Thanks for the clarity. Much appreciated.

Julie Decicco, Canada

Those student who wish to seek career guidance advice may contact us here.

The most important thing is to look at ourselves and become better. Only by becoming better we can do better. However, most people are looking outward for a solution to change the circumstances, instead of changing what's really important - themselves. By using Metaphysics arts like BaZi and Feng Shui, you can make a change in yourself, and when you become better, the environment will also improve. It's about the individual - we can make a change.

Don't let what you cannot do stop you from what you can do in life. Your top priority is to keep on learning. I shun the term 'master' because I consider myself an eternal student of life. We never truly master anything. Whether it is metaphysics or business, there are always new things to be learnt. In the 2014 - the year of the Horse, the element is fire. This energy will affect us in a spiritual - but not religious - kind of way. Elementally, people will be more drawn towards a sense of well-being more compared to industry or technology. So, those who are able to latch on to the main theme of wellness, and are aware of the trends, will reap the rewards.

ON THE STUDY OF CHINESE METAPHYSICS

BaZi, or Chinese Astrology, is the blueprint to understanding who you are as a person, your roles in life and your Destiny. By studying your personal BaZi Chart, you can find out your potential, weakness, talent, traits, personality, and luck cycles. In this sense, BaZi is always considered as the 'medication' or 'diagnosis' because it helps to identify the problem and create awareness based on what is lacking or areas that require your attention in life.

Feng Shui, an art of harnessing natural energy to boost one's luck in life, provides 'treatment' to the problems pinpointed by BaZi earlier. This method focuses on addressing the external environment - such as workplace or residence - that a person spends the most time in and make the right tilt to correct specific areas of one's life.

BaZi and Feng Shui work hand-in-hand in solving a person's problem. One detects the problems, the other provides a solution. And that is their main difference.

Of course you can. If you have read my Feng Shui for Homebuyers Series, you would have better ideas on how to perform a full assessment by yourself. Ensure you have a compass ready (You can use the digital version available in your smartphone) and the blueprint of your property printed out before you can start.

Here's a rough 101 to get you started: First, use your compass to determine the house direction and its façade. Next, assess the immediate external environment and look out for any negative features such as pylons and buildings with sharp edges. The next step can be a bit tricky because you need to know where the Qi flow is coming from and whether your property can receive this natural energy.

In conclusion, anyone can perform his or her own assessment provided that he or she is familiar with the processes and follow the right Feng Shui principles.

ON FENG SHUI ADVICE FOR HOMEOWNERS

This is a very popular myth in Chinese speaking community, and I have debunked it for many years as a Feng Shui consultant. First of all, in Feng Shui, number does not have any influence on the Qi or energy flow in a property. A house or a floor number is merely a representation of a building or floor and it doesn't have any solid impact on the Feng Shui of a property.

Look at it this way, do you expect anybody to stay on the 8th floor (In Cantonese, 8 implies wealth or prosperity) and become an instant millionaire overnight? That's illogical. The same goes with those who stay on the 4th floor. Rest assured that you will not experience instant bad luck or persistent inauspiciousness because of the negative connotation of a number.

If the house number does cause the occupants to feel uneasy - it is probably more of a psychological effect, rather than Feng Shui.

The three important areas of a property are the Main Door, Bedroom and Kitchen. Main Door is important because that is where the Qi enters the property. Hence it needs to be uncluttered, bright and is not affected by any external negative forms.

After the Main Door, the most important components of a property are the Bedroom and Kitchen. Why is kitchen important? It is in kitchen that the food is prepared. If your kitchen has stagnant or unhealthy Qi flow, it will affect the quality of food, resulting in bad health.

And of course, we need to ensure proper Qi flow in our bedroom because that is where we spend 1/3 of our lives in. Together these three areas make up the three important factors for interior Feng Shui.

This is an interesting question. We all know that water plays a major role in Feng Shui. As the Yang counterpart, water helps collect and gathers auspicious Qi to create a harmony balance in your property (from exterior to interior).

But to answer your question, no the number of fish, or any other aquatic animal, is not important. It's because in ancient times there was no electricity so fish were needed to make the water move! So don't be fixated with having only certain number of fish in your tank!

As long as your water feature has water that's continuously running or visible in a certain volume, you can activate, or collect certain types of Qi. Of course, location is important when it comes to water placement.

The importance of Main Door cannot be stressed enough. The Main Door acts as a Qi mouth of the property. As a rule of thumb, a good environment must be accompanied by a good Main Door or you will be simply wasting what is in the environment.

When it comes to Main Door, we are always more concerned about the Location, than we are about the Direction. Hence a Main Door with good forms (Good Location) is always preferred over a Main Door with a good Facing but affected by negative forms.

