Twelve Commandments of Wealth

• Seek money for money’s and you shall not find.

 Money will only come when you are doing the right thing in the right way. If you seek money strictly for the sake of becoming rich, most likely you will never achieve true financial freedom. Ironically, great wealth most often comes to those who seek it least. You must first create substantial value – products or services that enhances people’s lives – before the money will flow from any commercial enterprise. Only by creating value will you ever attract significant wealth. If you find something you really love and that society finds valuable, then money comes rather easily.

• Find your perfect pitch.

One thing all millionaires have in common is that they know who they are  they have a keen sense of what makes them tick, they understand their own motivations, and most have mastered the difficult task of deciphering their greatest talents and abilities. In short, they have developed self-knowledge. Personal assessment is the first step to wealth amassment. Finding your own unique gifts is the second step to becoming rich. What you are uniquely gifted to do and having the right skills, in the right place at the right time. You can only be truly accomplished at something you love. Don’t make money your goal. Instead, pursue the things you love doing, and then do them so well.

• Be your own boss.

Phil Ruffin said, “You don’t get rich working for other people.” The only way to control your destiny is to own your own business and be your own boss. According to the Federal Reserve Board, in 2007, the average net worth of self-employed people was an impressive $1.3 million (P60 million), more than six times the net worth of the average worker. There are no extraordinary people, there are only average people who do extraordinary things.

• Get addicted to ambition.

 All the self-discovery in the world is useless if you don’t have the desire and the will to become the richest man or woman. There is also no denying the crucial role that hard work, dedication, and diligence play in reaching that dream. In other words, there is no wealth without ambition. Much effort equals much prosperity. You’ve got to work hard; you’ve got to love to work; and you’ve got to have fun doing it. The reason some people get father ahead of other people is because they possess persistence – the ability to refuse to take no for an answer.

Success is the ability to achieve the things you want in life. Destiny is not a matter of chance, but rather a matter of choice. Your destiny is in direct proportion to your ambition addiction. And hard work is the only sure path to success. It simply can’t be avoided. The greatest gift in our life is the ability to work.

•  Wake up early, be early.

 A common trait of millionaires is their early work experience. To start early, you must also start your day early and show up early. Don’t procrastinate because in only two days, tomorrow will be yesterday. The rich don’t put off until tomorrow what should be done today, and they are punctual. Punctuality demonstrates discipline and respect for others. Nothing is more destructive to one’s personal success than the inability to be on time. Many of us choose inaction over action.

• Don’t set goals, execute it.

 “Vision without execution is hallucination” – Thomas Edison. Success doesn’t come from what you plan or envision, it comes from what you do every day.  And what you do every day accumulates. That’s how you become a big success; that’s how you make big money.

•  Fail to succeed.

 The only way to succeed is to have the courage to fail. It is the willingness to face failure and the resilience to pick themselves up and make the next step toward a better outcome. Don’t be afraid of failure. Failure is a part of life. Absolutely every successful individual has had several failures. You learn a lot from your failed experiences. There is one great certainty in life – you will lose at some point. Failure can breed success. The fact is that 70% of all new business fail in their first year. As they said, “No pain, no gain.” Failure is often the greatest teacher.

• Location doesn’t matter.

 The rich make their fortunes in the places they know best, and their stories prove that success can take place anywhere and everywhere. Hometown success is indeed the sweetest success. Buzz Oates was born in Sacramento, California, and built his business and his fortune there. Oates says,”I never intended to leave. This is my home.” When it comes to building a fortune, size matters, but when it comes to where you build it, population size clearly does not.

  

•  Moor yourself to morals.

 Warren Buffett said,”It takes 20 years to build a reputation and 5 minutes to ruin it.” The three most important words in the English language are “tell the truth.” There are no moral shortcuts in the game of business or life. There are basically 3 kinds of people: the unsuccessful, the temporarily successful, and those who become and remain successful. The difference is character. Our reputation is our most valuable asset. The reputation you earn from managing your relationships, both in business and personal life, is the single most important key to success. Integrity is integral to wealth creation.

• Say yes to sales.

 “Nothing happens until something is sold,” said Joe Ricketts, founder of TD Ameritrade, a discount brokerage. Great wealth creation requires great selling skills. If you cannot persuade people to do things, you simply will not be a success. Because you are not an island unto yourself, everything in life is about persuading people to do what you want them to do. The biggest key to success is the ability to communicate and sell ideas.

• Borrow from the best.

Millionaires are smart enough to know that they don’t have all the answers in business or in life. Their common denominator is their almost universal interest in reading biographies of other successful people. They value those people who keep their antennae high in the air, and they strive to stay attuned to new ideas, and better approaches to wealth creation. That love of reading presaged the creation of their wealth. Seek the counsel of wise people wherever you can find them.

