Going In Blind...And Coming Out Unstoppable

On January 24th 1999, I did something that I had planned for years that would change my life.

I drove a 4WD on the streets of Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia for a distance of 5km. Nothing special there.

Except I was wearing 2 blindfolds while driving it. Those 2 blindfolds were inspected by the media who confirmed that I could not see through them.

To get the media’s attention, I invited a celebrity actress to be my passenger, and told them a few good reasons for the event to take place.

I also had a member of the press sitting with me inside the car, with a video camera in hand, to show another perspective.

Note that this was 20 years before self-driving cars were even possible. I also invited the media to inspect my ears to see that I wasn’t wearing any ear pieces for anyone to direct me on when to turn and when to go straight.

I really was driving the car without any mechanical or remote help.

My celebrity passenger was Angeline Tan. She would attract many more eyeballs to this event that I could on my own, and she could be interviewed for her experience as well.

I had set a strict condition for her not to say anything to me during the drive, which was made known to the media. The media personnel who sat in the car with us would ensure that my celebrity passenger wouldn’t be telling me what to do, as well as record his perspective on how the drive looked like from the inside of the car.

SIDENOTE:

I had some hurdles in getting the permits from the police to make this event possible. There were 2 police departments that would be responsible for the area that I would be driving in. The traffic police, and the area police.

I needed to get both parties’ permission since my event was to be held on public roads, and it was a dangerous one. What if I damaged cars, or worse, ploughed into pedestrians along the way? I wouldn’t be able to do this if even one department said no.

Since the event actually went ahead, I somehow managed to get the necessary permits — despite one department’s great reluctance to give their permission. But how? I may talk about this in my next issue, which brings with it another 10x lesson.

Anyway…

I started driving the car at Merdeka Square, and ended up at the Petronas Twin Towers about 12 minutes later. I did this for 2 reasons:

1. I wanted to prove to myself that I could do anything I wanted, if only I wanted it badly enough; and

2. In so doing, I wanted to motivate others to keep pushing on in “dark” times because nothing stays dark forever (Asia was going through a major financial crisis starting in 1997); and

3. I wanted to help raise funds for the National Council For The Blind (a charity) that had sent me a letter asking for a donation to expand their facilities for the blind, a few weeks prior.

The way we would raise funds would be to sell tickets to a motivational seminar that I would be speaking at together with another motivator, with all sales from the tickets to be donated to the charity.

By the way, I chose the Petronas Twin Towers because it was a brand-new skyscraper on the world scene then. It was, and still is, the tallest twin towers in the world, standing at 1,483 ft tall.

So here’s a video of the event, with me speaking to the media after the event was over. I obtained this recording in 2014 from the TV station that had created a 2-minute clip of it the day of the event, hence you see the copyright notice for that year at the end. But the event actually happened in 1999.

Remember — I was using “Shaun Tan” as my name for my other career as a magician (I’m a qualified lawyer, and magic was just a nice distraction for me to cope with the stress of practising law):

The end result?

1. We raised the funds needed by the National Council For The Blind for their expansion.

2. The 2-minute video clip of the event was picked up by CNN and broadcasted worldwide to hundreds of millions of viewers throughout the day.

3. A friend of mine who was on a plane to Japan saw this clip on CNN and couldn’t believe it was me (as I was, and still am, an introvert).

4. All the media (newspapers, radio and tv stations) in Malaysia featured this drive and the story behind it.

5. It opened the doors to multiple huge opportunities that I otherwise wouldn’t get without it.

The 10x Lesson

This lesson is all about leverage.

This event leveraged on:

1. A good story (to raise funds for The National Council For The Blind).

2. An interesting and impossible event for the public.

3. The reach of the media — newspapers, radio and TV stations (social media wasn’t yet a thing until about 5 or 6 years later with the arrival of Facebook).

4. The reach of a celebrity.

5. The brand-new Petronas Twin Towers, the tallest twin towers in the world.

6. The police’s involvement — at least 20 police officers (!) were deployed for this event alone, at zero cost to me.

All of the above combined gave me a ton of credibility. Some of my prospects still remember this event 26 years after it happened.

And because I have the evidence in the form of video and newspaper reports, it will give me a ton more credibility moving forward to people who have never heard of me.

To be sure, you don’t have to dream up such a huge event for you to 10x your impact.

Because the lesson here is just one: LEVERAGE.

If you’re an employee or entrepreneur, find leverage in whatever you do so that you can get better results with less work. You will have many options, so find the thing or things that give you the MOST leverage that you CAN do. Then take massive action so get the leverage you want.

Employees can create leverage in their workplace with their attitude, their communication skills, their problem-solving skills, their initiatives without being asked, their performance during work and more.

Entrepreneurs can create leverage with the right people, the right systems, the right workflows, the right market and others.

Investors, however, will do well to avoid leverage. “Leverage” in investing means using your capital to gain access to more capital. Which means borrowing money to trade assets and hope to profit much more than if you don’t. But while leverage can magnify your profits, it can also magnify your losses.

Thus my one singular rule as an investor is to never borrow to take a position in the stock or crypto markets (never leverage). This is because when you leverage, you lose control over your position. Smart investing means staying in the game long enough to let compounding work. Leverage shortens your runway. It speeds up both gains and losses, but your losses hit the floor fast.

If you never borrow, the worst you can lose is what you put in. That keeps your head clear, your emotions in check, and your wealth intact.

There is one exception: property. Leverage in property investing is common and accepted. This doesn’t mean there’s no risk in property investing because property prices can and do crash from time to time — but the timeline is in your hands, not in the stock or crypto exchanges that liquidate your capital immediately should prices move against you.

Cheers!

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NOTE:

The 10x Factors for investors’s content is educational in nature, with examples used to illustrate the learning points. We are not financial advisors and do not provide financial advice. Please speak to your financial advisor before making any investment decision. Note that every investment comes with its own risks and drawbacks. Past results cannot guarantee future returns. Do not invest with money you cannot afford to lose.

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