As I've said before, welcome to this special evening being hosted by the Vancouver
Entrepreneurs Group™ and what I'd like to do
is welcome the founder and serial entrepreneur of this group who started the meet up group Mr. Dan Lok. Can we get a big round of
applause for Mr. Dan Lok? (audience applauding) Alright Dan. Can you get up here? - Making my way through. Thank you, thank you, thank you. Is my mic on? Can you hear me okay? - Yes - Let me ask you a question. Thank you. By a show of hands how
many of you are here because you feel stuck in your business and you're looking for a way to break free and make more money? Put it up and say yes! - Yes! - How many of you are here because maybe you're in a growing business but you wanna grow faster? Put it way up and say yes! - Yes! - How many of you already
have a good business but you wanna make it frigging great? Say yes! - Yes! - How many of you here just
as a friend or as a colleague to support me or Joo
Kim, how many are that? - Yes - Thank you thank you. Now let's start the evening
by giving a high five to three people that you don't know. Go for it. Hi high five buddy yes! Yes! Good okay now I want to start off, before we get started
I want to take a moment and thank a few key people
because without them we wouldn't have an event
so the very first person I wanna thank is my co
organizer Roger Killan. Roger, where are you? Roger! Yes, Roger! Round of applause. So Roger and I we came up
with the idea of the concept of this event and that's how you're here and the second group
of people I wanna thank is my promotional partners, Jonathan Chow at the back, Francis, Ricky Shawdee and Matt Astifan Jay so many others, and
his group of bloggers so please give them a round
of applause thank you. (audience applauding) Now also how many of you recognize it is a lot going on behind the scenes, coordinating one of these events? Yeah so of course I wanna thank my team for making this happen
so Joe, Mike, Jennie, Justin, Hassan, Jeremy,
thank you thank you. (audience applauding) And the last person I wanna thank is also the most important person is you. I wanna thank you for being here because 100% of my personal
portion from the profit's from the tickets sales will be donated to BC's Assurance Hospital so, (audience applauding)
thank you. So just by you being here, you're helping the kids at the hospital. So I wanna thank you. Thank you for that. (audience applauding) Now how many of you have
been to other workshops and seminars before? Okay great. Now when I first came up
with the idea for this event, I thought to myself how could
I come up with something a little bit different? How can I come with something
a little bit more unique? 'Cause unfortunately nowadays
I used to go to a lot of workshops, but now not so much because I just feel like most of the speakers out there
nowadays are talkers. They're not doers. How many can relate to what I'm saying? They talk a good game
but they're not someone whose been there and done that. So I thought to myself how
can I bring you someone that is a high performance individual, that is a little bit different, that is not just a talker but a doer, not just someone who
is a good entrepreneur, not even a great entrepreneur but an outstanding entrepreneur. Someone who's not just
doing a million dollar deal or 10 million dollar deal even
a hundred million dollar deal in this case it's a 360
million dollar deal. Someone like that 'cause for those of you who are
familiar with me and my work, who know me personally, what's my mission? Shout it out loud. (muffled audience crosstalk) In how long? - Five years.
- Five years. So my mission is to help
100,000 entrepreneurs in the next five years. I believe I can do this in three ways. How many ways? - [Audience] Three! - The first way is
through my meet-up group, which is Vancouver Entrepreneurs Group™ that I set up that we meet
every second Wednesday at Vancouver Club where
we help each other. We challenge each other. We learn from each other
where I'm usually facilitator. In fact, how many of you
are regular attendees for (mumbles) group? (mumbles) make a sound! (audience yelling) That's good , that's good. It's almost 1/5th of the room. The second way is through
the power of social media, where I take the powerful
lessons from the group then I post it on the Internet or YouTube. In fact, if you go to YouTube
right now and you type in Vancouver Entrepreneurs
Group™ or you type in my name, Dan Lok, you find hundreds
of videos that I've uploaded on various topics to entrepreneurs from
anywhere in the world that they can get access
to the information just at their fingertips
on sales, marketing, leadership, management,
different types of topics. My goal is for in the next four years, I wanna have over 1000
of these videos online. I would categorize them
in different playlists so when anyone in the world, any entrepreneur that needs help, they can just go there and
find a solution that they need. Sound good?
(audience chattering) The third way is something like this. An event like this show the titans we are invite the most
powerful, the most successful, the most influential speakers. Business leaders, titans that I know so you can get up close
and ask the questions that you want to ask, that
you can learn from them. Because who you spend time
with is who you become. How many agree with that? In fact, shout it out loud. Who you spend time with. - [Audience] Who you spend time with. - Is who you become! - [Audience] Is who you become. - Okay let me ask you a question. You spend time with negative, nagging, energy-draining losers,
what do you become? (audience mumbling) Okay. And if you spend time
with positive, energetic, uplifting winners, what do you become? (audience muffled crosstalk) Okay, hello? There are a lot of winners in here today because as far as I'm concerned, if you're investing the time, money, effort to be here
tonight, you are a winner. 'Cause losers, what are they doing? They're probably watching poor TV at home. False or true? Yeah so they are not here. I want to give you say 10 minutes or so. How long? - 10 minutes.
- 10 minutes or so. I want you to stand up first of all. Stand up, I want you to meet some winners. How many of you have one of these sheets? You should have that in front of you. If you don't, just put up your hand if you don't and my team will get you one. At the top you should see
Purposeful Networking. Everybody has that, yes? So what I want to do is I
wanna give you 10 minutes. How long? - [Audience] 10 minutes. - And go meet two interesting people, fascinating people, two
winners in this room. You will grab a pen and you
will just fill their name and ask them these questions. I give you 10 minutes; how long? - [Audience] 10 minutes. - Go for it! (audience chattering) Have a seat. How many of you have met
some interesting people? Very nice, very nice. You can continue that,
the networking afterwards if it's not too late. So let me ask you a question. How many of you wanna get the most out of this evening tonight? Yes?
- Yes. - How many wanna get the most
out of this evening tonight? - [Audience] Yes! - That's better. So I will submit to you
as you're listening to our guest speaker. I'm gonna bring him in just a minute. As you're listening to Joo Kim, what I want you to do is I want you to ask yourself two questions. How many questions? - Two. - Okay the first question is
how does this apply to me? What's the first question? - [Audience] How does this apply to me? - And the second question is
how do I take direct action? What's the second question? - [Audience] How do I take direct action? - Because nobody changes
their life or business in a seminar. Nobody changes their life
listening to a keynote speech. What changes, what improves
the quality of your business or life is you take what you've learned and then you turn it into a
daily discipline, a routine. Does that make sense?
- Yes. - So that's what I want you to do. So as you're listening, don't go into the mode of thinking that... 'Cause think about it, the
biggest choke hold on a business is always the psychology. What is it? - [Audience] The psychology. - And the skill set what is it? - [Audience] The skill set set. - Of the business owner. False or true?
