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[Music]
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kiwi's Love at
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First like Finn we're making
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[Music]
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waves generate switch online
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[Music]
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today Don ha welcome to my podcast thank
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you it's uh so good to um have you here
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my team reached out to you to ask you to
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come on and this is your first ever
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podcast well look I've been request
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internationally to do podcast and I
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declined and then in the end I just
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thought this is my first podcast so it
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might as well be you what was it your
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daughter that twisted your arm my
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daughter is a fan of yours I was quite
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surprised she's only 20 so you got a
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wider audience there and she said you
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got to go on to this podcast look en
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Mo's on here John Key's on here look
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then she showed me the Instagram I
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thought oh my God I didn't know Dom hary
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was this famous so I thought I got to
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get on well uh um I've um been intrigued
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with your story um and there's a lot to
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unpack with you because it's sort of
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like um well the there the refugee
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background so it's sort like Rags to
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Riches back to rags again and then back
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to riches so um yeah there's there's a
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there's a lot to the donha story a lot
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of adversity i c I've been refuged twice
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and I wonder which one was harder so we
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can talk about that oh so Refugee twice
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as first time an actual Refugee yeah
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when I arrived here in 1980 and second
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time when I lose all my wealth I felt
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like I was a refugee
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again which one was harder yeah because
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yeah you were declared bankrupt and
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there was um you were placed in
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receivership and um because of your uh
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high-profile there were some headlines
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and um it was very very public I I I'd
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imagine that was quite humiliating at
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the time well that's what I mean like
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when you first come here as a refuge you
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um you don't know anything so it doesn't
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matter what happen to you you're just a
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refugee but when you build your wife
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become high profile and and all of
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that's taken away from you man I think
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that was
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harder when you were when all your sort
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like all your rights and all your
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freedoms have been taken away from you
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you feel like you are Refugee again but
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probably hit you a lot harder because
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you understand a lot more things y well
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we'll get to all that but first of all
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how are you today well I'm I'm wake up
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this morning and I thought man I got to
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go on a DN happy show so I'm I'm excited
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EXC and and how's you you were telling
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us just before we started recording that
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you've got um you're dealing with some
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health issues this year B yeah B posy I
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got it in March yeah and I'm just still
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it's been in 9 months now but it takes
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about 6 months to recover up to 9 months
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so I'm I'm still going through it right
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now and yeah I'm almost normal yes so
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sort of like a paralysis of the face and
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you were telling us about um a
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traditional Vietnamese remedy do you
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really want me to tell that okay so I I
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had B py and and then my father said
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look I don't care what you try it won't
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fix you because he had it and he fixed
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himself and then somebody else in
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Vietnam had it and then they have to
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ring my brother ask how did my father
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fix himself and he went to the hospital
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and he saw this man in the hospital and
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my father said I'm giving up nothing
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will fix me and then this old man said
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don't worry it's simple so some TR
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woman in the Vietnamese Forest uh she
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said you go and get the eel cut the ti
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off get the blood put on your face leave
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it
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overnight and it will fix you so it
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fixed my father and I refuse to believe
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him because I hit phobia on ears you
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know I could be I'm fearless but I'm
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fear ears got snam me thing you know on
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your head yeah they gross so I had no
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choice I I had no choice but I went and
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bought seven eels and my father and my
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brother was helping me like 3 m
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away man let go some you know cutting
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this e toil off and then get the paper
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towel put the blood in my face and no
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kidding seven days later it fixed me I I
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just now I tell the story to every bosy
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people that's got it so cuz it can fix
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me it can fix them and I think this
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should be a a world why message to
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people at B py I did saw a n one of
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those basketball player player he was he
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was wearing his dark sunay and he said
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he get Bell py I sent on a message I
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said hey I understand the symptom you
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want to know how to fix it I can let you
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know how how it's done but I never heard
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from him yes yeah I mean I suppose some
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people would be like well I'd probably
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rather have the bells pause and let it
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run its C than put 's blood on my face
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let's go back and unpack the um donha
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story so what are your earliest
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memories like as a as a kid in Vietnam
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what earliest memories from back then
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okay well in Vietnam you don't have much
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you know like we live in a house uh sort
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of like in the country house and every
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day we just go to school walk to school
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come home never seen a bus before
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because there's no cars in his bicycles
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so then one day there was a bus a nice
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bus that just turned up on our driveway
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and
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then cuz my father he's Chinese my mom's
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Vietnamese and and the 70s Vietnam and
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China had a war going on so there's a
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bit of racial tension so they all the
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Chinese go back to China which is we are
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chinese vietnamese so then this bus
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turned up and then all a sudden my
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father said pack
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everything all a sudden pack everything
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why are we packing said we leaving I
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said where are we leaving said we're
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leaving Vietnam so you you tell what you
