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The Tycoon corner

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The 7 Habits of Highly Successful People

JACK MA

JUne 2015

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Trev Ng: KuAlA

luMPur’S

OPTiMiSTiC

eNTrePreNeur

From A Poor School TeAcher To A hUmble Tycoon

A Day with the

Orang Asli

The Power of expectations

Theory of motivation: What makes people tick?

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Trev nG: KUAlA lUmPUr’S oPTimiSTic enTrePreneUr

CONTENT

...Trev Ng is one of these exceptional people who have made a name for himself with his little café, “The Optimist Coffee”....

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by Team Sproutr

A DAy WiTh The orAnG ASli

What habits are we talking about here? This is where Steven covey’s “7 habits of highly effective People” comes in.

The Sprouter had re-cently organized a trip to the orang asli village at Kampung Sinju.

The 7 hAbiTS oF hiGhly SUcceSSFUl PeoPle

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LETTER FROM THE PUBLISHER

REadER’S cORnER

expectations are a very powerful influence that causes you or others to behave in a certain manner to achieve a particular outcome.

This entrepreneurial journey of yours is about trusting who you are.

Maslow developed his model in 1940-1950 and still remains valid today to understand human motivation...

The PoWer oF exPecTATionS

The STory oF mAxie

Theory oF moTivATion: WhAT mAKeS PeoPle TicK?

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A great example of a man who has been through many rejections yet strived for success would be Jack Ma, the founder of alibaba.

From A Poor School TeAcher To A hUmble Tycoon The Tycoon Corner

The 7 hAbiTS oF hiGhly SUcceSSFUl PeoPle

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Who we are and what we do?

Discover how you can inspire and create a team of entrepreneurs

who are driven to change and make a difference in the world.

Let’s inspire others and do good to your local commu-nity.

Change doesn’t happen overnight but we are here to help you plant the seed of success and sprout your ide-as to reality.

It takes hard work and commitment to create an amazing and memorable ex-perience, while leaving the biggest and most positive impact in your community.

We are focused on em-powering socially conscious change makers from all around the world.

Each being distinct, free agents and knowing that age and geographical bor-ders are of no concern.

The Sprouter is a global community that welcomes people from every discipline and culture who aspire to make this world a better place through moral and in-novative leadership.

We believe that indi-viduals should cul-tivate the entrepre-

neurial spirit and that ideas, innovation and service will help change and impact the attitudes, lives and the world.

We do this by helping in-dividuals sprout by unlock-ing their talent with the ‘de-schooling of society’ to create a paradigm shift in education. We are a move-ment, a tribe and we change lives all over the world through our thought pro-voking ideas and events.

To find out more visit: www.TheSprouter.com and sign up to our global com-munity for updates on our activity and events.

Follow us on: facebook.com/thesprouter

Want to Organize

a Sprout Talk?

Who we are

and what we do?

www.TheSprouter.com

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Letter from the PublisherIn this issue of Sproutr Magazine I

am proud to bring you the amaz-ing story of Trev Ng. This is a story about ‘The Optimist Coffee’ a café

that he set up to inspire people while having their coffee. He

started as an employee and worked the regular 9-5 job but decided that it wasn’t the path for him.

Instead he started a business that is now thriving in the heart of Kuala

Lumpur and has inspired many of his customers with captivating

inspirational quotes with every cup of coffee.

I do believe that most people have the attitude of “I Can’t” and it is

learned early in life and school and a mantra that has been entrenched

in our minds. This mantra has then paralyzed hope and killed

ambition in many thousands and millions of people and hinders them from achieving anything

great in life. I also found that fear of failure is the greatest obstacle

to success in human life and most people do not understand that

failure is important. It is impossi-ble to succeed without failing and we have failed many times in life

since birth.Failure is only a temporary defeat and setback. It tells you to reflect back on the things that you have

done, reevaluate the decisions that

leTTer From The PUbliSher

in this issue of Sproutr magazine i am proud to bring you the amazing story of Trev ng. This is a story about ‘The

Optimist coffee’ a café that he set up to inspire people while having their coffee. He started as an employee and worked the regular 9-5 job but decided that it wasn’t the path for him. Instead he started a business that is now thriving in the heart of Kuala Lumpur and has inspired many of his customers with captivating inspirational quotes with every cup of coffee.

I do believe that most people have the attitude of “I can’t” and it is learned early in life and school and a mantra that has been entrenched in our minds. This mantra has then paralyzed hope and killed ambition in many thousands and millions of people and hinders them from achieving anything great in life. I also found that fear of failure is the greatest obstacle to success in human life and most people do not understand that failure is important. It is impossible to succeed without failing and we have failed many times in life since birth.

Failure is only a temporary defeat and setback. It tells you to reflect back on the things that you have done, reevaluate the decisions that you made and take a new approach forward. Failure provides you a valuable learning experience and it helps you build a solid foundation for success. after all we are all human and mistakes are unavoidable. We must do what we can to learn from our mistakes and experiences until we hit the finishing line.

You will never be happy or satisfied until you find what you love doing and what motivates you. You will have to identify what drives you forward before you can achieve all that you want. It is your job to identify it, if you haven’t done so.

Enjoy!

Send us your letters and comments at: letters@sproutrmagazine.com

The Publisher Olga G.

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The 7 Habits

of Highly Successful People

by Team Sproutr

Stephen covey

One of our main goals in life is to become successful. Success is

what most people want in order to live a fulfilled and happy life, after all.

May it be in terms of a happy life, to have a great family, to be financially free or to have a successful busi-ness; we have the yearning to excel in such aspects in life to be able to live in con-tent. While being motivated

to reach goals and dreams is a great start to actually achieve it, the question is how to actually begin.