- True. - So because of that as
you're listening to Joo Kim as you listen to his story,
don't go into the mentality of well you know what I can't relate to the 360 million dollar
Trump Tower project. I'm trying to figure out how
to make 36 grand a month. Okay don't go into that
mentality and don't go into the mentality of well I'm not in the development business I'm not a developer. I'm not in real estate;
this doesn't apply to me. Then you've wasted your
time for being here. Does that make sense? So what I want you to do
is I want you to listen because in business there are tactics and there are principles. Tactics are industry
specifics: the how to, the mechanics, the steps, the laws. That's industry specifics, I get that. Then there are principles, there are what? - [Audience] Principles. - And principles are what? Universally applicable. The belief, the psychology, the mindset the habit's of excellence, can
then apply to any business? Yes or no?
- Yes. - So as you're listening to Joo Kim, I want you to pay attention to what are the principles that I can apply in my own business? How does it apply to me and
how do I take direct action? How many of you can do that? Yes?
- Yes. - Okay when I first invite
Joo Kim to come and speak I sent him an email and I said, "Well Joo Kim, as a friend, "as a good friend, can you come to speak "to a group of ambitious,
positive, eager entrepreneurs? "Could you come and do that? He simply said, "Tell
me a little bit more." "Tell me when you wanna
be there and how long "you want me to be there." He didn't hum and ah or
let me get back to you or I'll think about it none of that. He said "I'll be there." So let me ask you a question. To a super successful person
what is more valuable? Time or money? - [Audience] Time. - Time or money? - [Audience] Time. - I promise you, believe me Joo Kim's not getting paid to be here. I can't pay him enough
to be here. (chuckles) I can give you more admissions
if it means that much. So he's here because he's
someone who wants to give back to the entrepreneurial community. How many follow what I'm saying yes? So please ladies and gentlemen, please give a big warm welcome to the man that you came here to see this evening, Mr. Joo Kim Tiah. (audience applauding) Thank you buddy. Okay. Thank you. (audience whistling and clapping) Okay. All the love for you.
- Wow! - So what I'm gonna do is. I think I'm gonna do two parts of this. This is the first time
ever I'm doing this event, so I'm trying this out okay. So hang in there with me. I'm going to do the first part where I will ask the
questions that I've collected. How many of you have submitted a question that you wanna ask? Okay so I'll do the first
part and then the second part and I'm gonna pass around
the mic and you can ask the questions that you wanna ask. Does that sound good? Yeah? - [Audience] Yes. - Okay uncensored raw, who knows what's gonna happen. (chuckles) So Joo Kim maybe for
people who don't know you, share with us maybe a little bit about your background and your family. - First of all I just wanna say thank you for everyone for showing up, very humble. Oh I'd like to thank everyone for coming. I'm very humbled and very
honored by everyone's presence. Thank you. (audience applauding) So my background, is that right?
- Yes. - So I'm originally from Malaysia. I'm a second generation
person of wealth I guess. My parents basically came
from a very humble background. They were very poor. They worked extremely hard
to make their fortune. So the business that they were in first was financial services. Basically in Malaysia they built
up a stock broking business and at one point in the 90s they were the biggest stock
broking firm in Malaysia. Subsequently after that they started getting into real estate,
development, investment so it's like construction
investment development. I said that already. Basically anything to do with real estate. So that's the background I guess. - What's it like when you're growing up, what's it like having a dad a mom... I mean I know your dad
works very very hard. It's not always spending time with you. What's it like growing
up in a family like that? - Like I said my parents
they came from nothing so they are very tough. Both my parents are very dominant. They actually both work together,
which is not very common for a husband and wife to work together in their own business but they both do. So they raised I guess
myself and my siblings in a very strict and a tough manner. I would say almost as bad
I say this, but it's true. They were very harsh to us. - In what way? - Sometimes Asian parents
the way they treat their children when they were young it's not exactly very loving. - [Dan] Yes. (audience laughing) - [Dan] How many of you
have kids by the way? Quite a few, awesome. - Like you know I'm not
saying it's right or wrong but there's good and bad. But they never tell
you that they love you. They never like really hug you or say good things to bring you up. It's like if they don't say anything, it means it's awesome really. (Dan laughing) It's how it is. I think for me, it's also
because both my parents worked really hard and I
never got to see them really. So I kinda grew up and I know it sounds kinda melodramatic, but I
kinda grew up without parents in that sense because
they were never around. But when they did see me
and they spent time with me, they were constantly being hard on me and constantly telling me what I should do or what I need to do in order
to be successful in life. When you're young, it's
very hard to swallow. It's like you don't love
me, but you just tell me do this and do that and
tell me that this world is so harsh and so cold if I'm not tough. It's just going to swallow
me kinda thing, right? So that's the sort of background I had. I can say yeah my
parents did not spoil me, which I'm really really happy
and glad that they did that because to do business, to be successful in business, you have to be tough
and it's a tough world. I thank my parents for being tough on me because now I'm tough. (chuckles) I can take on what the world throws at me. Even from a young age I've
been conditioned that way. - So would you say your
mom and dad they're your most important mentors? - Yeah without a doubt. - Do you have any other
mentors in your life or just mom and dad? - Mentors mmm no I would
say just my mom and dad because it's... My story's kinda different. I know a lot of people here. I'm not saying it's right or wrong. I'm just saying what worked for me. I know a lot of people
have different mentors and they look to other people. They read a lot and
they read a lot of books and they go to all these seminars, which is great don't get me wrong. But for myself, I was never like that. For me because I was always alone, I always felt that because my parents didn't spend a lot of time with me, I
became very rebellious. I became rebellious maybe
because they didn't show me love or attention. But in some ways it was good because I always wanted to be different. I always wanted to prove
everyone else wrong. Like I can do it better. I'm going to do it my own way and I'm gonna show you (Dan laughing) I don't know if that's good or bad. But in some ways that pushed me to search for the answers for myself more, which I think is more important. As a individual, as a business person, you need to find your own identity. You need to find what works for you. I think it's good to
listen to what other people have to say, other peoples
journey, other people's story because they're all successful. But it's not necessarily gonna work for you
because you are different. So yeah don't get me wrong,
I listen to other people. You have to learn how to listen, to learn. You need to be teachable, right? But at the same time, I always felt that I need to find what works for me more than anything else. I think that anyone who
wants to be successful has to have that kinda stubborn conviction regards their convictions. Everything you do in life, there's gonna be questions and you're going to question yourself. Other people are going to question you and if you don't believe in yourself first of all of who you are, your identity as a person, then after that you're going to have convictions about your
product, your business, the decisions that you make. If you don't have a
stubborn 100% conviction that you are right... I may not know all the details, but I know one thing for sure and I'm 100% sure about
this and this is why. If you don't have that conviction, there's no way you're going to be able to convince other people to follow you and buy into your product or buy into your company or buy into you as a leader. So I went off in a bubble (mumbles) - Was good, I think--
- Was it good? (audience applauding) - Now I gotta say this, congratulations. I know Trump Towers is 75% sold, more than 75% sold correct? - Actually it's 80%. - 80% sold, 80% sold! (audience applauding) By the way if you wanna buy one, talk to Joo Kim afterwards. (laughs) What we have discussed as you know, when you first announced the
project of the Trump Tower, the media and the Vancouver, they're quite skeptical about the project. Are we ready for Trump? Are we ready for five star hotel? Do we need another one? A lot of negativity, doubts,
skepticism, naysayers. What do you have to say
to those people now? - Nothing negative. I wanna thank them as well.
