"Always remember to buy lunch for people who are richer than you" I have spotted a conflict of interest here.
I think it is good advice. He says to do it twice per month, not everyday. It sounds dumb in those words, but the concept is good. This can be as simple as saying ``lets get coffee'' and you buy the other person the coffee. It is a friendly thing to do and people like that. People don't forget when you do small things for them, like this.
Li Ka-Shing teaches you how to buy a car and house in 5 years
41–50 of 82 posts
Re: Li Ka-Shing teaches you how to buy a car and house in 5 years
#42"Living expenses" is not just food. What about rent, utilities, taxes, health, debts?
In Hong Kong, most people don't leave home till they marry.
Re: Li Ka-Shing teaches you how to buy a car and house in 5 years
#43So: 1. don't be unemployed or under-employed (he clearly says it is your fault if so) 2. don't get sick, not mentioned anywhere what happens then, does HK have universal healthcare? This sounds a bit like McDonald's financial advice to their employees http://www.nbcnews.com/business/personal-finance/mcdonalds-f... btw, this guy made his money by buying cheap real-estate and got lucky when prices went up: http://en.wi…
HK has one of the best public healthcare systems in the world (modelled after the NHS before handover, and benefiting from HK's prosperity after), and as a result does extremely well in infant mortality and life expectancy metrics.
Don't worry, our government want to sell it off and try and model it on the US system....
Re: Li Ka-Shing teaches you how to buy a car and house in 5 years
#44Re: Li Ka-Shing teaches you how to buy a car and house in 5 years
#45So: 1. don't be unemployed or under-employed (he clearly says it is your fault if so) 2. don't get sick, not mentioned anywhere what happens then, does HK have universal healthcare? This sounds a bit like McDonald's financial advice to their employees http://www.nbcnews.com/business/personal-finance/mcdonalds-f... btw, this guy made his money by buying cheap real-estate and got lucky when prices went up: http://en.wi…
Don't forget TOM.COM. His nickname in Hong Kong is "Superman" so everybody trusted him. During the first dot.com he jumped on board the IPO wagon resulting in mom and pop investors getting absolutely fleeced. I think after that episode people began to see him truly for what he is: just another rich guy playing the politicians to extend his empire, built mostly on property. Another tidbit. His younger son, Richard Lee…
You got to love all these baby boomer aged investors giving advice on how to get rich. Most my age never got the chance to buy property ridiculously cheap, and are now having to rent it from the boomers.
Re: Li Ka-Shing teaches you how to buy a car and house in 5 years
#46I don't see why a lot of people disagree with his advice. Perhaps it is the words he uses. These are his basic divisions of cash. 1. Live cheaply. Don't waste money where you don't need to. 2. Expand your network by being nice and friendly to people. 3. Learn and invest in your future. 4. Take time off, travel the world and expand your horizons. 5. Save money. This is ideally used to start your dream. In reality, thi…
I think the problem people seem to have is that it is standard, stereotypical advice. The entire premise is built upon the fact that you have a job that pays enough money to allow you to do the things he's suggesting -- people with untapped upward mobility.
If you're in a situation where you're working multiple jobs (or can't find any jobs) just to be able to "eat poorly", you won't have the time or money to network, invest in your future, travel, or save up.
Re: Li Ka-Shing teaches you how to buy a car and house in 5 years
#47So: 1. don't be unemployed or under-employed (he clearly says it is your fault if so) 2. don't get sick, not mentioned anywhere what happens then, does HK have universal healthcare? This sounds a bit like McDonald's financial advice to their employees http://www.nbcnews.com/business/personal-finance/mcdonalds-f... btw, this guy made his money by buying cheap real-estate and got lucky when prices went up: http://en.wi…
I actually first saw this article on reddit, and someone posted the following
http://www.reddit.com/r/Entrepreneur/comments/1y6xqr/hong_ko...
