experience talking back and forth, you know, and answering questions. At first, with everything, you answer, you know, with an ah and everything, but after some time, you just be silent and pause and the answers are more better, you know, so with practice.
So these things, it's good also to ever exercise or to do all these things. So I hold my skill too.
Nice. So with the brands you've invested in and eSports being one of them, what's your favorite venture that you've been involved with so far?
They have different lessons. Everything has different lessons, but my favorite are platform businesses because platform businesses was you'll able to reach impact more user and you'll be able to help them or engage with them.
So platform businesses are my favorites, but you know, serving customers in a coffee or in a food and beverage restaurant is also nice, especially when you get to see them face to face.
Selling retail also with merchandises such as shoe is okay too. I mean, it's good to serve face to face too sometimes. You get the interaction.
When you say platform businesses, how would you define that?
Platform businesses are like in the app or websites.
So that's our platform business.
So I'm excited to talk to you about our sponsor, our sponsor is called ColdClick.
I think he's got a lot of visions and he's got a massive vision on the horizon too. So we'll be diving to that without further ado.
First, though, let's dive into some of these sponsors. So ColdClick right here, ColdClick.com.
TapMental.io same thing. David Goodall runs TapMental. He's a client of ours and he helps business owners bridge the gap between the psychology struggles they have and the systems they're striving to build.
And he does a great job of that. So I do recommend checking out his case studies over at TapMental.io, especially if you're in the general contracting space or more of a blue collar venture.
He's somebody you get along with really, really well. Good old boy reminds me of a Texan. He's not a Texan, but I'd claim him.
In addition to that, I'd like to give a shout out as usual to The Water Project. If you have not heard of The Water Project before, I highly recommend pulling it up and taking a look.
There's a lot of people in this world who don't have access to clean drinking water, even the basics of life that we take for granted on a daily basis.
If you do have access to that, then do me a favor. Just go ahead and give like a dollar to The Water Project.
Or if you have a better resource, something that you'd like to see us contribute to, don't hesitate to drop that in the comments.
There's a lot of people who need help in this world. We got 8 billion people out there, most of which need some pretty extreme help.
I never want to lose sight and forget of the importance of why we do what we do, which is ultimately being able to contribute to those who are less fortunate than us.
So, let's make sure to do that together. Bernard Chong is going to be my guest today. He is a multi-million angel investor with a background in e-sports.
Any of you gamers out there will know what that is. And he's got a coffee shop concept. He's got a high-rise concept for Panama that he's working on.
He's got a nonprofit operation that he's also working on. We're going to talk about family lineage a little bit as well and where his roots probably came from.
But without further ado, I'm going to bring Bernard on and we're going to talk to him about his vision.
So, Bernard, thanks for joining me on Vision Pros Live today. I really appreciate it.
Hey, thank you for having me.
Absolutely. So, Bernard, to quantify our talk for those who are listening in, who do you think should be listening?
Who's going to benefit from this and why should they listen to you specifically?
What do you think they're going to get out of today's show?
Well, everybody can benefit on anything with intelligence for some recall or some know-how or knowledge or input.
But people who will start the business depends on your set of questions.
I think I have more experience with starting businesses and supporting businesses too.
So, if those people are interested in starting or supporting their own business, I think that would benefit to our conversation because that's what my experience is.
Yes. I love the fact that sometimes life delivers trends to us. It delivers patterns, okay?
So, if you're listening to the show on a regular basis, you're going to catch that out of all the shows we've ever done,
nobody's ever said it depends on my questions until Bernard and my last guest this morning, the first two people out of 100 that have keyed in on that.
And I thought it was so cool. I was like, yes, you're absolutely right with that.
Just finding that two people back to back share that.
So, what our questions are going to be about today are about your vision.
How do you serve people? How do you show up? And you're going to be able to take us down any one of the directions of the many visions that you have.
So, what is the vision for those that you serve, Bernard? What do you want them to get out of it?
Well, my vision is to be support to those people or businesses that I put money in or put resources in because every vision is, every journey is unique.
And I just teach what I know. I share what I know also.
