Anything is Possible, says the doctor

Please meet Sureerat Wongsiriluk, a doctor who spent a total of 10 years at top Thai universities learning first how to be a pharmacist and then how to be a doctor (because she decided she wasn't going to stay as a pharmacist), only to give it all up when she was introduced to Unicity.

Khun Sureerat a.k.a. Mo Jie decided that she didn't want to "grow old and fat working all my life in a small treatment room". When introduced to Unicity, she realized quickly (in 5 minutes) that this is what she's been looking for: A business where she doesn't have to do all the work and work all of her life.

Before Unicity, Dr Sureerat, 36 and a mother of a 3-year-old boy, was more than just a doctor. She was a business owner with a healthcare business comprising 3 clinics in different locations in Thailand.

Within one year of joining Unicity, Khun Sureerat became a Presidential Director, earning more than 400,000 baht (S$16,000) a month. Halfway through that journey, she was sure enough about her new business that she stopped being a medical practitioner (although she continues to be the owner of 2 remaining clinics).

Dr Sureerat, who was in Singapore under the Unipower Business School's monthly guest speaker programme, said the biggest thing she learnt after switching line was this idea: "ANYTHING IS POSSIBLE!".

She shared the story of another Presidential Director, former tour guide Khun Angel. A few days before the end of the month, Khun Angel had a 40k leg and a 20k leg but not the 10k leg needed to qualify as PD. He prayed, read a book for strength. Then, a downline showed up saying he wanted to be Director by month-end. Khun Angel spent all his time helping the downline, and by month-end, the downline was a Director earning 100,000baht (S$4,000) a month. Khun Angel finished as Presidential Director.

How about Dr Sureerat? How did she go from zero to 400,000 baht a month (S$16,000) under one year?

She said: "I started part-time, but worked full-heart. I followed the Unipower system 100% and worked with the KPI, checking 10 points of activities every day with the system's "Passport to Success".

I approached anyone and everyone. I showed the plan every day. I did the work without setting conditions. I showed the plan even at 2am at one time - for an ER (emergency room) nurse who finished work late.

I talk to my successful uplines everyday. I get them to answer my questions and solve my problems.

I was just being a student again. I listened to CDs of success stories every morning, before I went out to approach people. Listening to the CDs, and taking notes as I listened to the CDs, kept me strong.

I go out with the right mindset, that I am a giver, giving people something good for them. At 60, people retire from their income but not their expenses. We have something good to offer them."

Khun Sureerat personally recruited 18 500pv Fast Starts in her first month in the business. That took her to Director in Month 1 and Senior Director in Month 3.

"I just go about collecting "human assets" first. The results will show up after 6 months ... as the system promised," Mo Jie said. X = Y, indeed.

On handling rejections, the biggest challege for Khun Sureerat came from within the family. Her father. At first, he gave her his blessings, thinking it was only a part-time thing. However, when she closed the clinic for 3 days to go to Eagle Camp, and did the same again shortly thereafter so as to attend Unicity's global convention in Busan in September 2008, the father was angry and disappointed. They did not talk for a long time.

She invited him to join her on a reward trip to Sydney. He refused. He challenged her, saying he'd go only as a President's father. So, when she became Presidential Director, he had to tag along on a Star Cruise reward trip. He has since joined her, opening his own Unicity account and starting to recruit people!

Regarding people who say, "..but I don't like MLM", she advised, we should simply bring them back to "X = Y" and and ask, Do you like your work? No? But you still work at it! MLM is just like a job, except that the result (the Y) is very different. In MLM, we work a few hours a day and we can get a new track.

"It is not important what you think of the business. It may be your answer to The Happy Life."

Well said, Dr Sureerat. Well said!

Me & My Power Car

Mercedes Benz!!!! Until recently, I never thought I'd own one nor drive in one. When I think of Mercedes Benz, I think of old wealth, old men .... Apologies to all the uncles and the non-uncles who own and drive one. So, until recently, Mercedes Benz is not the car for me.

