Businessman,In,Big,City

The Simple Steps This Man Took To Become An Australian Multi-Millionaire

By Justin Wang

The lure of investing in property is strong and wide. There are more self-made millionaires through property than any other asset class. We live in a time of impetuousness and instant gratification – in many areas of our life we want to see quick results and change. This is becoming more prevalent with the advent of digital and social media. We’ve become a fast consumption society – we consume everything at a rapid rate – information, news, consumables, and food.

However, the path to success is not always achieved with the quickest route, just ask Justin Wang (Founder and CEO of PIA) “In the early 1990’s as a new migrant from China, to make ends meet I worked incredibly hard in a variety of different roles – from a restaurant waiter to a Chinese language teacher to a door-to-door salesperson…After ten years of hard work, I could not seem to get ahead….you work extremely hard, but just end up making ends meet. I needed to secure a better future for myself and my family. I found that this was not uncommon – people are continually concerned about their futures, struggling to navigate a path forward.”

Justin’s success came from valuable lessons learned when choosing the right pathway, a pathway that deviated from what the local market and competitors were doing. Justin’s personal experience led him to research the property industry as an investment strategy. 20 years ago the great Australian dream was to own your own home, work hard in the same job, raise your family, pay off your mortgage, retire and leave something for the children. 30 years later, the house was paid off, and you finally owned your house free-hold….and your pension and some superannuation would hopefully sustain you. Or would it?

20 years ago, Justin’s philosophy was slightly different – use your home as a powerful tool in your future plans and become self-determining and self-reliant. Use your largest asset and equity in your family home as a way to increase your personal wealth and derive a passive income that will sustain you and supplement your superannuation income well into the future, “I started looking at my own future and the strong record of property in Sydney market. I started to invest in properties (units) across Sydney, starting out small and begun to accumulate a small property portfolio of my own. Today, PIA turnover is between $1.2-1,6 billion in property each year”.

What’s the secret to success? Long-term investment

Start with your personal goals in mind. PIA’s business was founded on the principle of assisting people with modest income achieve a comfortable retirement through investing in property over the medium and long-term. As you build equity in your portfolio, you continue to invest to achieve your income and capital growth goals. To be a short-term speculator, for instant profit, you must have intimate knowledge and experience in the property market, investment strategies, and market cycles – plus have a strong asset backing or cash flow. Markets rise and fall, and short-term strategies to ‘make a quick profit’ are often short-sighted and risky. Not everyone can achieve this. Instead, we encourage you to focus, not on how much you’ll earn over the next 12-24 months, but how much wealth you can create over the next 10-20 years to achieve your retirement goals.

Businessman,In,Big,City

How This Man Made The Leap From Homeless To Multi-Millionaire Entrepreneur

Skyler Ditchfield

One of the most powerful rags-to-riches stories is that of Skyler Ditchfield, a multi-millionaire entrepreneur, who had a troubled childhood in rural Ojai, California. He grew up in a broken home and was bullied and beaten up at school but managed to rise above his difficult circumstances to become mega-successful.

Even though Ditchfield ended up giving up on school, he still landed his first job in Silicon Valley. He took his first real corporate job as a Network Engineer II at the Private Network Management Center (PNMC) of MCI Worldcom in Silicon Valley where he serviced high-level clients such as JP Morgan, Goldman Sachs, Quotron, Reuters, and more. Although he was the youngest technician in the office, he was quickly promoted to Network Engineer III because of his outstanding performance. However, when the company relocated to the East Coast, he was one of two employees that were offered a transfer. He declined the offer, and instead, he decided to return back to his hometown in Ojai, California.

Skyler Ditchfield_ Inc 5000jpg

Over the next few years, he experienced multiple business failures that left him facing massive debt and ruined credit. He even tried to open up a local nightclub which didn’t pan out, and he also became homeless for a time. On top of that, his life-long battle with Chrome’s disease took a severe turn for the worse, placing him in multiple month-long stays in the hospital. His disease got so bad, that the doctors said he only had a few more years to live. Determined to outlive their predictions, he found an experimental course of treatment on the Internet which miraculously worked. Then came what Ditchfield calls his restart button – he found out he was going to be a father. With renewed health and an unexpected daughter on the way, he found a new sense of motivation for life. He regained his health and aggressively got back in the I.T. space allowing him to climb out of debt.

Fast forward to a few successful startups later, he ended up discovering GeoLinks with his cousin Ryan Hauf. Skyler bootstrapped what began as a 2-person business out of his weight room in 2011 to what is now a 9-figure (and growing) business. GeoLinks became the fastest growing fixed wireless ISP in the country and Inc. Magazine’s 2017 Inc. 5000 NO. 5 Fastest Growing Telecommunications Company in America. Under his leadership, Ditchfield has led the company to record more than 100% growth for six years straight and is on track for a seventh. Some of his recent accolades include World’s Top 5 Best Businessmen of 2017, Entrepreneur of the Year 2018, and Top 100 Innovator in Diversity and Inclusion.

