I believe that all of us have a unique story and sharing that story, life experience, knowledge and passion can be an extremely fulfilling and lucrative career… if we know how to package and position it correctly.

My story began when I was in college and my entire life I’ve been told that in order to succeed in life, it’s first to get good grades in school, study hard so that one day I can get into a good college, good university so that that lands me a good job, a steady job to save more money spend less money and most of this advice came from my parents.

My father is one of the most hardworking people in a world that I know of. For 13 years he worked on two jobs. On his 9 to 5 job with the government and after his 9-5 job he will work on a farm. My father is a farmer and every single year my dad would bring my brother and I the same exact spot in the farm to take a picture and you will make us whole up this white sign board that shows how old the farm is this year in the first 10 years.

Growing up on the farm. So that was my background growing up in that sort of mindset where success is only achieved through blood, sweat and tears through hard work and when I was in college… I’ve been doing well my entire life and are finally offered to study in Warwick University where I got a scholarship from the government of Malaysia and to cut a really long story short because of a lot of good times, parties, I nearly flunked out of university I got a 42 percent average and out of the 3 years I spent a total of eight hours attending lectures and that was because my entire life I’ve done well in school and I thought college and university was not going to be any different.

Finally, when I went back home that was when reality hit. I realized that all these companies that once headhunted me didn’t want to hire me anymore because they were all judging me based on that piece of paper. The result that I got from university.

And this time the government said that I didn’t fulfill the condition that I had with the scholarship and they wanted me to pay back every single dollar which was fifty-three thousand U.S dollars money which I didn’t have which my parents obviously didn’t have.

And because of that here’s the funny thing. I was so conditioned to believe that if I didn’t do well in school and get good grades, this is the price I have to pay for the rest of my life and my first job that paid about 900 ringgit that’s about 300 U.S dollars a month.

I worked on this job for nearly two years. And after a year I remember I was having a shower. And the water is coming down. But I wasn’t really showering I was just. Thinking and reflecting but life was thinking “How did I manage to screw up this badly in life?”.

I had everything going for me. I was a scholar of straight “A” student. I had all these big companies they were all lining up waiting to headhunt me to hire me as soon as I got out from university. And just because of one mistake and one screw up in my life this is the price I have to pay?

And there was when I realized I had to do something different. That was when I went online. I typed in “How To Make Money Online” and buying all these different programs home study courses. They seemed to one thing in common and that was to make money online you first need to sell a product.

I didn’t think I had a strength so I created this 30-page guide on how to play this computer game World of Warcraft which is one of the reasons why nearly failed university. I played this game for over a thousand hours and I didn’t think it would sell well.

I put it online for just seven dollars and within nine months. I made my first sale and many months after, the sales from my online product was 3 times more than my full-time job pay. Fronted which was very hard to do because my full-time job didn’t pay me a lot of money. That was when I took what I did from World of Warcraft. I scaled it up into many other niche markets in Forex in gardening, teeth whitening in how to quit smoking. Today we run for about 600 different websites. In 2010 there was this really big game called Farmville. We were first to market this guide called Farmville Secrets and Farmville Secrets did over $USD1.3MM in under seven months and since then I started teaching people the strategy on how to take your knowledge and transform that knowledge into a product that’s monetizable on the internet. I started doing this and crossed the world teaching this to tens of thousands of people and sharing the stage I’ve been blessed to share the stage people like Sir Richard Branson, Tony Robbins, Brandon Burchard, Les Brown, Robert Kiyosaki… the biggest names in the world and I never thought that was even possible.

I believe that our past struggles failures and circumstances does not dictate what the future holds for us because when life knocks you down, have the courage to stand back up because if you can stand back up and start dreaming again. If I were to look back at my life right now I realize that I will have two very different lives in a parallel universe that would be the life that I’m living right now and the life where everything was on track where all supposedly were supposed to do which was to get good grades fulfill the condition of my scholarship work in a really good company a big company and I realized that if all of that happened, I would have never been able to do what I’m doing today.

So, in other words, looking back I would have never traded my darkest moments, the lowest points in my life for anything else because those were life’s biggest lessons and what if, the biggest problems in our life were really a gift? I know that sometimes people may hate me for saying this but I’d like you to think about. How has the biggest problems in your life shaped you to who you are today? How has it enabled you to become a bigger person a better person a wiser person?

Maybe it taught you to appreciate health more or maybe it taught you to appreciate that life is truly finite and that it could end that any time? In other words the biggest problems in our lives can either shape us up or we can tear us down… and that is a choice. I believe in the power of your story and it is my job to help you take that story, passion, life experience and knowledge and package and position it as a product that’s monetizable online and it is my job to help you find that voice that message that is truly that is authentic to you and to share it with the world.

It’s your time.

