Ep500: Dato’ James S. W. Foo – Find the Right Perspective

Andrew Stotz 00:02
Hello fellow risk takers and welcome to my worst investment ever stories of loss to keep 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. Ladies and gentlemen on a mission to help 1 million people reduce risk in their lives to reduce risk in your life go to my worst investment ever.com right now today and take the risk reduction assessment I've created from the lessons I've learned from all my guests, fellow risk takers, this is your worst podcast host Andrew Stotz, from a Stotz Academy, and I'm here with featured guests, James food James, are you ready to join the mission?

Dato’ James S. W. Foo 00:44
I love the way you sound. It's almost like a midnight DJ. But yes, thank you for having me.

Andrew Stotz 00:51
Yet, we've been talking offline. And I haven't brought out my midnight DJ voice. So here it is. When I grew up in Cleveland, Ohio, we used to listen to a guy that came in at midnight named the BLF bash. Okay, so maybe that's where I learned it. Let me introduce you to the audience. James foo is seasoned by nearly three decades of hard knocks, and life worthy experiences. James offers a unique view of life and entrepreneurship with valuable insights and advice from a panoramic view of things that can save you time and help your company grow. Many given the nickname business MacGyver, he brings the know how of a CEO entrepreneur who has been there, done that and still doing that, to help growth oriented entrepreneurs meet real world and marketplace challenges to take their company to the next level. James is also an invaluable connector matches people with opportunities and connections to make things happen. And one last things ladies and gentlemen, James has founded 80 plus companies in three countries across 15 Group industries, my goodness, James, take a minute and tell us about the value you bring to the world.

