My meeting with ABG ABU and ABG GHAZALI from NowAsia, Kelab Ekoniaga and Chicago Style LLP

I had visualized to meet Abg Abu, for the past few years and I finally got to meet him in person. I met him at his office on the eve of National Day somewhere at Peck Seah Street.

I actually met Abg Abu in person before, that was somewhere in 2004, during Malay Chambers of Commerce Gala Dinner Entrepreneur of the Year Award. Abang Malek , MD of Lerus Pte Ltd introduced me to Abg Abu and we shook hands but I didn’t know much about him at that time. That was the last time I met Abg Abu in person until recently.

I have admired him from afar, and I’ve been following his developments especially in his cause to educate the community on the importance of wealth management and basic business skills. He also conducts seminars and workshops. He’s a regular columnist with Berita Harian. You should read his articles and attend his seminars or workshops. I missed his last free seminar MAP untuk KAYA. Looking forward to the next one. InsyaALLAH.

Anyway try google abang abu and you’d be so impressed by what he has achieved. 6 businesses, own several properties, investing stocks at the age of 19! I can go on and on and on.... Very inspiring indeed! I feel the community is so fortunate to have him and how I wish we had met earlier during the days I started out my business. He’s a role model to the youths that hope to be entrepreneurs one day. I wish there are more like him in our community that come forward and reach out to the rest. What impresses me a lot and also my compelling reason to meet him is his deep commitment towards young people's success in entrepreneurship and financial intelligence. I can’t emphasize the fact that financial education should start early….. And these days our young budding entrepreneurs are so fortunate to have people like him around to guide them in their businesses.

It was an “emotional” conversation I had with Abg Abu, I had so much to confide to him on a lot of issues. Byk issues terpendam maklumlah! It was like a volcano waiting to erupt and it happened in his office. LOL! I couldn’t stop talking, pouring out my tots, my life story, talking passionately as usual, regardless whether he was interested to know or not, I just couldn’t stop. Lol!

But there was another person who sat quietly beside him that listened intently to my conversation. He was Abang Ghazali.

Abang Abu had to leave for an appointment. I can’t blame him, I took so much of his time. Sorry ya bang. Anyway, thank you for your time. I appreciate so much!

But I continued my conversation with Abang Ghazali instead after Abang Abu left for his appointment. We actually had some pretty good conversations, and prior to that he didn't talk much.

He shared the same sentiments on some issues within our community especially my peers. I didn’t know much about him as he seems to be a very humble person. He never did talk about himself, maybe cuz talked too much. Lol! But then again throughout the conversation, we did exchange ideas and thoughts that were constructive. It wasn't just superficial conversations.

He very much reminded me of one of my mentors i knew during my early years in business, a Chinese businessman I met on a plane during my trip back from China dulu. He was surprised to see a malay boy sitting alone in a plane going back from guangzhou and kept asking about myself. And we end up talking about so many things, some of which I've kept close to my heart till today.

Anyway back to Abg Ghazali. Well I look forward to meet him in the future. I actually wanted to email him to thank him, but it got a bit long-winded and so I post it on my blog instead. And I sms him yesterday to read my post that was written for him. He said he would do it. But you guys can take a peek at this as well.

http://fyepropertyclub.blogspot.com/2007/08/fye-property-club.html


And guess what I found out about Abang Ghazali. And this is like a few minutes ago, honest! And this is even before I complete this post.

Mohamed Ghazali Mahmood, although trained as an accountant, has been involved in business for over 15 years. The wealth of experience gained from the IT and F&B ventures has helped him in his foray into the training and consulting field which he embarked on since 2001.His strengths are in the areas of Accounting & Finance and Business Planning & Development.Ghazali has a professional qualification from the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants (UK) and Int'l Dip. In Teaching & Training (C&G - UK).

So enough said.

Calling out all NUS, NTU and SMU students!!!

Sometimes when I look back during my NS days, after polishing my boots before “lights out” (guys, remember those days? lol!); instead of hogging on the phone to call girlfriends like my other bunkmates, I would read a number of books basically success stories of self-made millionaires, autobiographies of renown entrepreneurs like Richard Branson, Donald Trump etc to self-help books, by Robert Kiyosaki. You can find these books at your nearest bookstores or just borrow from the library (save money). One thing they all have in common, most mentioned about property investment. The question is how can I start to apply what I’ve read to Singapore’s context of investing property. Is it that simple as what they’ve written in books published in the US? Who can I learn from in Singapore? Who should I approach and learn the ropes?

During the start of my entrepreneurial days, I invested thousands of dollars (sometimes I even loaned the money) just to attend seminars on wealth mastery by millionaires (who are mostly Mat Sallehs/Ang Mohs) themselves. You have to learn from the best! That is what I believed very strongly in and hope one day my community will have more self-made millionaires to inspire fellow youths and other aspiring entrepreneuers!!!

