8/19/2015: Easy Money / A Good Person is Hard to Find

8/19/2015: Easy Money / A Good Person is Hard to Find

5:15am – 7:06am

I’m debating on which title I should use for this one.  I read “A Good Man is Hard to Find” in my EPCC English class and I found some similarities between her fictional story and mine.  :)  The title is kind of off but it will make sense if you keep reading.  It’s supposed to be a catch.  :p

As mentioned in my previous blogs, I feel like I have the writer’s curse, which is, whenever I feel like writing or whenever I feel something inspirational or I have something to write about, I have to write to it.  Well, I don’t have to.  I could write it on a piece of paper for future blogs but the passion, the energy, may die off if I delay for too long.  And if I ignore the urge or passion to write, then I tend to forget or lack the passion of what I want to write.

I went to my financial business’ webinar today.  Every Tuesday at 10am is a webinar and it’s supposed to be special because the master trainer, Xuan Nguyen, which I learned a lot from, my financial mentor, will speak during that time.  I came at 11am because I know from past experience that the actual webinar starts at 11am.  10am is mostly a sharing time where they share on video various WFG (World Financial Group) sites and they share how they are doing.  It’s nice but it’s not a necessity.  At the webinar, I reviewed my reasons for going into the financial industry:

1) To make money for myself so I can, in sequential order, make a living, save money, and have fun.  [Although I’m planning to just shorten it to “To make money for myself” and I feel the clause “have fun” is kind of controversial because it is for fleshly reasons.]

2) To help people better manage their money.  [When I am selling is also an investment product and it is, imo, and I also have the same policy, much better than putting your money in a bank, 401k, etc.]

3) To contribute and build God’s Kingdom.  (The ones in bold are those I feel are my main reasons.  The manual wants us to have ten reasons)  [A portion of my proceeds and profits I get from this business will be for God.  I can serve God and His people financially.]

4) To better myself and to reach my full potential.  [This business is not just a business but it is a great learning and life growing opportunity.]

5) I am my own boss, this career is independent.  [No one tells me what to do, it’s on my own time, can be part or full time]

6) To advert or reduce the coming retirement crisis in America.  [From the book, but it’s something I realized.  Many people are not preparing for their future.]

7) To give people a hope and a future.  [I feel many people are struggling financial or they somehow just can’t save up any money.  This product can help people save money and save in the right place.  This is also one of my reasons I went into teaching.  I probably should have created ten reasons for becoming a teacher and just maybe I’ll stay in teaching.  :p  Taken from Jeremiah 29:11]

8) To help people in this area so they can help others.  [The emphasis for this reason is more on if they decide to join the team and recruit/sale to others.  The people that join has an opportunity to help others in this area as well.]

9) To fight against the injustices in the banking, credit card, and other industry.  [Maybe I’m a little biased but this is my economic orientation, that the rich takes advantage of the poor.  Why then would banks offer their customers such low interest rates.  Why such high interest rates on credit cards?  I know the usual “economic” reasons but I feel the root cause of it is human greed.]

10) To apply the concepts I have learned here to evangelizing for God’s Kingdom.  [I stopped at number nine and I felt I can’t think of any other reasons.  Then this though inspired me.  I can use what I learned and my experience in a different but also similar area.  I will share more on this later in today’s blog]

So today, I felt relatively excited.  I want to talk to people.  Well, not quite.  I kind of forced myself to want to talk to people about this because I set quotas for myself.  Quotas are not mandatory for my company but I choose so because it helps motivate me.  It’s like of like setting a deadline to do something.  Then I procrastinate which gives me additional energy to do the task.