When I was first starting out with my new online venture after the first year, money was coming in fast, quick and I thought that I was living the dream, right. But what I didn’t realise is that back then I was living the life on a fast lane, buying the cars, travelling first class and five star hotels. In my early 20’s,

I always thought that this is what people would do when they made a lot of money it is all about the watches and it is all these different things and I remember three years later and only realised this, when I was having a sit down with a very close friend of mine who was probably earning about 20% of what did but he was easily more than 10 times wealthier than me because of the assets that he had.

He shared with me how he would put everything by using a strategy through a diversified investment strategy to stocks and real estate. That was when I realised that it is not about how much we can earn but how much we can keep.

That happens and when I realised that there’s just so many people myself included who think that it is all about their income levels and I have seen so many people with a higher level of income but they are broke because they are always trying to upgrade their lifestyle as soon as their income increases.

I have seen people with five-figure income where they always thought as long as I can get that five-figure paycheck, I will be financially free. But when that happens, they upgraded their car, they upgrade their house and they still have no money left at the end of the year. I have seen people running seven figure businesses, but they are still cash poor. They still got nothing to show for because they are constantly upgrading their life. So at the end of it all,  and I learned this the hard way. I’ve realised that it is not about how much you can earn, but how much you can keep that will make all the difference when it comes to wealth, when it comes to planning, and really growing wealth.

When do I know that it’s finally time to quit my job? Should I quit my job when there’s another job that pays me more money? Here’s the sad thing. Far too many people are working on a job they hate just so they can buy stuff to impress people they don’t even like. Now here’s my take.

My take is that if you truly feel it’s time to leave your job, a couple of questions you need to be asking yourself is, in the last couple of months did I actually grow? Did I grow as a person? Did I become better? Did I learn a new set of skills? Did I improve and refine my current skill set? Am I trying to do a lot of things?

Here’s the thing, if you work in a really big company, chances are you’re going to be specialized in one particular skill, and that’s going to be hard for you to get another job to do something else, and you’re kind of stuck and you boxed yourself in. So you’ll be asking yourself, does this opportunity enable me to do many things so that I can improve my skill set?

This is crucial especially if you’re in your twenties. If you are in your twenties and you have time to continue learning and growing, always place growth, and whether you’re learning as the number one attribute as whether you should continue at the job. And if the answer is yes, if that’s job satisfaction and if it’s challenging.

Now here is the thing, here’s the problem, most people do not want challenging jobs. Most people want safe, comfortable jobs, where they are going to work, and there isn’t a whole lot to do, they leave on time every single day which is fine.

But then they complain that they’re not getting enough. If you want to get more than you need to be taking on more, more responsibilities because you got to come from the angle of the business owner as well. If you’re not increasing the earning capacity of the company, how can the company increase your pay and your earning capacity? So the question to ask yourself is this the time for me to leave the company is to ask yourself, is this company challenging me?

Are they constantly taking me outside of my comfort zone so that I can improve? And I am constantly learning place growth first and the paycheck second, only if you have the time. If you are in your early twenties, and I understand, we all have bills to pay. It’s important to have that payslip but don’t prioritize that payslip just so that you can buy the latest iPhone.

Prioritize learning first, your personal growth first, above anything else when you’re thinking about whether you’re leaving job. Remember, because at the end of the day, responsibility pays. The bigger your responsibility, the bigger your earning capacity through learning, that’s when you actually earn.

A long time ago when I first started this journey in speaking a very good friend of mine told me this. He said: “Peng Joon, if you want to speak internationally, you need to get an english name, because no one in the US, the UK, Australia is going take a name like Peng Joon seriously”.

I said “What? That sounds ridiculous. I have never heard of something like this before.” and he said “Think about it. Think about all the big name celebrities that has made it internationally and that the one thing they all have in common is that they all have an English name whether they work in Hollywood or whether they are in the speaking industry, if they are speaking in US, UK or Australia and they are worldwide, 100% they have an English name.”

So I thought to myself, that kind of make sense. And then he told me this, “Think about this, if you were in Australia right now or the US, they can’t even pronounce your name. How do you expect them to remember your name if they can’t even pronounce it in the first place?”

So I felt a little defeated so what I did was I asked my parents. Mom dad apparently I can’t make it internationally if I don’t have an English name.. And so do you mind giving me an English name? Can I have your blessing? And they said, “ Give me 24 hours and we will come back to you and after 24 hours they came back to me saying, Peng Joon, we thought of a really good name, How is the name Penn, like Sean Penn? So I said, Okay… I think being an internet marketer, the first thing I would do is I went online and I typed in the words Penn Chan.

I wanted to see if PennChan.com is available and that I realised that Penn Chan actually meant that it was edible cannabis. It was like weed online. So I told my mom that apparently the name Penn Chan has got a totally different meaning online and that is not going to work. My parents sat me down and asked “ Why don’t you just use the name that we gave you?.