Skyler Ditchfield _ Photo BOBBY CURTIS_Acorn Newspaper

StarCentral Magazine recently sat down with Skyler Ditchfield to find out more about her journey to entrepreneurship and here’s what went down.

Can you describe your journey to success? When did you start? Did you ever imagine you would become this successful?

I don’t consider myself successful yet, however, I feel I have traction and am on the right path. While I appreciate the recognition, success, in my eyes, would be to permanently change the lives of all my staff and others for the better. My journey was described earlier; it’s been long, grueling, and hard. I’ve calculated that I’ve put in about 20 years of normal work hours in the last seven years alone at GeoLinks. I’ve always imagined the path to success would come sooner, and I find it frustrating not being able to achieve growth even faster than we already are.

What is your main source of income?

My main source of income is the salary I earn from GeoLinks.

What are you currently doing to maintain/grow your business?

I look at new opportunities every single day. Currently, I am evaluating expanding our network into additional states, further diversifying our product line, and exploring more government project opportunities.

Skyler-Ditchfield-5x7

What is the toughest decision you had to make in the last few months?

I face tough decisions every day. The most difficult decisions for me end up being when I have to walk away from exciting and big opportunities simply because I know (from experience) it would stretch our team too thin, or we lack the resources.

What money mistakes have you made along the way that others can learn from (or something you’d do differently)?

I’ll say this—learn your accounting and always double check your books. Even if you trust someone else to do it, still learn and keep an eye on what’s going on, because if you don’t keep track of your cash, you’ll be out of business.

Skyler Ditchfield, Senator Hannah Beth Jackson, Ryan Adams

What have you learned in the process of becoming wealthy that others can learn from?

I am not wealthy in my own eyes… However, as perceived success grows, more and more people will mislead you, misrepresent themselves to you, and pretend to be your friend.

What new business would you love to start?

A health and nutritional products business—outside of GeoLinks and my family, health, and fitness have been lifelong passions of mine.

If you could go back in a time machine to the time when you were just getting started, what would you do differently?

Be ready. Be ready for more challenges and perceived failures than you can possibly imagine. Realize and prepare yourself for the fact that the problems that lie ahead will ultimately become opportunities, and never fool yourself into believing that the road ahead will be easy. Master that mindset now, and you’ll be primed for pushing through all of life’s roadblocks.

If you could go back in a time machine to the time when you were first making a name for yourself, what advice would you give yourself?

Just start. Don’t procrastinate or worry about putting yourself out there.

Once you’ve had the courage to start, have the confidence to know that results will come.

Skyler Ditchfieldz

Do you have any favorite business-related or personal development related books that you can recommend to other entrepreneurs?

Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill and No Man’s Land: Where Growing Companies Fail by Doug Tatum.

What is the best advice you have ever been given?

Cash is king, know your accounting!

What advice would you give to a newbie Entrepreneur setting up their first business?

If you can’t sell your own product, don’t start the business. Furthermore, there is definitely such thing as growing too fast. It’s easy to get wrapped up in accelerated success, and thus make misguided business decisions on projections rather than facts. It’s okay to dream big, but remember, in order to have a business or achieve a mission, you must remain in business. Another element that can be lost in quick growth is culture. In today’s modern workplace, culture is paramount in attracting and retaining top talent. Thus, it’s imperative to never forget that you’re only as great as the team you’re surrounded by. Finally, one word of advice I give to all Entrepreneurs who are starting out is to follow your gut and fire fast. Every single time I have ignored my gut or procrastinated on a “debatable” employee, it has yielded negative results. The world is full of opinions, master the art of creating your own and trusting your intuition.

Businessman,In,Big,City

The Simple Steps This Man Took To Reach Multi-Millionaire Status

By Justin Wang

The lure of investing in property is strong and wide. There are more self-made millionaires through property than any other asset class. We live in a time of impetuousness and instant gratification – in many areas of our life we want to see quick results and change. This is becoming more prevalent with the advent of digital and social media. We’ve become a fast consumption society – we consume everything at a rapid rate – information, news, consumables, and food.

However, the path to success is not always achieved with the quickest route, just ask Justin Wang (Founder and CEO of PIA) “In the early 1990’s as a new migrant from China, to make ends meet I worked incredibly hard in a variety of different roles – from a restaurant waiter to a Chinese language teacher to a door-to-door salesperson…After ten years of hard work, I could not seem to get ahead….you work extremely hard, but just end up making ends meet. I needed to secure a better future for myself and my family. I found that this was not uncommon – people are continually concerned about their futures, struggling to navigate a path forward.”