Most of the millionaires in those seminars kept mentioning about properties again and again and again! But of course everything made more sense after I learned from other local businessmen, property investors and bankers. But I’ve to be thick skin and ask around and open my mouth. Some of course wouldn’t have the time to entertain me, some were nice to sit down and talk to a young man like me, 7 years ago. And I appreciate that a lot.

So I wonder if it all started during my poly days (uni days for some) or say during my NS years, there was someone who could explain to me more about property investment at that time. I mean being a student or an NS boy, I wouldn’t have the money to attend expensive courses/seminars, but the knowledge at least would’ve provided me a game plan for myself, before I enter the working world. Wouldn’t that create a big impact on my life then? Or others for that matter…

Imagine I would get to meet Donald Trump from my community, Second Chance Properties Ltd, Salleh Marican at the age of 20! And sit and have coffee with him and talk about properties. Wow! Man! I can’t imagine.

After 10 years, I’m still hoping one day, I get to meet Mr Marican, InsyaALLAH. Sometimes when u visualize hard, it can happen.

I’m no Donald Trump and I’m not Mr. Salleh Marican, nor am I one of the big players in property investing, but I would like to reach out to the young malays and instill the awareness in property investment with whatever knowledge and experience I have.

Come on to those who feel I have ulterior motives approaching these students, there’s no business to be made from them. Most think businessmen are just out to sell something. Goodness! I’m just offering my time. They’re just students, still studying. They can’t afford to purchase properties right now… at least not yet. But that little knowledge that I can share from my humble experience, hopefully would benefit them in some ways in the future insyaALLAH.

Today I emailed to muslim/malay language societies from NUS, NTU and SMU. Looking forward to their reply.


Assalamualaikum,

My name is Fye (Faisel). I wish to hold a seminar on property investment. My objective is to raise the awareness among our young malays to invest early in their life. I believe embarking on the investment of property should commence early... even before you own your first set of wheels. (That’s my motto)

I'm not a financial planner but i wish to share my experiences as an entrepreneur. You don't have to go thru the obstacles i did before. I will try my best to help and share a faster route (thru proper planning) for you to own your first private property as investment. InsyaALLAH.

Lately I have helped my friends, (from the age of 25 to 28 ) young malay professionals to own private properties as investment, enjoying yield return (from rental) and capital gain. And they are doing quite well, alhamdullilah. And i can’t help to emphasise the fact that planning should start early even when you are still studying in Uni or serving NS. (for the men.)

In other words, start planning before the start of your career. I'm doing my bid to contribute back to the community by doing this. Because I feel our community is far behind compared to other races when it comes to investing, particularly in areas of property. And i feel it’s about time someone in the community come forward and educate the young malays on this matter.

To know more about me, visit my blog. fyepropertyclub.blogspot.com
Call me to arrange a meeting. I'm contactable at 90230230 or email me at fyepropertyclub@gmail.com.

Hopefully we can meet before the start of ramadhan. I’m free these few days.
I'll try my best to make time despite my tight schedule. Look forward to your reply.

salam
Fye

Helloooo there! Welcome to my blog!

After much procrastination and my busy schedule that is not helping at all, my blog is finally up. Hurray!

It took such a long time to figure out how to blog. Goodness! Internet is where i started my first business before i moved on to property investment. And things have evolved and changed so fast, over the years. and i'm trying really hard to catch up.

I've read several blogs for the past few months (on and off), and that inspired me to have my own. I've read blogs by grandmas, ministers, celebrities, psychos and even kids.

This is embarassing but I've to thank 14 yr old, Sharifah Nabilla, who was instrumental in setting up my blog. She's my ex-manager's daughter in Propnex, years before I started my business. I used to give her tuition and now it's the other way round. She's teaching me in the subject of "blogging".

For the past few years instead of blogging, (is that how u call it?) I typed down my tots into my laptop and saved them as word documents. So old-school! It was just for my read. So I guess now, it's about time that i slowly publish them on my blog and share with the rest of the world.

You must be wondering, who is that Mr.Ghazali. And what's that all about. Why is so long-winded. Well in the first place, I AM long-winded sometimes. It was suppose to be an email, I composed it over a few days and didn't realise it got that blardee long. Now i'm very paisey to email him. Scared I would choke his mail box. Probably I drop him an email and ask him to read from here instead. I shall continue again. Need to catch some sleep. I've got appointments later back to back...

Fye Property Club

Assalamualaikum abang Ghazali.

This is Fye(Faisel) here. From the bottom of my heart, i appreciate your time and effort rendered during our meeting on the 8th of Aug 2007.

Well you heard about my past, my struggle, to start out my business alone. I fumbled along the way and picked myself up, in hope to find a mentor from my own community but that didn’t happen of course. That’s the past. It’s alright. So now it means a lot to me, that you would spare your precious time to sit and listen to a young man who rambles on about his idealistic thoughts.

