“I secretly want to lose everything … I’ve secretly for a while now have been interested in a thought now that the Internet and alcohol being banned. And what would happen, because I’m so confident in my chops, I want to show everybody that I could go to dead zero, and build it all back up.” Gary Vaynerchuk with Jason Calacanis, This Week in Startups [46:49]

Some of you who are close to me probably knew that I went from surviving to dead zero in my savings after losing a 2 years 6 figure deal about 3 weeks ago.

Ever thought if it was possible to go from a scenario where all commissions were wiped out to zero, equity went down to zero, and exhausted almost all savings to go from a few hundreds worth to completely null in both bank accounts and cash?

Yeah. Been there, done that.

Went on from S$0 to over S$1,000+ in the 3 weeks since day zero began.

How? 3 things that you too can do to go from wherever you are at right now to thousands in your account in less than a month.

1. Start from where you are at (what’s in your hands right now)

Understanding that you aren’t “starting over” is the first most important mindset that you’ll have to adopt. What do I mean by that?

It’s like in the bible where David lost everything in Ziglak [1 Sam 30], he didn’t necessarily “start over” but started with whatever army (from 600 to 400 who eventually went with him) and resources he had with him to recover his losses in the battle.

When I’ve completely lost everything, I didn’t necessarily lose all things till I’ve got to start over from nil. What I had left in my hands were my trusty netbook, a few web properties that had to be fixed (shifting from a local server to a US server, which unfortunately had a cost which I couldn’t afford at that time) before it could continue generating any income, a few web scripts that I had purchased earlier in the year or had gotten from a few friends, a server that is costing quite a bit of monthly cash that was provided as a loan from another company, and a completely new mindset shift where its like when you suddenly having a revelation that went “things just got real”, liken to a tipping point where its either you can take action for your own future or continue doing normal things that get zero results.

Why you aren’t actually “starting over”? 2 reasons:

• Starting over implies one having to begin with a completely new mind, which in reality is nonsense — if you’ve graduated from school today, you’ll carry over the knowledge and practical know-hows to get a set of things in your field and discipline of choice done, even if you are in a different career path, you’ll start in your new career route with existing habits and takeaways that you’ve learned and acquired in school
• Starting over implies one having an option to restart everything from scratch, and time, which too is totally far from the truth — life isn’t a game where one can select and restart their lives from totally zero and at the starting point of time

What do you have in your hands right now? A different perspective you may like to take is by looking over at the things you have as though they are now in a seed form, which when you’ve put in work with extraordinary smarts and tremendous effort (read: minimal effective dose for optimal results; results only happen in the stretch).

How do you know what do you have when you’re starting from where you are at right now?

Besides having to do a self audit on what are the physical things that you have right now that can assist you further when you’re starting from where you’re at now (eg: “tools”, which could be your iPad 2 with an iPad 2 Wireless Keyboard, iPad 2 Folio Case, your netbook, laptop, or scripts) to being aware of your current skillsets and reputation.

Wait reputation? Yes. That means you’ve got to listen to what others are knowing you for with value, allowing you to assess your chances of recovering and winning to get you going from zero to the next level.

Back in the bible reference in 1 Sam 30, David had to inquire of the Lord before knowing if he was to pursue the army that totally screwed him over in the previous battle. While the answer was a yes, with his reputation as a leader and the assessment was a win (“pursue, for you shall surely overtake them and without fail recover all”), David went ahead, starting from where he was at and with what he had at that point of time.

Similarly, I’ve listened and learned that I’m better known in some circles as being a website creator, and there was an immediate demand for a work to be done, hence went on to assess the work (I prayed), and then continued to close a case, another, and another.

You too will have absolute winning chance when you start listening, knowing your reputation, understanding your current abilities, and if you are a prayer and accountability believer, pray to inquire and assess / discern an upcoming work opportunity (I do turn down a couple of offers or had them delayed).

Which brings me onto the next point.

2. Have your game plan ready (not blindly executing)

Remember that I said that I had lost a 2 years 6 figure deal earlier in this post?

It was meant to launch a search engine optimization solutions startup where I would be building up a core team of writers and web designers to manage and run client based search engine optimization services, while building up portfolio of websites to generate revenue when there’s no client work on hand.

Perhaps it was in my nature to have venture capitalists / incubation company to make the offered amount with a specific target revenue figure.