- Yeah. - I wanna thank people who support me and I also wanna thank the haters. I wanna thank them because
they make me relevant as well and they help fuel my desire
and my fire to succeed and to prove them wrong. I guess all I have to say is the building is gonna be topped up in April. We are scheduled to be
completed the summer of 2016. We're 80% sold on the residential. I've tied up besides
Trump managing the hotel, I've tied up with Mott 32, which is I guess a Chinese
luxury restaurant in Hong Kong, very successful award winning. I've tied up with Drai's
so we have the first Drai's nightclub in Vancouver. I also bought Equinox, which is I guess the biggest, most successful luxury
gym in North America. So I'm very confident that I'm basically bringing the best of
the world to Vancouver and I know that this project's gonna be a real game changer. - Wonderful, wonderful. (audience applauding) when the nightclub finally open, you guys wouldn't be
interested in going to a party or anything like that would you? (Dan and audience laughing) - How many would want to go to a party? Okay, I'm throwing a party. That's good that's good. - I'm very excited. - On Joo Kim's time okay? (Dan laughing) - I'm really excited
about the club because-- - Well walk me through,
like paint us a picture. How's it going to be different
to any other nightclub? - Oh it's the first day club
night club in Vancouver. Like when you go to Vegas
you have pool parties-- - Yes.
- And stuff. So we'll have pool parties
on certain days I guess. Then it'll be more like a
lounge earlier during the day. - Yes - I mean in the evening and then at night, it goes on to a full on club. - Wow awesome. Take us back. I know when you were getting started you were actually worked at a researcher in Singapore for a period of time where most people consider that as a junior kind of position. What has that experience
taught you number one? And why did you do it? - I had come to Vancouver for a while. I did a few small projects for real estate and I already had I would
say a decent understanding of how real estate development works. Then my dad spoke to me and said, "Son you have very poor knowledge "of financial matters and global markets." I was like you're right. So he told me to go to
Singapore to work in a bank. One thing which my dad
always impressed on me which I didn't really do, was he reads a lot and I
didn't really read a lot. I was I guess lazy, not lazy. I just didn't see the importance maybe and I didn't make it a habit. So it worked out really well because in real estate, you can't run around and do everything. But when you work in research, you can't just sit down on a
desk and just read every day. You don't really do much, you just read. So that was a good change
for me but it taught me how to read more and my knowledge increased in global markets. That's just on the I guess academic side. What was really good for me
was working a low position it was very humbling and I got to see how it
is in the real world. In the real working environment
there is a lot of politics and there's a lot of BS. There's a lot of unfairness. - Does the manager know who you are or your background anything like that? - I think they know they kinda know. - Okay they kinda know. - They kinda know but it's like... I see people that get promoted, they get recognized and they don't do jack you know? All they do is they know how
to how to please the boss, - They know to please the boss. - They know how to present
themselves well, speak well and they get promoted where the people who work really hard and they do all the ground
work but they just don't know how to I was going to
say use a better word, kiss up!
- Kiss up, kiss ass! - Or whatever it is to the boss or they don't know how to
really market themselves; they just get stuck and
they don't go anywhere. I think it's so unfair
and what it taught me was when I become a boss again or when I leave the company, I'm gonna make sure none
of that nonsense happens in my company because that's not fair. That's not a way a
company how a would grow. - I worked with your team a little bit and I got to know a few of them. Maybe share with us, share
with us your management style; how you lead your team,
how you manage your team. - Just talking about this
over dinner yesterday. I think my management style
is a combination of both. I think because I'm very
Asian and traditional because I was born and raised in Asia. But I've also lived more than half my life overseas and I was also educated overseas. So I would think that my management style is a mixture of Asian and Western. I think to summarize, the Asian style of management is basically like you have
an emperor, you have generals and you have subordinates. - Yes like a triangle. - Yeah basically it's
in the Chinese dynasty, if the there is any disloyalty
or you do something wrong, your head gets chopped off right away. - That's right. - There's no questions asked. - Saves a whole lot of time. - Yeah so I'm not like that. I don't just cut the head off. Then you have the Western style, which is a lot more I guess collective where you kinda make sure everyone feels that
they are part of a team and they feel a sense of belonging and ownership to the company. There's a lot more back
and forth and explanation. Is my mic? (muffled crosstalk) is the battery? Pause for a second. Let me talk to my... David, is it okay? Okay, am I good? So there is a lot of explanation and a lot of justification and rational of why you do something. - When do you need-- - Explanation needs to
be done for all that and I feel that too much of either is bad because if it's too Western it feels like everyone's like a stakeholder. You have to get consensus
regards to everything and it doesn't work that way you see. I try to balance the both. I try to make sure my team feels a sense of ownership and belonging to the company. They need to know that I care for them and I honestly want the best for them. I want to give them a better life. I want them to stay with me and help build their dreams and
aspirations through my company. I want to do that for them. I honestly do and they see me working my butt off for them. But at the same time, they need to know that I'm the boss and that don't mess with
me because I will crush you if I need to, they need to know that. It's kinda-- - It's like a carrot and a stick. - Yeah it's weird. It's business; I've learned over time-- - So would you see you're
friends with your employees? - I certainly am. I am a very compassionate person, a very kind person but you
see I've learned in business that you can't assume
that people are like that. - Yes. - And I used to think that
people were nice and kind and compassionate like me. See I would never crush someone if I can. Like why you know? What's the point?
- Yes. - But other people are not like that. If they can crush you,
they will crush you. So I've learned I guess maybe
through the hard way as well where you need to make
sure that you are strong and you're not exposed or
vulnerable in a situation. So that everyone that I do business with, everyone that works with me
knows that I'm like that. I don't say this in a
disrespectful or an arrogant way but they know that I don't need them. They know that I would
love to work with them. I want them to help me
get to where I need to go. But they know that I am
strong and that's why you work with me because
I'm strong and I know what I'm doing and this ship is going where it's supposed to go. They need to know that, so it's a fine balance. - I know you work long hours. What's your typical
daily working day like? What's it like 'Cause
it's (mumbles) every day. - I'm gonna put a disclaimer here first because I want to encourage
everyone to be a workaholic. I work long hours. I probably do about 12 hours
on a weekday except Friday and then on the weekend I
probably work not that long, maybe four to six hours the total weekend. But I think for Canadian standards, that's quite a lot.
- Yeah. - I'm not saying that's right or wrong. It's about being efficient
and effective at work. But my personal opinion is there is only certain number of peak years of prime years in a
person's life to catch it. I guess you know what I mean? - From what age to what age? - Oh man everyone's different I think. I think some people start younger. I'm not that young any more but I think that these are the years for me now to work extremely hard where I can not punish my body but I
can take more punishment - Yes.
