

THE APOLLO FACTOR

Why Some People Can Sell While Others Can't

## Written by Alaric Ong

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#

# Table of Contents

About the Author: Alaric Ong

### Introduction

### Keep an Open Mind

### The Art of Selling

### Accumulate Assets

### The 4 Pillars of Success

### Subtracting your Way to Success

### The Apollo Method

### Duplication is the Name of the Game

### The Ultimate Success Formula

### Top 10 Principles to Abide by

### Last Words
About the Author: Alaric Ong

### Alaric is an entrepreneur, speaker and lifelong learner.

  1. First business: Healthy food delivery business called BulletXpress. Sealed a deal with DBS bank where they sent emails to 10,300 of their staff to advertise for us.

  2. Second business: Entrepreneurship platform, built a team of 140 people in 10 months. Sold everything from tailor-made shirts, to cordyceps, personal development courses, health products, maids, and even electricity.

  3. Third business: Sales and marketing agency. Helping businesses to find ways to increase their sales. Clients are from a range of industries: Hotels, Wellness, Beauty, Financial products, Network marketing and others. My business partner is in Belgium while my team is in the Philippines.

  4. Side hustle: [www.blushboss.com] A 6-figure e-commerce business selling cosmetics.

### Sharing the stage with JT Foxx, the World's Number 1 Wealth Coach  
National Achievers Congress 2016

Aaron Sansoni, the World's Number 1 Sales Coach

### Mr Ng Chee Meng, Minister for Education (Schools)

### Former Chief of Defence Force (SAF)

### With my business partner, Sarah.

We run a 6-figure cosmetic business, www.blushboss.com together

### With Mr Mason Tan, Venture Capitalist

### Brought Carl's Junior to Singapore

### Derek Gehl, World Renowned Digital Entrepreneur

### Team Apollo!

www.AlaricOng.com

#  Introduction

Most people run for the hills when they hear the word "sales", for a bunch of redundant reasons like "I'm too shy to sell" or "I don't know anything about sales". Some people even believe that salespeople are filthy lying individuals, who are just after their money. These are all just limiting beliefs that might be hindering your success in sales.

### In fact, sales is in our very nature as it is based on communication and human interaction. In this book, I will break down the psychology and personality of a good salesperson. I will also introduce you to The Apollo Method. A simple process that cuts through the clutter of all the useless techniques, and guides you through the processes that are truly important for this profession.

### What this book will help you do, is to save you time. We live in an era of too much (mis)information. There are so many free articles about sales and business, that sometimes it can be a little overwhelming. Those articles normally do not provide much value, as the content is meant to draw people's attention, and introduce the consumer to their business. This is why you mainly see articles like "5 Types of Salespeople" or "7 Ways to Increase Your Sales" disseminated throughout the internet. These articles were not designed to give you value. They were designed to sell you products and services.

### On the other hand, this book was designed to give you value. It's the essence of whatever I have learnt in my entrepreneurial journey thus far. Every paragraph that I include is edited several times, to make sure that every sentence is of value to you. The Apollo Method works for the following people:

  1. ### People who are looking to join a sales platform. This includes network marketing, insurance, property, investments, etc.

  2. ### People who are already in the sales and marketing industry and looking to get breakthroughs

  3. ### People who are leading a team of salespeople

  4. ### People who are thinking of becoming entrepreneurs

### Be ready though. In order to help you achieve success in sales, I need to help you reshape how you think, see and feel about sales. You can't possibly expect to succeed at something you don't like doing or feel bad about. The question is this, "How willing are you to change your mindset in order to be successful at sales?"

### I have a lot of people asking me how to improve their skill set at sales, but when I asked them what they are willing to change or improve, 9 out of 10 of them normally go back to their old way of being.

### If you're willing to improve, and are hungry for success, then I believe The Apollo Method would be a right fit for you. I'm going to show you step by step with proven templates on how to sell, the whole system to how I built my sales team, and exactly how I can turn someone who has never done sales before into someone who can make a full time income from this profession.

### With The Apollo Method you can achieve success and get good at sales very quickly and efficiently. This way, you don't have to go everywhere and anywhere to learn a bunch of sales techniques you don't need. Focus all your energy on mastering The Apollo Method and your journey in sales would be a smooth one. I wrote this book so that I can save you time. Instead of trying to figure everything out by yourself, you can learn a proven way to achieve success more easily.

### I was blessed to be able to learn from a mentor who started when he was 19 years old, and made USD$800,000 in two years before he turned 21. That is around $30,000/month on average. I am not saying that everyone will get results like him, but what I do believe is that it definitely is possible.

### Under his guidance, I made more than $7,000 in my first month, and hit my first 5 figure income on my fourth month of doing sales. I eventually built a team of 140 people in 10 months, guiding every single one of my team members with The Apollo Method.

### So if you're ready to get breakthrough results in this profession, let's get started!

#  Keep an Open Mind

### When I first got started in sales, the first lesson my mentor taught me was how to learn things effectively. He said that the best skill to have, is the ability to learn things and grasp concepts. Firstly, you become more knowledgeable, allowing you to have the capacity to overcome challenges more easily. On top of that, your intelligence also increases.

### Did you know you can improve your IQ by a few points simply by reading a good book?

### According to neurologist and educator Judy Willis, intelligence is not fixed nor planted firmly in our brains from birth. Rather, it's forming and developing throughout our lives.

### Your brain — every brain — is a work in progress. It is "plastic." From the day we're born to the day we die, it continuously revises and remodels, improving or slowly declining, as a function of how we use it. If a brain is exercised properly, anyone can grow intelligence, at any age, and potentially by a lot. Or you can just let your brain idle — and watch it slowly, inexorably, go to seed like a sedentary body.

### When people repeatedly practice an activity or access a memory, their neural networks shape themselves according to that activity or memory. When people stop practicing new things, the brain will eventually eliminate the connecting cells that formed the pathways. This is akin to a system of freeways connecting various cities. The more cars going to a certain destination, the wider the road that carries them needs to be. The fewer cars traveling that way, however, the fewer lanes are needed.

### In other words, the more you train your brain to learn new things, the higher your IQ will be. Learning new things causes your brain to PHYSICALLY change.

### The areas of the brain that control learning and memory require regular exercise. This is why I engage in a continuous schedule of new learning. I don't mean just reading new books or acquiring new information through other media. Learning has to be translated into acquiring fundamentally new skills and abilities. Selling, for example, can be a new skill for you to learn.

### In order to learn anything faster, the first thing we need to do is to keep an open mind. Allow me to elaborate...

### On my first lesson, my mentor placed two cups of drinks in front of me. "Alaric, here's a cup of coffee from Starbucks. And here's a cup of Coca-Cola. I want you to drink the coffee and tell me what you think."

### I followed my mentor's instruction and took a sip of the coffee. The coffee has a crisp, bright flavor, with subtle hints of citrus and rich chocolates. It tasted really good. My mentor then poured some Coca-Cola into the cup of coffee and asked me to drink it again. It tasted awful.

### He then looked at me and said, "Empty your cup."

### If we want to learn something new, the first thing we need to do is to reset to zero, and become like a blank slate. The mindset that enables an engineer to be good at what he does might not be the same mindset that is required of a good salesperson. The current personality that you have, might have helped you survive in life, but it might not be what helps you thrive in sales.

### If you have been in sales before, I would like to invite you to also reset to zero and learn everything from scratch. A swimmer who is good at the butterfly stroke might not do equally well doing freestyle. The hardest part about learning something is to unlearn and relearn it.

### You might have started reading this book having your preconceived notions about sales or your own way of selling. However, I would like to invite you to empty your cup and learn The Apollo Method from scratch.

### Imagine you were completely new to this, and relearn everything from scratch.

### After all, coffee and Coca-Cola don't mix well together.

"The eye sees only what the mind is prepared to comprehend" ~ Henri Bergson

### Keeping an open mind is one of the most difficult things to practice. It means keeping yourself open to everyone and everything that comes your way, allowing yourself to embrace different possibilities, opportunities, people, views, suggestions and interests. You need to be unprejudiced, remain flexible and not be stubborn at all times. I try to practice this in every situation, and it makes life a hell lot easier and less complicated. Better yet, it is fun to practice too.

### Trying to understand someone's point of view, even when you disagree, can change and free your mind in ways you would have never expected. This ability will help you feel more powerful and capable of changing your way of thinking, so you will not get stuck in a mindset that keeps you frustrated, angry or helpless. When I write about sales, I'm writing everything from my point of view and sharing with you what has worked for me. I do not expect you to follow everything I share about, all I ask is that you keep an open mind.

### Keeping an open mind is one of the best tools I use, in simplifying my life. It doesn't mean that I believe or accept everything. I do however listen, observe, feel and try to comprehend every situation on my path. It has given much to me, saved me and helped me many times. Try it yourself.

### Here are several ways to keep an open mind:

### Information

### Be open to all information. Be interested in new, old, odd and non-obvious insights. Read different books, magazines and blogs. Don't limit yourself. Don't base your opinion on someone else's judgement.

### Be blank, open and unprejudiced to everything you read. At the same time, you don't need to be naïve or believe everything. Just be interested, observe different angles, learn from them and leave them open for discussions. Never think that you know everything, because you probably don't. The moment you think that you know something for sure, you limit yourself.

### Comprehension

### Try to understand, sympathize and make sense of someone else's story, opinion or response. Learn to see things from his or her point of view. Keep in mind the history, education, childhood, upbringing and life circumstances of the other person. Think of what you would say or think, and how would you react, if you were in the other person's shoes.

### Black or White Thinking

### There are times, where you might be convinced that you are 100% right and someone else is not. Keep an open mind though, that you might be wrong, even if you think otherwise. You might have overlooked something or not know all the details after all. Life is not always black or white.

### Interpretation

### How do you come across to people? You might think that you are right, gentle, sincere, clear and tactful. However, that doesn't mean that it is true, or that others perceive you like so. Listen to people.

### Challenging yourself

### Try new ways of challenging yourself. Be open to other possibilities and opportunities. Step out of your comfort zone. Discover and try something different. Expand your horizons. You will never know what beautiful things are hidden around the corner that can change and improve your life.

### Keep an open mind especially when you are tired or stressed out yourself. Be patient. Be light-hearted and easy going. Discover the beauty and power of keeping an open mind. It will change your life, and make it easier and more interesting!

### What I've realized whenever I've shared with people about The Apollo Method is that the people who have never done sales before are the fastest to understand and use the system. The people who have done sales for a long time tend to have ego and are too engrossed with the current way they do things that they get stuck in their paradigm. Empty your cup and reset to zero. That is the way to learn the system fast.

