UNLOCK IT , THE MASTER KEY TO WEALTH, SUCCESS AND SIGNIFICANCE .PRAISE FOR UNLOCK IT COMES SIGNIFICANTLY . A SHORT STORY (?it).

CHAPTER 0 How I Unlocked My Success, Wealth, and Significance

THE POOR ASIAN IMMIGRANT BOY

This entire story starts with an affair.

I was born in Hong Kong. I loved both my parents, but they did not love each other. When I was still in the womb, my dad had an affair. Though my mom was hurt and angry, she didn’t want her son to grow up in a broken family. So she stayed. But when I was fourteen years old, my mom couldn’t take it anymore and decided to bring me with her to another country—Canada. We became immigrants in a new and unfamiliar country with no connections, no money, and not a single word of English on our lips.

My mom, who was a housewife, suddenly had to become the provider. I had to adapt to a completely different environment. The first few days were full of fear and anxiety. We lived in Surrey—one of the most dangerous neighborhoods in Vancouver. It took me three days before I could gather the courage to step outside our tiny one-bedroom apartment and walk down the street.

I was one of only three Chinese kids in the entire school, and if you think racism didn’t exist in Canada, my experience tells a different story. At school, I was the invisible kid. I couldn’t speak a word of English and couldn’t make any friends. I would sit in the back of the room, and I never put my hand up. After school, I’d go straight to my locker and grab my backpack without looking at or making eye contact with anyone in the hallway. I was too shy to even walk in the middle of the hall, so I’d walk along the sides. I was that kid you could go to school with for semesters, and you wouldn’t even know his name. If you look at my group graduation photo, you’ll see all the popular kids together, and I was alone in the corner with no one around me.

So the bullies targeted me.

At lunchtime, these three big guys would drag me from the front door of the school to the grass field, and they’d beat the hell out of me. Maybe they thought I was an easy target. I only weighed 105 pounds—I looked like a twig. They threw me to the ground, ganged up around me, and just kicked and punched me as I was down. The beatings happened multiple times. Today, you can still see a scar on my chin.

Once during this time, my mom bought me as a birthday gift an electronic dictionary that could translate English words into Chinese. It was $300—that we could not afford—but my mom saved up for and bought it because she wanted the best for me. I treasured it. I brought it with me to school every day, and I plugged in words I couldn’t understand so that I could follow along in class. I worked hard at it every single day. I was finally making an advancement. Maybe I could eventually raise my hand in class or make some new friends.

One day, the same three kids saw me using the electronic dictionary. They came up to me and said, “Hey, why are you doing math during lunch? You nerd. Give me that.” At first, I didn’t understand the situation. I tried explaining to them, “No, this is a dictionary. My mom bought it for me. Please give it back.” But they didn’t listen. They passed it around to each other, threw it over my head when I was trying to get it back, and then …

CRACK!

They threw it out the window. We were on the second floor. I heard the impact on the pavement below, and I knew $300 of my mom’s hard-earned money was down the drain. I was pissed.

But more importantly, I didn’t want my mom to find out. I didn’t want her to find out that her hard work was for nothing. I didn’t want her to be hurt again. So at home I went through the motions with the broken electronic dictionary, pretending it was working, but at school, I got a paper dictionary from the library. I looked up every word I was supposed to be learning and read it out loud at least fifty times to make sure I could say it correctly.

Have you ever felt like the world was just against you even though you did nothing wrong? That’s how I felt. These are just a few examples of many, many incidents.

THE AFTERNOON THAT TURNED MY WORLD UPSIDE DOWN

One afternoon, I dropped off my school bag on the sleeping bag that I slept on in the living room, and I noticed that my mom’s door was closed, and she was speaking on the phone with someone. When the call ended, she came out of her room. I’ll never forget her face. She had tears streaming down her cheeks. It looked like she had been crying the entire day. She looked hopeless.

“Mom, what’s wrong?”

“Your dad called. He can’t send us money anymore.”

“What? What do you mean?”

“His business … his business went bankrupt.”

I believe every person has a moment in their lives when everything changes for them. It changes them at their core, and they can never go back to being the same again. These are what I call “defining moments.” Most people think inspirational or happy moments shape them. It’s not true. Happiness doesn’t change you; pain does.

