Eighty twenty

I think I might have done too much rest (that is, from blogging) thanks to my previous post. My other side had been quite filled up, it's really sick season these past few weeks both in the clinics and in the hospital. Actually had just been back from a seminar and some respite, I might as well post on the same topic as promised.

The world literally had trained us to keep busy if we want to go up the ladder of success. Tim Ferris puts this in a graphic tone as follows: "If you want to move up the ladder in most of our corporate world, and assuming they don't really check what you're doing (let's be honest), just run around the office holding a cell phone to your head and carrying papers from 9 am to 5 pm. Now that is one busy employee". Unfortunately ( or quite fortunately), that's not how you increase your results and attain objectives.

Being effective is different from being efficient. Effectiveness is doing the things that get you closer to your goals. Efficiency is performing a given task ( whether important or not) in the most economical matter possible. Sadly, being efficient without regard to effectiveness is the default mode of the universe.

It is no different to you to see so many people working in a company or more so in the government, when you visit their offices. It would surprise you why even with so much manpower, you find yourself with so much people waiting like you in a queue where the service staff seem to have no regard for your personal time. Then observing them closely, some of them just chatting with each other, some just having their eyes fixed to their documents not even looking at you when they talk to you, and most just running around in circles. All for the routine of just to consume their 9 to 5 regimen. It is a wonder why it takes months just to get some simple government permits done. The society is infected with AIDS (As If Doing Something).

Applying this to your life, there are two truisms to take note of.
1. Doing something unimportant well does not make it important.
2. Requiring a lot of time does not make a task important.

Enter this principle of a renowned economist who lived from 1848 to 1923, Mr Vilfredo Pareto. The principle he conceived and presented then is now one of the secrets of the most successful people in the world. His Pareto principle is more popularly called the "80/20 principle". 


His principle originally describes how uneven the income distribution was in all parts of the world. "80% of the wealth and income was produced by 20% of the population". But this proportion is found actually in almost all aspects of human life.

• 80% of the outputs result from 20% of the inputs.
• 80% of the results come from 20% of the effort and time.
• 80% of company profits come from 20% of the products and customers.
• 80% of all stock marketgains are realized by 20% of the investors and 20% of an individual portfolio.

So with this in mind, here are two basic questions which you should work on to free your precious time (as recommended by Mr Tim Ferris in his book "The Four Hour Work week)".

1. Which 20% of sources are causing 80% of my problems and unhappiness?
2. Which 20% of sources are resulting in 80% of my desired outcomes and happiness?

Just set an entire day to ponder on these questions and write and record your answers in each aspect of your life ( family, business or career). Your goal is to find your inefficiencies in order to eliminate them and to find your strengths so you can multiply them. 

Being overwhelmed with things to do is often as unproductive as doing nothing and is far more unpleasant. Being selective- doing less- is the path of the productive. Focus on the important few and ignore the rest.

It;s easy to get caught in a flood of minutiae, and the key to not feeling rushed is remembering that lack of time is actually lack of priorities. Take time to stop and smell the flowers...



"One does not accumulate but eliminate. It is not daily increase but decrease. The height of cultivation runs to simplicity. - Bruce Lee

Why marketing may be a divine act

I had always been dreaming of succeeding in a business ( online or offline) that would provide real value to many people while making good.  But behind this would certainly be a tremendous amount of marketing and selling. I initially hate the idea really of chasing your friends and relatives to present some product and make them feel guilty if they would not buy from you.


I came across this article by Ms Pamela Brunner on Mother Teresa which changed my perspective on this. I would now be sharing this with you word for word. :)

Was Mother Teresa a Marketer?         By Pamela Bruner

Do you transform lives, and the world, with the work that you do?

If your dream is to make a difference in the world with your work, and you've made that work a business, then yes, you're a transformational entrepreneur. (Just to be clear - this includes coaches, healers, artists, authors, speakers, trainers, service professionals, and more...)

And marketing probably feels like the worst thing in the world to you. After all, it's manipulative, pushy, inauthentic, and only designed to benefit you, right?