It is not just through posi-tive thinking, hard work and a good capital that can help one succeed, but it is also the attitude, or the habits he practices that creates a huge help towards reach-ing a goal. after all, do you know anyone who’s become successful from always be-

ing isolated from the group and never being active?

What habits are we talking about here? This is where Steven covey’s “7 habits of highly effective People” comes in.

covey shares how you can one can adopt certain char-acteristics in order to effec-tively become successful in

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your field. These character-istics will not only help you reach the path of success more efficiently, but it will help you become a better person, both to yourself and towards other people.

before we begin tackling these habits, we must first realize that success does not come when working alone.

Steve Jobs created Apple through his own ideas and too the whole company to become one of the top com-panies in the world. While we may need to adopt hab-its and attitudes that will gear us towards our goals, we must realize that we

should also adopt habits that can also be effective when it comes to teamwork and working with other peo-ple. Only when these habits are incorporated in our daily lives we will begin to learn how to maintain and im-prove on our attitude, thus becoming a more effective person destined for success.

To further explore covey’s findings, the habits are di-vided into three groups:

inDePenDence. We must learn how to

master one of the most im-portant aspects of success is to master ourselves. These

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are the three habits that we will need to develop to seek independence:

1be ProAcTive!

This is one of the most important habits that

reap results. It is the foun-dation of all habits. It clearly suggests that it begins with me and I have the ability to make the right choices in life.

You have the ability to take action and move on from the mistakes that you have made and that our behavior and attitude in life shapes our future.

2beGin WiTh The enD in minD.

Project yourself to the place that you have envi-sioned yourself in. The re-sults that you have already accomplished. This is the first step towards accom-plishing anything.

You must first conceptu-alize it in your mind before you can create it in the phys-ical world. This will help you create a clear path and make you think of the decisions that you will have to make to reach that destination.

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3PUT FirST ThinGS FirST. SeT yoUr PrioriTieS riGhT!

No one achieves goals without proper self and time management. Do the things that are most important and significant to you. Your pur-pose, your values and your priorities should be at the top of your list.

Think of the ultimate question in life. create a plan, make a list and sched-ule, and stick to it and don’t get distracted by other in-significant events or chores. Keep focused.

inTerDePenDenceAfter we start to become

independent and develop the art of self-mastery, we need to know how to effec-tively work with others. The people that surround us are the ones who can make or break you.

Success is not just about you yourself but also about the people around you who you work with. The ideas, the labour and the support from others are what you need in order to learn, ex-ecute and grow effectively. These are the three habits that you will need to devel-op to work effectively with others around you:

https://www.flickr.com/photos/martinaphotography/

The 7 Habits of Highly Successful People

1. Be proactive!

2. Begin with the end in mind

3. Put first things first.

4. Think win/win.

5. Seek first to understand,

then to be understood.

6. Synergize.

7. Sharpen the saw.

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4ThinK Win/Win.

don’t think scarcity. There is plenty for

everyone. What most peo-ple think is that when you work with someone or in a group of people, there will only be one of you that will succeed.

That’s the problem with most people, which is why they end up trying to keep one below in order to push themselves higher, ending up with both parties being at the losing end. Think that once you succeed, that per-son will succeed with you, without having someone to fall along the way.

5SeeK FirST To UnDerSTAnD, Then To be

UnDerSTooD.

Listen empathically. Put yourself in the others shoe. Patience is the key when working with a group of people. We all don’t share the same ideas and will have conflicts every now and then and we will face obstacles on our path to success.

But take some time to lis-ten to what the other per-son have to say as you will never know that the other persons ideas might be your solution.

6SynerGize.

The whole is bet-ter than one. This is

known as creative coopera-tion where you will be able to open your mind to new things. Synergizing with people will enable you to learn and develop new skills that you could utilize along your journey in life.

Open your mind to other people’s ideas, communicate and speak out when neces-sary. When done properly everyone can have their say, communication and trust is developed and success will be even closer that you think.

conTinUoUS imProvemenTS

Once you have learnt and developed the six habits, the last one will help you main-tain and keep on improving in life.

7ShArPen The SAW.

It is the most pow-erful invest that you

can make in your life as you are the instrument in your performance, whether it is mental, physical, spiritual and social or emotional de-velopment. Take this op-portunity to keep improving

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yourself and to enhance and preserve your greatest asset and that is: YOU.

Keep challenging yourself towards self-renewal that will help you increase your capacity to produce and handle the challenges that

may come your way.

These habits will not en-sure success overnight but will help you build a suc-cessful foundation that will take you to great heights in life. These are qualities of effective people and those

who have reaped enormous results in life and how these habits work in harmony.

if you keep at it you will be able to see results in due time.

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A mAn’s worth is no greAter

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CORPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY (CSR) MANAGEMENT

Contact our CSR Team today! support@thesprouter.com

Let us help you deveop and implement a sustainable CSR program. Our partnership is based on a very transperant and efficient manner.

The Sprouter has been working with indiginious, rural and many other grassroot communities in Asia by education and entrepreneurship to help them build a better life and future.

Through our CSR programs we offer corporate training and team building activities to organizations that partner with us and to help fund ad sustain our charitable projects.

Some of the projects that we carry out:

The Sprouter enables the creation of sustainable solutions to difficult challenges that face humanity.

Let’s explore possibilities

of how we can efficiently and effectively change the world together and deal with the problems facing humanity and the realities of implementing solutions in various contexts around the world.

We provide solar powered LED lights to indiginious home and villages and those who live without electircity.

Solar LED light is clean energy that replaces kerosine lamps and paraffin candles and is not

harmful to our environment.

#1: SOLAR POWERED

LED LIGHTS

#3: EDUCATION

#2: PROVIDE WATER &RELIEF TO DISASTER PRONE AREASOur mission

is to help educate, inspire and empower leaders to assist those who are less priviliged with education that will lead them to better opportunities and a better future.