- And I feel that the reality in life I don't think there is a perfect balance
in life for everyone. If you wanna be extremely
successful, there is a sacrifice. I feel the sacrifice
comes when you're young. When you're young you need
to sacrifice your time to get where you need to get. - Just like your mom and dad right? - Yeah exactly those people who, I mean I sound so bad busy
having quality of life, well they're gonna have quality of life. They're not gonna have
really great success. That's how I feel. I mean a lot of people when they're older when they're really
successful then they're like well you know what, I don't need to work that hard any more. I've got this. I've already accumulated
all the knowledge, all the know how.
- Yeah. - I know how to manage people. I know how to reward
people and motivate people to be successful and I just
do the top line decisions. Then they can take it more
easy and do more charity and all that stuff because they've already fought all those battles. They've accumulated all
that wisdom to get there. When you're a young guy, you can only be so smart. Even how smart you are you
don't have the experience. You don't have the... You haven't gone through
the actual battles. You haven't gone through
the business deals to learn what to do those things. I always say you cannot
delegate your work. You cannot guide someone
else to do the work or make decisions when you
haven't done it yourself. You have to go through the fire yourself. My dad always says, "We cannot be a general
without fighting experience." You need to fight. You need to go out there
and do the detailed work - And lead from the front. - Yeah and that's only when
I feel that when you're young this is the time for you
to do all that stuff. Then later on in life,
you can take it easier. - And I know when you work
on the Trump Tower project 'cause in private conversation, we've talked about that you sleep and you breath the project. - That's right. - All the details. I don't think people can
grasp or even understand or appreciate just for
example restaurant-wise how many locations you've traveled and taste different kind of
food but walk me through that. - Well my dad always said
that you need to be a master of whatever you're doing. So when I took on this project, I realized it's not just I have
to be a master about hotels. I need to be a master of restaurants now. Nightclubs, even fitness now I guess and understand the luxury markets. There are so many things to learn. So it was like a crash
course to really learn. I mean obviously I'm not a real guru in a specialty industry. But I know basically in
general how the industry works. I guess the key to being, knowledge is one thing, is being able to see
what's applicable to you or to your project. So that for me, I had a very clear vision in my head that I wanted this project to be a certain way. I had a clear understanding of what would be successful here. I was very confident that nightclubs get you know if we have pool parties, people here are gonna go nuts alright because people here love the sun. People like pool parties. They all go to Vegas, go to LA. We don't really have a good club here. So you can identify the
missing pieces I guess that the city wants that you can provide; then I think your chances
of success are higher. Then after that, it's just going out there and finding the proper
partner or the proper person who can execute and deliver
what you want to bring. That's a long process of
finding the right partner, you know striking the right deal, negotiating the right terms and so forth. - And you're very much
into the details too 'cause I know-- - Oh you have to be. - When you walked me through the showroom. Joo Kim knows the tiles,
the shower head, everything. And you picked everything. - Everything that's close to me I'm like a control freak in that
sense because I have a very clear vision of
how it has to be executed and how it needs to be executed that way. So yeah every single detail. You see because at the end of the day, the buck stops with me. If it's not successful, I have
no one to blame but myself because I have all the
control and all the power to say no, fix it. I want it like this, I want it like that. So I have to know
exactly so I have to have that really strong
conviction that I know this is going to be successful and why. Why's it going to be successful? Because I eat, sleep, and breath it. I've traveled so many places. I've seen what clubs are successful why restaurants are successful. it's designed this way. Why is the lobby successful? The bar is put right here, why? So the person can see that person there. Everything you gotta really
like crystallize your thoughts. So you can tell the people you know, I don't rely on those so-called experts to do those things for me because
they're good in executing. You have to give them
direction you know what I mean? - And even I think in
the showroom at the time first time when I went there
you were just putting up the champagne bottle - Yeah - You were putting on
the label and the staff were putting on the label. I was like, hey Joo
Kim this is a showroom. This is a lot of money
just for the showroom. But you said you wanted to create that atmosphere, You want people to see
what it's gonna be like. I know it's been a lot of money just in renovation of the showroom. So maybe talk to us
about what's your vision 'cause I know, for people who don't know, Holborn also owns the Fortress BC building next to the Trump Tower. How many of you know where that is? On West Georgia, yeah. Fortress BC building, Holborn
owns that building as well. I think in private, you share with me that you can see the vision turning that into a kind of Fifth Avenue like New York. - Yeah. - What do you have in mind? - Well we own the building next door and it actually has retail at the bottom. - Yes. - So nobody knows because
it's not designed properly. We didn't designed though don't worry. It's getting designed properly now. So what we're going to do is really because we have the
residences and the hotel and the restaurants gonna be at the bottom and the lobby bar. - So hotel and then the
Fortress BC building. - So the retail out there
we want to basically animate the street and
make sure there'll be continuity for people that walked from what street is that again is it Thurlow? - Yep. - From Thurlow there's a lot of traffic, so we wanted to suck
the people from Thurlow to come down West Georgia Street. West Georgia Street already has... It's such a celebrity
it has so much traffic. Like hard traffic, but
foot traffic not really. So we want to be able
to animate the street. We want to have retail there, which-- - All luxury high end. - Yeah luxury high end retail. It's going to have high
ceilings and double frontage to make sure... That's where Equinox is going to be, so that's going to help animate the space. Whatever we do that is going to tie in really well with Trump Vancouver. - I gotta ask this
question like why Trump? Why did you pick this brand and so many hotel brands you can choose from? - Yeah I got this question down. - How many of you wanna know? - A few reasons. Actually to be honest with you, how much time do we have? I can just go on.
- We're good. - Okay so the first one
was I didn't ring Trump to Vancouver because I
know Vancouver in some ways is more left than right - Yes - And Trump is really
right, Republican right. So I could see how some
people wouldn't like him. - People like him or hate him.
- Yeah. So at first I would just
say no I don't think this would be a good fit. But after that, I tried
to keep an open mind. I thought about it more. The process took about almost two years. I was interviewing. It was also because I have
a philosophy in my company. It's basically is I
leave no stone unturned. I don't make a decision
until I have explored basically everything. I actually spend a lot
of time I guess courting other hotel companies, visited the hotels. - Check out the management. - Check up the management,
check out the terms before I came to a decision. So it took a long time. With Trump, I wanted a brand that was, had a good track record
with brand at real estate outstanding real estate. - And luxury--
- Luxury real estate. There's only a few brands in the world that have been successful in doing that and Trump is one of them. I wanted a brand that
would bring all eyes on me and bring a lot of attention
light a freight train. I wanted that because I wanted
people to not look at me, but look at the project. I was so confident of the product that I was like I just
need people to look at me. Once they look at the
project, they know it's great. 'Cause Trump is managing the hotel and bringing in residences. Hotel management contracts are long. They're like 20-30 years
and it's like a marriage. So one thing that kinda freaked me out and helped me make my decision easier was I was talking to one of the I guess CEOs for a big hotel company. It's like everything's good, talk to you next week kinda thing. They never got back to me. I was like what's going on, right. So I tried contacting him
and I contacted another guy who was in the same company. They say so and so has left us. I'm like left you? What do you mean? Then it dawned on me
that all these companies, they just run by executives. - Correct. - And these executives as you know-- - Come from one company to-- - Yeah they jump form
one company to another. The problems with the hotel agreement, I make a deal now, we write on paper. 10 years down, I sure
as heck can't remember. Then you go look in the paper. But at least if you're
the guy I shook hands with and we made the deal. We've been friends for
10, 30 years by then. But if you're some new
dude that I don't know who has no context of our relationship and just looks at the piece of paper, it's gonna be scary. So I don't want to put myself
in that kind of position. With Trump, the guy I struck
the deal with is Don Jr. He's slightly older than
me, but he's a young guy. He's gonna be around for
some time. (chuckles) - He's gonna be around 20, 30 years. - Yeah exactly, so I mean, by then we've been friends
for 10, 20 years time and if there's an issue, I mean
I'm sure we can resolve it. I took comfort in that. Yeah also, we did have
a bond in that sense because he's also second generation guy. We both come from very dominant
fathers and very successful. So we know what it's like
to have all this pressure and expectation on you. I know that he's always gonna do his best to make sure that everything goes well. So I guess that's the bond. But they're super tough negotiators. - What's it like working
with Donald Trump? - Tough.
