the wealth dragon way - ebooks

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The Wealth Dragon Way

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T H E W H Y, T H E W H E N A N D T H E H O WT O B E C O M E I N F I N I T E L Y W E A L T H Y

Revised Edition

John LeeVincent Wong

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Copyright © 2019 by John Wiley & Sons Singapore Pte. Ltd.

Published by John Wiley & Sons Singapore Pte. Ltd.

1 Fusionopolis Walk, #07-01, Solaris South Tower, Singapore 138628

All rights reserved.

First edition published by John Wiley & Sons in 2015.

No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted inany form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, scanning, orotherwise, except as expressly permitted by law, without either the prior written permission ofthe Publisher, or authorization through payment of the appropriate photocopy fee to theCopyright Clearance Center. Requests for permission should be addressed to the Publisher,John Wiley & Sons Singapore Pte. Ltd., 1 Fusionopolis Walk, #07-01, Solaris South Tower,Singapore 138628, tel: 65-6643-8000, fax: 65-6643-8008, e-mail: [email protected].

Limit of Liability/Disclaimer of Warranty: While the publisher and author have used theirbest efforts in preparing this book, they make no representations or warranties with respectto the accuracy or completeness of the contents of this book and specifically disclaim anyimplied warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose. No warranty may becreated or extended by sales representatives or written sales materials. The advice andstrategies contained herein may not be suitable for your situation. You should consult with aprofessional where appropriate. Neither the publisher nor the author shall be liable for anydamages arising herefrom.

Other Wiley Editorial OfficesJohn Wiley & Sons, 111 River Street, Hoboken, NJ 07030, USAJohn Wiley & Sons, The Atrium, Southern Gate, Chichester, West Sussex, P019 8SQ, UnitedKingdomJohn Wiley & Sons (Canada) Ltd., 5353 Dundas Street West, Suite 400, Toronto, Ontario,M9B 6HB, CanadaJohn Wiley & Sons Australia Ltd., 42 McDougall Street, Milton, Queensland 4064, AustraliaWiley-VCH, Boschstrasse 12, D-69469 Weinheim, Germany

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Lee, John, 1981- author. | Wong, Vincent, author.Title: The wealth dragon way : the why, the when and the how to become

infinitely wealthy / John Lee, Vincent Wong.Description: Revised Edition. | Hoboken : Wiley, [2019] | Revised edition. |

Includes index. |Identifiers: LCCN 2018039783 (print) | LCCN 2018040906 (ebook) |

ISBN 9781119533115 (Adobe PDF) | ISBN 9781119533108 (ePub) |

ISBN 9781119533122 (pbk.)Subjects: LCSH: Finance, Personal. | Wealth. | Investments.Classification: LCC HG179 (ebook) | LCC HG179 .L4176 2018 (print) |

DDC 332.024/01—dc23LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2018039783

