Ep460: Jam Zulueta – Take Risks and Invest in Yourself

Andrew Stotz 00:02
Hello fellow risk takers and welcome to my worst investment ever stories of loss to give you winning in our community we know that to win in investing you must take risk but to win big you've got to reduce it. Join our community to get the risk reduction checklist I created from the lessons I've learned from all my guests also claim your special discount on my six week valuation masterclass boot camp where you learn how to value companies like a pro, and advance your career go to my worst investment ever.com to join for free. Fellow risk takers. This is your worst podcast hosts Andrew Stotz, from a Stotz Academy, and I'm here with featured guest jam, zoo. Jam. Are you ready to rock?

Jam Zulueta 00:45
Good afternoon? Yes, yes, Andrew. I'm ready to rock.

Andrew Stotz 00:48
Let's do it. I'm going to introduce you to the audience jam is a risk expert in the FinTech and digital banking space. He's also a career and personal finance coach. And we actually met before in Bangkok. Yeah, why don't you take a minute in Philly, for their tidbits about your life.

Jam Zulueta 01:10
Thank you for that. Dr. Andrew. So it's nice to meet everyone. And thank you for inviting me here. And as he said, little tidbits about myself. I've been working in the banking, FinTech and digital banking space for eight years now, prior to entering this new stage of my career in digital banking, and FinTech, really, I did take my MBA in Singapore, and in Tokyo. And during that time, we did meet in Bangkok in one of those great investment competitions.

Andrew Stotz 01:47
So and also, you're related to one of my prior guests, Episode 423. Patrick, now tell us who's Patrick?

Jam Zulueta 02:00
Well, he's my older brother. He's one of my good mentors in life. So that's one of the advantages you do have when older brothers and sisters that you get all the hand me downs, not just in terms of fluids within terms of advice and experiences in life.

Andrew Stotz 02:19
Yeah. Ladies and gentlemen, if you want to listen to that, that's Episode 423. The title is to achieve success start failing now. Hmm, interesting. Well, now it's time to share your worst investment ever. And since no one goes into their worst investment, thinking it will be. Tell us a bit about the circumstances leading up to an end. Tell us your story.

Jam Zulueta 02:41
Right? Well, I am not sure how to go into this. But my worst investment, I wouldn't really call it monetary. Right. So I have lost on investments in a financial sense. But I would say that the worst investment I have made is more for lack of investment. And they say right, the best investment you can make is an investment in yourself. So I believe that's one of the worst investments I have. I failed to or early on in life, I didn't invest as much as I should have in myself. So especially in terms of the start of my career, or even back in my university days, I didn't try exploring things or investing in myself in terms of new skills. that have been things such as, you know, like foreign languages, investing in new technology. Two very good examples. During the time I was in university, that was the start of blockchain. But I didn't have no, I never looked into it, things like that. So it took me a long time to discover that. When you're investing, it's not really about timing the market, right? It's about time in the market. So the same thing comes when investing in yourself that it pays to discover something early on life by trying out new things, discovering things, and then getting into that. And once you find what you love, or you get good at something, you continue with it for many years, and by the time you're in your late 20s 30s 40s. You're quite the expert in that field.

Andrew Stotz 04:32
So how would you summarize what you learned from this?

Jam Zulueta 04:36
Well, what I learned from that is that you need to try out new things, and take those risks not not just in the financial cells, but take risk on yourself. I know that we need in the financial world, there's something such as diversification. Don't put all your eggs in one basket. Things like that, but when it comes to yourself, I really That's the one time where you need to go all in all in yourself better than yourself to try something new, to do something special, and find what you love. And that's really been my focus for the past, I would say, three, three years, that when there's something new, something wants to try, I just get into it. Even if people tell me no, that's not a good idea, or you might fail, I mean, by not taking the shot that's really failed. So I've tried so many new things. Over the past three years, I've gotten into career coaching. I built myself a career there. I've gotten the personal finance, I've been more active building, like building connections, finding mentors, and things like that. They do. And I started to see the payoffs of those investments in myself. Then in like, immediately, last year and a half. Everybody seen payoffs for those?