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tell in Vietnam so we all went pack and
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then the bus take us to this big
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boat and then uh we hop on it and then
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and my two uncles was part of uh the the
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belat and then because my father they
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were all fisherman they know how to
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navigate to Hong Kong and we didn't have
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to pay to go on this boat so the whole
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family just left in the place of one
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afternoon and leave everything behind
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and went to Hong Kong how old were you
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at the time I was 10 so that was the
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first time I I um see a car and then
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when we went to the Past China we had to
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stop to uh for the boat repairs and then
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for some reason there was another boat
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that had the cap the door of the captain
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was an our boat and the other boat was
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broken and they might us told them to
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Hong Kong they said if you don't tell
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our boat to Hong Kong we throw your
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daughter
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overboard so we had to tell this other
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boat to Hong Kong and then when we got
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to Hong Kong
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border I saw the warship was night whing
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their can and pointing at our boat
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because we could be Pirates you know and
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then we were not and then they gave us I
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pack up some slice sprits that's the
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first time I taste slice sprits that's
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what I remember and then when we get to
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Hong Kong then we went to stay in the
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refugee camp for a couple of years uh
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before we allowed to come well we we're
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not allowed to to come to New Zealand
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but uh it's like every country has a
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refugee quoter American England UK
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Australia so everybody wants to go to
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those countri no one wants to come to
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New Zealand we we didn't come here by
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choice we come here because we got no
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choice that's my memory of uh how we got
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here and and how we started yeah just
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looping back to that boat stuff so uh
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how long is the boat ride from um
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Vietnam about a month about a month yeah
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and how was it overcrowded how many
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people on the boat well there were that
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needed 300 people it was a big but big
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passenger boat yeah when you get to Hong
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Kong they burn all the boats that was
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crazy they line all the belts up and
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they burned them all who burns them the
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Hong Kong government right CU they
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couldn't store them anywhere yeah so
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they just burned them but I I can't
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imagine is it is it like do do does your
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family have their own room or their own
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bathroom facilities or is it um no where
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you sleeping on the boat you sleep on
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the floor like this room here could
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sleep our whole family and there's no
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bathroom on the boat the bathroom was
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just a whole Dro of the sea that's it it
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was very quieted and you get seasick uh
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whatever you wear the same clothes you
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don't have any clothes or change any
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change of clothes at
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all so you think from from your parents
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perspective it's it's an act of
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desperation right like it's that they're
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doing what's the right thing for
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themselves and for and for you and well
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I think at the time my father secretly
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was already building his a Bo to leave
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Vietnam but it's it's only a boat with
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30 people and all a sudden you got this
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massive ship almost to take you there
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and you have to pay the you got to pay a
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k go per hit to get on it m we didn't
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have to because
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uh they rely on us to get us them
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everyone else in Hong Kong so and said
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they should be they forom to pay us a
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Kiloo per head that we take them to Hong
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Kong but when we got there they didn't
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pay us but I don't think it matters
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because we got there without safely and
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without paying so that was a
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trade-off yeah what are your memories of
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that as a as a 10-year-old boy like did
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you feel did you feel um you know did
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you feel safe did you feel
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scared no I didn't feel scared all I
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feel safe because when you're 10 year
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old you feel like the the elders are
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looking after you and but when you go
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from Vietnam where you see people every
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day you talk in your language and you go
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to Hong Kong and you see like you know
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the English policeman that's really big
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and powerful and they all speak a
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different language then yes at that time
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you feel intimidated because you don't
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understand yeah I can still still
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remember staying at refugee camp where
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everybody gets the same size of
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aluminium bow so buckets big trums of
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food will arrive you K up you get scoop
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pumpkin peas meat rice even the baby get
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the same size bow so that means the baby
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doesn't eat all the food we get to eat
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the balance yeah that's that's what I
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can remember yeah so who was there in
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the high family there was your mom your
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dad yeah and there was my mom my dad and
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this uh we had five boys and two girls
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and the family so we had quite a big
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family and we when saay in the camp we
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got like you know how you got the bun
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bits where we got the triple bun bits
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they go three levels high and it's in
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the D they can get quite hot in summer
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cuz there fan going on so yeah so we get
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all of these bunk bits and and in One D
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you have like maybe a thousand people
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and obviously there's andh house
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fightings and steerings and all sorts of
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stuff that can happen in
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there wow so then so you come to New
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Zealand um and then you you're placed in
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the um the refugee Center at mongy yes
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um you guys can't speak any English no
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and so when we come to New Zealand we
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stay there for three
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months uh for them to check all our
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health out and give us all the medicine
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and give you ills blood you need it no
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didn't even see it y then didn't see it
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y then we had nine family that sponsor
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our family nine families and they all
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bring us food blankets put and they find
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a house for us so they find a house in