Cover Design: WileyCover Image: © sorbetto/DigitalVision Vectors/Getty Images

Set in 11/13pt NewBaskervilleStd-Roman by SPi Global, Chennai, India

Printed in Great Britain by TJ International Ltd, Padstow, Cornwall, UK

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

https://lccn.loc.gov/2018039783

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For Annika and Jennifer

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Contents

Preface ix

Preface to the First Edition xi

Acknowledgments xiii

About the Authors xv

Introduction: The Story of The Wealth Dragons 1

PART I The Why

Chapter 1 What Is Wealth? 29

Chapter 2 The Moral Obligation to be Wealthy 33

Chapter 3 Why a Wealth Dragon? 37

Chapter 4 Undesirable Truths 43

Chapter 5 Welcome to the Parallel Universe 49

PART II The When

Chapter 6 Get Rich Quick or Get Rich Forever? 69

Chapter 7 Who Is Stopping You? 73

Chapter 8 What Is Stopping You? 79

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viii Contents

Chapter 9 The Trap of the Rat Race 85

Chapter 10 It’s About Work, Stupid! 93

PART III The How

Chapter 11 The More Money Mindset 101

Chapter 12 Your Relationship With Money 115

Chapter 13 The Wealth Model 123

Chapter 14 A Foolproof Guide to Property Investing? 133

Chapter 15 Property Investment in Practice 159

Chapter 16 Being a Wealth Dragon 175

Conclusion: The Now 185

Final Word 193

Index 195

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Preface

Since we wrote the first edition of this book in 2015, we have comea long, long way, as individuals and as a company. We have bothwritten books as sole authors. Vincent’s book, Property Entrepreneur,was published in August 2016 and John’s book, Business Hack, isscheduled for publication in October 2018. At the time of writingwe are preparing to take our company, Wealth Dragons PLC, publicthrough an IPO. We have launched a whole new platform calledWealth Dragons Online, which is set to become one of the largeste-learning platforms for entrepreneurs in the world. We were allextremely happy to celebrate the marriage of John and Jen, andespecially delighted to welcome their first child, their daughterKeira, into the world in June 2018.

We are very grateful to Wiley for the invitation to update this bookand offer to publish the revised edition. We feel the overall message istimeless, but there are always new nuggets to add. So whether you arereading this book for the first time, or dipping into this new editionbecause you were a fan of the original, we hope you find much toinspire and motivate you to become a wealth dragon!

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Preface to the First Edition

We’re going to discuss why to become wealthy extensively in thisbook, so we’d like to start by asking you this question: Why did youpick up this book? We’re guessing it’s because you’d like to have moremoney in your life. We can definitely show you how to achieve this,but why do you want more money in your life? We’re assuming it’sso you don’t have to worry about whether you’ll always be able toafford to pay the bills. Why do you want to be free of money worries?Presumably so that you’re able to spend more time and energy onthe things and people you value. So, when do you want to start livinglike this? That’s a question only you can answer.

We started Wealth Dragons in 2009, hoping we could educatepeople about wealth creation and help them realise their fullpotential.

Our specific expertise lies in different areas of the property busi-ness, but over the years we have explored other avenues of passiveincome generation and asset building as we have continued alongthe path of our own education. We pass on anything and everythingnew that we learn, that we believe will enrich the lives of others, in ourseminars and educational programmes. We, like you, are constantlylearning and growing. Since we started the company we have givencountless seminars and have taught wealth creation programmes thatare constantly evolving, all over the world.

One of our key ambitions has always been to reach as wide anaudience as possible, and this is what inspired us to write a book.Our aim in this book is to give you, the reader, an overview of ourphilosophies about wealth creation, share with you our own personalstories, and inspire you to further your own wealth education.

Over the years we’ve received a great deal of positive feedbackfrom our clients, students and business associates. We hope thisbook will also remind them of why they chose us and why they stuckwith us.

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xii Preface to the First Edition

While we have written the book together, with a joint voice forthe most part, we obviously have our individual stories and thoughtsto share. This will be clearly indicated in the text.

If this is your first introduction to Wealth Dragons, we hope itinspires you and gives you plenty to think about. Of course, it goeswithout saying that we would love to hear from you, and we invite youto come and meet us at a seminar sometime in the future. You’ll findall the relevant contact details at the back of the book.

We can’t wait to meet you when you’re ready to become a wealthdragon!

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Acknowledgments

We are indebted to so many people who have helped makeand shape this book. First, we are very grateful to the John Wiley& Sons team, including Kimberly Monroe-Hill, Jeremy Chia,Gladys Ganaden and especially Nick Wallwork and Nazneen Halim,who championed the book from the start. For the production ofthis revised edition, we additionally thank Elisha Benjamin andBanurekha Venkatesan. To our families and friends, we extendour deepest gratitude for all their ongoing love and support. Wewouldn’t be where we are today without the hard work and supportof our entire Wealth Dragons team, including our administrationand sales teams, and our speakers, who all help make our businessso successful and the daily grind so enjoyable. They are all a partof this journey, as they are the ones who really start the process ofchanging people’s lives. We would also like to thank Miranda Leslaufor all her expertise. But the people to whom we owe the greatestdebt are those who have inspired so much of the material in thisbook…our students. They help us learn while we teach. This book isa testament to them. Many of them started out believing they didn’thave choices in life. To anyone who has been told they can’t achievesomething, we have written this book to tell you that you can.