Defining moments hurt like hell; they break you. They tear you into little pieces and test your resolve. If you make it through, you become a better version of you— a renewed version. Defining moments are deceptive because you don’t feel your life changing as they happen. These moments can feel more like a painful slam against the concrete as you hit rock bottom; you go into shock as your whole world starts falling around you. Moments that change your life feel like you can’t get enough air in your lungs; I know because it is exactly how I felt when my mom came out of her room. That’s what it felt like when I, Dan Lok, had to step up and become a man.

Defining moments hurt like hell; they break you. They tear you into little pieces and test your resolve. If you make it through, you become a better version of yourself —a renewed version.

Everything I have ever done wasn’t for the money. I just never wanted to see my mom cry again. At that moment, I promised that no matter what it took, I never wanted to see that look on my mom’s face again. That’s what started my entrepreneurial journey.

THE FIRST $100 IS THE SWEETEST

At first, I thought getting a job would be the solution to all my money problems. “If you want to earn money, then get a job!” That’s what everyone said, so I listened to them and got a job bagging groceries at a Chinese supermarket.

I made minimum wage working ten-hour shifts and stood on my feet doing the same mind-numbing repetitive motions over and over again. I had very little patience for a job like that, and I quit after a few months.

“There has to be a better way to earn money. But how?” I thought to myself. That’s when my first idea hit me.

One day I was jogging in my neighborhood, and I saw an older gentleman, probably in his seventies, who was mowing his lawn very slowly. It looked like he was having trouble, so I asked him if he needed any help with mowing his lawn. He agreed, and I finished the job for him. As I was leaving, he stopped me and pulled out $20.

That’s when the light bulb came on. I could do this for other people and make more money! That was the start of my first business—a lawn-mowing business. I was just a kid and couldn’t afford a lawn mower, but I was smart enough to make a deal with the older gentleman.

“Hey, it seems like the lawn mower is a bit too heavy for you to use. How about I mow your lawn every week for FREE, and you let me use it for my business?”

He thought about it for a moment. “Ah, sure, why not. I don’t use it that much anyways.”

BOOM. I had just closed my first deal.

However, having a service to offer was only the first step. The next step was selling the service. So I knocked on every door in my neighborhood to ask if my neighbors needed their lawns mowed—and I got rejected at every single house. I felt awful, AND I still had to mow the older gentleman’s lawn—for free. Then my next “brilliant” idea came. My aunt had a printing business. She printed out flyers, but she needed someone to distribute them for her.

“Auntie, I’ll hand out your flyers for FREE—if you let me advertise my lawnmowing business on the backside of the flyers!”

She thought about it for a moment. Then she replied, “Why not? I need someone to help me hand these out anyway.”

BOOM. Another business deal closed.

When my aunt agreed to let me hand out her flyers with my business on the back, I thought I would be making thousands of dollars that week. I made grand plans for what I would do with the money. I was even worried about how I would balance school with my booming business success. With this newfound inspiration and determination, I handed out five thousand flyers. Then I went home and sat next to my phone, waiting for the calls to come rolling in.

One hour went by … no calls. One day went by … no calls. Three days went by … no calls. Did I put the wrong number on the back? No. I checked; it was the right number. So why wasn’t anyone calling? They had lawns that needed mowing, so why wasn’t anyone calling me?

By the end of my first “marketing campaign,” I made a big fat zero.

I thought back to my first “client,” the older gentleman. What did I do differently? That’s when it hit me—the first lesson I learned that still affects how I do business today. I mowed the older gentleman’s lawn FIRST and THEN got the sale.

Armed with this epiphany, I went to a higher-end neighborhood in the area and saw a house with grass that went up to my waist. That was my opportunity. I brought my lawn mower, I mowed the lawn, and I sat on the front porch waiting for the owner to come home.

When the owner came home, she didn’t even recognize her place. She drove past and had to reverse back because her lawn was so much shorter.

“What’s going on here?” she asked.

“Well, ma’am … I’m just a kid trying to make some money, and I saw your lawn was growing out so much that I thought I’d help out.” To my surprise, she was really grateful.

“Oh, thank you! My husband is always working, so he doesn’t have time for taking care of the lawn. Here’s $100 for your trouble.”

BOOM. I got my first $100 deal, and the first $100 is always the sweetest.

A word of warning: What I did was utterly ILLEGAL. You can’t just go onto someone’s property and start mowing the lawn. I do NOT recommend doing what I did. I was just a dumb kid trying to make some money.

You have to start somewhere, right?

