Tip 52: Learning crucial business/daily processes

Often times, a dad is expected to be the know-it-all in the family. Being a foreigner in Japan, I knew there were many processes and cultures that I was not familiar with, but I made it a point to be exposed to as many of them as possible to make better financial decisions. One way is to build a good network of friends who are sincere, helpful and ever willing to share knowledge honestly. I thank God for the friends who would go the extra mile to ensure I am fine and strive likewise to be the same to them. Acquaintances in different industries do offer that helpline you can call as well whenever you need some professional advice. The key is to recipocrate and build goodwill so that strangers become acquaintances and progress to friends. Of course, some possess more 'friend material' than others and would advance along the relationship line in a faster pace but I always strive for goodwill with all and seek after win win relationships where both parties win. The other way of obtaining information is by doing. Once the social network is built, there is always something you can do for others easily and through the doing, you learn more and begin to bless your family and others with your knowledge. And maybe blogging will then multiply your efforts to bless others who find your knowledge useful.

One example is my experience in the rental business which then gave me confidence in buying a property in Tokyo. It started with a favor to assist my landlord to rent an empty room out and then the demand was good through my resourcefulness in advertising and getting introduced, that I took up more and more rooms and later took up a few apartment units as well. The effort involved seem monstrous but by building good relationships with my tenants, they ended up managing them independently and allowed me to continue my day job without much interruptions. This gave me a good understanding of the rental market as well as the possible problems and how to tackle them. Many would buy a property and realize later that they have no use for it as well as not know how to generate consistent rental income streams from it. In the end, the efforts and transaction cost involved in buying the property would drain daddy and mummy financially as well as emotionally. Through speaking to others from my network at Linked In, I got introduced to many kind and intelligent recruiters, financial advisors, tax advisors, lawyers, bank officers handling home mortgage loans and entrepreneurs and would be glad to share them with you if you introduce yourself well. I am always glad to meet with new people whom I can help and learn from as well. Of course, now as daddy, I begin to priorities and delegate the doing.