Dato’ James S. W. Foo 02:07
So Andrew, thank you so much for having me on the show. It's not just an exciting time, I've so many friends have been on and say like, Hey, James, why is Andrew not interviewing you? And I go, like, I don't know, you know, maybe he has high criteria. And just get like, you know, we reached out and we connected and said, Hey, Jay is really interested to you know, come on the show and to be the 500 to be on the show on the 500. So like, wow, that's it's an honor. It's a privilege. So a big, thank you so much for doing what you do. It's not easy. I wish I had a show like this, I could actually go to check out when I was younger data like 10 years ago, if I could do this, I could save a lot of money, a lot of pain, a lot of heartache. Like say watching probably just one or two, you know, not like all 500 but one or two like, Oh my God, just looking at how you actually take the excerpts out and putting on a little code. I love quotes and I like it dangerous to read quotes, but I found like, Wow, it's so profound and just wanna say a big thank you for that. So yeah, thank you to having me on the show. And I want to say that it has been a rollercoaster ride. How I started about a quick one was the fact that I had a dream to be like filthy filthy rich. Why? Because I didn't know what was better than that. We come from very humble beginnings. My dad literally was the story you hear that you know that his father actually swam down from Nana foreign place so yeah. My dad he was one of those stories where he landed in the north of Malaysia somewhere small part of the world. And in Penang we started right and blink of an eye. He said that is not the life he wanted age of eight where his mother passed away. He said I couldn't find a better place so at that time, he came to KL Colombo and that was like the USA or the land of dreams or their hopes and sleeping really down someone staircase literally was paying someone to let him sleep on the staircase under a sink. And you'll see like, this is not the way it should be. I know what I really want to build a life for myself. So he decided that I should do something better. Right? And he went to I don't know if you've been to Malaysia in those times where those poor lampposts you actually put a little sign there and that sign says repair whatever refrigerator refrigerator repair something right and guess what so he did his first he saw a lot of signs on on those posts and he said this is interesting. Why don't I try that I know a few skills that I could do he put a pole it put a sign on pole and when he came down the pole literally he was beaten up. Anyway like what's happening right now this pole, this zone is by this so and so try it Mafia Boss Why not? Right? So, long story short, the reason why I was doing this, he was actually trying to make a living, so trying to make a living. And when he got married to my mother, my mother was actually the P to one of the richest men in Malaysia at that time. And he always wonder why would my mother see it? Oh, my mother seen him right. But he's not the rich man is just some average Joe in his program scooter. And she said, a young man, I feel that is the future. And although at that time, the boss was going after her in Rolls Royce and giving her gifts and showering her with lots of beautiful things. She said, No, I want a man that is responsible. I want a man that I can count on in the good old days. And flash forward, I was born. Unfortunately, when I was born, my mother had PNS postnatal syndrome, similar to PTSD, post traumatic stress disorder. And my dad didn't know what to do, right? And whatever he could do was, he was actually just saying that learning to pay medical bills. Right. And I blame myself for many years, many, many years of saying that I was one that caused my mother to have a sickness, right? And I say like, No, this. This is something that I need to fix. And all I knew growing up that I needed to be rich. I didn't know how I wish I had a podcast, I go to checkout, Andrew, I knew probably earlier but didn't know how right. And that dream was at the age of 21. It was the dream that I could be rich. But I didn't know how and basically at 21, where they call the independence know whether you're in Asia, it's the independence at 21. So I ran out, instead of buying a book about making money. I was like, You know what, at 21? You know, I've broken the puberty and I'm not an adult right now. I would buy something more exciting. Let me buy a book that is probably more elicit if you will, right. So I was going for Playboy magazines are going for something else as good as distracted, right. And I was brushing through my site, and I saw this book called losing my virginity. Like, this is the book at 21. Right? I mean, what type of good you want to be. I rushed it was nicely for World Cup. But we got a shrink wrap, shrink wrap, right? Shrink, right? Yep. So I thought there was a lot of pictures and a lot of Kamasutra stuff in OBUS at a time in my age, right? The internet was dial up. No, when you press the sound it goes theory did it that sound that? And you know, it's just ridiculous, right? So I got the book, I rushed home. And I flipped through page by page I was reading I thought was a mills and Boon book, I was told this is the book, like the holy and dammit, I say I'm sorry, I can't help I can see that. And where's the pictures? Where are the details? You know, nothing? Nothing. And that book was by Richard Branson. Right? And that story inspired me to like, wow, how could someone with dyslexia going through so much challenges? 400 companies, and I told myself, hey, if he had 400 companies, I'm young, I'm not, I'm pretty okay, I probably can do better, or the same at least worst case scenario, right? So that's how I started the journey of 80 companies. I have the gift, not just value, but I want to give back to things that people often overlook. It's the small things, the big things, we can probably see it coming. But the small things are probably the ones that actually make it hurt the worst and the most. So yeah, it's probably a long story. But I hope that probably gives some value to your audience. And

Andrew Stotz 08:42
That's a great background. And I think it's time to get into the big question, which is 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 then tell us your story.

Dato’ James S. W. Foo 08:57
Hmm, wow, there's so many to pick actually. But the worst one, right, the worst, the worst? So I would say if I would pick one. Many times I think that if it happened somewhere, like on the probably the eight company the nine or 10, on probably the 20 of company, I wouldn't feel so bad. But I wouldn't have learned as much our last much more. So if I started off. In the beginning, I thought like, you know, what, what's the one company that could make a difference? Or what's the one business that could make them for me? So just reflecting that was the worst investment ever. The first one will be this. At age 21. Similar to but each of us was close to 2001. That year was the year that my mother passed away. Right. But that year was not just the lowest time but it was also one of my fondest moments because I also hit my first seven figures, right? And this business was a simple one. One of my good friends, his father was a and titled individual. So it's very powerful. And he was bringing a lot of new age, machinery equipment into Malaysia, right. And I saw it on TV. And I said, like, no, if we could bring in some new age technology, we could solve the problem, make lots of money, but I was young, I was naive. I was seriously green. And I told my friend like, Hey, I gotta meet your dad. You know, I've heard you doing great things I'm seeing on the news. You know what I could you make an intro? Like, my dad only meets with, you know, like, it's really busy. I highly see him, you know, but you know, I really want I could try and I took my mom and probably Yeah. And I said, I got to meet him. I don't know how I know this. Is it right? And I saw he brought in this new equipment. This equipment was actually what we call a water air generator. I'm not sure you heard about it. So it's a machine basically, they use in the Iraq War, right? Where the soldiers need to drink water. But they can't be air dropping the waters in the desert, right, literally. So what happened was there's this huge like a tanker. And that tanker actually is runs on petrol, diesel, right? Then it actually generates it. It converts the air moisture into water, it's almost an one hour one liter of water to drink. So they basically mean to miniaturize it. And so the technology to the air water dispenser industry, right. And so, at the time was brand new. This friend of my friend's father brought it into Malaysia, right. And I saw and I was like, Oh, this is so cool. It doesn't need any pipe. It doesn't any system. All you need just a plug point, electricity point, you plug it in one hour, and water just comes out in there.

