Swimming with Asian Sharks - Business Secrets from the Pacific Rim

Better an Empty Wallet than an Empty Head

While in Hong Kong, Mr. Princeton introduced me to his mentor Mr. RealEstate.  I call him that because at one point he owned over 50 properties under his name until the financial meltdown wiped out his fortune.  Mr. RealEstate is tough though, so in just two short years he was back on his feet again.  At that time Mr. Princeton was being hunted down by the triad for declaring bankruptcy, but Mr. RealEstate with his extensive connections, called them off, saving Mr. Princeton and his family.

The first time I met Mr. RealEstate was in a restaurant owned by LoyalPlus.  Mr. Princeton called me over to introduce me to Mr. RealEstate. Shortly after I said my name, he looked me right in the eye and asked me, "If I gave you a $10 million dollar project, would you be able to complete it?"  Without looking away or thinking, I said "Yes!"  Apparently this impressed him, as most CEOs he'd met in my field would take a moment to think it over.  Of course my youthful ignorance led me to believe I could do anything, so it was easy for me to reply.

Mr. RealEstate's story is even more impressive. He had started with nothing, and wasn't even able to read.  But he soon realized education wasn't the road to riches and that focusing on your strength is where you make money.  He told me that he taught himself how to read, and focused all his energy on learning real estate, both law and the market.  He boasted to me that he could tell me anything and everything about Hong Kong real estate, and there was no doubt in my mind he wasn't lying.  Another one of his skills is his ability to make people smile and get along.

After he went bankrupt, Mr. RealEstate started again from scratch.  You may wonder what he would buy when he had little to no money.  He started with the one piece of land he could afford, parking spaces.  He told me that if he had known how good parking-space flipping would be when he was rich, he would be a billionaire by now.  Slowly but surely, he flipped the parking spaces, transaction by transaction he regained his wealth and started trading up to apartments.  He eventually moved on to full buildings, and finally to community development.

Mr. RealEstate was able to hustle his way back from 5,000 Canadian dollar parking spaces to multimillion-dollar developments because of his skill set, proving yet again that the only thing of value is to do something of value.