Other factors such as number of doors, the material, type and size are not important as long as your Door can receive sufficient Qi and has positive forms.

Where you want to put your bedroom depends on what you have outside - meaning what external natural features you can see from inside your bedroom. This of course brings us to the next question: what is a good natural feature and which one constitutes bad for our bedroom Feng Shui?

Usually, mountain and natural water bodies are considered the positive landforms you want to see outside the bedroom window. For example, if there is a mountain sighted from a room in the Southwest area of your house, generally this room is ideal and can be considered as a good spot for bedroom.

If you peek out from the bedroom window and see your neighbour's sharp roof or a pylon or a highway that is located too close to your house, these features might potentially interfere with the interior Feng Shui of the Bedroom.

What about basement? Can this underground space be converted into a bedroom? This depends whether the Qi flow and the ventilation are okay. If it feels like an underground car park, would you like to sleep there? To put it in another way, if you spend a lot of time there, you must ensure the ventilation is good.

Also, don't forget to check for features such as beams from the position of your bed. Although generally not advisable, in some cases it actually depends on the distance between you and the beam. If it's high, say more than 10 feet above, it's okay. Otherwise, covering the beam with a plaster ceiling will solve the problem.

A lot of people associate Feng Shui, or even Chinese Metaphysics, with religions and spiritual beliefs. But truth is, comparing Feng Shui with Spirituality is similar to comparing an apple and orange! Yes, there is no God in Feng Shui, no spirit… just natural environment.

Feng Shui actually utilises what we have around us - the environment. We tap the Qi and make use of the energies surrounding us to foster a positive change in our health, career, wealth and relationship. Think about it, how is it possible to change the course of your destiny - your entire life - by placing an inanimate object like the five-tiered pagoda, or in this case, the Ba Gua Mirror near the Southwest corner of your windowsill?

An altar, however, should be treated as an additional party of the household. When you position your altar in your interior property, you must position it in ways similar to positioning someone in the house, with the aim of receiving Qi. As such, an altar should always be placed in a room where the Qi is flowing.

Yes, of course. In fact, a house with good Feng Shui usually also ends up with equally good interior design (But of course, this also greatly depends on the skills and inspiration of your interior designer).

ON DATO' JOEY YAP'S PERSONAL JOURNEY STUDYING CHINESE METAPHYSICS

I always have had a soft spot for Feng Shui and Chinese Astrology since my schooling days. During that time, I learned the techniques and acquired the skills on and off - inconsistently. It wasn't until my university years (I was taking up a course in Accounting) that I started practising and taking my Feng Shui and Chinese Metaphysics knowledge into real-life application. I had several clients back then, and before I knew it, the client base started to expand and that's when I decided to make what I was doing my professional calling. You can say that I traded 'numbers and figures' for Feng Shui.

I think age is only a problem if I was practising Feng Shui in Asian countries. But luckily I started my practice in Australia, where there was less discrimination on age. More importanty, to gain the respect, I actually had to be proficient in what I do.

Here in Asia, it is hard for people to take you seriously when you're young and fresh in the business. It took me awhile to overcome the stereotype, and one of the things that helped me along the way were my clients. As they were mostly successful business people in their own rights, I took my initiative to ask them how to improve myself and manage my business. It wasn't easy for me, but I can say that it was a good learning experience that was essential for my success today.

It did not occur to me immediately that Feng Shui consultation was a good business idea - I just continued to do what I loved to do. Turning into a business was a natural progression of what I was doing. Bascially, the business itself embodies what I like to do: creating results and transforming lives. That's where I started to hire people, build a team, and develop my passion for Feng Shui and Chinese Astrology into a business.

Transforming lives and seeing the results of lives being transformed. Getting feedback from people whose lives have been improved is extremely rewarding and enriching for me.

When I first began, my main idea of starting a consultancy firm was not due to business reasons, but it was because I regarded myself as an artist. I have an art and I want to make sure people benefited from it while appreciating it as a form of art and knowledge. I want people to learn Feng Shui the practical way, where they can apply the knowledge and derive positive results for themselves. For me, this is what I enjoy doing the most - helping people realise their potential and guide them towards their path of least resistance to success.

There were many important advice that I received from many great teachers. I think the one that I can remember the most is a piece of guidance I received from someone I know. It says that there are two most important things in your life: the day you were born - which correlates with the BaZi study of uncovering your potential and talent through your date of birth - and why you were born - your purpose in life and the importance of creating this purpose, instead of finding it.

My other interests are to explore and see different parts of the world. I'm an andrenaline junky. Jumping off a cliff, heli-skiing and Great White Shark diving are all the extreme activities that I have personally done. Recently, I went to Africa (2013) to get 'up-close and personal' with the lions in the safari! It was a great trip.

