Learning from Singapore's success
I have been spending a lot more time in our Singapore office recently and I have become fascinated by how it has become a world leader in economic growth and prosperity. You don't have to go far to find the driving force behind it, his name is Lee Kuan Yew and he's run the country since its independence from Malaysia in 1965.
Lee has so many great policies which now sees property as the forefront of every citizen's wealth. In fact, the country has 92% home ownership; one of the highest in the world.
Anyway he is a fascinating read, all three volumes of his autobiography runs into over 3000 pages, I would like to say that he has just one or two concepts that are the key to his unlimited success as a leader. In fact his whole life is the story of an ordinary man who used his position to help people, not the usual politicians story of “Great ideas, compromise into power, pay back those that put you there, fail to really make a difference as you fight to say in power”.
Lee wasn't like this, he had little to no opposition over the entire time he was in power allowing him to design a world beating economy which even a decade after his retirement is still booming and despite being a small breakaway tip of land on the bottom of Malaysia. One of the many attitudes I find of interest was his attitude as a leader and a social analyst.
You see Lee has a philosophy as a leader of the country and it revolved around this one core belief; you should aim to create equal opportunities, not equal results.
This hit me quite hard. I have studied psychology and human performance for years and this is so aligned with the real world of human nature, socialism never worked because we aren't all equal… We are all unique but that's far from the same thing.
Offering equal opportunities but not getting involved in the results means we are free to perform and live to our purpose. If the government actually focused on the equal opportunities rather than trying to create equal results, imagine how amazing the UK and world could be…
The problem
The problem that all leaders face in modern democracies is that they are controlled by lobby groups, from unions through to cattle, pharmaceutical, cigarette, but even groups such as the heart foundation and other charities. This means that our leaders look like very poor leaders, that they lack leadership, the spine to do the job but the truth is that politics is no longer leadership, it's pleasing everyone while trying to get a few of your policies accepted. Then as the elections near, telling stories about how successful you have been by using statistics that are made up or manipulated.
One of the things that I love about property investment is it doesn't matter where you start from, everyone has an equal opportunity to succeed and more importantly it doesn't matter that the next guy made ten million in property, you can make one million and still achieve your goals, equal results isn't a consideration. We can all share the success. It's a win-win-win game.
Story 1
I have a client, Mary who earns £20,000 per year from property and she is successful beyond her wildest dreams. She has a large house, every Tuesday she has the grand kids over, once a year she travels to the family property in Spain for 2 weeks. Wednesdays is bingo, and once a month she's away with the Women's Institute. She is totally fulfilled and lives a passionate life. Mary's 72 years young, has no debt and as she says she has no stress although her grandson, Tom gave her a scare last week when he tried a back flip off the sofa!
Story 2
Another client, Paul was a city trader earning hundreds of thousands each year. It was stressful and he missed his kids, who are now in their teens, growing up. He figured that if property could give him an extra £170,000 income (on top of some other investments he had) he could quit the job, take up painting and hopefully take back the 20 years he had lost. In just 4 years he bought enough London property that when the interest rates dropped he was earning over £120,000 a year, not quite there but enough for him to be confident to throw the towel in on trading.
Both stories have different results in terms of finances but both have the same outcome in terms of lifestyle. Imagine trying to set up a system that dragged Mary's income up and Paul's income down so they were equal. It's a recipe for disaster and that is why the governments around the world have got it so wrong and Lee Kuan Yew has gotten it so right.
I help people use property investment to create the lifestyle they have always desired, I don't help people create the lifestyle equal to that of their neighbour. That's probably why we've been so successful.
If you want to get your lifestyle in place then give the team a call on +44 (0)207 923 6100 or attended to one of my monthly webinars or seminars and get started on your ideal lifestyle.
Live with passion,
Brett Alegre-Wood