And if there comes a problem that I don't know, I will help them solve it by researching it on my own or researching it with the people that I know.
So, my vision is also to learn while helping other people.
Nice. And what qualifies a business for you to invest in them? What types of things do they need to have together?
To me, good communication is what I look for and the person must be dedicated or committed.
And they have to be doing it like I see them, that's their passion.
So, I know that they're happy doing it. It's not like they're being forced to, you know.
And you can see that the way they talk, the way they share it, the way they ask questions about it or the way they talk about it.
That's awesome. Okay. And let's talk about your vision personally now.
So, as far as your own vision goes, what's your vision for yourself over the next 5, 10, 15 years? What do you want to accomplish?
The next 5 years, I think my network has grown. I've studied more skills too because I'm taking courses too, lessons.
I'm supposed to be...my business here grew too. I'm probably running some of the business that I started and I supported.
And it would be impacted by a lot of users and customers. So, 5 years, I think I would be growing a lot more than today.
That's what I expect.
Nice. Okay. So, as you take on the role of angel investor, you see business opportunities where you might actually also take on a role within the companies. Is that correct?
Well, I normally get the role of board or advisor. So, those are my role. I'm currently CEO of a foundation. So, my passion would be helping and teaching in education.
Nice. Awesome. So, you got the CEO of which company right now?
Brent Seed Foundation. So, it's a foundation for education.
Let's talk about that a little bit. I'd love to hear about the vision that you guys have for Brent Seed. I'll pull it up so we can take a look at the same time.
So, go ahead. Tell us about Brent Seed.
It's a nonprofit organization for education. We're planning to help people get educated by helping them through resource.
This is still a start, but we're very dedicated and focused to make lives of people we touch better and eventually contribute to the society.
Okay. So, let's pull up to Instagram a little bit too. I think you got some posts on there as well. What made you decide to invest so heavily in education?
I feel like it makes good impact too when someone is fed knowledge. And from there, they're able to touch other people too.
They're able to touch their life and they're able to touch their close friends or family's life.
So, helping someone by knowledge and wisdom, by helping them be educated makes a big difference. So, I decided to tackle that.
Okay. Awesome. I'm a big fan of education. Obviously, as a podcaster, that's kind of what we do.
But in addition to that, I've got an academy that I'm building out to help business owners with their education.
I had an international politics teacher who said Jackson, and he knew I was failing miserably in college, by the way.
I had a horrible GPA. And he said, Jackson, if you want to change the world, educate a mom.
That's very true, but that takes time too. All changes take time, but that's how it is.
It does. It really inspired me as I grew my path and started to build out different things.
So, I appreciate the wisdom you share on that. I would love to also hear, you know, the audience would like to know,
what's your worst business experience ever? There's obviously pitfalls that happen in business, things that can happen.
What would you say your worst experience has been?
Well, my worst experience was trusting someone without checking and eventually finding that that person isn't trustworthy.
But it's because that time, I should have known better too.
You know, when you're learning, there are some things you miss out before you learn them as you experience anything, as anyone.
Like when you're trying to walk, of course you fail. So, when I'm starting angel investing, of course there are certain things that I missed.
And then from there, we learn the lesson that not to miss it.
So, now I test people first before I put resources or I trust them.
Sometimes I ask long questions, I deliberately test their character before committing.
Before, I just give you 100 and I trust you before anything else.
But of course, that's my resource or that's resource also going to someone.
Then if there isn't trustworthy, it hurts you.
Then again, in life, we all deserve what's coming to us because if it's either we made it properly so we get good results or we lack of something,
and it comes back to bite us because we didn't know better.
So, it's just life, it's just experience. But you move on, you go on, and you bring those lessons to be better.
And I think that's the journey about life. We always get better, nobody knows it all.
And whatever age you are, even you can know someone who's 50, 60, 70, and I'm sure they will still say, this is new to me still.
I mean, there must be something that's still new to them because everybody should be learning and growing.
Yeah, absolutely. And I made sure to check with your publicist before mentioning anything about the allegations that came against you.
And I wanted to mention that because I think there's a lot of people out there who don't, who feel invincible to allegations.
