Han wins Friend of Singa Award from the Government

The Singapore government is very well known for it's efficiency and effectiveness in promoting any civil minded practice or good behavior to the island population. This time round, our oldest son Woon Han happened to be a benefiary of the Friend of Singa Award that promotes kindness and courtesy. A student from each school is chosen who best represents a model of courtesy.





Mom and Dad are of course elated that their son was chosen as a model of kindness and courtesy to be photographed with the Singa (Lion in Malay) mascot of the island nation as a momento for this day!

The continuing Story of 7 first told at my Sister's 70th Birthday

Way early at the start of the year, my oldest Sister came up to me and booked a date with me on Sept 6, 2008. She would be celebrating her 70th birthday and invited me to attend. I quickly put the date down in my PDA and very soon, September month came around quickly. I found myself in the USA on a business trip on the last day on Sept 2nd. (Read about it here)

I had planned to leave on an evening flight of Sept 2nd back to Kuala Lumpur whereby I would reach on Sept 4th and with a days rest would head up north to Penang Island where my sister lived. My business contact, Rick Cotton, the CEO of Exfuze wanted me to stay for another week and visit them in Florida again after our initial meeting. I apologized and had to decline the invitation for I had promised my sister I would be there and caught the flight home.

I showed up at the Ballroom of Gurney Resort Hotel where to my surprise I was assigned to be the co-master of ceremony with another relation who would speak in Mandarin and me in English. As a champion of impromptu speaking at the Toastmasters Club , I took up the challenge and not only acted as a Master of Ceremony but also presented a special gift to my Sister in an impromptu speech.

My sister being Penang born was raised in a culture where numbers have auspicious meanings. They could dream of a number with four digits and buy the lottery the next day in hope of it coming out as the first prize. They would even consult a wizard to draw lucky numbers sometimes by a pigeon to get a series of lucky numbers for the lottery. It was therefore relevant that on her birthday I would talk about numbers introducing the first fact that she was the oldest child of 7 who was celebrating her 70th birthday. An original photo of her as a baby recorded that she was born on the 13th day of the 7th moon as you can see from the pic below where my father had written this fact on the photo :

Touched up photo

I being the youngest in the family of 7 coincidentally married a girl who was also the youngest of 7 in her family. So my story of the number 7 unfolded as I related the number 7 to my life. Soon after my marriage, I started a computer business on the 7th floor of a building in downtown and later also bought my first office on the 7th floor! Then I started thinking about my phone numbers and all of them had lots of 7s on it. My house phone had 77710 in it, my cell had 5877 and another 75877 and even my motorcycles had the number plates 4167 and 1007!





The entrance to the floor of my private office in Jalan Bukit Bintang, Kuala Lumpur

Going back in time to 1980, even my miracle old car story has sevens on it!

So in the US trip that I rushed back from for my sister's party, it was not surprising that I would find the optimal company to represent their MLM business in Asia as they produced a product called Seven Plus ! I concluded my speech with a presentation of a gift to my sister telling her I would give her a gift that would be more valuable than a lottery and that would be a position in the distribution tree of our new Seven + product in a business that will start from Malaysia that will grow all the way to China!

See the pics of the party :
The two Masters of Ceremony with the birthday gal

At the dinner table

The Birthday Cake


Watch the Birthday Song Video

See more photos

See her on a post-dated event of 7 Feb 2017 in KL


More on the Story of 7

It's interesting that not long after this Penang trip, I found myself in a car with two Singaporean friends in their car traveling along the highway from Singapore to Kuala Lumpur and I related to them about my Story of Seven at my sister's party. Just after I finished, the driver excitedly told us to look at the car behind and I took a photo of it :
The story of 7 is becoming more and more amazing!


If you're not convinced by the above coincidences that the elements are in aligned to make this project a billion-dollar success, look at the above photo that is taken in a lawyers office I walked into while in Singapore recently to take care of the region's trademark for the Seven + products and other legal matters. What floor are they in at the UIC building at Shenton Way?