ON THE BUSINESS OF THE CHINESE METAPHYSICS INDUSTRY

I've been practising Feng Shui since before I graduated from my accounting studies in Australia. So this was my first and only job. I never done anything else in my entire career except for this practice! And when I started getting serious about this business, I lack the business skills and tools to run it. Managing people, building a business and planning business strategies were never a part of my experience at all. Personally, that was my biggest challenge.

I'm grateful to have met many interesting successful people through my Feng Shui consultation experience over the years. Some of these clients have become good friends. Working with them, I get to observed how they run and manage their business. That's where I began to learn the nitty-gritty of building my own business and brand. This is what I also want to inspire in others to pursue as well: to discover their own talent and take the plunge and find their own success - and eventually happiness - in life.

After practising Feng Shui for some time, I realised that doing consultation alone would never get me far to the level of billionaires and tycoons whom I was helping. So it made me think: The only way to expand my consulting business was to leverage on other people through the transfer of knowledge and expertise.

This was unconventional because traditional Feng Shui masters were very secretive, choosing only to disseminate certain information to selected students they find worthy. So my approach was to amassed all that information and through trial and error, and my own research, create a body of knowledge that would be better at disseminating the knowledge. That's where the Mastery Academy of Chinese Metaphysics was established. We quickly gained a reputation for being a legitimate service and, through an academy, trained our own students. They have the option to choose to join our professional consultancy or head out on their own.

While others in the Feng Shui business would offer just a consultation, we measured our results through follow-up programmes, making sure we were consistently producing results through adjustments and client feedback. Our results speak for themselves, as would the testimonials from our clients. Our methods were better compared to others. This helped built our credentials.

Yes, but often, I would only plot the BaZi Chart of candidates who are inclined to take up an important position or title within my company. For mid-level or junior executives, our Human Resourse Department will plot the BaZi Charts of potential candidates and assess their personality and traits.

The way I study the BaZi Chart is also completely different than what most people would do. Most people look for the compatiblity factor in their business partner or in someone they are inclined to work with. I don't look at compability; I focus on competency. There's a big difference there. You can be compatible with someone, but it doesn't mean that person could be competent in the job as well. For me - and I believe I'm speaking for most people in the business world - we look for people who are competent and has the aplitude and character to do the job.

To be honest, it's not really a secret. I apply the techniques of Feng Shui and BaZi that I teach and apply for others to myself. Feng Shui has smoothened out my path and BaZi allowed me to work with the right people, making it easier for me to achieve the desired level of success.

This doesn't mean I'm free from obstacles along the way. In my seventeen years of experience, I had faced plenty of mistakes and challenges, and finding my own way to overcome them as I progressed. But I notice most people don't talk about the mistakes they make; only the success they have achieved. I believe mistakes are also one's stepping stone to success.

The same theory applies in Feng Shui too. Many people are not concerned about the mistakes they make in applying Feng Shui. But I find it important to know what doesn't work before I source out the right technique that will ultimately produce solid, desirable results in life. Part of my job is actually to tell my clients which Feng Shui techniques that will not work for them, despite how powerful these techniques may sound. It's important to me that they can take these techniques home and apply them to produce successful results.

Yes, it has. I set up a consulting firm to address real business problems and provide real business solutions to clients. I believe my company were the pioneers in the field. We use Chinese Metaphysics as a tool in our business to diagnose and provide business solution. The whole structured system that I built is meant to manage expectations and produce results in order for this art and science to gain the rightful respect it deserves. Also, over the years, the perception from the society has changed and people are more accepting to using alternative methods for their business.

Our business provide a wide range of consultation service for our clients. This may include Feng Shui, BaZi Astrology or other form of Chinese Metaphysics - whichever we see fit or can fulfil their expectations. Our practice is farfetched from the old perception of Feng Shui consultation, where a Master, upon completing his or her job, will receive a token of appreciation, usually in the form of ang pao (red packet) from the client. That's not what we practised in our business.

In our business, there are generally five stages for a full consultation:

a. The Assessement Stage - We will assess the client's property or workplace or a piece of land and advise the client on the potential of the property as well as its drawbacks.

b. The Audit Stage - This is where we provide recommendations or ideas on how to best use this piece of property based on the client's date and time of birth, the BaZi Chart of whoever is using the property or land.

c. The Research Stage - After accumulating all the information, we will research to find out more information on the physical site and come up with the suitable formula to apply. A written report will be developed at this stage, which takes about two to three weeks to complete.

d. The Discussion Stage - This is where we will present our recommendations to our clients based on the Audit and Research we have completed.

e. The Follow-up Stage - This is the final stage where we inspect that the changes recommended are made to the property and that our clients are achieving the results. We get feedback from the client at this point and if needed, we would fine-tune our research and come out with better alternatives or 'treatment' for them.

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