Andrew Stotz 11:43
I mean, that already sounds like unbelievable.

Dato’ James S. W. Foo 11:47
Scam ish.

Andrew Stotz 11:48
Yeah, it's like, wow, that is interesting. So yeah, this is interesting story. So Andrew,

Dato’ James S. W. Foo 11:54
I know I, I like you know, I was probably impulsive, right. But I did a little background check, little background check. Not as in depth as you but I went in and I said, let me see, can I see the machine that actually generates water? Right. And they did. I sat down there for literally an hour. And okay, unplug it, you know, like that, what I thought that was called research. Right? And, and I say like, That's it, you know, so I actually waited, I waited an entire day, until this man came out. And like, who's young boy cylinder? You asked? His PA, right. And the oh, this your son's friend. He wants you for a long time. And you're like, a young man. Uncle is very busy. What is it you want to see me about as an uncle, I have a proposition for you, you know, and I believe I can help you make lots of money. And he was like, literally rolling in the floor, you know? And like, okay, okay, I'm gonna hear you. What can I do for you? I happened to be his son came in and, you know, he's, he was trying to talk over me like trying to teach his son I think of Dubai. He was like, literally shouting at me, like, you know, so when you're doing business, you need to do this. Like, Uncle I'm right beside you, you know? And he's like, totally son. I didn't get it for many years later, but I didn't realize then oh, like why is like he's like, in my face like this. showery His blessings of love right? Long story short, he gave me the opportunity and I just went door to door literally knock on the door like hey, Andrew, I got this cool machine would you like to do is in energy saving yada yada and friends families? I won't say fools but I will say a really really good relatives just like support the meal the journey you know, and I saw them the whole dream they're not environment friendly. And they bought right and in nine months in nine months. Literally. I hit my first minute. Literally no, like, Oh, this is a no I can't wait to tell my mom. And the worst nightmare happen on a 10 foot you won't imagine I was just getting phone calls like hey James, do you have a service this machine I collect now is so high tech you don't need to service it right this there's nothing to service right because it just generates water. What do you mean service? So I was pulling a fast one there's no FAQ, right? There's no like instruction manual nothing. And one call became two became four became a and I said oh, it is a trend right. And I start asking my friend like I probably the CEO dad again. And he's like what for? I said like people call me to fix it to service it because the used to be an hour later. Now an hour is probably giving an ounce. Like Toby signs like so it was getting really bad until they start calling my dad. So when they call my dad my face turned white right? Because my dad gave a background where his father was literally and he used this father used to walk in in the army and Used to be alcoholic. But all he came home was all he knew was to take his belt when it is when it was wrong misbehavior with him, right? So my dad is like, it's like a general with corporal punishment kind of thing. So I panic like hell, you know. But that day, when I saw his face when he came home, he was not angry. He was really calm. But I sensed disappointment. There was this a silent treatment, and that's more painful than anything else. And he told me this same idea isn't. Your father's not? Sorry, it's not filthy rich, okay. But the only thing that kept me to where I am today, to just know to build like, 20 25% of what you see in the market right now, where we are right now? Is on what I call rice, Ric rice, no. And he said, like Indonesia, we love to eat rice. And he said, This is what I call the rice not. And if you're eating rice, and you don't know the value of rice, you're in trouble. Like, what does it mean? It's like, so to me, number one about rice is our for reputation. You can lose your face, you can lose your ego, you can probably lose your loved one, or your wife. But you cannot lose a reputation. Because what you sell today will affect how people think about you down the road. And you have no idea how long you live, our life is short. So the first one is reputation. The next one is responsibility. Now, a lot of you are calling me for your problem. Now, are you being responsible? Are you sweeping it down the drain? Or you'd like covering the carpet hiding it in the closet? What are you doing? Are you responsible for your actions? And you're like, you know, and is it? What is it for me is integrity. You may be intelligent, you know what you may have influenced, but you have no integrity. Guess what? You're never going to do you're not gonna mount to anything in life, seriously. And the next one, he said, another is his impact. Whatever you do has an impact big or small. Like the pandemic hit all of us, right? It's big or small, but it has an impact in your actions right now has an impact on me. My reputation of doing business and how I raised my son, my family, you know, and I don't want that my conscience and go like, you know, what,