I think there's a lot of people who don't understand what it's like to overcome a dramatic reality that can feel kind of dramatic.
I personally can relate to your story on many levels. Go ahead.
That's hard also. Character allegations is also hard, especially when people seem to believe what's written first in media, right?
It's like you're being destroyed first before you're able to get a chance to defend yourself.
But I wish I could say something really smart about those, but when these things happen, all you have to do really is take the hit.
And then hopefully you can clear your name out of it. And you can't stop people from judging based on what they read.
So that's just how it is. Good thing I cleared my name now and there was zero evidence of it.
And I think some places, especially if you're a target or you can be a good target, they overwrite things just to get your attention.
And at first, my first experience was I overreacted too. I was angry. I want to show them proof. I want to fight back.
But I don't think the media is the right way if you're being alleged to just talk about it.
The right way is if you're being alleged in the legal stuff and with documents better, you fight them legally too.
But that's my opinion, my take on certain stuff.
Because I believe once the papers come out, once I cleared my name and once it's there, then that's it.
There's nothing to talk to because it's it. They said zero evidence and it's like no shred of evidence that I did such thing.
Right. That makes sense. Go ahead.
Also, I told them, as anyone who knows me, anyone who dealt me personally, I never do such things and they would speak for me also.
But again, when you have a bad write-up, people tend to believe it.
So you just have to be patient about it and let people speak for you and sometimes let the system clear you and then you can post something too with it.
Right. Well, listen, I know that's not your primary vision. I speak on behalf of a lot of people who will appreciate this lesson from you.
I've gone through similar things in very small categories. For instance, a divorce. When you go through that, there are their side, my side, etc.
Right. And so learning how to go through that, navigate that is super helpful.
A lot of people end up opening their mouth and getting angry and causing more problems rather than finding solutions.
So you nailed some very important wisdom down.
I also had a friend who got sued on a non-compete and I owned 15% of his company at the time when he got sued.
And he lost the battle. So we had to shut the company down, which hurt everybody.
Some of our team members turned around and sued him for their losses. And I was like, wow, like this is how do you do that to your friend?
You kick your friend while they're down. But what it showed to me is it can happen to anyone at any time.
But the great leaders, they bounce back because they stick to their virtues. And I see you doing that. And I really appreciate you letting me talk about it.
Yes. Yes. We can talk about anything actually. And if there's some curious questions also, just ask them. It's okay.
I did my research. So I did. I dove in pretty deep. And I'm content with what I saw. I'm very happy with the man I see in front of me, your friend, man, if you ever need anything.
Don't hesitate to say hi to me, okay?
All right. All right. Thank you.
We're gonna move to the next question though. I want to dive on the opposite end of the spectrum. What would you say your best experience in business has been?
Well, successful stuff. And when you bring recognition to a country, even though it's like, you know, we bring world champion team on Mobile Legends.
And we made Philippines a champion team in M2. So Mobile Legends M2 series. And that one, not on the monetary value, but the recognition of, hey, this is our country.
We put gold on it and it's written forever. That's like something I know in my belt or in my name that we did it for the country and everybody knows. So that's something very, you know, you cannot put value to it, but it's valuable.
It's something I'm very proud of. And I think I would be saying this to my home country too, or to people like, hey, we were the champ. We made the country champion.
Oh, it's like being Olympian, you know, that gets to represent your country. I can't personally imagine what that feels like to the full extent, but you get doses of that and what a really cool experience, you know?
Yeah, yeah. And that was the first gold medal of the Philippine country for a team, for a team competition. So we get gold medal for single person to person competition.
But for a team competition in Philippines, that was the first gold medal in, that's the first world champion title, team world champion title in Philippines.
That's so cool, man. That's got to be an amazing feeling. So I guess I'll ask another question. And when you get to that top gold medal point, what do you do from there?
Well, hopefully you repeat. But you know, the universe has a say to those things. When we are talking about world champ, I mean, all you have to do, all you can do is do your best, you know?
