Live Your 10X Life, Chat with Faisal Shah

Yasi: Hi, Faisal, welcome to the Fast Track podcast.

Faisal: Hi, Yasi. Pleased to be here. Thanks very much.

Yasi: After 20 years in the corporate world, as you are a tech executive, and how did you decide to change your career? Since you have to give up this 20 years of working experience, right, your expertise in this domain, and then become a life coach with this completely different career. What’s triggered you to do so? How did you make that jump?

Faisal: Yasi, for a while now, for many years, I knew something was missing. And I saw people around me struggling. I saw them being perhaps aggressive, a little bit unhappy in their jobs, or just frustrated.

And that’s what I felt and wanted to dig deep into it. It was not really what they were doing, it was the life behind it. It was what they were doing at home. And I realized, as I got to know these people, they were really unsatisfied. They were not getting a promotion, they were blaming somebody, or they were not happy, or the bonuses were not where they were.

And a lot of people were struggling with what came down to money. And I thought, I’ve got to help this, you know, I’ve got to do something about it. So, I started mentoring people. On the side, friends, friends of friends, and I started helping them getting them money right, making progress, getting promotions.

And it made me so satisfied that I was doing something that served a bigger purpose. And that’s when I came to a discovery of, well, maybe this is my purpose. Maybe this is what I need to do.

Yasi: So, did you discover that’s your talent in helping people manage their money because you helped your friends and families, and later on, you decided, okay, this is the path I can take. Or how did you discover which direction you’re going?

Faisal: Yeah, you know, it was a lot of trial and error, and I went on a pursuit. So, I started looking around, I started looking at people around me, and I started to hang around with people who were thinking bigger than me. Because I was around the same circles, having lunch with the same people, and I was not mentally growing.

We were just kind of each other asking questions. So, I started hanging around with people who thought bigger than me, which my job allowed me to do, cause I was going with directors and C levels and everything. And I realized that people were saying, read books, read this, read that. Take a look at this.

And I started; I made a list of books, and I started reading them. When I started reading, the inspiration happened, and I learned more. I think one of the first books I read was Simon Sinek’s Start With Why. This was amazing, this was just an eye-opener, and it was actually exercise and questions that I asked myself.

And then I went on to read Grant Cardone’s 10 X rule, and that just blew my mind. It was like, Oh my God, I’m a mediocracy. And this is how it really came about

Yasi: At what point have you made up your mind, like, okay, I’m going to quit my job, I’m going to start something new? Is there any moment that’s triggered you, or you planned it three months or six months ahead of time?

Faisal: I always knew that there’s a glass ceiling. I am never going to be a partner of my ex-employer, that’s for sure. And the more I looked around me at my boss, my boss’s boss, that’s not what I want to go. And also, I felt like I don’t want anybody else to control where I’m going and the speed that I want.

I even approached one of my directors directly for lunch. We went out for lunch, and I said, you decide what type of yogurt I’m going to eat when I’m retired, you decide which type of apartment I’m going to live in when I’m retired. This is the impact that you have in your life. And he goes, yeah, you give too much importance to management.

That’s what his reply was. And the truth is I didn’t, it’s true that he decides on my growth and where I’m going to go in this life. And, I didn’t want to give that kind of power away. So it was long-term planning that I need to now go and do something else, but I didn’t know what that was until I started reading.

And then the pandemic happened, and the pandemic for me was an opportunity. For a lot of people, it wasn’t, but it was a fantastic opportunity. Or I could talk to my employer and say, you know, I think it’s time to call it a day.

Yasi: This will be a very classic sentence. This is going to be a time to call it a day. It reminds me of my conversation with Dan Ram in the fourth episode, I think. This pandemic totally ruined his career in a way because he is event MC and all the events are canceled, but he somehow remodeled his business and then became a virtual event MC, and he has different revenue streams.

So, I really believe that this pandemic is a difficult situation. But for those who are willing to reinvent themselves, looking out for opportunities, keeping learning, and they will actually make something great out of it, you start your business during the pandemic.

Faisal: Yeah, absolutely. I mean, it’s a great opportunity.

And I mean, I did not plan on starting it last year, but the opportunity happened, things locked down, this was actually a great time to invest. This was a great time to drill down on the other income streams that I had going because, you know, Yasi, I’ve been growing my income streams for years, and they were bringing in money, but I wasn’t focusing on them.