VC: “We’ll provide up to S$200,000.”

Me: “For how much equity?”

VC: “Up to 49%, of course you can have more.”

Me: “I could do that for S$100,000 for 2 years. 49% is reasonable.”

And after 2 weeks of email bouncing, with business plans and financial statements being done, revised, and revised again, it was at the last minute when a curveball came.

VC: “We’ll not do a 100% equity. We believe that entrepreneurs have to put up with their cash so they will work harder for the startup.”

(I’ve made known to the group of my financials before the first meetup, which wasn’t anywhere near to meet the 51% share.)

(After reviewing other existing equity share models … and calling up my supposed first hire about the news that we may not get the funding to start working.)

Me: “I’ve already went ahead and purchased the tools necessary to run the business, used my savings to know who are the freelancers that this business can work with, and my room has already been converted into an office space, and I have existing invoice that I’ve used to close deals before.”

Me: “Even if I come up with any cash to have the equity share, it’ll make no financial sense for my team as I could close a deal or 2 and I could kickstart this with the cash generated from services and you won’t get any share after that.”

Emphasis added.

One of my core themes and belief is in the notion of thinking ahead.

To be specific, thinking 3 steps ahead.

While there aren’t any set formula on how to think 3 steps ahead, in this context the thought process that I’ve adopted and which you too could have in your arsenal of critical thinking skills:

• Lateral — If point A to B is a success. If the funding goes through, business will be able to hire this core team of freelancers and a graphics designer and a full-time hire to build up a portfolio of websites and run it with a dropshipping + affiliate marketing model, where my remuneration would allow me to go for events and meetups to build up brand equity and meeting new people, while building up a precise target number of sites and quota to be met
• Lateral (in event of failure) — If set quota of number of sites to be met is 20 affiliate marketing websites per month + 3 dropshipping websites per month in event of funding success, during the event if funding was a failure and working on a couple of hundred dollars of budget per month = original quota divided by 4 per theme, with expected results divided by 4 to keep perspective in check
• Overview (current, beyond event, common theme, and things to do) — Going beyond event of funding, a common theme that arise is the need to continue building a portfolio of web properties to generate the revenue, the need for internal search engine optimization work, writing, publishing, social media promoting, website development, website design, whether I’m up to the task or have a team of freelancers who would be up to the task when cashflow is positive, when would it be the time to be firm and lose the deal or how far I could push, and in event if the company counter proposes to be a client instead of equity sharing partners, along with identifying what are the things to do before the negotiation deadline (ie: interviewing writers, getting contacts, reviewing writers’ work, interviewing existing SEO veterans, interviewing Internet marketers) and visualizing what would I be doing in the next 30 days to 2 years if this event never had happened

It’s only after the overview where I’ve prepared myself on what’s ahead, structuring the gameplan in a manner that the money amplifies the work by x4 with ability to take on clients (amplifies = helps get things done in a bigger scale, but not a necessity) and went ahead to do the things necessary in the 2 weeks prior to negotiation deadline such as interviewing and reviewing, along with the back and forth emails on the business plan and financial projections.

From that, devise your own gameplan on how you would work and take action to get things done.

3. Believe (FAITH)

“FAITH” = “Forsaking All I Trust Him”

Faith without works brings one zero results. Hence, “faith” and “believe” in this context doesn’t mean saying “I believe I can do it!” mumbo-jumbo. Far from it.

In, 1 Samuel 30:9, after inquiring of the Lord, got the green light to pursue and recover all that was lost during the conflict, went ahead to do so.

David had already had a reputation for becoming a strong leader, going beyond the days when he first started off by slaying his bears and lions to defend his livelihood [1 Samuel 17:34], to slaying the ten thousands [1 Samuel 29:5]. Those experiences he had allowed him to start from where he was, such that as the Lord gave the good to go sign, he went.