But you have to live with the result. And that's just how it is. Sometimes you win, sometimes you lose, sometimes you get, some people get repeated, the spurs gets, you know, win, lose, win, lose.
You know, there was no ever back to back by the chance. But you know they're doing their best, right? And that's just how it is.
So that's, when a world champ title is what you're up to, all you have to do is do your best and hopefully you pray too because the outcome, I think the big guy has some say to it too.
Well said, man. I'm so happy you said that. I think some people steer away from talking about spiritual concepts when they have a public microphone. But I would say the same thing. If there's one secret power, like what is my secret to any success I've ever had? Prayer.
That's it, man. It's prayer. And sometimes you get that prompting in your heart and in your mind and you're like, that's it. But you also said being your best self. Combining those two things is important. Go ahead.
You do your best and you pray, right? But you learn also in winning but you learn also when you don't win. You learn why and everything. And I believe sometimes there is more valuable lesson when you're short of winning because in a way you know you got a room for improvement.
Other than when you win, sometimes that's dangerous too because you feel like you're perfect, you feel like you got it. So you just have to accept that everything that happens is for your improvement and then just move life.
And then you got to share something. Sometimes there's a lot of also when you study, example in basketball, good players that have never been champed like John Stockton, Patrick Ewing.
And for us to have world champion title, it's like you really have to be happy and thankful for the universe or for it was given to you. You were blessed by it.
Yeah, that's awesome. I'm glad you mentioned that. And you know, it's true. We want to stay balanced on that. One man that really impressed me last year was, well, there was two. The first one was LeBron James. He became the scoring title champion.
I love that we're on basketball right now, by the way. That's my sport. So LeBron James, he became the scoring title champion, but there was an underlying story that was happening because of it. And that was Shaquille O'Neal was starting to really regret the fact that there were years in his career when he did not take his conditioning seriously.
And he knows, he feels very strongly in his heart that he could have been the scoring title champ had he just taken better care of his health. And I thought it was awesome to have both be able to learn from the person who's actually been able to do it,
but also have a leader with the humility to admit that they didn't do what it took to get to that level, but they've still made such a great life for themselves. They're still a great icon. He's still done amazing things. Shaq has. And these principles just remind me a lot of, rather your story reminds me a lot of those principles and those people.
So I gotta ask, what powerful lesson can other visionaries learn from your experience, Bernard? Well, I'll go back to Shaq. I love Shaq. He's my idol also. He's a good person. I never met him, but I just read about him, watched him.
Hopefully someday I meet him. Anyway, if he said that, then maybe he didn't give it all, you know. So that's why. And I think one of the lessons when you're doing your journey is, I think we should give it all at that moment.
So we can say that whatever the result, you gave your best. So that's one. Second also, I realize that our daily routine will say what happens in our future. We'll see what will happen tomorrow.
And if you want an easy life, you have to do the hard part now so you have an easy life later. If you're doing the easy part now, I guarantee you, you will have a hard life later.
That's just the law. Everybody reap what we sow. So it's a cause and effect. So again, our daily routine will dictate what's happening in our future. So we have to be mindful of it.
Absolutely. For anybody who wants to study more on that, the law of the harvest is ultimately what Bernard's talking about. And cultivating the seeds you plant today are going to grow and bear the fruits of what you receive tomorrow.
I'm a big fan of the concept as well. Bernard, I'm going to pull up your bio real quick. There's some elements of your vision that I think would be awesome to talk about. Anybody who's watching right now, you're welcome to pause the screen and take a look at this and see what all's in this amazing bio of what Bernard's chosen to plant through life.
Some of the elements that I wanted to dive into though were this high-rise opportunity that you have in Panama as well as the coffee shop and the coffee business. Are those two things you want to talk about?
Yeah, we can talk about that.
Okay. Which one do you want to start with? Your pick.
Well, the coffee. The coffee and then the housing business.
Let's talk about the coffee brand.
Yeah. So the coffee, we're bringing the coffee experience, the drinking with good quality beans. So our beans is from Panama. And Panama is a good source of coffee beans. It's between two oceans.
And it was harvested on top of the mountain where the soil is very fertile and there's lots of volcanoes.