HOW TO GET $150,000 IN DEBT IN THREE YEARS— GUARANTEED

After starting my lawn-mowing business at seventeen and realizing it wasn’t going to make me rich in the long term, I started jumping into other entrepreneurial ideas.

Maybe you can relate to this. When I was “evaluating” business ideas, I thought every opportunity I found was going to be the “next big thing.” Over the next three years, I tried everything. From vending machines to fixing computers to delivery services to network marketing—if it had a remote chance of making money, I’d jump in, which was very. VERY. Dumb. I failed at thirteen different businesses before I had my first success, but nothing hurt more than the last business.

I was already $120,000 in debt from losing my first twelve businesses. I had maxed out my credit cards, borrowed money from all my aunts and uncles, and even borrowed some money from my mom. I was relentless. I still believed that I could make it all work. At the time, I was still with the network marketing company. I had already burned bridges with most of my friends and family because all I could ever talk about was the company and how great it was. Have you ever had a friend ask you to go out for coffee to offer you a shady “business opportunity”? That was me. My friends and family started avoiding me because all I could talk about was getting them involved in my network marketing opportunity.

Without friends or family to target, I had to find other ways to recruit people onto my team. So I had another “genius idea” and started placing my business card in office buildings, hoping someone would reach out and have coffee with me.

To my surprise, one person called me. We met up for coffee, and I went through my presentation with him. I told him how great my company was and how easy it would be to make money.

“You need to find three people to join your team. Then they get another three people to join their team. So before you know it, you’ll get to retire.”

“Dan, I’m gonna stop you right there.”

“Huh? I was getting to the best part.”

“No, your presentation was great. But I’ve got something better for you. You seem like a sharp guy, and I was looking for someone just like you to help me out in my business.”

He went on to explain how he built websites and sold them to people for massive profits. If I could help him fund the start-up phase of his business, we’d split the profits as partners.

Remember when I said if an opportunity sounded like it had even a remote chance of making money, I’d jump into it? Well, I’m a man of my word.

I went into that business with him as “partners.” I invested $1,000 at first, then $2,000, and then $5,000. Every time we’d meet in his office, he’d tell me that we’re close to breaking through, that we need a bit more time and money to finish the developments. Like the naive young kid I was, I believed him. I kept putting money into it: $10,000 … $15,000 … $20,000 … then $25,000. I was deep into this business. I was determined to make it work.

Now at this point, you might be asking, “Dan, where are you getting all this money?” Great question. It was from the last remaining person who believed in me

—my mom.

I had already maxed out my credit cards and borrowed money from every relative that would lend me money. So when my new “business partner” showed up, I could only turn to my mom.

I remember the day my “business partner” asked me for one final investment of $5,000. He told me this was the last one, and that was all we needed to strike it rich. Of course, I believed him.

ONE OF THE MOST SHAMEFUL MOMENTS OF MY LIFE

I drove my mom to the bank so that we could withdraw the last $5,000 that I needed. My mom was already near her account limit. While we were in the line, she was grabbing my arm and crying, “Don’t do this, Dan. Don’t do this.”

Like a crazed gambler, I told her, “Mom, just believe in me. I know I can make this work.” She was still crying and clutching my arm when we withdrew the final $5,000.

Later that day, I brought the $5,000 to the man and asked him if that was all he needed. He said yes and that everything would be finished soon. Then I went home with the hope that this was my big break. One day went by—no message from him.

Two days went by—no message. Three days—no sign from him. I called his cell phone—no response. I called his office—it said the number did not exist. What the hell was going on here?

I rushed to his office, and everything was gone. I called every number I could think of that was associated with him—the secretary, the offices next to his. I even asked the janitor. No one knew anything about this man. They were as clueless as I was. He disappeared without a trace. I was scammed. At that moment, I was so full of anger, hatred, and shame. I was furious at myself.

“How could I have let this happen? Why am I so stupid? How could I have lost all my mom’s money? Why do I keep making dumb mistakes like this?”

As I was walking home, trying to think of what I would tell my mom, I came across a bridge. I looked over. It was high enough to kill someone if they jumped off.

“Maybe I should end it here. Maybe my mom is better off if I didn’t keep losing all her money.”

I continued to stand there.

“Maybe she would be better off if I didn’t exist.”

Luckily, I’m still alive today. There was a small part of me that knew I couldn’t leave my mom alone in this world. I knew that I had to man up and take care of my mom.

“THIS SUCKS. DO IT AGAIN.”