  

•  Never retire.

Retirement is hazardous to their wealth. Because their definition of success is about enjoying the journey, they simply can’t fathom a life of leisure or sitting on the front porch watching life pass them by. Instead, they envision a future must the same as their past – a life filled with activity, business building, and continuing wealth-creation opportunities. Millionaires simply can’t imagine giving up what they love most, the wealth-creation mechanism that has made them rich. Love what you do and “retire” for the rest of your life.

From: The Richest Man in Town by W. Randall Jones

Live Like a Billionaire

A comfortable home, a reliable car, a week-long vacation - just some of the little things that make most of us tick. Of course, these basics depend on the size of our bank accounts. So what happens when you have enough money to buy almost anything in the world? Well, for one thing, your list of essentials certainly improves.

 

Larry Ellison's Mansion

Take Oracle CEO Larry Ellison. His lavish Woodside, California, estate, which has been estimated at $100 million (P4.3 billion), features feudal Japanese architecture, a man-made lake and approximately seven additional buildings. Bill Gates' 66,000-square-foot spread is built into a hillside on the edge of Lake Washington, near Seattle. It boasts a 60-foot swimming pool with an underwater music system and a 1,000-square-foot dining room.

Though the extent of luxury may vary - both homes are in stark contrast to Warren Buffett’s modest Omaha, Nebraska, abode, which he’s called home for nearly 50 years and is valued at $500,000 to $700,000 (P21-30 million) - one thing is for sure. Privacy and exclusivity are some of the most sought-after privileges among the billionaire set.

 

Buffett's Jet Interior

Only the very wealthy opt to have full ownership of a private jet, which carries huge maintenance fees, insurance costs, multiple permits and gas requirements. But it is a luxury so enticing that even Warren Buffett couldn’t resist. He is the proud owner of a Gulfstream IV, which he jokingly named "The Indefensible" after having once mocked corporate jet ownership. These planes, which can accommodate as many as 16 passengers, usually sell for about $16 million (P688 million) and up, depending on the make, mileage and amenities.

Should the billionaire ever feel a little airsick, though, it is necessary to have a backup - the megayacht. The Octopus, Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen's $200+ million (P8.6 billion+) sea monster, has a permanent crew of 60, two helicopters, a 10-man submarine and seven boats. So where are these billionaires heading on their jets and yachts? Why, to their private islands of course. Richard Branson purchased the 74-acre Necker Island (located in the British Virgin Islands) in 1982 and transformed it into a lush private resort that can accommodate just under 30 guests for about $1,700 (P73,100) per person, per night.

 

Paul Allen's Octopus Super Yacht

Most owners of private islands, though, prefer to keep them for themselves, as an escape destination or to at least keep publicity to a minimum. Billionaires Ted Turner and David Murdoch have laid claim to their own water-locked terrains, inhabiting St. Phyllis Island in South Carolina and Lanai Isle in Hawaii, respectively.  

Those in the luxury business say the super-wealthy crave these essentials because they separate them from the general population. But when an item is rare, you can bet that it jumps to the top of the must-have list. "When you tell people with money [that] something is impossible to get, guess what they focus on?" quips Randy Mattison, general manager of Motorcars International, a dealership that specializes in providing exceptional luxury and exotic cars such as Lamborghinis, Ferraris, Porsches and Bentleys.

Mattison refers in particular to Ferraris and other ultra-performance sports cars that currently top the market. These cars are built only in limited quantities and often sell for $100,000 (P4.3 million) to $200,000 (P8.6 million) over sticker prices that are already listed as $350,000. Exotic carmakers like to ensure that there are more interested buyers than cars, and as a result, the consumers are willing to pay far above the listing price to get their hands on one. For example, only 64 street versions of the McLaren F1 supercar, produced from 1994 to 1998, have been built, and they sell anywhere from $1.3 million (P60 million) to $1.7 million. At last count, there were nine in the U.S.- and billionaire Ralph Lauren has two of them.

Limited Ferrari

Many billionaire essentials are necessary simply because they make life easier. Personal assistants and domestic staff help eliminate tedious, everyday chores, such as scheduling appointments and meetings, fielding phone calls and maintaining the household. The private chef is just as essential, and rarely is there only one. "Most billionaires employ anywhere from two to three chefs because they usually have a traveling chef, and then they might have children, or a huge staff that needs to be fed," says Christian Paier, President of Private Chefs, a company that features Bill Gates and Ron Perelman amongst its impressive list of past and present customers. "And a lot of billionaires these days all own yachts. Naturally, on a yacht, the staff lives [there.]"