And then, some months ago, with the arrival of Unipower in our Unicity business, I was exposed to new information, not from the distributors of the car but ... I learnt that the Benz is the preferred (or recommended) car for Unipower's members on Unicity's President's Club. Why? Because it is a widely accepted symbol of success and achievement, that others can identify with and aspire to. Because it is one of the safest cars in the world, and as our life becomes more and more valuable, we need to protect it better.

I was prepared to change my mindset and my assumptions. It helps that the timing of my achievement and obligatory follow-the-system acquisition coincides with the launch of Mercedes Benz's new E Class. The new E Class spots a more contemporary youthful look, especially at the front and on the sides. The tyres come with sports rims. And there are so many fun cool features inside.

So, to all my people in The 5E Network, meet my new workhorse. It's for you. Join me in the club, the Singapore/Malaysia Mercedes Benz Club of Unicity. Make it soon :)

Finally, the Breakthrough

After exactly 8 years in the business, I finally achieved the Breakthrough. At the end of August 2009, I took the first step into Unicity's President's Club as a first-time qualified Presidential Director. So thrilled were the corporate staff at the news that they wasted no time blowing up a personal portrait of mine and posted it on the notice ooard in the Unicity office with a congratulatory message to the first PD1 in Singapore in over 7 years:) See picture.



Too long, some might say. My thoughts do occasionally gravitate towards that idea, that we took too long, until I stop myself on realizing that everything happens for a reason.

"Diamonds" do not just happen. They occur only after extreme pressure applied over a period of time. If we want to speed up the process, and shorten the time period, we just step up the pressure. I've seen both - first, the protracted test that lasted more than 7 years, and then the higher-pressure approach involving ambitious goals and demanding timelines. Now, I'd not have been as open to the latter, and even enjoy the turbo-charged results-orientated process of the last 6 months, if I didn't first go through the "water torture" of the past.

This is an important moment for me and also for all the serious business builders in the Singapore/Malaysia market. As CEO Stewart Hughes puts it in his congratulatory email: "Please accept my heartiest congratulations for leading out and being the example all of Singapore and Malaysia needed to see: IT CAN BE DONE!"

In his email, Stewart also said: "By matching your ability and desire with the UniPower System and the Unicity products and plan you can achieve anything — more importantly you can help others achieve their most cherished dreams."

Very true. I've never felt more able to help others achieve their most cherished dreams than the past 5-6 months. It was during these recent months that I was blessed enough to become equipped with the ways and wisdom of the UniPower system, the brainchild of the Thai triple diamond Chavich Kim.

Certain people who had joined me before and dropped out too soon because they did not feel able to do what I did now rejoin me in the business and get going and start producing results within the first one or two months.

This breakthrough is possible only because of what has happened in the last 6 months, from March 2009 onwards. It is a prayer answered. So, i thank God for Godsents. For me, those Godsents have first been Unicity, 8 years ago, and recently, since March 2009, Khun Joe and the UniPower system.

Live Out Your Masterpiece, says mug

"Live one day at a time and make it a masterpiece," exhorts my favourite mug.

Yes, I said mug. M-U-G, mug :)

That's the encouraging and inspirational message that I get every morning when I sip Unicity's Bio Reishi Coffee from my favourite mug. It was the simple message on the mug that got my attention many years ago, and made me pick it up from the shelf, pay for it to bring it home to enjoy, every day.

I was inspired to share this daily message on my mug after I read the latest blog by "Miss Articulate" in her blogspot, "smile .. it confuses people".

She was sharing about the message on her mug, given to her by her dearest friend. The message reads:

happiness is like a butterfly:
the more you chase it, the more it will elude you,
but if you turn your attention to other things it will come
and sit softly on your shoulder....
- thoreau

Now, what does your mug say to you every morning?

