 Wow, so many people are actually quite scared now. How many of you have seen me before by a show of hands? One, two, fantastic. Alright, so honestly I'm actually quite nervous. So I would love if I could get some engagement from all of you. How many of you here have ever thought of starting your own business by a show of hands? Wow, I'm in the right place. And how many of you have actually failed in starting your own business by a show of hands? Congratulations, you guys are on your way. My name is Fazil and you're going... Hi, my name is Fazil. Hi, Fazil. Good job, guys. Alright, we're off to a really, really good start. I just want to say real quick that the first time we ever pitched Street Smart University was at Startup Slab like four years ago. And that's when we saw you guys the first time. So I'm really glad that I'm seeing Alex and Bernard here because a lot of startups don't survive past two years. And the fact that they're here and you know that they fucked up many times and that's really what business is like. How many of you here actually play a sport or play a musical instrument by a show of hands? Were you great at it the first time you did it? No, you probably fucked up, right? And it's the same with business. I played tennis. I used to play tennis. And the first time I played tennis, I spent an hour and I couldn't hit the ball, right? And that's exactly what business is like. Business is a skill that needs to be honed, that needs to be practiced. You're going to screw up and that's okay. How many of you know what the opposite of success is? Just shout it out. No. The opposite of success is quitting. Failure is just a stepping stone to success. If you expect to succeed without ever failing, you're going to be very disappointed. Alright, so let's get started, shall we? This handsome fella here. I don't understand why people laugh every time I say that. So let me share a little bit about who I am and why you should listen to me. This is me. I've been featured in the media multiple times and I've helped some superstar clients. Right there, that guy is Nash. He was formerly on The Apprentice Asia, personally mentored by Tony Fernandez and I'm also one of his advisors and consultants. But this is actually not important. This is not important because today we're not here to talk about my successes. We're here to talk about my fuck ups. One of the things you guys might not be surprising, this is actually one of the happiest days of my life. Happiest and the saddest because the only person in this picture who's a graduate is my sister. It's my younger sister. I only have one sister. So she's my favorite sister and she's the only graduate in the family. I didn't graduate from university. In fact, the highest level of education I attained was secondary education. So I barely completed my A-levels. For me, that's a big regret. I want to share this with you because I feel it's important. I failed my A-levels many, many times. I took it three times and I failed all three times. But one thing I was sure every time I got those results was that I knew I didn't want to let the Ministry of Education or anybody tell me what I'm worth. Because when I got those results, it said CEO and I was like, damn. And then I took it again. I got to see how I was like, there has to be a meaning to this. And I applied. I applied to SMU. They didn't take me in. And here's the honest truth. When SMU rejected me based on my SATs, I thought I did pretty well. I got 1490 upon 1600. And they still didn't take me in. So I felt a little bit hurt. But I said to myself, I was like, is it okay if I swear, guys? I was like, fuck you. I'm going to hire your graduates and I'm going to be their boss. That's what I said. And a couple of years later, I did. Yay me, guys. So that was the first fuck-up. And I just want to share that with you because I don't want you to allow other people to tell you what your value is. Here's the next fuck-up. And this is really, really important in our journey. When I started my business with Imran 12 years ago, that wasn't the fuck-up, right? But when I started the business with Imran 12 years ago, we wanted to build a technological platform that would deliver the kind of learnings that you don't get in school, the kind of learnings that people pay tens of thousands of dollars for. We wanted to put it on a mobile application so people can learn while they're waiting for the bus or while they're waiting for their friends because we're in Singapore and people are going to be late, right? Here's what we did. We eventually built the Streetsmart University platform that we dreamed of. It took us 18 months and it cost us 60,000 US dollars. 60,000 US dollars. In fact, that put us into 60,000 US dollars of debt, right? Without any income. How many of you here are thinking of creating a technological platform by a show of hands? Just take a look at that and then think about it again. And I'll tell you why this is important, guys. We launched SSU and I was thinking, why wouldn't anybody buy these products? The most awesome product in the world. You get to learn how to make more money, you get to learn how to be more happy. It comes to just like 10, 20 dollars maybe. Everybody would want it, right? No. Nobody bought. Not a single person bought my product. And how many of you would agree that after spending 60,000 US dollars, that's a pretty big fuck up, right? And I learned something that day. And this is one of the most common mistakes that entrepreneurs make and I want you to write it down because it's that important. If you want to build a business, write this down. It's not about your product, it's about your customer, it's about your market. You have to understand, like, here's the thing. Here's what a lot of people do. I'll give you a bad example, right? There are 1 billion people in China and if