Not if your work benefits the world.

Consider the path of Mother Teresa. She raised millions of dollars for her work. She was one of the most successful marketers of all time, spreading her message, raising money, and making a difference. 

But she wasn't raising money for herself, right? She was raising money for others, so it's completely different.





Consider this:
1) When you run a successful business, you will hire people to help you. These people benefit from your successful business.

2) When you run a successful business, you have the ability to give away more money. (Last year I donated more money to charity that I earned in my first year of coaching!)

3) When you run a successful business, you raise the level of the economy all around - that's something the world needs.

4) When you run a successful TRANSFORMATIONAL business, you change more lives than you do if you run a struggling business. Those people go out and make the world a better place - that's a significant ripple effect!

So market like Mother Teresa - be relentless in sharing your message. Tell the world what you do, and why you do it. Change lives. Make money. Keep some, invest some to help your business grow, and give some away. Some people will criticize you, and some will bless you. Your mission is to keep sharing, and keep transforming lives.

Here's an assignment:
Set a goal for how many people you want to reach with your transformational work this month, and this year. Now 'chunk it down' - how many people do you have to talk to this week to be on track with your goal?

When you market, things happen. When things happen, you change the world.

I'll let Mother Teresa have the final word:

"People are unreasonable, illogical, and self-centered.
Love them anyway.

If you do good, people may accuse you of selfish motives.
Do good anyway.

If you are successful, you may win false friends and true enemies.
Succeed anyway.

The good you do today may be forgotten tomorrow.
Do good anyway.

Honesty and transparency make you vulnerable.
Be honest and transparent anyway.

What you spend years building may be destroyed overnight.
Build anyway.

People who really want help may attack you if you help them.
Help them anyway.

Give the world the best you have and you may get hurt.
Give the world your best anyway"

Where do we fit in?

As what Mr Kiyosaki said in his book, "most of us have the potential to generate income from all four quadrants (see figure below). Which quadrant you or I choose to earn our primary income from is not so much what we learned in school; it is more about who we are at the core- our core values, strengths, weaknesses, and interests."

Regardless however of what we do professionally, we can still work in all four quadrants. Coincidentally he cites a medical doctor as an example.

As an "E" - he may be employed as a staff of a large hospital or work for the government in public health service or become a military doctor or join the staff of an insurance company needing a doctor on its staff.

As an "S" - he may start a private practice, setting up a clinic, hiring staff, and building his private list of patients.

As a "B" - he may own a polyclinic or laboratory or hospital and have other doctors on the staff, then he may hire a business manager to run the organization. He could also decide to own a business that has nothing to do with medicine.

As an "I", the doctor also could generate income from being an investor in someone else's business or in vehicles like the stock market, bond market, and real estate.

Making use of other people's time (OPT) and other people's money (OPM) is the main secret of the rich. OPT and OPM are found on the right side of the quadrant. For the most part, people who work on the left side of the quadrant are the OP (Other People) whose time and money are being used.

So the better trend to get most of your income from the B and/or I quadrant with time. If your only source of income is from your job ( the E side), there is a setpoint limit as to what you can earn ( your company or boss dictates it) and you are the most highly taxed by the government. All you get is after tax money.

It is quite frustrating to see hordes of laborers complaining about minimum wage and making noise about them deserving more. The legendary success mentor Jim Rohn says " You don't get rich by demand, you get rich by providing value". So yes, you can provide more value if you do your best as an employed but better value can be given as a business owner (entrepreneur) or as an investor (e.g., providing very good residential solutions at a very reasonable price like when you're into real estate investing).

If you are solely the S quadrant type (they are also called the do-it-yourselfers), being successful here would mean more work as you get more clients, so it would be virtually impossible to take a day off.

So now I invite you to take the time to plan and make a gradual extension and/or shift to the right side. Be it in the next few months or years, it is really possible. Nope you don't have to resign your day job right now, create something of the B or I quadrant on the side. You just have to expand your mindset. This is where the real wealthy are...