- Is he like-- - No no no! The negotiating is really tough. - Okay.
- But once the deal is signed, they ae like 100% got your back. - So once a deal is done-- - Deal is done.
- It's done. No back and forth? - There's no more back and forth no. - Interesting. The deal is basically 'cause
most people know about it, it's a branding, licensing kind of deal. So they license the Trump brand to you, but you're the developer
behind it and you're the one-- - They manage the hotel as well. - They manage the hotel.
- That's right. - But you take your development
and the sales and marketing for the residential, right? - That's right, we do all that. - Okay. - Everything that we do in the project gets sighed off by them though. So Ivanka, for example the design, Ivanka personally signs off everything. - Wow.
- Yeah. - Interesting, interesting. So maybe talk with us. What do you think the qualities, maybe the top two skills that you believe it takes to be a successful entrepreneur. - I think the first one
is you gotta be visionary. I guess visionary means that
you must be able to identify a gap in the market,
something that's missing. Something that would be successful. You need to be able to
crystallize what exactly that is. You need to be able to
bring it, package it, and market it, convince people that it's the best thing ever. You must be able to sell it. You need to be visionary in that sense. You must have a mind that
constantly is inquisitive in terms of why people are successful or why businesses are successful. Why they fail, why they successful? How is the world changing, how
the world changes every day? Does it create opportunities
for new businesses? How does it effect certain businesses. That's the first thing. I think everyone knows
that 'cause everyone here is an entrepreneur, right? Was what second skill?
- Second skill. - Second skill hmm. I don't know what's a
skill, but I think you, to be successful in the long run, it's more maybe a principle. I think maybe you need to
have, you gotta be fair. You gotta be honest and you
gotta have great integrity. But at the same time, you gotta be tough. So it's like you gotta be
tough, but you gotta be all those things you mentioned because I think people, once they
have a bad experience, your reputation is gone. Piss some guy off, he'll bad-mouth you for the rest of his life. You make a guy happy, he may be happy for a short period of time. I guess that's important. You must have integrity. - I'm also curious, out
of all the countries you could go to, why
did you pick Vancouver to be kind of your home and
do all the development here for the next 10 or 20 years? - It kinda just dropped on me actually. (Dan laughing)
Just dropped on me. My parents came here and they
used to ski a lot in Whistler. They started investing here. Like a lot of immigrants,
they saw how wonderful this country is and how safe it is and how great so many things are. Because I came from Malaysia and in Malaysia, it's
politically not that safe, so they wanted to give us a second option. Somehow we started investing
more and somehow it's like well, someone's gotta take care of it now. (Dan laughing) - After the Trump project,
what's the next project? - I have Little Mountain
that I'm working on. Hopeful we can get the counsel
at the end of this year. Everything's kinda-- - Which is also massive.
- Yeah. It's looking good; it's 15 acres. It's about 1600 units of residential. There's some non-market housing. There's gonna be some retail as well. We'll have (mumbles) house, a daycare. About 30,000 square feet of retail and I'm missing something, but it's great. It's right next to the
Queen Elizabeth Park. We're gonna have a design
that's really permeable. Basically, we're gonna bring
the park to Main Street and (mumbles)
pedestrian-friendly, bike-friendly and just animative and very
nice landscape and so forth. - So Trump Tower 26
million dollar project. That one's like 300, 320 something? - If I put these numbers out, it's not good for the
property tax standpoint. - It's a big project. - You can look up the number
if you really want to. - Yeah.
- Okay got it, got it. No one from Revenue Canada
or anything like that right? Staff check! (Joo and Dan laughing) - That's awesome. - Okay we talk about what it takes to be a successful entrepreneur. What about why entrepreneurs fail. - Oh I think, I think they fail because I
think they give up I think. You see, I think success
doesn't come overnight. Most people fail a lot
before they succeed. You hear some stories
about some people who they made it big when they're older and they think it's like
their first business venture. But if you go into the
story, the dude's been trying for 30 years, you know. I think some people give up. There's so many things you need to be successful. You need to be in the right
place at the right time. You need to be lucky. All these things, right? You need to be hard-working,
you need to be visionary. You need to have charisma; you need to know the right people. All these things and I think sometimes, a lot of these things, if
you're not how should I say reinforcing and training
those attributes from young and reinforcing them from young, when you get older, it's
very hard to change. I think sometimes it's
not so much the things you're good in, the things
that you are not good in are the weaknesses or faults that you have that impede you from being successful. My dad used to say "You
need to strip yourself "of all the defects "so that you can better your
chances of being successful." Some people are very egotistic;
they have huge pride. They may be smart and so forth, but nobody wants to work
for a guy that's not humble. The guy's an egotist; you say
"I'm not gonna work with him." Even if he's brilliant, right? So many things. Sometimes it's the things that impede you and you don't know it. As you get older, it's tough to change. Change is very hard, so I think that's why it's so important from a young age to practice all the right values. I always say that unless
you're like a genius, which I'm not... I always use sports. Those people, you see
them; they're successful. They've been training ever
since they could walk. Every day and night they've been training and they've been dreaming about it. What you see is only the end product. Nobody can just overnight say
I'm gonna be successful now. It doesn't happen that way. It takes years of the right
living, the right believing, so that you can have all
the values, the work ethic, the characteristics to be successful. If you've been lazy all your life, one day you think you can just get up six o'clock every morning? It's not gonna happen. You need to reinforce
everyday all the right habits to be successful and it has
to become a part of you. It has to be a part of you. It cannot be something that
you're trying to do anymore. - It's a part of who you are. - It's part of who you are
and that's the only way you can function. I used to be so upset. I couldn't understand my father. Why is he so weird? Yeah yeah, I just don't get it. My dad would take five minutes to shower. I was like, "Are you even clean?" You know what I mean? (laughs) But he was like, "I don't have time. "I don't waste my time
doing these kind of things." (audience laughing) It's just so odd, but like-- - You told me he like 10 minute lunch or something like that. - He eats so fast. Eats so fast and then he's
constantly going go go go. Just working all the time. All he does is talk
about business constantly and I feel like it's never a conversation. I feel like your just
living in a different world. It's because he eats, sleeps,
and breathes business. It is part of him. In some ways, it's almost like a defect. - It's an obsession. - Yeah you know what I mean. It's like you have to
be so obsessed with it where it's part of you. It's like I can't change the way I am because I know these are the things that are going to make me successful. I used to think that was weird, but now I'm becoming like that as well. I'm becoming weird like that. (audience laughing) Which is weird. - (mumbles) doesn't fall
far from the trees I guess. - Except for this event,
you will never really catch me on a weekday going
out because I'm busting my butt, right. - A round of applause for that. (audience applauding) Thank you. - For example, I say this
in a very humble manner. I'm very focused. You know, one thing in
business you have to be focused because it takes a lifetime to be good. You can't be good at everything. It takes a long time to master something and when you finally master something, then maybe you can move
on to something else. But if you put your hand
into so many things, how you gonna be a master? There's only so much time in the day. So I'm very focused. Right now I'm focused on real estate. I just want to spend
