3 hours
in order to break even in your expenses. Any more hours become profit for you. This
sounds doable, but take note that any starting business takes time to pick up. Prepare
to start slow, gather your new client base and take care of them. Once you know how
much it will cost you, it’s time to make a good business plan.
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Chapter XVIII

Making a business plan

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Chapter XVIII. Making a business plan

No matter how simple the business idea is, I am a firm believer of making a proper
business plan for that venture. They say failing to plan is planning to fail, and I agree
100%. This is where you lay down the mission, the idea and the goal and inspires you
to push through with the project. It makes you think more of the feasibility of the
venture and it makes you think outside of the box, as you will have this plan be read
by your audience. To have more valuable insights you can have your target market read
and analyse this plan as well. Seeing a business plan in front of you improves your
focus and gets you motivated to start the venture already. The plan is something you
can also make during your spare time! The more polished the plan is, the easier it is to
execute when you get home. Don’t be intimidated if it’s your first time doing this, it
may sound hard but if you actually start making the plan, it gets easier as you do it.

In making your business plan you must:

1. Determine why you would make a business plan in the first place

There are various reasons why you would make a business plan. It may be just for you,
so that you can get a whole picture of how your business is going to operate.
Depending on the purpose of the plan, it can be as short as 1 to 5 pages or as long as
40 pages. Making a plan can be used in analysing your data more, figuring out a general
operating plan, or making it so that it can be read by your target market and get
feedback, or it can be used for funding your business through investors or a loan in a
bank.
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2. Consult your business partners

There is a chance that you will not be venturing alone in that business. In creating a
business plan, you have to think together with your partners to figure out the general
mission of the business. It also helps so that you can get everyone’s ideas and interests
in writing the plan.

3. Choose the format you’d like to use

When I studied about making business plans, some make theirs so long it reaches up
to 50 pages and some consist only of 2 to 5 pages. You can explain everything and use
whole sentences and paragraphs. You can also make it short, concise, simple and use
bullets. Business plans that are short captures the essence of the business and
simplifies the idea. For those seafarers who are just starting out in business, I
recommend being as simple as possible.

4. Figure out the audience for your business plan

You can have every person you know read the business plan. The more people who
can read it, the more insight you get. If your purpose is to get feedback and other
seafarers to join you in your venture, I suggest making the plan as simple as possible.

If the purpose of your business plan is to get a loan from the bank, you might have to
make your business plan more formal. Loan officers are very particular and thorough,
so you also should consider asking for help in making a business plan online. There are
many free lancers and agencies that conduct feasibility studies for a modest price. It’s
better to spend a little so that you will have a better chance of getting that loan. The
loan officers would require a thorough analysis, planning and forecasting.
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Writing your business plan

1. Be as simple and straightforward as you can

Try to make the plan as direct and simple as possible. Avoid using words that are
complicated and technical terms that are hard to understand. Try shortening your
sentences and if possible use bullets

2. Write the product and company description

What is your company? What is the mission? What kind of legal structure do you have?
(this would be discussed in the next chapter) Describe the products or service you are
offering. What is unique about your product? What makes it different from the rest?

Juan Dela Cruz company is a corporation registered and operating in Pasay, Metro
Manila. Our mission is to provide quality plumbing service to the community around
Pasay. Our service is top notch, providing fast response and a 24-hour call line to help
our customers solve their plumbing needs anytime. Our plumbers are well trained in
what they do and can finish the job within minutes.

3. Present your research and your marketing plan

The market research you made must be included in the plan. Here you will put your
target market, the population of the people in your market, their wants and needs and
how you will be able to fulfil it. You should write down your pitch, why you think your
business will sell and why the market would appreciate the addition of your product.

Discuss all the findings and the strategies you want to apply to tap your target market.
You can also put here how much in sales you are expecting to make. Describe your
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target market, what they would want and why you have the perfect product for them.

Discuss the competitors. What are your advantages over them? How can you provide
a better service compared to all of them? How does your product compare to them,
both in quality and in price? How do you plan on marketing your product or service?

You can write something like this:

The target market for Juan Dela Cruz plumbing is the area around Pasay, Metro Manila.
There are 10,000 residential houses in the area and 50 commercial buildings that may
need plumbing service.