So among, I think it's in Google also that one of the best coffee beans is a Geisha bean coffee in Sin, Panama. I think the record is sold $10,000 a pound.
Whoa.
Anyway, those are good sources of coffee beans because the soil is rich, the temperature is okay, and we're bringing that to the customer so they can experience good quality coffee.
Interesting. And does Mendo Coffee have a website yet?
I have to double check on it. I'm sure we discussed it, we are working on it, but I didn't get to know it right now. But I can go back to you later.
Yeah. Well, we might reproduce the episode with some visuals from some of these images, these visions. That way the visual people have the chance to see what this looks like.
One, what the coffee fields look like, that'd be cool. Also, what the brand is going to look like and how that works. Are there Mendo Coffee shops open right now?
In Panama, there is one about to open. And in Silver Lake, Los Angeles, we're about to open too. We're just hiring the staff.
When are they opening?
Hopefully December.
Alright, cool. That's coming up. Right in time for Christmas. So that'll be fun. Good season to be opening a coffee shop. And then what about the high rises? Tell me about those.
Well, we have a 180 acre land in Panama. And I'm just part owner. I don't own everything. I just put money on a company. And we make houses. It's like a small city for people who don't have houses.
We make it in a good quality. We studied everything. And it's very low cost also. Very good value for the price. It's a good price for the quality. It has good value.
So we're able to deliver 80 to 100 units already sold and delivered. And we're making more. So that's what we do there in Panama. But it's like, I think, 7 years, 10 years plant.
And it's gonna go a long way to them as we improve ourselves too. I'm sure we will learn to do it more better as we do.
Sure. But I love that you're not letting the newness of it hold you back. It would be common for people to just say, I'm not qualified to do this. I don't have the skill set so I'm not gonna try. But you guys are making it happen.
That's mind-setting. Once you think you can't, you're right. And once you think you can also, I think you're right also. So whatever you think you're right, better think you can and try it and learn something harder than not trying.
That's right. Go Henry Ford. I'm a big fan of the quote. Awesome. So I wanted to ask a little bit more about your investing. So you mentioned you invest in people who are good communicators and people who are happy at what they do. They have that passion, that drive.
If somebody were one of my vision pros, let's say somebody came on this and they saw that you're an angel investor and they wanted to gain your attention to invest in their brands, would you invest in somebody like that? Or is there a specific niche or background that you want somebody to have that pre-qualifies them for receiving investment?
Normally, we have to check on the stuff and I have to talk to the person like we're talking now. And then I get to ask more questions about the business once I see it. Then I will get to know if he's equipped to do it.
Sometimes if I really like the person, I would re-equip him. I would say, I like you, we're gonna do this journey and I feel like you need this on certain angles and stuff.
Which I believe I have a very good intention also of helping and I want good things to everyone. So what I suggest is a good thing rather than a bad thing. But I have to look at it because resources is scarce.
Once you commit, you have to follow through. I can't be committing just to everyone. Especially when you say, we're gonna do it. When you say you're gonna do it, it's like you're gonna do it for life.
It's not like you're gonna do it for 10 months because when you commit something, you commit for life. So there. That's how we do it.
I'm gonna share my screen one more time. I would love to talk a little bit about your genealogy. You mentioned it in your bio. I thought that was fantastic.
Back to your bio. It says, a sports model, entrepreneur and global investor Bernard Chong comes from the prestigious Chong family lineage, which owns several businesses in the Philippines including the popular sportswear and apparel brand World Balance. Chong immediately entered the family business as soon as he finished his education and took his business expertise to the industry he's most passionate about, international gaming.
So World Balance, is this a family owned company? Yes. Is this the right one? Yes, that's the right one. Awesome. Do you mind talking a little bit about the brand?
Yeah, that's the most famous local shoe brand in the Philippines. The biggest shoe brand in the Philippines. That word, Balance. It was founded by my grandfather and my father at the same time.
That's awesome. How many years has your family been running this? Well, the factory started officially in 1965 but the brand World Balance was 1976, more or less before the 80s. So it's like almost 50 years or close to 50 years.