After picking myself up, I started attending more seminars and workshops to sharpen my skills. At one of the seminars, I met my first mentor, Alan Jacques.

Now if you don’t know Alan, he’s the founder of Real Estate Investor Network

(REIN), the largest real estate network at that time. He was the first person to bring Robert Kiyosaki—author of Rich Dad Poor Dad—to Canada, before Robert was famous. For about a year, I worked for Alan for next to nothing. Every day for the first few months, I licked hundreds of envelopes for mailings. Then I moved on to helping Alan edit some of his sales letters. After a while, Alan let me write my first sales letter (a letter we sent out to people to let them know about our products and services). I spent days and nights crafting a sales letter, making sure every sentence and word was correct. When I gave it to Alan, he told me, “This sucks. Do it again.”

I brought it back to him, and again, he told me, “This sucks. Do it again.” I did it AGAIN and made sure it was the best thing I ever wrote. I gave it to him, and he looked at it for a second longer this time, “It’s still no good. Once more.” We went back at it about six or seven times before Alan finally said it was good enough to send out.

The funny thing is, years later Alan told me, “You know, Dan, the first letter you wrote was pretty good. But I needed to challenge you. You thought you’d given it your best, but that was not your best. The second time, you thought it was your best. There was a gap between what you thought was your best compared to your actual best. Being able to see this difference and make the necessary changes is how you get better at this skill.”

THE ONE-MAN “MAD MEN” AGENCY

After I learned to be a copywriter from Alan, I branched out and started my oneperson advertising agency. At first, I was selling my services for $500 to $1,000, but because I had only so many hours of work I could do in a day, the number of clients I could take on was limited. I knew I had to charge more if I wanted to support me and my mom. I had only done copywriting for a few months, so I didn’t think I could charge more than $1,000. That’s when Alan challenged me again.

“Dan, you should bump up your price. One thousand dollars is too low.”

“I guess so. What’re you thinking, bump it up 10 percent? To $1,100? That’s pretty reasonable.”

“No. Double it.”

“What do you mean? I can’t double it. I’ve only been doing it for a few months!

I’m a twenty-one-year-old kid with a thick accent; I can’t double my price!”

“Dan. Double it.”

I sighed. “Okay.”

Alan told me to practice asking for the price in front of the mirror. I listened and went in front of the mirror,

“How much do you charge?” I asked myself in the mirror.

“T-t-t-two thousand dollars.” I stuttered.

“How much do you charge?” “T-two thousand dollars.”

“How much do you charge?”

“Two thousand dollars.”

I kept practicing until I could say the price with a straight face and without stuttering. Guess what? When the next prospect asked me how much I charged, I told him $2,000 and there was no pushback. A few months later, I had a couple of

$2,000 clients and was feeling pretty good. Until Alan came to me and said,

“Dan, it’s time. Double it.”

“What? Double it again? I’m going to lose all my clients!”

“Double it.”

“No way they’re going to pay that much for me. How am I going to pay the bills if I lose all my clients?”

“Dan. Double it.”

“Okay.”

I repeated the process and followed Alan’s instructions. To my surprise, it worked again. There was no pushback. I repeated the process a few months later, raising the amount to $8,000. Then $10,000. Within the span of a year, I went from charging $1,000 to $10,000 for doing the same amount of work. That’s when I learned you don’t always have to work harder to earn more money; sometimes it’s just about communicating your value better than your competitors. From that lesson, I was able to achieve Security. I was ready to provide for my mom, get a new car, and pay off all of my debt.

MORE SUCCESS THAN I COULD IMAGINE

After I achieved Security through copywriting, I found great success by starting multiple online businesses. I had a copywriting background, so I was one of the first to enter the online market. I had a massive advantage over everyone else. With my copywriting expertise paired with the internet, money started coming in faster than I could ever imagine as a kid. One day, when I was twenty-seven years old, I looked at my bank account and realized I had $1 million. This money was the “success” I was chasing this entire time. I had “made it.” From being an immigrant boy making minimum wage at a supermarket, I somehow had become a young millionaire. After so many years of working hard, it was finally time to relax, so I went to the beach.

For the next month, I didn’t do any work. I went to English Bay, the beach in downtown Vancouver, and sipped cold drinks while looking at the ocean—what most people would imagine as a dream retirement. It was enjoyable at first, but then I did it again the next day. And then the next day. And then the next day. And believe it or not, sitting on a blanket of sand doing nothing for an entire week is pretty boring (and you get sunburned too). So the following month, I watched six or seven movies every day. When you watch that many movies, guess what? You don’t like movies so much anymore!