Andrew Stotz 06:05
Well, let me summarize what I take away from what you've shared, I think, you know, the first thing is, I wrote down, good students, nothing else. There's a lot of good students out there, but they have nothing else. Just following what the teacher says, following the curriculum, doing a good job, does not prepare you for life. And I'm also reminded of a story, it was about 1988. And computers were the new thing. And I remember my dad got a computer, maybe 1985, or something like that. And he was like one of the test people to use a computer in his company, DuPont, oh, and so I observed my father, you know, trying to learn how to use this computer. And then, when I was in university, in 1988, was my senior year because I didn't have any money. But you know, I worked and I tried to make money, but I basically bought a secondhand IBM x t is what it was called, with floppy disks, no hard disks, or anything like that. And I bought that on my credit card. Okay. And then, which is a big investment, I remember, it was about $700, which was huge for me that time. And I set it up in my apartment in my room, and I just started learning. And I didn't become an expert on it, you know, I'm like, I came good at it. But I remember when I got hired by Pepsi, I went in right from the beginning, I went into work, I had a skill that other people didn't have. And from that day, it really set my career. And, you know, I'll tell you one other thing jam that's really fascinating is that I have a lot of interest. And I always ask them, you know, are you good at Excel? And they say, yes. But when I put them to the test, and I give them a pretty, you know, a little bit of a tough assignment, you know, I think, do this, yeah. 95% of them can't do it. And then I thought to myself, Jim, this is what was really amazing. It's like, wait a minute, just learning Excel, you know, to a higher degree than most other people in the class can still differentiate you and say, Wow, I mean, I would have thought everybody knew Excel, everybody knew word. Everybody knew all these things. But truth is, most people just know the basics. So the lesson, you know, the takeaway that I get from what you said, what your story is about, and said, start now, learn something, and you can set yourself apart.

Jam Zulueta 08:33
I definitely.

Andrew Stotz 08:35
You know, the other thing I thought about as you were talking about, I had a policy when I was young, and of course, I didn't have a lot of money, but I said, no budget, meaning no limit to my budget for two things, computer, anything related to computers, buy it, and books. So right now I have my library has about 500 books, and I've had 5000 books go through my library, all of which, you know, I read, and I just have read and read and read. And so I highly recommend that, you know, computers in my case, and books was the things that really brought me a lot of value and a lot. It also reminds me that you know, we talked about like a compound effect, you know, with money. But we also talked about the compound effect of knowledge and I can say that, being at my age now having focused on the world of finance so deeply for so long. The knowledge level just build up little by little, but now you know, it's a level that feels great. So, so based upon what you learn from this story, and what you continue to learn, what action would you recommend our listeners take to avoid suffering the same fate?

Jam Zulueta 09:45
Well, I recommend action, right? So a lot of times we see something we like, and we think very hard about it, we plan about it. But you need to get to that first step. So a very good example. is me and my YouTube channel. When I first started it I was making a video. I was thinking, Oh Is this good? Is this the right edit to make? Is this the right story? Did they say something well within them today, if you don't post it, you won't have that initial momentum to carry you forward. to just start, just do it. I mean, as plain as it sounds, just get into it.

Andrew Stotz 10:25
Fantastic, great, great advice. Just do it. Alright, last question, what's your number one goal for the next 12 months.

Jam Zulueta 10:33
My number one goal for the next 12 months. Professionally, I am helping build the digital bank. So we're expecting to launch that in the next 12 months. So that's a hard deadline to watch. But on a personal note, just increase my learning focus on my career coaching and personal finance career for the next 12 months,

Andrew Stotz 11:00
got it. All right listeners there you have it another story of loss to keep you winning. My number one goal for the next 12 months is to help you my listener reduce risk and increase return in your life to achieve this. I've created our community at my worst investment ever.com and when you join you get that special discount to my six week valuation masterclass boot camp. As we conclude jam, I want to thank you again for coming on the show. And on behalf of a Stotz Academy, I hereby award you alumni status for turning your worst investment ever into your best teaching moment. Do you have any parting words for the audience?

Jam Zulueta 11:37
Well, it's been my pleasure, thank you for the invite. But for the audience out there just to get to it.

Andrew Stotz 11:46
Perfect. And I'll have links in the show notes to your LinkedIn and any other contact details that we have. So for those people that want to get some career advice, and also personal finance advice, make sure to reach out to jam. That's a wrap on another great story to help us create, grow and protect our well fellow risk takers. This is your worst podcast hose Andrew Stotz saying. I'll see you on the upside.