However, as I guessed, from my experience, evangelizing and selling/offering a product is easy to say, hard to do or easy on paper but hard to do in practice.  My action plan for today is to evangelize and sell my product/recruit 50/50, starting with God first.  I planned to offer them a eternal future and then for the next person, their current future.  I went to Costco, which is nearby from the WFG office building.  I don’t have the membership so I can’t go in.  I walked around the entrance and the parking lot.  The first two I asked “Excuse me, do you have a minute?” refused to even talk to me.  In fact, it seems when I walk towards them they act super cold.  For the third person, I saw him loading his van with the goods he brought from Costco.  I asked the same thing and he told me yeah he has a minute.  I’m so happy he gave me a chance.  I tried to start causal by saying he brought a lot and that it is worth going to Costco if you buy a lot.  Then, I went straight to the point, “I would like to invite you to my Ignite Movement church,” because it’s not just a church, it’s a movement.  :)  Then, I tried to share my testimony but he then appeared disinterested midway through.  My testimony is not the typical “Before I knew God I was like this….  And after I met God, I was like this…” format.  I was raised in a Christian home.  Instead, my testimony is more like: I was raised in a Christian family but I rarely experienced God intimately.  There were times when I did, times of revival.  But I love worship songs and I love singing God’s songs.  Then in high school, I left God in favor of reason and science but during my senior year, I believed Him again thanks to Evidence for God from Science, a Christian website which convinced me of the existence of God.  But I never really “knew” God and have an intimate relationship with him until I joined the Army.  And I joined the Army because I was addicted to computer games, pornography, I would hide my grades from my dad until one day he found out.  I was practically kicked out of my house and forced to join enlist in the military.  But, look at me.  I am totally unprepared and the worse candidate for the Army.  I didn’t work out.  I was not in the football team.  I don’t have experience in life.  I’m afraid to even drive or buy stuff.  I just spend all day and most of the night locked in my room playing computer games.  I was so ate up in the military it’s not even funny.  So then, I had nowhere to turn to but God, the only One I know who can help me.  And by trusting in Him, he gave me supernatural grace and strength.  I would have died in the Army without God and I failed all my PT tests except the ones that count.  As you can see, my story is very complicated and I couldn’t really retell my story because I was part nervous and part I didn’t know what to say for my testimony because it is too complicated.  I didn’t know where to start.  And I’m still changing thanks to God and I can still share how after the Army, my relationship with God slowly died.  Sure there was revival but it was not until I went to Ignite that I started to become alive again, etc etc.  So because my testimony was too complicated, I felt it didn’t make sense to him and it was probably mumbo jumbo.  So I tried cutting it short by saying the key points, that God helped me so much in the Army and I know what he is real.  He told me he’ll check the church website out and think about it.  It was then when I saw his kid and probably his wife at the driver’s seat.  I paused.  I wanted to ask if we can pray but I felt it’s going to be awkward so I just thanked him for listening to me and his time and went off.  One spoken to. 

For me, as soon as I have a “success,” which is not really a success in a traditional sense.  I define “success” when I was walking around as people who is willing to just listen to me.  Getting people to just listen in the cold market is difficult overall.  I learned today that, in the cold market, 1) People don’t want to talk to you, 2) It doesn’t matter if you think you have something that is good for them.  Most, if not all of the people, prefer themselves to activate the process, not vice versa, like the classic fish hook vs fish net approach where one, they come to you because of your “bait” or two, you come to them, the “net” approach.  I can emphasize with them because if some random dude would to approach me, nine times out of ten, in the past, I would say “no thank you.”  If people don’t trust you, as it so happens with strangers, which most people don’t even give them a chance, there is no evangelizing or business.

I have an idea to counter this.  I can make flyers.  By making flyers, people don’t have to see me and I can reach a lot of people at one time.  And, I feel people spend more time looking at a flyer (that I made) than if they spend talking to me.