We have well trained plumbers and high end equipment to make the service fast and
reliable. The buildings around the area also have call centres that are active during the
night and sometimes plumbing problems occur, we are able to provide the service 24
hours anytime to the corporate institutions around and the residential houses.

Our competition has old, outdated equipment and very expensive service, a basic de-
clogging can cost the customer at least a thousand pesos. We use imported high end
products and we purchased them in bulk, we can provide faster and better service
because everything we use are newer and the prices we have are cheaper. Our staff
are well trained and we are dedicated to providing the highest quality plumbing service.
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4. Discuss contingencies

We also have contingency plans on-board. When an emergency occurs, we are drilled
on-board the ship again and again to make sure we know how to respond. Although
we want to be optimistic in starting a business, you also must know how to deal with
possible challenges that your business may encounter. If a certain part of your business
fails to work out, what can you do to remedy it. If the business fails in the end, what
can you do to recover from your losses? Would you be selling the equipment or the
whole business?

5. Give a short description about you and your team

It’s important to have a short description of who you are as a business owner and the
team that comprises the business. If you are alone in doing the business, that is okay.
Remember that I encourage starting small first, but in any case that you are more than
one, include in the plan the people that are working with you. Put in any awards you
have gathered if any and put your experience in the field. The people who have key
roles in your business, their background should be included and a short bio written as
well. For example:

Juan Dela Cruz, Owner of Juan Dela Cruz Plumbing has been with the industry together
with his father since 1980. His father was known to the community as one of the best
plumbers and Juan has always been at his side. Juan Dela Cruz has 30 years of
experience in plumbing and also served as an engine rating on-board cargo ships. His
experience in plumbing is long and he has also taken various courses in
entrepreneurship to prepare him in this venture.
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Jobert Baldivino, the vice president of Juan Dela Cruz Plumbing, is a graduate of the
bachelor of science in Business Management, at the University of Luzon. he graduated
with honours and had experience in managing multiple businesses. He has been in the
construction industry for 10 years and is a charismatic and energetic leader.

Michael Jimenez and John Perez are the plumbers on call. They both are in the
plumbing service for more than 10 years. Their experience in plumbing has made them
competent to provide fast and reliable service. We have also given them trainings for
the new equipment we plan on using to make their service even better.

6. Write the financial analysis

The analysis should include how much money you would need to set up the business,
how much you need in order to operate it and sustain it every month. The computation
we did on the last chapter can help you determine that and you can include it in the
business plan. In case you are in need of a loan to get your business running, state how
much you would need from the bank and what would you do with the money.

The analysis should include your expected expenses and how much you expect on
earning the first year. You have to state how much sales and customers you are
expecting to tap. The numbers don’t need to be super accurate, just enough to give an
idea to potential investors of how you plan on making the profit and how much you
plan on making on the first years.

Do not overestimate your profits though. Some people are tempted to put crazy
numbers in revenue in order to get approved and loan officers will see through this
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and will see you as an amateur. They will not approve the funding of your business. Try
to be as realistic as possible in showing them the analysis.

If you have no idea how much your business would make as you are new in this
business you plan on starting, you can get this data from people who have started the
same kind of business. That’s also one of the reasons why you should interview an
owner, so you could get these types of data. You can join groups in Facebook who have
the same business as you. You can get an idea how much you will make per sale of
your service/product and make a safer estimate. Remember that this estimation is
very important as it can mean the approval or disapproval of your business loan. The
good thing nowadays is that information can be found everywhere. You will not fall
short of these types of information, in a group in Facebook you can simply post a
question and you will be surprised, there will be an answer in just a couple of minutes.
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JUAN DELA CRUZ PLUMBING

Projected Profit and Loss statement

Projected income, Fiscal Year I. 500,000 php

Labor. 120,000 php

Bank Fees 4,000 php

Equipment Maintenance 10,000 php

Insurance 30,000 php

Marketing and ads 30,000 php

Phone 10,000 php

Supplies 15,000 php

Tax 100,000 php

Total expenses 319,000 php

Projected profit 181,000 php

On a side note, if you are not comfortable with borrowing money, I understand. The
culture of the Filipino people is that as much as possible we don’t want to borrow
money from others. It’s hard to be buried in debt. But remember that there are two
types of debt; good debt and bad debt. A debt is considered bad if you used it to buy
a cell phone. If you loan from the bank because you are buying a luxury car, that is the
type of debt you should avoid. Believe me, most seafarers have a debt in their
portfolios. Rarely of those debts are considered good debts. I personally have a multi-
million-peso business based on distributing imported goods and not one peso of that
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business came from my personal money. I used the money of the bank, paid them
after I made the capital back, and now it’s making a lot of money for me.