Andrew Stotz 17:25
see worse than being hit by a belt?

Dato’ James S. W. Foo 17:27
Yes, yes. I'll say myself, I'll hit me with a bell hit the bell. Take it out. I'll give you one you know, and you're like, you know what cs c is? Stop being so compulsive. I know, you want to be rich. I know. You want to be better off? I know, you wanna be richer than me. I know. But are you conscious? In your decision making? Just because you saw something good on TV? And you saw a similar concept in Malaysia? Doesn't mean that is the product you can sell? No. Have you done the work? Have you done sufficient? Homework, if you will? The next C is are you consistent? In your message? Are you consistent in your due diligence? Are you consistent in delivering? Are you complacent? And I feel right now my dear son, you are complacent, you impulsive. You're irresponsible. And that leads me to the last is he is you're lacking the experience. This is your first rodeo. You have no idea who this your best friend's father is you have no do you even have the courtesy to check with me? Like do you know him? What's his background? Is he a will be called a crocodile, you know, a snake, a shark? A bear? Do you even know you trust everyone in power, but you don't want to just check with me. So you have no experience. And the last one that is don't just you lacked experience, you have zero exposure. That means you don't have the wealth of knowledge. So all of us, he says you need experience in life, which is like a doctor who practices just think of COVID patients, right? For five years or 10 years experience. But a doctor who this treat COVID patients for 10 years, but in different countries in Singapore in let's say in Iraq and in China. So different countries give a different exposure because of the race, the religion, or when the culture the perspective. So he told me that this is our I see. You just got to remember this, literally, you know, whatever you do, and I'm like, Yeah, okay, so what do you should you do now? And literally, I didn't manage to be the father no matter what I did. I sat there for probably a week I didn't get to see long and short of it. I had to return the money. I'm trying not to return it, but I spent a lot of it you know in the end Have you ever achieved and you reach a short amount money? They say, easy come easy go, literally our spending hours like, you know what I was the guy No, like, Andrew, you know what? My treat for no reason, you know, I'll send you stuff you like this, you know, I think you need a new book, you know, let me send you a book rack. And I was spending like drinking water. And I think that was my worst investment. And because of that, I realized that that helped me hit my ATF number, I stopped counting after it was way too painful. But if I didn't learn this one less than a domino effect, I probably would have stopped that I would have made so much mistakes. And today, I probably won't be on your show or whatever opportunity come to the show and learn from you and to meet someone, you know, as great as you and I've heard so much about you. So. So yeah, that's a little bit about me. And I hope that helps you and your listeners.

Andrew Stotz 20:54
So how would you summarize the lessons? I mean, already, we've got the lesson of rice. And that's reputation and responsibility, integrity and impact that's compulsive and consists are consistent. And he is experience and exposure, in addition to these great words that your father's, you know, taught you. What would be your other lessons that you've learned from this experience?