I was focusing on my primary income stream, which was my work, but some of them were giving me fantastic yields, and I’m like, I need to drill down on that. I need to drill down on my real estate portfolio. I need to drill down on my stocks. And then when I did 10X, literally last year, I made more money off my other funnels than I did on my salary. And that also gave me comfort, you know, that gave me a comfort that I kind of felt financially free to say, okay, maybe I can go and have some investment time and go and do some lessons. I don’t know what’s going to happen, but you know what, Yasi, if I’m going to go down, I’m going to go down swinging.

Yasi: 10 X, everything., that’s your aim.

Faisal: Absolutely.

Yasi: And then, looking back, what do you wish to have known earlier? What do you wish you should have done earlier?

Faisal: You know, that’s a great question. I wish I knew that nothing in life is guaranteed. Because during my graduation, actually, I worked for Nokia, and Nokia at that time was like Apple today.

They offered me a summer job there, and when I graduated, they said, Hey, you want to come back and work for us, you’re going to get a company car, you’re going to get a BMW, all your fuel is paid for, you’re going to have a mobile phone, a laptop, and you can work from home. Now, this was in 1998, by the way. This is when none of this really happened. But they made it as if I’m going to go through life, I’m going to have a great career, they’re going to take care of me, and I’m going to grow. This was the sales pitch when I talked to them, and I’m going to have a great retirement. The truth is they can’t guarantee that because I know people who worked there at that time. A few years later, Nakia had some difficulties, they all got fired.

So, the most important thing that I wish I knew was nothing in life is guaranteed. Because ever since then, I’ve seen so many people get laid off early retirement or get fired because there are no jobs, the company’s not doing well. And we’re not taught about that. Nobody teaches that.

Yasi: Most people, I think that when they have a job, it’s kind of stable for, I don’t know, three years, four years, five years to seven years down the road, then there is a basic assumption that I will have this job forever.

But like what you said for me, I always feel very insecure when my livelihood is dependent on one job. So back to what you mentioned earlier, multiple income streams, and how would you advise people to create different types of income streams? If let’s say someone in their early twenties or early thirties, you know, haven’t really gone through this 20 to 25 years working experience and accumulate wealth, but right from the start, what would you advise?

Faisal: Hey, you know, it depends on people’s means. The first thing you need to spend on is investing in yourself. Invest in yourself because, you know, that’s something that nobody can take away from you, you’ve got it with you.

The return on investment when investing in yourself is huge. And that could be a trading cost that could be getting from them really with how money works, learn already about how money works, you know. People don’t want to spend; they want to save. This is the worst thing you can do is to have money sitting in a bank account.

The interest rate in the UK is like 0.02%. If you have a hundred thousand pounds in your bank account, or your father does, or your mother, in the UK, you will get 120 pounds. My calculation is correct. I think there are 120 pounds per year. If you have 10,000 francs in Switzerland in your bank account, what do you get, like 10 Franks or something? I don’t know, I think it’s 0.01% here.

Yasi: Yeah. And also, the more you have in Swiss banks, the more you need to pay with negative interest rates.

Faisal: Well, yeah, it’s just when we have the negative interest as well. And, you know, Grant Cardone uses one phrase. He’s the guy who creates the 10 X movement. He says Cash is trash. Cash is trash, it’s like pieces of paper. It’s there for a rainy day, but you know what, you never use it. What happens that you grow it, you grow it, you grow it. Maybe our older generation, when they retire

My father deprived himself of everything. He used to be a taxi driver amongst other things, his house was paid for and what’s going to happen is when he goes away? That money is going to go down the heritage. My siblings, they’re going to be married, their wives are probably going to go out and buy a 4×4 with that money. Maybe they’re going to redo the kitchen, you know, but that’s not what my father worked for, you know, but that’s what happens.

He should be spending on himself, go traveling, fulfilling his ambitions, or investing in himself. That’s going to give the greatest return on investment. So, I would say honestly, to grow your funnels, invest in yourself. When you invest in yourself, it’s going to come to your, maybe you want to do a real estate project.

You could start with 10,000 francs, you could start with 10,000 pounds. You could get on the real estate ladder. It will make you 6% a year, pretty much outside Switzerland, because in Switzerland is a little bit more difficult, but across Europe, you can look for a 6% return. In a 6% return, you know, in not too many years, you can double your money.

Yasi: Yup. And you mentioned several times 10 X. Can you explain to our audience what this 10 X concept is about?

