What you are about to read is a little bit frightening!
Sometimes people hearing this story from me in seminars and workshops walkout upon hearing this because they become disturbed by what they hear. The truth becomes too difficult to handle. These are smart and otherwise successful people walking out. I don't blame them for leaving. This is the stuff from the un-manifest realm between miracles and nightmares. Unless you have a strong mind, this can be quite uncomfortable.
I am about to tell you a strange story, and it is a true story of my own journey of self improvement.
As you will find out if you keeping reading, truth is not only stranger than you think, it is stranger than you can think. The
world I live in is not quite your everyday world of struggle and fight. The rules are truly different here and I would like to invite you on this amazing journey along with me.
On the morning of September 5, 2004 I received a letter that would change my life forever. I got sued in court. I owed a newspaper company over $20,000 and I had not a penny in my pocket to pay them back. How did I get there? Well that is the question that would eventually turn my life around. Life looked so good just a few months back, I was flying high - successful with business, a string of beautiful women I was dating casually, sold out workshops every month, an apartment overlooking the sea...
It seemed nothing could go wrong. But it did. Just when I thought I figured it all out, destiny stepped in and reminded me - to borrow the words from poet Robert Frost -
The woods are lovely dark and deep
But I have promises to keep
And miles to go before I sleep
And miles to go before I sleep
But I have promises to keep
And miles to go before I sleep
And miles to go before I sleep
This is the true story of my life...
A story, if not told, this would all seem like magic. This story that has the potential to change your life forever. This has everything to do with you as it does with me. This is more of an archetypal story that all seekers of light live through at some point or other, in some form or other.
I was not always a success; I definitely was not always wealthy. I used to be
a mediocre student all through grade school and high school and I pretty much remained that way in college. For years, especially in college, I suddenly found it very difficult to concentrate on anything positive and I degenerated into failure and substance abuse. I had issues with all the lecturers and professors in the faculty, and I had to drop out of college in my 3rd year. I simply could not continue anymore.
An interesting event happened one day after I dropped out of college... I met this incredible woman one day. I don't know what it was precisely that made me look at myself and hate what I saw, but I did and I hated. I wanted to speak with her but I felt so dirty; so filthy. In my present state, I was not worthy of speaking with her. I don't know what it was about her, but she made me look within and begin to redefine my development career goals and personal objectives at that time of my life when I thought that there was nothing more like personal career development in the future for me. It was the beginning of a journey I didn't even know was about to begin. I was about to be thrown off on a wild adventure beyond my imagination in a very short while... but I didn't know it yet.
On my 23rd birthday, something unusual happened again... something that had never happened before. I received not a single phone call from anyone who would wish me a "happy birthday". My Mum forgot. The girl I was dating at the time forgot. My best friend forgot. I stayed up all night wondering if this is how my life is always going to be? Lonely, poor and boring...
Right before the sun came out, I started crying. I cried not because nobody remembered me but because I just couldn't find the answer to why I had to have such a lousy start. I cried and I cried for so long that I lost track of time. I didn't go out for days and I didn't sleep for nights. I never really contemplated suicide but this is when I reached the bottom... a place called zero!
As I tell my students these days, being at zero is an interesting place to be. A lot of miracles tend to happen when you have reached the end of everything. Somehow when you have nothing to lose anymore, life takes a u-turn.
As though out of the blues I realized that I did not have to go down the way that I was. I realized one crucial truth! What will happen for the rest of my life, depends on me, and me only. I decided that things have got to change. It cannot go on like this. I made a definite promise to myself that I am going to do whatever it takes, no matter what, to bring about a change in my life! I concentrated on my personal development and self improvement. And the story soon started to change!
For the next 3 years I went through the wildest roller coaster ride of my life! I went to absolute highs and I was given challenges that almost ruined me. I lost the last few thousand I had saved, went from teacher to teacher, took every possible dumb risk I could, even almost got myself killed twice. But I had made a commitment to do whatever it takes, no matter what. And in these three years, what I experienced and learned... changed my life beyond my wildest dreams!
I changed from this depressed, broken guy to a highly successful teacher, entrepreneur with a super charged love life! I suddenly had more love, more wealth, more happiness than I have ever seen anyone around me experience. I learned the art of manifesting anything I want, including money. At one point I manifested $8000 in 7 days out of thin air for a beach vacation! Random people just came in and paid the money. I'm not joking.
And it wasn't just me, even my students were able to perform such amazing feats that nobody had any explanation for. Life was fun. I had fun teaching these incredible techniques to my circle of students. And it seemed it was success all the way.
But then came the scary stuff...