We provide an innovative partnership and a startup accelerator to help

individuals shape their lives.

Clean water, food, medical help, rehabilitation,

less illness, less deaths.

Yes, we not only want to provide relief but we also want to empow-er villages to take the lead to help other villages to get clean water.

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CORPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY (CSR) MANAGEMENT

Contact our CSR Team today! support@thesprouter.com

Let us help you deveop and implement a sustainable CSR program. Our partnership is based on a very transperant and efficient manner.

The Sprouter has been working with indiginious, rural and many other grassroot communities in Asia by education and entrepreneurship to help them build a better life and future.

Through our CSR programs we offer corporate training and team building activities to organizations that partner with us and to help fund ad sustain our charitable projects.

Some of the projects that we carry out:

The Sprouter enables the creation of sustainable solutions to difficult challenges that face humanity.

Let’s explore possibilities

of how we can efficiently and effectively change the world together and deal with the problems facing humanity and the realities of implementing solutions in various contexts around the world.

We provide solar powered LED lights to indiginious home and villages and those who live without electircity.

Solar LED light is clean energy that replaces kerosine lamps and paraffin candles and is not

harmful to our environment.

#1: SOLAR POWERED

LED LIGHTS

#3: EDUCATION

#2: PROVIDE WATER &RELIEF TO DISASTER PRONE AREASOur mission

is to help educate, inspire and empower leaders to assist those who are less priviliged with education that will lead them to better opportunities and a better future.

We provide an innovative partnership and a startup accelerator to help

individuals shape their lives.

Clean water, food, medical help, rehabilitation,

less illness, less deaths.

Yes, we not only want to provide relief but we also want to empow-er villages to take the lead to help other villages to get clean water.

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Trev ng: Kuala lumpur’s

optimistic entrepreneur

There are hundreds of young entrepreneurs making it in life with

an idea in their mind, pas-sion in their heart and suc-cess in their future.

Trev ng is one of these exceptional people who have made a name for him-

optimisticEntrEprEnEur

Kuala lumpur’s

by TeAm SProUTr

self with his little café, “The optimist coffee”. He is a great example of a success-ful person starting from the ground up, because he start-ed with almost nothing but slowly created his dream, turning it into a reality.

during an interview, he has made many great points, all of which can be used for those starting or in the mid-dle of a business.

before you reach the des-tination, there is always the first step.

and that is usually the hardest of it all because you don’t know where to begin. You must know yourself and what you want before you start with anything else.

Ask yourself what you want and how you want it.

Then start inputting knowledge on that certain thing, creating more ideas

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and expanding your mindset with new things. And with the many opportunities you now own, it’s hard to focus on one thing. Like how to survive in our business and create income, for exam-ple. But Trev makes a good point when he says that we should control our mind and have everything organized, taking it one step at a time, tackling one thing before another in order to have everything up and ready.

He had no experience whatsoever, but did his best to learn, cleaning and wash-ing everything whilst learn-ing how to brew a good cup of coffee.

Keep in mind that he nev-er even washed a cup, let alone make a cup of coffee. This made it a risky, terrify-ing leap. But in the end, he managed to overcome that obstacle and do more.

ThiS ProveS that it doesn’t take any skill to achieve your dream, but the drive to do so. You don’t need to be a coffee expert to have your own café, nor will you need to be a good masseuse to own a massage place.

WhAT yoU neeD is the willingness to learn

and to keep progressing as you build your own empire.

FAll in love with what you do and make sure it is what you want, then ex-pand your knowledge and experience for your future. Take risks, grab opportuni-ties, and keep your eyes on the prize. Unleash potential, don’t settle for less and work

just for money. do it for the passion. Real wealth comes from achieving the goals. Work towards your dream. do not compare yourself to those richer because success is real wealth and success is achieving goals

and of course, when a dream appears, judgments from others come along

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with it. Criticism from others is inevitable, but it is up to you to listen to what oth-ers say, or to go with what your heart wants. Ignore the judgment, even when the dream seems crazy at first, remember: If there’s a will, you’ll always find ways on how to achieve it, so long as you want to do it, you’ll do it.

There is always a way to achieve something, and it’s definitely not through lis-tening to what everyone else has to say or sitting down in the couch.

Another thing Trev pointed out would be creating a name for his company.

Learn to make your own brand name.

Set something differ-ent apart from other com-petitors. Like Trev ng, he thought of a unique way to create a name for himself.

He did not do this through simply selling coffee, but he sold his own brand, cre-ating inspirational quotes and pasting them into the packaging every single day in order for his customers to want to come back for more. He did not choose to merely

EntrEprEnEur

Kuala lumpur’s

sell coffee, but to have pow-er in his brand.

A great thing about Trev ng is that he isn’t only there for the coffee and the money, but one of his main goals is to inspire others through his opti-mism and quotes.

Simply doing what you love will already motivate others to do the same. And that is one thing every as-piring entrepreneur should look through. Success isn’t only about creating lots of money and achieving your own dreams, but to also cre-ate new experiences, inspire

optimistic

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Kuala lumpur’s

optimisticTrev nG

others, and keeping your dream alive through pro-gress and positivity.

Inspiration comes from a number of people, but a mentor is what you need because there’s no one else to give you advice rather than yourself. With a men-

tor, you will be able to truly motivate yourself through inspirational speeches and books. There are dozens of young entrepreneurs today and that can inspire you, because these people are proof that there is truly no limit in achieving your goals but your own mindset.

AGe iSn’T A limiT, and it shouldn’t be. May you be a teenager or a senior, you will still be able to chase your dreams so long as you’re breathing and have the will to reach it.