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About the Authors

John Lee is the CEO and co-founder of Wealth Dragons GroupPLC. John started investing in property in his early twenties. By thetime he was 27, John had achieved his goal of becoming a self-mademillionaire. His experiences inspired him to share his knowledgewith others and he was soon teaching seminars in property invest-ment throughout the United Kingdom. He subsequently gained aninternational reputation as a motivational speaker and has sharedstages with former US President Bill Clinton, Alan Sugar, RichardBranson, Jack Welch (ex-CEO of GE), and Randi Zuckerberg. Johnalso trains people to become world-class public speakers. He hashelped several of his students build highly successful businesses andachieve international acclaim. John’s success came despite a humblestart in life. He was born to Chinese parents who ran a takeawayrestaurant in the north of England. All of John’s achievements cameas the result of endless hard work and unwavering tenacity. Johnis dedicated to showing others how they have the opportunity todo the same and is continually inspired by watching his studentsachieve the kind of success they thought they could only ever dreamof. John Lee is also the author of Business Hack, published in 2018.

Vincent Wong is the COO and co-founder of Wealth Dragons GroupPLC. Vince is one of the most dynamic and well-respected propertyentrepreneurs in the United Kingdom and internationally. As well asbuilding his own multimillion-pound property portfolio, Vince hashelped countless people source and structure property deals throughhis property companies. At the height of the financial crisis, Vincepioneered groundbreaking financing strategies and was successfulin getting lease options legalised for residential property sales in theUnited Kingdom, Malaysia, and the Netherlands (and is currentlyworking with regulators on campaigns in Poland and Singapore).Vince personally mentors a number of property investors and busi-ness owners. He is an internationally recognised public speaker and

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xvi About the Authors

expert in the property industry and he is regularly invited to speakto audiences of more than 1,000 at the prestigious Property OutlookConference in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia (the biggest property con-ference in Asia). Vince is a graduate of the University of London’sSchool of Pharmacy and holds an MBA from Cass Business School.Vincent Wong is also the author of Property Entrepreneur, publishedin 2016.

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Introduction: The Story of The Wealth Dragons

In three words I can sum up everything I’ve learned about life: Itgoes on.

—Robert Frost

John: My rather ordinary, humble start in life took place in a smallLancashire town in the north of England, not far from the YorkshireDales. I was born in Burnley General Hospital in 1981 and grew up inColne, a fairly remote and typically northern English town, where myparents owned and ran the local Chinese takeaway. They were bothoriginally from Hong Kong and moved to the UK in the 1970s. Theymarried shortly after meeting and started what was to become a fam-ily business. Many Chinese people born in Hong Kong moved to theUK in those days, taking advantage of the time during which HongKong was a British territory, which gave them the right to Britishnationality. The influx was responsible for a surge in Chinese take-aways. The British seemed to love the new, exotic, tasty (and relativelycheap) fast food, and many families built up successful small busi-nesses as a result.

My parents, and their extended family members, worked longhours to keep the business up and running, and making a profit.It was a hard life and I hardly saw them while I was growing up.Colne has grown since the time I lived there, but during my child-hood there were only a handful of shops and one primary school,where I was teased mercilessly for being the only Chinese boy in theschool. I remember my nickname was Bruce Lee. This might havebeen a compliment within a big group of Chinese kids who wor-shipped the martial arts hero, but the way in which the local Englishkids used it when they directed it at me was definitely derogatory.They would do karate moves in front of me and laugh. I once gotflying-kicked in the back so hard that it knocked me off my feet.When I took off my jacket I found there was the imprint of a shoe

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2 The Wealth Dragon Way

on it. I don’t remember having any real friends at school and I don’tthink I went to more than two or three birthday parties throughoutmy entire school years. Even when I became a teenager and the kidsin my area started going out to parties and local clubs, I missed outbecause my parents wouldn’t allow me to go. Any time I wasn’t atschool I was expected to work in the takeaway.