Faisal: Sure. So yeah, the 10 X rule is actually a book, and I explained that there are two elements that you need to think of your goals 10 times bigger than what you’re thinking today. And then you need to go at them with 10 times more action because nobody’s doing that.

So, for example, if your goal is to have…

I mean, have you ever noticed Yasi, if you want to earn $90,000, or 90,000 francs a year, you get to about 84,000, and that’s the limit, you know. And, you’re like, shit, oh, dear, I can’t get that. And the thing is, how about you think about a million? It changes the way you think. And 10 X is also a concept that Google uses because it changes the way you think about it. So, then you’re not thinking about asking your boss for a promotion, you’re thinking about how do I make money work for me? And if you come short, it’s better to come to short 10 X your goal rather than 1 X your goal.

I had the experience on that, I totally agree with you. I remember when I was in business school in Singapore, everybody, I say, they don’t want to have A, they don’t want to get A. You know why?

Faisal: Because they have to get A again?

Yasi: Because they want to get A +. Not everybody gets A or A + because of this bell curve thing, but so many people there aim so much higher than what to other people is not realistic, but in the end there maybe get A -, but if they do not aim A +, they might just get around B. Back to what you said, aim higher, even you do not achieve it, but still better than when you set a lower goal.

Faisal: Absolutely. Yeah. So, that’s what the 10 X rule is all about. It’s about big thinking and going at it with really 10 X the effort.

Yasi: And how did this 10 X mentality create an impact in your life after you learned about it?

Faisal: So, you know, I was investing in stocks. I’d be investing in stocks since 2010, and it’s been doing fine. I have properties since 2000, and it’s been doing fine, but I never looked at it. I just ignored it. And you know what I mean? I can tell you, you know, I thought, okay, I’m going to be fine.

Everything’s okay, it’s ticking. But there was huge potential here. And at the same time, you know, I’m trying to strive for a promotion where maybe I’m going to get a 5% increase. I’m like, Hold on. Why don’t I look across my other pillars, you know. And when I read this book, the 10 X rule, I looked across everything I had at the opportunities, and I thought I could do something with my real estate portfolio.

I can do something. I haven’t increased the rents in 20 years. That’s an easy 10% increase.

Yasi: Where is it?

Faisal: That was in the UK. I had two properties in the UK, one for students, one for private. They were getting a great deal, by the way, because

Yasi: The property pricing in the UK since last year is skyrocketing, no?

Faisal: Yeah. My attention wasn’t there. It’s like when we saved money in the bank, your attention isn’t that you think it’s growing, it’s not growing, it’s growing it at the price of a Starbucks coffee every year. That’s what you can buy with, but you don’t think about that.

And it’s actually devaluating. So, when I got back concept right, I drilled down a 10 X on what was growing. I was like, geez, my stock portfolio, what am I doing here? And I’ve written some blogs, some articles on my stocks. And I actually go into some of the figures because afterward, a lot of people ask me, how much did you put in or what was the yield? So, actually, talk about that. What kind of investment I was like, this is where I need to put the effort. I sold my cars, I had two cars. I sold them. I traded down my apartment. I reduce my costs, and I put everything I piled it all into the bank

Yasi: Because you want to

Faisal: Because I wanted to invest.

In 2014, Yasi, I was about to buy a Tesla car. I was about to sign on the dotted line, and there’s actually, I wrote an article with a photo of me at the garage, at the dealership about to sign and I didn’t sign because I couldn’t, I didn’t know what to charge it. That was in 2014. And what I did was I hung about, I watched it, I loved the product, I loved the car. I tested all the competition. I said, there’s something here. And I waited. And in 2016, I spent money on the stock. So, the deposit for the car, which was about 30,000, I put into Tesla stock.

Yasi: You are one of the Tesla millionaires apart from the Bitcoin millionaires.

Faisal: Yeah. I didn’t get to know Tesla, and now I’m out at Tesla battery.

But it did very well for me. That’s actually the answer to your question. And I actually decided, I don’t actually need a car. I certainly don’t need two cars. I actually made a spreadsheet and calculated, they will cost me a thousand francs, which is about a thousand dollars just sitting in the underground garage before I even started them. That was one car per month.

Yasi: Yeah.

Faisal: The insurance, the plates, the servicing, you don’t drive, you still have to service it.

Yasi: The tax, yeah.

Faisal: And the tax and the devaluation, people always forget the devaluation. But when you buy a hundred thousand dollar car, it’s not worth a hundred thousand dollars in two years’ time, maybe it’s worth 50, whether you drive it or not.