STAy hUmble AnD APPreciATive. Once you reach your

goals, do not look down on others, but stay thankful and down to earth. Without your humble beginnings and sup-portive friends, you wouldn’t be where you are today. Be-coming boastful simply be-cause you think you reached the end will not get you anywhere, in fact, it might even become your down-fall. While we should never take a step back, we should always remember where we started.

hAve The conFi-Dence, DreAm biG, bUT TAKe one STeP AT A Time. Trev mentions that while creating franchis-es and more outlets for his business can be a plan, he chooses not to focus on it but to focus on slowly ex-panding by creating clothes or more ideas to improve his present outlet. He explains that you should live in the present moment, to focus on what’s happening now. Be-

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cause if you plan something that seems too far from where you’re beginning, it would be difficult to reach your destination since you won’t know exactly where you’re going just yet. don’t overwhelm yourself with the billions of opportunities surrounding you.

Take a deep breath, focus on one thing, make the first step and see where it takes you.

enJoy WhAT yoU’re DoinG. Trev Ng had a dream of

putting up his own coffee shop, and it is his passion to do so.

don’t go where you think the money will take you, go towards where your heart wants you to go to, as long as your mind knows its right.

If you don’t enjoy what you’re doing, it’ll be difficult to stay motivated and easier to just give up. It’s like work-ing in a 9-5 job you don’t want every single day. You find it a chore to get up and go to work.

But if you love what you are doing, you find reasons to get up even earlier, you start to seize the day and

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make every second count. And that is what everyone should learn to do, to find something they truly enjoy doing and do whatever it takes to make that dream alive. Live as if it is your last day.

You never know when your time ends, and just like Trev, you will surely regret not starting your dreams. Make it happen.

DreAm moTivATeS yoU To KeeP GoinG. If you’re an upcoming entre-preneur, may you be young or old, starting something new or creating anoth-er business venture, go by these three questions:

1. Why you’re doing it?

2. how you’ll be doing it?

3. What is the outcome once you’ve achieved it?

It will truly help you when wanting to start, because you’ll find out more about both yourself and your dream, and it will give you more perspective on wheth-er or not you would like to go through with it, or look for more opportunities.

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Maxie

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MaxieMaxieI’ve always wondered, if I were to step into the future and see myself as a successful entrepreneur, how would I describe the lessons I am learn-ing? How would I tell my story in a way that other entrepreneurs connect to?

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I’ve always wondered, if I were to step into the fu-ture and see myself as a successful entrepreneur,

how would I describe the lessons I am learning? How would I tell my story in a way that other entrepre-neurs connect to?

The answer is always same. It’s the same way I’ve made all difficult decisions on this road.

With trust, love and unwavering confidence in myself.

and I guess that’s the first big lesson I’ve had as an en-trepreneur.

It can be so easy to re-act and automatically start thinking ahead. To start thinking what many people

call ‘smart’. It’s almost like trying to predict what peo-ple want and then catering for it through reverse engi-neering on how to receive that outcome.

let me give you a sim-ple example. I was trying to send out a tweet the other day. normally, I just spout whatever comes to mind or some deep internal life les-son that has really hit me. But not on this day.

On this day I had a tight sensation in my chest. I felt panicked. I’d typed out the same 140 character phrase and retyped it again in 10 different ways. Back spacing. Pausing. Retyping it again.

Where is this indecision coming from? In my head, I’m thinking, ‘Oh gosh, that sounds way too intense’ or

‘I think people are going to take this the wrong way’. I can’t stop thinking about what other people’s reac-tions will be and it drove me crazy!

Eventually I ended up not typing anything at all. No tweet. Zip. Nada. Nothing.

only later did i realize how ridiculous i was being. being in the online world... being in business in gener-al, can lead to this automat-ic habit of trying to predict what ‘other people’ want. What do they want to hear? What do they want to see? What do they want to buy?

It’s become so autopilot that sometimes it can cause confusion in your everyday life. When two aims conflict, you are left with indecision. And indecision leads to inac-

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tion. So, what is there left to do when you can’t seem to make a decision?

My journey as an entre-preneur has taught me the best thing to do is learn to trust and let go.

That means having to trust myself. My story only has a beginning because I took this first step of trust-ing myself.

my STory:

I had made the decision to take a year off of Univer-sity to work in canada from 2013-2014. It was a dream of mine to work on the ski slopes and learn how to snowboard.

That same year, I’d made one of the most important decisions of my life.

I joined The Foundation.

The Foundation teaches people who have no money, no idea and no experience how to build a SaaS compa-ny. It runs for 6 months, and our 2013 november group had a community of over 600 entrepreneurs.

To give you a bit of a background, while I was in The Foundation I had begun working full-time as a rental technician at a ski hill in the middle of nowhere.

I was living with 20 ram-bunctious, party-crazy aus-tralians and New Zealanders in a foreign country that had an average Winter temper-ature of -25 degrees celsius and I was spending all my spare time out night snow-boarding.

While trying to build a software company. Hmmm.

By the end of the 6 months, I hadn’t built a software product nor had I gotten past the 3rd section of the course… bUT my life had changed.

The biggest shift occurred for me after I’d traveled across canada and flown to Vancouver Island, where I’d settled in Tofino to chase another dream of mine - learn how to surf.

I was working at Tin Wis Resort as a full-time hotel room cleaner. I loved it. I’m not going to lie. The first 3 weeks were torture, but only because I didn’t know what I was doing. Making a hotel bed is harder than it looks. Especially if you have to do it fast.

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Anyway, I started to get the hang of things and found cleaning rooms to be quite automatic and relax-ing almost. That was when 8 hours started feeling like a long time with an empty head.

Luckily my manager said we were allowed to listen to music as long as it wasn’t disturbing the guests. So I got out my headphones, and started listening to The Foundation Podcast over my 8 hour shift.

one PoDcAST chAnGeD my liFe.