From Singapore, I found myself in Sabah on our East Malaysian part of Borneo island. I had an important meeting there to attend and was booked into the Beverly Hotel in Kota Kinabalu. Now I was first given room 507 but had internet connection problems and called the front desk. Now they gave me another room, this time on the 7th floor with the number 725. All this was unplanned and you can see the room numbers on the two card holders I was given from the front desk!



Is life just a series of coincidences or filled with messages from on high? The man in the suit is the President, Seer, and Revelator of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, President Thomas S. Monson, equivalent to the Pope of the Catholic Church. Wow, and we could take a photo with him? This is a very rare opportunity indeed taken on 27th Sep when we were having a Seven Plus conference by Exfuze in Salt Lake City. During break time we were at the Marriott Hotel when the President just happened to be there, maybe to give us his blessings?


Interesting note about his life is that he was born in the Salt Lake City in the year 1927, married his wife on the 7th day of Oct, 7 x 3 years later in the Salt Lake City Mormon Temple! He is also the recipient of the Boy Scouts of America’s Silver Beaver Award in 1971. In 1997 he received the Minuteman Award from the Utah National Guard, as well as Brigham Young University’s Exemplary Manhood Award. He received the Honorary Doctor of Business from the University of Utah in May 2007. Looks like all good things happen with the number 7!


The Week of Thanksgiving Day

There was a need to fly back to the US again for some meetings at the Corporate office and to stop by in Taiwan for some preparatory work to open up the country too. Eva Air was chosen by the travel agent to be the most optimal carrier for my destinations. Of course, I got to fly the 747 pictured below :
However, the thing that is special about it is that at the airport check-in counter in Kuala Lumpur, I was taken by surprise that I was offered a free upgrade to business class at the Big Top! So look at the difference in the pics below :





The Day after Christmas

This is a post dated account from all the others, just as I am about to launch our pre-marketing campaign in January of the new year. I was in Singapore and went to the office of our regional warehousing and freight forwarding company(Globalware Solutions Asia) at the TNT building. Now usually I was on the ground floor to inspect our goods in the warehouse as in the pics below :


Now I never realized what floor the administrative office of Globalware Solutions Asia was on the TNT building until I had to look at the directory of companies on the wall. Take a look yourself!





January of 2009

My guests had planned to meet me late on a Sunday morning and I knew they came in an overnight coach. I happened to be up around 6.30am plus and decided to call them to check their whereabouts and discovered that they had already arrived at the main city terminal. I immediately felt I had to go pick them up even though it was still early for our meeting. I told them on the phone that I needed about 20 plus minutes to change and drive there which I did and arrived exactly at 7am!



At our meeting, after we had breakfast at the hotel, they pointed out to me that the random stock of sample Seven + juice given to them had a serial number on the box that added to the number 37. They further informed me that the room in their hotel was 817. To cap it all, they showed me the coach ticket they came in where the number of the vehicle was AFC 2338 which adds to 16 which added together again gives the number 7!

A post dated event worth noting here is that the same leader of the group pictured nearest to me in the above photo named John found himself at the Mount Elizabeth hospital in Singapore in March of 2009 for a major heart bypass operation


I went to visit John at the hospital where he was still in the intensive care unit. He recovered well after the operation and on that visit, I couldn't help noticing the random room number they had put him in. It was room 3007 as per the snapshot I took below.




On the 2nd Day of Chinese New Year in Singapore

One of the investors in eXfuze whom I have been working very closely with named Michael Seymour (See Another Long Flight to the US ) after realizing I've been sacrificing much time away from family to help set up the eXfuze organization was kind enough to offer a dinner treat to our family on him. So the next time around I was with the family in Singapore, which was already Chinese New Year, we decided to take up the offer.


We were busy visiting relatives and friends on the 2nd day of the Chinese New Year when we decided to enjoy the treat that night. We invited Geok Lee's brother and family with a friend to join us since we were then in their home. Now it's not easy to find Chinese restaurants opened on the 2nd day so they took us to a place near their home. We were to follow behind their car to a place that they had recommended and look at the pics below :

I was surprised when they recommended trying the string of restaurants at the 7th mile of Jalan Bukit Timah which is famous and probably the longest road in Singapore! Wow, 7th mile I thought to myself. As I followed their car, I was impressed to add up the numbers of their car 2914 which adds up to 16 which when added together again gives us the number 7 again!!!

