Patric Chan, best-selling author and internet entrepreneur, is the first Malaysian internet marketer with international accreditation. Back in 2006, during the earlier days of internet marketing, he accepted a ‘challenge’ to demonstrate his internet marketing strategy ‘live’ during the World Internet Summit. He succeeded in generating sales of over USD $36K in real time within those 3 short days. It was news big enough for Yahoo and Google News.

My interview with Patric allows you to join in his inspiring journey to success – from being an ordinary sales person to a successful business owner, an internet entrepreneur, coach and mentor and a best-selling author of not just one, but three best-selling books. And all these achievements came despite his lack of formal education beyond secondary school level.

In his charming and self effacing way, Patric often points out his poor command of English when talking about his journey. In his official blog, he said in his “About Patric” page that “I’m not going to write my REAL story here because I’ve wrote that in the past that you can read by clicking here.” Stay with the fun, and “click here” to read his real story, often poignant.

Not book smart but street smart when at school, academic achievements eluded Patric. He realised that taking money to study in an expensive private college would deplete the family’s financial resources. So, he resolved to strike out on his own. Believing strongly in himself and carrying a very definite PURPOSE propelled him across tough terrain – alone except with mum’s support and the love which only mothers know how. He discovered how to leverage the Internet to make a living, a very good living!

“Internal vengeance“, where vengeance is employed in a good way, is how Patric describe his internal driving force – his internal motivation. It drove him to success and to achieve the purpose he has set. I remember that I resonated fully with Patric when I first heard him describing personal motivation this way. It was during Robert Allen’s seminar in October 2010 for his Inner Circle Asia members.

In these days of economic and job uncertainties, my advice is to prepare yourself early before you have to face this question ‘Retire – Do What?’ Now it’s over to Patric in his own words…

Q 1. 1 What advice would you give to people who are now employed, but who * are not finding satisfaction in what they are doing?

Firstly, it’s nothing abnormal to have this feeling. If given a choice, most people would prefer not to work, compare to doing something else that gives them pleasure or happiness.

Also, regardless of how much you could love your work, this feeling DOES HAPPEN – the more important part that we need to focus on is how we can reduce the unsatisfactory feeling. So if you’re aware that this is an “unavoidable” feeling, then it makes you feel “okay” because it’s just piece of how life works. 🙂

From the research done, it has been said that the #1 reason of why unsatisfactory feeling or thought exist is NOT about the lack of money/salary received. No doubt that the amount of salary is important, it’s mainly due to the sense of accomplishment that someone gets in his job.

When it comes to accomplishments, there are two types of accomplishments:

Visible accomplishments. This is where your contributions is being “publicly” appreciated by your company or superior. It could be as simple as your boss saying, “Thank you” to you or having your name praised in a memo to everyone. 🙂

Internal accomplishments. This is the part where you know you’ve contributed to the company (or community) base on your action. The good thing is, this is WITHIN your control. In another word, you have the power to control your own happiness – it’s really a matter of choice.

Q 1.2  What advice would you give to people who are now employed, but who *are worried about the loss of their jobs?

Usually, when it comes to solving a “problem”, I like to seek the roots of the problem. The sense of worrisome lies in 2 factors as well –

1. The direction and the growth of the company/industry. If it’s a small company, you can play a role for its direction but if it’s a big company, the fact is, there’s nothing much you can do. I mean, if you work in Nokia and you’re not a top executive, you really can’t do much for the fact that *everyone* has now decided to use iPhone or Android smartphones right? 🙂

2. Your contribution. When I was having a sales job many years ago, I can still remember this conversion that I have with my boss…

“Boss, this month I’ve manage to bring 2K of profit to the company. This way, it’s not a loss for the company because my salary is 2K.”

My boss replied gently to my naïve thought, “Patric, it actually doesn’t work this way. As a matter of fact, the company is already making a loss if you’re bringing in 2K profit. You did not realize that there are a lot of operations cost involved. Secondly, you’re NOT supposed to bring just 2K – it defeats the purpose of hiring you if this is your contribution.”

Here’s in a nutshell:

If your company is paying you 2K, you should be bringing in 5K, 10K or even more. That is called, CONTRIBUTION.

Of course, it’s not always measured in dollar and cents because your position might not be involved directly to the revenue of the company. But if you’re worried about your job, all you need to do right now is to think HOW YOU CAN CONTRIBUTE MORE. If you are able to do that, you don’t need to be worried anymore – because you now become an asset, not a “cost center”.

Q 1.3 What advice would you give to people who are now employed, but who *believe that they have skills and talents that are not being used?

This is why, it’s important for you to work under a good leader. Because a good leader will be able to spot your skill or talent and give you the chance to express that. I mean, you can simply go to your boss and say, “Hey, I’m good with accounts so I like to start doing that” because SOMEONE is already doing that and moving you there would means there’s a gap in your current position. WORK WITH A LEADER – that’s how you can express more.

Q 2. Why did you choose what you are doing now to make a living?

Weird enough, I never thought I’ll become an entrepreneur of my own. It never even comes across my mind to even do it on the internet! I mean, I don’t have the techny knowledge at all and I don’t even “love” computers like some people do.

But then again, the internet or internet business is just a “platform” – it’s not “it”.

There are many reasons why I’ve chosen this platform. The common ones will include allowing me to reach globally, the business is open 24/7, there’s very little operation cost for its potential, it can be automated, I don’t need to do personal selling anymore and so on.

But I think the “core” reason is because I was broke when I first started. LOL I mean, it’s beyond my capability to afford to start a conventional business, so the Internet is the only answer that I have at that stage.

Yes, Patric says to go and pick up a copy of his three best-selling books. They are :

1.) 72 Amazing Ways To Internet Profits – Killer Internet Marketing Techniques, Ideas And Tactics To making Money Online

2.) Clicking Cash – The Secret Of Clicking Your Way To Millions

3.) The International Player – How to Go From a Local Player to an International Authority on the Internet

As I’ve said in my introduction to this series of interviews, it’s my sincere advice to you to prepare yourself early before you have to face this question ‘Retire – Do What? You can by reading any of Patric’s books and pick up some advice from my blog and its series of interviews. Stay tuned for Part 2 of this interview… {Click here for Part 2, posted on 14 Nov 2013}

Notes:

1. Kindly note that if my anti-spam filter restricts you from leaving me useful comments and feedbacks, please email me at steven@retiredowhat.com  

2. And if you have enjoyed this post, you are invited to subscribe, share or re-post it with credit to retiredowhat.com

Related Post : 1. Interviews ~ http://retiredowhat.com/