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alar for us so we stay in for house and
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hota and uh
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obviously we just thought this is it uh
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meaning like you know obviously aling
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South is quite a rough area but we
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didn't know any different we thought
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this is is it this is how it is so so we
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sign a $120 house a week and then every
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week the sponsor will bring food
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blankets to to our family and then I get
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his go to school I was put into standard
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four at the age of 12 speak zero English
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and um being in Old toown when you go to
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these primary schools that the kids in
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Old Town they teach you all the swinging
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wordss so the f word is the the first
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word they taught me I'm not kidding I go
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home and tell my mom what you know today
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so I I swore at my mom and she swore
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back at me and we still don't know what
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it means today I know what it meant but
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my mother still don't know what it means
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because she don't speak English at
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all so that was part of the fun yeah I
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can imagine um I mean when you're a kid
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when you're a 12-year-old kid um you you
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still have an ability to to adapt and to
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learn and pick up new things but um I
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can imagine how difficult that was for
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you appearance you know sort of being
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stripped of your entire identity and um
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that must have been really really
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challenging for your parents oh it is
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and I I got to admire my father so much
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I mean I I think back okay let to say
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I'm 56 now when he was
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50 he took his whole family left the
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country to
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nowhere and today all of us are married
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he's like uh grandfather or
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great-grandfather of night SI or nephew
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and NES and my mom and dad are still
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alive they 94 92 wow and they love to
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see the leacy created in a brand new
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country I mean like I might achieve
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monitary terms but I cannot achieve what
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he achieved you know or make that sharp
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decision to pick up and and leave is
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crazy Y what about the um the rest of
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your siblings have they all done okay
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for themselves yes they do we we got
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into uh we stay in an old house for 3
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years and within 3 years Believe It or
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Not uh we saved together and we bought
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our first family home but in 3 years
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bring in New Zealand bought the first
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home and Pap toy toy for
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55,000 why we can buy a home so quickly
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was we all work together and all the
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money save together and I think today's
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uh in today's night we always thinking
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that uh affordable of buying a home is
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hard it's hard because we all keep our
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own money but today you know everyone
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can earn $1,000 a week mention four
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arrows M you know like put $800 side
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$200 for your lunch you would save 3,000
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a week in the space of 6 month you can
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buy a home but today I want to bring
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that message back that home ownership is
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your possible if you work together but
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there must be leadership in the family
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somebody got to be in charge yeah yeah
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and you your dad ended up um um buying
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his own business a bakery well after our
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first home then then yeah we started uh
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bought up our first bakery called the
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saon bakery in won spring and then from
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there we all taught ourselves how to B
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because my dad now how to B my brother
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know my uncle know and then we buy our
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second Bakery our third Bakery and then
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bought our second third fourth house and
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at one point our family all together had
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35 bakeries but they didn't know how to
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franchise because they just know how to
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bake so then they they sell their Bakery
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off and then they just set up sell the
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bakery off as today you can see the the
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bakery all around New Zealand uh all of
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that baking recipe started from our
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family you if you go to Asian bqu you
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can know that the pie the apple donut
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the cakes everything they look very
00:15:35
similar it's because we started in 1982
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but if we now had a franchise we put it
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on a hung B right now or more but we
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didn't so you you worked um parttime in
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the bakery um basically every spare
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minute outside of school you were
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working in the bakery yeah there's no
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school Camp there's no Sports in the
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weekend you go home after school you go
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to the baky squ the tray off the floor
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do the dishes in the weekend you do the
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same
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thing
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basically that's my life you know like
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you get thought to work in a very early
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age so I miss out a lot on that
00:16:08
school the school that my daughter and
00:16:10
my son now get to have I I do not have
00:16:13
yeah did you um did you enjoy that
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though or did you feel like a sense of
00:16:17
fomo because all your you fear of
00:16:19
missing out all your friends at school
00:16:20
were doing fun activities in the weekend
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and you had to when you started going to
00:16:25
college and then you you miss out you
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miss out the after school even event the
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weekend Sports and didn't allow to go to
00:16:32
disco and things like that and oh man
00:16:34
you do feel like you are missing up but
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but for some reason my father has
00:16:40
instilled that respect hard work culture
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and our headit that we don't disrespect
00:16:47
his
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instructions so so yeah and I think his
00:16:51
value is now create that value and
00:16:53
myself and that's a value that I create
00:16:55
throughout my company culture now and it
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changed a lot of people
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h y is is that just the Chinese
00:17:02
way well it is a Chinese way a
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Vietnamese way but not everybody follow
00:17:07
that way because as an adult if you
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don't care about your kids you can't
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carry it through so I can see some
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family where they cannot carry that same
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way through because because the parents
00:17:21
have to be strong where the parent is
00:17:23
not strong they can't carry their value
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through so your kids are are kiwi kids
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they born here and the Dead's done very
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well for themselves are they um do they
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have the same sort of respect for you or
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do they 100% yeah do they they carry my
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value and U they appreciate what I do
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for them and they do things now it's
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quite it's quite funny when your kids
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live with you you talk the same language
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every day now they talk your language
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they use the same value as you taught
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them to their friends and it's amazing