This podcast featured Andy Drish riffing with his coach Julie arora.

There was one phrase Jul-ie said, with such conviction that it really stuck with me:

“This is the problem with the self-help space. you’re not broken! There’s nothing wrong with you. Absolutely nothing. There’s nothing to fix here. This is life. This is your experience of it. it’s not just okay. it’s all good! it’s part of you. it’s what makes you you.”

After this podcast, I start-ed becoming more aware of my thoughts I had about

myself. I became very con-scious of how often i put myself down and i didn’t even realize how damaging it was.

Thoughts floating around my head would range from ‘You can’t do this. You’re a failure.’ to ‘What is wrong with me?

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Why can’t I do anything right?’ As my awareness grew, so did my ability to stop them midway and even-tually they were no longer a

part of my conscious think-ing.

The live FoUnDATion evenT

On June 6th, I traveled from Tofino all the way to colorado Springs for the gathering of over 200 en-trepreneurs for The Founda-tion Live Event. It was there I was opened to a communi-ty of people who loved and accepted me exactly the way I was. There, I realized the subconscious value I’d placed on myself was wrong.

What I learnt, being sur-rounded by successful and beginner entrepreneurs, was that the value of a person isn’t based on money, experi-ence or success. It isn’t based on their achievements, their status, their qualification or

their physical appearance.

Every moment I had felt less of a person because I hadn’t been productive or successful, or because I’d lacked money or a business, was self-inflicted.

I learned that my own value and worth isn’t condi-tional. My self-worth is not on the table.

being in The Foundation taught me - We are all equal. We are all miracles. myself included.

Through this loving com-munity, I’d learned to give myself permission to accept and love myself just the way I was in that present mo-ment.

This life-changing trip gave me a stronger sense

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of compassion and kindness for myself and for others. I felt enlightened and free.

my happy ending… or beginning… or Just now.

Before this, I was a Com-mercial Law University stu-dent who was bound to be stuck in the 9-5 rat race with no travel, financial or men-tal freedom to pursue some-thing bigger than myself.

now, I am building a SaaS product for acupunctur-ists that solves a deep pain in their business. I support myself through contractor work managing social media for clients, and this June I’m going on a month long trip to cancun, Mexico for The Foundation Live Event and then to China.

I can travel and work on-line. The world is my entre-preneurial oyster.

In October, I aim to be en-tirely self-sufficient working as an online entrepreneur and to move to Vancouver for a year.

how does this all come back to trusting myself and let-ting go?

Steve Jobs said it right. He said, ‘You can’t connect the

dots looking forward, but you can always connect the dots looking back.’

I can’t begin to describe the ups and downs I’ve had these last two years. It’s im-possible to convey in a single article. But if you’re on this entrepreneurial journey, I’m sure you already know what it feels like to be faced with dread, utter anxiety and un-fathomable insecurity.

So many times, you doubt yourself along the way.

Taking this path can be very lonely at times and very hard on your mental frame of mind.

Emotions that were be-fore muted are now magni-fied 100x and this emotion-al rollercoaster can have you screaming in joy and burst-ing into tears.

All these decisions I made, each year, each month, even each day, have come with obstacles, doubts and fears. They weren’t easy to make.

Looking back now, it’s easy to say I joined The Foundation. But at the time, I stayed up for 2 days in ex-citement scouring the web-site. I submitted a nail-biting application which got re-jected, sent a rebuttal to my

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rejection, got accepted and then realized I had no idea of how I was going to afford the program! None of these decisions were as simple as they look on paper. They all came with hardships.

But the beautiful thing about being an entrepreneur is, once you’ve made the de-cision, you will find a way to make it happen.

For me it was scraping my travel savings I’d saved up over working part-time at University and pulling my overseas paychecks together to not only pay $3000 over 6 months but also make it to

colorado Springs for a 4 day Live Event. While trying to build a business and expe-riencing travel in a foreign country.

What I’m saying is if you’ve made a decision with 100% certainty, it will come true. But what is important is which decisions you choose to make.

There are people who have lots of success, mon-ey and recognition, but they are not happy.

They are not fulfilled. What they’ve done over the last 10 years hasn’t aligned with who they are or how

they want the world to be.

My Little Gem For You...

This entrepreneurial jour-ney of yours is about trust-ing who you are.

Make decisions that fol-low your dreams and your heart. decisions that make you a better person and this world a better place.

You’ll know it’s the right decision when deep down everything just feels right.

You’ll feel in flow and alignment. Attract more of that positive energy into your life.

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And lastly, TrUST in yoUrSelF enough to see those decisions come to fru-ition.

you got this ;)

With love, maxie ouyang

AboUT The AUThor:

maxie ouyang is a heart conscious entrepreneur. her passion is spreading self-love and self-belief to peo-ple around the world and

she believes entrepreneur-ship can be used as a tool to wake people up.

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ww

w.fli

ckr.c

om/p

hoto

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ateu

sd

Whatever you can do, or dream

you can begin it. Boldness has

genius, power and magic in it.

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

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A DAy WiTh The OrAng ASli

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A DAy WiTh The OrAng ASli

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The ‘orang Asli’ also known as the ‘abo-riginal people’ are part of the popu-

lation in Peninsula Malay-sia. There are more than 150,000 orang asli in Ma-laysia, where 65% of them still live in the rainforest.

They are classified into three groups which are the Senoi, the Orang Melayu Asli and the Negrito. These three groups are diverse in their culture and have many ethnicities within them and each has their own dialect which suggests historical links to the people in cam-bodia, Burma, Thailand, In-do-china, Papua new Guinea and East Africa. A very small percentage of them live in urban areas and have the opportunity to be in school and have salaried jobs.

it is suggested that these tribes have a history of be-ing in Peninsula malaysia more than 8,000 years ago and their forefathers were hunters and they lived in caves and in the deep parts of the rainforests.