I too had done primarily 2 things before making most decisions. From participating in a competition to closing cases, here are the 2 things that I’ve adapted as a must-have habits which you too could do so if you’re a prayer believer:

• Praying — I pray before going into any meetings, competitions, or when it comes to closing deals. Example of specific things to pray for before closing a deal: pray to know the needs of the client during meeting, pray for the right price point that both parties to agree on, pray for covering of the Holy Spirit when the deal is being closed, pray for results for the client once the work’s delivered, pray for work to be done smoothly, pray for smooth flow, pray for finances to clear on time, pray for estimated time appropriate for the work to be done, pray for delivery meetup to be an enjoyable one, pray for the weather to be good, allowing both parties to be in tip top condition to talk and discuss about the work to be done; and closed the deal
• Doing — After assessing the chances of winning, with having your gameplan ready, while understanding the overview of things that you’ll have to do and start doing, and after praying over your work … start doing

Those 2 points mentioned, along with knowing your own skillsets, abilities, and achievements (what were the lions, bears, and ten thousands that you’ve overcome), will allow you to have the faith and strongest believe for you to execute your chops irregardless where you are starting from.

For example, I’ve started a Singapore wholesale BBQ business in Jan 2010 with S$200 in my pockets, grew my blog’s (yes this site that you’re reading now) total income through freelance business + ebooks to S$9970 from Jan 2010 to Jul/Aug 2010, before battling heavy depression from Jun 2010 till Nov 2011 (that was right until the tipping point when finally I lost everything), and went through an almost insane 18 hours days by taking on school + part-time work + school assignments + online web work / practice from mid March to late Aug 2011.

Perhaps you too may have a dream of running a retail web store that would help you get the breakthrough cashflow that you needed, you’ve done offline retail before to running errands, but have yet to see light or know what to do next, or maybe you had once ran a writing business that didn’t take off earlier this year and rethinking an approach to take that would get your work noticed through freelancing on the web … start praying, believing, and doing once more!

Conclusion: Measuring results in 3 weeks

To be completely honest, S$1,000+ isn’t a big deal or amount to talk about—it was a round down, arbitrary amount based on the number of projects I’ve done and deals closed during a spread between late November to date.

While the money that came in certainly crossed the S$1k mark, here are possibly the things done and value closed pre-costs, along with affiliate marketing account results:

Freelancing project = S$880 x 2
SEO partnership = S$500
SEO partnership = S$50
ebooks = US$1.99 x 3, US$2.99 x 5
CJ.com = US$263.97
Amazon.com = US$1.28
Referrals = S$??.??

There’s a float of 1 freelancing project that I’ve closed, but awaiting first payment to get started, approximately late Jan 2012 (bigger corporations = slower payout) = S$1,997?

Not all payments had been paid out due to the festive period, so with the lapse and delay going on along with the costs which are approximately 30% (+ tithes = 40%), about S$1,000+ came in.

Besides that, I don’t actually live on just freelancing work. Following up on the gameplan in point 2:

Begin with: 3 affiliate marketing websites
Now: 7 affiliate marketing websites

Begin with: 0 e-commerce affiliate website
Now: 2 (live), 5 (preparation) e-commerce affiliate websites

Begin with: 7 SEO partnership websites
Now: 7 (live), 1 major + 5 sub (preparation) SEO partnership websites

Begin with: 0 e-commerce dropshipping website
Now: 1 (live) + 1 (preparation) e-commerce dropshipping websites

Given that it takes about 2 weeks to 2 months for any results for the sites to rank in their niches, those that have just recently went live would take about a month or 2 to start generating income.

Not bad for starting with S$0. This means no excuses for not having any resources (self-audit, what’s in your hands), no excuses for not having an audience (none of my clients actually knew who I was before meeting them), no excuses for having no contacts (I started by rebuilding my existing websites, launching them, before getting noticed and having the referrals), no excuses for having no time (weigh the opportunity costs, have a gameplan; refer to point 2), no excuses for being down and depressed (I’ve faced deep depression till I snapped in Oct/Nov 2011), and no excuses for having no team (I can’t afford to hire anyone right now, so I work on my own, unless freelance work has some cash mileage to work with another team member). Go figure.

In conclusion, is it possible to then go from dead zero to S$3k, S$4k, or S$5k? Yes.

However, while I’m setting my sights on S$7k to clear overhead costs and to stay afloat for the next 2 months — I’m actually missing a quota to run a few niche services in Singapore before March 2012, it’s easier to set your sights (if you’re fresh into the whole entrepreneurial / self-development route) on reaching the first S$1k, after which, would be replicating your successes over again to scale it up to a whole new level.

2012′s coming. Go have a great end of the year ahead. :)