The most powerful businessperson - Steve Jobs

Fortune Magazine recently came out with a list of 25 most powerful people in business. Apple CEO Steve Jobs, the man behind the popular iPod, is named the world's most powerful businessman.

What inspire me about Steve Jobs is his millionaire mindset of turning crushing failure into resounding success story. Steve co-founded Apple at the age of 21 in 1976. Within 4 years, the company was listed on the stock exchange and Steve was worth US$217 million at the age of 25.

As Apple continued its phenomenal growth, it was decided that professional mangement had to be hired to run the huge organisation. So in 1983, Steve hired John Scully to be the CEO. However, within two years, the CEO and directors at Apple could not get along with Steve Jobs and stripped him of all his duties, forcing him to resign from the company. To make the things worse, Apple sued Steve for neglecting his duties.

While those in the business world wrote him off, Steve who possessed the millionaire mindset, took it as a huge learning experience and took the proactive action of starting a new and better company called NeXT computers. He believed that he could develop a range of hardware and software that would be better than Apple at that time.

Did he succeed? Unfortunately, NeXT's hardware division became a huge failure. Undaunted, he again took the feedback and went on to found Pixar Animation Studio, which became a huge success in creating the first breakthrough fully digitally animated move 'Toy Story'.

In the meaning time, Apple Computer was on the verge of bankruptcy in 1995 after suffering from internal mismanagment and lack of new product innovation. The company was making losses of $800 million to $1 billion a year and its share price dropped from a high of $18 to $3.80. Believing that he could save Apple, Steve Jobs agreed to return as CEO for a nominal pay of $1. When Steve took over, he fired all the unproductive executives and spearheaded the launch of revolutionary products like iMac, iPod and iTunes. The revolutionary operating system he developed at NeXT was then evolved into the highly popular Mac OS X. As a result of these successful products, Apple turned its $1 billion loss into $1.3 billion in profits by 2005. Its share price also rose from $3.80 to a high of $75!

Looking back, Steve realized that if he never got fired from Apple, he would never have founded NeXT and Pixar Animation. If not for Pixar, he would never have become a pioneer in digital animation and if not for NeXT software he developed, Apple would never have the Mac OS X operating system that has made Apple a huge success today. It is for this reason that many millionaires believe that 'everything happens for a reason' and that 'adversity is often opportunity in disguise' provided you learn from your experiences and continue to take consistent action!

Following is the list of Fortune 'Power 25':

1. Steve Jobs, CEO and Chairman, Apple


2. Rupert Murdoch, Chairman and CEO, News Corp


3. Lloyd Blankfein, Chairman and CEO, Goldman Sachs


4. Eric Schmidt, Larry Page, Sergei Brin, Google


5. Warren Buffett, Chairman and CEO, Berkshire Hathaway


6. Rex Tillerson, Chairman and CEO, Exxon Mobil


7. Bill Gates, Chairman, Microsoft


8. Jeff Immelt, Chairman and CEO, General Electric


9. Katsuaki Watanabe, President, Toyota


10. A.G. Lafley, Chairman and CEO, Procter & Gamble


11. John Chambers, Chairman and CEO


12. Li Ka-shing, Chairman, Cheung Kong Holdings/Hutchison Whampoa


13. Lee Scott, CEO, Wal-Mart


14. Lakshmi Mittal, steel magnate


15. Jamie Dimon, Chairman and CEO, JPMorgan Chase


16. Mark Hurd, Chairman and CEO, Hewlett-Packard


17. James McNerney, Chairman and CEO, Boeing


18. Marius Kloppers, CEO, BHP Billiton


19. Steve Schwarzman, CEO, Blackstone


20. Carlos Slim, Chairman, TelMex and Carso Foundation


21. Steve Feinberg, CEO, Cerberus


22. Indra Nooyi, Chairman and CEO, PepsiCo


23. Ratan Tata, Chairman, Tata Group


24. Bob Iger, CEO, Walt Disney


25. Bernard Arnault, chairman and CEO, LVMH

11 Malaysian companies that made over RM1 billion

Followings are the only 11 companies that listed on Bursa Malaysia achieve a profit of over RM1 billion for their latest fiscal year and you might want to consider their stocks.

1. Malayan Banking Bhd (stock-code 1155) - RM3.25billion
2. MISC Bhd (stock-code 3816) - RM2.89billion
3. Telekom Malaysia Bhd (stock-code 4863) - RM2.3o billion
4. Genting Bhd (stock-code 3182) - RM2.24billion
5. Tenaga Nasional Bhd (stock-code 5347) - RM2.16billion
6. YTL Corporation Bhd (stock-code 4677) - RM1.85billion
7. Public Bank Bhd (stock-code 1295) - RM1.79billion
8. IOI Corporation Bhd (stock-code 1961) - RM1.65billion
9. Bumiputra-Commerce Holdings Bhd (stock-code 1023) - RM1.61billion
10. Sime Darby Bhd (stock-code 4197) - RM1.60billion
11. Plus Expressways Bhd (stock-code 5052) - RM1.10billion

Always remember to buy on weakness and sell on strength!