If you loan because of money producing assets, then that is considered a good debt.
The Chinese businessmen love loans, they can make money out of nothing, just their
good business plans and a bit of courage. If you are just starting out and you have no
budget, getting a loan is definitely an option.

7. Write the executive summary

At the end you would want to summarise everything that you have written. If your
business plan is short and is only a few pages, your summary would most probably be
just a short paragraph. You have to give a short overview, state your competitive edge,
a short description of the products, summarised marketing plan and the overall
strategy. The executive summary should not be longer than 2 pages, it is called a
summary for a reason. Investors and loan officers usually look at your executive
summary first, then if they like what they see they would go ahead and read the rest
of your business plan. So do well in making the summary, try to compress all the
information and emphasise the edge of your business.
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8. Polishing the plan

Now you have everything you need. Make the plan look professional by using proper
spacing, formatting, use headers properly and put in a table of contents. Check the
spelling, the grammar, the punctuations, everything that you have written there must
be reviewed repeatedly. You don’t want your plan having a lot of errors, it may give
the impression that you are not prepared and your organisational skills are poor. You
can have someone look at the plan and spot errors for you. You can also ask others
who have made a business plan before to check yours and get some insights from them.
In the end, this is a learning experience for you. You can always get an experts advice
from outside services or you can also consult our group page so that fellow club
members can help you out as well.

Congratulations! The business plan is complete! You can search online for sample
business plans so that you could get a reference of how it would look like when
completed. Now let us discuss each of the legal structures we can register your
business, we have to pick which one is the best for your start up.
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Chapter XIX

Structuring your business

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Chapter XIX. Structuring your business

Now the business plan is done, the next step is actually registering your business to
the government. When I was just starting in business I often wondered what
corporations are. How do partnerships work? If I were to gather a group of seafarers
and start a business together, how can that work for all of us when it comes to profits
and liabilities? What business structure would I file from the government? Which one
suits my business best?

Setting up the right legal structure is a crucial part of establishing your business. In the
Philippines we have four main types of business structure: sole proprietorships,
partnerships, corporations and cooperatives. Each has its own advantage and
disadvantage. In choosing the structure of your business, you have to consider how
many partners you have, if any, and what type of business you plan on starting.

Of course, having your business registered is important for it to be recognised by the

government. You get all the privileges and the responsibilities as a legal owner of a
business. Your customers will also be glad to do business with you as they know your
business is registered and is a reputable business following the law.

If you are just starting out on your first business and you will be the one who will
manage the business alone, then most probably sole proprietorship is for you.
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1. Sole proprietorship

This type of structure is usually the structure of choice for starting entrepreneurs. If
it’s a small business you plan on starting, you wouldn't need that much people to
manage or too many partners in running the business. By the word itself, you are the
sole owner of the business. You have full control over decisions. You set the direction
where your business is going. When you say left, everyone goes left.

There are no partners to consult, no board of directors to decide together. With that
advantage, also come the disadvantage of having full legal responsibility. If your
delivery truck hits a person and is injured, you are legally responsible, not the driver.
You pay for that damage, and the insurance may get your home, your cars and other
assets in compensation to the aggrieved party. You and your business will be treated
as one. All financial obligations are also put into the owner, that means if you loan in
the bank and you cannot pay, the bank will take your personal assets as payment. You
can register the business in the offices of the Department of Trade and Industry. They
have different branches around the Philippines and you can also visit their website to
register your business.

2. Partnerships

A partnership comprises of two or more people who starts the business with you.
There are two kinds: general partnerships and limited partnerships. General
partnership means equal rights and responsibilities over the business. If in a sole
proprietorship you and your business are treated as one, a general partnership works
more like a marriage. You cannot make decisions alone. You have to take your business
partners as an equal, all decisions must be made together. In starting a partnership,
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ask yourself if you really want a partner. It comes with advantages and disadvantages,
but one thing that’s going for you is that you can share the capital needed and you also
share the work load. It can be a good thing or a bad thing, depending on whom you
work with. It lessens the load for you and makes the starting capital a lot easier, but
conflict between partners do happen. Best friends or family members who start a
partnership do not always work out. In fact, I personally prefer partnering and working
with strangers, as sometimes when it comes to family you cannot say what you want
to say, for the fear of ruining your relationship with them. Handing over the business
to family other than your spouse, in my personal opinion, is not a very good idea.