The string of restaurants located on the 7th mile of Jalan Bukit Timah were indeed open and filled with people.

We managed to find a long table to fit all 10 of us in to enjoy a delicious Chinese dinner of fish, chicken, and pork with vegetables costing us only SG120 dollars or about US70 plus dollars only. Thank you, Michael Seymour, for the wonderful treat from all of us in Singapore!
Right after I referred Mr. Seymour to this posting to make sure he didn't mind I had mentioned his name, he responded with the following information reproduced from our Skype conversation :
[12:26:57 AM] Michael Seymour says: Did you like that my investment LLC is named NY7?
[12:27:25 AM] Michael Seymour says: And my direct office phone is 267-757-8777
[12:28:13 AM] Michael Seymour says: Michael = 7 letters Seymour = 7 letters
[12:28:46 AM] Michael Seymour says: SF Chong = 7 letters

After the Chinese New Year Celebrations


With the festivity of the Chinese New Year over, it was time to get back to work. The development of the eXfuze project had advanced to such a state that it was time to organize a Press Conference to kick off the business. Seven +, the flagship product of eXfuze was not envisioned by the founder, Rick Cotton, to be sitting on the shelf of retail stores but sold by independent distributors with an entrepreneurial spirit. It was, therefore, appropriate that the Press Conference would be jointly organized with the Entrepreneurship Institute of Malaysia, a body recognized by the Ministry of Education. We would launch the initiative of Promoting Entrepreneurship in these Challenging Economic Times with speakers fielded from both sides.

In a meeting with senior representatives of the Institute in early February, it was realized that any Press Conference would ideally be held in February and not March. This was due to the anticipated changes in the political leadership of the country which has already been announced to take place in March. In order to avoid our business news being clouded with political news and headlines in the papers, it was thought expedient to have it earlier. I immediately worked on it and on 6th Feb, I personally checked out the KL Hilton to see the availability of their banquet rooms to host our press event.

An executive of the sales department took me to the 6th floor of the Hotel and showed me a couple of rooms that would be available on the 3 dates I had mentioned ie the 24th, 25th or 26th of February. I had chosen these dates being mid-week days and as late in Feb as possible to give time to our VIP speaker from the Entrepreneurship Institute to plan for it and allowed him to choose any of the three days suggested. I passed the matter to our newly engaged Communications Manager, Patrick Chua, to follow up with the Institute and also liaise with the executive I had met at the Hilton.

Exactly 7 days later on 13th Feb, right after we had finished a meeting with some visitors in the above pic, I followed up with Patrick on our Press Conference event. To my surprise, he informed me that the VIP speaker from the Entrepreneurship Institute had chosen the 25th Feb date but the hotel responded that the rooms I was shown earlier on the 6th floor were no longer available but told Patrick he was giving us another room on the 7th floor! It hit me immediately that the lucky number 7 showed up again by chance and only much later did I realize that the 25th date itself adds up to 7 too!

The 25th of March


Michael Seymour and several US executives were getting impatient for a legal agreement to be concluded as the signatories involved parties in the US, Taiwan, and Malaysia. Michael had joked with me early in March when I informed him that we were meeting to conclude the agreement that I should have chosen the 7th thinking that was my favorite number. Well, the time when all the lawyers and accountants were ready to get together didn't turn up to be the 7th but was just another day. To my surprise, the meeting ended up not concluding the agreement as there was still another document lacking from the Taiwanese party. To cut a long story short, when our lawyer finally called for a meeting on 25th March, the agreement consisting of the whole stack of legal documents you see in the above photo was concluded. Could it be because 2 + 5 = 7 ???