all my time doing that because I'm the type of person where if I do anything, I want it to be good. I don't waste my time. I always say I'm not
into the cheap thrills that anyone can do. I'm searching for the higher prize or high that you get when you reach, you do things that people cannot achieve. I guess in business, if
you make a lot of money, you grow a company really
big, X amount of size, if you're a writer, you win
the Nobel Prize or something, that high that you get, only a very select few in the world can ever experience that. I am more interested in getting that than some cheap thrill like
to go bungee jumping or something like that. I'm like, okay anybody can do it. Why am I gonna waste my time doing that? I'd rather spend those hours
working towards my goal so that I can achieve the big prize than waste my time being distracted doing a bunch of stuff that don't matter. - You wanna do something,
looking for a challenge. You want to do something
no one's ever done. - Yeah. I mean honestly it goes to my YOLO talk. A lot of people, these kids these days they always go YOLO, you only live once. But the way I see it,
they way they're living is like they live with no consequence and they don't care what happens tomorrow, which is wrong. For me, you only live once is because you only have one life. Time passes so fast
and you can't take back all the time you've wasted. I want to make my life count. At my deathbed, I come and
see that you know what. I've achieved so much and
I've made my life count. I've given back so much. That's what I'm interested for. A lot of people think
they have a lot of time. They think they have
a lot of time to waste and just do whatever they want to do and one day they'll be successful or one day they'll do
something meaningful. It doesn't work like that. You have to commit and dedicate your life I hate to say towards
greatness, towards success. You have to commit from a young age. You have to make a decision
that I'm gonna do this and gonna put in the hours. You're gonna discipline yourself. You're gonna do whatever
it takes to be successful. I know it sounds cliche, but
it's a decision you make. Then after that, you have to live it. It has to be a part of you everyday. I'm weird. I'm the way I am because
I'm so set in my ways that I know, I believe
that if I do these things, I'm gonna be successful. So that's why I stick to it. I don't let anyone break
it, you know what I mean. Because of that, it's lonely because not everyone's like you. Very few people are gonna be walk that... Not because they can't,
sometimes they choose not to, to walk that path that you have chosen. I spend a lot of time working while people are outside having fun. Then I'm tired; I can't go out after that. People don't see the sacrifice. People don't see the work you put into it. But it's those things that
are gonna separate you from everyone else. It may get lonely and tough. I'm telling you it will be. But you fix your eyes on the prize, right. You don't lose focus of what you want. Not what you want, what's
more important in life. You know what I mean? At least what's more
important in life to you. - To you, how do you define success? - I think everyone's got their
own definition of success. I think you are successful
when you are able to impact people in a positive way because basically no
one will listen to you unless you're successful. So you can't even start to impact people if people don't pay attention to you. You have to reach a certain
level where your somebody. Then people take notice of you and then people will want to follow you or support the things that
you're doing, you know? If, not if, one day, hopefully soon if I'm very successful, if I wanna start any initiative, people will listen and support me like I don't know, do something
for charity or whatever. If your some dude nobody cares about, you can't impact the world you see? You're not successful. So I think success is the
way where you have reached the position where you
can impact people's lives in a positive way and
then you're successful. - And as always I see
entrepreneurs veer off and they try and save the world
before they save themselves. I always say that you can't give coming from a place of scarcity. You only give coming from
a place of abundance. - Awesome. Totally, I mean no disrespect to a lot of, man I need to be very
careful when I say this. There's a lot of people, I
think maybe it's their calling. They work in in social services. It's great and I really support them. God bless them. That's their calling and they're really helping, giving people. That's the right thing to
do 'cause that's their role. What I don't like is
when people who choose to be entrepreneurs, that's the path they choose to walk, that they don't get recognized for what they do for the community. For example like you said, right. Don't get me wrong. A social worker is helping people. - But we need them, we need them. - But if I'm successful,
I can do much more. I can have the resources
to do bigger things, to have a bigger impact right? A lot of people don't realize that. They think we're just the ugly developer just here to like take everything and we speak money, you know what I mean? They forget that the biggest people who contribute to the charity are the richest people in the world. They are the ones who pay the most taxes, they do the most charity and some of them, nobody
likes them either. - It's true. What I've noticed sometimes
because they want to maybe in other areas of their
life they don't feel valued they don't feel special. They don't feel important, so sometimes people use religion or sometimes people use a social worker. It's almost as a way, I don't
want to say as an excuse, but as a way for them to feel special. Or you know what. - They are special. I just think there needs
to be a better recognition of entrepreneurs right. People that drive the economy and create jobs and all that. They give a lot back to society and I feel that we're
always underappreciated. - Entrepreneur yes? (audience applause) So why don't we take some
questions from the audience and see how we do? - Okay. - Now who has a question, put up your hand and then we'll run a mic to you. David you got a mic? Check. (David mumbling) Okay your hand up? Maybe (mumbles). Tell them stand up so
people can hear you as well. - [Tyler] Can you hear me? - Yes. - [Tyler] So I'm just curious
what your experience has been working with the Trump
family and if there's any specific quality that
you respect or admired in any of them, what would that be? - The experience has
been great like I said. They are very tough negotiators. They're very savvy business people. Once they on your side,
they're are 100% on your side. It's been a great experience
for me and my team because when my team interacts with their side, they kind of step their game up as well because it's like oh these
guys are really efficient. These guys are really smart. We gotta look good in front of them. So it's been a great experience. - So they kind of raised
your standard as well. - Yeah, yeah. I think this move has been great. I mean I never really thought about... That's the other thing I was saying. I don't really think about
the future in that sense. I think people will spend too much time, it's such a cliche. What's your five year goal? 10 year goal and all that and I'm like
oh man that's such a cliche. - You're trying to figure
out what to do this year. - Yeah, think sometimes
we need to just focus on the present and the present. The future becomes the
present, you know what I mean? If the present is awesome,
the future's gonna be awesome. That's how I feel. Now that this project is on its way to become everything
I thought it would be, it's really opened so many doors for me and there are so many more
opportunities for me now. So I don't worry about the future. I just focus on executing on the present and making sure it's just awesome. - That answer your question, Tyler? Round of applause for Tyler. Thank you. (audience applause) And just say your names
are so we can hear you. Say hi my name is. No, do the mic. - [Kelvin] Do the mic? - Yeah the (mumbles)
used the mic. (laughs) There you go. - [Kelvin] I'm afraid
a little bit too loud. - Hi and your name is? - I'm Kelvin Koo. - Kelvin, everybody say "Hi Kelvin." - [Audience] Hi, Kelvin. - [Kelvin] Hi guys. First of all I'd like to
thank you for that talk. It's so interesting knowing your story. I'm personally actually
from Malaysia as well and I moved to Vancouver
and have the opportunity to be part of Young Entrepreneurs
Society International as a VP of Vancouver operations. But before that, I wanna
ask you two fun questions. Are you ready for that? - Okay I'm scared now.
