Have you been thinking lately?

Bill Gates, the world’s richest man.

He is worth $136.5 billion dollars.

Patrick Grove, one of 50 most richest

entrepreneurs in Malaysia.

He is worth $365 million dollars.

Dan Lok, one of the richest speakers

in the world. He is worth $104 million dollars.

You know what these three men have

in common besides the money?

They spend A LOT of time – alone – to think.

In Netflix’s Inside Bill’s Brain, I learnt that

Bill will often take weeks off his busy schedule

to read and think in his private cabin – alone.

He calls that the think week.

Even today in his capacity as a philanthropist,

he will often be seen in front of his big

whiteboard – with a pen in his mouth –

thinking and scribbling ideas to help him

solve big world issues like sanitation, climate

and energy.

Patrick Grove does the same. He is the

founder of Iflix, an on-demand video service

that operates in 22 countries in SE Asia,

South Asia, North Africa and Middle East.

He shared in one of the recent Mindvalley

interviews that he thought his way to his first

ten million dollars.

During the early days, he will be seen regularly

in different Starbucks of KLCC, journaling.

On the top of his notepad, he will write the

money he wants to make, say $10 million.

And he will start thinking about how he can

achieve this big hairy audacious goal. He will

scribble, sketch and strategize for hours.

And then spend the rest of the year, taking

massive action until he achieve his goal.

He still makes time to think even till today.

The only difference is the extra zeros at

the top of his notepad.

Then there is Dan Lok with 3.87 million

subscribers on YouTube, his content being

watched more than 1.7 billion times.

In one of his YouTube video, he shared that

he will often go on vacations to think.

It helps him create space between where

he is at now with where he wants to be.

And during his vacations, he will think

about the following questions:

Where am I at with reference to my goals?

What assumptions am I making?

What do I not know?

What am I not seeing?

What should I be focusing on?

You probably already know this.

Success always leaves clues.

And in this email, you see a very big clue

to your success in 2022.

Set aside time to think.

You don’t have to overwhelm yourself with

a whole list of questions to think about.

This will be counter-productive.

Here’s my recommendation.

Start by setting aside time daily, weekly

and monthly to think.

Every month, pick one day to date yourself.

Go somewhere relaxing.

Treat yourself to a nice meal.

Take out your notepad and start thinking.

A few questions to help you get started:

What is happening in my life?

What is working / not working in my life?

Am I getting closer to living the life I want?

What are my goals? What are my strategies?

Am I progressing?

Every week, set aside an hour (perhaps

weekend or Monday morning?) to plan

your week.

What are your weekly wins?

What tasks were not completed?

What have you learnt?

How can you do better this week?

If there are problems, use this time to

think about possible solutions too.

Then every day, set aside 10 minutes to think.

Preferably in the morning.

Here’s a fun way to think in the morning and

I promise you this – you will have an

AMAZING day! You will find yourself more

focused, even happier.

How to think in the morning

My friend, business is an intellectual sport!

It’s THINK and grow rich.

Not Netflix and grow rich

or Mobile Legends and grow rich.

So as we near the end of 2021, make time

to think and 2022 will be the year where

all your dreams will come true!

Your #1 fan,

Eric Feng

P.S. I am planning to write to you more often

because I really want you to do well.

So here’s the plan.

On weekends (likely Sat), I will send an email

relating to topics on self-mastery. Many of

these emails will be based on my personal

experiences and observations.

On Thursdays, I will send you emails that

are more business related. Focus will be on

helping you deal with the unique challenges

of 2022.

(1) Omicron variant and the possible lockdown

(2) Growing popularity of robo-advisors

(3) Changing consumer values because of

the pandemic (in particular with millennials

and Gen Z, the digital native)

(4) Increasing competition in your industry

(competition including influencers trying to

steal market share away from you)

(5) Massive changes to social media platforms

and how we must adapt to the ever-changing

algorithm and content preferences