I was in a position most people dream of getting to in life. They had to wait until sixty-five to do what I was doing at twenty-seven, but I was bored and miserable. Everything that would supposedly make me happy didn’t make me happy. I had everything I ever wanted and more, and yet I still felt unfulfilled.

I DON’T KNOW WHY I’M CRYING

One day I woke up with tears coming down my cheek. My wife, Jennie, saw this and was concerned. She asked, “Why are you crying? What’s wrong?”

“I don’t know. Tears are just coming down my cheek.”

“Are you feeling okay? Are you in pain? Do you need to go to the hospital?”

“No, I don’t know why. I just have this feeling of depression coming over me. I don’t know where it’s coming from.”

I felt empty inside. I had worked hard to get to where I was. I lived a good life. I had all of the money I could wish for in my life. All my needs were taken care of and then some. I had the freedom to do what I wanted to do. But I was still miserable for no apparent reason. I questioned everything: “What am I chasing exactly? Why did I work so hard? What was I working for?” And as cliché as it sounds, I wondered, “Is there more to life than just this?”

From that point on, I went on a spiritual journey. I dove deep into personal development and spiritual work. I thought it was all about money and results, and that the spiritual “woo-woo” stuff was fluff. But after my experience, I realized there was some truth to these teachings. As silly as it sounds for a young multimillionaire, I wanted to find myself. I spent all my life chasing achievements, believing they would lead me to happiness. However, I discovered that what I craved was not an achievement but fulfillment. I mistakenly thought money would give me meaning. I was trying to win the race of accomplishment by running on the track of success. I asked myself a simple question that might be useful for you as well:

“When am I the happiest?”

The answer became clear. When I was in college, I had a couple of martial arts students I taught free of charge. I loved it. When I was teaching, I got into a flow, and time disappeared. I loved watching people light up and transform right in front of my eyes. Teaching gave me a thrill. I loved teaching.

Many people these days say, “I love this so much I’ll do it for free.” I can’t entirely agree with that. I believe you should love what you do so much that you say to yourself, “I love this so much; it’s the only thing I’ll do for money.” To this day, I’m the happiest when I am teaching. However, at the time, I had only taught martial arts and had never thought of making a living as a martial arts teacher. I asked myself, “How can I teach more? How can I build a business that combines my purpose, profit, and passion? How can I make it so that it’s ALL I do?” That’s when I became a full-time teacher. That’s when I started living a life that was fully aligned and fully congruent with my beliefs. That was when I moved into the final stage of my life: Significance.

TO LIVE A LIFE YOU WILL LOVE, ASK YOURSELF THIS ONE QUESTION

“Would you still do what you do if you won the lottery?” For most people, the answer is, “No, I’d quit immediately. I’d stop what I’m doing right now.” I can say without hesitation that I would be doing precisely the same thing as what I’m doing right now. How can I be so confident? Well, I have made way more money than a lottery jackpot, and I’m still doing the same thing today. I’m very grateful every day of my life.

I’m able to utilize my skills, expertise, and experience to impact millions of people’s lives. I live a stress-free lifestyle and get to do what I love. There are people with world-class talent who buy into our vision, mission, and culture, and I get to spend time with and learn from amazing people every day.

IMPACTING MILLIONS AROUND THE WORLD

I get mail from my students almost every day. It could be a simple postcard, a package of their hometown food, or even a portrait of me made from gemstones.

I’m not trying to impress you or show that I’m so great. It’s just an indication of the appreciation that my students have for our community. In our society, we see success stories from our students every day—stories of them quitting their jobs, paying off their mortgage, and buying their parents’ well-deserved trips. Not only that, you can see how my students carry themselves with a newfound sense of dignity and confidence.

I also get to meet my students at our annual private event in Vancouver. Thousands of my students fly in from all over the world to share a fantastic weekend. I get to hear all their heartwarming stories in person. I love and treasure every single one.

I’ve been lucky enough to grow a following of millions on global media platforms like YouTube, f*******:, and i********: that allow me to speak with people from places like Canada, the United States, Hoday basis?” my answer would be, “Whatever I want.”

THE FOUR STAGES OF LIFE

STAGE ONE: SURVIVAL

STAGE TWO: SECURITY

STAGE THREE: SUCCESS

STAGE FOUR: SIGNIFICANCE