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you see yourself in each one of them and
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each one of them carries a different
00:17:58
value which is part of you and and the
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feedback on obviously people when they
00:18:04
meet wow your son's amazing your
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daughters is amazing they did this they
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did that and for them to get employment
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right now it's like you know they'll be
00:18:13
the best employee in any company because
00:18:16
they can outperform anyone uh for their
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ability and their
00:18:21
resilience yeah so so you're working
00:18:23
you're working in the bakery um and you
00:18:25
have higher aspirations for yourself I
00:18:27
you wanted to be famous right you wanted
00:18:29
to be an actor right what did what did
00:18:30
your dad think of that well my dad only
00:18:33
wanted me to be a baker and I'm I'm the
00:18:35
black sheep in the family I always want
00:18:37
to be the richest man in the family and
00:18:40
I told him that many times and he just
00:18:41
laughed at me so I tried selling M
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selling Kirby vacuum cleaners had the
00:18:48
store in the flea market had a nightclub
00:18:51
so do all sorts of things and I
00:18:55
fail and then he just told me that I
00:18:58
told you so and I I was rebellous
00:19:01
against him because I listened to a lot
00:19:03
of motiv motivational TS and I talk at
00:19:06
martial arts and then I said Thomas
00:19:09
Edison filed the lightbolt
00:19:13
99,999 times so I still I I still got
00:19:15
thousands to go so you can say what you
00:19:18
want so then when I talk about martial
00:19:20
arts I thought that I'm going to be Blye
00:19:24
I thought I'm going to be famous uh
00:19:26
being a martial artist and I was very
00:19:28
good at it I had a th000 martial arts
00:19:30
student student 35 black belts under me
00:19:33
I can jump over cars run over fence
00:19:36
without hand without using my hand so I
00:19:38
went audition the same way ble with
00:19:41
audition meaning that they can't replace
00:19:43
a St man that can do
00:19:45
that but uh being in New Zealand I only
00:19:47
get bad parts like you know all the quam
00:19:49
Watch scene was on
00:19:51
it crime watch yeah that's an old an old
00:19:54
TV show that was yeah you know somebody
00:19:57
like the the rooll leg from about Tam
00:19:59
New Market you know robberies trying
00:20:02
Korean fisherman all those roles and at
00:20:05
one time I was on a movie with civil
00:20:07
shepher as well I was a Tha
00:20:09
pirate so you get all these bed PS so I
00:20:13
thought no I'm not going to get famous
00:20:14
being an actor here oh so you were
00:20:16
always the villain you were never the
00:20:18
leading man no I was not but I I did had
00:20:21
a a part when I was auditioning I got a
00:20:23
r for this I don't know what this movie
00:20:26
is called now but it was about an Asian
00:20:28
man the Australian vment in the in the
00:20:30
middle of the desert somewhere and and I
00:20:33
CAU the P
00:20:35
but I said but I sign at least for my
00:20:38
bakery now so I can't be away for 6
00:20:40
months so I I watched the movie The guy
00:20:43
died he trying in the cave that was my
00:20:46
role but I had a least of my bakery so I
00:20:49
couldn't take the part but that who
00:20:51
knows where would that lead to right but
00:20:53
anyway that was my fake so yeah so well
00:20:55
okay so why real estate why um cuz it
00:20:58
seems like the easiest um path for you
00:21:00
would be to stay in the family business
00:21:01
and yes become a baker Why Real Estate
00:21:04
well I hate it being a baker to be
00:21:05
honest I was like 24 19 to 24 working 72
00:21:11
hours a week you know when you're young
00:21:13
you go out the night club you know you
00:21:14
want to look for your girlfriend you
00:21:16
can't cuz you got to go to work at 5:30
00:21:18
in the
00:21:19
morning and then one day uh uh a agent
00:21:24
worked at my shop and I said what do you
00:21:26
do for living He said I'm an agent and
00:21:27
he said uh I said how many house do you
00:21:29
sell this month he said I sell two and I
00:21:32
said um how much you get pay he said I
00:21:35
got to pay 12,000 for each one and then
00:21:37
my head I thought man if I sell six
00:21:40
houses a year I can take the whole year
00:21:42
off so my bakery was worth 120,000 at
00:21:45
the time I studied my real estate
00:21:47
course and you talk about cutting your
00:21:49
losses I sold it for
00:21:52
60,000 just to get out of the bakery and
00:21:54
become an agent now my father thought I
00:21:57
was even more crazy see my mother was
00:22:00
crying because she gets to count my
00:22:01
money every day she doesn't count it
00:22:03
anymore so I became an agent in
00:22:05
September 94 and I went to the company
00:22:08
and I asked the boss I said how many
00:22:10
hours does your agent number one agent
00:22:12
work a weit to become number one he said
00:22:15
she works 50 hours and I had zero
00:22:18
experience and I said if I work 72 hours
00:22:20
I'll be her now I didn't know being a
00:22:22
realight agent you got to have the
00:22:24
listing the customers I just know that I
00:22:27
work 72 hours bet I apply my Baker hour
00:22:30
into to real site where I work for 84
00:22:32
hours even 100 hours and my first year
00:22:35
no kidding I sold 86 properties without
00:22:39
any experience and one particular month
00:22:42
I got paid 53,000 after tax now in the
00:22:46
bakery I earned 30,000 for the whole
00:22:48
year doing 72 hours week one month I got
00:22:50
to pay 53,000 that year I bought in a
00:22:53
total of 440,000
00:22:55
that is so much money that's more than
00:22:58
the Prime Minister it's crazy money so
00:23:01
then I realized whatever my father tells
00:23:03
me that I can't do whatever my community
00:23:06
tells me what I can't do was on your
00:23:08
head so from there it just no looking
00:23:12
back was was was um that must have taken
00:23:14
some real courage um on your part to go
00:23:16
against your appearance wishes though
00:23:19
yes because I didn't want to stuck in
00:23:22
that environment and become limited and
00:23:24
earning and real estate was a vehicle
00:23:27
that you can earn
00:23:29
unlimited money yep and I was lucky
00:23:31
enough to uh get mentors and Coach along
00:23:33
the way to help
00:23:35
me so really is just an example of um
00:23:38
yeah hard work beating Talent right yes
00:23:41
and then obviously you make a lot of
00:23:43
mistakes on along the way you know like
00:23:45
you you made mistake cuz you don't know
00:23:46
what liquidation mean you don't know I
00:23:48
mean at a point where I saw a um ba and
00:23:52
Thompson for S side in front of the
00:23:54
house and I didn't know that it's there
00:23:58
sign that I shouldn't be approaching
00:24:01
them but I thought that they got the
00:24:02
agent on the sign that was the honor so
00:24:04
I ring up the bfo agent and say hey this
00:24:06
is Don how can I sell your house for you
00:24:08
I mean dumb sometime is
00:24:11
good being dumb is actually sometimes
00:24:13
good yeah yeah you're just not knowing
00:24:15
not knowing the rules yeah and in the
00:24:17
private s sign it says no agents right
00:24:19
it say private S no agents so I ring up
00:24:22
the owner I said hey um this is Don ha
00:24:24
here can I sell your house for you and I
00:24:26
and he said I told I told I said no
00:24:28
agent on my
00:24:29
sign I said that's what I taught you see
00:24:32
you haven't got an agent when you say no
00:24:34
agent I'm an agent
00:24:37
so well was your was your English not
00:24:40
not particularly good at the time or no
00:24:42
it was not very good because at school I
00:24:45
I failed uh fifth form twice I failed
00:24:48
sixth form twice too my father said
00:24:51
you're not clever enough you going to
00:24:52
leave school and join the family bakery
00:24:54
so no English was terrible uh spelling
00:24:57
and all that sort stuff I I Rely a lot
00:25:00
on help so but I had the ability to earn
00:25:04
people's respect and Trust very quickly
00:25:07
when I lock on their doors I uice myself
00:25:10
and I was I was working for the people
00:25:13
first before I work for myself and that
00:25:15
was my secret was to work for the people
00:25:17
first the money comes later
00:25:21
yep uh I think from um from your
00:25:24
background like from where you came from
00:25:25
it's sort of like um you've succeeded um
00:25:28
against the odds and I think that makes
00:25:29
part of the the story more inspiring
00:25:31
right yeah well since my success you
00:25:33
know if you look at all the South
00:25:35
Oakland agent now today there there's
00:25:37
many many ethnics and that uh because of
00:25:39
me I created the the pathway for
00:25:41
everyone that now it's possible to do
00:25:44
that so so yeah that's been quite a
00:25:47
incredible creation I have created so
00:25:49
many millionaire agents so many
00:25:50
millionaire investors even so many
00:25:53
millionaires but in my own company it's
00:25:56
and my family now we all millionaires m
00:25:59
yeah and and um at the point we're
00:26:01
recording this towards the end of 2024
00:26:03
this is your um 30th Anniversary wow 30
00:26:06
years in real estate yeah 30 years real
00:26:08
estate and I done now over 120,000 hours
00:26:10
cuz every week I still do 70 hours do
00:26:13
you yes yeah what is an average they
00:26:14
look like now well these days I don't
00:26:17
physically do the work I do the thinking
00:26:20
and I do the key accounts and I give
00:26:22
instructions on my team and then I do a
00:26:24
lot of event seminars uh I I have to scy
00:26:27
up now where the secret of skying up is
00:26:31
create a rpe once sell it a thousand
00:26:34
times just like today's podcast you
00:26:36
create this recipe once and then you
00:26:37
could have thousand listeners that knows
00:26:39
your message that's sking up yeah um
00:26:43
when did you when did you first feel um
00:26:45
rich or financially secure was it the
00:26:47
first year of real estate when you were
00:26:49
suddenly were making more than what you
00:26:50
were making in the bakery or well the
00:26:52
goal to make a to become a millionaire
00:26:54
and my goal was to become a millionaire
00:26:56
before I 30 and then when you hit a
00:26:57
millionaire Network that's when you feel
00:26:59
like wow you made it and then there was
00:27:01
a there was another man in the company
00:27:04
where he's been divorced and he said
00:27:06
well you're not a millionaire yet I said
00:27:08
why not I said well your wife will take
00:27:10
half so you'll be 500,000 so he inspired
00:27:13
me to get the second million so my wife
00:27:15
can hit this the other million so so I
00:27:17
said okay I'm going to go and get two
00:27:19
million instead of one and you You'
00:27:22
you've still got the same wife though
00:27:24
yeah well she's too expensive now
00:27:29
yeah we've been married now for I don't
00:27:30
know 20 something years so oh
00:27:32
congratulations and and your um your
00:27:34
business cards when you first started
00:27:36
out do they um it said donha licensed to
00:27:38
print money yes well I used a James Bond
00:27:41
method was James Bond is Licensed to
00:27:44
Kill with his business
00:27:45
card7 the minute I got my business card
00:27:49
I said I'm licensed to print money so
00:27:51
policeman would pull me over before he
00:27:54
gave me a ticket I give him a business
00:27:55
card I sold it policeman now in 11
00:27:59
houses uh and I now s a lot of uh poty
00:28:02
to policeman and only a few weeks ago I
00:28:04
got sto at Mission B there and a
00:28:06
policeman pull over for brief testing
00:28:09
and then the minute he made me count to
00:28:12
five and he said Don ha I got a house I
00:28:16
want to
00:28:16
sell uh what should I do so I quickly
00:28:19
reach for my business card now just
00:28:21
remember in business got to be ready at
00:28:22
any time without warning always have a
00:28:24
business card
00:28:27
so I give him my cat and I said here's
00:28:29
my cat and then I don't want to talk to
00:28:31
him anymore cuz it it was on JY and I
00:28:33
said you give me a call when you're
00:28:34
ready so so from that that's how we
00:28:37
expanded from visiting uh doctors I I I
00:28:40
me to a bunch of doctors now uh DST you
00:28:43
know all profession it's now it's very
00:28:47
good to have doctors on call when you
00:28:48
need stuff you know yeah so what was you
00:28:52
um what was your uh what was your net
00:28:54