#  The Art of Selling

"Leaders sell visions, entrepreneurs sell products and services, employees sell their time"

### Sales equals income. Everything that has to do with money involves sales. Oil, property, gold, products, services, etc. All of them involve buying and selling.

### According to the dictionary, here is the definition for the word, "Sell".

sɛl/ (verb)

  1. ### give or hand over (something) in exchange for money.

### Did you know that the first contracts were made for slaves? When you sign a bond to work a job, you are effectively selling your time for $10/hour or $20/hour. The funny thing is that some people do not think they are in the profession of sales.

### The truth is that the moment they are making money, it means that they have sold something. It could be working for someone, being a business owner, selling services or even investing.

### A good investor is someone who knows how to buy something at a low price and sell it for a high price.

### A good entrepreneur is someone who knows how to sell his products and services effectively.

### A good employee is someone who is able to sell his time for as much money as his work is worth.

### They all involve sales! The question we should be asking ourselves is whether we prefer selling a product, or selling our time (in other words, working a job).

### A good reason why you need to learn sales is the obvious fact that people make good money from sales, and you can too. Sales is a very common method or way in which we've all made money.

### Sales is the oldest profession.

### In the annals of history, it is the one common philosophy, thread and attribute that binds together multiple facets of all professions, walks of life and means of communication. That commonality, pulsating through every vein of humankind is sales.

### While the pushy and unethical in the trade give the game a bad name, "sales" itself is a necessary trait in communication – business and personal – and its characteristics are woven deeply into the very fabric of our existence. Sales is the oldest profession in the world because it is in who we are, what we do, how we act and how we go about our daily lives.

### When we provide a service, the potential customer is the central figure of the universe. What are they looking for in accommodations, amenities or appetizers? Then, the "selling body" – be it a university, hotel chain, restaurant chain or major corporation down to a Mom and Pop store – must show the potential customer that they are the winning choice. They have to prove themselves to be the best fit for that need. Supply and demand has been around since the dawn of time.

### Listening, asking the right questions and communicating go hand in hand. Whatever profession you are in, whatever relationship you are part of and whatever your daily routine is, these are the same principles that are utilized regularly.

### You may think you want to distance yourself from the sales game, but that is where you are wrong; the day will never arrive where we are no longer called upon to sell something to someone. It could be selling your significant other on picking the restaurant for the evening, your child on using the potty as opposed to his/her diaper to do their business, or dazzling a potential employer to hire you – face it: that is sales.

### The best at it can create a lot of opportunities in his/her life, so no matter what your calling or station in life or aspirations, you should never stop striving to learn and conquer the selling game.

"Sales = income"

### The money you make is directly proportional to the value you add. How much money you make, is based on the amount of value that you can exchange for money. The good news, is that if you have a product or service to sell, you do not have to exchange your time or effort for money. You can exchange the product or service that you have sold for money. Sales equals income.

### My wealth coach, JT Foxx, also known as the world's number 1 wealth coach once asked me: "What are some reasons why you're not making what you're truly worth?"

"The reason I'm not making what I'm truly worth is because..."

### I want you to take some time to answer the question. Take 5 minutes, to write down some reasons why you are not making what you are truly worth. This might seem like an easy question to answer, but once I started pondering about it, I had many paradigm shifts.

### One of the greatest philosophies I've learned from is by business philosopher, Jim Rohn. He stated in one of his early seminars, "You get paid for bringing value to the marketplace, and if you're not very valuable you don't make much money." If you understand this powerful philosophy and implement it into your life, you will develop a substantial advantage over those who don't.

### People often blame the economy, their job or the government for their lack of income but don't do much to improve their value or skills. The harsh reality we all must understand is you will always be paid exactly what you are worth, or expect you are worthy of. If somebody is making minimum wage, that's the value they're bringing to the marketplace. How is it possible that some people can make $500 an hour while many others make $15 an hour? It's quite simple. One has become more valuable to the marketplace than the others. When you're more valuable to the marketplace, you make more money. As an entrepreneur, you must consistently find ways to become more valuable. The quicker you understand this, the quicker you can advance in our fast paced economy.

### The major problem is that time on a job or years at a specific occupation, does not increase the inherent value of the job being done. In many cases, after the first few years, it doesn't increase the value of the employee, either.

### You often hear people say "I have 20 years of experience, I should get paid more." If, in actuality, that person has one year of experience repeated 20 times, why would they expect more money? They aren't becoming more valuable unless they're sharpening their skills, learning better tools and constantly trying to better themselves.

### Value guarantees a higher income, age doesn't. You don't get more valuable hanging around for years. Age isn't value. People who want more money earn it by delivering more value to their business and customers. As entrepreneurs, we have the ability to create much more income as long as we understand this.

"Learn to work harder on yourself than you do on your job. If you work hard on your job you can make a living, but if you work hard on yourself you'll make a fortune." -Jim Rohn

### You don't need to go to work on the economy, you don't need to change your company, the government, your boss or your circumstances. You need to go to work on yourself. When you change, everything changes for you. You're the constant. If you change companies, tactics, strategies or mentors, you're still the constant. Strive to become a better person. Instead of comparing yourself to others, differentiate.

### The only person you need to be better than is the person you were yesterday. How do you bring 'value' to the marketplace? By becoming better at everything you do. You will quickly advance in the game of economics when you consistently build your character, skills and value to others.

### This is why, I recommend making growth a part of your daily agenda. Do something that increases the value you bring to your business, your work, your clients or customers. It's not very complicated to change your current income level. You simply need to offer more value to the marketplace. In other words, you need to sell more.

### Do you sell? I mean really think about it. Every time you're trying to convince someone to your point of view, you're selling. Sat through a job interview? You were selling! The fact of the matter is, everyone sells. I'll admit we've all got varying degrees of skill when it comes to selling, but we all have to sell something at one point or another. So why not be good at it? Learning to sell is some of the best career advice anyone could ever receive. Not to mention one of the best investments you could ever make.

### When you become really good at sales, you have a lot of opportunities available for you. You could become an entrepreneur, investor or join a sales platform. Not every salesperson is an entrepreneur, but every entrepreneur must learn to sell. The best entrepreneurs and investors have one thing in common: they are good at sales.

### The best property investors are those that are able to rent out their property at a much higher price than the market. They know how to decorate the home or convince the renter to pay a premium to stay in their apartment. The best traders are those that know how to stir the market by releasing news that affect stock prices. They buy low and sell high. Most of the stock analyst are hired by the rich to influence market sentiments. Welcome to reality.

### Everyone is selling. It's either you sell, or you are being sold. Every company you see is playing the same game. They are all trying to prove to investors and customers why we should pass them money. This applies to Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs), Multinational Corporations (MNCs) and even countries. Yes, countries are also trying to get as much investments from investors. They need to convince business owners and investors using statistics, population size and tax laws to get people to open businesses in their country. Only when you become really good at sales, would you have a shot at playing with the big boys.

### Benefits of learning sales

### The relationships in your life improves

### When you become good at sales, your relationships with family, friends, colleagues and even your love life improves. Most good salesmen that I know are good with girls. The essence of sales is understanding human beings and their psychology. This same skillset applies in your social life.

### You make more money

### When you become good at sales, you can be in any part of the world and you will still be able to survive. You can throw me in any part of the world that speaks English, and I'm very sure that I would be able to make money because I know I already have the skillset to do so.

### Want to make more money? Sell more. In sales, there is unlimited earning potential. The more you make for your company the more they pay you and the more you're likely to be worth. Even if you're not in a traditional selling role, learning to sell will dramatically increase your worth because it enables you to be more effective in your job.

### Josh Kaufman, in his bestselling book The Personal MBA, lists sales as one of the top five economically valuable skills. By having selling in your arsenal, you're increasing your worth to your employer. Having a sales skillset means you bring a skill to the business that can increase performance and success. It's a skill that you can pack in your briefcase when it comes time to negotiate your salary.

### You have more freedom

### Sales is the job that gives the most flexibility. You can choose to wake up late and do your appointments at night or even sleep in on a Monday morning. You decide your income. You decide how much money you want to make.

### You become happier

### I've realised that the greatest happiness I've gotten in my life comes from two things. Firstly, adding value to people. Secondly, becoming the person that I want to be. I always feel happy when I know I'm growing and becoming the best version of myself. If you're like me, you will find this career very fulfilling.

### You grow as a person

### Nothing strengthens character more than the constant rejection and setbacks that salespeople have to face. These challenges are what cause us to grow stronger. In sales, there is an unlimited income potential. This is why we can keep growing and growing. We should aim to make a million dollars, not so much to have the million dollars, but instead to become a millionaire. It is not about making the money. It is about who we become in the process of making the money.

### Nobody wants to be rejected. According to Maslow's hierarchy of needs, "a sense of belonging" is one of the most important things that we aim to achieve. We don't want to be singled out or rejected. We want to be accepted.

### Learning how to sell will teach you pretty early on that there is nothing wrong with being rejected. In fact, it is something to be welcomed because every objection is the start of the sale. In sales, you need to be resilient. Learning sales will definitely strengthen your character.

### People who learn sales have a higher chance of getting what they want in life

### Sales is about influencing others to a certain objective. It could be purchasing a product, liking a Facebook post or sharing a product with their friends. Salespeople are masters of influence. This is why they can easily get what they want in life. Nonetheless, there is a fine line between influence and manipulation. Influence denotes inspiring and empowering someone to make a decision that is good for them. Manipulation denotes controlling someone unscrupulously for our own selfish motive.

### Learning sales will make you better able to pitch whatever it is you are going after. It might be a new job, negotiating a better deal or convincing people to your point of view. Great salespeople can bring ideas to life and can inspire the most doubtful. They understand what is important and use that leverage to get what they want. This is why, I have observed that the best salespeople get the best spouses, the nicest cars and better houses.

### You'll become more successful

### Last but not least, learning to sell will make you more successful. People are selling things every day. You're probably confronted by handouts on the way to work, the billboards on buildings and hawkers trying to push their wares. There are people all around you that are trying to sell you something. The thing is, sales isn't always about making money. You could be selling your idea, your dream, your abilities or your cause. Learning how to sell will put you in a better position to promote and ultimately achieve your goal. Take Steve Jobs for example. Steve was insanely successful; he loved to sell. It's safe to say though he was not always the most fun person to deal with. Yet when it comes to selling, Steve was a professional and look at what he achieved. I'm not saying that everything he achieved was because he knew how to sell, but it sure as hell helped! Check out his presentation on the release of the iPhone. He lures you in and makes you crave his product.

### Success is directly proportional to solid sales skills. Here's why. To many people, the word selling implies manipulating, pressuring, and cajoling. These are all the used-car-salesman stereotypes. But if you think of selling as explaining the logic and benefits of a decision, then everyone, business owner or not, needs sales skills: to convince others that an idea makes sense, to show bosses or investors how a project or business will generate a return, to help employees understand the benefits of a new process, etc.