Justin’s success came from valuable lessons learned when choosing the right pathway, a pathway that deviated from what the local market and competitors were doing. Justin’s personal experience led him to research the property industry as an investment strategy. 20 years ago the great Australian dream was to own your own home, work hard in the same job, raise your family, pay off your mortgage, retire and leave something for the children. 30 years later, the house was paid off, and you finally owned your house free-hold….and your pension and some superannuation would hopefully sustain you. Or would it?

20 years ago, Justin’s philosophy was slightly different – use your home as a powerful tool in your future plans and become self-determining and self-reliant. Use your largest asset and equity in your family home as a way to increase your personal wealth and derive a passive income that will sustain you and supplement your superannuation income well into the future, “I started looking at my own future and the strong record of property in Sydney market. I started to invest in properties (units) across Sydney, starting out small and begun to accumulate a small property portfolio of my own. Today, PIA turnover is between $1.2-1,6 billion in property each year”.

What’s the secret to success? Long-term investment

Start with your personal goals in mind. PIA’s business was founded on the principle of assisting people with modest income achieve a comfortable retirement through investing in property over the medium and long-term. As you build equity in your portfolio, you continue to invest to achieve your income and capital growth goals. To be a short-term speculator, for instant profit, you must have intimate knowledge and experience in the property market, investment strategies, and market cycles – plus have a strong asset backing or cash flow. Markets rise and fall, and short-term strategies to ‘make a quick profit’ are often short-sighted and risky. Not everyone can achieve this. Instead, we encourage you to focus, not on how much you’ll earn over the next 12-24 months, but how much wealth you can create over the next 10-20 years to achieve your retirement goals.

Businessman,In,Big,City

How To Start Your Journey To Becoming A “Multi-Millionaire”

Young Australians are moving away from the great Australian dream, as the path for 2018 is not as simple as working to save for a deposit on a house, starting your new life in it and paying off a mortgage. This method is simply outdated.

Adopting the direction of past generations is a harder path to follow as a first home buyer, with affordability currently a large consideration, so Australians are now leveraging property differently to benefit their futures. Smart investors reside in a Sydney rental property in areas they want to live and buy Sydney property in places they can afford and rent out.

The ‘Buy and Rent’ model was first conceived of by PIA (The Property Investors Alliance) in 2005 for Australians who want to leverage investment property for future financial goals, allowing buyers to maintain their current urban-city lifestyle, without sacrificing their financial goals. More than half of PIA’s clients say that their personal motivation for investing in property is to attain financial freedom. Buying a home to live in will not deliver financial freedom or additional income.

Saving a 10% deposit, plus the typical 5% costs of purchasing a million dollar property in their preferred location (in addition to the cost of lifestyle), first home buyers would be left waiting years until they can finally get their foot in the door of securing a property.

This is where the ‘Buy and Rent’ model (sometimes known as rentvesting) can provide a better solution – allowing investors to enter the property market sooner rather than later. Purchasing in a more affordable area – at half the cost – and renting out the property to pay it off, while continuing to live in a Sydney rental property in a great location, means making no changes to your current living situation, seems a much more affordable and practical path to financial gain and success.

According to a 2017 white paper from Ipsos, the rentvestor is becoming increasingly popular as 61% of ‘Generation Y’ are jumping on the trend, 41% of whom are single, and 81% who are choosing to live and rent in inner-city areas.

Two million Australians are property investors, but they’re not just investing in a property, they’re investing in a financial plan. The number of landlords in Australia is about 8% of the population, utilizing property to grow their wealth, while tenants pay down their debt.

Based on historical market performance, we have seen big profits from those buying Sydney residential assets.

Following the ‘great Australian dream’ model of working, buying and paying off a home, first home buyers now include Australians in their 30’s and 40’s. So we’re flipping it around and investing before purchasing a first home. It may, at first glance, seem a backward way of entering the Sydney property market, but it’s fast becoming the smartest and most appropriate way to take advantage of the current economic climate….and own a property.

*Information from this article was sourced from The Property Investors Alliance

Businessman,In,Big,City

How This Man Made The Leap From Factory Worker To Multi-Millionaire

Justin Wang is the CEO of The Property Investors Alliance (PIA) and is a wealthy individual in more ways than one. This is in terms of both his financial acumen and his deeply philosophical base of personal knowledge – gained as an offshoot of his Chinese heritage and cultural influences.

He built PIA at the time where he realized the profitability of the Sydney residential property. His considerable charisma would go on to spearhead a veritable empire of altruistic financial freedom. Now that he is on top of his game and sitting pretty, Wang takes a moment to share his story.