They are also known to hunt with blowpipes for birds and little monkeys, to gather fruits, honey from

bee hives and other forest products to create tradi-tional medical supplements. They live in small tribes in the jungle and they build their own bamboo houses.

The Orang Asli has played a significant role in the Ma-lay Peninsula’s economic history as collectors and pri-

mary traders as early as the 5th century a.d.

an early 19th century re-port also tells of Negritos providing forest products as tribute to the Malay chiefs of the river basins they re-sided in.

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The Sprouter as part of its corporate and social responsibility had recently organ-

ized a trip to the orang asli village at Kampung Sinju. This trip was done in asso-ciation with Tenby Schools, Ipoh involving their Inter-act club and the Sixth Form students.

Our support program for the Sinju Village involves supply of educational re-sources, supply of food for festive occasions and cre-ating an awareness of the rights and needs of aborig-inal people.

The team once again vis-ited the people to replenish their basic supplies including food, clothing and educa-tional material. The school had started their charity drive one month before and was generously supported by donations from parents and students who contribut-ed over 60 bags of rice, bis-cuits, other dry food, clothes and toys for the children.

As the team reached the village, there were several medical doctors and church members who were also present and were conduct-ing basic medical tests for the villagers. The team was greeted with smiles and

warmth and such an expe-rience cannot be explained with words.

it is always an eye open-er to see how the orang asli people live the most ba-sic lives. They do not have many facilities like the mod-

ern world has. With a scarci-ty of food, clothes and many other basic facilities they do not complain and it does not deter them from carrying out their basic duties in life.

These villagers are filled with love and hope and that

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is what keeps them moving forward. Many would not know what these people are going through as they live within the jungles of Malaysia. If only one would take some time to live with them only then you would be able to experience what life is all about and to learn about survival with the bare resources that you could get your hands on.

We should be grateful and appreciate what we have in life compared to what these villagers have.

There is a huge disparity between these villagers and those living in the city.

This is something that we ought to always remember: that an act of kindness al-ways goes a long way and we must always put service above self as you will never know who you will be inspir-ing and helping in life along the way.

The team also had the opportunity to take a quick dip by the cool stream that was flowing down from the nearby hills and the water was crystal clear. It was defi-

nitely a day that was filled with happiness and satisfy-ing beyond measure. It was definitely a hectic day but a rewarding one.

The team bade farewell and promised the villag-ers that they will be visited once again with a pledge to help them install leD lights in their dwellings.

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I learned a lot from the visit, and experienced their culture and style of living.

Collaborating with the In-teract club of Tenby Interna-tional School Ipoh (IIS) and the students of the a level’s centre, it was a meaningful trip as I saw firsthand the hard lives that these people live by.

The villagers also wel-comed us to visit their homes. We followed them to their houses. We had to walk up a high slope before we got to their homes.

I noticed that they used the forest as their habitat and they built their houses

with the raw materials from the forest.

We shouldn’t just give them everything they need, and we should start giving them education and teach them how to improve their living. “Give a man a fish and you feed him for one day, teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime.”

I hope that we can get more activities like this to help people in need, and these activities are good for youngsters and students to take part in.

They allow them to ex-pose on what can be done to improve this society.

hugo lokeA DAy WiTh The OrAng ASli

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Ahimsya KarunananthanA DAy WiTh The OrAng ASli

We visited malay-sia’s indigenous people, the Orang Asli last

week to understand their culture , and of course to extend some donation.

i must say it was an awe-somely striking experience as our main aim for the visit was chAriTy.

This visit has helped in-crease the awareness of problems faced by the under privileged. I sincerely think that our school should con-tinue to encourage students and organize more trips like this as it will also keep us all informed about issues of so-cial injustice.”

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A DAy WiTh The OrAng ASli

The will to win, the desire to succeed, the urge to reach your full potential...

these are the keys that will unlock the door to personal excellence.

– Confucius

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Do not believe in a thing because you have read about

it in a book. Do not believe

in a thing because another

man has said it was true.

Do not believe in words

because they are hallowed

by tradition.

Find out the truth for

yourself. reason it out.

That is realization.

Swami Vivekananda

Phot

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Mod

esta

s Urb

onas

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By

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Theory of Motivation: What makes people tick?

by TeAm SProUTr

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There are different ways on how to be-come motivated. It can start with pos-

itive thinking that tells you to get off your butt and do what you are passionate about. But there is some-thing deeper than just pos-itive thinking and that is the process of motivation.

When delving deeper into the process of motiva-tion, we realized that it isn’t only about positive thinking. We wonder, “how does mo-tivation begin?” and “Why are some people driven to achieve their goals and oth-ers are not?” So why are we motivated to do the things that we do? This is where psychology comes in.

Abraham maslow and his theory of needs come in. maslow developed his mod-el in 1940-1950 and still re-mains valid today to under-stand human motivation and how people fulfill their own unique potential to achieve self-actualization.

Maslow had referred to various additional aspects of motivation but he expressed these needs in five stages:

By

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1. biological and Physiolog-ical needs - Air, food, water, shelter, clothing, warmth, sleep, etc.

2. Safety needs – Health, family, employment, stabili-ty, security, etc.

3. love and belongingness needs – Friendship, family, intimacy, connections, rela-tionships, etc.

4. Self-esteem needs – confidence, achievements, respect of others, connec-tions, need for individuality, etc.

5. Self-Actualization needs – Morality, creativity, spon-taneity, acceptance, experi-ence purpose, meaning and inner potential, etc.

He mentions that all of these needs are survival needs and we respond to these levels of motivation similar to a thermostat. We tend to switch on when the thermostat gets cold and turn off when it gets too hot.