### In essence, sales skills are communication skills. Communication skills are critical in any business or career--and you'll learn more about communication by working in sales than you will anywhere else. Gaining sales skills will help you bring in investors, line up distribution deals and land customers. In the early stages of starting a company, everything involves sales. Understanding the sales process, and how to build long-term customer relationships, is incredibly important regardless of the industry or career you choose. Spending time in a direct sales role is an investment that will pay dividends forever.

### Skills you need to learn

### You'll learn to read people

### Learning to sell increases your ability to listen to people. When it all boils down to it, selling is largely about listening, questioning and reading your prospect (the person you're trying to sell to). The sheer number of people you will be meeting in this profession would make you an expert at understanding social dynamics and understanding why people do what they do.

### Listening to what somebody has to say can make all the difference. Learning how to sell helps you hone those skills. You begin to realise that the more you listen, the more insight you're able to get from your prospect. Brian Tracy, one of the world's leading salespeople, teaches the 'spotlight technique' where you learn that you're better able to sell by keeping the spotlight on your prospect. The more you keep the spotlight on the prospect the more insight you get as to what may be driving a decision. Your ability to actively listen to your customer when the spotlight is on them will make all the difference. Learning to sell also teaches you to ask the right questions and to read people. Have you ever been in a situation where you were talking to someone and your gut was telling you that something wasn't right? Chances are what they were saying wasn't congruent with their body language.

### According to a study by Dr. Albert Mehrabian, author of Silent Messages, 93% of our communication is non-verbal. So whilst your prospect might be saying one thing, their body language and facial expressions might be painting a whole different story. By learning to sell you begin to pick up on these signals and begin to understand what people are truly saying.

### You'll learn to negotiate.

### Every job involves negotiating: with customers, with vendors and suppliers, even with employees. Salespeople learn to listen, evaluate variables, identify key drivers, overcome objections, and find ways to reach agreement--without burning bridges. Salespeople are experts at crafting deals that are win-win for both parties.

### You'll learn to close.

### Asking for what you want is difficult for a lot of people. Closing a sale is part art, part science. Getting others to agree with you and follow your direction is also part art and part science. If you want to lead people, you must be able to close. Great salespeople know how to close. Great bosses do, too.

### You'll learn persistence.

### Salespeople hear the word no all the time. Over time you'll start to see no as a challenge, not a rejection. And you'll figure out what to do next.

### You'll learn self-discipline.

### When you work for a big company, you can sometimes sleepwalk your way through a day and still get paid. When you work on commission, your credo is, "If it is to be, it's up to me." Working in sales is a great way to permanently connect the mental dots between performance and reward.

### You'll gain self-confidence.

### Working in sales is the perfect cure for shyness. You'll learn to step forward with confidence, especially under duress or in a crisis. Think of it this way: The more intimidating or scary a position in sales sounds, the more you need to take one. You'll gain confidence and self-assurance, and the skills you gain will serve you well for the rest of your business and personal life.

### So if you're a would-be entrepreneur, set aside your business plan and work in sales for a year or two. If you're a struggling entrepreneur, take a part-time sales job. Part of the reason you're struggling is probably because of poor sales skills. Successful business owners spend the majority of their time "selling."

### Learn how to sell. It's the best investment you will ever make.

# Accumulate Assets

### Question: What do we need to start a business?

### Answer: Idea, product, manpower, capital (money), resources, network, political connections, customers, patented technology, etc.

### If you look at all the answers listed, there are 3 main categories. Financial capital, knowledge capital and social capital. Money and resources fall under financial capital. Technology, product and idea fall under knowledge capital. Manpower, network, political connections and customers fall under social capital.

### Business is like a sport. The player with more knowledge capital, financial capital and social capital (KFS capital) will win. In order to win at this game, you must have more of these 3 things compared to your competitors. If not, you will not be able to compete or outlast them.

### Jack Welch, the former CEO of General Electric said, "If you don't have a competitive edge, don't compete." In the market, you gain a competitive edge by having KFS capital. Many "wantrepreneurs" try to start their businesses without having much of a competitive edge to begin with. They end up failing miserably, suffering massive financial losses. Do not go into a business if you haven't developed these three things.

### This is why, I recommend that everyone who wants to become an entrepreneur should start off with joining a sales platform. It is always good to be able to leverage on a platform while you polish your skill set in sales. A platform gives you leverage. By joining a platform, you can leverage on the platform and provide value without having to undertake a lot of risk in buying products and stocking inventory.

### After joining a sales platform, you would naturally want to meet a lot of people to get new clients. When you continuously meet people for a period of time, your social capital and knowledge capital will increase. As your network starts getting bigger, you will start making more money. This way, you will have a competitive edge when you do come out to do your own business in the future. This is a better path to become an entrepreneur, isn't it?

### This is why, whenever someone new asks me if he/she should start a business despite not having experience, network or financial capital, I immediately tell him or her to stop dreaming about it.

### It is not that I want to crush people's entrepreneurial dreams. I am saying all this because I care about them, and I do not want them to spend money every month on unnecessary business expenses and eventually watching their business go to bankruptcy.

### There is a timing for everything. If you go to war without proper preparation, it will almost always end up in a brutal defeat.

### I don't play games that I'm not confident of winning. If I know that I don't have much KFS capital, I won't even compete in that industry. By doing proper preparation, I can make sure that every business venture I go into will be wildly profitable.

### The New Rules: Accumulate and Invest in Assets

### In the book "Rich Dad Poor Dad", Robert Kiyosaki explained Rule number 1 of becoming rich. "The rich don't work for money."

### The rich focus on acquiring assets that make them money. Your knowledge is an asset, the money you have is an asset, your network is an asset.

### What I would recommend is that you do not focus on chasing after money. Become a millionaire not to have a million dollars, but for who you will become as a person.

### When it comes to personal finance, it is the same thing as well. The poor and middle class focus on making money, while the rich focus on acquiring assets that make them money. Have you ever heard of the story of the goose that lays golden eggs? The poor and middle class focus on getting more golden eggs while the rich focus on having more golden geese.

### A lot of people look only at the monetary value that they are getting in a career. While that is important, what is more important is to build a long term pipeline that pays you consistently. Would you rather get $1000 in cash or acquire a customer that will pay you $5000 over the course of your lifetime with them?

### When you do sales, you're not just making the money one time. You're building your network. Every client you close is a network that you have opened up, because of how many more referrals that client can potentially pass to you. If you work in IT or as an engineer, after you quit your job, the only asset you have is your experience (knowledge capital) and nothing else. A salesperson who quits his job on the other hand will have his/her whole clientele (social capital) following him/her.

### This is an asset you have, which no one can take away from you. This is also why your employer would want to retain you, for fear of losing all their customers to their competitor. What you want to build are assets. These assets increase your value as a person.

"Money is not something you chase. Money is something you attract by becoming a valuable person."

### As cliché as this quote sounds, it is absolutely true.

### For the guys: Money is like a pretty girl. The more you try to chase her, the more she runs away. If on the other hand you focus on becoming a high value guy, all the pretty girls just start coming to you. When you focus on becoming a high value person, you will not be needy, anxiously holding on to a girl for fear of losing her. This is because you would know that you have the ability to get a similar girl or better. When you have that abundant mindset and you focus on becoming a high value person, you attract opportunities easily.

### For the girls: This is true, isn't it?

### Let me give you a parallel in business. For me, I focus on increasing my value as a person. Business owners are willing to give me shares in their company simply because they know that I have the ability to help them grow their businesses. In a deal like that, my net worth can go up by $40,000 in an hour's time.

### The secret to how I have done that, is to exchange my knowledge capital, for assets. You see, knowledge capital can be duplicated. Since I am good at sales and marketing, I can repeat that process multiple times without losing anything.

### Business owners know the value that I bring to the table. This is why they are willing to give up shares in exchange for my expertise in helping them grow their businesses. On the other hand, if all I had was money, each time I invest in businesses, my cashflow gets lower and lower.

### What I've invested in myself in terms of gaining more knowledge pays me time and time again. I'm never afraid to lose money, because I have trust in my ability to make more money. People can steal money from me, but my knowledge capital and social capital is not something they can take away from me. The relationships I've built and the experiences I've gained are my assets. Those are what I focus on building, because they bring me money again and again.

### I like to focus on how to accumulate more Income Generating Assets (IGA). Rather than becoming an employee, I focus on becoming an entrepreneur which gives me unlimited income potential. Rather than focusing on short term money, I focus on improving my sales and management skills which help me to build my businesses. Rather than saving more cash which reduces in value over time, I focus on accumulating assets that increase in value over time.

### Build assets. Build assets. Build assets.

"The best investment you can ever make is in yourself" - Warren Buffett (World's greatest investor)

### The reason why you are the best investment is because investing in ourselves gives us one of the highest returns. Let's say you go for a seminar to learn sales and marketing for $2000. After the seminar, the knowledge you've learnt makes you $5000 more in the next 3 months. You are the greatest asset. There is no other investment that can give a return of 250% in 3 months.

### Another example, let's say you spend time and money to learn how to design websites. From acquiring this skillset, business owners are willing to pay you $5000 per website that you design for them. You see, there's no other investment that can pay as high as investing in yourself. Stocks, bonds, mutual funds and even cryptocurrencies will not be able to generate a return for you that is higher than if you had invested in yourself.

### You are the greatest asset. What are you going to put into yourself starting from today?

### The compound effect

### We must think like investors. Every decision that we make is an investment. The life that we live right now is an amalgamation of each and every decision that we have made throughout our life.

### The thing is that we have a limited amount of time, energy and money. We must think of how each and every decision we make affects us in the long term.

### Choosing to eat potato chips today instead of a healthy meal could cause us to think slower, which could cause us to miss our deadline on our project, which could cause us to have significantly lesser results in our career, which can cause us to live an unfulfilling life. Of course, this is an exaggerated analogy. Nonetheless, don't you think it's true? When you look around you, you see two types of people: people that are coping and people that are thriving. Why do you think that's the case? Was it one big decision they made that completely changed their lives, or small little decisions day in and day out that caused them to be who they are today.

### In the book "The Compound Effect", Darren Hardy talks about how small little changes you make in your daily life affects your results in a huge way when compounded over time.

### Let me show you how much 1% of difference can make:

1.01365 = 37.78

0.99365 = 0.0255

### If you just improved yourself by 1% every day, it compounds over time. At the end of the year, the way you think, talk and act would be so different. On the other hand, if you deteriorate by 1% every day, the reverse is also true.

