NAC 2008 Reviewed!

So I attended the National Achievers Congress (NAC) 2008 yesterday and sat through two speakers. I went a little late but managed to catch T. Harv Eker's seminar just in time! For those who don't know, T. Harv Eker is the author of the best-selling book Secrets of the Millionaire Mind as well as the owner of Peak Potential Training.

Well that was my first time listening to Harv speak. I've seen his books before but never got round to reading them. I must say, Harv's a real dynamic speaker. He gets the crowd all pumped up and excited about what he says. While he does make sense in the things he says, it's not something which I've never heard before. Having read books by Robert Kiyosaki, Donald Trump and been to Adam Khoo's training camps, I guess I've figured out that they all pretty much say the same thing.

Robert Kiyosaki has his EBSI Quardrant and Harv has his MESP Quardrant. Harv basically motivates the crowd by empowering them. Telling us things like the 3 Types of Conditioning (1. Verbal Programming, 2. Modelling, 3. Specific Experience), Obstacles to Success (Fear), the Process of Manifestation (Thoughts + Feelings + Action = Results), the Victim Mindset (Blame, Justify and Complain) and did comparisons between the rich and the middle and lower classes. Some of the things that he says are the same as what Adam Khoo says. Things like the Victim Mindset, admiring the rich instead of rejecting them ("Bless that which you want"), reasons to create wealth, etc.

Things were actually very good until he started hard-selling his training course. He used some gimmick about lowering the prices and got everybody all excited about a 5-day course that costs S$1995.00. The course was originally going for s$18,000.00. Either way, I'm a student and can only afford the course if it was going for S$50.00 which I think was not going to happen.

So up next after T. Harv Eker was the No. 1 Best-Selling Salesman of the world Joe Girard. Joe's an actualy record holder. He's in the Guinness Book of Records as the "World's Greatest Salesman". Joe has also written several books, such as best-selling How to Sell Anything to Anybody.

Joe's pretty old. I could tell that age was getting to him when he spoke. While not as dynamic a speaker as Harv, at least Joe didn't hard sell anything to anyone. If anything, I think he was trying to sell himself to the audience. I picked up many useful techniques in selling myself to people. According to Joe, everyone's a salesperson whether they like it or not. A preacher's a salesman cause he's trying to sell religion, your teacher's a salesman cause he's trying to sell education, etc. One thing I learnt from Joe is that after-sales service is everything. That's how he got to the top and stayed there for so long.

Joe is the type of person that would go all out to service his customers so they keep coming back and keep bringing their friends. In a world where money means everything, Joe's techniques brought a human touch back to business. Although the techniques were unique back then, I think it's now been rendered pretty common after-sales service. Afterall, his book came out in the 1970's and I think the major corporations would have picked up a lesson or two from him since then.

Well, NAC will be back next year and Robert Kiyosaki's coming to town! That's right! Rich Dad himself is gonna grace Singapore with his presence, along with his drop-dead gorgeous wife Kim Kiyosaki. I might or might not be going. It all depends on whether I can get free tickets again. Haha..