Fazil Musa is providing world class education in emotional, financial, business and relationship mastery. He’s an entrepreneur and expanding his business throughout Asia.
What’s your story?
I believe that the most important education anyone can get, comes from outside the government approved syllabus. Things like emotional mastery, financial mastery, business mastery and relationship mastery. That’s why I started Street Smart University, to provide world class education in these fields.
I’ve been in business for 17 years and the early part of my business career was fuelled by pure grit. I had to learn by trial and error and kept putting one in front of the other. Two years ago, my business hit $125,000 in revenue for the first time. Last year, we tripled that to just under half a million. This year we’re targeting $1,500,000.
What excites you most about your industry?
The most exciting thing about my industry is that we give people the opportunity to break out of their circumstances and achieve the success that they desire. Access to information and expertise that is truly life-changing and can be difficult to gain. What we do is, we sort and sift through a plethora of trainers and select only the best.
What’s your connection to Asia?
I was born and raised in Singapore. I travel extensively in the Asia-Pacific region, some of my favourite places include, Bali, Bangkok and Kuala Lumpur. I believe that Asia is just bubbling with potential and the centre of global economic growth is slowly moving east.
Favourite city in Asia for business and why?
My favourite city for business is Kuala Lumpur, I think that Kuala Lumpur is misunderstood. A lot of Singaporean entrepreneurs I speak to shy away from Kuala Lumpur thinking there isn’t money to be made there. There are plenty of opportunities in Kuala Lumpur, firstly because of the gap in information and expertise and secondly, while the percentage of the population that have a significant amount of dispensable income is low, the absolute numbers are high, so with the right targeting, it’s a great place to do business. Being Muslim, it’s easy for me to find the right facilities in Kuala Lumpur and it’s just a hop, skip and a jump away!
What’s the best piece of advice you ever received?
The best piece of advice I’ve ever received is that ‘your network is your net worth.’ I learnt the value of networking very early on from my father and that has made the most difference in my life.
Who inspires you?
My father is my hero. He’s a lifelong employee and is currently still employed. That being said, he’s probably the most entrepreneurial man that I know. He epitomises the hustle, he believes, “hard work is good for you.”
What have you just learnt recently that blew you away?
My most recent observation that blew me away was the distinction between a business and a company. I realised this while we were making plans to build a government approved training organisation (ATO). Because we were required to hire someone with the right certification.
If you had your time again, what would you do differently?
I would have had a mentor much, much earlier on. I understand now that mentors accelerate your path to success. Growing from $125,000 to $500,000 would have taken so much longer if we didn’t engage our business coach. He illuminated a whole range of unknown unknowns and got us moving really quickly towards our goals.
How do you unwind?
I play football, watch football, hang out with the team and travel the world.
Favourite Asian destination for relaxation? Why?
Bali for sure. It’s a beautiful place and I don’t have any clients or meetings there. It’s a place purely for relaxation. It’s got the beach, it’s got mountains and waterfalls, it’s got forests. Perfect whether you want to party, meditate or vegetate.
Everyone in business should read this book:
Jab, Jab, Jab, Right Hook by Gary Vaynerchuk
The main concept is giving value (jab) before making the ask (right hook).
Shameless plug for your business:
Head over to streetsmartuniversity.co to check out our latest events
How can people connect with you?
Follow me on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/TheRealFazilMusa/
Twitter handle?
@Fuz182
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This interview was part of the Callum Connect’s column found on The Asian Entrepreneur:
Callum Laing invests and buys small businesses in a range of industries around Asia. He has previously started, built and sold half a dozen businesses and is the founder & owner of Fitness-Buffet a company delivering employee wellness solutions in 12 countries. He is a Director of, amongst others, Key Person of Influence. A 40 week training program for business owners and executives.
Take the ‘Key Person of Influence’ scorecard <http://www.keypersonofinfluence.com/scorecard/>
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