Last Sunday, we were invited to attend a seminar about “best investment opportunity ever” (That’s how the person who invited us described it).  We arrived at the site early, so we decided to look around.  What we saw are lots of different micro-business franchises, ranging from food carts to laundry and ink businesses.  We thought the seminar is totally about franchising.  Minutes later, our sponsor brought us upstairs for the actual seminar and to my surprise, it isn’t totally about franchising.  The company’s bigger business is actually its own variety of products – glutathione, soap, lotion, coffee, etc.  I’m not totally into selling these items.  We were sitting in the front row, and I just thought that it would be impolite if I leave without listening at all, so I stayed.  My consolation at least is to learn anything from the talk, and I did.

Here are some of the tips I got which I think can be useful for anyone.

The Empty Cup. Whenever attending a seminar, training or just plainly talking to a person, offer an empty cup and let the speaker fill it.  You never know what that person will say, just give him a chance to voice out his ideas.  Listen because those words could be for your success in the future.  Nobody’s too smart to know everything, right?

Maximize the 8 your 8-8-8. This is a typical man’s lifestyle – 8 hour of sleep, 8 hours of work, and 8 hours of personal life.  The point is you get to choose what’s important to you, and allot you at least 8 hours for that, be it money making activities, your family or hobby.  It’s for you to decide.

8-5 or 5-8 work? When asked, most people tend to say I work for 8 hours a day, from 8AM to 5PM.  Here’s the catch.  In that 8-5 job, you actually wake up 5 in the morning, do necessary preparations and commute to the office.  After work, you leave, run some errands and commute back.  Last thing you know, you actually wasted about 6 hours of your personal time, and that’s quite a lot.  Think and try strategize.  Remember, time is gold.

There you go.  They’re just a few new things, but I’d say they’re quite useful.  I’ll write more about the business soon.