April in Singapore

Some foundational work needed to be followed up in Singapore that needed a professional CPA to incorporate an eXfuze company on the island. As usual, I would network with some people I knew to find a reliable and honest Accountant that I would prefer to work with. It turned up that the several friends I had did not furnish me with a contact. I, therefore, began to think harder of the old contacts I had known on the island who could be a trusted Accountant and the name of Shah popped up but I haven't seen him for over 20 years. I googled for the CPA association phone number in Singapore and called them to ask if he was registered. They soon got him to call me and I was led to the office downtown. Look at the office number on the door and what do they add up to be?
I had remembered Mr. CM Shah from a meeting of CPAs over 20 years ago as the man who migrated from India to live in Singapore. He was from a village that was entirely Vegetarians and I found him to be a religious and humble man. We lost contact with each other over the years as I was no longer practicing as a CPA and what joy it was to find him again.

Better still, Mr. Shah was also a reliable and effective Chartered Accountant and within one day could get the company incorporated and charged me only a reasonable fee.
I did relate my Story of 7 to him and he showed me the new company number that started with the year 2009 of incorporation with the serial number 6460D. Lo and Behold, if you add those numbers up, it also added to the number 7!


Soft Launch of eXfuze in Malaysia

7th day of the 7th month at 7pm at Road 223 in Petaling Jaya

Like a pregnant mother with a baby that is long overdue, eXfuze Malaysia had to come out to the world whether parents or hospital staff were ready or not and 7th July was the date to be the official date of birth to always be remembered by all and celebrated in the future.


My experience up to this date with eXfuze has been nothing but amazing as this true Story of 7 continues to depict. 
With dinner to be served at 7pm, we opened the building at 7am and the time stamp of the above pic at 10:01 AM shows the state of readiness for the soft launch!!!

 The time stamp of the above pic is 7:11 PM and hey Dave Holker says its looking Good!!!





The crowd and individuals enjoyed the evening without realizing the miracles that took place in getting eXfuze launched on time
A little miracle occurred that helped to make the events possible in a timely way was coming across this van while walking my dog near my residence one day that caught my attention! We were just a week away from the open day and my mind was thinking about the night's events for our soft opening as I looked at the advert on the van. On further inquiry of the company Major Seven Music, I found out they were really an events management company that could provide me everything I needed for the evening, sound system, chairs, dinner plus more. Amazingly they were just close to my residence to coordinate with them and prices were very reasonable too!

The Story of 7 and the final set up of our warehouse/pick up center/temp office reaffirmed to me of the important mission of eXfuze in transforming lives. Look at the pic of the building below when we first found it:
Look at the pic below after we did a major job to transform it and fill it with stocks of our Seven + bottles. It is a major transformation of its exterior and it's interior.

As I thought about the Viva Kids program that is supported by eXfuze and got to visit the orphanage recommended by the Major Seven Music company that we could work with, I know I am attached to the right company that is truly transforming lives not only of adults but of needy children too. Once left without love and care with empty stomachs, like the old building we worked on, they can be transformed to become anew with the help of the eXfuze vehicle of change.





17th July Surprise
After the soft launch which had a previous month of intensive preparation, I found time to get ready to visit my family again in Singapore after the long break. As usual, I would pack the carload full of food and goodies by going to the supermarket. Just before getting to the cash register, I felt very thirsty and found the coldest can drink I could from the nearby fridge. Now I had to pay for the goods first so after checking out at the cashier where I had to pull out 7 one hundred dollar bills for the cartload, I opened my can to drink and it started vibrating in my hand!!! It stunned me for at least a full 15 seconds wondering why a can of drink could vibrate in my hand. I looked at the can and read the label that said, "If I dance you Win" Apparently there was a competition going on where if I found such a can, I would win a Sony PlayStation! Well, it had to occur on the 17th of the month where I had to pull out 7 one hundred dollar bills! Amazing isn't it?


