Confessions of a City Slicker

Last weekend was my second Herbalife Training Seminar.  One thing I noticed is that whenever a speaker goes up on stage, there will be people grabbing their notebooks, diaries, even the pieces of paper that the hotel provided, rushing to the stage for the speakers’ autographs.

The guy sitting beside me asked why I’m not doing the same thing.

"Why?" I asked.

It’s not like I can sell it on eBay and make a lot of money.  Besides, from what I can see, I don’t even think that the signatures are authentic.  They look very hastily scrawled on to me.

I picked up a few interesting facts during the seminar.

=> Herbalife is now the official nutritional advisor and sponsor for LA Galaxy aka David Beckham’s team in the US.  I spotted some people wearing the official jersey with Beckham’s name on it.  I forgot what is the number, but I believe it’s 7 just like Christiano.

=> Sponsoring people and getting new customers are really easy, if you are the people at the top of the food chain.  Of course, these people purposely left out the sacrifices and hardwork that they did to get to the top.

=> It’s all about packaging your story.

=> 50% discount is better than 25% discount, so a distributor’s aim is always to qualify as a supervisor so that they can enjoy the enormous discounts and other benefits that supervisors get.

=> Say the word "Extravaganza" and the people will go wild.

=> An Extravaganza is this really big conference that only supervisors & above get to attend.  It will be a regional affair and this year it will be held in Bangkok.  There will be seminars, parties and really fun activities that allows plenty of networking opportunities.

=> If you attend the Extravaganza, you can be sure that you get to learn from the best people because only the best of the best, ie the top earners in the business get to be their speakers.  These are also the people who get to fire their bosses and take up the business full time.

=> From the pictures, the seminars look like a rock concert.  People sit stadium style in a really big auditorium and if you sit at the back then I doubt you get to see much of the action on stage because it will be too far away.

=> To qualify as a supervisor, you need to make an order of 4,000 volume points in a single calendar month, which is around RM14k investment.

=> Some people are willing to take the risk and invest the amount (some of which they don’t have) in products, then slowly sell them off.  Me, I’m a coward when it comes to money.  I don’t fork out that much cash unless I am sure of the ROI.  Besides, having that much funds tied up in products indefinitely doesn’t sit comfortably with me.

Hmm…I wonder if one fine day, I will get my turn up on that stage?  Yeah, that would be really cool.

I was invited to a dinner hosted by YB RSN Rayer in thanksgiving for winning the general elections.  Of course, YB Karpal Singh was also there.

I must say, YB Karpal is the politician that I respect the most.  Heck, I learned his name before I even knew who the Prime Minister was.  So the DAP logo is the one that I identify with most.

Heh, this is the closest I got to him that night.

He may be confined to a wheelchair right now, but when he speaks, people listen.  I think not a person in that hall ate a bite while he was speaking despite having food in front of them.

For his age, his voice is still strong and commands attention.  Really a "Harimau" as most of his peers will call him.

And I absolutely appreciate that he is a principled man.  The first thing he said was that we don’t want or need the turn coats from the "other" party.

Although their support will help the opposition to form the government, YB Karpal feels that there’s plenty of time to do that and therefore, no need to rush.

He’s absolutely right.  After all, the opposition has just taken over.  They should take their time to get settled in first before worrying about forming the government.

Another purpose of the evening is for YB Rayer to show his appreciation to all the people who have supported him during his campaign and election.

I’m surprised he remembered me when we had just chatted briefly during polling day when I showed up at his house to get my necessary papers before heading to the polling center.

It was nice that he gave us each a sourvenir of appreciation.

This commemorative plague is now displayed proudly on the bar counter of the apartment.  I’ll have to fight with Mom to keep it there.

Since winning in the elections they have set up a service center at the Jalan Gangsa Market, aka Ang Thor Sua to the folks who live in the area.

If you read YB Rayer’s blog, you will see that DAP has done a lot of good for the people in Penang but they were never reported in the media.  Biasa lah…