"My Talent"

On April 26, 2017 at a World Intellectual Property Day function, I sang and played my songs to entertain guests. My performance was very well received and my fans posed for photos with me. I exchanged name cards with many people.

Days later, someone followed up, suggesting that I could help expand his company's business operation in Mainland China. I was curious about his company's challenges and agreed to meet. As I researched on his company's business model and value proposition before the meeting, that someone called in to advise that he would introduce to me another someone: "as talented as you"!

That made me even more curious about the meeting as I would like to learn about "my" talent to be shown by somebody else. At the meeting, another someone was direct and urged me to do something right away, but I responded with challenging questions. Through the courteous but hard talk, I learned from the horse mouths what their company's business was all about.

Their company is using a 12-multi-level marketing strategy, recruiting new members in some jurisdictions to sell, apparently, dietary supplements. Legitimate multi-level marketing (ie revenue streams not solely from members' payments) is not illegal in Hong Kong, but such multi-level marketing is illegal in Mainland China under the "Regulation of Direct Sales and Regulation of Chuanxiao" 2005. As compliance is the key to any business, there is nothing I can help on that score.

What I could help, from their perspective, was for me to become their new member in Hong Kong, and invite more people to join their business forming further multi-level relationships. Although the another someone remarked that I looked "40-50 only", I was not persuaded, as their self-regarding business goals did not tally with mine. Furthermore, I was very disappointed to find "my talent" shown by that someone amounted to some hard sell!