Yasi: Interesting. I had a YouTube live channel talking about buying or rent a car. Car is the only thing that, for many people, is a status symbol, but you get out of the garage a brand-new car, and then immediately a 20% discount on the current value. So, why people buy something that they lose money immediately?

Faisal: I’m a complete victim of that because I used to change my car every two years. And I don’t know, I don’t know why, but I didn’t understand. And I was bored as well. I didn’t know where to put my money, what to do with it.

I thought I had more money than I needed. And now when I did my calculations, when I read the 10 X rule, when I read books like A Hundred Year Life, that pretty much it’s by two people from the London School of Economics, and they’re saying that we have a crisis coming ahead. The millennials today, we will live to a hundred, they stop working at 65. The money that they save be run out of 85. What are we going to do? And they talk about this. It’s, it’s a fantastic book, I recommend it as well. But yeah, it kinda gave me a real wake-up call to what’s coming up, and we need to prepare for it.

Yasi: And in my bio also, you mentioned, okay, I mentioned to the audience that you compare yourself to those who are around you, and you should have been comparing yourself with yourself. What do you mean by that?

Faisal: When I was growing up, I had a best friend, and we were kind of betting each other that we’re going to compare our bank balances every year.

And you know, it was kind of like a football game for us. It was like a scorecard, who’s going to have the biggest one. Later in life, I realized that I should not be comparing myself to other people, I should not be comparing myself to my colleagues. I should be comparing myself to myself and what I can do and what I want to do because that’s the only person that really counts, you know. If you’re not fulfilling your potential, you’re going to feel it. If you’re overwhelmed, you’re going to feel it. When I started doing that, and I started saying, well, you know what, I will take the risk of losing my car, losing my investments, and I will be happy if I have to sleep on a couch again because I don’t have kids with somebody who’s just got, kids. It’s gonna be different, but there are also different sacrifices they can make. There’s always, you know, a floor of what is acceptable. And if you can do that and you can understand that, and you can say, this is what I’m willing to do, but this is the reward. Because, you know, Yasi, we always say here, what if it doesn’t work? How many people have called me up and told me that. And I said, what if it does work? When they think, ah, yeah, well, if it works, then I can do this, I can provide for my children, I can give them better education, maybe we can travel abroad. Is it worth the risk? Well, maybe it is. And I think it’s important to remember that.

Yasi: A lot of things you mentioned are really about mindset switch, you know in general, we live in a society with social media, with kind of education from the families or friends.

What we see from our colleagues, we tend to behave or think certain things are what we want, but in reality, people are different where we all have different pursuits. Then if we think what they have is what we want. And that is not really the right way, because maybe you want different things. So, I cannot agree more with you than that with the social media and the impact, you know, the millennials generation’s mindset, and it is very important to read books and then change perspective.

And then coming back to change perspective, in your coaching, how do you help people to 10 X their life? How do you coach people to become better and change their mindset?

Faisal: You know, just going back to the role models we have, you know, the parents, the teachers, the peers, they promote being average is like a safe haven, but it’s not. Average is a level of action that’s most dangerous because people think it’s enough. The truth is that people say they’re content, they have enough, they’re comfortable. You cannot say what enough is unless you know when you’re gonna die. If you know, when you’re going to die, you can work back and say, this is what I need.

And people don’t actually do that. You know, the peers and what we have around us, the role models are really, really important. Most of us grow up in poverty in the middle class, you know, and then we take on the beliefs of the poverty and the middle-class, and then we pass those on from generation to generation, to generation, and it’s a cycle that repeats itself.

What I want to go and do with people is to really go back to the mindset. And that’s where I start with and say, what’s your destination? You know, I use an analogy; when you create a business, every business has a business plan. Well, every person should have a plan about what their destination is, where they want to go, what’s a destination that you put in a GPS, what’s your North Star? And that’s what I help people figure out. What does their life look like in these seven categories? And once they know, that’s what they want, that’s what they want to do, that’s what they want to experience in their life. Then we can reverse engineer that.

Where do you need to be in the next 10 years? Where do you need to be this year? Where do you need to be today? What do you need to be doing tomorrow? And that’s when the magic happens, and people see results very fast.

Yasi: To get the clarity in life.

Faisal: That’s right. Yeah.

Yasi: And how do you help people find out what they want, what is their goal? Because I assume maybe many people have never thought about that question.