Or mind and body re-sponds n the same manner. We crave for what we lack and when we get enough of it our hunger stops.

Maslow theorized that human needs are arranged in a hierarchy:

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“it is quite true that man lives by bread alone — when there is no bread. but what happens to man’s desires when there is plenty of bread and when his belly is chronically filled?

at once other (and “high-er”) needs emerge and these, rather than physiological hungers, dominate the or-ganism. And when these in turn are satisfied, again new (and still “higher”) needs emerge and so on.

This is what we mean by saying that the basic human needs are organized into a hierarchy of relative pre-potency” (Maslow, 1943, p. 375).

How these five stages of do needs fit into helping us becoming motivated?

Well Maslow mentioned that people are motivated to achieve certain need in life and when on need is fulfilled they seek to fulfill the next one and so on and on. Human motivation stim-ulates the excitement of ac-tions to achieve a goal.

Understanding the theory of motivations will act as a wakeup call to the wonders that are stored within us all.

Theory of Motivation: What makes people tick?

once you achieve one set of goal, the cycle begins again as success is a plateau and an ongoing process of achievement.

The hierarchy of needs is important as it established the fulfilment of one’s need in life and thus motivating an individual to keep mov-ing forward in order to sat-isfy one’s needs.

The yearning to fulfil needs and wants are one of the main triggers of motiva-

tion, which is why Maslow’s hierarchy of needs comes in and is used by managers in order to help motivate their workers.

The hierarchy of needs points out what is need by an individual and it can be used to motivate them to do more in life and at work.

motivation is a factor for any one individual to achieve something in life and to enable them to push themselves above the limit

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and reach their own goals.

Maslow mentioned that human motivation is based on people seeking fulfil-ment that will bring about change and through per-sonal growth. People who achieve this and are self-ac-tualized are those who are fulfilled and they do what they are capable of.

It is a path of self-discov-ery that they come to find a meaning to life that is im-portant to them by doing

what you love and leads you in different directions of life to find a meaning for your-self. You will discover that each person is unique in their own way and we are usually best when we reach our peak.

The process of self-actu-alization is a continual pro-cess of improvement that each and every one of us will go through rather than a perfect state that remains. It doesn’t but rather pla-teaus from time to time.

no one person is motivat-ed by the same needs but rather it is best to recognize a person’s needs at the cur-rent level and time and lev-erage those needs with the right set of motivation for optimum personal growth and success.

Theory of Motivation: What makes people tick?

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We all have ex-pectations and what we expect usually becomes

our own self-fulfilling pre-diction. Expectations are a very powerful influence that causes you or others to be-have in a certain manner to achieve a particular out-come.

The law of attraction works in a similar way. In fact you do not attract what you want but rather attract what you expect.

if you expect good pos-itive things then you will begin to attract such good things and vibes in life and so is the opposite if you ex-pect negative things. your expectations have a remark-able effect on the people around you and it reflects your attitude back to you like a mirror.

a research carried out by Dr. Robert Rosenthal of Har-vard University described how teachers have an enor-

mous impact on their stu-dents through the power of expectations.

Students were random-ly chosen from the school population at large for this experiment and teachers were then led to believe that the student or students were exceptional.

The teachers were told that “We have been observ-ing your teaching styles and we have concluded that you are the three best teachers in this school. As a special reward for teaching excel-lence, we are going to give you each one classroom of the brightest children in this school.” not knowing to the teachers, they were also ran-domly chosen for this exper-iment.

The teachers were pleased; their expectations changed and went back teaching filled with enthu-siasm. This motivation act-ed as a compliment to the teachers and they were re-newed with full commit-

The Power of Expectations

The Power of expectations

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The Power of Expectations

ment and showed greater leadership skills. The teach-ers were more patient and were willing to spend more time with the students who were slow learners and made sure that everyone was on par with the rest of the class.

At the end of the academ-ic year, they found that the students had achieved an increase of 20 to 30 per-cent in academic progress compared to the previous year. What took place here is that the expectations of the teachers shaped the results of the students. They saw the students differently and thus they responded in a dif-ferent manner.

This clearly suggests that it is not until you change your expectations and per-ception of others that you can change your own expe-riences with them.

Expectations stand here right before us. It is a pow-erful influence. You might probably be expecting something out of this article as you read it.

You meet someone new or go for a date you would expect that person to dress accordingly and to be well groomed or even in the of-

fice with your co-workers you would have an expec-tation of proper work ethics. We expect most of the time.

This is how we usually perceive people when we project our expectations to-wards them. When you place an expectation towards someone you are actually projecting that expectation back on to you. It is also suggested that the more im-portant someone is in your life, the greater your expec-tations are towards them.

This is usually the down-fall of many when they do not have the right expecta-tion in life and the people around you. Your expecta-

tions exert a powerful in-fluence on the people and events in your life.

The power of expecta-tions gives you foresight as if you are the fortune teller in your own life. It can be well observed that many successful people tend to portray an attitude of confi-dence through the power of expectations.

They expect the best in life and never settle for less. They know what they want and are seldom disappoint-ed by their expectations in life. They project positivi-ty and they know what the power of expectations has on their performance.

you do not attract

what you want but

rather attract

what you expect.

Photo by Shlomit Wolf

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The Tycoon corner

From A Poor School TeAcher To A hUmble Tycoon

Jack ma

There is one eminent formula we can all learn when it comes

to building an empire of “big dreams”: our attitude and attention must be

focused and never having the thought of giving up.