"Try to work very hard on yourself than you do on your job.
If you work hard on your job, you'll make a living..
If you work hard on yourself, you'll make a fortune..."         -   Jim Rohn

The awakening

After I had finished my residency training in Internal Medicine year 2000, my blueprint for success was to start a good practice in a place where I grew up (so that people already knew me), accumulate patients with time ( yes, when people like you they refer others to you), and in a decade or two, enjoy the good life. It's that simple...Besides, it's what I see with my colleague mentors in their 50s while I was training. They are literally flocked with so many patients, they drive with flashy cars, and their kids are mostly also taking up medicine. Yes, that should be a doctor's status quo.

My first few months in my practice was spent more on reading pocketbooks and playing cellphone games. I would arrive early and sit down in my cubicle, wait for patients to come. I thought it's as simple as placing a signboard infront. Anyway my veteran partners in the clinic (who happen to be an OB-Gyne and Pediatrician) are being swamped with so many patients, maybe 3 or 4 might get "lost" and knock on my door. It was hard, it was depressing counting the nailheads on my ceiling while waiting for my lunch hour and "go home" time while my partners are counting their patients (and their pesos at home). It's a good thing I was single then and got to keep some savings while I was a resident MD with a fixed stipend. Literally I was a bum and I still depended on Dad.

To cut a long story short, I accepted a teaching job in the college while sitting in my clinics on the side. In 2-3 years, my practice began to build up, I was able to build up my savings, got married & got kids. And the patients began to come by.. Yes, two important virtues came in...patience (for me) and the patients' trust on me.  My income stream was becoming more steady and we were being more comfortable...at least that's what we thought..

It was my 4th year of private practice as an IM then, I was relatively doing well. Yep, I had some money in my savings account in the bank and my wife who’s a newly graduated pediatrician was just starting out her practice, when it suddenly hit me early dawn of December 16, 2004. I had atrial fibrillation with rapid ventricular rate, was confined in a local hospital (AUFMC), stayed there for a week, had CT angiogram and other expensive tests in Manila, and was placed on “house arrest” by my cardiologist for roughly more than a month. There were frequent withdrawals from the bank account then and by the time, I was able to resume my practice, there were many backlogs with our credit card payments and we were below the minimum balance.

 Though some may not relate to my experience, the fundamental truth remains….if practicing as a medical doctor/ specialist is your only bread and butter, you’ll eventually realize the pitfall of this glamorous (yet noble) profession especially when you get sick…….. NO WORK, NO PAY. 

 My wife and I were blessed to discover thru my brother an eye opener book “Rich Dad Poor Dad” by Robert Kiyosaki 2 months after that awful experience and indeed, our perception of wealth changed and suddenly after all these years of “work hard, earn, save, and spend to look rich” would definitely be a thing of the past for us.

 Since that time, I had been reading lots of books and articles on building true financial and personal wealth and had been setting and tweaking goals with my wife. Our objective is to have multiple sources of income from other avenues not only to secure ourselves’ and our kids’ future but more so, to pay back to GOD and forward to fellows in need. Eventually, our practice in the future as doctors would then be mainly for what it is intended to be as a noble profession, as charity work for the sick. Being “ma kwenta on your PF” should be something we should leave behind.

So with respect to this, I learned from Mr Kiyosaki from his book "Cashflow Quadrant" that there are basically four different methods by which income or money is generated.

As quoted in his book" Different methods of income generation require different frames of mind, different technical skills, different educational paths, and different types of people. DIfferent people are attracted to different quadrants. While money is all the same, the way it is earned can be vastly different. If you begin to look at the four different labels for each quadrant, you might want to ask yourself, "Which quadrant do you generate the majority of your income from?" 

I'll be going into this further on the next post.

"Watch, listen, and learn. You can't know it all yourself...Anyone who thinks they do is destined for mediocrity."  -  Donald Trump

The day after I arrived back

One thing I do not like with being away from your normal work routine ( in our case, out from the clinics and hospital) even if to take a short vacation (as side trip with your out of town seminars) would be the accumulated load you are facing head on once you've arrived back.