all those people bought a toothbrush where I made 1 dollar of each toothbrush, I'd be a billionaire, yes? It makes sense. But then you've got to think about manufacturing. You've got to think of distribution. You've got to think of people stealing your idea. You've got to think of people stealing your toothbrushes, right? And everything that business entails, if you want to be successful in business, here's what you need to do. It's all about business, model, execution. Write it down, it's really important. All right, fuck up number 3 and number 4. It's not those sunglasses. Other of those are quite nice. Fuck up number 3 and 4 is really me, right? So, fuck up number 3. If you want to run far, run with the team. I've been in business for 17 years. I started my first business 17 years ago when I was 4, because I'm 21 now, right? I started my first business 17 years ago. In my first business, I did everything because I wanted to take all of the profit and all of the revenue. Does it make sense? And this is a mistake that most new entrepreneurs make, right? Because now, knowing what I know now, what I would rather do is I'd rather focus on what I'm great at and what I'm great at is people, as you can tell, right? I'd rather focus on the people and build it and get somebody else who's better than me at everything else, better than me at logistics, better than me at admin, better than me at crying, right? Good job, Talia. And that's how your business is going to grow. Does it make sense, guys? Because 1 plus 1 in business is not 2. 1 plus 1 in business is 11, okay? Fuck up number 4. What's the fastest way from point A to point B? Shout it out. What's that? Leverage. Oh, shit. Leverage is a good lesson. See, most people say the fastest way from point A to point B is a straight line. That's what you learn in math class, right? But imagine this. Imagine you're here and you want to get to, say, the top of Mount Faber. The fastest way is not a straight line because there are buildings in between you. There are slopes and cliffs between you. You've got to go left and right. So I'd like you guys to do me a favor. Close your eyes, close your eyes, and imagine you're at the edge of a forest. It's dark. It's midnight. There's no moonlight. And you want to get over to the other end. Scared or not? Scared? Yes? Okay. So you're going to take one step forward and another step forward and you might hit a hornet's nest. You might fall into a snake pit. You might get your foot stuck in a bear trap. That's pretty scary. And that's what it's like when you start a business by yourself with no mentor. Now imagine this. Keep your eyes closed. Imagine there's a handsome gentleman holding your hand. That gentleman doesn't have to be me. There's a handsome gentleman holding your hand step by step telling you you need to move left a little bit because there's a snake pit on your right. You've got to bend your head down a little bit because there's a hornet's nest. If you don't bend down, you're going to get stung. Now how many of you will agree that the second way is probably better and faster to get you to the other side of the forest? Yes or no? Absolutely. So if you want to start a business, if you want to be profitable, if you want to be successful, the number one advice for anybody who wants to start a business is to find somebody who is where they want to be and do everything in their power to get them to hold your hand, take you step by step through the process that got them to where they want to be. Does that make sense? Great. All right, so that's what I have for you guys today and these are some of my mentors. These are some of the people that have taught me and got me where I am. I have over 150,000 US dollars on training from some of the best people in the world. This man, Joel Bauer, charges about 30,000 US dollars for training. I paid this man 60,000 dollars for one year of one-on-one consulting. When he told me, one year of one-on-one with me is 60,000 dollars. I didn't have 60,000 dollars in the bank. But we did just build a six-figure company and he said you guys should be doing at least seven. Working with him for one year, just for one year we did over half a million dollars just with what he taught us alone. All right? What I want to share with you guys is if you want to succeed, you need mentors. You may not have the money to pay them. Maybe these are not the right mentors for you at this point. But you might find other mentors as well. Okay? Here are some of the five common entrepreneur mistakes I shared with you exactly these are the mistakes that I made. I had no mentor. Well, I didn't really touch on system, right? I wanted to do it all myself. I created a brand new product instead of focusing on marketing. How many of you want to know a lot more about these five common entrepreneur mistakes? Just by a show of hands. Because if you do, I want to give you something. Yes? Okay, cool. So all you need to do if you want to know more, oh, before that. I don't even know my slides, man. You're a pro. I don't even know. So here's what we have after 17 years. We have a new business that generated mid-six figures in the last 12 months. How many of you think that's pretty good? That's pretty good, but it took me 17 years. If you're twice as smart as me, it will take you half the time and that's still a pretty long time. And it's entrepreneurial goal. Every day I wished I wished that someone shared with me back when I was 21 what I'm sharing with you guys today. I hope you guys appreciate that I'm sharing this with you as well. Here's what I want to give to you. If you go to tinyurl.com slash entrepreneur mistakes, you'll get to see a webinar which I conduct which will look live, but actually it's just some clever technology. I'm being honest with you, right? So go to tinyurl.com slash entrepreneur mistakes. You'll