Take a look at how the Can dances :





The beginning of the Year 2010: The Fish Story

At the start of the New Year, I decided to buy some fish to add to the water bowl of a water feature that I had purchased late last year pictured below. I went to a nearby market to buy 10 red Swordtail fish and put them into the bowl. Soon after, I encountered a slight problem as the fish seemed to randomly jump out of the water onto the floor. I had to pick them up to put them back into the water and had to find a way to solve the problem to prevent them from jumping out. I quickly thought of using an umbrella-shaped netting that I had to cover food from flies but use it to cover the bowl instead to prevent the fish from jumping out of the water to the floor. I recalled the story of the fleas in a glass container where when it was covered with a lid, the fleas would be restricted from jumping out of it. The phenomena was that even when the lid was removed later the fleas would not jump up higher than the level of the lid so I decided to try it with the fish using the netting as the lid. I kept the fish undercover for a week and found that it worked as after lifting up the cover, none of the fish would attempt to jump out at all.

Now, this was in the month of January when I had Paul Morris, one of the owners and VP of Sales and Marketing for eXfuze, to bring for a tour in West and East Malaysia including Singapore. When I came back from the short tour, I soon found some dead fish on the floor that must have realized there was no more a limit to how high they could jump. Now I had lost 5 fish out of the 10 I had first bought but to my amazement, when I checked the remaining fish in the bowl, I could count 7 of them in there instead of 5! Somehow, during the short period, I was away, two little fish were born as the 5 adult ones jumped out making the remaining number of fish to be 7!


 

Can you count how many fish are they in the water? (Spot the two little cute fish there with the adult ones swimming around)


eXfuze Malaysia 1st Anniversary
7th day of the 7th month 2010


We would have celebrated the 1st anniversary of eXfuze Malaysia on the 7th of July but as our CEO Rick Cotton from the USA could not make it on this date as well as our celebrity guest Anita Sarawak, 16th July was chosen.
On the morning of 7th July, I took a reading of my blood glucose level and look at the reading below:


Wow! 7.7 the meter read and the month/day at the bottom left also read 7/7

When I turned on the meter the next day, the meter automatically displayed an average glucose reading that is calculated over a 11 day period of 7 tests also as 7.7 as in the above photo! Imagine, the glucose reading on the 7th day of the 7th month was 7.7 and so was the average reading of 7 tests! Even my blood is obsessed with the number 7!!!!!


7th Sep: The MLM license renewal



The MLM license had to be renewed in July and when we received the license above, we were delighted to note that even the government preferred to extend the license from 7th September. How coincidental!

18th Sep: The Bicycle Story

The eXfuze Malaysia anniversary event took off very well on 16 July 2010 as planned. There wasn't anything in the event that was worth including in this special post of The Story of 7, so I thought! You can refer to the post here . In my speech, I had made an announcement that eXfuze Malaysia would begin to promote more bike riding activity in the PJ area where the office was located as part of a Community Outreach program to promote healthy living.

So on this day I had enrolled to my first Charity Ride event with the theme of "Pedal Away Polio" to observe what was the biking community like in PJ. Below is the pic I took after the ride with my rider's number allotted to me pinned on my backpack, number 170! Well getting hotel room numbers and floors with the number 7 on it has become quite a regular occurrence and I wasn't moved much when I got my number. Then after crossing the finishing line, I laid my bike on the floor as it has no bicycle stand to reduce weight. Then things started to happen :

 Is it common to leave a bike on the floor like this?


But do you find it common for people to lie down on the floor like this too, beside my bike too?

What actually happened was we were all waiting for the Lucky Draw to start and meanwhile the organizers had some students to dance with the music. To my surprise at the end of the music, they all laid down and that's how I got the above photo!
Then I got prompted to use my phone to do a live video broadcast of this event closing which would lead to the Lucky Draw. Check out the suspense of the numbers being drawn as per my live video broadcast by clicking here
Yes! Number 170 was pulled up and I did win a prize!

I went home quite happy with the morning's event and was tickled by the live video broadcast that I did so that my wife and kids in Singapore could view what was happening. I'm sure they were tickled too as they know my familiar Story of 7! If that wasn't coincidental enough that Rider number 170 won a prize for you, look below :

The following week I was surprised that my colleague told me he saw me in the Chinese Newspaper above! That's a double surprise for Rider 170! None of the above surprises were planned at all!

The Story of 7 has continued so long on this page that it is expedient to break here and continue in a new page that can be read by clicking here.