Ownership of professional sports teams is another popular choice, as are exorbitantly priced clothing, artwork and gadgets, all bought simply because billionaires can. One of Mr. Mattison's billionaire customers at Motorcars International traded his car 92 times in one year, and the cheapest auto he bought cost $70,000.

For the rich and super rich, some decisions are more complicated than choosing between the Bulgari and the Cartier. Indeed, those with a net worth exceeding a billion dollars have a limitless area for escape. And for these lucky few, a vacation spot is not just a place to bask in the culture and climate, it's a place to be seen with notorious neighbors and famous faces. One, of course, where the living is good. Indeed, whether the locales are snow-capped or sun-kissed, Monaco or Mustique, all offer the world's best service and amenities.

 

Bulgari Watch

"When you have unlimited budgets, you can get whatever you want," says Susan Breitenbach, a Bridgehampton, N.Y.-based Senior Vice President of the Corcoran Group. And billionaires are "used to good restaurants and used to world-class shopping." Recently, the traditional break from the Big Apple, the Hamptons, has upped its ante, becoming a destination for Europeans eager to take advantage of the current exchange rate and to share a beach with billionaires such as Steven Spielberg.

The ultra-rich are also used to traveling without hassle. Private cars, personal jets and chartered yachts are a few of the perks. Todd Harris, senior vice president of hospitality and member services for the luxury destination club Exclusive Resorts, says gourmet kitchens, first-class spas, designer linens and state-of-the-art electronics are some of the amenities his mega-rich guests prefer while away from home.

Edgar Sia II

The story of Mang Inasal started in 2003 when entrepreneur Edgar Injap Sia II, then 26 years old, was offered a 250 sq. m. space in the parking building of Robinsons Place in Iloilo in Western Visayas. The space had been unoccupied for three years, and the mall administration offered good rental terms to Sia, who had other businesses located inside the mall.

Sia belongs to a family of entrepreneurs; his parents own the successful Injap supermarket located in Roxas City, Capiz. Sia himself has considerable entrepreneurial experience. In 1997, he put up a photo-developing center near Robinsons Iloilo. In 1998, he established the Four Season Hotel, also in Iloilo City. And finally in 1999, he set up a laundry shop.

He zeroed in on the native Ilongo chicken barbecue called Inasal in the dialect and combined it with the familiar fast food dine-in concept. Thus by the fusion of these elements Mang Inasal was born. Sia went to work developing his own inasal recipe and design for the restaurant. He then borrowed P2.4 million from his parents as initial capital. When he opened the first Mang Inasal restaurant in December 2003, customers flocked to his store.

During Mang Inasal’s first few days of operations, there were so many customers that Sia himself had to help with the cooking, cleaning, serving and other tasks in the restaurant during the day. Afterwards, he had to work at home, marinating the chicken to be cooked and served at the restaurant the following day. Sia realized that running a restaurant was no easy task, and he contemplated giving up altogether. However, his belief in the promise of the concept kept him going.

It’s not surprising then that Sia should say that the key to his success are hard work and a good work ethic. His parents immersed him in these values, he says, when they made him help at the family’s supermarket at a young age. This was also when his eyes were opened to entrepreneurship, he recalls.

When Inasal was opened for franchising in 2005, the company rapidly expanded, a complete surprise for Sia. It got to a point, he says, that he was going to four cities a day and flying every other day. The core of this early expansion was the Visayas and Mindanao where people were more familiar with inasal. To help him with his expansion efforts, he joined the Philippine Franchise Association and the Association of Filipino Franchisers Inc., the country’s biggest franchise organizations.

Road to Success 

• Working Hard. He had to do most of the work in store.

• Keep innovating. He stresses the need to innovate rather than just copying other people’s concepts.

• Keep a lookout for opportunities. He says: “Luck is of no use if you let opportunities pass.”

• Strategizing and looking at the big picture. In order to succeed, you need a strategy to complement your concept and the opportunities you spot.

• Having the right attitude. He said the entrepreneurs should have a can-do, never-give-up attitude. You need to think that problems could be solved. “When there is a will, there is a way.”

Years ago, Injap partnered with potato chips king Carlos Chan for the Indonesian donut brand, J. Co. which has now 19 outlets in the Philippines. Ten more JCo outlets are planned this year.   On his own, Injap keeps nurturing his Lapaz Batchoy chain of eateries. Don Carlos is the majority owner of another joint venture with Edgar Sia—the Hotel 101 chain of business hotels.  

These days, Sia is setting his sights in a big way on the property market. He recently put up Double Dragon Properties, partnering with Jollibee’s Tony Tan Caktiong. His vision, he said, is to put up at least 100 community malls all over the country under the brand CityMalls. To further raise capital for this ambitious venture, he had his company listed at the Philippine Stock Exchange.

