The True Entrepreneurship Journey -- Incident 2

I think i should correct myself and its not a lesson but an incident. Each incident etched a permanent mark in my life and it wrapped several important lessons in it. This one surrounded kites...

Incident 2 - Go Fly Kite

This incident happened when I was 15. During the school holidays, my mom asked me to help her clear out the storeroom. In the storeroom, I found about 1000 kites of various sites and states of damage. It turns out these were kites my mom could no longer sell. Some were tattered and torn while there were some that were still in good condition.

I told my mom, whether she could give me the weekend to sell the kites. My mom jumped at the idea and she wanted part of the profit. Today that is called stock valuation. At that moment, I was wondering, you want to throw all these away, now you want part of my profit ? Anyway I agreed. Immediately, I dressed up, left home ( and the mess of the storeroom ) and set off to places where people were selling kits with some samples in my hand. I took them to Marina Bay to sell wholesale to people who were selling to tourist and visitors in the area. None of them were interested. They were interested in one or two pieces or the better stock but I wanted to sell them lock stock and barrel. 

Feeling really disappointed, I decided to try other parts of town where tourist frequents like orchard road and bugis junction. No one wanted them. Unfazed, I ended up in Chinatown and eventually a buyer bought them all. By this time, i believe I have probably walked over 300 shops in the two days. 

Getting a hand shake, I went home really happy, but I still did not have enough money to get a cab, so I went to my mom , who gladly covered the cost and helped me haul the kites to the shop owner who bought everything. I recalled it was in the order of about $500 for everything. I pocketed about $400 in the whole incident.

Some Lessons learnt:

1. One man's junk really is another man's treasure. What someone throws away can be real treasure. I am not advocating everyone start looking into each other's trash. Rather to example if there opportunities to collaborate. where people do not want the items and you can turn a quick buck. I recalled when I first started one of my companies. i walked around our block and found out one company was closing down. I walked in looked around their office and saw many computers, office tables and very high quality chairs, a marble table, a fridge etc.In fact the boardroom of mine today are still using their chairs and the table I am writing this message with at home is one of the tables from that company. To them, they have to get rid of these items and if noone buys, they may throw it away. 
2. You do not need money to make money. In this case, not a dollar came out from me to close the deal. It took time and effort but not a single dollar was needed for me to close the deal, debunking the myth that deals need money to make money.
3. You need to be able to see the money before you can make it. When i got hold of the kites, most people would have seen junk. I saw an opportunity. A little of my time, in exchange for a bootload of cash!
4. Never give up. The initial push to find a buyer was really really tough. I never gave up because i believed that as long as i find one, i was done! I did not need to find one thousand, just one. Today, I use this actively when looking for new staff. In Singapore's manpower's requirements, they are setting up all sorts of xenophobic solutions to curb foreigners, while most of the locals honestly are slackers, but I am hiring only 1 or 2.
5. Be a contrarian. When everyone is doing something, it does not mean you have to follow the herd. So many times, it has proven that following the herd is actually dangerous. Steve Jobs would not have given us the iPhone if he followed the herd. We would still be riding bicycles and not flying if the wright brothers followed what all other aviators were trying to do.