worth you don't have to answer this if
00:28:56
you don't want but um you know I know
00:28:58
that you are very um yeah money focused
00:29:00
and success focused so if you want to
00:29:02
answer it that's cool but what was your
00:29:04
what was your net worth um just when
00:29:05
we're going into the global financial
00:29:07
crisis I had $120 million of assets yeah
00:29:11
$60 million net worth at one point I
00:29:15
even forgot I had 12 houses in poke Koy
00:29:18
I lost count it was that crazy I was
00:29:21
buying a sour house a week and uh I had
00:29:24
uh I built houses I had land I had
00:29:26
everything and then I had 43 race horses
00:29:31
too on top of that it was crazy it was
00:29:35
yeah what was the appeal with race
00:29:36
horses horses are an expensive hobby
00:29:38
aren't they they are but you know when
00:29:40
you do one thing and you get bought you
00:29:43
know like like you do really bought and
00:29:45
then somebody come along and say hey
00:29:47
look you can buy a horse a half a
00:29:48
million it could make you three million
00:29:49
I thought man this is easy in real
00:29:52
estate you know so then I thought I
00:29:56
thought that you can trust people on
00:29:58
that basis but no it's if the horse got
00:30:02
a Bor chip is Le you don't know but they
00:30:05
tell you buy you buy it right because
00:30:07
but you can buy a horse for half a
00:30:09
million and it could be only 1500 so I
00:30:11
went and bought all of these horses and
00:30:14
I was been giving some bad advice cuz
00:30:16
people take advantage of me on that
00:30:18
basis but I did bought that the bill
00:30:20
coat uh for 2 million and I thought I
00:30:24
thought this is where the hit line and I
00:30:26
thought I thought this make
00:30:29
me if for marketing purpose I went and
00:30:31
bought the horse so the night before
00:30:34
make sure I did the cooking clean the
00:30:36
kitchen so my wife I said tomorrow I'm
00:30:38
going to buy a horse you know she didn't
00:30:40
know how much I want to spend so I said
00:30:43
yeah okay so I thought okay you see okay
00:30:46
so so I went I like proudly to say to
00:30:49
you the was there of duai and all
00:30:52
the other high players and I outb all of
00:30:55
them and I pay 2 million bucks for this
00:30:57
a be C and fair enough become world
00:30:59
famous you know and then after that I
00:31:02
thought okay I'm now going to run a
00:31:04
naming competition that that all New
00:31:07
Zealand people can send the names to
00:31:09
name this hor we receiving
00:31:12
20,000 naming for this
00:31:15
horse and I was quite stupid in one case
00:31:18
was there was this beautiful air horses
00:31:20
on Air New Zealand she she saw me on the
00:31:22
flight she wrote me her phone number
00:31:24
down and she put coru as the name of the
00:31:27
the
00:31:28
horse but I wonder if she she put her
00:31:31
phone number down so I can date her I'm
00:31:32
not sure I never ring her I put her name
00:31:34
in the Box get you in trouble it cost
00:31:36
you half your money cost you half your
00:31:38
money so okay so so the um the zabil
00:31:41
cult that was at the uh K Millions yeah
00:31:44
oh my God that is a that is a daunting
00:31:46
auction that is so much money oh the
00:31:48
rors pack and you know you get request
00:31:50
to go on uh TV interviews and sky and I
00:31:54
had two requests I hav had
00:31:56
a I don't know sometime I'm just making
00:31:59
these stupid decisions or I had a
00:32:01
request to be on Playboy magazine for
00:32:04
interview for buying this
00:32:06
horse I declined him and then I had
00:32:10
another request to be on a car
00:32:12
advertisement for this Chinese car and
00:32:14
China I declined them too mhm at the
00:32:18
time when you're so busy doing things
00:32:20
you you can say no to certain things so
00:32:23
anyway I don't know what would happen if
00:32:25
I did appear in the Playboy magazine
00:32:27
interview I don't know why they want to
00:32:28
interview
00:32:30
me so um yes so buying a horse for $2
00:32:34
million do in hindsight um and on
00:32:37
reflection like do you think it was um a
00:32:39
good investment or was it like part of
00:32:41
like an ego project like for the donha
00:32:43
brand well the whole idea of buying the
00:32:45
$2 million horse for you hoping that it
00:32:47
will win a lot of good races and become
00:32:49
going to stun and you can charge
00:32:50
$100,000 for a service what make you you
00:32:53
know 30 million a year but you when you
00:32:55
bought the best horse from the best
00:32:57
mother and the best father it doesn't
00:33:00
mean that the son is going to be the
00:33:02
best is it it's no different from you
00:33:04
could have a rich parent and your son
00:33:06
could become an alcoholic and a failure
00:33:09
well that horse only won two race 40,000
00:33:12
and didn't win any other race St for it
00:33:15
what a a
00:33:17
f you know St horse so I still got the
00:33:21
horse show in my office I think the
00:33:23
horse is dead now yeah you didn't go to
00:33:26
the funeral no I I didn't I didn't after
00:33:29
all of that I thought no I paid 10
00:33:31
million or so to buy all my race horses
00:33:34
and cash too that was crazy it was a
00:33:37
crazy era and then the president of em
00:33:40
uh they might may promote the am Mel cup
00:33:45
which I get to take a pH my horse and
00:33:47
they put me in the front page of the
00:33:48
hero over a superm model so all of the
00:33:52
experience uh I had no regrets I I met
00:33:55
the most amazing people had the most
00:33:57
aming experience and I'm still here so
00:33:59
that's I had no regrets what about your
00:34:02
parents at the time like when when they
00:34:04
hear you spending $2 million on a horse
00:34:07
um what do they say at that point do
00:34:09
they just trust your judgment and trust
00:34:11
that you know what you're doing is right
00:34:12
or do they you know I don't think they
00:34:16
know I don't think they know until later
00:34:19
I don't think even they know when up
00:34:21
here in the rich list neither so uh then
00:34:23
I told him and at that moment my father
00:34:25
just giving up on me he just said look I
00:34:27
I can't control you I can't tell you
00:34:29
what to do uh you just do what you do
00:34:32
and and you and you'd been successful to
00:34:34
that point so y yeah and no admittedly
00:34:38
when they com at receivership he he my
00:34:41
family helped me a lot so that's good
00:34:43
yeah yeah yeah which takes us to um yeah
00:34:47
the global financial crisis where um you
00:34:50
were declared bankrupt and you're in
00:34:52
receivership so uh this was 2012 so I'm
00:34:55
guessing you were like 40 early 40s at
00:34:57
the time yep yep
00:35:00
um yeah how was that how how did that
00:35:04
happen did you what what happened how
00:35:06
did you end up getting into that trouble
00:35:08
well first thing when you don't know uh
00:35:11
document that you signed and your lawyer
00:35:13
just advise you sign here when you get a
00:35:15
loan document without explaining to you
00:35:18
so then you give your company away as a
00:35:20
guarantee and then you sign these
00:35:22
documents and
00:35:24
then when the interest rate hits 12%
00:35:28
you can't pay for your mortgages because
00:35:30
it's so high and then we were selling
00:35:32
110 houses a month we only selling
00:35:35
10 it's like and then it cost me 200,000
00:35:38
to fit my horses a
00:35:42
month it was crazy oh so you just sort
00:35:45
of like um overcommitted stretched a bit
00:35:47
thin not enough equity in your
00:35:49
properties there were plenty of equities
00:35:51
but there's not enough cash flows okay
00:35:53
to to pay for all the other costes yeah
00:35:57
and then then when the bank put you in
00:35:58
the receivership you don't even know
00:36:00
what the word receivership means until
00:36:02
you go through it and then they just
00:36:04
took control your
00:36:05
company and you know I I was living in a
00:36:08
$6 million house in Woodford I had uh a
00:36:11
Mercedes I had a
00:36:14
Porsche and uh
00:36:17
man and I had to become attendant after
00:36:19
that can you
00:36:21
imagine you know that you had nothing
00:36:23
from from all of that clamour and you go
00:36:25
down to zero you go and rent a house for
00:36:27
a year and you have
00:36:30
to give back your car and and my
00:36:34
daughters they were on night maybe 6 and
00:36:36
three at the time we had to move down
00:36:39
the road to rent the house and that's
00:36:40
the first time I become a tenant I got
00:36:43
to feel sorry for tenants out there
00:36:44
honestly you
00:36:46
know the question they ask how you going
00:36:49
to pay for it all the sort of stuff and
00:36:52
that's when my dog L what what's there
00:36:54
and I said you got a dog I said have you
00:36:57
meet my dog hereid you know she's
00:36:59
beautiful have you meet my dog so and
00:37:01
then then he agrees to rent me this
00:37:05
house and then um from there we had to
00:37:09
start again from
00:37:11
zero and I got to say prior to the
00:37:14
bankruptcy and receivership I can pick
00:37:16
and choose who I want to work and sell
00:37:19
for but when you start again you got to
00:37:23
you can't pick and choose anymore you
00:37:25
you will ring up the person that you
00:37:27
don't don't even like the highest price
00:37:30
out there not sell you have to take them
00:37:32
on and when you put your sign on the
00:37:35
highest price of the properties you know
00:37:37
it's not going to sell but the buyer
00:37:39
doesn't know what's the highest price do
00:37:41
they they ring you up and you can sell
00:37:42
them something else so Baker can't be
00:37:45
chooses so then I had a Singaporean
00:37:47
developer he was so good to me today
00:37:50
he's um he owns a mure hotel now up up a
00:37:52
Queen Street he people like you
00:37:58
you like the tree the trunk will always
00:38:00
stand but the branch will get blown off
00:38:02
or the top will get blown off you will
00:38:05
recover and you make it again and he
00:38:07
given me to take charge of his total 162
00:38:11
site development in t Tak when he was
00:38:14
living in Singapore I named the
00:38:16
subdivision sunai estate after the
00:38:18
mother of the horse that I bought and he
00:38:21
supported
00:38:22
me and I couldn't believe it that he's
00:38:25
given me this $80 million velopment
00:38:27
because of my experience not because of
00:38:29
what happened to me and from there
00:38:31
because of that it it recover my profile
00:38:34
and my credibility and today we're quite
00:38:37
friends and I I never forget that you
00:38:39
know Loyalty means a lot and and believe
00:38:42
in the ability of the person not because
00:38:45
something had tainted their name and we
00:38:48
forget about that person uh I never
00:38:51
forget people who supported me Stand By
00:38:53
Me on that basis and today I give a lot
00:38:56
of people that second chance because
00:38:57
because no one will talk to them but I
00:39:01
do yeah where did that drive come from
00:39:04
to start again I mean so you you you
00:39:06
know you're middle-aged at almost
00:39:08
middle-aged at the time early 40s you
00:39:10
got a young family um you've been burnt
00:39:14
very badly um yeah why not just get a
00:39:17
normal job like go back to the bakery or
00:39:19
something well the the thing is I never
00:39:21
work for anyone uh on a sick day or
00:39:25
holiday pay I I don't know what it's
00:39:28
like but I had the ability to believe
00:39:31
that I can do it once I can do it again
00:39:33
uh the receivership the bankruptcy uh
00:39:37
happened not because by I would say by
00:39:41
choice or it happened
00:39:44
because before people just didn't like
00:39:47
me for being successful or talking back
00:39:49
against them so I knew that I can make
00:39:52
it again I knew I had the ability to do
00:39:55
it once you can do it again and I call
00:39:57
it the perfect storm because after the
00:39:59
GFC after the recovery there's that
00:40:02
period where the property Market
00:40:03
recovers really quickly and I tell my my
00:40:06
agent I said look work 100 hours a week
00:40:09
because this opportunity don't come as
00:40:13
quickly my agent were doing that 50
00:40:16
hours a week I was doing 100 hours a
00:40:17
week and the different was they were
00:40:18
earning 800,000 I was earning 5 million
00:40:21
M and I was able to recover a lot of
00:40:24
that lost
00:40:25
spe and and it's a perfect storm I call
00:40:28
it and we just about to come to the
00:40:31
perfect storm in
00:40:32
2025 cuz the real estate sector now it's
00:40:34
been suffing for the past three years I
00:40:37
believe the perfect storm will come back
00:40:38
in 2025
00:40:40
again what what does it mean exactly to
00:40:42
be
00:40:43
bankrupt well when you're bankrupt first
00:40:45