Whatever it says or does not say,

"Live One day at a time
and make it a masterpiece"

Remembering the indomitable Tan Yoke Lane

Tan Yoke Lane @ Dan Yoke Lin (1939 - 1989) IS my late mom - a great woman, and mother of eight, who died too young, at the age of 50, long before she had the chance to enjoy the fully-grown fruits of her labour of love.

I remember getting a phone call from my elder brother in 1986, shortly before she was due to arrive in Singapore with my dad to witness my graduation from the National University of Singapore. Eng Hooi said, "Hai, bad news. Mom's got the Big C." It was nose or nasal cancer.

She battled the cancer for 3 years and in the end, despite chemotherapy at the Penang Medical Centre, succumbed. The cancer returned after a short remission, and quickly spread to her lungs.

I remember getting news of mom's death in September 1989. I was then a dealer-in-waiting at the stockbrokers JM Sassoon & Co. I was just starting out on a second career that turned out to be financially rewarding and that lasted 13 years. But mom didn't get to see or enjoy that success of mine, a success in which she had a big hand and which she'd have been proud of.

The best holiday I could afford to give her was a holiday in Bangkok, in July 1988, with dad, one of my sisters and my then girlfriend Chris. The only luxury I could afford then was a First Class train ticket, the one with sleeping berths, on the overnight train from our hometown Butterworth to Bangkok. I am glad we managed to do at least that.

Mom wanted to have grand children to hold, and said so, many times. The best I could do was to get married in January 1989, and shortly after, arranged for her to visit Chris and me and bless our new home, our own home, in Singapore. I wanted to bring her to places, but I remember, she was generally too weak to even catch glimpses of the sights I wanted to share with her, let alone enjoy the moment. But I am glad we tried, and have beautiful photos of those precious last days. Yes, that was the last time I saw her alive ...

Recently, as I reflected upon my recent triumphs and success as a business builder working in partnership with the wellness company, Unicity International, I couldn't help thinking about mom.

I remember when I first set out on my entrepreneurial journey in Unicity, I had resolved that when I am successful, I will either put up a building in her name or have a road named after her, and simply named Tan Yoke Lane. There shall be a plaque that tells the story of an indomitable spirit whom I believe will inspire many as it continues to inspire me, I thought.

Then, recently, I thought, why wait for that building or that road? I can very well dedicate my success todate and my success to come to her, and start telling people about her. And so I did - when I was given the opportunity to share my success story in Singapore and in Kuala Lumpur last week.

Mom's life spoke of a readiness to break out of the tried and tested and keep exploring and employing new ways of getting the better life.

I remember the love story of my mom and dad, how they met in my grandmother's coffeeshop in Kuala Lumpur. She was sewing when he walked up to chat her up. She poked him with a needle, and then regretted it when his finger bled. So, she nursed and bandaged the young man's finger. Love grew out of that encounter. Later, she'd eloped with dad to Penang because her parents did not approve of her getting married to a mere lorry driver.

For many years after that, mom would return to KL every year, bringing us, the kids, along, and doing everything to make sure that her parents knew that she had made the right decision and was living a better life. She would return to KL bearing gifts and food that testified to that.

Mom and dad were to raise a family with eight children, the first of whom died young at 7 and whom she would always want us to remember. The eldest of the 7 surviving siblings is today 50 and the youngest, 35. To do this well under the watchful eyes and critical tongues of many highly-opinionated in-laws, mom reinvented herself many times.

Mom went from being a laundry woman and seamstress to a baker, learning how to make the full range of local or Nyonya "kuihs" or cakes from my Peranakan sarong kebaya-clad grandma. Mom was good at them all - from the laborious ningao (sweet cake) to the angkukuih, kuih kapik (love letters), kuih talam ... You name it, she could do it, and did it famously well. We'd be inundated with orders every Chinese Year and on festive occasions. She also headed a tontine, or informal community lending and borrowing club, where people with excess money would lend to those with cashflow problems at interest rates of up to 20% or more. Our hometown would from time to time be abuzz with bad news of a tontine leader who ran off with people's money. But mom was a beacon of strength, integrity and trustworthiness. She never suffered a run even in the worst of times.