Hello. Wow. Yeah, yeah. That's awesome. You said, and I'm sorry, the internet kind of cut us off a little bit. Did you say your grandpa and grandfather? They started together?
Yeah, my father and grandfather. We started it together. It was supposed to be a factory of making shoes and believe it, we started, when Nike brand, we started producing Nike brand in Philippines, our factory.
And Mr. Philip Knight himself went to Manila to talk to my father and from there, he gave my father options to continue it with them or buy the brand because we licensed the Nike there for ourself and we create our own.
And my dad said, we better start our own brand for, you know, we have the liberty to do everything because that's our own brand. So that's the path that we choose.
Sometimes I joke around that if you partner with Philip Knight, Mr. Philip Knight, and maybe we're part of Nike also in Philippines, but you know, decisions are made and that's the path made father took and we're happy about it. We learned so much also by having our own brand.
Absolutely. Now, was that before the Air Jordan shoe came out or after?
Yes, because I believe the Air Jordan was when Michael Jordan was a rookie, right? And that was something 80 plus, 87, 86, 84, 85. I'm not sure about the dates.
Sure, somewhere in there.
Something like that. But the word balance brand was started 1970 plus. So it was 10 years before Michael, 10 years before Nike became big.
Right. That's cool. I just watched that movie a few weeks ago.
Yes, yes.
That's fresh on my mind. Man, that's awesome. And so your family business and your family ties, how much has your family had an influence on your path as an entrepreneur?
They have big influence. They shaped me a lot. Most person, kid, childhood experience has big impact to how they grow up. That's for sure.
And I was blessed again that my father and my mother was business people and they made me see what's in-store experience is when you're the owner of the store, where you're behind the cashier desk, counting change, making sure that the change is right manually, you know.
And seeing customers and able to safeguard the stocks, no tap, and stuff. Customer service too. When they ask for sizes, they check if there's defects, you know, and stuff, how you communicate with them.
I think a lot of my sales experience has got to do with how I deal with people. And I'm very blessed that that's a good training for me.
I believe people who are successful one with another is having a relationship skill, you know. Because when you're doing business, your source of money is in your relationship.
People who like you, people who you like too, that's where you sell. You sell to people who you like and people who like you. Your supplier would be someone you like too. They can be suppliers if you don't like them.
So your customer, your supplier, the money coming in and the money going out to and also your employer are all relational stuff. And you learn relation skills in sales.
So I can say that if you meet people who are successful, most probably they have good relation skills also.
Yeah, I agree with that. And so what roles did your mother play in entrepreneurship? Did she have her own business as well outside of that or was she part of the world balance?
My mom was a support. My dad was the one who's leading the shoe brand before and my mom support my dad. And it wasn't like a very good journey.
Like any business you have up and down, up and down. But my mom supported my dad all the way through thick and thin.
Oh, that's amazing. And it's a good thing also now that if you're looking for a partner, you're looking for someone like your mom too who supports you when you're up and when you're down and who's always been with my dad, whatever my dad did.
It's like you're the leader, you're the breadwinner, then I support you whatever the result is too. So it's good. Again, it's a blessing that I got my both parents alive and I get to witness how they live and the results of it.
So dad, mom, thank you. Appreciate this.
That's awesome, Bernard. So I got to ask a question for the younger folks out there. Maybe for those who are also on their second or third try, what do you look for when you're trying to find somebody who will support you like that?
Well, normally you have to be in line with what you believe in. So I mean, generally I think all people are good people. But there are some certain stuff where, for example, they believe in fast growth.
So they believe that culture should adjust to fast growth. And that's just an outlook of a certain individual. And there are certain individuals too also would say, no, culture is the main thing and you grow slow.
I can say that both are correct. It's just their preference, right? But then again, if you're not aligned, you'll have arguments with this. And sometimes it's good if you can prolong also that you have growth and culture and you can maintain the relationship of their sticking on you.
So you maintain balance and that's good if you can, if you have that skill. But if you don't, then you'll be siding with just all growth, which is eventually you really have to get back and fix your culture too.
