20 Ways to Enhance Your Get-Rich Potential

1. Practise Being a Good Communicator

Enroll for a course in improving your communications. Learn how to be more persuasive and enticing in the way you present yourself, your product and the way you package what you sell. Success in any business depends on how you market your products and services, and doing this effectively does require good communication skills. It also requires a well thought out strategy and a convincing story line. Get some professional help in this area to set you thinking along these lines. Don’t forget your feng shui though – everytime you get up to speak, each time you chat with a potential customer or client, face your sheng chi direction. This way, you will be further increasing your chances of success.

2. Think Three Steps Ahead

In the day-to-day management of your business, always think three steps ahead. Good anticipation is not only the key to success, it is also the guarantee of survival. Make it a habit to anticipate customer demands, inventory levels, price increases, staff shortages and so forth. You will find that over time, the habit of thinking ahead will become so ingrained in you that it becomes second nature. This is called experience. Doing it consciously makes this habit more powerful.

3. It’s Ok to be Imperfect

Whatever the outcome of what you do, always bear in mind that it is impossible to be perfect. Events and outcomes almost never work out exactly as you plan them to. Sometimes results exceed your expectations, and other times, your new product launch can fall as flat as a lead balloon. It is not necessary to berate yourself for the occasional failures. Chalk things up to a bad experience, even bad luck and then move on. Remember that it is by accepting your imperfections that you know you are all human. The key thing when you fall is to be able to pick yourself up again, each and every time.

4. Keep Things Simple

Do your very best to simplify all the tasks and processes inside your head. Make a resolution this year that you will NOT allow anyone to confuse you with complicated suggestions OR dilute your determination by being negative. When you keep your goals focused and clear cut, the task at hand gets simplified, and when you stay positive in your expectations, your energies are that much more powerful. The good news about keeping thought processes simple is that your own resolve becomes the engine that drives you, and this is the best way to harness your powerful inner chi.

5. Identify Your Income Sources

So many people come to me with business ideas that describe their vision and dreams – and they paint a rosy picture of how they will set up their business and yet when I ask them “so what’s the source of your immediate income” they look blankly at me. Remember that all ideas are good, but very few have the potential to be successful simply because the source of income has either not been thought through or the people behind the business is depending on some Government handouts, or on “friends”, or upon a single source that might well dry up. When a business cannot generate its own sources of income, then it is not a business. It is simply a project. Viable businesses always have the ability to generate its own source of incomes and to fill a market need.

6. Draw a Decision Tree

I learnt to draw decision trees at the Harvard Business School way back when. It’s been over twenty-five years since I studied in that august institution and I am still using those wonderful trees. They are like mind maps except these decision trees also contain what I think are the outcomes of decisions. One decision leads to other decisions and in drawing a decision tree, every branch keeps getting split into smaller and smaller branches. The process of drawing a tree forces you to engage your mind to think ahead, to not stop at each decision. This is because every decision always leads to another decision, and another and another. E.g. if you make a decision tree on whether to rent or to buy your office premises… if you decide to buy, you need to decide where, how big, use your own capital or borrow, if borrow, how much to borrow, from which bank, and then you need to think of the outcomes… will you be successful at finding the right location, at getting a bank to lend you money, and so on. Your decision trees can be as simple or as complicated as you wish… but simply thinking about it sets you thinking in the right direction, which is to think ahead.

7. Keep Your Spirits High

The secret of success lies in constantly rejoicing and keeping your spirits high. This requires real effort but once mastered, it becomes a precious skill indeed. Rejoice at every triumph but also learn to meet every setback with a smile of acceptance – and view it as a signal to change course a little. When bad things happen, you can actually feel happy that a piece of bad karma has ripened and has therefore dissolved. Its gone, passed on. And when something good happens, also rejoice, because it means some good karma has ripened. Just remember to create more good karma by doing something nice for someone or donating something to a worthwhile charity. When you look at your life this way, how can any year be a bad year?

8.Go Global in Your Search for Markets

A successful business can be built on just about any skill, product or service and sold to just about any market. The key is to find the market or markets, and this means finding new ways of reaching the marketplace – either via repackaging an old product, finding a new way of marketing a service, or generating new needs in consumers in different markets. In the past many successful businesses were built simply on the basis of imperfect markets and imperfect information. Today, the marketplace is very near perfect indeed. Information flows across the globe almost instantly via satellite and via the internet. This is the age of global communications and those of you who are clever will use the new technologies to help you go global in your search for markets. Make big allowances for the differences of markets, but go after them nevertheless.

9. Be a Niche Player

If your business is built around your passion for a sport, a hobby, or a past time, you might want to read up all about niche marketing. Some large businesses have been built this way, where the focus of all the company’s promotion efforts are directed at trade magazines and at specific outlets. Niche businesses are highly focused on a specific customer base. A lot of business can come your way when you learn to surf the Internet. Use the powerful search engines to bring you into the households of new customers.