### If one percent (1%) compounded over 365 days has such a big effect, what if you compounded that over 10 years?

1.013650 = 5,929,448,572,069,178 (Yes, you read that right, it's 5.9 Quadrillion) A Quadrillion is a Thousand Trillions.

### Every small little action you're taking from day to day is affecting your results in the long run. There is a momentum of success and a momentum of failure. It takes about 10,000 good decisions to make you a millionaire. Small, little decisions, day in and day out. Every single day. A decision to make your bed in the morning, a decision to read a book instead of watching television. That's the grind it takes if you want to be successful.

### What I have observed is that success is a science. There are principles that make people successful. And these same principles apply whether it is a sport, business, career or game. If you want to be successful, you do not have to be a very smart person. All you need, is to make good decisions.

### Why start now?

"If you want to plant a tree, the best time is 10 years ago. The next best time is now."

### If you want to achieve success, you have to make good decisions from day to day, minute to minute. For me, I constantly operate with the feeling of having a gun to my head. Every minute that I'm wasting that is not productive, my competitors are overtaking me. Successful people all have a constant sense of urgency. Let me explain why it's so important to start as early as you can.

### Question: When is the best time to start investing?

### The answer is simple: As soon as you can.

### Ideally, you'd start saving in your 20s, when you first leave school and begin earning paychecks. That's because the sooner you begin saving, the more time your money has to grow. Each year's gains can generate their own gains the next year - a powerful wealth-building phenomenon known as compounding.

### Savvy investors understand the benefits of investing early and taking advantage of the potential gains from compound interest. To help you understand how time and compound interest are related, here's an example:

Twenty-five year old Madison invests $2,000 annually over 10 years in her company's 401(k), with an average growth of 10 percent. When she retires, at the age of 65, her investment would have grown to $556,197.

On the other hand consider Cooper, age 34, who invests $2,000 annually over 30 years into his 401(k). At age 65, Cooper who has invested three times as much as Madison, will have $328,988 in his retirement account.

### Madison invests $2000 annually for 10 years while Cooper invests $2000 annually for 30 years. Why is it that Cooper has more money at the end of the day? Simply because he started early.

### This is an example of how much financial capital can compound over time. What about social capital and knowledge capital? If every day you read one chapter of a good book, compounded over 10 years, how many books would you have read? If every day you just meet 3 new people, you would know 1000 people in a year, and 10,000 people in 10 years.

### I study success as much as I study failure. What I realised is that it is the compound effect of decisions made daily that determine the destiny of someone.

### The secrets to mastery

### As I started studying all the top athletes, entrepreneurs and masters of their crafts, I observed that the achievers in any field tend to have 4 factors that ensure their success.

### I call them, "The 4 Pillars of Success"

### When you have this 4 strong pillars working for you, success becomes inevitable. I will share more about them in the next chapter.

#  The 4 Pillars of Success

### My mentor shared with me that if I wanted to be successful in any field, I needed to have 4 pillars of success, which are the fundamentals of any form of mastery. Whether it is mastering basketball, soccer, studies, sales, business or building a network, the fundamentals are always the same.

### Almost every successful person has these 4 pillars working for them. Especially people like Michael Jordan (one of the greatest basketball players) Mark Zuckerberg (founder of Facebook) and Warren Buffett (the world's greatest investor).

### The 4 pillars are: Mentor, Network, Enrichment and Action.

### Mentor

### The reason why a mentor is so important is because a mentor cuts short your learning curve. By learning from him/her, you can avoid making mistakes which your mentor made. This will save you A LOT of time.

### Here are some steps to take when finding a mentor:

### Find a mentor that you want to be like and duplicate after Him/Her.

### I recommend doing the "Mentor Test" by asking yourself if you would swap lives with this mentor. Ask yourself, "If you were to work the way this particular mentor did, and sacrificed the things that he has sacrificed, would you be happy to achieve whatever he has achieved?" A lot of people find any Tom, Dick or Harry to be their mentor. Finding a business mentor is an important part of growing and succeeding in your chosen career or endeavor. You need help. You need guidance. You need to speak with someone who has more experience than you. There are 2 questions you must ask yourself. How do you find these people? What do you say when you encounter them?

Find common ground.

### This could be a school connection, hobby, passion, family origin or pet. It is much easier for someone to honor your request to speak with them when they feel like you have something in common with them. Since your mentor is going to be advising you on issues that are both personal and professional it just makes sense that you find sincere common ground that connects you.

### Connect with honest intention.

### Do not be afraid to ask your prospective mentor for what you want. If you have a business and you'd like some feedback, then ask for feedback. If you believe that this prospective mentor can connect you with promotional partners who could help you, then ask for promotional help. If the prospective mentor has a network and you would like to be included, ask for an introduction. Whatever your intended goal is, ask in a professional straightforward manner.

Offer value to them. If you expect the prospective mentor to help you then you should be prepared to help them too. For example, you could share information about your common passions and interest. Whatever you have in common, open up a conversation and give them some of your deep insight. As another example, maybe it makes sense to offer a complimentary service. If your expertise can be of specific value to them feel free to offer it up as a way to honestly connect.

### Ask for an appropriate next step.

### The last thing you need to do is to ask for the appropriate next step; whether it's inviting them to lunch, meeting them at their office, or setting up a phone meeting. There are a number of approaches. Just be sure that your approach is easy for them to receive. You don't want to be a burden on their schedule. You want to make it easy for them to interact with you.

### Network

"You are the average of the 5 people you spend the most time with" - Jim Rohn

### Why you must build a network.

### The reason why it is so important to be in the right environment is simply because our environment is a lot more powerful than our willpower. If we are in a classroom full of people that are hardworking, it will compel us to study more. On the other hand, if we are in a classroom full of people that are always playing and fooling around, we will do the same.

### We tend to play to the standard of the people around us. If everyone around me gets 95/100 for a test, and I only got 85/100, it would make me feel stupid and compel me to work harder. Whereas if everyone around me got 70/100 for a test, I would think that I'm good enough and not work as hard anymore. This applies for financial success as well. Mark Cuban would probably not be satisfied if he only made $1 million a year because his standard for success is that of a billionaire. We all have a barometer for success in our minds. Some of us have a $500/month mindset, some have a $5000/month mindset, some have a $50,000 per month mindset while people like Warren Buffett have a $37 million a day mindset. If you want to improve, you must always hang out with people better than you.

### This is why, smokers tend to have friends that smoke, drinkers tend to have friends that drink, and entrepreneurs tend to have friends that are in business. According to Jim Rohn, your income is the average of the 5 people you spend the most time with. A good seed, thrown in the right environment will blossom and bear fruit. On the other hand, if it was thrown in the wrong environment, it would not bear fruit or amount to anything.

### Have the mindset of a farmer.

### In order to be good at networking, you must have the mindset of being a farmer instead of a hunter. Instead of looking at every person as a prey, or a prospect to close, we should focus on seeing how we can bring value to the other party, so that when we do ask for a favour, they would reciprocate. Networking is about sowing seeds and watering them. Sharing with people about your business followed by nurturing and educating them. Not every seed would bloom to become a flower. But when you've sown enough seeds, you would definitely reap the rewards. Farming is a very long term play. Hunting is not.

### Be a good giver and a good receiver.

### In his book "Jab, Jab, Jab, Right Hook", Gary Vaynerchuk talks about how it is important to give first before asking. Every relationship should ideally be a 51-49 relationship. Expect to give 51% and receive 49%. A good giver must also be a good receiver. No one likes to be around takers.

### In any social setting, we must constantly think of how we can bring value to the table. If you're a young person and you cannot offer opportunities or connections to the people around you, the best value you can offer is positive emotions. Older people enjoy speaking with younger people because of the youthful energy they bring to the table.

### Every relationship should ideally be win-win because any relationship that is not win-win will not last for long.

### The reason that you network with others in business is not to sell them your business. When you are networking with others in business, your primary goal should be to sell them on you. I know everyone has heard it said over and over again, "people don't care about your product, but they will care about you". There is a lot more to it than that. When you care about people, people will care about you, and they will also come to understand you as a person of integrity and honor as well.

### At that point they will be interested in the product you have because someone they trust is offering it. Sometimes they do not see a need for themselves, but they will see the need for others and will happily refer you to these others. The referrals are what you are looking for. If your goal is to hard sell them on your product that is fine. But, they will know you as pushy and not want to refer you to anyone.

### Focus on getting to know 3 new people every day.

### Social capital is a huge asset to build. If you know 3 new people daily, you would know 1,095 people after a year. Knowing could mean adding them on social media, meeting them at a networking event, or through a mutual friend. The more social capital you have, the more valuable you would be as a person.

### Immerse yourself in a positive environment.

### Another way to immerse yourself in an environment is to attend weekly trainings and meetings with Apollo, or any other personal development community. Make more friends. When you immerse yourself in a positive environment, their positivity and their beliefs will rub off on you.

### Enrichment

### Enrichment for the mind is like nutrients for a plant to grow. Every book you read is like a workout at the gym for your brain. The more we learn new things. The better we would be at facing life's challenges.

### Consume positive information.

### Enrich and strengthen your mindset by consuming information materials such as books, videos, audios, seminars and blog posts. Nonetheless, do not simply consume any sort of information material you can get your hands on. All these information materials are like food for your brain. If you consume junk, you become junk.

### I consume A LOT of information on a daily basis. The success audios and books that I have included in the folder for you are some of the best information that I have ever consumed. What I am giving you is not information. In fact, what I am helping you to do is to actually save you time. If you simply read or watch any video out there you might not know where to start or what to read. People who try to figure everything out by themselves tend to get drowned in information and feel overwhelmed.

### The true battle that is waged for new salespeople doesn't take place in the marketplace. The true battle isn't between you and your competition. Success in selling takes place in the mind of the salesperson. In other words, success is in your mind first, and then it materializes in your results. The resources provided will successfully rewire your mindset positively towards sales and business in general.

### Your mindset plays a critical part of your success in sales, if you don't believe you can sell then you won't. These information materials are designed to rewire your brain into thinking positively towards sales so as to garner you as much success as possible. On top of that, you are going to get a ton of value, from understanding how to be good at this profession. The more you listen to them, the more the psychology and attitude of the top achievers would rub off onto you.

### Read the 10 recommended books in order.

In The Apollo Method, we have outlined 10 books for you to read. What I highly recommend is that you read the 10 books in order. No jumping steps. There are reasons why they are placed in this order. These books are classics, written by people like Robert Kiyosaki, Dale Carnegie, Tony Robbins, etc.