you can't travel anywhere because you
00:40:47
don't have any money and you can't drive
00:40:50
a car for more than
00:40:51
5,000 and you work and I think I don't
00:40:55
think you can earn more than 60,000 year
00:40:57
neither so you become a a normal
00:41:03
citizen your bank rupy period And I
00:41:06
thought it taught me a lot because for
00:41:07
three years I couldn't do anything is
00:41:09
that how long you okay for three years
00:41:12
three years you were
00:41:13
restricted but you had the ability to
00:41:16
work and to spend that time to redevelop
00:41:19
your system and build your people and
00:41:22
and think what you're going to do when
00:41:23
you come out of it so for that period
00:41:25
that was very hard when you travel
00:41:28
overseas you've got to um get your
00:41:31
father to pay for you or someone pay for
00:41:34
you because you got no money uh things
00:41:36
like that so and getting credit is very
00:41:39
very hard and no company will get you
00:41:42
credit and things like that so when I
00:41:44
started again a lot of company they
00:41:46
don't give me credits uh
00:41:49
and and even
00:41:50
today we still don't take credits
00:41:53
because we see that every month if we
00:41:56
got our Supply and we pay them off we
00:41:58
know exactly how much money we got so
00:42:00
some of the company now saying that hey
00:42:01
you should have an account with us cuz
00:42:03
you're our bigest you're our bigest
00:42:04
account
00:42:05
but but we quite like it that way cuz no
00:42:09
account no credits you pay for it that's
00:42:12
it full stop so that's been working
00:42:14
really well on that basis yeah how was
00:42:17
how was your mental health over that
00:42:20
time for some reason when I when I was
00:42:24
put into receivership at the time I play
00:42:26
the song &em I'm Not Afraid that was my
00:42:29
theme
00:42:30
song it's a great song I just keep
00:42:33
playing it every every day to to keep me
00:42:37
going my mental health was was actually
00:42:40
stronger and sometimes I get people kill
00:42:43
outside my company because they went
00:42:45
through the same process and they want
00:42:47
my advice and I save a lot of people
00:42:49
money ever since so now my mental health
00:42:52
is surprisingly every day it's get
00:42:54
stronger not weaker for some reason what
00:42:57
happened but that's just my selief that
00:42:59
I can do it what about yeah if if you go
00:43:03
online and Google Don har there's still
00:43:05
some articles that come up from that
00:43:06
time um so it was it was uh it was a
00:43:10
very public Fall From Grace and I I feel
00:43:12
like the like there's there's a thing in
00:43:14
New Zealand called tall poppy syndrome
00:43:16
uh where you want to cut down successful
00:43:18
people and I feel like there's probably
00:43:19
sections of um the media or real estate
00:43:22
that sort of rubbed their hands together
00:43:24
with a Glee at your demise um yeah was
00:43:26
that humil
00:43:28
oh it is it's very hard and and even
00:43:30
still today it has some effect on
00:43:32
certain uh things that I do people come
00:43:35
they don't know me but they just say
00:43:37
well why do you want to do business with
00:43:38
him for well my question is like do I
00:43:40
owe you any money the answer is no they
00:43:42
I say well do you know me the answer is
00:43:44
no then then they just go and openly
00:43:47
criticize you online for no reason for
00:43:51
no reason they just criticize but I
00:43:53
think you get used to that now because
00:43:55
every industry in every people you will
00:43:58
receive 5% or 10% of the people that
00:44:01
just criticize you for no reason yeah
00:44:03
and when you become like Dom hary
00:44:06
there'll be certain people that
00:44:07
criticize you too but it's just part of
00:44:09
become prominent become
00:44:12
somebody yeah I need to remind myself
00:44:14
like I I don't like everybody so I can't
00:44:16
expect everybody to like me um but
00:44:19
there's um yeah there is have you heard
00:44:21
the um the analogy about crabs in a
00:44:23
bucket yes yeah so y yeah I feel like
00:44:27
there's um there's a lot of like like
00:44:29
crabs at the bottom of the buet in New
00:44:30
Zealand in particular and that's uh I
00:44:33
would say seeing the world now and
00:44:35
seeing how New Zealand treats people I
00:44:38
mean the price only reports on bad price
00:44:40
they don't report on like good price you
00:44:42
know like we can change people's life we
00:44:44
achieve this we achieve that but they
00:44:46
love selling bad place and look if you
00:44:50
go to America or other part of the
00:44:53
country people only can say Hey look
00:44:55
it's okay you can recover keep going it
00:44:57
sewing the seed believe in yourself
00:44:59
we're here for you you know that
00:45:00
encouragement means everything but if
00:45:03
you receive so many criticism on social
00:45:06
media and you can't handle it and and
00:45:08
that leads to suicidal alcoholic drugs
00:45:12
and obviously there's many many stars
00:45:15
that has gone through that because they
00:45:16
don't know how to handle that but for
00:45:19
some reason it doesn't get to me what
00:45:21
were the um biggest lessons um you
00:45:23
learned about yourself in that
00:45:25
period Well I was you got to get your
00:45:28
structures right number one you can't
00:45:32
trust 500 people you think you know 500
00:45:35
people can trust 500 no I think if you
00:45:38
can put your finger up and count 10
00:45:40
people you can trust now I say five you
00:45:43
quite lucky so having the best lawyer
00:45:45
best accountant and having the best
00:45:47
advisor and Trust Le people reference
00:45:50
them check them out before you agree to
00:45:52
certain things money can't just pass
00:45:55
over the counter just because you meet
00:45:56
somebody for an hour and you think you
00:45:58
can trust them with someone you can meet
00:46:00
for like a 100 hour so that was a lesson
00:46:02
that I learned yeah so your circle just
00:46:05
got way way smaller way smaller yeah
00:46:08
because I suppose when you're when
00:46:09
you're bidding on $2 million race horses
00:46:11
in Cara you've got a very very big
00:46:13
circle oh all Sundays Night 500 other
00:46:16
people that want to know you and you
00:46:18
think everyone's the same but but you
00:46:21
got to think again everyone just want a
00:46:22
piece of you yeah you what was um
00:46:27
what what was harder like the first
00:46:29
adversity you know being being a kid and
00:46:31
a refugee and you the boat and
00:46:33
everything else the resettlement to New
00:46:35
Zealand or or this this period oh the
00:46:38
second part was definitely a lot harder
00:46:39
because you you mentally can understand
00:46:42
things and you you become quite popular
00:46:47
and you had a lot of wealth and then to
00:46:50
lose all of that overnight it's it's
00:46:54
crazy it's like how do you handle it you
00:46:56
know so and then you lose all your
00:46:58
control because all of a sudden your
00:47:00
email gets turned off your website gets
00:47:02
turned off all your signs been
00:47:05
removed it was crazy it was like I don't
00:47:08
know how someone can handle that but
00:47:10
somehow I got through it it was a lot
00:47:12
harder for sure yeah yeah yeah you well
00:47:16
not only did you handle it like um you
00:47:18
know you you you rebuilt and you
00:47:19
recovered what what were you driving at
00:47:21
that time just out of curiosity what was
00:47:22
your $5,000 car I was driving a Holden
00:47:26
oh I ever holding now I'm not even
00:47:29
bankrupt I'm just a podcaster holding
00:47:32
Captiva um what advice would you give to
00:47:35
someone facing um like a big adversity
00:47:38
in their own
00:47:39
career I think I think it's really
00:47:42
important that you talk to someone with
00:47:43
higher power and talk to someone who
00:47:47
knows talk to someone who's been there
00:47:49
before I think hiding in the
00:47:51
room can only become worse you need to
00:47:55
communicate now when that happened to me
00:47:58
most most people will hide at home I
00:48:02
decide still to treat my best clothes
00:48:04
and take my wife out to the be
00:48:05
restaurant and face the public and you
00:48:08
can hear people whisper about you but
00:48:12
you got to have that strong ability to
00:48:14
face the reality so I was still doing
00:48:18
exactly the same thing as I do but I
00:48:21
make a lot of communication to a lot of
00:48:23
people that I help on the way up and
00:48:25
look at the time that happened staff uh
00:48:27
that they were they were worth only
00:48:30
5,000 when they come to me and now they
00:48:31
were like 20 million worth and they said
00:48:34
here's a
00:48:35
checkbook uh and I put it on my desk
00:48:38
write what you want one guy come to me
00:48:40
here's my car I have nothing but you
00:48:42
created me take my car so it was crazy I
00:48:45
said look no amount of money you give me
00:48:47
will help me so keep your money I said
00:48:49
no I don't need your car I got my family
00:48:50
too
00:48:51
so having that ability to have that it's
00:48:55
called you know that that program
00:48:57
hokan's hero you know a Chan without
00:48:59
rank but he still control his troops
00:49:02
that was I was like that I had no rank
00:49:04
but I still had control over my troops
00:49:06
why I create the Loyalty so that part
00:49:09
was a lot of support and I had loyalty
00:49:11
for my customer my friends my family so
00:49:14
even everything taken away from me
00:49:17
but I had a lot of help M was it was it
00:49:20
hard on your marriage at that
00:49:22
time no it wasn't my wife she's amazing
00:49:25
she she's in qu able for staying with me
00:49:28
cuz that's a true T of marage you know
00:49:30
when I first metet her she was working
00:49:31
in my bakery I was paying her six bucks
00:49:33
an
00:49:36
hour so so no she she's thought by me
00:49:39
and uh I I find it having a supportive
00:49:42
wife or partner stand by
00:49:44
you uh yeah that that's incable Yeah
00:49:48
well yeah I'm um tiny bit younger than
00:49:51
you I'm 51 and you realize um as you get
00:49:53
older no one no one gets to um age or
00:49:57
stage in life without going through some
00:49:58
adversity and um I I think um with every
00:50:02
adversity there's some some lessons that
00:50:03
come along with it and um you know makes
00:50:05
you it gives you new appreciation for
00:50:07
things like loyalty doesn't it 100%
00:50:10
loyalty partner business and friendship
00:50:12
it's is really really important because
00:50:15
if you don't have loyalty maybe your
00:50:18
business might not be as strong because
00:50:21
you need loyal customers business to
00:50:23
support you staff employees and
00:50:27
everybody lawyers accountant they they
00:50:29
will support you if you create the
00:50:31
Loyalty you know yeah so is this when um
00:50:35
you became part of Remax after that
00:50:37
after the global financial crisis and
00:50:39
you you reestablished yourself got
00:50:40
yourself back on your feet yeah um is
00:50:43
this when remix came along no and I
00:50:45
started Don Harry say for seven years or
00:50:48
so uh when I reach that
00:50:51
uh when you when you went to that
00:50:54
receivership part and bankruptcy part
00:50:55
you go and apply for for every fanchise
00:50:57
no one wants to know you because they
00:50:59
don't want your name to take their brain
00:51:02
so I had approval Believe It or Not by
00:51:05
one of the major brand in the country so
00:51:08
for three months they said yep we will
00:51:10
take you on let's go and train your
00:51:12
staff for three months and then after 3
00:51:14
month they said we got Don House people
00:51:17
now we don't need him anymore let's
00:51:18
decline him can you believe it this is
00:51:21
this is like crazy right so we we went
00:51:24
and did all the training and then they
00:51:26
declined my f they approv it 3 months
00:51:28
early they declined me they got 35 my
00:51:30
agent and they got rid of
00:51:32
me so quickly within two weeks I said
00:51:36
well we got no choice now but to start
00:51:38
don't have real s up as a brain so we
00:51:41
did do that and then one Friday
00:51:43
afternoon I call all my agent back to my
00:51:47
new office and I had all the business
00:51:49
card printed their
00:51:51
Flyers everything they need to start as
00:51:53
a new agent I put on the box cover
00:51:56
everything in black cloth and I made the
00:51:58
announcement I said guys today we become
00:52:00
donha real estate independent go and
00:52:03
tell those people down the road thank
00:52:04
you for hosting us and come back to me I
00:52:09
mean God can you imagine me making that
00:52:12
statement like I'm a nobody I start a
00:52:15
new brand and I call all my troops back
00:52:17