Usually seafarers partner with their relatives. When you start a taxi business and
partner with your father-in-law, what would you do if they miss the boundary?
Would you scold them and tell them to work harder? Can you replace them with a
more trust-worthy and hard-working driver? What happens is that you accept the
excuse and choose to forget about it. These simple things, compiled together can ruin
your business. Choose very carefully about your partners.

In a limited partnership, the one who makes most of the decisions and is running the
business is called the “general partner”. He decides mainly where the direction of the
company is going. It’s going to be his say that counts. The others are called the “limited
partners” and they have a limited say on the business. They have little to no legal
obligations and they will not participate in the day to day operation of the business.
Basically they are passive investors. This is a good set up if you will be the one doing
most of the work and you need other people to fund your business. You still have the
freedom to run your business and you have partners who fund the business for you.
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3. Corporation

Corporations are composed of board members and all the decisions are made by the
board together. You would need at least five incorporators to establish your board of
directors. In sole proprietorship and partnerships, the legal responsibility lies on the
owners. If something happens, your personal assets are in danger. The bank can get
your house if you have nothing to pay them. The best thing about corporations is that
the legal responsibility lies on the corporation. If your company gets bankrupt,
everyone’s personal assets are protected. The bank would get all the assets of the
corporation, but your house and cars and everything else you have is protected. The
problem with setting up corporations is that it can get very expensive, and the tax laws
are very complicated that you will definitely need a lawyer and an accountant. Their
services definitely do not come cheap.

4. Cooperative

A cooperative is a registered association of people who have voluntarily joined

together to meet their financial, social and cultural needs. Cooperatives are not only
used for business, it can also provide aid for a community and even serve as a workers
cooperative focusing on their welfare. A cooperative can also be non-profit
organisation, but since we are talking about business, cooperatives can also make
money for you. It functions just like a corporation, and the income is divided among
its members. Your personal assets are also protected, but the downside is that it
cannot be controlled by a single member or even a group. All decisions are democratic;
it usually is voted upon by all the members. The registration requirements are also
strict, quite similar in starting a corporation.
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Now you have all the different types of businesses in the Philippines. It is up to you to
decide which one is best. If you are starting out small and you will do the business
alone, then go for sole proprietorship. You can register with any branch of Department
of Trade (DTI).

A partnership makes it easier for you because someone will share the capital and the
workload with you. It becomes a lot easier to start, but be very careful with whom you
partner. It can make or break your business. This can be registered with the Securities
and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Corporations and cooperatives are good because it protects your personal assets but
is costly and the laws behind it really require the service of a lawyer or an accountant.
This can be registered again with SEC.

For the complete requirements in starting a business visit, www.dti.gov.ph and

www.sec.gov.ph
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Chapter XX

Picking your location

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Chapter XX. Picking your location

Now you have the right business for you, the research, the business plan, the business
structure, it’s time to pick your business location. This is also a crucial part of your
business, but take note that not all businesses need a good location. It depends on
what kind of business you are going to start and of course the budget you have. If you
are starting a plumbing service, then your business doesn't have to be inside an SM
Mall since you will be going to the customer’s house anyway. You can have your
plumbing service office at home and start advertising your service even without a
physical store. If your business is a small convenience store like 7/11, then definitely
you need to have a good location. You need high traffic, that means many people
passing through your store, in order to make it profitable.

These are the things you need to consider in picking a good location for your business:

Population. Do you have enough people in the area to sustain your business? Are you
somewhere rural with very few people? You might have to consider putting your
business outside of your town or maybe consider an online business

Traffic. Are there many people passing by? Is it a place where people gather? Is it
accessible through public transportation? Are there any places near your shop that
attract people such as parks, schools or tourist spots? Will they be passing through
your store on the way there?

Image. The image and branding of your business must also be considered. If you are a
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high end brand, then you have to situate your store in a high end spot. If your business
is a sari-sari store, then it may not be a good idea to put in the central business district,
it would be more suitable in residential areas.