Now this was a long time ago, about 7 years ago, fast forward today, now that I have spoken in more than 20 countries around the world in London, Amsterdam, Germany and Australia. I realised at the end of the day, what it really was just a limiting belief, a self-limiting belief. A limiting belief that I told myself long time ago and somehow it was true for me at that time. Now I would like you to ask yourself, is what is that self-limiting belief that you have in your life right now?

Many times people tell me this. They tell me all these different reasons and justifications, things like; I am too young for this or I am too old to do this. Think about this, if you constantly tell yourself, I am too young to do something eventually what is going to happen? Eventually, you are going to tell yourself, I am too old to do this. Now all these different reasons, think about what is the self-limiting belief that you have in your life right now that is holding you back from where you are to where you want to be.

Because at the end of the day, what is the difference between a belief and a fact? Is that a belief is not universal. That may be true for you today right now but it may not necessarily be true for somebody else. That is the difference. Think about what is your self-limiting belief and think about how you can break that limiting belief by breaking a pattern and doing something different.

I think when people look at what I do today and they look at all the travels and all the pictures and all the images and all the videos. People tend to see what happens on the surface level but what people fail to see is that first of all, it took a lot for me to do what I’m doing today and I always tell people this I say you may like what I’m doing right now, but you might not necessarily like what I did to get me to where am I today. Because that took a lot of late nights, sleepless nights, times when I was broke, times where I didn’t have the money, times where people thought I was crazy and it took a lot of sacrifices.

What I’m trying to say here is that in whatever industry that you choose in your life, there will always be the not so glamorous parts. There’s always going to be the part that sucks. Even in my business right now, when I am traveling around the world for work, there’s is all these different images that you don’t see. Behind the scenes, where I’m carrying my bags and lugging them in India. As I’m traveling from city to city in a third world country, where there is no other transport rather than this really cramped little taxi. Things like that, people normally don’t see and what I’m telling you is to find the joy in all these different things, to embrace the suck.  Because of whatever industry that you pick, no matter how much you love the job. There are going be these struggles, challenges and obstacles and rather than try to overcome these obstacles, deal with them joyfully and that will make all the difference in this journey.

If you want average results than do what the average person does. Now think about it, most of the time people are doing they want do the bare minimum, but yet they want to live a great life.

But think about this, living a great life comes with a price. Whether it is late nights, whether it is sacrifice, whether it is time or less sleep. So 3 am, the event is over. Leaving for Kazakhstan tomorrow with tons of stuff to pack. But that’s it really all of that for a 90-minute talk and that’s the life. Whether it is going into debt to raise that initial capital, there always a price to be paid and the thing is if you only want to live an average life, then do what everyone else is doing.

But this applies to all areas in life whether it is Facebook marketing, whether it is in health, whether it is in business, notice what is everyone else doing and ask yourself what is gonna happen if I do exactly the same thing as what everyone else is doing? Well, the answer would be as obvious as it may be, but not many people understand that it would be the same exact result. Now, I am not saying it is right or wrong, all I am saying is be aware that if you do exactly what everyone else is doing you will have the same results most of the time.

Let’s say you want to stand out in Facebook marketing, ask yourself what are most people is doing? Well on Facebook, they are talking about they are either complaining about the government, they are talking about what they had for dinner or their lunch, they are posting pictures of their holidays and understand that if you did what exactly everyone else is doing, you will have same result.

Same thing for work, what are most people doing? Most people are happy or satisfied with the life of doing normal nine to five, going home watching Games of Thrones, looking forward to the weekend. Now again, there’s nothing wrong with that, but if you are not happy with that. Understand that there’s no point complaining, do something about it.

Doing what the average person does will only get you average results. At the end of the day, if you want extraordinary results, you got to be doing extraordinary things but that will always come with a price. The question is are you willing to pay that price?

Here is how my thought process has really guided me over the years, during times when I have a big decision to make or the concept of death comes to mind. The apartment that I am currently living in where I shoot most of my videos. What made me bought this place over? I was going through a thought process and I remember it was the same day where one of Malaysia plane MH370 went missing. It was on that very day I truly realized that life is finite. That we cannot know exactly what the future will hold. I was thinking to myself that at the end of the day, if my life would end today or a year from now, would I have gotten this place? My answer was yes. So I bought this place.

What I am trying to say is. This isn’t about me buying a place, but it is about using the concept of death that made me and guided me during times that I have to make all of the biggest decision in my life. Death is one great certainty in life. I would like you to consider this, the concept of death, how you can use this as a tool, as a power that will help you make better decision in life.

At the end of the day, the worst thing any of us want is to live life in regrets. Most people reach the end of their life with a ton of regrets. That is why it is so important that you don’t miss out on opportunities along the way or fail to achieve your dreams.