10. Take a Fresh Approach Each New Year

At the start of every new year, I look at all the projects I have on hand and ask myself “What fresh approach can I bring to what I do? Is there anything I can do to make what I sell more attractive?” It is the process of thinking that stimulates the creativity within me, keeping me on my toes and preventing me from coming across tired and ancient. Keep your eyes open each new season. Look at everything innovative coming out during the year. Derive ideas from groundbreaking trends in colours, shapes and materials. Go in search of new-fangled products, pioneering inventions and the latest strategies. Pick out the more promising of the new trends and transform them to fit into your world.This is not an easy exercise but it gets easier with practice. Remember that all the most successful superstars constantly reinvent and repackage themselves… like Madonna, Kylie Minogue, Pavarotti… all the designer names and car brands have to keep a step ahead of the competition by coming out with a brand new models. So to stay ahead, be leader. If all you do is copy the leader, you will get left behind.

11. Build a Team

Never try to do anything completely on your own. No man is an island. Whatever business you are in, set about the task of building a trustworthy team. Make this your major priority. Invest time, effort and money in creating a team you can rely on. Remember that in any venture, having responsible people around you is more important than having clever people. There is no need for everyone to be clever, but there is a need for everyone to be reliable. A core group of lieutenants does not get built immediately. It takes time. And in the initial years, I strongly recommend to go for the flat organization chart as much as you can. This way, every member of your team has access to you.

12. Make Clever

ChoicesIf you want to succeed in business, do be discerning about the choices you make. An excellent way to decide is to generate what business schools refer to as trade-offs. Ask yourself what you will be giving up when choosing a particular alternative. Making choices are usually governed by many factors and it is never easy to choose between options, but if you list out to yourself what you will be foregoing when you choose a specific course of action, you will instantly find it easier to decide. Tradeoffs usually make you choose between long and short-term solutions and between different people’s opinions. Choices may not always be good and correct at the same time. The key is to weigh things carefully in your mind and then be decisive.

13. Get Internet Savvy

There is no alternative for those who want to grow and make money in the business world – you absolutely must get Internet savvy – if you do not you will simply get left behind. You will become uncompetitive and you will lose out. In the last ten years, technological breakthroughs in cyber space have advanced so much that the entire world’s households and especially the buying public are all hooked up. If you have not yet signed up for surfing facilities, do so immediately. Invest in a website. Get technical in all your operational and logistics needs. Today, there is an incredible amount of software that makes the operational and administrative side of doing business extremely easy. If you are the owner of your business, sign up for a course that gives you some basics in computer usage. Learn to surf, search, download and install programs.

14. Improvise

– Change As You GoIf truth be known, there really is no cook book approach to successfully managing a business. It’s not like we can have a foolproof recipe for success every time. No indeed. Successful managing of any business always requires the person holding the ropes to improvise, to change direction, to go off course albeit temporarily. This enables the business to overcome sudden obstacles and unexpected hindrances. These are the dynamics of being successful and here is where luck comes in. In a year when the chi energy works in favour of success, the cards are not so difficult to play. The year 2006 is indeed such a year. This is why this is such a great year to be brave, try new strategies and take some risks. In a year when the chi energy is not as conducive to business, it is better to lie low.

15. Create a New Angle

One way of keeping your business fresh and up to date is to work at creating a new angle and remember it’s the story that makes the angle. This means looking at the same thing from a fresh perspective, creating a totally new package from another point of view. There are many facets to almost every aspect of a product or business and the challenge to the entrepreneur is to stay constantly revitalized by offering yet another fresh outlook. You can see that even in the movie world, old hits get new treatments and become hits once again. There have been so many successful remakes that it really gives us encouragement to try applying the same strategy to our own business. This simply means looking at our same old product and giving it a new twist by adding or changing the “look”.

16. Be Adventurous

Successful business people usually have a sense of adventure and what this means is to have an attitude that is receptive to new things and new phenomena. An attitude of courage is important because only the courageous have the vision to see and try new things. Implicit in being an entrepreneur is this sense of adventure – to boldly experiment with the unfamiliar, to do something in a non-traditional way and to occasionally go against the grain of conventional wisdom. When you are adventurous, you must guard against having too high expectations. In fact, it is a good idea not to have any expectations at all. Just keep an open mind and go with the flow.

17. Make Every Day A Happy

every day a happy day. Do this by making someone happy each and every day. It is easy. A smile does it every time. A nice email sent to someone. Practising patience. Responding nicely to a customer or a salesgirl. Patting your dog, feeding your fish, giving someone a shoulder. You may not see the connection between being a success and being happy, but chi energy plays a large part in the success equation, and happiness chi is almost always more powerful in attracting success than negative chi. The next time someone causes you to raise your voice, watch your mood swing from stability to instability and you will know what I mean.