- Alright, cool. (audience laughing) So first question I'd like to ask you is if you had three superpowers,
what would they be? And the last question: if there's one thing
you miss about Malaysia being I meant about food, what is that, what is that favorite food? - Okay three superpowers. I guess this is which X men right? I'd actually like to read people's minds. I would like to read people's
minds, that's one thing. - [Kelvin] Powers that would
help you be more successful. - Yeah, not flying cause
I'm afraid of heights. (audience laughing) Two more. If could heal people that would be good. Third one, oh man. I can't think of a third
one now. (chuckles) What was the other question? - Malaysian food. - Malaysian food? - [Kelvin] What is your
favorite Malaysian food? - I would say Nasi lemak. - Score.
- Yeah. - Round of applause for Kelvin. (audience applauding) And then we will come back to the front. - [Alok] Hello. - And your name is? - [Alok] Can you hear it? Yeah what's your name?
- Alok. - Alok, hi Alok! Let's try that again. Hi Alok! - [Audience] Hi, Alok. - [Alok] Thank you. I appreciate your authenticity. The question is if you are
building an organization in Vancouver within the
limits of the local culture and rules and regulations, how do you build an organizational culture that is halfway Asian and Western following up on your earlier comments? - Good question. I think the world is becoming half Asian and half Western. (audience laughing) So you need to be able to, and Vancouver's a good
representation of that. I think you need to be able to understand both sides, both cultures. I guess learn how to manage both cultures and so you can get everyone to support you and be effective at work. - [Alok] Okay thank you. - Thank you. (audience applauding) - [Desmond] Hi good evening. My name is Desmond Soon and I'm also-- - Hold on what's your name? - [Desmond] Desmond. - Hi Desmond! - [Audience] Hi, Desmond. - [Desmond] Hi everyone, thanks Dan. I'm a Singaporean Malaysian
as well so coincidental. So my question for you, Joo Kim is can you tell us about what
was the hardest struggle that you had in your darkest
time throughout this project when you thought things
were gonna fall apart and what did you do to
hold yourself together or what did you do to push through? - I think when I first came
in 2009 it was very bleak. Everyone here is having a great time, now but in 2009 people forget. It was a bleak bleak time and we were also very worried. So just to give you some context, when I came back to take over the company, I had probably four people resign first day I showed up. Then I found out I had six
legal suits on my table. Six people were suing us. So I was like mmm okay and then stuff, just there was not a lot of continuity. We don't know the history
of so many things, so stuff would just
sort of come and bite us from out of nowhere. We had no clue where it came from. So a lot of problems would come. There's no specific problem that I thought was insurmountable. But you know, obviously
there were dark moments when it was tough; where you felt that I don't know if I can do this right. For me, this is where I share my faith 'cause I'm a Christian. So I just give it all to God. I just tell Him that all this is yours and I'm just doing my best for you. Come save me. (chuckles) Basically come save me
and I cried to God . Actually we pray in the
office every morning. Sometimes I miss it I must admit, but that's what I do. (audience applauding) - Let's take a question from... David? Where's David? David? (David mumbling) Okay perfect sir. - [Kaila] Hi my name's Kaila. - What's your name? - [Kaila] My name's Kaila. - Hi Kaila. - [Audience] Hi, Kaila. - [Kaila] I was wondering, what's your advice to
young people like myself that wanna be successful, wanna own big corporations, hotels, all that stuff but don't even know how to start or what to do 'cause it's all so overwhelming? - As a young person? How young first? (chuckles) Just kidding I don't need to know. - [Kaila] Just graduating high school. - Oh just graduating, okay you're a baby. (audience laughing) I think like I said from young to develop the right winning habits. So I think it's important as a young person to have achievements even from a young age. Like I said I think excellence
starts when you're young and it's carried out throughout your life. You look back to most people, if they've been winners all their life. Because you see, what I'm
trying to say is there are going to be moments in your life when you are going to question yourself and you're going to doubt yourself. What helps is when you
look back on yourself and then you say you know what. I've always been a winner. When I was in sports, I was the best. When I was in school, I was the best. You know I did all these
things and I was successful. So maybe this is a stumbling
block, but you know what. I have always been successful. I have always somehow had what it takes to be successful. So I think that's important. So I'm thinking as a young person, that it's good to build that confidence and build that resume or that experience that you have that you can lean back on yourself and not
just to impress other people, but so that when you are
questioning yourself, you will know that I've got
what it takes to be successful. I've always been successful. So it doesn't necessarily
mean a specific area. I think just basically
anything that you do or you have a passion,
that you participate in, do it to your fullest capability. Give 100% to everything that you do and make sure that it's the best. That's building excellence, so like I said, that's gonna translate into anything that you do because you see, I always
feel that it's a process to become great. In a process to become successful. You need to have... It's like little little successes that you need to have that's going to lead to big success. A lot of big success is eventually
going to make you great. So everything that you
do, you must always think, you know it's gonna be the best. It's going to be successful. So that's the type of mentality you must have in everything that you do. So next time when you get
a job or you do anything, you have the same mentality
that I'm just gonna dominate; I'm gonna be the best. Everyone here, please understand. Then you have, I won't
say killer mentality, you have that winner mentality
that's gonna bring you to the level that you wanna get. Does that answer your question? (audience applauding) - [Michael] Hello my name is Michael. - Hi, Michael. - [Audience] Hi, Michael. - [Michael] So a lot of
people in general that I found out is that they have trouble with focus and staying with the hustle and doing whatever it takes to get to success. So I just wanted to ask what are some strategies
you'd recommend us on staying focused and
staying in the hustle? - I think it's very hard, much harder now with the internet and cell phones and all that 'cause I'm older. I wasn't so distracted. - He's not old. - Kids these days they want
everything instantaneous and it's so hard to stay focused. I'm glad I'm not in school now right because I would have no chance of paying attention in class now. (audience laughing) That's a tough question. I think for me it's
very easy to be focused. I don't know, maybe it's a guy thing. I cannot multitask. I can only do one thing at a time so it's easy for me to focus. I'm the kinda person
where, when I do something, it's 100% there. Right now, I'm 100% here. Nothing else is on my mind. I think that is how I can be effective. How do you refocus? I don't know, it comes to me naturally. I think maybe just understanding
that you have to master something and the only way
you're gonna be able to master something is if
you focus doing that thing and make sure you're
just frickin' good at it. (audience applauding) - Let's bring the mic to the front. - [Surneal] Hi one last question. My name is Surneal Reckie. - Hi, Surneal. - [Audience] Hi, Surneal. - [Surneal] I'm a real estate agent. I'm involved with-- - Have you been to my presentation center? - [Sueneal] Yeah I am actually. Me and my partner were
involved with hotels, development and a lot of land assemblies here in Vancouver. First of all I'd like to thank you. Your speech was very humble and I thank you for sharing your, I think you've got a brilliant mind and my partner was just
commenting on that. I think he deserves a round of applause for his brilliance. - Thank you. (audience applauding) - Can you speak closer to the mic. - [Surneal] So the one
question that I got is what is the most proudest
and the most successful project that you have done
in your business career that you can kinda almost you know brag a little bit about? I'd like to share that. - Well it's definitely Trump.