get to watch an entire webinar. I'll talk about these stuff for 90 minutes and if you don't get bored does that sound good? Am I up with 7 minutes? Because actually I've got one more fuck up, which do you guys want to know one last one? So this is the one that's really really scary. This is the one I put it at the end just in case oh man I run out of time I can't share this with you. Right? So I've been focused on building my business for the last 4 years and that's all I've been doing. But this is what life was before that. Right? And I promise you this is not a humble brag. I'm not putting this up there to impress you. I just want to share with you what's real. Right? And the reason why I put that up there is because that life is behind me and because I've been focused on the business for so long I honestly haven't had time to go out and meet new people. I'm so glad I'm meeting new people today. So for those of you so for those of you and this is what I want. I'll show you what I want. This is what I want. Look at that. Imran with his beautiful wife, beautiful baby my friend Zai. How many of you know Zai? Right? This is what I want. So if anybody thinks I'm good looking and wants to take me out for coffee say you can't be a guy. Right? I just don't swing that way. But if you're a guy you want to take me out for coffee again. Right? So that's all I have for you today. This is what you want to go to if you want more information. Thank you very much. Does anybody have any questions? Marketing mistakes. Marketing mistakes. Marketing mistakes. So here's a big marketing mistake I'm going to share with you. If you don't know how to do it and you do it yourself, you're throwing money down the drain. Right? We have done campaigns before. We didn't know what we're doing and we threw $4,000 down the drain. How many of you want to throw away that amount of money by a show of hands? Nobody, right? So if I were you and we found a better way I found people who are way better at doing that stuff and you come to an agreement how many of you think marketing is expensive by a show of hands? So marketing is not expensive. It's all about return on investment. If you spent $20 today and you got $200 back how many of you think that's expensive? What you need to do is you need to find somebody who's able to generate traffic for you for cheap who have already demonstrated how they do it. I can't tell you how to do it because I just find somebody who's good at it. I tell you right now, I'm not the guy who does ads. I get somebody else to do it. Does that answer your question? Cool. Yes. Related to your first FACUP, which is your education what do you think you would have learned at the university that you didn't learn already? And I'm not talking about network and people just generally on educational level. So I said I didn't graduate right? But I didn't say I didn't go to business school, I did. I just didn't take my last exam because I didn't think it was useful. I knew I didn't want to have a certificate because I wasn't going to use it. So I went to business school and they taught me the four piece of marketing. So I ended up in my presentation you see. What are the four piece of marketing? Price, product, place, promotion, right? That's bullshit. I've used that and I never got a single client. I've got it. And that's the truth. So how many of you want to know the real four piece of marketing by Fuzzle Moosa, by a show of hands? So I'm going to give it to you real quick and take it down because I'm going to wrap it out right now. So the first piece of marketing is personal. You're going to make a sale persona. You need to know them intimately, meaning you need to know what keeps them up at night. You need to know what they talk about at the water cooler with their friends. Got it? You need to know what websites they go to and who they hang out with. The next piece is pain. What's that? Fantastic. The next piece is pain. So the value of your solution is directly correlated to the pain that they feel. The amount of money you're going to make is directly correlated to the amount of pain that they feel. So the next piece of marketing is pond. P-O-N-D. Where do they hang out? What do they read? Do they read The Huffington Post? Do they read Inc.com? Do they read Business Insider? Do they read Shashare? What do they read? And finally, pull. You need to give them, you need to pull. You need to hook them in. So understand this is the metaphor of the fisherman. You want to pull them in. You need to be valuable in return for their contact details so you can continue building that relationship with them. How many of you think that 90 minutes of me sharing with you all the things that all the mistakes I've made and showing you how you can avoid wasting time and wasting tens of thousands of dollars is valuable for you if you want to start a business? Yes? How many of you would give me your email address so that I can give you that information to the right place? So I teach only what I use. I use only what's effective. I teach you in school because I've seen how they develop syllabus in schools. You send it in today, it gets taught three years later and it just doesn't work that way. Yes? Oh, one more thing. I'm going to share something about school. Because I can. So I feel that the focus when people go to school shouldn't be what results they get but the process. What do they learn in the process? What you're really learning in school is the ability to synthesize information and apply it quickly. That's what you're really learning in school. The results that you get on your scores is just a byproduct of you showing that you've done that successfully. Yes? And if you can synthesize information and apply it quickly in school, you can do it outside of school. This will be here at the end. Oh, sorry. Thank you very much.