Who would you listen to ?

Two persons are promoting you great ways to earn good money which you are eagerly looking for.

Melva is a multi-millionaires who owns an international business. He is currently semi retire but still appear in office from time to time review progress and make new decisions base on latest world trend.

Andy seems like a very charming guy. He is very enthusiastic and energetic. He has done many great work in past 10 years but has not achieved enough yet. Sometimes his friends even doubt if he is in debt or just barely make through everyday's life. But he does have many great ideas and a very attractive guy.

Both Melva and Andy are sharing with you ways to get rich. Who would you favor more, listening to ?


Most people pick Melva because she has done it before. Andy is fine with almost everything except that he is not where we want to be yet. So we pick our idol or a symbolism where we want to be and favor to her advices more.

... Next story ... two persons are advising you not to steal.

One was a thief, now locked up in Pudu prison (1986). After serving 7 out of his 10 years term, he will be released next year due to good behavior. Ahmad is sharing with you why you shouldn't steal.



Priest Michael is the most respected person in town. He has been preaching for more than 15 years. Ofcourse he has never steal a single thing in his whole life. He is asking you not to steal.

Who would you listen to in favor ?



Most people pick Michael the priest because he has better reputation. Why should we listen to Ahmad at all if he himself was stealing?

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Sometimes we choose to follow those who has done it before.

But other times, we magically believe in someone's words even if he himself has never done it.

what a Double Standard !

But why is this happening ?

That is because even before we listen to any of them, we have had some preceptions ourselves. We think that Rich is a good thing and Steal is a bad thing. So for good stuff, we look up to those who has achieved it and for bad stuff, we look down to the people who has done it before.

Some may say this is due to reputation. We naturally choose to follow people with better reputation. Actually this so call reputation also orients from our preceptions of good and bad. So in short, we use our own internal preception to determine what we like to hear.

Which in a way is a funny thing. If we already know what we want to know, why do we bother listening or learning what we alraedy know ?

Actually it has been sometimes since Melva the rich work her way up. All she remembers now is some high lights in her past and most of what she did are no longer workable in today's world.

A few guys listen to Andy eventually form a team which become one of the biggest advertising agent in this region.

Most of Michael's students still end up stealing. Because the priest was boring and just talk about what you shouldn't do. The more the kids listen to "shouldn't steal", the deeper in their mind is implanted with "Stealing is one of the options I shouldn't do".

A group of 32 who listened to prisoner Ahmad decided not to steal anymore. Almost all of them eventually contribute a lot back to the society in many different ways. Whatever Ahmad shared in 15 minutes that day, it deeply touches those who were thinking to steal something to achieve their goals.

We have done quite an extensive studys and surveys on this topic in past 4 years. A total of 68 case studies are finished examined with a 1 year follow up. Guess what our conclusion is on "Who You Should Listen To?"

Most people listen to better reputation speakers, some of them (12%) manage to benefits, some not. A smaller fraction of people listen to people who has done it before, some of their lives improved (13%), some not.

So our conclusion up to now is In-conclusive! It doesn't matter if you listen to the highly reputated speaker or to those who has done it before, they may or may not leave effect on you.

So it doesn't really matter Who tells you what, the important thing is what you can make out of it!



In real life, many important things do not have clear distinction between good and bad, correct and wrong. So using our instinct of listening to more reputated person may not usually work. Furtheremore, we really have no control over what people say. We also have limited ability to shut down our hearing ability.


What we are in total control is ...
how we process what we hear,
despite what it is and who said it.


So, should your personal finance planner or consultant better than you or should you use them as part of your whole plan ?

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