### My mentor challenged me, telling me that after I finish reading the books, I would make my first $10,000. I didn't believe him at first, but took up the challenge anyway. After I finished reading all 10 books, everything came into place and I understood why they were placed in that order. These books have truly changed my life. The month after I finished the 10 books, I made my first 5 figure income in a month. The books really work. I am not the only one that has gotten breakthroughs from the books alone. There are many other success stories similar to mine.

### The reason why a book is better than a podcast or video is because of the level of consciousness of the author when writing it. A book is edited many more times compared to a speech. It is the essence of what the author is trying to convey. You can learn in 5 hours what the author learnt in 5 years from reading a good book. A lot of people want the easy way out. I hope you are not one of them!

### It's true that reading requires more mental energy. However, it's not about what we like or don't like to do. It's about what works. For example, I don't like to brush my teeth, but I still brush my teeth every morning and night because I know it's important. I have read hundreds of books. By giving you all the books that you NEED to read instead of any random book you pick up from the library, it is going to save you a lot of time. After you have finished reading the books, you can ask me why they were placed in this order and I will explain to you why. Before that, you must read the books first. Trust me, books really work.

### Consume success audios and videos.

### In The Apollo Method package, you also have success audios to listen to, from the top mentors like Jim Rohn, Tony Robbins, Brian Tracy, etc. They are designed to enrich and empower you in your life. Success audios are especially good when you are travelling from one place to another. Let's say it takes you half an hour to travel to work/school. That means, you will spend around an hour travelling every day. Instead of listening to the radio, you can listen to success audios or watch positive videos. In an hour, you can finish a full speech on YouTube. That means you would have listened to over 300 speeches, podcasts and audiobooks in a year. Can you imagine how much this would compound over 365 days?

### How to download videos to your device so that you don't have to use mobile data to play them.

  * ### If you're an Apple user,

    * ### Download O player either from App Store or Google play store

    * ### Find your favourite videos on YouTube

    * Download to your computer using http://en.savefrom.net

    * ### If you're using iPhone, transfer using wifi transfer from your computer to your iPhone using O player

    * ### If you're using an Android device, use an Android cable to transfer files over to your Android phone

    * ### I recommend playing the audios at 1.7X the speed. This is because your ears can hear faster than the speaker can speak. You can start with 1.3X the speed first to get comfortable.

  * ### Or if you're an Android user, you can visit the App Store

    * ### Search for Videoder and install it

    * ### Use the app to watch your favorite videos from anywhere on the web and also download them to your mobile device

### The reason I recommend playing the success audios faster is because if you play it at 1.7X speed, you will only take 40 minutes to listen to a 60-minute speech, saving you 20 minutes. Can you imagine how many extra minutes you would have saved after this has compounded over the months and years?

### Attend trainings and seminars.

### Personal development seminars are one of the main reasons behind my rapid growth. The first seminar I went for was when I was 16 years old. Going for that seminar set me on the momentum of success, and changed the trajectory of my life forever. Ever since, my mother has spent at least $50,000 on my personal development. Some people might think that this is crazy. The thing is this, if I spent that $50,000 going to university, how much income would I be able to make after I graduate? I would say that the income I make right now is way more than I would have made had I gone to university instead.

### Of course, you do not have to spend so much money on seminars. I think that information should be affordable, so that more people would have access to education. I strongly believe that education should be a mission, more so than a business. I highly recommend for you to attend business trainings and seminars. The moment you start, you will start gaining a lot of momentum and you would be unstoppable.

### Action

How to cultivate work ethic.

### Work ethic requires momentum. For me, it is normal to meet 4-5 people every single day. Every day I am meeting new people. That is my schedule on a daily basis. Nonetheless, if I suddenly stop doing appointments and meeting people for a long period of time, I would completely lose momentum. It takes me about 1 month to get my momentum back before I can pack my schedule with appointments like I normally do.

### The thing about work ethic is that once you've cultivated it, it feels very natural. The law of inertia states that an object in motion will stay in motion whereas an object at rest would stay at rest. It is funny how after working hard for a while, your whole being would be geared towards working. After you have gained momentum, you will constantly feel a natural motivation to work.

### At the start, you will have to use a lot of willpower to force yourself to work. However, after you hit a tipping point, working feels so natural to you that when you don't work you just feel uneasy. It is hard to describe this, but I think my brain has rewired in such a way that I feel very uneasy whenever I don't work, and the only way to relieve that is to do something productive.

### If you want to cultivate work ethic, you have to start somewhere, and work harder incrementally. Every day, just do slightly more work than you did yesterday. After about 3 weeks of consistent working, you will be able to reach the tipping point where your brain is rewired and programmed to be productive.

### Take massive action.

### Even after acquiring loads of information from your mentor and enrichment, you still need to put them into action. Knowledge is only potential power until it is used effectively. Take massive action on all you learn and implement them in your career. Success takes hard work. Personal development takes hard work.

### I have never seen an entrepreneur or an athlete being at the top of his/her game who did not put in the necessary hours. In the book, "Outliers" by Malcolm Gladwell, he talks about how all the top athletes have put in a minimum of 9,000 hours into their craft before they became successful. If you practice for 5 hours a day, that is 5 years worth of consistent effort.

### There is always a price to pay for success. Are you willing to pay the price? If you have the first 3 pillars but you do not take action, all of it would be useless. On the other hand, if you only took action without the proper guidance and knowledge, you are only going to keep hitting walls and repeating the same mistakes over and over again.

### There you have it! These are the 4 pillars of success. What I need you to do right now is to rate yourself on a scale of 1 to 10 on how strong each pillar is. How good is your mentor, your current social circle, the enrichment you have and the amount of action that you take. When these 4 pillars are strong, success becomes inevitable.

### Let's look at some case studies! I have researched and found information about the people who are at the top at their game, and looked at whether they have the 4 pillars of success.

### Mentor

### Michael Jordan's coach was Phil Jackson.

### Mark Zuckerberg's mentor was Steve Jobs.

### Warren Buffett's mentor was Benjamin Graham who wrote the book "The Intelligent Investor".

### With the top people in the industry nurturing and guiding them, success becomes a default.

### Network

### Michael Jordan was playing every day with all the top NBA athletes.

### Mark Zuckerberg was hanging out with all the other Harvard students.

### Warren Buffett's social circle is full of billionaires.

### We are who we hang around with. Being around other successful people forces us to perform at our best.

### Enrichment

### Michael Jordan spent a lot of time in the gym, doing drills, etc.

### Mark Zuckerberg reads 50 books a year.

### Warren Buffett started reading at 9 years old, and reads around 500 pages a day. That's equivalent to 2 books a day.

### Constant enrichment is like nutrients to a plant. They help a plant to grow to become the best version of itself.

### Action

### Michael Jordan has played so many matches and tournaments to achieve the mastery that he has achieved.

### Mark Zuckerberg started Facebook since he was in University, and has been working on Facebook for a decade before it has become the giant it is now.

### Warren Buffett started reading books from the age of 9 and started investing from the age of 11. Can you imagine the compound effect of Warren Buffett's knowledge?

### Before proceeding to the next chapter, do take out a piece of paper to write down ways in which you can get the 4 pillars of success for yourself. Think through clearly because these would be the foundation for your success in life.

### How will you find a mentor?

### How will you immerse yourself in a positive environment?

### How will you meet more like minded people?

### How will you consume more positive content?

### How will you take more action?

#  Subtracting your Way to Success

### With the advent of the internet, there is so much information out there. Sometimes, this can be very overwhelming with too many free articles, podcasts and videos. This is why it is so important to know what to read, watch, or listen to. When I first started out without proper guidance, I consumed all sorts of information. I would say 70% of the information I consumed was junk. What I want to help you do is to take away the junk.

### You see, perfection is not when there is nothing more to add. It is when there is nothing more to take away.

In his excellent book, "Antifragile", Nicholas Nassim Taleb explains that we tend to be suckers for positive advice, the "additive" approaches offered by how-to books, top ten tips, crash diets, medication prescriptions, get-rich-quick schemes, etc. Sadly, in practice these "additive" approaches often don't deliver the hoped-for results, and can even cause actual harm. So if addition isn't as strong a bet as we'd like it to be, what's the alternative? In this chapter, we're going to explore the unexpected power of subtraction.

### Whenever I design a system or business, I design it to be as lean as possible. After I've added whatever I need to add, I constantly ask myself, "If I take this away, will the system still work?"

### "If I remove this chapter, will the reader still be able to understand the message I am trying to convey?"

### "If I remove this expense, can my business still function?"

### The best coaches are not those that add. The best coaches are those that subtract. A lot of people tend to look for 'positive advice', additive approaches; "What do I need to ADD to my life to make me more X and less Y?" But that turns out to be the wrong question. When it comes to living your most inspired, authentic and beautiful life, the solution is almost always a subtraction. In a moment, I'm going to offer you a simple equation, but first, a few definitions:

### Clarity: Mental clarity is a kind of "universal resource" that gives rise to the wellbeing, high performance and stellar results individuals and organisations are looking for.

### Capacity: At the level of principle, each person has an unlimited capacity for experiencing qualities such as wellbeing, creativity, flow, resilience, security, love, learning, peace, connection, purpose, presence and intuition.

### Contamination: Just as a pollutant contaminates water, misinformation contaminates mental clarity.

"Clarity = capacity - contamination"

### Clarity is when you subtract information contaminants away from your capacity to learn. Whatever is left is what is clear to you.

### Most people look to make their life better by adding something. Get healthy by exercising more. Get the team more productive by adding more people. Be more successful by gaining more knowledge.

### In fact, the opposite is true. To get better, you need to remove things. people think to be more successful they need to be more... decisive, inclusive, enthusiastic, communicative, patient, etc. To be a better team they need to add more enthusiasm, more meetings, more collaboration.

### Conversely, every leader and team I have helped over the years has had to remove something to get better. Instead of just plowing ahead and adding a new idea or skill to stop the organisational disease, they needed to remove something.

### If you want to be a good manager, you have to remove distractions, remove bottlenecks and also remove the limiting beliefs of your team members.

### Remove distractions.

### A leader's job is to get people focused like a laser beam on strategic items, and not to keep up with 10 or 15 top priorities or a new emergency every week. One executive proudly told me he had 10 top priorities for the year. When I asked his team members, they could each only come up with 5 – and with only some overlap. The 10 were a distraction. Keep focused, keep it small, keep it doable and keep moving forward together towards your vision. What JT Foxx recommends is to come up with a "stop doing list". Instead of a "to do list", we can come up with a stop doing list for things that we should stop doing that are not serving us in our lives. When JT Foxx himself did this exercise, he came up with 143 things that he should not be doing. This gave him the space to do what he needs to be productive. When we subtract the distractions, we gain clarity. We don't need more time, we need less distractions.