Many misunderstood me as trying to be too smart, cocky, but there's still a lot for me to learn from other malay muslim biz individuals like yourself. I'm still learning of course. I don’t have any bad intention; I’m just blunt sometimes and a bit vocal. I call it "honest to goodness". Well, I’m working on that. Probably tone down a little bit. Maybe I turn out to be like this because life is tough out there for me, not that rosy, especially if one decides to go into business or become self employed. In business, things are not served to you on a silver platter. I can’t help telling everyone this. Well the truth hurts somtimes but you can’t always paint a beautiful picture to anyone who wants to go into business. You can’t learn to ride a bicycle by reading the manual or self-help books and scared of getting hurt, can you? There’s sure to be bumps and bruises along the way. It’s never been easy but it can be rewarding for sure. And when you succeed, it's a great feeling that words can't describe. If you're afraid to fall then, business is not yr cup of tea. Most of my role models, they bounce back after every fall in their business. I tell myself if they can do it, why can't I?

I like to challenge myself and break the pattern when things stay status quo. I don’t give up easily and make a point to “grow”, in every aspects of my life. And thus I’m always hungry to learn something new everyday even from you, hopefully.

Although i feel it's just my social responsibility to share something i learnt from my past mistakes, many tell me that I’m just fighting a losing battle trying to convince the community. Well Rome wasn’t built in a single day. I've all the time now. And so i take little steps. Something i learnt after my business collapsed. I was lucky to start early. It was a great learning experience that I don’t think any Uni can offer.

InsyaAllah with whatever I've learnt from my humble past, i hope to create a positive stir in our community, not for the money, not for the name, not to snide at other biz ppl in the community, but to raise the awareness among our young malays to invest early in their life. And hopefully improve the living standards among our community. InsyaAllah. (Sounds ambitious, but I will try my best. I'm hoping more would come forward actually.)

Being a part of the whole process to help my friends purchase their first property was a memorable experience for me. I can see that they begin to take more responsibility in life and towards their family and friends. Alhamdullilah. They now have a more positive mindset towards wealth management which was thought to be difficult and almost impossible. (They used to be in that group of people having paychecks of 3-4k and end up with zero savings at the end of the month. This is common actually.)

And witnessing them achieving all these is even more fulfilling than making my first million a few years back. What i achieve right now by seeing people around me going thru positive changes, will stay with me forever, and that gives me the drive and at the same time, humbles me in many ways.

Having lost everything before my eyes after making so much, made me realise that having assets at an early age is important. I learnt the hard way when it comes to wealth management. Money can come and go. But when you’ve got money, you’ve got to let it grow! Money is a sensitive issue among our community, especially when some still believe that it’s the root of all evil.

I've learnt that money is just a medium to reach a destination where I've the freedom to do more things I love or dreamed about. And that I would be able to have more to give to my family and society, not just the material things. It can be time, knowledge and love. So money is not something we all should get too emotionally attached and feel slaved or burdened by it.

The whole idea is just to be a bit smart in doing things to make sure that money works harder for us and we get to work lesser each day.

At the end of the day, we all want to feel happy and fulfilled. That's my personal opinion at least.

I asked my friends, am i too idealistic. Is that good or bad?

And he just sms me, "Dol, saving the whole mankind is idealistic. Helping close friends is a realistic start. Hahahah". And i laughed.

Of course i'm not trying to save the world, he was just kidding. For a start, maybe just among my malay community and my other close friends that know me regardless of race language or religion.

I replied his sms, "of coz u say this brader, with today’s current property market, you and the rest ( a small group of friends) are definitely laughing your way to the bank."

And I'll be in one corner, feeling happy for them. alhamdullilah.

The one that sms me was my ex Victorian schoolmate. A secondary school teacher, at the age of 28, now owns 2 private properties with his sister who's an auxiliary police at the airport. Most of my friends that own properties are still single and staying with parents, so their properties are investment tools that give them additional income that's very rewarding.

Like some(not all) of the others in teaching industry, they tend to burn out early in their career. But with better financial planning, and getting savvier in property investment, somehow or rather, have helped to save their careers.

I guess they felt that they're financially and emotionally better compared to how they were before. Their minds are more free to focus on productive and constructive things that over the years have been distracted by personal or financial problems. I admire him (my teacher friend) because instead of whining about the system, management, working culture, he took the first step to make a change and take action rather than play victim to the situation. Like most of us do at some point of time, including myself.

Teaching is a great career; I think kids should not be deprived of great teachers like him. Because teachers are people we won't forget for a very long time. We are the product of their teachings, and they shape our lives in many ways. I have many great teachers in my life not just in schools, and i thank them till today. Maybe I can learn something from you too.

Fye Property Club is my vision, my dream. And these friends of mine are the product of the baby steps i took to educate the young Malays, the importance of investing early in property. Of course at the same time I get to learn new things from my friends in other areas. There's so much to share and learn together. I personally feel, in order to receive; we have to give as well. You can't always be at the receiving end ....

Oklah bang, dah cukup lah sampai sini. I look forward to meeting you in the future so that we can sit down again and probably come up with something constructive, since we are in line with our intentions and ambitions. Assalamualaikum.

PS. Nice to hear you're from Haig Boys!!! I knew there was something about that school! It produced a unique "breed" of boys. Sad that they closed it down.