I have not been very active in my financial business partly because I am afraid of recruiting people.  For one, I don’t really have a “warm” market.  A warm market is people who are close to you.  I’m by myself here; My family are not with me.  And the close friends that I do have, I want to wait until I’m really prepared.  I find in life that I don’t have unlimited chances, in fact, many people just give you one shot at something.  I want to “practice” first in the cold market.  As a side note on friends, I find making friends is very difficult in this world.  I can’t just walk up to someone can say, “I would like to be your friend.”  No, friendships develop through relationships, though a medium.  If I don’t pay for college to go to school, if I don’t go to church, then how can I make friends?  Friendships come through interacting with people and sometimes, an excuse to go to college or to pay to go to an event would be to make friends.  How else will people have a shared need or interact?  I could walk around the street giving people free stuff but that probably won’t make any friends.  I could volunteer but I would rather work because I get paid.  Ok, so moving on.  Sorry, just many times, life is not fair.  The second reason why I don’t want to recruit is because I don’t’ want to set people up for failure.  Selling an idea to people, which unfortunately, since you thought of it first, is very difficult.  “You are not getting what I mean” someone recently told me, “It’s not being social, you have to be super social.”  I don’t want people to join thinking it’s so wonderful only to have them become disillusioned.  Although if they seem passionate even though they understand the difficulty, then it’s worth a try.  And, I don’t want to hurt my existing relationships in my “warm” and “lukewarm markets.”  So, I am going to continue this “business” part-time.  I will continue to learn more.  Many of the things they teach me can be used in evangelism and in my life overall.  The concepts are multi-purpose.  And this is a good life experience.

For this business, in a way, I know what to do, but I don’t know how to do it.  Xuan Nguyen said emotions bring people in but logic maintains the commitment.  He said:

When you sell to people, sell them the responsibility of taking care of their family and the possibly of building wealth for their family’s future.  At the same time, back it up with facts, figures, and track records.  Otherwise, they may make a decision to buy but will cancel when they think it over!

This is kind of like the approach I am taught to take with evangelism.  We have to tell with passion, genuinely, of what God can do for their lives but we back it up with logic, i.e. our testimony and, if possible, supernatural revelation about that person from God.  The latter is something I am struggling in using.  I don’t want to say something only to find out that the other person says it’s false.  When I told this to my spiritual mentor, she told me sometimes, the people we evangelize deny it or are lying because it is true.  I hope that is the case.  She also told me that’s why we say it in the form of a question like “Is your family struggling financially?” 

I write my blogs, the more lengthy ones, by creating an outline first so I won’t forget any thoughts but something it causes my writing to be too mechanical and I may repeat myself.  Sorry about that. 

But to end this early morning blog, and I need to sleep because I’m helping someone organize their classroom, actually I want to write about that first.  When people ask for help, I see it as an opportunity.  I win and they win.  I get to help people, interact with others, and learn about life while they get their tasks done.  I was thinking, and perhaps I read somewhere, that if I don’t know my purpose or if I can’t or it’s too late to achieve my purpose, then the next best thing is to help someone accomplish theirs.  The worse is to be selfish and live only for pleasure.  I have talent in computers but I always decided and resisted going into that field.  I tell myself that the main reason why I went into computers and technology is due to games.  While that is true, it can also be used for good.  I probably should have majored in computer science or information technology instead of social work.  I feel it’s too late for me to go back now.  I need to find a part-time or full-time job in addition to my part-time financial job to make a living and to save money for the future.  I can still help with the media team and with technology-related issues but I won’t be able to reach my full potential.  The pastor says when we are in perplexities, where there is no way out, we seek God.  I was in perplexities when I joined the Army and while in it and that’s the reason why I seek God.  And now, I feel I’m in a perplexity again, with my future and indecision.  But, the only way out, the only sure and true and best way out is to have a relationship with God.  But when times are good, I need to seek God as well.  That is a perplexity in the spirit.  :)

1/8/2014 [Discovery]

1/8/2014:

S: 2:42pm

E: 3:40pm

So sorry that I haven’t written for a while.  I feel these days, I would rather communicate my thoughts verbally, hence, I have been more of an extrovert by calling and talking to people.  I just hope I won’t be bothering them due to my adrupt change of behavior. 

What is a Friend?

