Hell of an opportunity (Part 6)

Hey, peeps! I know some of you had been chasing for Part 6, I apologize for the long wait due to the Chinese New Year season 🙏🏻 So here comes the Part 6!

Previously in Part 5

Our cafe could not sustain and we lost RM500,000 in the business.

When our funds were running low and we hardly sustain the business, it was so happened that Jerry's dad (if you don't know who is Jerry by now, I would recommend you to read our journey from Part 1 ^^ ) and uncle brought him to a wedding dinner.

It was a very grand wedding dinner and he saw some of the ministers of Malaysia were attending the wedding dinner too.

Then he thought:

"Wow, this person must be very powerful with some sort of status."

A Dato.

That person was a Dato who was in his 50's. Dato in Malaysia can be considered the equivalent of the title "Sir" in British. Oh ya, I think I should mention this, it was not the Dato's wedding dinner 😆 it was his daughter's.

So the uncle introduced Jerry to the Dato, and the connection started from there.

Jerry is a person with a super entrepreneur spirit, who would not give up easily which he would do his best to think of many other ways to make things work.

An idea came to his mind that probably he could raise funds from the Dato to save our business. He created a proposal and invite his dad and his uncle, along with the Dato to come over to our cafe to have lunch together.

The Dato came to our office with his driver and bodyguard. After having lunch together and chit-chatting for a while, Jerry proposed to the Dato his proposal.

Dato look through the proposal and said:

"The proposal looks good. However, Jerry, you are a talent. It's wasted for you to run this cafe. Instead of giving you funds for the cafe, which I don't think there would be any huge success to it, why not I give you a bigger opportunity?"

Jerry stunned for a bit, and ask what was the opportunity about.

Dato said he has an opportunity which he has the connection to bring them into the disposable medical supplies, which they will be able to supply it to all the government hospitals in Malaysia. It's a million dollar business because the demand is huge!

New opportunity?

After the Dato left, Jerry discussed with his dad and his uncle, both his dad and his uncle were very excited, they thought that this is an opportunity that they should grab.

They then arranged to meet Dato in his office the week after.
Seeing all the pictures of this Dato shaking hands with all the ministers and his bodyguards around him, Jerry thought this Dato should be legit. The Dato assured them that the disposable medical supplies were confirmed and everyone came to an agreement to start that business.

In the following weeks, they started to set up the company and printing name cards. The Dato also arranged the agreement signing with Jerry.

After that, the Dato brought them to open a bank account. When the Dato walked into the bank, everyone seems to recognized and respected him, which made Jerry believed him more.

Here comes the interesting part.

It was almost Hari Raya Puasa after signing the agreement. The Dato asked Jerry to send some hampers which worth a few hundred each to some of the important people in the project. Jerry knew that we do not have much left in our bank account, so he told Dato that he doesn't have the money. Dato then said if Jerry didn't want to spend these small amounts of money on these hampers, it's hard for them to give this project to Jerry's company. It is always the social relationship that counts when you want a project from the government, so that makes sense.

Since Jerry and his partners (which is his dad and his uncle) wants the company to get the project, he spent the money to get the hampers and send it over.

The status of the project was pending due to all the celebration and holidays.

Everything starts with a favor.

One day, the Dato called Jerry and asked him to help to bank in RM5000 to his mistress because he's not able to do it, and told Jerry that he will pay him back.

Jerry helped.

The next call from this Dato was to ask Jerry to bank in about RM10,000 to his mistress, and again, he said he will pay Jerry back.

Jerry helped again.

When Jerry asked about the status of the project, Dato said it's still pending, this is a huge project so it takes time, he asked Jerry to be patient.

Other than asking Jerry to bank in the money to his mistress, he also asked Jerry to help him to reload his phone credit. I still remember there was a time when Jerry called me up and asked me to reload the phone credit for Dato, I was so annoyed by that and asked why can't that Dato reload it on his own? He had so many bodyguards around him, they can always do it if Dato is busy. He never returns the money to us after we helped.

Jerry's answer was a classic one:

"I think Dato wants to test if we are willing to sacrifice a bit to get the project. If we are not, then he might not give us this project anymore."

Lesson: This shown that you would always convince yourself with different excuses even though you felt that there's something wrong. You are in the state of denial because you want it to work so badly.

Dato kept getting money bit by bit from Jerry.

Status of the project? PENDING.

The amount of money asked from Dato accumulated and became a huge amount. After spending almost RM100,000 on him, Jerry finally awakens from his denial and chose not to continue with the project. We do not have anything left in our bank account.

His dad and uncle were upset that Jerry stops pursuing the project, Jerry told them the Dato was actually cheating on them, there's no such project but only to get money from them were all gone because of this. His dad was so mad at him letting go the opportunity, both of them almost fought with each other if not me and his mom was stopping them.

Not long after that, we heard that a lady who owned a lottery shop was con by the Dato and lost about RM500,000. He even conned his own son-in-law!

The Lesson

There are 3 types of person who will easily get into the trap set by a con man:

A person with a dream but lack of resources: Who wants to achieve his dream and would easily get hooked when someone shows the ability to provide the resources for him to achieve his dream.
A person who is desperately seeking for help: If anyone showed that they are able to help him, he would believe in whatever they say and do whatever they asked him to.
A person who thinks he is capable: Who often felt unfair compared to others because he thinks that he is more capable than others which he deserves more.

Jerry had all 3 back then 😂 That's why he got hooked easily.

It always happen bit by bit

The trap is set to get something from you slowly, which you would not feel there is much loses to you because you think that they will be able to help you far more than what you have given. That's how it all started.

Self-convincing is killing

Talk to the people that you trusted the most when you realized that you are actually convincing yourself to believe in something. Outsiders will always see the actual picture.