### Remove bottlenecks.

### Sometimes a surgical approach is needed. Cut out the thing or the person before they contaminate the rest of the organisational body. However, most organisational diseases are not sourced in a person or location. The source is normally thinking, methods and protocols. So identify and remove the things that are killing you. Then you will have room to breathe life into yourself and your organization.

Remove limiting beliefs.

### We all buy products and services on a fairly regular basis. Yet many business owners will admit to having some negative thoughts around selling. It conjures up images of unwanted calls, pushy sales people and feeling pressure to make a decision.

### Unfortunately any self-sabotaging beliefs you hold around the sales process will get in the way of you making a profit in your business. When this happens, businesses struggle to maintain a competitive edge and start to decline. In order to reprogram any negative thoughts you may have around selling, work on creating the environment where a sale naturally takes place. This means taking the focus off yourself, your products and services, and putting your attention on others by understanding their needs and finding a solution for them.

### You can sell by default. Human beings were born to sell. One of the main reasons we can survive as a species is due to our ability to communicate and exchange ideas better than other animals.

### The reason people think they can't sell is because of the contamination in their mindset. This is why the solution is not to add. The solution is to remove the limiting beliefs. I can give you all the different systems and techniques in sales, but until these limiting beliefs are removed, it would be akin to stepping on the accelerator and the brake at the same time. It is not the arduous journey up the mountain that will wear a man down. Instead, it is the tiny stone in his shoe.

### In my coaching with my clients, I've realised a few common misconceptions about sales.

### Common myths about sales

### Myth 1: You need to be good at talking

### Surprisingly, I've realised that the best salespeople are not necessarily the best at talking. In fact, they are the best at listening. The best salespeople do not need to convince their clients. Instead, they ask the right questions so their clients convince themselves.

### Myth 2: Introverts can't sell

### In reality, fast talkers don't really do very well in the world of sales. They have a bad reputation because their prospects can sense the pressure, the insincerity and the lack of concern and compassion. A good listener will outsell a fast talker any day of the week. When you don't listen, you don't learn about the individuals, the companies and their priorities. You won't be able to address their needs, hence your chances of making the sale are greatly diminished.

### Myth 3: To succeed in sales you must fake it till you make it

### The main mistake I see salespeople make when they first start off is their fear of losing face. I would like to share that when we first start off, the most important thing is for us to be willing to let down our ego to make money. This is where we serve people drinks, answer every call and serve as many people as possible. Don't worry about people looking down on you. Many self-made millionaires started from humble beginnings. Only when you're humble, will people like you and do business with you. I don't recommend portraying a fake persona, trying to look rich or act rich. You will be able to get more business from being humble. If you don't have it, don't fake it.

### Myth 4: Sales has no job security

### Some people believe that working a job has more security. They prefer a fixed paycheck instead of a results based paycheck. Would you rather be in control of your income or have you boss be in control of your income? When you are in sales, you decide how hard you want to work and much you want to be paid! Rather than having only one boss or company to be your paymaster, all your clients are your paymasters. Salespeople are the most resilient in a recession because they will never lose their "job". They are their own bosses.

### Myth 5: "I'm afraid to sell to my friends or family for fear of how they would look at me"

### If our intentions are truly to serve and add value, people can feel it. If you believe in the product and you know it's good, but you do not offer it to your loved ones, then that would create cognitive dissonance in your mind. It's either, 1) you don't think the product is truly good for people (which means you have been "scamming" all those strangers) or 2) you don't care about your family and friends enough to offer what is good for them.

If we choose not to offer what is best for the people around us for fear of losing face, then that would be really selfish of us, wouldn't it? The cognitive dissonance that this creates would cause you to have suboptimal results in your selling career because you would not be aligned. The highest level of service is to take care of our family first, followed by our community, followed by our country and eventually the world. What I recommend is to at least let your loved ones know about your product. Whether they buy it or not is up to them.

Myth 6: Salespeople aren't needed anymore.

Even with the transformation brought about by the internet and social media, there will always be the need for a salesperson who serves as a resource for his or her prospects. Relationships still count. Providing helpful and unique solutions always separates professional salespeople from mere peddlers. Are you a trusted resource for your prospects and customers? If you are, salespeople would still be needed. People still trust people more than computers.

### What The Apollo Method will help you to do is to help you gain clarity. When you have The Apollo Method, you will realise that you no longer need all the other useless information out there. This is because you would be crystal clear of what you need to do. You need to empty your cup, and clear the contamination. Subtract all the limiting beliefs that you have placed onto yourself as to why you can't sell. No one was born a doctor. No one was born a salesperson. No one was born an entrepreneur. We are trained to be doctors, salespeople and entrepreneurs.

### In The Apollo Method, it's not about teaching you "Neuro linguistic programming", "how to manipulate others" or the "16 killer closes." Instead, it's about removing the contamination. Clearing away any limiting beliefs that do not serve you. Clearing away any negative intentions that are not helpful for the sale. Clearing away all the techniques taught by the so called gurus that only confuse you further. What we want, is to give you clarity. With clarity, you'll be a super salesperson.

#  The Apollo Method

### Right now, there is too much information circulating all around the internet. The people of this generation thus face a different problem from the previous generation. In the past, information was hard to find. People would pay thousands of dollars to attend seminars just to learn from others. In the past, information had to be spread through word of mouth. Nowadays, information can be transmitted digitally, and can be duplicated easily. Information is so abundant that it is almost always free. You can learn almost anything on YouTube. From learning sales, to business, to picking a lock, etc.

### However, the problem is that because information is so abundant, people tend to get confused easily. It requires so much time to filter through junk information or even misinformation. There is a lot of valuable content out there, but it is mixed with so much junk content.

### That's where the next opportunity in this era arises. Helping people to filter through the junk. In other words, saving people time.

### The reason why I designed The Apollo Method is because when I first started out in entrepreneurship, there was too much information around that it was very overwhelming. The more I learnt, the more I knew that there's so much more to learn. I constantly felt frustrated and stressed out trying to figure things out.

### You see, there are many ways to get from Point A to Point B.

### Take travelling from your house to your workplace/school for example.

### There are so many possible routes that you could take. Nonetheless, all you need to learn is one way, the fastest way.

### Similarly, there are a thousand and one ways to make money. You could do an online business, become a consultant, be an employee, do affiliate marketing or do sales. And if you want to do sales, there are so many ways to do sales. You could do social media marketing, Facebook advertising, going door to door, doing roadshows, going for networking events, etc.

### I have tested so many different ways to prospect and meet clients. Most of them worked, but some worked better than the others. I could have listed all the ways down in The Apollo Method, but I decided to pick the leanest way possible and laid everything out step by step in The Apollo Method so you will get clarity.

### What I teach in The Apollo Method is how to find customers, do a consultation with them, present your pitch, go for the close and handle objections. At the end of this 5 steps, you would have successfully gotten yourself a client already. It is step by step, and easy to learn.

### Learn what is proven

### The purpose of using The Apollo Method is to save you time. Rather than taking 6 months to a year figuring everything out by yourself, you will shortcut your learning curve by following the proven scripts and templates in The Apollo Method.

### The Apollo Method clears the noise that is being screamed to you constantly by the world on the topic of sales. It narrows everything down for you so you don't need 1001 sales techniques. Realistically, you only need to master 3-5.

### Instead of wandering aimlessly around the internet trying to learn every single method of sales, why not focus all that beautiful energy of yours into just about 3 to 5 methods that can really improve your skillset and make you a master salesperson.

### This was the exact system I used to build a team of 140 people in 10 months. The reason it works so well is because of how fast it can be duplicated. A new member can get on board and start selling within a week of learning The Apollo Method.

### Why most sales managers cannot get breakthroughs is because they do not have a standardised system that can be duplicated among their salespeople. Each salesperson has to figure everything out on their own, leaving them frustrated and quitting the whole business altogether. I have been in their shoes, trying to figure everything out myself.

### The reason why I have designed The Apollo Method, is because I didn't want everyone to have to go through the slow learning curve which I have gone through. It takes a lot of trial and error before finding a winning formula. By a lot, I mean hundreds and even thousands of appointments. I have risked losing so many deals that did not close simply because of the wrong techniques that I have used in the past.

"I fear not the man who masters 10,000 kicks. I fear the man that masters one kick 10,000 times." - Bruce Lee

### Take swimming for example, all Joseph Schooling (Olympic gold medalist) needs when he swims is one nice stroke, perfectly choreographed. He does not swing his hands in a million directions. He has clarity. The job of his coach is not to teach him new techniques. The job of his coach is to help him get the fundamentals right and also remove minor errors in his stroke that might be affecting his performance. The purpose of a coach is to give you clarity, and maximise your efficiency.

### We have spent so much time, money and energy to find out what works and what doesn't. Everything in The Apollo Method is proven. Which means, it has gotten tangible results when implemented. Therefore, knowing the system can shortcut your learning curve by at least 6 months.

### The whole sales process is relatively complex. I'm pretty sure that anyone who has tried to find information and resources based on sales can testify of its complexity. The Apollo Method on the other hand is simple. It takes you through all you need to know in sales very easily and clearly. This method goes straight to the point on essential topics in sales without beating around the bush. It is all you will probably ever need.

### I'm sure you have heard of the 80/20 Pareto principle before. 20% of effort gives you 80% of results. 4% of effort gives you 64% of results. Why waste time on the other 96% when you only need to focus on the 4%? I have done hundreds or even thousands of presentations before having a deep understanding of the sales process. It reached a point where even before the customer raises his objection, I would already have known what his objection is. The Apollo Method details everything.

### It is what works, simplified.

### The Apollo Method is so simple to use that if you can follow things step by step, you'll definitely be able to learn it and get results. I strongly believe that for managers to succeed in any business involving sales, they must be able to make the whole sales process so simple that anyone can do it. In order to have the highest level of duplication, we need to be like McDonald's, systemising the whole burger making process such that you do not need a chef to be able to make a burger. Anyone (even a 16 year old) can make a burger within 1 week of working at McDonald's.

### In order to build a business that can grow very quickly, you need a system that makes sales so simple it becomes like an entry level job. If a business requires a lot of talented people to run it, McDonald's wouldn't be the empire it is today.

### Similarly, you can learn The Apollo Method within 4 hours and be able to apply everything within 2 weeks. That is the reason why I could keep duplicating and expanding my team so quickly.

### Of course, leadership and personal development still takes years to master. However, the sales process itself can be learnt within days or weeks.

### A huge part of The Apollo Method is getting your inner game mastered. Success is 80% mindset and 20% mechanics. The main purpose of this book is mainly to tune your mindset so you would be successful in this career. After your mindset is tuned, you'll be ready to learn the proven techniques taught in The Apollo Method.