I don’t know.  Maybe I make the worse friends.  I was hanging out with one of my friends partly because he feels alone.  While being with him, he has his quarks.  I could tolerate it, but he could sense my uneasiness so he kept telling me, “If you want to be my friend, then you have to accept who I am.”  It’s just the way he is, it’s all-or-nothing, OK, got it.  However, that statement somewhat bothers me.  I see friendship like a light form of marriage.  In a marriage, both couples will almost always need to bend a little in each other’s direction.  The husband/wife can change some of their bothersome habits, and the other spouse can change theirs, too.  Like friendships, it involves compromise.  When I’m with people, I control myself, with wisdom, so I can come out as friendlier to them. 

My First Client

Client confidentiality is a very important issue in social work but, happily, I have her permission to share what I did.  Well, I wasn’t actually a social worker helping someone, but these days, I feel like when I’m helping a person, I apply social work principles.  Ok, so here is an example.  The list may not contain everything about the client because I’m just drawing on what’s above the iceberg.

Carol (not her real name) is a 45 year-old woman.  She lives in Florida.  She has daughters whom both are living outside the house.  The oldest one is studying pre-med.  The youngest working and making a living on her own.  Her husband died recently.  Due to this, she suffered from severe depression.  Before her husband passed away, they lived in a family home.  However, following his death, the house was foreclosed.  Carol lost much of her belongings and moved to a small apartment.  Now, she is moving to another apartment, similar price, but with a nicer environment.  She said before, she used to be so happy.  “Life is wonderful,” she would tell me.  She is chronically unemployed, her last job more than a year ago as a bartender.  She quit her job because her supervisor, as she said, treated her horribly.  She is on-track to apply for Supplemental Security Income (SSI), however, her case, as she said, is taking a long time.  Her next hearing will be in June.  She has a dog and her dog helps a lot to keep her company.  She feels alone and isolated.  She also has financial troubles.  She has trouble paying rent and buying necessities.  She doesn’t have a bank account because she owes a few hundred dollars to the bank.  She is taking advantage of the SNAP food stamp program.  She is taking three medications for her needs.  One is to address hypothyroidism, another for depression, and the last to control muscle movements.  She told me that the hypothyroid medication helps to allieveate her depression the most and that she just got dignoisted by a doctor for that condition.  The doctor said to take that medication for two months.  However, due to a lack of funds, she couldn’t afford any of the medications.  She said she tries to eat healthy but that her appetite, due to her depression, has been poor.  She has a relatively poor social support system.  She was abused as a child.  Her family has been long divorced.  She has two sisters.  One sister is hostile to her and refused to help.  The other one did help her by giving emotional and some financial support.  Her mother is also not so well-off but she did give Carol some support.  She doesn’t go to church, she isn’t very religious.  That is her status in a nutshell. 

She has so many challenges.  Where can I start?  What can I do?  I remember in one of my social work classes, my professor gave a short story, like the one above, and told our class to identify the biggest issue.  I raised my hand and said that unemployment was the biggest issue.  I was thinking if the person has a job, then he/she will be able to have income, and thus, with money, more issues can be solved.  But no, I was wrong.  The biggest issue was mental health.  If the client has alcoholism, depression, or other personal issues, he/she may not be able to hold a job.  Thus, I would have wasted my efforts.  So, focusing on my client, my very first actually, I prioritized her issues.  I used the goals and objective approach.  I set the goals to be measurable, attainable, and with a time frame.  I considered making an eco-map, but I didn’t. 

So, for my diagnosis, I put the first priority for Carol is to set up a bank account.  If she has a bank account, it will be much easier for people to help her financially.  The second priority is her depression.  For that, she will need funds to purchase her depression medications.  The third item is her short-term expenses.  She needs to have the money to sustain herself at least in the short-term.  Fourth in sequence is employment.  I can assist her in finding a part-time job (no full-time because SSI won’t allow it).  With these four steps, I feel she will be much happier and will be able to live a self-sufficient life.  I could, if I am willing, modify the plan to add more details.  For example, she can join a support group or club.  I can research agencies around her area who may be able to assist her.  I’m writing this just to give an example of what I think social workers do.

There are more topics I want to write about but I ran out of time.  I will write more later.