18. What’s Your Killer Talent?

We all have it. Yes, that amazing skill at doing something really well – the challenge is to discover it young enough for you to develop your skill and nurture it so you can later turn it into something of a life passion. Because what you are good at will almost always be something you adore doing. It can be a sport – golf, tennis, riding – and if it is, you can well become a celebrity sports star. That’s a business that seems to be the most lucrative these days. Or you might have a talent at some performing art – singing, dancing, acting – whatever your killer talent, don’t spurn it. Identify what you are really good at doing, study every aspect, nuance and angle of all the related industry areas that are connected with your skill, and then build a business around it. In every sport, hobby and past-time lies a whole range of businesses that can be developed. The chances of success are also that much higher when you enjoy what you are doing.

19. Salute Your Heroes

For many years I found incredible inspiration from reading books authored either as self help books or as autobiographies written by the likes of corporate heroes such as Jack Welch, Warren Buffet, Bill Gates, Donald Trump – there were so many helpful anecdotes, tips and experiences in these books and they did so much to fuel my determination that for years I followed their careers. I still do. These are not perfect icons of management expertise, but the problems and strategies they dealt with were real and although what I did was on a much smaller scale, nevertheless I could identify with them. Go in search of your business idols and use them as your inspirational icons. Let their success spur you on to yours.

20. Make A Wish List

To stay focused about your goals and aspirations, try making a wish list. You can be as outrageous as you like because your wish list is for your eyes only. When you write down your wishes, you are giving important energy to your innermost desires and something magical almost always happens. Keep your wish list inside a special silver or gold box or better yet, inside a wish-fulfilling wheel that you spin constantly to activate it with powerful energy. I have been making my wish list for over thirty years. Mine are kept inside my library of personal notebooks, which are in turn kept in a very special chest. Yes, I invest plenty of energy on my wishes - and my focused concentration is what makes my wishes come true.

Feng Shui For The Children Room

Children are always growing and are usually full of energy. It is thus best to use more yang than yin features in bedrooms for children. This means more light and more noise. Avoid hanging fierce looking pictures or figurines like wild animals.

Bad placement of the bed and study desk will cause problems to the child’s health and performance in school.

For children, the sitting and sleeping directions are the two vital factors in getting feng shui right.
1.Arrange the children’s bed to face their Fu Wei direction. It is not necessary to tap the wealth direction, since they have not yet entered the job market. Instead, activate for good health and study luck.

2.Focus on the study desk. Make sure they are tapping their Fu Wei direction when they are studying or doing homework.

Things To Take Into Consideration When Arranging The Study Room

1.Do not place the desk with a window or a door behind the chair.

2.Do not have a tree growing too near to your child’s bedroom.

3.Do not have a protruding air conditioner or exposed beam on top of the desk.

4.Avoid sharp edges of cupboards, pillars and protruding corners.

5.Do not have open shelves in the bedroom.

6.Do not place the study desk between the door and window.

7.Make sure the NE sector of house is not affected by a toilet, storeroom or kitchen. If it is, place a 6-rod metal windchime to exhaust the afflicted earth energy there.

Feng Shui Enhancers for Study Luck

1.Place a crystal globe in the NE of the room. Turn the crystal globe 3 times a day.

2.Place a 7 level pagoda in the NE of the study desk to bring good examination luck.

3.Give your child a personal crystal point. The crystal should sit on the study desk when he/she is studying, and under the pillow when he/she is sleeping. Place it on the study desk while studying. Your child should carry the crystal point into exams.

4.Place 5 different colours of glitter lamps in the NE sector of the bedroom to activate for study luck.

20 Feng Shui Tips

1. When purchasing land ensure the plot is a rectangle or square as they allow Qi to be distributed evenly. Another shape that is lucky is one that is narrow at the front and widens at the rear.

2. Do not live near factories, power plants or electrical cables.

3. Living near hospitals, respite centers and nursing homes is a constant reminder of illness.

4. Do not buy a terrace or rectangular shaped building that has a swimming pool in the west. Choose one that has a pool in the East and Southwest directions.

5. Make sure that there are no large trees or power poles opposite your front door as they block beneficial Qi entering your home.

6. Stand at your front door looking outward and observe if there are any arrows pointed at your door.

7. Do not have plants that are in poor condition as they represent death.

8. Do not place a mirror opposite your front door as you may invite other people's bad luck into your home.

9. Do not have a blank wall opposite your front door. Decorate the area with inviting furniture and objects.


10. Do not hang Bagua mirrors inside any building as they should only be used externally in extreme cases where there is Sha Qi entering your building.

