The Entrepreneur’s Bookshelf: Harvesting the Fruits of Prosperity

Lately, there is a lot of talk about CPF changes and compulsory annuities. No matter how much everyone may be happy or unhappy about the changes proposed to our social security, it is important to ensure that you can manage your finances. Sometime back, I recommended Christopher Ng Wai Chung’s Growing Your Tree of Prosperity and some of you have read excerpts from his second book. Of course, the focus of this post is to present a review for his sequel “Harvesting the Fruits of Propserity”.

If you have read the first book, my sense is that you will like the second book. All in all, Chris started with the story about his Belgian friend Pierre (not his real name) who committed suicide and touched on the realities of today’s working world. While many people are dreaming of becoming the next big millionaires, this book is dedicated to people who want to work for a living and carry on normal lives in Singapore, despite the unpredictable forces of globalization which threaten our livelihoods at every moment. One example, we know, is that some of our jobs are now constantly outsourced to other places like India and China.

Here are a few lessons which I believe that many can draw from reading the book:

• Are you a scholar or a statistic?: While most of us agree that meritocracy, pragmatism and capitalism are the three bedrocks to a typical Singaporean view of life, the author offers a few glimpses of the dark side or what people don’t really see is a problem. I agree with Chris’ view that everyone puts the blame on the Singapore government and not themselves when they cannot live beyond their own means. What makes it more convincing is that the author exposes the few truths that most have to live with, for example, (i) the pragmatism to the point of failure: Singaporeans are efficient and productive in their work, and they are practical, but they can choose to neglect networking and realizing that they become foot soldiers to people who can outsource their jobs out, (ii) it helps to be born in the right family: Yes, some people are lucky and they are born into well to do families. It is a misconception to keep thinking that they are going to be playboys and squander their money. Some of these better off people, utilize the advantages and move to better and greater pastures. Despite all these weaknesses, there is still a way out for the normal Singaporeans to survive and perhaps make their lives better.
• MLM is a problem/disaster and not a solution: MLM is not just the bane for entrepreneurs but also for many people who are dreaming of making more money. The solution, as the author offers (which I believe to be good solutions) are to be part of the knowledge-based economy, for example, being a freelance designer by night while working in a day job.
• Charting your own finances and moving towards proper financial planning: In this book, the author lays out how one can tighten his expenses by keeping a record of daily expenditure. Later, he explained all the know-hows to understand what your CPF and insurances does for you. The author also offer some tips on what types of insurance are suitable for your own purposes and in the later chapter some ideas on doing proper investments. In the book, the author did take the pains to break down different insurance products such as life insurance policies, term life insurance, group life insurance, whole life insurance and investment-linked insurance policies.

Someone asked me why I am not reviewing other local publications about the habits of millionaires, and instead, recommending highly the books written by Chris Ng. My answer is that if they do have the secrets of success, they won’t be writing books on those topics. What appeals to me in both books, is that they promote the virtue of a person being down to earth (or in Chinese, 脚踏实地) and also tries to convince the reader that there are adequate financial planning solutions and hard work (for example, starting your own freelance jobs or start-up) than getting yourself into trouble with silly MLM schemes or some internet marketing shams.

For those might not know, the author of this book went through the stage of self-publishing for the first book and got it to market on his own. Like any entrepreneur, he has done his work and also put in his own money to see it through. The same lessons from his book and real life, I believe, are translated in the same analogy to how successful entrepreneurs work with their start-ups in the same way. If it is so easy to be successful in being an entrepreneur, we won’t be seeing one out of ten succeed in a few years time. A lot of hard work, patience and perseverance are required in that process. Most importantly, till the end, the book promotes a healthy message of optimism in life and not let the daily woes bogged you down. That is perhaps what I feel is the best thing for everyone who are working hard in their daily lives be it their jobs, family and dreams.

Editor’s Note: SG Entrepreneurs wishes Chris a happy and blissful marriage as he will be tying the knot in December 2007, and also more good sales on this local publication.

Related Links:
1. Human Capital by Chris Ng
2. MLM and Immaunel Kant by Chris Ng
3. See some of other works by Chris in Intelligent Singaporean.

About the author: Christopher Ng Wai Chung, 32, is an IT Project manager who dabbles in personal finance and wealth management. His own blog can be found in treeofprosperity.blogspot.com. He can be reached at this email address.

Related posts:

1. The Entrepreneur’s Bookshelf: The Illusions of Entrepreneurship
2. The Entrepreneur’s Bookshelf: Silicon Dragon – How China is winning the Tech Race
3. The Entrepreneur’s Bookshelf: Just Listen by Mark Goulston
4. The Entrepreneur’s Bookshelf: Made to Stick