>Li Ka-shing is an impressive man, and he drops some good wisdom here. I certainly don't want to knock it. But here's how you become Li Ka-shing: show up in the middle of a war zone with a little cash, a lot of ambition and no scruples. Smuggle supplies for both sides, at a major premium, of course, and use your profits to slip your sticky fingers deep down into the underbelly of your city (that's where the buying lunch for more knowledgable people comes in). Then you use your newfound influence to quash the competition, and any dreams of a free market in your chosen territory. Buy up all the prime land, take over the port, and stand there at the door with a shit-eating grin on your face when the Chinese roll in with their tanks, because they're happy to make you even richer as long as you do what they say.
> You want to set up a department store chain to compete with Li Ka-shing's? Well you're shit out of luck, because he owns the shopping mall where you set up, and for some reason, security won't let your delivery trucks in, and they happen to be fixing the sidewalk right in front of your door. Want to compete with his shipping business? Sorry, things are really backed up at Li's port, what with the sudden unscheduled maintenance on that crane near your berth.
> Sorry for the rant. A lot of people think that Hong Kong is some bastion of the free market. It's actually a really dirty oligopoly, run by Li and a handful of other people like him. It just happens that if you're another Asian billionaire, or a major bank, you can park your money there basically free of charge, with no questions asked. Just don't try to bootstrap your way from Chunking Mansion to the private jet-set. Not on his watch.
> Having said that, Li Ka-shing did start from next to nothing, and he did pull himself up by his bootstraps to become one of the richest men in Asia. He's certainly a highly capable guy, but he has made many very questionable decisions along the way. Being rich isn't everything. I'm just hoping I can work my way to a comfortable retirement, and at least be able to sleep at night when I look back over my choices in life.
I claim to have done no fact checking, but the user seemed at least someone in touch with HK politics, way more so than myself :)
Re: Li Ka-Shing teaches you how to buy a car and house in 5 years
#48Earlier quoted context omitted.
US has reasonably good system IMHO just a little bit expensive.
A little bit? There are many millions without insurance in the USA. I was quoted $80 for an antibiotic I needed last week.
That's not fair. What antibiotic and how much of it? Not all antibiotics are equal.
You are right, the prices in our system are out of control but your example does not sufficiently demonstrate the problem.
Re: Li Ka-Shing teaches you how to buy a car and house in 5 years
#49I find it fascinating that that the consensus among the responses in this thread seems to be somewhere between Li Ka-Shing being a hypocrite, that buying food for people richer than you is crazy, that his advice is useless, etc.
Sure, there are cultural incongruities. Americans don't understand buying lunch for your superiors, and the advice to beat yourself up if you fail to see progress is directly opposed to the "do your best" attitude that lives on this side of the Pacific, but the lessons are the same.
In the end, the moral is simple: wheeling and dealing. Being crafty. Placing yourself in a situation where opportunities find you, not vice versa. Focusing your personal development on becoming competent enough to act on your opportunities.
What bugs me is that this sort of hustling is necessary to thrive in any business, not just software. I suspect HN's criticism of this advice might be a sign of wantrepreneurship rather entrepreneurship.
Re: Li Ka-Shing teaches you how to buy a car and house in 5 years
#50Earlier quoted context omitted.
This is actually great to hear. Now why doesn't the US, sigh.
US has reasonably good system IMHO just a little bit expensive.
A little bit?! I had an accident a few years ago which ended with me falling into water and getting hypothermia, although I was fortunate not to have any injuries apart from a few scrapes and bruises. I was taken by ambulance to hospital and spnt 12 hours in the ICU. I got a bill for >25k, though I was able to negotiate this down to $15 and had the resources to pay it.
That's about $2000 per hour. I was seen by 6 different doctors, none of whom bothered to read each others' notes. I was charged $1000 to get (painfully) fitted with a catheter when I would have been fine with a bedpan. The discharge nurse released me with someone else's paperwork and prescriptions. The only part of it that was good value was the CAT scan.
There are no cost controls in American healthcare and it's wildly inefficient (not basing this solely on the experience above).