The Poor Chinese Boy and The Mexican

Let me tell you the story of a poor Chinese boy and how he got started in the internet marketing industry.

The Chinese boy was approached one day by a Mexican kid by the name of Fernando. The Mexican kid told the poor boy about a product called Magnetic Sponsoring and a guy named Mike Dillard. Apparently Fernando found this Mike fellow online of all places.

Being poor (and being Chinese), the boy of course asked Fernando, “well, how much does it cost?”

“$37.”

“$37!” the poor boy balked! “That’s crazy talk! You expect me to fork over $37 to some guy that I don’t know, never met, and *gulp* online?? Yeah right, when hell freezes over.”

Fernando persisted while the Chinese boy resisted. Finally they reached an agreement. The Chinese boy would at the very least give away his name and email address on Mike Dillard’s page in exchange for some “free” newsletters.

So over the next several days, the boy scrutinized every single word Mike spoke to him via email. He was looking for a sign of weakness, a “catch”, basically any reason to not trust this Mike character.

Alas, he failed!

He could sense no insincerity, no weaseling, nothing. Almost resentfully, the boy told Fernando, “Fine, I’ll fork over the $37 and check it out and just starve myself the next few days to recoup that ‘lost’.”

From $37 to $60,000

Well, a couple years have passed… and boy how things have changed

Suffice to say that Chinese boy has grown and matured to be the dashing and HANDSOME young man by the name of “Raymond Fong” (that’s me by the way).

Fernando and I just recently spotted ~$60,000 for a coaching program teaching us the intricacies of search engine optimization. We briefly talked about it (and by briefly I mean for like 5 minutes over the phone) and said “okay, let’s do it!”

That action reminded me of the similar scenario a couple of years ago with the $37 Magnetic Sponsoring book. Of course, back then it took about a WEEK before I was willing to invest and I did so with a lot more skepticism.

You’ll Never SAVE Yourself Into Riches

I can’t help but laugh when I think about what a big fuss I put up back then.

So what’s changed? How did I go from a well trained engineer living in the corporate world earning a hefty salary (in exchange for my life…) but freaked out over such a trivial investment of $37? What was I thinking back then?

You see, I was focused merely on the price tag, I was focused on that $37 as money out the window that I’ll never get to see again. I saw my pool of money as a finite sum and that $37 is merely taking away from it. And truth be told, being an engineer on a FIXED salary, I did in a sense have a fixed pool of money.

I sought to SAVE myself into riches rather than trying to make more money into riches. And what wasn’t saving was merely spending, the opposite, in my mind, of getting rich.

I came from the mentality of scarcity rather than abundance and that was what almost stopped me from investing that measly $37. The same $37 that’s helped Fernando and myself retire from our corporate jobs and make a nice living from online marketing where the possibilities are limitless.

Glass Half Full (of Possibilities)

Today, I have no problem investing in myself anymore, and neither does Fernando. We look at things from a position of abundance. Instead of asking “how much does it cost?” we ask, “what’s the potential ROI on it?” and “can we afford NOT to get it?”

Instead of looking at how much something will “take away” from us, we look at how much something will give back to us in the future. This is the nature of an investment. It has the potential for returns. Will your always realize the full potential? Maybe, maybe not. There are no guarantees. Will it happen overnight? Maybe, but most likely not.

See, an investment, whether that’s in a very straight forward sense like investing in real estate, or on a more broad level like investing in yourself, always has risks. You are at risk of the real estate market plummeting as you are at the risk of you being lazy as heck and not doing jack with the stuff you bought for your own sake.

However, while you don’t have control over the real estate market, you have full control over your own behavior — over your own ambitions, motivation, and drive. As long as you are willing to get off of your lazy bum and DO something, always always always bet on yourself.

While there may be no guarantees in any investment you make, I am certain of this one thing.

If you do NOT invest, you will NEVER collect a return.

So it is with that mentality both Fernando and I agreed to plop down $60,000 for a coaching program. Because we know that we will NEVER let that go to waste and we WILL put that program to good use — much like how we have put what Mike Dillard and all of Magnetic Sponsoring has taught us to good use.

So I ask you this, what’s your reason for not investing in yourself? Are you merely looking for excuses to be lazy and to not succeed? The sooner you can take that leap of faith and assume the mentality of abundance and ditch the mentality of scarcity, the sooner you’ll find success.

Good luck.

To Affinity and Beyond,

Raymond Fong

P.S. And if you are like that poor Chinese boy and are putting off purchasing Magnetic Sponsoring… for the love of gawd, save yourself some trouble, stop being like that, and do it already.