At the height of her constantly evolving and ever-changing economic career, mom was a chef par excellence. Her cooking was well known and in great demand. I remember how a customer bought her a return air ticket to get her to KL to cook for a wedding dinner. With just one big wok and a set of cooking utensils, mom set off for the airport and flew to KL to whip up an 8-course dinner for 300 people or 30 tables. She'd normally be assisted by no more than two assistant cooks and two dishwashers, the dishwashers being none other than the elder of my three then-still-young sisters.

After every such successful outing, we would witness the arrival of a new TV, or a new refrigerator or a new hi-fi system. Mom was the reason why we were able to move from the ancestral home (kong chu) in Butterworth to a government-built terrace house (a place we could call our own, and in which relatives have no say or claim) in Seberang Jaya in 1981. Mom was the reason why the family was able to upgrade from the bicycle as a means of transport to a car about the same time as the big move.

Where was my dad in all this? After his early days as a lorry driver, dad held a job at the local bus company, moving up from driver cum conductor on the Butterworth-Alor Star route to station master in Bukit Mertajam. He worked in the same company, as long as I was aware, until he retired. His highest salary was just over RM600. Even then when money was worth more, that sum could not provide for much.

Dad, now 78 and healthy, was into current affairs (I know for I'd listen to him talk expertly about the news or politics of the day) and was once an active trade unionist. But he was never ambitious, economically speaking. Nonetheless, dad was a good man who never did anything wrong, nothing that the family would be ashamed of, and he remains so. We love and respect him for that.

The picture I have is that dad would give no trouble, but apparently, he wasn't comfortable handling trouble either. Mom once told me, if there was any problem at home, financial or otherwise, she'd have to bear it alone. Dad would not be around to hear about it, and if he did, he wouldn't have the patience for the details.

So, there you are - a story of a Hainanese woman married into a "foreign" Hokkien-speaking territory, who'd have to single-handedly do, and bear, whatever it took to first, make sure her earlier decisions in life turned out right, and second, to get for herself and her family all the amenities and trappings of the good life.

It was mom who after a well-deserved holiday and tour of Singapore returned to tell me how beautiful and inspiring the Nanyang University campus was, and how I should study hard so that I'd get to a university like that one day. It was mom who many years later would put together all the financial resources necessary, including borrowing from close trusted friends, so that I could get higher education in Singapore. I did get to Nantah when it was just a hostel for NUS students and enjoyed the campus grounds mom had told me about.

Now, so much later in life, 20 years after her passing, I look back and have so much to be thankful for. Much of my being, my character, obviously draws upon my mom's inspired life - my tenacity and toughness in the face of challenges or obstacles; my preparedness to take charge or take the lead when situations demand it; my readiness to reinvent myself career-wise to ensure my family's economic well-being. While well-meaning people would ask, why did you give up your stockbroking career and go into something so different, I think nothing of it. I am adaptable, and can change according to circumstances, thanks to mom's example.

If I had to come up with one word to remember her by, the best word would be INDOMITABLE. That means: Unyielding, unswerving, unwavering, unconquerable, unflinching, unbeatable, irrepressible, unstoppable, invincible, resolute, determined, stubbornly persistent, steadfast, staunch, untiring, tireless, unflagging, undaunted, fearless, brave, courageous, plucky ... Yes, she was all that :)

It's a great pity mom is not alive today to listen to me talk proudly of her and boast about her life exploits in public. There is nothing I or anyone can do about that. She is gone. However, there is something I can do about the fact that she lived and loved - to tell her story so that others may be inspired by her as I have been and continue to be.

What's in this story for you?

1. Live life flexibly: Be prepared to get out of your comfort zone to go after what matters most to you; and when and where necessary, be ready to reinvent yourself so as to make life better for yourself and your family.