MAHSING Group (stock-code 8583)

Profile of Mahsing
Mah Sing is an established developer with strong cash balances, low gearing, solid management and good track record. Mahsing is one of very few property stocks which survived the 1997-1998 Asia Econony Recession. Currently, Mahsing has 14 projects spread across the Klang Valley, Kuala Lumpur, Penang and Johor Baru. Recently, Mahsing has been awarded 'Best Development Malaysia' Award at the 13th International Property Award 2007 in association with CNBC in London for its Damansara Legenda project in Petaling Jaya.

Opportunity
According to a source, Abu Dhabi and Kuwait investors are eyeing a strategic stake in Mahsing to complete part of the Middle East - Southeast Asia property value chain. Based on closing price at 1.71 on 12 Nov 2007, Mah Sing has been trading at 9 times and 7 times for financial year 2008 and 2009 respectively. Mahsing is also reported to be trading at a deep 40 per cent discount to its revised net asset value of RM2.86 as estimated by Macquarie Research. CIMB (target price of RM3.00), Aseambankers (target price of RM3.00), Deutsche Bank (target price of RM3.02) and SJ Securities (target price of RM3.15) have all placed a buy on Mah Sing stock. Besides, the company which has declared 40 percent of its net profit will be given back to shareholders in terms of dividends for financial year 2007. The group's market capitalisation has doubled to over RM1billion to date from RM511 million as at end 2006.

Active Income Vs Passive Income

Active Income is when you work, you get paid. You don't work, you don't get paid. Basically, you only get paid for the personal effort that you invest and your payment is one time.

For exampe, you may work 40 hours in a week and you will be paid by your employer for exactly 40 hours. Another words, you are trading your time for dollars. This is often referred to as sweat-equity. If you want to earn only active income, you can simply just get a job. But, having a J.O.B. (Just Over Broke) will never provide you the time freedom and lifestyle you are searching for.

Passive Income (also referred to as residual or recurring income) is when you work once, but continue to get paid over and over again. In other words, you do the actual work one time, but you are paid repeatedly for that work. The income continues to be generated after the initial effort has been expended.

For example, let's say you work in January and you produce a certain level of results. With passive income, you will be paid on those results in February, March and every month thereafter. This is the continual payment for work that was completed in the past. With passive income, you can make money even while you sleep. Do you know that it is also possible to make money even though you are no longer alive? Recently, Forbes.com reported that Elvis Presley is the top-earning dead celebrities with US$49 million in year 2007. In the second place came Beatle John Lennon with US$44 million. This concept is incredibly powerful!

Where is your largest source of income currently coming from? If it’s active income, what happens if you lose your job? How long can you survive? Most people think that losing their job only happens to someone else. What about if you become ill and can no longer work? Who looks after you then? You must assume that any source of income could dry up at any moment. Instead, you should start working towards creating multiple source of passive income for yourself and your family. When is the best time to create passive income? The answer is while you still have the ability to earn active income because having passive incomes helps protect you against the potential impact if you lose your job.

How much must you live on?

Germany: The Melander family of Bargteheide
Food expenditure for one week: 375.39 Euros or $500.07
Favorite foods: fried potatoes with onions, bacon and herring, fried noodles with eggs and cheese, pizza, vanilla pudding


United States: The Revis family of North Carolina
Food expenditure for one week: $341.98
Favorite foods: spaghetti, potatoes, sesame chicken


Japan: The Ukita family of Kodaira City
Food expenditure for one week: 37,699 Yen or $317.25
Favorite foods: sashimi, fruit, cake, potato chips


Italy: The Manzo family of Sicily
Food expenditure for one week: 214.36 Euros or $260.11
Favorite foods: fish, pasta with ragu, hot dogs, frozen fish sticks

Great Britain: The Bainton family of Cllingbourne Ducis
Food expenditure for one week: 155.54 British Pounds or $253.15
Favorite foods: avocado, mayonnaise sandwich, prawn cocktail, chocolate fudge cake with cream


Kuwait: The Al Haggan family of Kuwait City
Food expenditure for one week: 63.63 dinar or $221.45
Family recipe: Chicken biryani with basmati rice


Mexico: The Casales family of Cuernavaca
Food expenditure for one week: 1,862.78 Mexican Pesos or $189.09
Favorite foods: pizza, crab, pasta, chicken


China: The Dong family of Beijing

Food expenditure for one week: 1,233.76 Yuan or $155.06
Favorite foods: fried shredded pork with sweet and sour sauce


Poland: The Sobczynscy family of Konstancin-JeziornaFood expenditure for one week: 582.48 Zlotys or $151.27
Family recipe: Pig's knuckles with carrots, celery and parsnips


Egypt: The Ahmed family of Cairo Food expenditure for one week: 387.85 Egyptian Pounds or $68.53
Family recipe: Okra and mutton


Mongolia: The Batsuuri family of Ulaanbaatar Food expenditure for one week: 41,985.85 togrogs or $40.02
Family recipe: Mutton dumplings


Ecuador: The Ayme family of Tingo Food expenditure for one week: $31.55
Family recipe: Potato soup with cabbage


Bhutan: The Namgay family of Shingkhey Village Food expenditure for one week: 224.93 ngultrum or $5.03
Family recipe: Mushroom, cheese and pork


Chad: The Aboubakar family of Breidjing Camp Food expenditure for one week: 685 CFA Francs or $1.23
Favorite foods: soup with fresh sheep meat