Dato’ James S. W. Foo 21:27
I think one thing, one big difference. I will say today, even today, a simple one as last night on a call. Were actually meant or not people on local level, regional or global level. And I realized there's one thing that we have a miscommunication is that definition, the semantics. So when we say do you want to build a company last? Well, yes, yes, yes. Yes. Yes. That's a great. Now the difference between growing your company and scaling your company? To God? Yes, yes, yes. Yes. Yeah. I gotta tell me. And you're like, do more of it. I got like, really? Just do more of it. Yeah. So I said, so if you're growing the company, it's incremental. Your digits are probably single digits, maximum double digit growth. But if you're scaling your company, it's exponential. It's three digit four digit growth in the same amount of time. And you're like, oh, yeah, I said, like, if you're growing a company, you are the bottleneck. Now, if you are scaling the company, you are no more the artist, the architect, you are a business owner. And if you can differentiate between growing and scaling and company, guess what, you're probably doing the wrong thing. But just like imagining their three pedals of the car, you'd be pressing the accelerator, the brake, the clutch, and you're hoping to find something will move this bloody chi know. And guess what a lot of you do not know the definition. And then they go and ask for help. Right? They seek help by typing in Google or asking their friends or consultants, this is my problem I need to solve. But guess what they do not know where they really, truly are. And so I think defining even sales and marketing I was in actually in high level network, where all of them were actually older than me 60 to 70 years old, and they were doing a 10 million US above. And I felt like these are seasoned people. So they invited me in as a keynote speaker. And I say like, do you know different between sales and marketing? I mean, these guys are like giants, right? I mean, asking them to be insulting them. And like, of course, and I like, cool. Tell me about it. What's the difference? Guess what they were like? Selling is selling something and market is marketing. like, Hmm, interesting. So I said selling is? Can you recommend me a friend to buy this car? To referral? Like majority of people at that level? Only do referral, right? It's who you know, know what, you know? So can you recommend them buy a car? And answer be? Yes, no. It's a yes or no. Can I think of someone who can recommend by college basically? Yeah. That is sales. What's marketing? As a magnet? Can you recommend me to friends? Right, who actually have bought a Toyota? So you probably think of, I think, two principal. So you, you probably go down the rabbit hole and DECnet you probably has an opportunity. So that is a slight difference there to tell the difference between marketing and sales. So most of you can tell difference, everything in sales. Like they said, We are selling right now. I said no. Right. This is basically adding value. We're not selling anything, right. So really, how can we give massive value to the audience? And that's it. If you do not know difference? Can you imagine what the instructions you're giving your leaders of your organization's because you say I want to scale the company and their people are thinking growth? I want to do more sales actually. What you really need is marketing. And so is the semantics and understand the definition. None is the whole or are the whole organization with a C suite, the middle management and your team. align with what you say. And do you understand that definition? So I think getting that right would be what I call I learned this from Marshall Thurber, who actually learned how to study under this great person ePolicy heard of his doctor epidemic. So Dr. epidemic, learn from Marshall Thurber as well. And you've probably not heard any of them. But if you heard of Toyota, you probably know a bit about them. Right. And he focused on the 15% rule, literally. So what is that one thing that you focus on the gives that domino effect?