2. Don't take it all on alone if you can help it: While willing to change according to circumstances, do not run your life like a one-man or one-woman show, if you can help it. Given the choices of her times, my mom couldn't help being Superwoman. But today, with the opening up of the economy, and the abundance of opportunities with many people-friendly economic alternatives, we certainly can help it.

3. Watch the stress level in your life: The stress of raising a whole family all by yourself can kill. I often say: While conventional wisdom says "smoking causes cancer", dad was the one who smoked cigarettes (though no longer, for many years now) but it is my mom who died of cancer. The lesson in my mom's life story is that we ought to watch the stress level. More than anything else, I believe, it is stress - be it emotional, physical, mental or economic or all of that combined - that weakens the body and undermines our ability to ward off free radicals and harmful virus, germs or toxins.

4. Do not fight cancer with only conventional treatment: When my mom was in the midst of fighting cancer, a cousin sister once asked me, "Hai, so how? What else are you going to do about it?" I remember feeling guilty and helpless at the same time, wishing there was more I could do than just pooling our financial resources to finance the medical treatment.

I wish I was as well-informed then as I am today. Alas, we can't turn back the clock. What I can do is to make sure that my mom did not live, suffer and die in vain. What I will do now is to speak with a vengeance, telling people that we can prevent cancer, and in the unfortunate situation when it is past prevention, and someone is already afflicted, we can still give him or her real hope beyond the debilitating effects of conventional treatment.

To break the remission and relapse cycle, be open to using nutritonal supplements to boost the body's defences against free radicals and also to oxygenate and alkalinize the body. During my mom's fight, Unicity or its predecessor company, Enrich, hadn't even arrived in Malaysia. Unicity is here now, ready to serve with a wide array of health-boosting wellness products, proven capable of bringing cancer patients from hopelessness or near death to a new lease of life. I personally know of a few of these blessed people and have often used this to encourage others in the fight against cancer.

Go on. My mom didn't have the chance to live a long healthy life, free of the scourge and curse of cancer. You have. My mom didn't have the chance to make life better without having to do everything by herself and taking on all the stress of making ends meet by herself. You have.

Do something about it. I have, and I am.

All this I do and speak in the memory of my beloved mom.

Thank you Mom. I love you.

Lord, thanks for the powerful winds of change!

Happily, I'd like to continue the blogpost of March 13.

I am glad I learnt from God's Eagle - not to be afraid of adversity or challenges, nor to flee from them, but instead, to position myself to take them on, and harness the power of the winds of change to soar higher than ever before.

The challengers turn out to be friends sent by God(see the picture), with signs to make sure we do not doubt that, and the enemies and detractors were forced by divine circumstances to be come friends and willing co-workers, lending their numbers and energies to lift us all higher.

WOW!!!!!!!!!!!!! God is truly GREAT!!

Friends, I've never enjoyed as much effortless success as I have since March 19th - the day things all turned around in my favour, from what seemed like a low point to a series of high points in our business development efforts. This is only the beginning of a new beginning ......

Eagles welcome storms, soar over them

Thank God for creating a magnificent creature like the eagle from which we can draw so many powerful life lessons. One of these has just become especially meaningful to me, empowering me to face off one of the biggest challenges ever in my professional life. You have those challenges yourself, don't you? If so, consider this:

The eagle is not afraid of storms. It expects them.

The eagle can sense a storm coming well in advance.

It does not flee from the bad winds coming towards it. Instead, it positions itself, either on a mountain perch or in mid-air, waiting fearlessly for them.

As the winds blow in, the eagle spreads its wings, in all their magnificant glory, and let the winds blow against its wings.

In so doing, it harnesses the power of the storm to lift itself higher, soaring over the gale.

What a beautiful picture of how we can thrive in adversity and overcome our enemies or detractors, rising above them.

So, fear not. Fly high no matter what obstacles and challenges come our way.

Let challenges strengthen our resolve, sharpen our fighting edge.

Thank God for the Eagles indeed!