### Your Inner Game

### Willingness to take action

### Having the right mindset is critical because it is the basis for taking action which is how you produce results in sales. All successful people have a strong bias toward taking positive action. Positive action is making the calls, getting quotes out as promised and the all important follow up to get a prospect's decision. Taking action is the biggest difference between the great ones and the average sales people who are just getting by. Ineffective salespeople suffer from ineffective activity. Ineffective activity is the result of fear, worry, and anxieties that are created in the mind of the individual. Poor performers look for what could go wrong. They tend to negatively pre-judge the prospect's ability to buy. Poor performers will give up on the sale much quicker than higher performing sales people. Poor mindset leads to poor behavior which leads to poor results.

### The mentality difference.

### The winners don't focus on problems, they focus on solutions. They possess a never give up mentality and they expect to get the sale. Do they get them all? Of course not, but what they do is forget their losses quickly and focus on winning the next deal. Anyone who has ever achieved success in any endeavor has done so by overcoming the obstacles that stand in their way. The size of the problem is never the issue. To put it another way, "it is not the size of the dog in the fight... it is the size of the fight in the dog that matters." Winners expect to get the sale. Winners believe in themselves and they believe their solution is what is best for the customer. Winners love objections and can't wait for the prospect to tell them that their solution is too expensive.

### The battle is won or lost before the sale begins.

### Too many times I've seen salespeople shrivel up at the first sight of a customer objection. They fold up, already beaten before they are able to utter a single word in their defense. Sun -Tzu in The Art of War said "The battle is won or lost before the fight begins." What do you think he meant by that? The sale is won or lost first in the mind of the sales professional.

### The most successful sales professionals have all the same fears and doubts as everyone else; the difference is how they respond to their fears. They don't analyze, or become paralyzed by fear. The winners get busy. They don't let problems stop them from being a positive force...

### Analyzing something to death is a waste of your time and energy. Winners become comfortable with the discomfort and move ahead in spite of the situation.

### Learn to fail forward.

### Understand that real growth comes from getting out of your comfort zone and taking action. You'll still feel the fear but you'll be empowered to act in spite of your fear. When you do this, you're winning the inner game of selling. Then you'll find yourself getting in front of that tough prospect and convincing them to hire you even if you do charge more. You'll find yourself following up with prospects until they either say "yes, you're my vendor" or "no, go away". Either way you're taking action. You can't control what the prospect decides, but you can influence them to buy. In order to take your game and ultimately your life, to the top, you must master the inner game of selling. You must improve your mindset by believing in yourself and believing deeply in the value you offer your customer. You must change your mindset to one of "Why in the world would anyone not hire me... that's just crazy." When you believe that, you will start acting in a manner that is consistent with those beliefs.

### If it is to be, it is up to me.

### The final piece of the puzzle is personal responsibility. Once you take complete and utter responsibility for where you're at and what happens to you, you empower yourself to change and grow. Winners win because they decide they are going to be winners. They take responsibility for their results. They don't blame the market, they don't blame the competition, and they don't blame the customer. Winners all know one thing -- they win or lose the sale because of one thing and one thing only.

### Themselves.

### How The Apollo Method is different

Don't sell TO someone, sell FOR someone

### When we chase potential customers for business, they respond with the 'fight or flight' mechanism we each were born with. Try changing how you think about customers, in other words your mindset towards them.

### Rather than helping customers solve a problem, so many business owners rely on an old sales formula of selling. The difference between these two positions is vast. That's why publicity is an important tool in helping business owners communicate clearly what they're offering by seeing their products or services through the eyes of their customer. When we think of advertising or marketing, mostly it's a 'push' mentality involving what the benefits of your product or service are. With publicity though, we have the chance to connect with customers through personal stories and tools that help make a strong believable connection.

### Give customers solutions for their problems.

### Customers want solutions to their problems, they want evidence that your solution works and they want to know you're a professional who can help them. Approaching customers with this mindset helps position you more positively in their minds. Changing your positioning towards customers establishes greater trust and helps small business owners understand that your role is as an expert or adviser - not salesperson. The average sales professional is hard working, focused and passionate - but they're so often in tune with what they're selling that they forget the customer, their needs and the fact that building trust happens before any sale occurs.

### Stop chasing business, attract it.

### The problem is that many salespeople are set up to fail from the start because they spend their time chasing prospects that want to avoid being 'sold' to. It's understandable, it's what we all initially think selling is about - spiking self-worth, promoting products and services and finding ways to talk about what 'we do'. But this usually achieves zero results as clients feel hunted. It's Jungle Survival 101: If being chased, run!

### While it may sound obvious, we all fall into the trap in the beginning and push ourselves on unwary customers who retreat - the result? Frustration, disappointment and stress as our business doesn't do as well as we hope for.

### How fast the system can duplicate

### The difference between The Apollo Method and other methods is because it doesn't take a genius to be able to use it. Anyone can sell. Male, Female, White, Black, Asian, anyone. As long as you're willing to do exactly as the method instructs then you will be successful with it. It is perfect for network marketing professionals, insurance agents, property agents, entrepreneurs and also newbies in sales. The Apollo Method is the surefire route you need to take to boost your success in business.

### The effectiveness of a system or methodology lies in how fast it can be duplicated. How long does it take for a new salesperson to be inducted, and how long does he/she take to master the system. The shorter the learning curve, the easier it is to scale the business.

#  Duplication is the Name of the Game

### Before you use The Apollo Method, you must first understand what systems are and how to look at them. Are systems meant to be followed methodically? Or should systems be open for improvement and tweaking?

### On one hand, sales is an art, where everyone has a different style of selling and everyone expresses himself/herself differently. On the other hand, sales is also a science. We must engineer systems that make sales work like clockwork. Generate the leads, filter the leads, close them into clients and ask for referrals. Tick tock, tick tock. Businesses must be consistent and predictable. It should be a simple numbers game.

### I used to be a person that doesn't like to follow rules. If you're like me, I like to create, innovate and do things my own way. For me, I hated following things by the book. I like to be creative and innovative and see how I can improve an existing process.

### It was only after I started building my team and my businesses that I started to realise the importance of systems. Systems help you to automate certain processes, allowing you to work ON the business instead of IN the business. Systems create a structure for the organisation. In any organisation, creativity without structure only leads to chaos.

### It is like how human beings are designed. Two eyes, one nose, one mouth, two hands, two legs, etc. 90% of us have the same structure. Nonetheless, everyone looks different. We have different eyes, noses, mouths, etc. This applies for systems. The structure is the same, but the details can be different.

### Importance of fundamentals

### A good way to explain how to use systems is to draw an analogy from a sport. Let's use the sport of pool as an example.

### I enjoy playing pool and have watched many professional pool players. All the players have their own unique stroke, because of the difference in their physique. Each player's stroke is slightly different from one another. Nonetheless, as I observed further, I realised that there are certain fundamentals that are similar throughout all of them.

### In every sport there are certain fundamentals. Just like sales and business, there are certain fundamentals that are recommended for us to follow. The fundamentals are very important. In pool, there are many aspects of a stroke. The top pool players all have at least 90% of the fundamentals of a good stroke.

### Those are the fundamentals that you have to learn especially when you first start. You can tweak your stroke in your own way only after mastering the fundamentals.

### Similarly, it is okay to have your own style of selling. Everyone will have their own style of presenting, and selling. However, you must stick as closely to the fundamentals as possible. Learn the fundamentals first, before trying to reinvent it.

"Master the method before tweaking it in your own way"

### In your first 30 days of learning The Apollo Method, I highly recommend that you duplicate from the system 100%. Not 90%, not 99% but 100%. Ask the person who introduced The Apollo Method to you to guide you on how to use it. Or else, you can watch my videos online that teach about The Apollo Method.

You can get the videos at: http://x.co/APOLLO

### When I was in network marketing, I observed that the people who succeed the most are those that do whatever their leader asks them to do without questioning. They just follow 100% of the instructions in order to learn the system. Only after they've mastered it, do they tweak it to their own style.

### As you learn the system, you will have questions that arise. You might even be skeptical of certain things.

### Questioning is good. I encourage questioning. Nonetheless, we should duplicate first before questioning. Because if we always question before duplicating, it wastes too much time and you won't get good at this fast enough.

### How to learn The Apollo Method

### It is pretty easy to learn The Apollo Method. Basically, you get added to a folder with the top success materials from all over the world. These materials are centered on the most important things you probably won't get anywhere else to boost your business. You get ten vital e-books to read, success audios for motivation and inspiration, weekly training with us and last but not least the platform that will allow you to take action. All these are basically all you need for guaranteed success in your business. There are so many opportunities where you can sell products and services to make money.

I created a course on Udemy, you can search for "Alaric Ong Udemy Course" on Google and you would probably see a course of me teaching The Apollo Method. Alternatively, you can head to this link:  https://www.udemy.com/the-apollo-method/?couponCode=APOLLO to get a discount on the course. The coupon code is limited to 100 people, so if it runs out by the time you're reading this book, just send me a message on Facebook or something and I would be more than happy to give you another coupon code.

### The faster you learn and apply The Apollo Method, the faster you would be able to teach it.

### When the leader runs, the people walk.

### When the leader walks, the people crawl.

### When the leader crawls, the people die.

### If you are thinking of leading a sales team in the future, you must learn and apply The Apollo Method as fast as you can because your members would duplicate after you. The faster you are, the faster they will be.

### If you are in network marketing, your success is dependent on how fast you can duplicate your results onto your team members and how fast they can duplicate to their own downlines. Speed is key.

#  The Ultimate Success Formula

### I have a secret recipe when it comes to being successful. I've been using this method my entire life and, honestly, it has never failed me once. Now, I assure you, I've had my fair share of mistakes. Too many to even recall actually.

### See, it's very easy to get caught up in the fear of making mistakes and the uncertainty of not knowing what a certain outcome is going to be in any given situation. This fear is amplified when you are venturing into an area of life you've never been before. But what if I told you that I have a system that is absolutely fail-proof when it comes to achieving a goal? I've used this strategy to go from small feats, like teaching myself how to play pool, all the way to starting my own business and becoming the youngest personal development coach in my area, speaking to thousands of people.

### That said, how much money would you pay for one golden nugget of incomparable wisdom that could change the course of your life forever and help you accomplish everything you ever set out to do? I'm feeling beyond generous tonight so, I'm going to give it to you for free.

### What I'm about to share with you is not sexy. It is not in the camp of false hopes or quick fixes. It will not let you take the easy way out. Your jaw will not drop when you read the words.

### However, what I can guarantee you is that if you take what I share with you to heart, and you choose to follow this formula, you will be more successful than you ever thought possible.