11. If you have large square pillars in your home soften them by using plants and objects of art.

12. Overhead beams in a home can push down on your personal Qi. Paint them the same colour as the ceiling and cover with flowing material.

13. If you sit at a desk with your back to a window keep the blinds or curtains closed to give the impression that you have a solid wall behind you.

14. Qi will circulate through your home easily if it is neat and clutter free.

15. If the stove is the first thing that you see when you enter your home this is considered bad Feng Shui. A stove has a fire nature, which can be irritating to you. Also seeing a kitchen first may make you think of food.

16. Do not gossip or say negative things about others as these create negative energy around your home.

17. When you move into a new building burn Sandalwood incense as it will clear the environment of negative Sha.

18. When moving into a new home purchase new pillows and bed linen to create sweet dreams.

19. Be compassionate and kind to others as Heaven has eyes and sees all. You will be rewarded for all your efforts.

20. Remember to bring Feng Shui into your life not have Feng Shui be your life.

Feng Shui Home - How to Get Started with Feng Shui - Feng Shui Basics

Master the 7 Basic Steps of Feng Shui

Getting started with feng shui can be easy when you start with the feng shui basics and gradually move on to the more complex feng shui levels. To help you get started, here are some helpful feng shui steps for beginners:

1.Clear Out your Clutter, get rid of everything you do not love. Clutter Clearing is a time and energy consuming process that will feel like therapy, but it will help you "lighten up the load", so to speak. Do not skip this step, as it is an essential one in creating a harmonious, clear energy in your space.

2.Have Good Quality Air and Good Quality Light in your space - these two crucial elements are very important for good Chi, or energy.
Open the windows often, introduce air-purifying plants or use an air-purifier. Allow as much natural light as possible into your space, and consider using full-spectrum lights.

3.Define the Ba-Gua of your space by using the feng shui compass. You will find out which areas of your space are connected to specific areas of your life by looking at your Ba-Gua. For example, Southeast area is connected to the flow of abundance in your life.

4.Study the Five Elements Feng Shui Theory to help you balance all the feng shui five elements in your home, as well as strengthen specific elements in specific areas. For example, if you are working on attracting more Abundance, you will introduce the feng shui element of Wood, as well as the Water element into the Southeast area of your space.

5.Find out your Feng Shui Birth Element and create your environment to support your own personal feng shui element. For example, if your own element is Fire, you would introduce the expressions of Fire, as well as Wood element, as Wood feeds the Fire in the feng shui relationship of the five elements.

6.Find your Kua Number and position yourself so that you benefit throughout the day from your best directions. Adjust the position of your bed, your home office, dining, etc. For example, if your Kua number is 1, you would do your best to face one of the following directions: Southeast, East, South, and North.

7.Always be mindful of the state of your home and how the energy in your home influences your well-being. Make a habit of paying close attention to the so-called "triangle" that is deeply connected to your health - your bedroom, your bathroom and your kitchen. Nothing is static in the world of energy, be wise and keep your house happy.After you have mastered these seven basic steps, you can explore the deeper levels of feng shui, such as, for example, the flying star school of feng shui, and others.

"Ba-Gua"

Definition: Ba-Gua is one of the main tools used to analyze the feng shui of any given space.

Translated from Chinese, it literally means "8 areas". The 8 directions used in the Feng Shui Ba Gua are the following: North, Northeast, East, Southeast, South, Southwest, West, and Northwest. Each direction has an Element, Color, and Life Area associated with it. Below is the summary of the eight feng shui guas.

North (compass reading from 337.5 to 22.5) Element: Water Color(s): Blue and Black Life Area: Career/Path in Life.

Northeast (compass reading from 22.5 to 67.5) Element: Earth Color(s): Beige, Light Yelow, and Sandy/Earthy Life Area: Spiritual Growth/Self-Cultivation.

East (compass reading from 67.5 to 112.5) Element: Wood Color(s): Brown and Green Life Area: Health & Family.

Southeast (compass reading from 112.5 to 157.5)Element: Wood Color(s): Brown and GreenLife Area: Prosperity & Abundance.

South (compass reading from 157.5 to 202.5) Element: Fire Color(s): Red, Orange, Purple, and Bright Yellow Life Area: Fame & Reputation.

Southwest (compass reading from 202.5 to 247.5) Element: Earth Color(s): Beige, Light Yelow, and Sandy/Earthy Life Area: Love & Marriage.

West (compass reading from 247.5 to 292.5)Element: Metal Color(s): White and Gray Life Area: Creativity/Children.

Northwest (compass reading from 292.2 to 337.5) Element: Metal Color(s): White and Gray Life Area: Helpful People/Blessings. Simply stated, Ba Gua is the energy map of any given space that gives you guidance on creating the most harmonious energy flow in your space.