Competition. You need to know where the competition is located. You don’t want your
store beside all of your competitors, it’s going to be a problem. You will all compete
for the market, on the same area, reducing everyone’s share of the customers.

Visibility. Can your customers see your store? Is the building visible while walking the
streets? Make sure your location can be seen by people without too much obstruction.

Signs. Your logo and shop sign is very important. People will know that your shop is
there because of the signage. You have to consider if your customers see your signs,
or are there too many and yours could be obstructed. Can you have your business sign
put up in the building so people passing through can see? Is there a space for your
business sign? Are there any legal or leasing restrictions if you plan on erecting a sign
yourself, just in case there are no signage posts available?

Facilities. Is the building still in good condition? Will you consider the building a good
match for your brand? How about the electric sockets, are they enough? IS there a
parking space for your customers? Does the area flood often? Is the lighting okay? Are
there security services to guard your shop at night? Can you expand your store just in
case your business gets bigger? Is there a place where you can receive shipments when
you restock on your goods?
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History. You don’t want a shop to be situated in a place with bad reputation. If the
place is known for a lot of snatchers, then you might have difficulty encouraging your
customers to visit your business. You need to open your shop in a place where people
are comfortable in going.

The landlord. Who is the person managing the building? Is the person someone who
is kind, considerate and easy to do business with? Or is he a person who’s impossible
to work with?

Rent. You would want to start with a manageable rent, but don’t cheap out on this too
much. A good location is key to some types of business, and if you go for a cheap but
horrible place, it can end up ruining your business. It’s okay to spend a little more as
long as your shop looks professional and is accessible to people.

Communication. To some businesses the internet is very important. You can have your
people answer online inquiries and having no internet or signal in the area can affect
the operation of your business.

Schedule. If in a commercial building, figure out their open and closing hours and see
if it fits your target market. Are they open at night? Is there a choice to have your shop
open for 24 hours?
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Once you have picked a location, you have to talk of the terms of leasing or renting
your space. You have to determine the payment terms, the length of contract, any
special rules your land lord has in place for your business. You have to also determine
who pays for electricity, cleaning the building or are there any charges when customers
park in the area. Remember that when leasing, you can actually tweak the contract
and negotiate in your favour. You can definitely try to make the deal better for you.
You can prepare yourself in negotiation by researching the neighbouring areas and
other commercial places near you. Compare your prices and the other offers. Try to
reduce the price the most you can and finalise the deal.
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Chapter XXI

Further Education
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Chapter XXI. Further Education

Now you have the location for your business. With the plan ready, the research
finished and everything prepared, we are almost done in the process of starting your
business. The last part would be actually opening the business and getting it launched!
Now this is the fun part. You would now start buying the equipment, designing the
logo and your brand, fixing your shop set up and officially opening your doors.

Congratulations, you have done the first important steps in starting your venture. If it’s
still a plan and it has not yet materialised, go ahead and execute it! The journey to
business success will be a long one, there would be trials, challenges and obstacles.
But let me tell you it will definitely be worth it. Remember that when the business is
running already, apply the 23 principles of wealth, and I am sure this venture would
be successful. No one can stop a man who is determined. I am excited for you!

If you want more advanced coaching on how to make your venture even more likely
to be successful, make sure you are included in the True North Business Club. We will
conduct advanced trainings on how to brand your company, set up your shop, make a
profit, how to deal with insurance, how to make efficient ads strategies, hiring and
firing employees, specifics on franchising and producing a product. Most of those
courses would be free, some with a minimum charge, but it certainly beats the price
of attending business school. These all can be learned from the comforts of your home,
under the mentorship of business professionals.
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Bunk-mate, kabaro, partner, all my secrets are now yours. I hope I have inspired you to
chase your dreams. My wish for you is that you would have no more problems with
money, all the time in the world and a massive fortune to pass down to your children.
Smooth seas, fair winds, and may this book lead you to all your goals in life. I am excited
for your last sign off.
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THE END
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About the author:

Mix Jose is a former deck officer turned entrepreneur. He had started multiple types
of businesses and is now the C.E.O. and founder of iMFluentials inc. He is one of the
youngest motivational speakers in the country. Mix has coached thousands of people
and has been studying business and personal growth for more than a decade.