His numerous undertakings have also forced him to relocate to Manila completely, where he said he’s been based for only three years. He has adjusted to the new environment although he said he remains at heart a “Roxas and Iloilo country boy.” Sia proudly revealed the birth of his “baby girl,” which he said gives him a renewed drive to boldly conquer new heights. And he’s only 37 years old—think of what he can do by the time he’s 40.

The target is 100 City Mall “community malls” by 2020, making up 70 percent of his targeted 1 million square feet of leasable space. It sounds like a lot, considering he hasn’t opened a single one of the first five he is promising this year. But this is a man who built Mang Inasal to 303 outlets in seven years, then, in 2010, sold 70 percent to Jollibee for P3 billion. He was 33. He says leasing out the space will be easy. His partner in Double Dragon is Jollibee Food Corp.'s Tony Tan Caktiong. Their partner in City Malls is Henry Sy's SM group.

JFC’s Jollibee, Chowking, Mang Inasal, Greenwich, Red Ribbon and Highlands coffee chains, and the SM group’s SaveMore, Ace, Watson’s and Toy Kingdom chains, not to mention BDO and Chinabank will take up 80 percent of the 5,000 to 10,000 square meter malls. He says 100 may sound like a lot, if you didn’t know there are already 200 around the country, just mostly stand-alone, renting space to the Jollibees and SaveMores. He says City Malls and those who will compete with it -- Lucio Co’s Cosco is planning its own version -- will roll over the small operators. Just like Mang Inasal and other national fast-food chains supplanted local restaurants, like “Big Bite” and “Try Me” in Iloilo.

Double Dragon is “Double Dragon” because Tony Tan Caktiong and Injap Sia were both born during the year of the dragon, just 24 years apart. But Edgar Sr., the grocery store owner who seeded his son with P2.4 million for that first store, is a dragon as well, the same age as Tan Caktiong. And Edgar III is a dragon too, though Injap says, improbably, that he and his wife didn’t realize it immediately because they were too busy with their other baby, Mang Inasal.

In the two and a half months since their company listed, Injap has signed deals for 11 properties, including a 90-day exclusivity agreement for Globe Asiatique's Sky Suites in Quezon City. The biggest one for a property on EDSA and Macapagal Avenue near SM’s Mall of Asia that can house 300,000 square meters of leasable space, a third of his quota.

And they're buying property at today's valuations, while other developers have "landbanked" for years. “We buy properties at seven to P10,000 per square meter," he said. "If you buy at the Fort at half a million, you will be stretched, very difficult. Last week we bought at Consolacion (Cebu City) at P10,000. Right in front of the public market.” Of course, no one said he was buying at the Fort, one of the country’s priciest districts. But to have to buy dozens of properties over the next few years at current prices and quickly turn them into profitable malls will be a challenge.

The hotels, his venture with Carlos Chan, are actually condotels. He says his investors will be happier because all revenue will be split equally, unlike in some condotels where it’s based on whether your unit is rented out, which, he says, some owners suspect is based on giving gifts to the staff. And he says his condotels will be better hotels because the owners will just own the units, but he’ll finish and furnish them, making it easy to maintain consistent standards.

He says some investors want to buy several units, which would speed up the sales phase, but he’s limiting them to one per building because that will mean more owners “marketing” his condotels. The aim is 5,000 rooms in 15 to 20 buildings also by 2020. “Sometimes long-term thinking makes today harder,” he says. “This will make the 5,000 easy.”

SM Investments Corp. has struck up a partnership with DoubleDragon Properties Corp., a real estate joint venture between entrepreneur Edgar “Injap” Sia II and Jollibee group founder Tony Tan Caktiong. DoubleDragon announced that it had signed a deal allowing SMIC to acquire 34 percent of its shopping mall arm CityMall Commercial Centers Inc. (CMCCI). The former will keep a 66 percent interest in the community mall development arm.

CMCCI was recently incorporated as a wholly owned subsidiary of DoubleDragon intended to be the umbrella company for community mall projects around the country to be branded  “CityMall.” The CityMall chain is envisioned to become one of the largest branded independent community mall networks in the Philippines with floor areas of about 5,000 to 10,000 square meters at each location and will be located in strategic locations, mostly in the Visayas and Mindanao.

CMCCI recently completed the acquisition of a 12,654-sqm piece of land on Arnaldo Boulevard in Roxas City which will be the site of the first CityMall. This is expected to be completed by December 2014. Capital spending for this portfolio of community malls called “CityMall” will account for the bulk of proceeds from a P1.16-billion initial public offering by DoubleDragon, filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission of which 579.73 million new shares was sold to the public at an offer price of up to P2 per share.

In the Forbes listing of top Philippine richest (2014), Edgar Sia is No. 31^st richest Filipino with a net worth of $390 million at age 37.