Dan Lok is an accidental businessman. His first venture – which was a lawn mowing business – was a complete failure, and so were 13 other businesses that followed. In his 20s he found a mentor called Allan who made him work for next to nothing for a year. This is where he learned how to do copywriting & marketing. Dan fondly remembers this as his “million-dollar apprenticeship”. Not long after that, he started his own one-person advertising agency and began generating $ 10,000 dollars a month doing did e-bay, affiliate
marketing and click bank. He says that his success came about due to a combination of hard work and timing (this was when internet marketing was at its peak). Dan also spent a lot of time learning how to overcome his various insecurities, including getting on a stage to deliver a talk. In fact, teaching has become Dan’s biggest passion. He finds himself happiest when he is in front of an audience imparting his hard-earned knowledge and wisdom.
In fact, Dan recalls that one of his early dreams was to open a martial arts school, which never happened, but he does a lot of bigger things these days like teaching CEOs of million-dollar companies how to grow their 7-figure business to 8 figures. Dan’s mission is to impact 1,000,000 entrepreneurs worldwide thru his YouTube Channel, his books, his podcasts, his keynote speaking and his Vancouver Entrepreneurs meetup Group, which is a private mentorship group that he holds once a month with other entrepreneurs.
Dan and his parents came to Canada from Hong Kong when he was a young man of 14. He was only one of the three Chinese kids in school so he stood out in more ways than he would have wanted. Being very shy he attracted the attention of bullies and often got picked on by his classmates. Dan harbored so much fear and self-doubt that he would skip class whenever he had to do presentations. Life became even much harder for Dan after his parents got divorced two years after they had arrived. His father did send him and his mother a regular allowance but that had to stop after his dad’s business went bankrupt he got swindled by his business partner, who ran off with the company’s money.
This is when Dan suddenly realized that he couldn’t rely on anyone but himself. So he got his first job bagging groceries at the nearby supermarket. Money was tight for him and his mom. In fact, life had gotten so desperate that he would to go to a nearby bakery just before it closed at 6 pm so that he could retrieve whatever unsold goods baked goods were thrown into the trash can just so they could have something to eat. It was a life that Dan decided to turn away from permanently so he recalls making a decision during those bleak times to never be poor ever again. In fact, it’s a thought that he echoes now that he’s achieved success, which is that ‘motivation is good but sometimes, desperation is even better’.
Listen to Dan Lok when he goes onstage at TEDxStanleyPark (type in ‘George’ in the promo code box to get $ 20 off) on May 28, 2016, to talk about “Why Great Ideas Don’t Succeed”.