34 out of 35 walk that afternoon come
00:52:20
back to join my
00:52:21
company that's the power of
00:52:23
loyalty yeah so from there we we start
00:52:26
don't have real estate and we were doing
00:52:28
like 750 million s a year when we were
00:52:31
with a brand before that we do 150
00:52:33
million a year and then Remax at the
00:52:36
time even decline us to become their
00:52:38
franchise believe or not but after seven
00:52:41
years we got so
00:52:43
successful remix Tred to get us Jo for
00:52:45
three years we declined them but in the
00:52:48
end uh they give me a book and they say
00:52:50
one Locker word makes a lousy fire a
00:52:53
thousand Locker work makes a great fire
00:52:55
what it mean is that when you on your
00:52:56
own uh brand you are that one loc of
00:52:58
wood when you with a group of uh people
00:53:02
or franchise or countries you become
00:53:04
that thousand local what you can
00:53:06
exchange informations that was one thing
00:53:08
that got me and then I was going to pay
00:53:11
my agent to travel the world to do a
00:53:14
lock on certain countries for
00:53:15
distribution of my product and then remx
00:53:19
it we can give you the world which is
00:53:21
the H 15 countries around the world on
00:53:23
that basis I join remix and 2018 it's a
00:53:28
franchisee then in 2020 I was so good
00:53:31
that they offer me to buy the whole
00:53:33
country so now no one can get rid of
00:53:38
me so so what does that mean exactly so
00:53:41
you you you are you're the CEO of Remax
00:53:44
New Zealand yeah so I was a CEO and I
00:53:46
appoint a new CEO now when I bought
00:53:48
Remax in 20 2020 and talk about 12 they
00:53:52
only did 465 million a year on my first
00:53:56
year I gr the company to 750 million the
00:53:59
second year 1.2 billion wow yeah and
00:54:03
this was um smack bang in the middle of
00:54:05
the pandemic as well and you no kidding
00:54:08
we settle on the shut lockdown and we
00:54:12
had a choice to pulled out but I said
00:54:14
now this is an opportunity for us to
00:54:16
make generation changes so we choose to
00:54:19
settle on zoom and we had a toast on
00:54:23
Zoom any people will say no no don't go
00:54:27
ahead with it but I choose to do that
00:54:29
and then at the time a lot of people
00:54:30
losing job business was shutting down so
00:54:33
when we do our Zoom seminar we had like
00:54:37
180 people turn up to zoom every time
00:54:40
and my Bas record was I saw 50
00:54:42
properties in 3 hours through
00:54:44
Zoom a million bucks and fees 3 hours
00:54:48
joing the
00:54:49
lockdown okay just go back to my 1994 I
00:54:53
did 440,000 in the whole year I did a
00:54:56
million bu in 3 hours wow that was
00:54:59
unheard of so that period was again
00:55:02
another perfect storm for us to grow our
00:55:04
brain and our business and our sales
00:55:06
everybody was at home they can't travel
00:55:08
so they all choose to buy properties and
00:55:11
on that basis yeah we we make a lot of
00:55:13
money wow do you know what your net
00:55:16
worth is
00:55:17
now I would say
00:55:20
now I probably recover what I lost you
00:55:24
know but now these I said buying a
00:55:26
$50,000 house or buying a $6 million $10
00:55:29
million property because your your
00:55:32
mindsets changed you don't go and buy a
00:55:34
uh $500,000 home anymore instead of
00:55:36
building one house you build 15 or 20
00:55:38
house or 30 house so so your ability now
00:55:41
has
00:55:43
multiply a lot so and and with our new
00:55:46
Venture now with our our biggest
00:55:49
achievement today is uh our manage fund
00:55:52
uh it's called space fund so the manage
00:55:54
fund is
00:55:56
it's very hard to get it took us a year
00:55:58
and a half to get to get approved by the
00:56:00
FMA and it's a fund that can uh have say
00:56:03
a say the Oakland City Mission building
00:56:05
right now is part of the fund is $27
00:56:08
million and that building is now move
00:56:11
into the fund and our job was to go and
00:56:13
raise 27 million de free the property
00:56:16
and offer the return to the investor at
00:56:18
5.5% and they get the equity gain so all
00:56:21
of a sudden to be able to achieve a fund
00:56:26
and I think that will go above Remax
00:56:28
because it'll be like a 1010 billion
00:56:30
Fund in the next 10 to 15 years it will
00:56:33
have like so many highrise buildings you
00:56:36
always wonder how does someone own a
00:56:37
high-rise building don't you like you
00:56:39
you saw a high-rise building how do they
00:56:41
buy it well they didn't buy with their
00:56:43
money they they have a contract to buy
00:56:45
the building and then they go and raise
00:56:47
the fund so that the fund manage the
00:56:49
building we now become one of the big
00:56:52
boys that is my ultimate achievement
00:56:55
today
00:56:57
wow are you proud of
00:57:00
yourself I am but I believe that I'm
00:57:02
only 25% of what I wanted to achieve
00:57:04
right now I I still believe that I'm
00:57:05
nowhere near 50% so I I I have the
00:57:09
ability to make things happen I think
00:57:11
it's because I choose to not sell in my
00:57:14
local area but sell the whole country
00:57:16
from here to Queenstown and sell in
00:57:18
Australia so I get to meet so many
00:57:20
million years and billion years and they
00:57:23
have their success and failures too and
00:57:25
I learned what's B works for them what
00:57:27
best works for this person and now if
00:57:29
you come to me with something I can
00:57:31
advise you why because I have that
00:57:33
Global Experience to tell you what work
00:57:35
what don't work so on that basis
00:57:38
knowledge is so so important now yeah
00:57:41
does does is is money still um a driver
00:57:44
for you now a motivating factor or does
00:57:47
it get to the point where where you've
00:57:48
got enough and you're comfortable and oh
00:57:50
you never have enough people ask me
00:57:51
what's your religion I it money it what
00:57:53
you do for spare time I it money it uh
00:57:56
what what else drive you is it more
00:57:59
money at least you do you think do you
00:58:02
think part of that is because um you
00:58:04
know you you grew up so poor you know
00:58:07
there's a story in your book which we'll
00:58:09
get to in a second where you you talk
00:58:11
about being a being a you know a kid
00:58:13
under the age of 10 in Vietnam finding
00:58:16
these um dented um cans of tinted food
00:58:19
and selling them for money so do do you
00:58:22
think it's
00:58:23
um like a hangover from that in a way
00:58:25
you just want money because you see
00:58:26
money is well no because if somebody now
00:58:30
saying don't I pay you a million dollar
00:58:31
to sell my property it's worth only $
00:58:33
800 but I want to sell for a million I
00:58:36
know I can sell for a million because of
00:58:38
my position but I choose not to take the
00:58:40
advantage of position of power so if
00:58:43
it's only worth 800 I should be selling
00:58:45
for 780 or 750 because my client got a
00:58:48
benefit so no matter how much money
00:58:51
people pay me if they give me a wrong
00:58:52
product for their own G I'll turn it
00:58:54
down but I guess I put it down to say
00:58:57
Ronaldo right now or any professional
00:59:01
sports people they still play sport
00:59:03
because they got a fan club that follows
00:59:06
them I mean you look at bitney spray for
00:59:08
example you know she's still singing and
00:59:09
touring she's wor billions but because
00:59:13
of the needs of the fan or the needs of
00:59:15
the client you get a kick out of it
00:59:17
because why you the only one that can
00:59:19
give them a solution so on today's
00:59:22
market I I call myself an artist I don't
00:59:25
think that I'm a real sight agent
00:59:27
anymore when say I can work work into
00:59:29
this table clear everything off it you
00:59:31
give me a product I can
00:59:33
draw I met for you what you need to do
00:59:36
to get the results because of my
00:59:38
intellectual knowledge that I can give
00:59:40
you the
00:59:42
results then you get a kick out of it
00:59:45
because once you completed the S then
00:59:48
you create the employment for H H some
00:59:50
contractors and then when you drw past
00:59:53
the
00:59:53
building and you see it finished
00:59:56
and said wow look what I created and you
00:59:59
get so much respect when you go on site
01:00:01
because all the contractor know that
01:00:03
you're the one that create employment
01:00:04
for them that part of it money can't
01:00:07
replace it's an incredible
01:00:10
feeling
01:00:11
yep you what do you look for when
01:00:13
someone walks in the door at Remax um
01:00:16
looking for a break or a job okay so I
01:00:20
I'll tell you a story recently that I I
01:00:22
went for work the other day and I work
01:00:24
in a cafe and this guy come and greet me
01:00:27
and he's Vietnamese and he said I always
01:00:30
wanted to meet you and he said I always
01:00:32
wanted to become an agent but other
01:00:33
people tell me that I'm too short and
01:00:36
I'm not good looking enough I can't be
01:00:37
an agent what I couldn't believe it
01:00:40
what's hard got to do with it I know and
01:00:41
then I said well the number one Remax
01:00:43
asent in the world he's in the
01:00:44
wheelchair believe it or not and he is
01:00:47
and I said you can become what you want
01:00:48
to become and then so I sat down had a
01:00:51
cup of coffee and they come and talk to
01:00:53
me and then and then when I woke up and
01:00:56
I pay for it and they said don't worry
01:00:59
it's on my tab so number one was respect
01:01:01
and I said I'll drop you one of my book
01:01:04
on my way to work so I went home shower
01:01:06
dropped the book to him I said are you
01:01:08
free on Friday he said yes so I said
01:01:10
come to my office I have a training
01:01:11
session you can join us and then he said
01:01:14
then he text me back he said I'll come
01:01:16
and work for you for free if you teach
01:01:19
me and I'll do the dishes make coffee
01:01:21
for everybody just tell me what to do so
01:01:23
every Tuesday and Thursday he's in the
01:01:25
office now and he volunteer his
01:01:27
time he's married he's got a daughter
01:01:30
she's 14 months old now that guy will
01:01:32
have the recipe for Success cuz he's his
01:01:35
hunger for teaching and if he show that
01:01:38
commitment we'll give the same
01:01:39
commitment back and we a million Al and
01:01:42
and out of nothing and that's what
01:01:44
builds loyalty and trust and creation so
01:01:47
so we're looking for people who's got
01:01:50
the will power to learn but more
01:01:53
important to demonstrate respect uh and
01:01:55
they very UPF
01:01:57
front yeah now you mentioned your book
01:01:59
um so yeah you've got a book out called
01:02:01
the art of exponential success and you
01:02:03
were kind enough to give me a copy of it
01:02:05
um can you expand on some of your
01:02:07
personal Phil philosophies first of all
01:02:09
um Refugee mentality what's that
01:02:13
well you know like you're always
01:02:15
Underdog and you always got to have that
01:02:19
respect of people and you want to be
01:02:23
successful but you can't cut corners
01:02:26
and you help people along the way and
01:02:29
and there's always that disadvantage
01:02:31
being a refugee you know like obviously
01:02:34
like if if everyone's from here they
01:02:36
should have all the advantage above you
01:02:38
but they don't take that advantage and I
01:02:42
just took that advantage that I want to
01:02:44
build myself I want to create a legacy
01:02:46
for my children and I want to create a
01:02:49
legacy for a lot of people that's
01:02:51
associate with me and I have created
01:02:53
that now H what what about um no limits
01:02:57
thinking what is
01:02:59
that there is no limit to what you want
01:03:01
to achieve like if you achieve a million
01:03:04
bucks which is a lot of money but now a
01:03:07
million
01:03:08
dollars it's like a 90-day challenge now
01:03:11
you can do a million back I reckon 90
01:03:13
they challenging to $2 million or $3
01:03:15
million so but then again when I first
01:03:17
started to earn 100,000 it's very hard
01:03:20
but once you know how there should be no
01:03:22
limit so I believe that once you know
01:03:25
how you should just keep on scaling
01:03:27
there should be no limit of what you
01:03:29
can't can't earn and um yeah another one
01:03:33
of your personal Phil philosophies small
01:03:35
steps leading to Big results yes always
01:03:37
small steps because if you want to
01:03:41
become the best of the best and you want
01:03:43
to deal with the best well don't forget
01:03:45
the best they always started from the
01:03:46
bottom so you got to do small increments
01:03:49
to get to the top a classic example of
01:03:52
that is um I got this B in there in
01:03:55
Australia
01:03:56