I had actually requested a colleague with the same specialty I have to relieve me in my clinic to make it easy for my patients to cope in my absence (especially to aide them with their medical needs while I was away). I arrived late Sunday.

I was however still deluged yesterday (Monday) with patients in my OPD consults that I finished quite late (past 9 pm). I asked my secretary why this is so, "Didn't the patients who came in during the days I was gone consult my reliever?" Her answer was a "no", they said they would just come back when I arrive.

I felt quite flattered with this due to their overwhelming trust but then again I began to sigh, "What would I do, it'll be our annual convention in Manila next week (for 4 days)? We are also like students, we are having our attendance checked for our CME units, and being delinquent will deter our chances to secure that certificate of good standing which we need badly as a requirement for accreditation as a Philhealth medical provider (Philhealth happens to be the National Health Insurance Program here in the Philippines). So being absent there and staying in our clinic to see patients ( yep  our patients would prefer this) and earning too ( yep I would like this :) ) is really not an option.

That's what makes us doctors (some employed, especially the government workers and most the self-employed specialist) different from the enlightened entrepreneurs and the investors when it comes to providing services and building wealth. We may have comparatively greater income/ professional fees than a laborer and maybe some professionals but we do have to be always physically present to earn our daily bread. And the image patients have of their doctors are that they should be and look well-to-do.

Many patients would even equate the doctor's clinical competence with how he/she dresses, the car he uses when he comes to the clinic/ hospital, and even where they live. It would be rare for a class A or B patient to entrust their medical condition to a dude who rents and lives in a socialized housing community and who commutes to his clinic with a plain T shirt and jean type trousers to boot. Nope, that's why physicians also invest in their appearance and over all appeal so they make good impressions too to everyone. And yes, that involves spending for it. 

In my next post, I would like to share something I read a few years back with regards to the four different groups of people with regards to wealth generation. Why did I bring this up when we are talking about the noble profession of medicine? That would also be answered in my next post...

" A man is rich in proportion to the number of things he can afford to let alone."--  Henry David Thoreau, naturalist

What's with this blog??

It's my first day to blog again in about 2 years! My previous blogs were more of the cut and paste type, heck mainly to create an advertisement filled page for others to click on and for me to earn (how sad). Well mainly it's because I barely have the time to write. Too much preparation gets you into analysis paralysis. Now I just know I have to place my fingers on the keyboard and let it flow...

Why did I create this blog? What's with the title? There are billions of super blogs out there, who would take the time to glide their eyes on my piece? Well I can't answer all these. I just have to share what I learn, see, experience daily and just write, write, write.

What to expect here? My hopefully daily journal  1. as a father  2. as a medical doctor-internist ( nope, no medical lectures here!! But yes to tips and uncanny experiences) 3. as an aspiring online entrepreneur ( delving into internet and online affiliate businesses worth exploring, the very good ones will be share with you), as a network marketer (lots to spill on the groups I've joined in), 4. as an inactive licensed realtor ( I'm still updated on the good projects, thanks to my local realtor society), 5. as a traveler ( the world is a colorful and strange place!), 6. as an investor ( thanks to Mr Kiyosaki of Rich Dad, Poor Dad who I virtually met in 2005 thru his book, money is not evil and scarce as I thought it was), and more importantly 6. as a life and success learner ( I actively strive to be taught by mentors like Jim Rohn, Jack Canfield, Brian Tracy, Bo Sanchez, Jomar Hilario, Larry Gamboa, etc and even pay subscription fees to learn from them. And yes, in my following blogs I'll just lay some for you to take in.

When a candle is lit, it should be placed far out in the dark to fulfill its purpose. That's what our life's lessons are supposed to be, to be a lightpost for others.

Feel free to comment and give suggestions! We are all learners here.

PS: To avoid spamming and VERY violent counter comments (I hope none :), I will have to moderate them before publishing.

It's the start of a new adventure!!