It’s 2010 – Happy New Year from Hong Kong and welcome to the beginning of a new decade!

As with every new year, most people are making New Year Resolutions for themselves, whether it is meant to improve their lives personally or professionally.

However, 2010 is different because not only is it a New Year, it is also a New Decade…

When it comes to making your resolutions this time around, you must think bigger picture in terms of what you want to achieve not just for this year, but for the next 10 years!

I know, I know… making goals for the next 10 years seems to be somewhat of a stretch…

This was exactly what I thought the last time I renewed my passport (In the United States, passports expire every 10 years).

I thought to myself, “Wow – I won’t need to renew my passport for another 10 years… That’s PLENTY of time!”

Guess what? I just finished renewing my passport again several weeks ago…

The point I’m trying to make is not just that I’m getting old and that time can fly right by you before you know it, but also that you need to set the appropriate goals for yourself and make sure you use this time to achieve what is important to you.

Back in 2000, I was a broke college student struggling to finish my Bachelor degree, eating ramen and soy sauce over rice with every meal, with dreams of finding success and traveling the world.

When I received my renewed passport in the mail, the first thing I did (after getting over how unsatisfied I was with my passport photo) was set a goal for myself to fill up every page of that passport before it was due to expire in 10 years.

For a college student who averaged maybe one trip to Hong Kong every year or two to visit family, this was a pretty tall order.

Before I knew it, a year has gone by, two years, five years, eight years, and I had barely made a dent on my passport, continuing to average maybe one or two International flights a year, filling up only a quarter or so of my passport pages.

When I realized my time was running out, I decided to kick my business into high gear and began expanding my company overseas.

Within the course of about a year, I managed to expand my business from just within the United States to Singapore, Malaysia, Australia, New Zealand and China.

I’ve also had the chance to take personal and business vacations to places like Mexico, Caribbeans, Nova Scotia, Thailand, Indonesia, Vietnam, Japan, Macau and of course, right here in my hometown of Hong Kong.

Needless to say, these International trips (most places I visited multiple times) resulted in many additional stamps on my passport, and I actually filled up every single one of these pages an entire year before my passport was due to expire.

The moral of the story is that every year, we make New Year Resolutions for ourselves, generic ones like make more money, eat more healthy, quit smoking, work out more, lose weight and spend less money.

Many of our resolutions, if not most or all, are almost never achieved and even die away within a day or two after you have set them.

Well this year, since 2010 marks the beginning of a new decade, why not be a little different?

Why not set a goal for yourself that is higher than what you would normally set, and more specific than what you would normally declare?

How about something that is not “achieved” by doing once, like going to the gym or refraining from eating a greasy burger?

Push yourself to the point where you know what your own limits are, and then surpassing them because you have set a higher goal for yourself.

Success does not happen overnight – You must work hard at it every day and strive to reach the point in which you would consider it successful.

Yes, it may take you up to ten years to achieve it, whatever it may be – To max out your passport with travels, to build a seven or eight figure business from scratch, to attain financial freedom for your family, or whatever that goal might be.

And let me tell you, once you complete these goals and raise your arms in victory, there is no better feeling – especially if you found that you have done it in less than 10 years

Happy New Year and don’t just make 2010 your year – Make This Your Decade!

Tweet This Post

2009 Is Here ~ Happy New Year!

Happy New Year From @simonleung (The Google Insider)	Happy New Year From @coolsi (His Evil Twin)

Images Credit: Cassey Lim

Here on the West Coast, we’re finally winding down to the final hours of 2008…

Even though we’re behind most of the world where 2009 is already underway, I actually appreciate having the extra time to reflect on 2008 and to be able make my final post of the year.

A lot has happened this year, both positive and negative, which has resulted in a time of my life that I will never forget.

I’ve learned many things about life (both personally and professionally) – a lot of them the hard way – that will greatly affect the way I move forward.

In retrospective, this experience has taught me a ton about how to proceed with my own business as well.

As we step into the new year, it’s traditional for many of us to make a new year’s resolution, so that we can make goals that we’ll strive to achieve.

Since my business direction will result in my traveling internationally for over 50% of 2009, my new year resolution is to not lose touch with my friends, colleagues, partners, clients and the countless relationships we’ve worked so hard to build.

In 2008, I spent pretty much every weekend on the road, either speaking at seminars around the country or doing the same in other countries, while building teams and companies at the same time.

As a matter of fact, I can count the number of weekends I was actually at home with one hand.

In 2009, my focus will shift to working on building a lot of the same teams and momentum in other countries by starting new businesses, growing existing ones and organizing more of my own live events.

I’ve seen and witnessed the tremendous value live events have brought to attendees, and I want to be able to capture more of that by expanding my brand to as many parts of the world as I can.

With that said, I know it’s going to be a challenge keeping and maintaining my current online relationships, not to mention building new ones.

That’s why I want to upkeep my level of networking accomplished through attending live events in 2008 by increasing my presence online through the power of social media sites and social networking.

Yes, I’m talking about the popular social media portals like Twitter, Facebook, MySpace, YouTube, and the latest one to hit the scene which I predict is gonna be HUGE in 2009… Google Friend Connect!

Social media is going to be my primary way of communicating with my friends and partners in 2009, and I’d definitely like to connect with you on there as well

So please, connect with me… chat with me… interact with me…

Take a look at all my favorite social media sites and feel free to join and connect with me in any or all of them!

I’d definitely like to be able to communicate all my news, updates and announcements with you as quickly and easily as possible…

Click Here To Connect With Me Now!

Tweet This Post

Hello and Happy New Year once again from Port Everglades in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida!

I hope these first few days of 2008 have been a great start for you.

It’s going great for me so far as I’m just about to board the Carnival Liberty Cruise Ship and embark on a private 8 day cruise to the Eastern Caribbean with some of my marketing friends.

Some of these friends that I will have the pleasure of vacationing with for the next several days include Mike Filsaime, Rich Schefren, Tom Beal, Paulie Sabol, Donna Fox, Jermaine Griggs, Jeff Johnson, Michael Morgan, Sam Heyer, Ross Goldberg, Howie Schwartz, JP Micek, Deb Micek, Anik Singal, Mark Braunstein, Jennie Armato, Scott Paton, Joel Therien, Armando Montelongo, Veronica Montelongo and my team members Lasse Rouhiainen, Robert Secades and Danny Arzuaga.

(Don’t worry, you know me, I will blog about it and all its glory when I return haha… but if you want a sneak peek on what to expect, click here to view my post and pictures from last year’s cruise.

Since I am going to be out of touch for the next several days, I wanted to make sure that I deliver this message before I go.

As I mentioned on my previous blog post, I am dedicated to making 2008 my best year yet.

This includes doing more joint ventures with people like yourself who visit my blog from time to time, as well as exploring new opportunities.

And to make things happen, you know as well as I do that the first and most important step in this process is to TAKE ACTION.

So that’s what I’m doing now…

Now, I’m not going to explain all the details right here because I have put together a webpage that does just that, but before I give you the link, I do want to preface this by saying that this opportunity is NOT for everyone.

I have partnered up with one of the best experts in the industry I’m about to reveal to you, and we are looking to work with ONLY 25 SERIOUS people.

Why only 25?

Because if selected, we are going to PERSONALLY work with you and hold you by the hand until you meet your goal.

In order to maximize results, we are limiting this to only those who are dedicated to working hard to achieve this success.

Would you like to be one of 25 to JV with me in 2008 in this venture?

If so, I invite you to visit the link below to learn more, and apply ONLY if you have a vested interest in the program, want to do this with me and make 2008 our best year together:

Tweet This Post