Andrew Stotz 25:34
Yeah, that's it. Yep. And maybe I'll share some of what I took away from your story. Just while while I'm doing that, I'm going to look for something on that you just made me think about which I'm going to look for that, while I'm doing this, but you just reminded me and I really want to address my, my thoughts about what you've talked about, to, to the young listeners out there. And that is talking about this idea of reputation. And, and, you know, I think you've given a great story that helps us understand it. Now I have an acronym, or just maybe some letters I tell people is that I give a lecture in ethics for CFA for. And I've been giving it for years. And it's a lot of technical stuff about things that you need to do, as well as you know, right and wrong. But the thing that I do is I say I have a little bonus, at the end of that I'm going to teach you how to get out of any trouble you get into. And then I try to tell the young people that pretty much all the trouble that you get into in your life will be caused by you. We have accidents, you know, I mean, things happen. And you know, you may be in trouble or have a hurt leg because somebody hit your motorcycle or your car or whatever accidents happen. But generally, most of the problems we face is caused by us. So I tell people that there's four A's, the first one is to be aware of what's happening around you be aware of the people and have your eyes open, because you could get caught into something without really even knowing it if you're not aware. The second thing is admit, once you've done something wrong, admit it. Now sometimes that may be admitting it to a close friend or a family member. You don't have to admit it to the world, but you need first to admit it to yourself. And then yeah, then comes the third A and that is apologize when you've done something wrong. Say you're sorry. And in fact, it's just simple. I was wrong. I am sorry. The reaction of the other person is a secondary issue. They may appreciate it. They may say eff you, you don't know. But you have to go through this step of really admitting that you were wrong. And then the fourth one is a hardest one. I think James, you've, you've taught this in what your story is about and that is amend. And when I say amend, I mean make amends. If you've damaged someone, you've done something wrong, you've caused damage in one way or another, make amends. Now someone may say, but I don't have enough money to pay back as much as I lost of that person or that I you know, whatever. And I always say that, it's it's, that cannot be a factor. You must set your goal. Even if you go to a person and you say, look, I lost I bought $10,000 from you and I lost it. And if you go back to them, and you say I'm going to pay you $100 a month, starting this month, $50 and you consistently make that payment, you are on the way to amend and a magical things will happen when you do these four A's. Be aware admin, apologize and amend. But I like to highlight that what you did was amend and it's painful. And it lasted the pain lasted for a while I believe that you know, you had to deal with the financial impact of that. But in the end, you got yourself out of the trouble. And you saved your reputation. That's my what I learned anything you would add to that.

Dato’ James S. W. Foo 29:08
No, I think I love the 40 I'm probably going to pinch it from you and share with all my people I say like you know and Andrew share this me you know online, you got to do this. Okay, and well you put it so nicely, right and this like a step by step where I think I love it. And I'm probably sharing my team later. It's so cool. Yeah, I love it.

Andrew Stotz 29:26
So now, let me ask you, based on what you've learned from you know, this story and what you've continued to learn throughout your life, what one action would you recommend our listeners take to avoid suffering the same fate?

Dato’ James S. W. Foo 29:40
Hmm, one action. So many actions. I would never say one action he like there's no one move on the chessboard. That literally just makes it all go away like even grandmasters right? It's like if I made this move, he will lose right? It's like probably less quintillion things he could do but if I have a Set a ball rolling, right just to set a domino effect, I think is we've heard this before is who you surround yourself with, literally. And I think that really matters, like do a little check and tally with yourself. That's the parity right now in lockdown a lot them a lot of people like myself comfortable. But some people are just really complacent and like enjoy that we used could use the whole work from home. And a lot of people do not want to go back to office, right? So they having that introverted stay away from people. Belief. So I think right now is we need to connect. And the more you connect, the more you will learn the individual's. But right now it's connected the right individuals, because there's so many so called gurus out there who claim to know a lot of stuff to Been there, done that. And it's just shocking. You know, we had a chat that before the decision to say like, you know, when I because I've learned from so many gurus, I realized that Ouch. If I could actually shortcut the learning curve, it will be less painful for a lot of other people. So I think people Yeah,

Andrew Stotz 31:10
so while you were talking there, I went on my computer and found a picture, I'm going to show you a picture of me I was 20, probably 23. At the time, I had a lot of hair. And I had a mustache, and I'm sitting. Yeah, and I'm sitting next to a man. And I'm going to show you this one. So for the viewers out there, you can see me sitting next to an older man. And for the listeners out there, I'm displaying a picture of myself sitting next to this older man, the man in this picture is was 92 years old at the time. And he had just finished teaching a you know, a seminar about quality. And his name is Dr. W. Edwards Deming. Whoa, that's me studying with him, I had two different opportunities to study with him. And, in fact, for those people that don't recognize that this is a better picture that I'm showing just Dr. Deming. But as a result of the time that I studied with him, he really impacted my life changed my life quite considerably. I wrote a book called transform your business with Dr. Demings, 14 points, and I apply his principles in my life. So I love what you're talking about when you talked about Deming, and you know what you learn from that? So let me ask you, what is a resource that you would recommend for our listeners?