There's a warning to all this positive stuff, this is the bit that frightens people and they want to leave when they hear me saying it. These are intelligent, successful (and sometimes famous) people but they also fall prey to the illusion created by the media and marketing gurus these days... that there is a magic self improvement formula that will enable you to somehow control the universe and help you become instantly rich and solve all your life problems. While formulas such as those definitely exist, they are more likely to ruin you than help you enter the mature realm of the miraculous. It creates a powerful illusion of success that the ego instantly falls in love with. But it doesn't last. Its just a trap. A trap all warriors of light face at some point or the other. Unless you learn to balance out with proper spiritual disciplines, these magic success formulas can burn you faster than you think possible.
This is the bit you will NOT hear in the mainstream of self improvement industry.
Everything was going great for me as I used these so called "magic laws" but I noticed something strange along with it. Somehow, as the days passed by, I was feeling emptier and emptier. Also the visualizations and the affirmations, the self-talk and the vision boards seemed more and more of a chore than the fun it used to be. Even though I was making more money than I ever did, had more women around me than I ever fantasized, was more famous than I ever believed I could be, something was still missing... somehow, somewhere deep inside my soul kept telling me this is not it, this is not it...
But I was definitely not ready to accept that still, small voice within. If this isn't it, then what is? This is what all the self help gurus were talking about. This is what changed my life around. But now I am having to face the fact that I might have to begin again and I was not ready for that.
So I did what every human being is tempted to do at these forks of life. I followed the classic formula: when you have success, ignore the heart and everything else that tells you this may be the wrong side of the road. Anything that does not satisfy the ego, ignore it! Well, at least that's what I tried to do...
In the beginning the distraction worked pretty well. I filled my days with more work, more counseling sessions, more sold out self improvement workshops, more women. But then it began to turn downhill. One of my most profitable businesses in Asia (dealing with electricity generation) went bankrupt due to an unfortunate mechanical accident. This required me to travel a lot trying to clean up the mess (not literally), which resulted in me ignoring another business (low cost housing for the poor) and my partner betraying me, which resulted in a loan default of over $1 million, which all affected my coaching business and workshops... in a nutshell, in just few short months... from being a millionaire I turned almost penniless.
And so it is that I found myself walking into my office that September morning and receiving the letter that I was being sued in court. I didn't know where to go, I didn't know what to do, I didn't know who to ask help from, but worst of all... I didn't know what to believe anymore.
Are you still here with me? Told you this is the stuff of nightmares!
As I walked on the streets of Singapore that day, I pondered upon something that I found seriously funny: how in the world did I mess up everything so badly? (The situation was anything but funny, but then again, without a sense of humor, isn't this life a pretty rough place to begin with?)
I remember walking aimlessly and ending up in the 120 year old church right in the middle of Singapore downtown (strange place for a hundred year old church to survive, if you've been to Singapore, you'll know). It was a Sunday afternoon and the mass was in progress.
Although I am neither Christian nor very religious, I found myself sitting down on the stairs outside the big church door. I was feeling more tired than hopeful. I closed my eyes and tried to relax my troubled mind. The sounds all around slowly dissolved away and I was all alone in the depths of my mind.
As I sat there, I was suddenly taken over by an overwhelming sense of sadness. How could this be? How could I have lost everything so fast? How can I turn this situation around? Why aren't all the magic laws working anymore? And then something completely unexpected happened!
As soon as I asked "Why aren't the magic laws working any more?"
Something unexpected happened...
As you hear in the movies, a deep voice from the depths of the invisible began to speak (in this case the person delivering the sermon inside). As soon as I asked the above question, I heard the voice reciting...
"And though I speak in the tongues of mortals and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. And though I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and possess all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. And even if I give away all my possessions, and if I hand over my body, but have not love, I gain nothing...
Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be silenced; where there is knowledge, it will pass away. For we know in part and we prophesy in part, but when perfection comes, the imperfect disappears.
When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put childish ways behind me. Now we see but a poor reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, just as I am fully known."
I couldn't believe this! Did someone just answer my question? It certainly appeared so. But what does this mean? What is it trying to say? I was so surprised by the suddenness of the situation that for a while I couldn't really think. And then it hit me!
It's true... have I not been enamored by the shortcuts and magic laws and fulfilling all my desires in the shortest possible time? Have I not been more and more distracted by the glamor and glitter that success brought? Knowing what I know about how the ego mind works, how could I dedicate my life towards accumulation of more and more, bigger and better? I suddenly realized how blind and childish the whole game was! The whole thing was an ego trip. The whole game was a trap that only delayed my journey towards my true destiny.
As soon as I realized this, my entire body shook as if I had just awakened from a deep sleep! I couldn't believe I this. As I sat there, I tried to focus again on the words that were being said inside the church but my mind raced too hard. I couldn't quite understand the sentences that were being said. So I asked again. I asked...
Why me? What is the next step? Why are all these bad things happening to me? How do I get out of these problems?