### I call this the "Ultimate Success Formula".

For an explanation on video: https://youtu.be/kdKEnrPSt8M

### There are 4 crucial parts to this formula. Your goal, your values and beliefs, your strategy, and the action you take. Let me go more in depth and explain each aspect.

### Goal

### The fundamentals of success is first having a goal. Success means different things to different people. To some, success can mean losing 10 kilograms of weight. To others, success can mean getting a gorgeous girlfriend. To some, success can mean making a million dollars. The definition of success is, "the accomplishment of an aim or purpose". It's like an experiment. An experiment is successful if it achieves its objective. A goal is the benchmark to determine if something was a success or not. A lot of people fail to set goals, and console themselves with how their life turns out by saying that it was good enough for them.

### The thing is if you don't have a goal, there is no reference point as to whether the outcome was a success or a failure.

### The goals that you set would be based on your beliefs and values in life. If you value money for example, your goal would probably be a financial goal. If you value family, your goal could be having a closely knitted family. You have to be very clear on what you value, because values run our life. When the going gets tough, it is knowing our "why" that would keep us moving forward.

### Strategy

### After you set a goal, you need to come up with a strategy to get what you want. A strategy could be in the form of a platform, following a certain methodology, joining a certain industry, etc. There are many ways to achieve the same goal, but certain ways are simply more effective or efficient than the rest.

### Action

### The next step is simply to take massive action. To continue pursuing something against all odds and challenges may be the hardest success strategy you ever utilize. Nonetheless, it is, bar none, the most effective. Think of it this way. Michael Jordan didn't read a book on how to be the best basketball player that ever lived. Mark Zuckerberg didn't build Facebook and retire. J.K. Rowling didn't stop writing the Harry Potter series after her first three chapters were rejected 12 times. All of them had to practice their craft, day in and day out to achieve what they've achieved. The secret to achieving massive success in life is simple, but it is in no way easy.

### The more you take action, the faster the results would show. The result would either be a success or a failure, depending on whether you achieved your goal or not. If it was a success, congratulations! That means the strategy that you had was the right one. On the other hand, if the result shows that you failed, all you have to do is to change your strategy and try again.

### Remember, making mistakes does not mean you're a failure. Failure is merely feedback. Failure is feedback that there are certain things that you have done or did not do that resulted in such an outcome.

### The reason some people don't succeed is because they do not change their strategy even after they fail. They keep doing the same thing over and over again, expecting a different result. According to Einstein, that is "insanity".

### So long as you stick to The Ultimate Success Formula, you would definitely achieve success sooner or later. Have a goal, choose a strategy, and take action. If it fails, change your strategy and take action again. If it fails again, change your strategy again and take action again. Just follow this process again and again, hustling day in and day out.

### So long as you persevere long enough, and keep testing different strategies, you are bound to achieve your goal eventually. The only reason people would fail, is when they give up. Winners never quit and quitters never win. Understanding this formula will make you really successful.

### You will be beaten down. You will have rough days. You may struggle to get by from time to time. You may have to let go of certain aspects of your life that have been with you for years. You may hit rock bottom. You may have to take a hiatus from pursuing what you want to achieve. Oh, and if you think you can find a strategy that will somehow avoid failure, you need to get real with yourself and quick. You're going to fail at some point, I guarantee you. But failure is a great thing because you're going to learn something invaluable that only failure can teach you: you will not break.

### If there were ever anything that will prove to be true for the rest of time, it would be that steadfast perseverance in the pursuit of your goal will bring you success.

### Still not buying it? Show me one person that gave up and became successful. In the entire history of the world, find me one. Successful people don't just happen. They succeed on purpose and that purpose is to be everything they can be for what they love doing every single day.

### It's easy to get impatient and frustrated. It's easy to give up when you feel discouraged. It's common to call it quits when you're running on no sleep, no money, and little to no success. It's so challenging to look all of these obstacles in the face and say "I got this."

### I encourage you to go dominate your goals. Smash the shit out of 'em, make a new one, repeat. Let no person, whether you or another, tell you that you can't succeed. If you keep going, if you stay committed, if you roll with the failures, if you shrug off the haters and the negative self-talk, I promise you.....you will be successful.

### So go keep doing what you're doing. And if you don't love what you're currently doing, do something else. Just, please. Keep. Doing. It.

#  Top 10 Principles to Abide by

### To end off, I'll list down the top 10 principles to abide by if you want to be successful at this profession. These 10 principles are the fundamentals that I highly recommend that you follow.

### 1. Stay close to the campfire

### Immerse yourself in a community at least twice a week where you are around people that empower and inspire you. Constantly go for trainings and meetings to be close to the campfire. We are our environment.

### Normally, members that don't come for meetings often enough lose momentum and motivation very quickly. Our environment is a lot more powerful than our willpower. We need to surround ourselves with like-minded and positive people in order to spur us towards greatness. This is why it's important to show up for every meeting or event. As T.Harv Eker said, "80% of success is showing up". Showing up gives you a chance of winning. Just by showing up, you are already ahead of 80% of the competition because most of them do not even do personal development or constantly go for meetings.

### 2. Input = Output

### What you put into the business is what you will get out of it. You must know what's your Output (i.e. the end state you are looking for). Be very clear of what you want, then reverse engineer to see what you have to do to get what you want. There is always a price tag for success. You have to be sure that you are willing to pay the price. We must do enough to win. Find out what you're fighting for and do whatever is necessary to get to your goal.

### 3. Intention + Freedom from Outcome

### This means doing whatever we can in our power to get what we want, but even if we don't get it, we are still happy (we are not attached to the outcome). This is one of the hardest things to do, because when we have 10/10 intention, we normally have the expectation that we will achieve it. And so when we don't, we normally beat ourselves up and feel sad or frustrated. The other side of the coin is when people have 10/10 freedom from outcome, so they do not have any intention to be successful or better their lives. People like this normally get suboptimal results in their life because they don't do enough to win.

### When you can have 10/10 intention and 10/10 freedom from outcome, that's the highest level of success. An example is doing your best to study hard, but even if you don't get an A, you are still happy with the result because you know you did your best.

### There are things within our locus of control and things that are outside our locus of control. Focus on what you can control, things like hard work, willingness to learn, taking massive action and meeting more like minded people. Accept the things that are not within your locus of control like family background, race or circumstances. Accept and flow with the current. Have intention and freedom from outcome. The person that is the most engaged and the least attached will win in life.

For an explanation on video: https://youtu.be/BSFbbkgfUDo

### 4. Develop yourself as a leader

### Train yourself to be a leader and program your mind to think like a leader. A 7/10 leader will be able to recruit 3's 4's and 5's but will never be able to recruit a 10/10 member. People only follow people that are better than them. People follow leaders that they aspire to be like. In order to develop yourself to be a better leader, you must have the four pillars of success; Mentor, Network, Enrichment and Action.

### 5. Follow the system

### Duplicate 100% for at least the first 30 days in this business. One of the main reasons people don't succeed is because they want to do things their own way. They might get short term success, but it is not sustainable. If you want to be an independent salesperson, you can go ahead and have your own style or your own form of thinking. However, if you want to lead an organisation, you have to have uniformity so that it is duplicable and easy to follow. If everybody teaches different things, there is going to be huge confusion and chaos. Follow the system like how soldiers follow orders. That is the most effective way to fight wars.

### 6. Never prejudge

### Sometimes, the people you think will buy from you, won't. Whereas the people you think won't buy from you, would. So never judge anyone outside of knowing them or even after knowing them. Judging anyone is not up to you, as those you think might be beneficial will end up disappointing you while you might have lost the ones you actually needed through your judgement.

7. 先做人,后做事 (Work on yourself before you work on being successful)

### Have high ethics, and moral codes. Integrity is key. Reputation goes a long way in business which is why you need to build yours and defend it. Your reputation goes a long way in determining how well and how long you'll be successful in business. Nobody wants to do business with someone they can't trust, so if people feel they can trust you they are more likely to bring their business to you.

### "It takes 20 years to build a reputation and five minutes to ruin it. If you think about that, you'll do things differently." Warren Buffett

### 8. Spread only positivity, reflect all negativity upwards

### Negativity is like poison. If you feel negative but don't detox yourself, it's only going to get worse and worse, and that is not healthy for you.

### Negativity could mean feeling lazy, not believing in yourself, feeling negative about your product or platform or any other reason. The moment you feel negative, you must update your leader immediately! Solve the problem when small symptoms show.

### Do not spread poison to your fellow peers. Your leader should be the first person that you reflect your negativity to.

### Some people tend to gossip and complain on social media about their company, boss or product.

That is one of the most foolish things to do because it only makes matters worse. If you're unhappy or unsure about anything, you must reflect it upwards.

### 9. Some will, some won't, so what! Next!

### As you pitch your ideas and your products, some people would buy into you while others won't. A common mistake is to dwell on the rejections. Successful people forget their losses quickly and move on.

### A lot of times in business especially the early phases a lot of things may not go your way at first, but don't let that get you down as this is a sign you're probably doing something right. There will be wins and losses but what will guarantee and determine your success is your ability to move on, even in the bad times.

### 10. Think like an investor.

### Make every decision wisely. Think long term on the impact that each decision you make would have on you.

### Every move you do must add value to you. It must either make you smarter, happier, richer or healthier in the long run. Will eating potato chips make you smarter, richer, healthier, happier? Will spending time gossiping and complaining help? Of course not.

### Think like a wealthy investor, having this mindset will make sure you only spend your precious time on developing yourself and only doing things that are beneficial to you.

### Be long term in your thinking and realise that you are running a marathon, not a sprint. Understand how every little decision you make today is affecting your destiny 10 years from now.

### These are the top 10 principles that every sales professional or entrepreneur should follow. Most of the top salespeople in the world have these traits in some way or another. Following them would significantly increase your chances of success in this industry.

# Last Words

### If you have read till the end, I'm sure that you have gotten a lot of value from the book. If you have any questions, feel free to drop me a message through my Facebook page, "Alaric Ong".

### I hope you will inspire, motivate and empower the people around you to become the best versions of themselves. Let's create a world where everyone wins!

### You have your own unique gift to share with the world. Don't allow any naysayers to derail you. Continue being the light, and always trust, that so long as you do what is best for the people around you and provide value to them, you would be duly rewarded.

### Thanks and regards,

### Alaric Ong

### Sales and Marketing Accelerator

Get a coupon code for The Apollo Method course on Udemy: http://x.co/APOLLO

Website: http://www.theapollomethod.com   
Personal Website: http://www.alaricong.com/   
Get my book: [book.alaricong.com  
](http://book.alaricong.com/)Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/alaricong/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/Alareek   
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YouTube: Alaric Ong] [https://youtu.be/zQND7wDlpOU

### Or email me at alaric@theapollomethod.com

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