Remember this, you are in control of your entire life.

I would like you to think about, at the end of it all, what would you wish that you would have done today? You have a choice.

One of the most common excuses that is often used by many of us is that we can’t get something done because we don’t have the time. Yes, it may sound like a valid reason and to many that it is acceptable but really, it annoys me. At the end of the day, we do not lack time. It is either because it is not important enough for you and that you do not have a compelling reason to act.

Consider this. Many of us spend most of our time watching TV, surfing the internet, browsing Facebook or watching videos on YouTube, look we do not lack time but in fact we are spending time on doing things that doesn’t benefit us. We tend to lose our focus on these things that I called distractions. I know that many people spend about two to three hours a day browsing the internet or watching TV. To me, TV is for broke people. I dare say this that I may have a TV set up at home but I have not watched the TV and let alone switching it on. I don’t expect all of you to agree with me but I know by saying this, many of you would be annoyed because here it is that you don’t see any commercial ads on Ferrari’s on TV. Why? Because the people who can afford it they are not watching TV.

If you were to accumulate all the time that is spent on watching TV, you will be able to see how much TV is sucking your time. Even if you multiply the amount of hours with the minimum wage it would come to a figure at least $100 000 and with a decent investment that could be half a million dollars. Forget about the numbers, the amount of time spent on TV, well it could have been spend on more meaningful activities like spending time with your family or being engaged in a more meaningful real conversation. Don’t get me wrong, this isn’t about the numbers or money. If you are happy watching TV three hours a day, then you do YOU. But remember this, because that is the habit that you choose to have, do not complain about not achieving the results you say you want and or that you do not have time.

If you are spending your time watching tv or browsing Facebook. Limit your time. Do it with an appropriate amount of time.

Understand that you never lack time. You just need a more compelling reason to act.

What are the habits you have that is limiting you? How much time are you spending on creating more opportunities or that it takes you closer to your goals?

It was 8 years ago when I bought over this place. I wanted it to be my office. It wasn’t a decision that was supported by many, in fact, I was being told that having all these furniture like bean bags and pool tables that I planned to install into my office is not necessary and that it doesn’t work for everybody. This was from the people that I know and many of them is from a good business sense background. They don’t believe that open and transparent work space will ever work in Asia. Yes, it might work in Silicon Valley but Asia.. we are just not ready for it.

One of the many things that I would like to share is that if you take a look at all of mankind’s biggest achievements. It started off with someone who had no idea where to begin and how it should be done. Most people are afraid to start because they simply have no idea how.

So, think about your biggest dream or an ambition, did you know what to do? Or you know you want to start a business, but you have no idea what is the first steps to take?

When I first started this, building a company. I had no idea how to do it. I did not know where to hire or who to hire. Or how to gather the right people. It was all very new to me and I was totally clueless and I simply have no idea. It was not what I expected it to be. Looking at this with all these different things and people around it, I have come to a realization that whenever I get into a new project, or a new business. I should be constantly reminding myself how all this began. That it all began when I had no idea how I should be doing it, how to execute it or how to hire the right team. This is all part of the mysterious process.

My company Smobble, has served for over six years and to date, we are one of the leading digital publishing and online marketing companies in Malaysia with a team of creative individuals and talented employees. I started off with not knowing anything but today, I have a company that I truly believe in.

Don’t allow them to stop your journey before it even begins.

At the end of the day, if you have found yourself a new interest or a new dream or you want to start a new business. Yes, it will be scary at first but remember that this is all part of the journey and understand that many people around you won’t always encourage you to pursue your journey.

I truly believe that if your goals don’t scare you, well that just simply means that you are not dreaming big enough! So, set your goals that is big, crazy and overwhelming enough that almost seem impossible. Why? Because you will be working your tail off.

Every single goal that I have, whether it is short term or long term. It could be about a new business idea, or a fitness goal that you have set your heart out doing, or finishing a 5km marathon or joining the spartan race. It was not easy, in fact I was afraid to even begin. Believe me, the start is always the scariest but to achieve big things it requires the small beginnings.

It was always scary for me at the start. I remember back then, speaking in public to me was horrifying. The idea of standing in front of people, no matter it is 10 of them or 1000 of them. It wasn’t something that I was comfortable about. It scares me because my entire life I was never involved in any public speaking nor I was from a debating team. Today, I am proud to be one of a reputable speaker in my industry. Yes, it started off with the presence of fear but it was the courage that got me where I am today. Courage is not the absence of fear but it is the willingness to act in spite of fear.

So remember this, it is taking action in spite of fear.

Feel and conquer the fear. Embrace it and take action! If I can do it, you can do it too.

Where do you need to find the courage to work on your goals or dreams? What is holding you back? Please do share with me about your biggest fear or what is holding you back from being something bigger or better than yourself yesterday. I would love to hear all about it.