With all honesty, I didn't really expect an answer this time. It was big enough an intervention first time around. To expect such a direct answer again is crazy! And sure enough all I could hear this time was the buses and cars passing by on the street. The speaker inside had finished his sermon and they were preparing for the next event. And I just sat looking blankly into space.
A few minutes passed (it could be a few seconds, I can't remember) before I realized that I was holding a book in my hands that I brought with me from my office. Without much thought I opened a page and started reading whatever was in front of me:
"All these things shall love do unto you that you may know the secrets of your heart, and in that knowledge become a fragment of Life's heart. But if in your fear you would seek only love's peace and love's pleasure, Then it is better for you that you cover your nakedness and pass out of love's threshing-floor, Into the season-less world where you shall laugh, but not all of your laughter, and weep, but not all of your tears."
And so it is that for the first time in my life, I realized a profound truth: I am not alone.
From the depths of my heart I realized that I am being guided, I am being taken care of, that everything that has happened has happened for a reason. And today, now that I look back, I realize that... sometimes a series of "unfortunate events" is nothing but the beginning of an adventure far greater than anything we could anticipate.
That day, I realized something else as well: all our problems and challenges have one and only one purpose - they help us grow beyond what we could grow by ourselves. When we are beset by troubles all around, all we need to do is smile and realize "it's time to grow" - and then take the next step in the right direction.
So how did I survive all the challenges that I faced at the time?
Unfortunately these are complex topics that needs more explanation than what can be accommodated here on an article. But simply put, it wasn't easy by any stretch of imagination and it wasn't some magic formula that solved everything overnight. It was a gradual process of purification, self improvement, personal development and making some pretty scary choices. But somehow along with all these challenges came an Invisible Guidance that always saved me when I really needed help. Always put me in the right place at the right time (or sometimes as it seemed to me back then at the wrong place at at wrong time).
Where did this guidance come from?
It came from everywhere. When you begin to understand the language of the world, the guidance makes itself known through everyone and everything. The secret is paying attention to it. Sometimes the guidance comes from a person or a movie, some other times it can be a book or the scriptures, some other times it can even be an insect or an animal that teaches us something. As I said, it can be anything, the form does not matter. The Intelligence that pervades all reality communicates with us all the time through everything. It is us who are not paying attention.
I was taught that the secret is to first prepare our mind and body in way that we are able to recognize this guidance. Once you have learned to recognize the patterns and synchronicity, in other words messages, the next part is then to always follow the guidance in the face of all obstacles, adversities and more importantly "common sense".
I had entered a different world altogether and common sense just wasn't helping anymore. It was trusting my heart and the synchronicity that showed me the way through darkness. It was always having the faith - that if you take the right step in the right direction, in the end you always win, no matter how insurmountable the obstacles appear - that led me through the way.
Now here is the good news...
Having survived all the challenges mentioned above and then some, having traveled through a world that can only be explained as the realm of the miraculous, I am happy to confirm with you that there exists more magic and miracles - in this world of mortgage, lawyers, wars and famines - than they can ever show you on movies like Harry Potter.
In the end the magic formula is very simple: if you are brave enough to follow your heart, if you persistently keep taking the steps, in the right direction, with the right map and the help of the right teachers, you will be guided in on your journey. It's as simple as you could ever have it.
And if you are in a stage of life where you need some quick help, here is what I can tell you...
Everything is possible! As long as you are willing to work for it. Don't give up, keep trying. But try smart rather than hard. Surround yourself with books, tapes, audio, video, people that will inspire you continuously. Keep studying like a mad person. Read at least 1 book on success, goal setting, human psychology or personal development per week. Stay away from all negative influences like the newspaper and TV. Follow this formula for 6 months continuously and watch how your life changes.
Start with setting small goals, bite sized, achieve them, then go for slightly bigger, then bigger, then even bigger. Don't try to run 30km in one day when you are overweight and never ran more than 30 yards in life. If you want to run a marathon, you have to train yourself slowly. Run 1km first. Congratulate yourself, celebrate, then keep training...
Focus on principles of self improvement rather than tricks and techniques, shortcuts and easy way outs.
And before you know it, life will suddenly make a u-turn!
Over 100,000 people say "YES... It works!"
What I will reveal to you shortly, will change your life forever! In all honesty, I am about to give you a gift (and yes, a gift is always free!). This is an invitation to a journey of a life time! A journey that will forever change the way you understand reality. If you want to take yourself to the next level, to become all that you too are destined to become, read on...
If you choose to continue, you will learn to control your future like you never dreamed possible. Not in a "think positive thoughts all day" kind of way. Not by "repeating affirmations over and over" till the cows come home kind of way. This is about entering a world where everything you knew as real is going to turn upside down. This is a journey to the realm of the miraculous!
Whoa...oh my...I needed this! What am I gonna do?
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