Note: This is a long-ish read, which may take 10 minutes to go through (but it’s worth it).

There is a saying by motivational speaker Zig Ziglar that goes “You can have everything in life you want, if you will just help enough other people get what they want.”

For most of my 20-year career (most of it spent online, thought the same principles of relationship building and business building apply as much to virtual business as much as brick-and-mortar ones), I’ve focused on a couple of values:

• Say what you do when you teach, but more importantly do what you say.
• Understand the expectations of your students/customers, then go beyond it.
• Always aim to be better.

A mentor, who owned about 20 lifestyle brand stores in Singapore, explained the concept of value this way: “I watch how my employees work. Some will work at parity. You pay them $2,000 and they’ll put in $2,000 of effort.

“Most will put in half the effort of what you’re paying them. They’re the underperformers.

“I look out for those who work as if they’re being paid twice what I’m paying them. These are the ones who become the store managers and executives at the head office.”

Some of you may know that I’ve been in “retirement” mode for the past 8 years or so, about the time my older daughter was born.

I had built up my Internet business which was generating passive income, leaving me to spend time with my older daughter, and later my younger daughter when she was born.

Online marketing gave me the opportunity to have the ultimate liberty – the freedom over my own time and the freedom to work from my home or at the recreation room at my apartment. (I’m not really keen on drinking coffee at Starbucks all day…besides I’ve had better java elsewhere).

So whether it was managing affiliates in Asia or in the US, I’m fortunate to have had the flexibility to create my own consulting gigs and build my business around my lifestyle.

I still don’t subscribe to the idea of building and running a business in an hour a day or doing a 4-hour workweek. If you’re driven and passionate about what you do, you will probably end up doing more than an 8- or 10-hour workday. You just have the freedom to take a 2-week vacation after a long project.

Since turning 41 last month, I’ve been in the mode of working on projects which keep me engaged and are also projects that I can see myself doing a year, 2 years, 10 years from now.

Tip: If you don’t enjoy what you’re doing now, even if you hire employees later, it won’t make it anymore enjoyable. It can be quite painful. So tread carefully.

Earlier this year, I wanted to launch one of my “backburner” projects – the lifehacking books which would eventually become the Mindware Recode and the other books that Tamar Weinberg and I have written.

It’s time to bring it to the next phase.

I’m starting a training program which will focus on 2 areas:

• Life Hacks: Strategies and stuff you can use to enhance the quality of your life – your health, your relationships, your personal productivity.
• Biz Hacks: Whether you’re a business owner, a solopreneur or an employee, you can take some of the techniques I’ll be sharing to help improve your effectiveness in the business world.

If you want to think of it this way, it’s taking the system and techniques that I’ve written about in the Mindware Recode and using it to “recode” yourself to become better, fast and achieve more!

Interested?

Here is the thing.
I am aware of product launch strategies, having big-bang launches, working with joint venture partners, having them mail to their 100,000-strong mailing lists.

Think of this as the anti-product launch.

I plan to work with small numbers, I plan to have an application process, I will be reviewing each person, possibly doing a further interview/discussion over email or Skype. This is to make sure that I can help you.

I’ll be focusing on sharing the systems I have developed which tend to be more “slow burn”. It will take some time to build it, it will take some effort, you won’t make a million bucks overnight. I think that stuff only works with lottery tickets.

What I want to do is find 5 people who would be a good fit for the group and kick the project off that way. If I can’t help you, I’ll let you know and I’ll make a recommendation if there’s a book or other resource that might help you.

As of 2.49pm, Monday, 13 Oct, I have shortlisted 3, so I have slots for another 2. This is not a scarcity ploy, I want to work with a small group with whom I can help make a difference. There will be no miracle “oh, we’ve opened up x slots”. It will be just the 5 slots.

Maintaining a good reputation and delivering quality have and will continue to be important for me, so this will be where the bulk of my time will be spent. I focus on specific, actionable strategies, so if you’re a believer in making dreamboards, then doing nothing to make it come true, this won’t be for you.

I’m structuring the program so that you can participate whether you’re in Asia, Europe or North America. I’ll also be organizing monthly online meetups via voice conference, Google Hangouts or some of the new services I’ve been testing out.

If you’re interested, you can fill in this survey.

I read all responses (just like I did for the Mindware Recode survey) and reply.

If I feel you’re a good match, I’ll ping you with info about the program.
It’s an ongoing program, you are welcome to stay as long as you like and leave when you want.

You are welcome to message me with any questions or post in the comments below.

–
Questions:
-> What are you working on now?

My main areas of focus are:
I’m writing ebooks which I publish on the Amazon Kindle platform, which tend to be in the humor or fiction genre.
I’m planning to write more often at WhoIsAndrewWee.com and build up the list and focus more on email marketing.
I’m building up affiliate campaigns (usually more cost-per-sale offers which have a much higher payout than cost-per-action (CPA) offers)

-> How does the training program work? How much does it cost? Is there a money-back guarantee?

It will work like a monthly membership, there’s a monthly fee.

The first 5 will get an attractive price and will be “grandfathered” so your membership fee will be locked in, unless you quit.

There will be a “no-questions-asked” money-back guarantee. Maintaining a community is important to me and selecting the members via a screening/interview process will help ensure the community remains high quality. I’ve also run my own membership sites before, so I’ve got a pretty good handle on moderating the community.

-> Is this a money making thing? Can’t you help me for free?

Yes, it’s a profit-driven venture. I have to feed my family too. I’ve always focused on making a business viable, else it becomes a charity. I’ll show you how I build my businesses, so you can replicate the same techniques in your own business. The main factors in how successful you will be tend to rely on how consistent and focused you are on doing what you’re supposed to do. (You’ll get what you’re supposed to get).

The “help me for free, I’ll give you half my profit” request comes up quite often, especially at entrepreneur start-up events. I’ve also spend time giving someone career advice for 1-2 hours for free. What I’ve found is that people value something based on how much they paid for it. Specifically, if you’ve personally invested in something, you’re more likely to take action. You can read up the analogy about the farmer eating eggs and bacon, then telling his son that the chicken is invested in breakfast, but the pig is committed… I’ve done free stuff, the experience has not turned out to be positive. If anything, think about how much you should be investing in yourself.

–

Here is the survey link.

And if you have questions, drop me a mail via my contact form.