From his humble beginnings as a factory worker when he migrated to Australia to his ultimate prosperity as a property mogul, what follows are some gems on entrepreneurial endeavour – ‘the teachings of wealth’ – direct from the man behind the success.

The humble beginnings

Wang associates his accomplishments with always insisting upon his dream, despite his humble origins. “I always believe as a child that if you have a dream, that if you can keep it and be ambitious, that you will eventually achieve it,” he says.

He credits his grandmother with instilling the crucial discipline for fostering his innate abilities. His upbringing was greatly influenced by the Chinese tradition. Speaking about his grandmother he recalls “she always taught me how to be useful and to accumulate good karma”.

It was this fortuitous and fruitful approach – of understanding the process of giving and receiving – that would prove to be of great importance in Wang’s professional life. “My success is measured in two folds – one is financial freedom and the other is helping people,” he explains.

Finding a calling

When Wang became a teacher, he noticed his colleagues struggling with money concerns. It was here that he found a way to ‘give back’ and to ‘find his calling’ – all in the one serendipitous instance. He was able to align his spirit of collaboration with his skill for finance to ‘break the mould’.

Wang explains that only ‘a few people work for fun’ whilst most work ‘for the bread and butter – for survival’. Luckily, in his lifetime he was able to transcend a mediocre existence for one that met loftier goals – but, it was an experience that was not without its fair share of trials and tribulations.

He elaborates “I resigned from being a high school teacher, I wanted to try something else and eventually I came to Australia – because I wanted to find financial freedom. However, I found it very difficult at first to make money in this country, even though the income is higher here than in China I could only save a few dollars.”

Making the dream a reality

Even though Wang initially felt frustrated with his lot in Australia, he quickly found a way to remedy the situation. This was how PIA was born. ‘Ever since I created this concept it has been going well,” he says with an easy sense of confidence.

Wang, once more, credits the realization of his dreams to his two-fold approach to prosperity. “To illustrate my definition, I invest in a business and then I advise others to do so. If I didn’t do that, I probably would not have achieved so big a portfolio as I currently hold today,” he divulges.

He always tells his staff to “make an investment yourself and then share with other people”. In this way, Wang likens the process to a turbomachine, or to an ecosystem. “By doing this information will spread quickly and it will leverage the property,” he says.

The wheels in motion

Now a firmly established enterprise, Wang’s business is a thriving entity built on three symbiotic branches. The keyword here is ‘alliance.’ “What we’re doing is all related to property for the investors. In today’s language, this corresponds to the concept of a ‘platform.’ I believe that the whole industry must be integrated,” he attests.

The modern digital world and its propensity for networking is the perfect facilitator for a collaborative environment – one that works greatly in Wang’s favour. “The more and more that individuals use the PIA platform to start their own portfolio and business, the more everyone wins.”

Wang adds “my business partners don’t actually work for me, rather they engage in the platform and set up their individual businesses. The internet provides and connection for everyone and it makes the connections almost feel physical.”

Entrepreneurial advice

For Wang, the priority of a business owner always lies with the stakeholder/s. This includes all parties to the arrangement, as well as the interests of society as a whole. He gives an example: “in looking after my real estate agent, I also must consider the investors and their client’s interests, aka the purchaser. It goes beyond this, extending to the developer and the entire community.”

This holistic approach is the cornerstone of Wang’s success, and functions as a valuable lesson in entrepreneurial tactics. “If we consider all sides then the business won’t encounter any undue difficulties. If you are not taking care of all sides, you would think that this would jeopardize one parties’ interest – and, then you would most likely find this would cause trouble for your business,” he elucidates.

In engaging his customers, Wang is very focused on listening to his people. This comes down to transparency. “We deliver the truth about the Sydney property market through the thorough knowledge that is easily digestible. We provide the best strategy to assist them with investing,” he says.

It’s also about anticipating needs, saving customer’s valuable time and ‘going the extra mile.’ Wang explains “in hiring a PIA consultant, you are provided a flexible service. We are prepared to go to people’s homes after hours, and we always handle things in an efficient and hassle-free manner.”

Concluding thoughts

Justin Wang is the embodiment of the self-made businessperson. From unassuming beginnings to a life as a property magnate – he now personifies the paradigm for financial freedom. It always comes down to abundance as generated by collaboration. “Life is not about yourself, your wealth and your fame. Sharing and inspiring other people is more fun than being successful by yourself,” he says.

Wang’s favourite quote? A line from a book by Zig Ziglar. “If you can help other people achieve what they want, you can achieve everything you want.” It’s certainly a poignant ‘teaching of wealth’ with many applications – especially for those seeking out their own future as an entrepreneur.