- Trump is the one? - Trump definitely is. It's my big coming out party. - [Surneal] Alright! (audience applauding) A round of applause. The last thing is I
know you're very humble. I'd like to share a dream which
me and my business partner actually have in our mind. The kinda business motive and
the humbleness that we have. All the people on Hastings
and all the poor people or the unfortunate people. I shouldn't say poor, unfortunate. We'd like to actually
incorporate our dream with you which is, one is having a building, a building where we can recycle and kind of bring people off the street. Come into a building
where they'll have beds and come into a building
where they will basically have lawyers, have counselors,
have social workers, you know, kind of
regenerate these people off and back into the world. Maybe when you do have time and like you said, no stone is unturned because
you're an entrepreneur. Sit down with us and maybe
become part of our dream. Whenever you've got time. Anyway thank you very much. Round of applause. (audience applauding) - [Reene] Hi guys my name is Reene. Reene. - Reene?
- Reene. - Yeah. - Hi Reene. - I saw in another
interview where you talked about how you really value the
concept of leaving a legacy and I note throughout tonight
you felt really genuine. You talked about wanting
to give back to the world. So I'm really curious
about how you envision how you want you legacy to be like? - Okay. - Good question. - Good question. You see this is always quite relevant here in Vancouver because people always expect I guess people who are successful to give back to the community. Certainly that is the case. I feel though that there is a time and place for that. I think if you look most people they give, the charity work or
community work that they do usually happens later in their career. (muffled crosstalk) Because they've already made it and because there is only so
much time you have in a day. I believe that when your young, when your starting to grow your company and you can work hard, your focus should not
be doing charity work. That's not my job. My job is to be an entrepreneur
and to grow my company and make sure it's successful,
so I'm very focused on that. So later in life when I'm successful and I have more time, then all these things can definitely take a bigger part in my life. But having said that, we
also still contribute. We give jobs to people. We hopefully help them
to get where they want to get in one way or another, whether it's financially or
maybe through this talk somehow. Maybe I've helped someone get to where they wanna get. I guess that's my legacy. That's a good question. I'm a young guy. I haven't even been thinking
about my legacy yet. That is a question maybe you should ask me when I'm slightly older. I think right now I just
wanna be successful. I hope that I will be known as a person of high integrity and that I've
gone about it the right way. I've helped people on the way as well. That's what I feel right now. - Thank you. (audience applauding) - Let's take, how about two last questions. One from here. - [Ali] Hi my name is Ali. - Hi, Ali! Ah try again, hi Ali! - [Audience] Hi, Ali. - [Ali] My first question is would you accept a 38 year
old guy as a adoption? (audience and Dan laughing) Sorry, just joking. I know all of us when we
make decisions we do our best based on the current
knowledge that we have. - Right.
- As you said, you're going through to do
the best for this project. But based on the current knowledge, if you go back to the
beginning of this project, what are the top two things you
would have done differently? What's the two things
you would have changed? - I would have done everything faster. That's it. I don't think I made any mistakes. The only things that, I didn't
make any fatal mistakes. I made small mistakes here
and there that could be fixed. I think I took too long to make decisions because I guess I underestimated the task. There are just so many things to do. So looking back, I just hope in the future I would make decisions
quicker and go faster. For this is my first big project. I've got to be a little more careful. But as a principle still,
we leave no stone unturned. I mean I don't make a decision until I have a total peace about it. Then once you make that
decision, it's done. There's no turning back. - Let's say your now 60 years
old, something like that. Now you've got a kid, a daughter. If you wanted to leave your
son one piece of advice what would that be? Was that good? - [Audience] Yeah. - Oh man if that's the case
then it's not really business. It would be, I would just
tell my son whatever you do, stay close to God. (audience applauding) - And say the question again. - [Woman] My question is do you think you'd be able to do what you've done without your families
(mumbles) and if so, how? - Probably not to be honest. But with all due respect, I think that question is redundant because I do not live
in a world of what ifs. I don't think about things
that could have been or should have been; I
think it's a waste of time. One of the things I
could share is growing up as a second generation guy, a lot of people don't get it unless you're a second generation guy. From a young age, people
almost despise you from the day you are born
and they are jealous of you. They think that you're born with a silver spoon you know? You're a spoiled kid. You'll never be as good or whatever. So from a young age really, you're like whoa this is kinda harsh. You don't even know me right. So I struggled with
that when I was younger. People judging me when they didn't know me and also because my
parents were so successful, it is overwhelming and to think I'll never
be as good as them. But it comes to a point in
time where I don't care. I don't care what the
people think about me. I know who I am and I'm not interested
to be like my father. I'm interested to be on
my own, my own legacy to be my own identity. So I think that's important. You cannot be a clone of someone else. None of us here can be like anyone else. If your trying to be the next (mumbles), it's not going to happen. You gotta be your own self; you gotta write your own story. That's one of the things
I realized in life that I have to be
comfortable with who I am. I cannot change the fact that I was born a second generation guy. I can't change that. I've had to accept it and
I use it as a benefit. If my dad has so much
knowledge and resources, I should tap in that you
know and make full use of it and try to do even better. My goal is still to be
better than my father and hopefully I've got some
years ahead to do that. But at the same time you know, I'm a lot like my father
but I'm not as well. Me and my father, we clash. We still do because I'm not him. I have different ideals. I'm not saying he's right
or I'm right or whose wrong, it's just how it is. You have to be your own person. (audience applauding) - David, can you bring
me the award please? How many found (mumbles)
from tonight's evening, yes? Now on behalf of, Roger, would you come up? Please come up, Roger. Round of applause for Roger Killen, my organizer for this event. (audience applauding) Oh come on, louder yes. Thank you. Yes, thank you, So on behalf of Vancouver Business Network and Vancouver's Entrepreneurs Group we have a award, Entrepreneur of the Year Award, the (mumbles) award for Joo Kim Tieh for one group. - Awesome, thank you. (audience applauding) - Hold on, here (mumbles). Why don't you get in the middle. - Oh, okay. (muffled crosstalk)