It isn’t about our family’s social status, nor is it about the set of skills we have, but it is the manner we

use what we have and how determined we are to get what we want in order to create a name for ourselves. If we believe in our dreams than we will be able to see

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our vision becomes alive. There will be challenges and rejection in life and this will be is inevitable but it is up to us if you choose to sit down and do nothing about it and stay rejected, or keep pushing forward until you achieve your dreams and become accepted. You will have to remove the rejection labels and break the limitations in life if you want to be a success.

When you think about inspirational stories of people

who have never given up, hundreds of successful people might appear into your mind. a great example of a man who has been through many rejections yet strived for success would be Jack ma, the founder of alibaba, a dream that started in 1999, after a search on the word “beer” and “China” with no results. alibaba is an internet giant that reaches billions of consumers in China who were once unreachable, a marketplace, a search engine and a bank that generates larger sales than Ebay and amazon put together.

His is a rags-to-riches story, where he worked to get what he wanted

and faced rejection as opportunities. and even without experience in computers whatsoever, he made it clear that he had a goal and that he would do what it takes to achieve it.

This is a story of how Jack ma went from making $20/day in an old apart-ment towards building a global empire and e-commerce business that recently sold more than $9.8 billion in just one day. hard to belief? believe it!

As a child, he was persistent in learning the English language, talking to foreigners and guiding them around his home country, China, in order to enhance his skill in the language. He wanted to improve his English and applied for a position at the Hangzho Teacher’s Institute, where he failed the entrance exam twice before getting in. he then became an english teacher and attended further education in cheung Kong Graduate School of Business, graduating in 2006.

You can see that Ma was persistent enough and never gave up despite the rejection when he applied to be a teacher. He made sure that if he wanted

something, he would do whatever it takes to achieve it. And this is an attitude that we should all cultivate if you want to become successful.

after graduating from university, he was rejected by dozens of the jobs that he had applied for, and when he finally landed a job as an educator, his salary was not high enough but he was passionate about his job and loved doing what he did.

he later saw the potential to introduce the internet to china by creating websites for companies.

This was one of his earliest ventures which eventually failed but it gave him enough drive and experience to start alibaba four years later. As they say that the rest is history and Alibaba soon became a very successful company not only in china but worldwide.

It took him and his team a lot of hard work to bring in investors and to learn how to create a website from scratch and to make a name for himself. For many successful tycoons, you will

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be able to find that money is not a main motivator for them but rather a reward of what you do.

One of his executives was quoted saying that “[Jack ma] wasn’t the type of person who starts a business keeping 90 percent of the equity for himself and really hoarding all of the wealth and riches.”

Ma was not in it for the money, but rather to introduce china to the Internet. He practices an unorthodox business philosophy, where he doesn’t give shareholders a say and how he runs the company.

ma believes that customer is number 1, employees are number 2 and investors are number 3.

He has also created millions of job opportunities and made a hero to the many millions of Chinese.

He is also a good leader who made working fun for the employees, making sure their energy levels are up to get their ideas rolling.

He knew how to empower them and cultivated an ownership mindset which brought about incredible performance form his team to bring the company to where it is today.

he was very clear and determined with his vision and communicated this with his early cofounders about where Alibaba will be in the future and that their competitors are global players.

He has a dream and wishes his employees to become “a batch of genuinely noble people, a batch of people who are able to help others, and who are kind and happy”.

you can learn from this and you must realize that you must put the needs of the people first before anything else. Money is a byproduct of what you do and when you solve their problems the rewards will follow through. You must lead your team of people to the right direction and with good intentions.

Ma shows the values of a good leader, which is why we should follow not only in our company, but also a practice that we should employ in our daily lives. It doesn’t matter if we have

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«cUSTomer iS nUmber 1, emPloyeeS Are nUmber 2 AnD inveSTorS Are nUmber 3»

the skills to become a leader but what matter is that we want to become one and begin with yourself.

Jack ma teaches us that nothing is impossible if we just learn to push ourselves we

can achieve great things in life. Many would say that it’s easier said than done, but the reality is that it is easier done than said. The thing is that many people do not do it and are shadowed by their own fear. Everybody wants but not everybody gets, because those who get are those who do. But once we start to push, the results will start to show and that is the time you start to keep moving forward towards your dreams.

ma says, “if you want to be respected, you have to suffer a lot”.

and that is true. You must fall in order to learn how to stand, to face rejection to learn how to be accepted, to experience downfalls in order to use them as learning experiences.

We must go through these things so we can use them as the motivation to keep our eyes on the prize. After all, what is success without a little blood and sweat? There is no such thing!

But there will be times when you fall and feel like giving up. don’t! Inspirational stories such as Jack Ma’s should be on

your mind to keep you focused on your success. Failure is a building block to your foundation and you can learn from other people’s failures as they are just like us and they started with nothing, who once struggled to stay afloat in a tiny raft but yet managed to build an entire ship from their constant drive. It takes a bit of blood, sweat and tears and lots of downfalls to do it.

Who knows you might be the next Jack Ma?! after all you just have to take the first step without any hesitations and keep going forward.

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Perhaps we’re too embarrassed to change or too frightened of the consequences of showing that we actually care. BuT wHy NOT riSK iT ANywAy? BegiN TODAy. Carry out a random act of seemingly senseless kindness, with no ex-pectation of reward or punish-ment, safe in the knowledge that one day, someone somewhere might do the same for you.

– lady Diana Frances Spencer

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at the Sproutr magazine, our mission is to provide you with the world’s most powerful success information that will aspire to inspire you towards success both in life and business.

We aim to strike a balance and to give you the edge in life.

Please write to us regarding any aspect of the Sproutr magazine. Send us your success stories, your dreams and aspirations to help inspire others, your comments and thoughts on the articles for further discussion.

You input in very valuable and we look forward to hearing what you have to say and sharing it with our readers from all around the world.

E-mail your submission to: letters@sproutrmagazine.comOr visit: www.Sproutrmagazine.com for further information

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