Faisal: Yeah. So, I do a series of exercises to try and drill down into what people’s purpose is essentially, but it’s a very broad question, and purpose and fulfillment are getting bigger and bigger at the moment.

I do a series of exercises, so they get to imagine what they want to live back, what they want to give back and what they want to experience during this life, how they want to live, do they want to live in their home? What sort of education do they want for their children, for their families?

What do they want to experience, what do they want to visit? Once you get an idea and people know that, you know there’s even psychological exercises that say that sometimes your ideal career or what you want to do in your job goes back to what you imagined as a child, between the ages of 7 and 12.

What you enjoy on your job usually goes back to, you can make the connection of what you wanted to be when you were between 7 and 12.

Yasi: Hm, interesting. Maybe I should receive those questions.

Faisal: Absolutely!

Yasi: Is there anything else you want to the audience, like a key message to help them take away from our conversation today?

Faisal: Yeah. I mean, I think it’s important, it’s super important to have goals. And if you’re not excited in life today, if you’re not jumping out of bed excited, it’s because your goals are not big enough, that’s it. When you want to lose half a kilo, I know I’m not gonna get excited, but when I want to lose 10 kilos, ooh, I get excited. When I want to get a promotion, I’m not so excited, but when I want to change jobs and go for a super high job, oh, then I’m excited.

And so, I say, make goals, it’s important to work out your destination and get excited. Think big, think bigger, and get excited about them. One thing I want to say is that be around people who think bigger than you do really helped me because there’s no shortage of success on the support planner. That’s one thing, you know, there may be a limit in many things, in resources, but for success, there is no limit. You can go wherever you want in life, and that’s what I really want to share.

Yasi: And my last question, following that, how to find successful people, like people who are successful in certain areas that, for example, I want to be like that? If in your daily life you’re hanging out with the same bunch of people, what’s your tip?

Faisal: You need to scale up. You need to reach out to meet new people who have like-minded interests, and it’s not so difficult. We actually, you and I met over LinkedIn, I believe so. You know, that’s how this conversation happened. And if you go out there, especially today, because nobody’s outside, nobody’s meeting up. Oh, where are they?

They’re all online. So, it’s easier than ever because everybody is in the same place — online. Go and find, join the groups that you want to join. If you want to learn how to be a speaker, go and join speaking groups. If you want to learn whatever skill it is, you can find a group today to do that and meet with like-minded people in your area, or indeed people who are already doing what you want to do.

And you’d be surprised if you reach out to them. I’m surprised by how many people will actually want to have a conversation, want to help because everybody wants to help. You know, Tony Robbins says, You might be happy, but if you want true fulfillment in life, you need growth, and you need contribution, you need to give back. Humans need to give back.

People, I realized when I reach out to them, nobody reaches out to the people at the top, but when I’ve reached out, I’ve always had somebody come back. That’s where the magic happens.

Yasi: I received so many LinkedIn messages. I’m also very happy to connect with people and, I cannot agree more with what you have said. This internet space has made the world so much smaller.

As long as you want to take the initiative, reach out to people. We can always make new networks. And your company is called Wake Up Mentor, right?

Faisal: Absolutely. Yes.

Yasi: You’re coaching, mentoring service. And can you tell the audience where they can find you online or learn more about your services helping them 10 X their life?

Faisal: Absolutely. So, the best place to start is wakeupmentor.com. That’s just a landing page where you will have access to all my social media feeds and the biggest on LinkedIn. That’s where I’m really because my primary audience of millennials that I want to help are mostly on there. But you will find links to connect.

And if you sign up for my newsletter at the bottom, it’s for Fast Track podcasts, it’s especially for you guys listening today, you’ll get a free Wake-up call with me. Well, we can have a one-to-one conversation, I’m going to take you through an exercise, and you’re going to come out with a huge awakening to where you want to go in life.

You’re going to get some ideas of maybe that destination and what that could look like. And also, I’ll give you seven-day access to Grant Cardone’s university platform, where you’ve got courses on money, wealth, real estate, finding a job. You’ve got access to all these kinds of courses. You’ve got seven-day access for free.

Which I’m happy to share with people on this podcast. If they reach out, they just go to wakeupmentor.com, scroll to the bottom and fill out the email, everything’s there.

Yasi: That’s amazing. I will make sure that all links are in the show notes and everybody can find you online, or they can reach out to you in person if they’re in this region.

Thank you so much for being here today. It’s a very inspiring conversation with you, and I hope you enjoy it too.

Faisal: Thanks, Yasi, it’s been great.