Dato’ James S. W. Foo 32:32
I think right now is to get your book. I'm excited to get your book, right. So that's the first resource I would go to, I believe there's so much wisdom in books. That's a big debate I was giving a lot of friends is you know, and I just want you to, you know, I check out tick tock and like, yes, but it's a small specific perspective is not the entire perspective of one individual. So I said, if you really want to gain a perspective, which I think right now, he who or she who has a better perspective actually wins. It's not just about your insight, your influence, intelligence. But if you have a different perspective, the way you see things just changes, literally. So finding the right perspective, is also knowing that you need to consume consciously the right time information, what information you put in, and I think one of the wealth of wisdoms that I've known I've learned so far. Is that from books, yeah, I see lots of books behind you. So yes, and definitely get the book that you mentioned just now. I think that is like, you know what, there is a process to it and make sure you actually read because I heard so many stories of big time CEOs reading minimum minimum 50 books a year, right? And ask yourself, How many books do you read it? Yeah, it's,

Andrew Stotz 33:46
I think it's a great resource. I consume books like crazy. I have about 700 books in my library right now, all of which I basically read. And then I've got 1000s of books that I've given, given away or sold. And I would, I started a best business book club this year. And I've got a group of people where we're reading just one book a month and trying to digest it and implement it. And that's been really interesting. But one of the members said in the last meeting, we meet every week for an hour. He said, I have to admit, as a young guy, he's a young guy says, I've never read a book. So he's read, you know, textbooks and stuff like that, and had to go through that to a minimum. But that is so as a friend of mine said, if we can get just one person listening to this to start reading, I think your advice is fantastic. All right. Last question. What's your number one goal for the next 12 months?

Dato’ James S. W. Foo 34:40
Number one goal. The big goal that I always want to is, I've given so much of myself, I feel that research never really didn't. And I brought three wonderful kids into this world. And my one goal is not just to consolidate my businesses, but my ultimate goal is to actually go away Hopefully by the COVID allows our travel is to be able to go away with one kid month and one country. And we've learned so much. So I bring one, my daughter to a country where she picks on a map, she goes, Let's go there for one month instead of one month. And we bond we learn, we get used to the culture over there. And that's the best way. So one kid a man. And of course, my wife is gonna make a lot of noise, right? So I have three kids. So at least three months, and then my wife, and then all of us go on a vacation. So the my ultimate goal would be, can I go away for minimum five months, in a year. And when I come back, my business is not just surviving, but it's thriving. So that's my ultimate goal for this year. And I'm just trying to drive that across, at least for as long as I live.

Andrew Stotz 35:49
What a great, great idea for the listeners out there. Consider it with your family and friends to spend time abroad. One of my guests who I've recently interviewed, the episode hasn't come out yet. It talked about the research that's shown that when you travel together to foreign countries, it strengthens your relationship. So fantastic. Well, listeners, there you have it, another story of loss to keep you winning. If you haven't yet taken the risk reduction assessment, I challenge you to go to my worst investment ever.com right now and start building wealth the easy way by reducing risk. As we conclude, James, I want to thank you again for joining our mission. 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?

Dato’ James S. W. Foo 36:40
By Andrews book,

Andrew Stotz 36:42
hey. And listen to everything that James has to say there's a lot of value there. Well, that's a wrap on another great story to help us create, grow and protect our wealth. Remember ladies and gentlemen, this podcast is about one guest one story one mission to help 1 million people reduce risk in their lives. Fellow risk takers this is your worst podcast host Andrew Stotz saying. I'll see you on the upside