It’s been a heck long journey since the first day I joined MoneyTree in June last year. From the first day I saw Ryan, Chiu Hwa and Jacky, I said to myself, ” Let’s just open my mind to all this, and just do the best I can to go further. ” There’s no harm to ignore it anyway. Anyway, at that time, I got rejected by Singapore Youth Flying Club, JUST BECAUSE I SAID I LOVED COMMERCIAL AIRLINES INSTEAD OF FIGHTER JETS. Yep, I didn’t succeed in the interview.

So I then thought, maybe I wasn’t meant to be a pilot high flying in the sky. So maybe I was fated to be on the path to be an entrepreneur. First it was AIESEC, then WCIT, YESCOM and now SAGE…. I think it all started when I read Rich Dad Poor Dad. Sigh, the wonders a book can do! Haha…

Although I’m not living driving lambos or owning big houses, my mindset is there, the journey is already running, and the end in mind is that there’s no end! This will be an everlasting journey.

Now, I’m a few hours before my flight to Nigeria. The dreams are there, winning the SAGE World Cup for Singapore. Yep, representing Singapore, oh what a feeling… Passion is there… As I said passion will take you to your goals…

I will upload some pictures up here :D… To liven up this blog even more alright! …. Take care guys… May the moo-ney be with you.

I recently got a post from Martin that goes…

Dear friends,

Emily of Serangoon CC just called to confirm that they have
gone through 48 proposals submitted by 1st July 2008, and
one of our MoneyTree Team has been shortlisted to go for
the Semi Final of the Competition.

Emily got our Proposal late, but she classified that as their
internal problem. So next submission to Serangoon CC directly,
and make sure it’s earlier and not on last day.

ALERT CHIPS made it to the next round……..  Congratulation.

All the best for your preparation to tackle other Teams for the Top prize
of S$5,000 + Seed Money S$20,000

Full Biz Plan proposal must be submitted to Serangoon CC by
30 July 2008 - Max. 25 pages (including Appendices) and the team
will present on 2 August (Sat) - 9am to 4pm.

A formal letter will be issued, but start your preparation work
RIGHT AWAY.

As for WRAPPED, I’ve asked if there were any comment about your
proposal not being selected, but she said the decision has just been
decided, so she don’t have the details. Will try to get some feedbacks
so that we know what they are looking for.

I guess AlertChips really did find a problem and brought a solution to it. As for WRAPPED, I will advise them to find another stream of starting up, don’t give up and never put 100% of your efforts into one stream. Best of luck to AlertChips, show them adults that we are bosses. I’m so flared up I wanna turn up on that day if possible to watch the presentation.

Yeah, after a few months of pondering over air plants, we finally managed to clear all of our stocks in just a day. I know we didn’t win some points, partly on my fault, but guess what, when you go down, the only way is up. And we did went up, we sold items from keychains to candles and even earth-saving air plants.

The whole day was tiring, I must respect the whole team for enduring the whole day while I went to tuition for a short while. I felt a bit irresponsible for awhile. But when I came back from my tuition, guess what, the team could even function. And with the growing crowd, they easily sold more than what we sold in the morning. 3 cheers for Grace, Alfred, Joseph, Karthik, Abishek, Jackson, and Aloysius. I think apart from the fatique, all of us enjoyed the ‘interesting’ experience. What it feels like to be in an open market, what it feels like to have competitors, not one but 35. It was really a challenging moment when we tried to sell things to people that were more or less busy with their daily lives.

But I love to see young kids having the entrepreneur spirit. It will really help in the future when we face even more people and even more rejections.

The pictures of YESCOM will be uploaded to our gallery after I get it from Martin, Aunt Pat, Zhong En’s Family, who has been with us practically for the entire day. His passion to help not only his kids but also other kids has earned him the title of Iron Dad.

We did learnt a few things.

1) Take your customer’s feedback SERIOUSLY.

2) When one product is not selling, work another strategy to sell the other products.

3) Delegate your tasks efficiently and effectively to your members.

4) Everything requires planning.

5) Most importantly, a product will never be complete without good marketing.

-

“Through this camp I find that I learn a lot. For example now, I’m only in Secondary School, I have learnt things beyond my level…… I will recommend this to my friends. They too should start their financial planning from young.  I will say that it is a very good exposure for one and all.”

Samatha Whang (16) - CHIJ : Katong Convent

“I find it very interesting and useful,
I will definitely recommend this to my school and my friends.
On top of that the camp also teaches me a lot of things, for example like bonds and mutual funds.”

Benjamin  Chin (14) - Catholic High School

“We learn money saving, budgeting, demand and supply.”

Tay Zhong En (14) -HolyInnocent’s High School

“We learn Assets and liabilities and I find it interesting.”

Alfred Lee (11) - Catholic High School

“From this camp, I learn a lot of things, especially those that you will normally not learn at schools and I find it is really useful.Like the Demand and Supply Curve, which I heard they will only learn in JCs. Actually when the trainer do it here, it becomes very simplified and it is very easy to understand. I think that is what that is good about this programme.”

Samuel Hsu (14) - Catholic High School

“Actually, 90% of the world, people after the age of 65 are poor, because they don’t manage their money properly. And if you start saving now, you can be in the 10% and not in the 90%. Start planning at your age now, if you are still young, there is a chance.”

Aloysius (11) - Catholic High School

Ahh… The final day is just round the corner… I must admit it’s tough for Martin and Pat to have this whole load of things to do just for this competition… Oh yeah… It’s a lot… From admin matters to selling of the plants, they’ve been with us for like forever… I will have to thank Martin too for being a great help for the planning of Wrapped up to this stage…

Now, there will be about 8 of us on the real day selling our air plants, and not only that, we will show that young kids are more than just selling plants or some keychains or bracelets but real leaders that do not fear the rejection of people… Oh yeah… Rejections… Does it make you shiver on the sound of it? Believe me, these kids know what it feels like, and we have built a darn huge wall in front of us to ignore it… Remember Apprentice Level 2? How bout the day we tried to sell our air plants at Bugis? Yeah, it’s tough… You will still remember my post of salesman… Haha…

The Grand Finale will take place at Toa Payoh HDB Hub on Sunday from about 9am-6pm straight… We will be at booth 28 which I would say isn’t that good a place… I think the organisers purposely put us there because they know we could sell a lot… HAHAHA… Ya, you guys better be scared.. Cos we will not only represent MoneyTree but Aclub too! Hah! Prestigious club ok hello… It’s just the beginning, you haven’t seen what we have up our fat, fully filled sleeves…

Hope that all of you will give us your support as it’s gonna be tough especially on the kids… It’s 9 hours for goodness sake… Only God knows when we’ll start to disturb the other stalls around us… So to all YESCOM members, do have a good rest as tomorrow itself will be a long day for us to make the air plants… Yes… all 80 of it… Haha… We’ll grab more helpers tomorrow…