I started working in the takeaway – doing odd jobs, cleaning andcarrying things around – at around the age of seven or eight. I got alittle pocket money for the mundane jobs I did. Everyone worked inthe family business, and I knew it was expected that my brother andI would take it over some day.

But I had other plans.I had watched my parents work night and day in a business that

gave them a modest living and prevented them from spending qual-ity time with their children. They worked seven days a week, so mybrother and I were mostly raised by our aunts and uncles. I alwaysknew I wanted a different life. Not only did I want to give my futurechildren more options (including the option to spend time with theirfather), but I also wanted to help my parents get more time to enjoylife without working every waking minute. I wanted to free them fromthe chains that bound them to their arduous existence.

By the time I started college I was working three different jobs.I was making money in every way I could, in every spare minuteI could find. Along with working in the takeaway most evenings, I gota weekend job in a shoe shop. I also signed up for part-time telesaleswork, which was brutal. It involved cold-calling people listed in theYellow Pages to sell them websites. I got rejection after rejection; itwas soul-destroying. But in hindsight it was invaluable experience asit instilled a high tolerance for rejection in me, which served me welllater in life! My inspiration was my determination to break free fromthe future that had been laid out for me – a future identical to thelife my parents led. I respected them, but I didn’t want to live likethem. I wanted to reach for more; I believed I could achieve more.

Those were some tough years. I had absolutely no life and nofriends; at times I resented it, but I knew I had to keep going.I became obsessed with working, believing I could work my way tosuccess. But I was frustrated by how much time it took to make amodest amount of money. Was I even doing anything different frommy parents, in giving up all my time to make money? That feelingprobably planted the first seed of my determination to find a way


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Introduction: The Story of The Wealth Dragons 3

to buy back my time, to make significant money without it takingup all of my time. That growing feeling – the deep desire for thefreedom to do what I wanted with my time, while still earning anincome – helped motivate me in the years to come.

I did well enough at school to get into university; I got a place atthe University of Hull to study computer animation. With what myparents had put aside for my higher education, and with the moneyI’d saved from all my jobs, I was able to study full-time without havingto work to supplement my allowance. Being away from home and outof the grind of working in the takeaway for the first time in my life,I also had my first taste of a real social life. It was great. I made somegood friends and found a little self-confidence. But money was stilltight and I couldn’t wait to graduate and move down south, whereI believed I could command a better salary than my peers.

My first job was close to London, in Guildford. My starting salarywas £21,000, while most of my friends were in jobs that paid themaround £15,000; I definitely felt their jealousy. However, I soon dis-covered that their jealousy was largely unfounded, because the realityof earning £21,000 was not as rosy as I thought it would be. By thetime I’d paid my rent and all my living costs in the expensive Londoncommuter belt, I had less money than I did when I was doing menialwork in Yorkshire!

I lasted about a year in that first job and then jumped arounddoing some freelance contracts for a while before landing my nextbig job at an animation company called Criterion. I started on a salaryof £26,000 and was convinced that this increase was going to changemy life. But with more money coming in I was soon spending moreon going out and enjoying myself, and it wasn’t long before I foundI had even less money left at the end of the month than before!

My next job was my dream job.My best friend at university had been Darren Rodriguez. We had

both been obsessed with working as hard as we could. We used toget up at 5am to wait outside the main building until the caretakerlet us in. We were the first to get in and always the last to leave. Weregularly told anyone who would listen that it was our ambition to getjobs at Framestore, the computer animation company that was fast onits way to working on Oscar-winning films such as the Harry Potterfilms and Avatar. All our fellow students thought we were being overlyambitious. Jobs at Framestore were highly coveted and competitionwas fierce, so no one believed we would get in there. Their negativity

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