who who came on messaging me and and
01:04:00
wanting me to sell his product and I I
01:04:02
didn't know who he is so I request for a
01:04:04
zoom meeting with him and then they did
01:04:07
had a zoom meeting and he's got a $3.5
01:04:09
billion project in the go co and he just
01:04:12
text me this morning hey I got a new
01:04:14
project coming on 750 million thank you
01:04:17
for helping my first project and if I
01:04:21
did not communicate with him and just
01:04:23
work my way up I'm now his friend you
01:04:25
know M so that's that's been an amazing
01:04:27
journey on that basis yeah that's
01:04:29
awesome um and in your book you talk
01:04:31
about the importance of creating a
01:04:33
disciplined life yep yep discipline is
01:04:36
very very important I somehow I bought
01:04:39
up without drinking smoking
01:04:42
partying I'm not that person and I think
01:04:46
when you get into adversity you can
01:04:48
simply go and if you were drinking you
01:04:51
probably drink 10 times more if you
01:04:53
smoke you probably smoke time 10 times
01:04:55
more and and
01:04:58
and and you become you do that every day
01:05:01
it becomes a habit so that habit becomes
01:05:04
a losing habit and I qu it that's a
01:05:07
demon in you know every one of us will
01:05:09
have a demon in us a demon is like you
01:05:11
can't quit certain things that you can't
01:05:13
quit on because it's addictive well I
01:05:16
don't have none of that in me so my
01:05:18
discipline is uh a sleep in will be 9:00
01:05:22
in the morning and that will be like
01:05:24
maybe once a month but every other day
01:05:28
it's like I get up I go to work
01:05:30
constantly thinking research discipline
01:05:33
it becomes a habit if you if you do it
01:05:35
like 20 times in a row it becomes a
01:05:37
habit so my habit every day is to do
01:05:40
what I do I see somebody who uh serve me
01:05:43
well in the restaurant I would offer an
01:05:44
opportunity to work for me come for job
01:05:47
interview uh it's just an instant habit
01:05:50
that you develop what what time are you
01:05:53
up out of curiosity most mornings well I
01:05:56
could have about 7:00 a.m. in the
01:05:57
morning cuz my son has to go to school
01:05:59
and sometime I take turn taking him to
01:06:01
school my wife you know so but I sleep
01:06:03
late I sleep most late at midnight or 1
01:06:05
in the morning I think an advantage for
01:06:07
you is um like work is your hobby eh
01:06:10
it's your passion oh yes if you love
01:06:12
your
01:06:13
work is not work yeah people say like oh
01:06:16
Don you work so hard and then that guy
01:06:19
didn't pay you and you do get that I say
01:06:21
no I didn't work hard they think I work
01:06:23
hard I don't think I work hard what what
01:06:25
is hard work you you trace up you talk
01:06:27
you think you plan are you're not person
01:06:31
hammering cutting concrete you know
01:06:33
shoving dirt that's hard work so but
01:06:36
when you when you love your
01:06:39
work it's not work I never ever think
01:06:43
that I'm working for some reason I never
01:06:46
think I'm working cuz you love you love
01:06:47
doing what you do yes and now my
01:06:49
daughter she's working for a company she
01:06:51
said my work is not my work I love my
01:06:54
work and I I love the company I work for
01:06:56
and I love what I do so she says the
01:06:58
same thing to me but she's getting paid
01:07:00
for her work but she still don't think
01:07:01
she's
01:07:02
[Music]
01:07:03
working um yeah another one of your
01:07:06
pistol Phil philosophies in your book
01:07:07
boundless compassion what's
01:07:09
that yeah compassion is really really
01:07:12
important really uh being compassionate
01:07:14
to people understand the
01:07:17
situation understand someone go a
01:07:19
difficult
01:07:20
times and understand how they feel and
01:07:23
don't ignore them just remember when you
01:07:26
go to bathtime someone remember
01:07:28
you and someone just can't help you
01:07:31
financially but what's able to pick the
01:07:34
phone up talk to you send you some
01:07:37
flowers uh that that little part of
01:07:41
gesture mean so much to that person at
01:07:44
the time and even today like for example
01:07:48
an opposition agent had a car accident
01:07:50
and I stopped and she was in a panic you
01:07:54
know she didn't know what to do I got my
01:07:56
cell phone out make the call to her
01:07:59
husband and today she still talks about
01:08:02
it and I saw another opposition agent at
01:08:04
the airport and the C she was carrying
01:08:06
this big giant SURFboard or something
01:08:09
she couldn't check then I stopped help
01:08:11
her again she talks about it these
01:08:13
little things means a lot of people but
01:08:16
we take it for granted that no I'm too
01:08:19
busy don't talk to me you're wasting my
01:08:21
time people remember that
01:08:24
more and it makes you feel good as well
01:08:27
doing nice things for other people but
01:08:28
are you able to have compassion for
01:08:30
people that um you know when when things
01:08:32
got tough for you people that turned
01:08:34
their back on you would you now be able
01:08:36
to have compassion for them or
01:08:38
no well that's a good question
01:08:43
uh I I do have people who's not loyal to
01:08:47
me one or two that um I'm still learning
01:08:51
through that process we we don't we see
01:08:54
each other we still say hello goodbye
01:08:56
but we don't get close but we never
01:08:59
ignore each other on that basis and I
01:09:01
think that person
01:09:03
knows because all the people that stay
01:09:05
with me and along the way they all got
01:09:08
far far better and that person is still
01:09:10
where he is so that's sort of like teach
01:09:13
yourself a lesson you should have
01:09:14
compassion at the
01:09:16
time so us to say forgive but don't
01:09:18
forget correct yes yeah yeah for sure
01:09:22
yeah um money aside what does success
01:09:24
mean to you you uh like yeah beyond the
01:09:27
financial aspect of it what is Su how
01:09:29
how would you define success success now
01:09:32
is to be able to create success within
01:09:35
yourself and translate into people you
01:09:39
associate with and you see their success
01:09:42
when you see their
01:09:44
success in fact you you will probably
01:09:46
have tears in your eyes when you see
01:09:47
someone that achieve amazing results and
01:09:50
they get up there and they say because
01:09:51
of Dawn I now achieve this achieve that
01:09:55
h it means far more than money because
01:09:58
you a part of you in these people and
01:10:02
you know I go people even now pray for
01:10:04
me in church for example because I spoke
01:10:07
in in church and I help church family
01:10:10
getting properties and to me that
01:10:13
Community needs more help than ever and
01:10:15
if you can see let's just say 50% or 30%
01:10:19
of the church members on the house
01:10:21
that's beyond success yeah y um and in
01:10:25
terms of Legacy like what do you hope to
01:10:27
leave behind both in real estate and in
01:10:29
your personal life well I'd like to
01:10:32
write a few more books and um create
01:10:35
educational program so that people can
01:10:36
continue learning for me and then create
01:10:40
institution uh for investors and then my
01:10:43
children can continue with the legacy is
01:10:45
um it's what I hope to
01:10:48
achieve this has been a great chat today
01:10:51
you're super inspiring thank you why why
01:10:54
do you want to do more books you just
01:10:55
feel like you've got a lot of listens to
01:10:57
share well I I got a my next book should
01:11:00
be called the out listening because you
01:11:03
know when you talk your wife she doesn't
01:11:05
listen to
01:11:07
you or when you talk to your children
01:11:09
don't listen to you or when you talk
01:11:11
yourself he listen to you and I think
01:11:13
that out of listening I I got to say
01:11:15
this s here D you're a great listener so
01:11:17
you give me a time to listen to me and
01:11:20
you respond with an answer to become the
01:11:22
greatest podcaster you got to be the
01:11:24
great listener but these days people
01:11:27
don't listen anymore they only can
01:11:28
listen to their own voice so I think the
01:11:31
ad not listening is going to be quite a
01:11:33
good book absolutely well you know my um
01:11:36
my mom and dad used to say to me you've
01:11:38
got two ears one mouth use them
01:11:40
accordingly y yeah yeah oh know this has
01:11:43
been fun it's been really cool um yeah
01:11:46
it's an a fascinating backstory um and I
01:11:50
think part of the Don House story that I
01:11:51
like the most actually it was probably
01:11:53
the worst part of your life the the dip
01:11:54
in the middle with the global financial
01:11:56
crisis because um I think it's inspiring
01:11:58
to come back from something like that
01:12:00
bigger than ever well every business
01:12:02
successful business people walk off
01:12:03
through it especially you look at all
01:12:05
the billionaire the millionair you ask
01:12:06
them every time have you had adversity
01:12:08
they all say yeah a lot of times and no
01:12:12
business has not experienced that but
01:12:15
would they talk about it publicly would
01:12:16
it be reported publicly not all but you
01:12:20
ask they will all share with you but you
01:12:22
cannot be successful without fail you
01:12:26
learn from your failures to prevent it
01:12:28
from happening again and you learn from
01:12:30
your mistake you learn to have better
01:12:32
friend you learn to have better
01:12:33
connections you learn to who to work for
01:12:36
who not to work for so all that lesson
01:12:39
you cannot get there if you don't go
01:12:42
through that difficult terms and I I
01:12:45
seen it all the time I read a lot I
01:12:47
study a lot and everyone go through it
01:12:49
well yeah I mean failure is a stepping
01:12:51
stone to success isn't it absolutely but
01:12:54
I appreciate you sharing because it's
01:12:55
you know no no one no one really wants
01:12:58
to talk about their flaws or their or
01:13:00
their low points in life because it's
01:13:01
hard isn't it it's hard to talk about
01:13:03
but I think it's important well if you
01:13:05
hide it it's probably not a good thing
01:13:07
cuz it's when I'm at my event and
01:13:09
seminar I probably talk about it because
01:13:12
the
01:13:14
audience okay and instead losing 5
01:13:16
million they might lose 500,000 or
01:13:19
50,000 it's the same thing how they feel
01:13:23
and how you feel it's a same feeling
01:13:25
because to them it's a lot at the time
01:13:28
to you it's the same but every one of us
01:13:30
got different values and different
01:13:32
tolerance at the time so when you can
01:13:34
talk about it and some people even come
01:13:37
up and give me hack and quiet you know
01:13:39
because I share my story that's it's
01:13:41
amazing there it's powerful yeah yeah so
01:13:44
well this has been great I'm going to um
01:13:47
get in my car now and listen to the Em
01:13:49
andm song I'm Not Afraid I I haven't
01:13:51
heard that song in years um yeah how
01:13:54
does it go I'm Not Afraid yeah I'm not
01:13:56
afraid to take a stand but I got a new
01:13:58
song now I got a I I replace it song
01:14:01
with uh this is the moment you know this
01:14:04
is the moment what's that song oh you
01:14:06
got to look it up it's amazing Lally
01:14:08
this is the moment when all all my ducks
01:14:10
in the row and you know all the path is
01:14:13
gone away and who sings that it's
01:14:16
actually a opera singer I don't know who
01:14:18
sings it but that song if you do get to
01:14:21
where you are you should read and listen
01:14:22
to it CU all the words in that
01:14:25
you can let all your past go and you can
01:14:28
only say this is the moment so this is
01:14:30
the moment being on the Dom hary show so
01:14:33
when when when is that do you listen to
01:14:35
it in the car on the the way to work is
01:14:37
it something you do every day sometime I
01:14:39
use it it's my theme song I want to get
01:14:40
on stage right and sometime I use it at
01:14:42
my um my Awards because when you have
01:14:46
your award your company achieving you
01:14:48
achieving you play that for your your
01:14:51
whole audience to listen to it and
01:14:53
everyone in the audience will have their
01:14:54
own moment at the time this is my moment
01:14:57
you know very
01:14:59
emotional I'm going to check that out
01:15:01
yeah hey donha thank you so much for
01:15:03
being a guest on my podcast thank you
01:15:05
very much for uh inviting me on the
01:15:07
podcast and I got to say I I I had
01:15:09
invites from America Canada and many
01:15:12
other podcasters but uh I got to say
01:15:14
this is my first ever podcast done so
01:15:18
congratulations also well I appreciate
01:15:20
it thank
01:15:23
you for
