Chinkee Tan has made a pact for himself next year: Create 100 millionaires from among the ranks of OFWs, lost souls and ordinary employees with proven techniques that allowed them to be financially independent and with seven-figure incomes.
This is what Chinkee intends to accomplish. And this is what he is so passionate about when The Financial District sought him out for an interview for its online business and financial portal.
And for this he is guided by a buzzword that greets those who ply the EDSA route “Chink Positive,” a buzzword that defines him as he nudges and cajoles those who attend his financial education seminars to throw their bad habits when it comes to money and forthwith reduce their debts, create enterprises and be conversant with investments.
During the interview, Chinkee was emotional at times recalling his early beginning but the passion to be of help was unmistakable. To TFD’s Ardee Urbina, who follows his social media posts, Chinkee is a rock star when it comes to reaching out and making his adherents prosperous.
Chinkee has gone a long way from the depths of penury when at 12, his father lost it all, and he had to make both ends meet selling whatever catches his fancy. He sold toilet paper, pants, shoes, shirts and he remembers the rejections, the failures fairly well to make a vow to himself.
That vow led Chinkee to craft topnotch financial education seminars that created such a huge following that enabled him to have 14 best-selling books here and abroad, two TV shows and a radio talk show, and keynote speaking engagements once a month of 200 invites he gets a year.
And because of that vow he made, he now has 3 million followers at Facebook, 1.1 million at YouTube, about 300,000 at TikTok and 200,000 at Instagram, aside from writing for Pilipino Star and other self-help articles.
He said there were “two major reasons” why he was able to overcome the challenges thrown at him and he recalls being dubbed by others “toilet paper boy” because of what he was then selling.
Number one reason was that Chinkee does not want his children to experience the hardships that he had gone through – ridiculed for not being privileged and treated differently because of his lack of money. “I want to be a good provider,” he added.
And the Number two reason was that he did not “want his parents to worry about money when they retire.”
“So, this is what I realized in life. If you want to really succeed in life, you’ve got to know the WHY part of your life and the HOW part will take care of it yourself.” Thus, he made a promise to have an income of one million by his 30th to 35th year. And because of his consuming passion, he achieved that seven-figure income vow years before he turned 30.
In the 11 years that he has been in the speaking circuit, Chinkee has one burst of insight: “that experience has not been the best teacher, because it's painful and costly but learning from other people's mistakes and experiences is the best teacher.”
To him, investing and learning from other people is what matters most to cut the learning curve. Thus, on the matter of financial education, what is important is to have someone to train and mentor you.
Chinkee credits Francis Kong for his dabbling in the speaking circuit. He was effusive about Francis’ role in his transformation citing him as “my mentor,” who taught him what “I’m doing right now in a transition from business in 2006.”
And for his success he looks upward. “Looking at where I am right now, God has been so good” he said, for the millions of followers that had been with him in this journey. That is equivalent to millions of lives changed, he added.
“So, by the grace of God, He has allowed me to go a long way and my plans for the future, definitely, is to empower Filipinos to become wealthy and debt- free.”
“And I want to help more people to start their own enterprise, to save money, to budget, to get out of debt, to invest. That's my passion, helping people financially.”
And he was emphatic about it and TFD believes he can again hurdle this challenge that he has set out for himself the way he overcame the hardships he had to endure at a young age.
“So, I want to also create by 2021, probably around 100 millionaires next year. 100 millionaires. That's my goal of 2021,” he vowed. (Lito U. Gagni)
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