Because that's how it is. It has to be growth and culture at the same time. But if it's just all culture too, then your business will be slow as turtle and it will not grow because culture sometimes prevents speed.
So the way I look at it is you really do left and right, left and right. It's like, all right, we're the team, we're gonna do growth now and culture has to adjust. And then later, all right, we're growing now, we have to make our foundation solid again.
So we gotta implant this culture and stop growth first. And then once it's solid, we grow it again. It's like a switch between all right, growth, all right, then culture, all right, growth, and then culture. Then you find balance in it.
Nice. I like that. It's a lot like walking. You're left and then you're right, you're left and then you're right. You can't just do one or you're hopping along less effectively. So that's cool. I hadn't thought about it that way.
So your dad, what roles did he play in the company? What types of hats did he wear?
Oh, my dad was the problem solver. He was the really head of the company and he raised us three children, raised us well, and he takes care of his siblings also. So he has brothers also who depended on the brand.
And right now, we're still okay. I think we were in better shape than before. So I think my dad laid good foundation out of it. And I think all my dad's friends are still his friends, so they speak good about him.
When I was starting also my career outside the shoe, because I did sales also in some stuff, my dad's friend helped me a lot. And that one really helped me grow also.
My training, also one of the training I got from my dad was in people skill. Always read so you learn something. So when you talk to people, you got to share something that they might not know and they might appreciate it.
That came from my dad. And until now, it's in my core that I get time to read stuff and when I talk to people, what I learned I share. That's what my dad. But also, I want to build a good relationship too with everyone I come across with because I got kids.
And I want my kids to, you know, when they talk to my kids or my kids reach out to the people I know, they will say, let me help you. I know your father and he's probably a decent person or a good person.
It's not like I'm doing this because I want them to help back or everything, but it's just how life works. You do good. People want to do to give it back to you.
I have about 20 more questions for you, but we've got about two more minutes.
I want to go into what are your strengths and weaknesses as a CEO. I want to go into what have you learned as an investor. There's a lot, but Vision Pros, Bernard has honored us tremendously with his time and I hope that you've taken good notes and just seen opportunities to connect. Some of the lessons that he's talked about as well as some of the familial strengths that he's had.
If you don't have that familial strength or that background, then my invitation is to you to look for people who can start to supplement that role.
You know, they don't have to necessarily, my dad wasn't quite in the picture and if he had been more in the picture, it probably wouldn't have been a good thing.
But I drew on the strength of parents, dads at my church and I was very grateful that my mom had that cornerstone for me and neighbors also, their dads became important to me.
So you've got a lot of opportunities out there to find people to learn from and if you happen to have a family of your own, be your best self.
Rely on prayer. Do some of these things that Bernard's talking about and Bernard, you're welcome to share one final thing. If you had one final thing you could share with the Vision Pros audience, what would it be?
Always your mind. Always make it active. That's your greatest weapon. So you observe people you hang out with by what they say, what they do, how they act.
And also you can see where they're going through. You can envision that and if you like them, do the journey with their life. And if not, then let just let them be and find yourself people who's in line with where you're going with life.
That's very important to kids. That's very important to us people. That's also very important. So we just have to keep our senses open, observe and make decisions that we're giving time to people we like and we like to become.
Awesome. Vision Pros, definitely check out the progress of brinceedfoundation.org. And Bernard, if they want to get in touch with you, if somebody wants to reach out, what's the best way to do so?
There's the website of, you know, the Foundation website and I have my social media also.
Where are you on social at?
I have Instagram and Facebook.
That's right, the Instagram, of course. So, Graham, him, and of course you can try to reach out on Facebook as well. Bernard, it's been a pleasure. Thanks for being on Vision Pros Live. And hopefully we will have you back soon. It'd be fun to follow up on some of these visions.
Okay. Thank you, Jackson.
Thank you for being here today. I'm really happy that you tuned in to Vision Pros Live. I'm looking forward to seeing your reactions as these episodes continue to move forward. This is going to get more and more fun. We'll have more and more engagement as well. We'll invite people to participate in the show. And thank you for giving us your time and attention.