WEBVTT - Building From the Ground Up: NNG Capital Fund 0:00:00.760 --> 0:00:04.760 For Fukuan Blal, CEO of the nerg Capital Fund. He 0:00:04.800 --> 0:00:07.600 still remembers the two thousand and eight housing market crash 0:00:08.080 --> 0:00:09.119 like it was yesterday. 0:00:09.720 --> 0:00:12.360 I came home and me and my wife actually was 0:00:12.360 --> 0:00:14.840 in our room and she had the news on, and 0:00:14.880 --> 0:00:16.560 she was like, oh my god, do you see what's 0:00:16.560 --> 0:00:20.120 happening to market? This is crazy. Brokers were calling me saying, hey, 0:00:20.160 --> 0:00:22.000 the deal is going to close. The bank pulled out. 0:00:22.000 --> 0:00:25.120 I'm like, what is going on? And then overnight, boom, 0:00:25.280 --> 0:00:28.080 the lights just went out, just like that. I was like, 0:00:28.120 --> 0:00:30.480 the rug got pulled from under my feet. The banks 0:00:30.480 --> 0:00:33.320 stopped lending. I had deals literally at the closing table, 0:00:33.400 --> 0:00:36.120 lined up the clothes, and all the funding got pulled. 0:00:36.800 --> 0:00:40.920 So when they stopped funding the closing, my business was 0:00:40.960 --> 0:00:41.680 on standstill. 0:00:42.240 --> 0:00:44.440 You took all the losses two million dollars of your 0:00:44.479 --> 0:00:45.480 own money out the door. 0:00:45.640 --> 0:00:46.200 Absolutely. 0:00:51.080 --> 0:00:54.760 Welcome to the Unshakables from Chase for Business and Ruby 0:00:54.840 --> 0:00:59.520 Studio from iHeartMedia. I'm Ben Walter, CEO of Chase for Business. 0:00:59.200 --> 0:01:02.320 And I'm Tanyannie Well, a lawyer and consultant for business owners. 0:01:02.440 --> 0:01:05.520 We're sharing the daring stories of small business owners facing 0:01:05.520 --> 0:01:08.720 their crisis points and telling the stories of how they 0:01:08.800 --> 0:01:09.520 got through it. 0:01:10.040 --> 0:01:11.440 Hey Tanya, Hey Ben. 0:01:11.520 --> 0:01:14.400 I think today's episode is really inspirational. There's so much 0:01:14.440 --> 0:01:17.160 to learn from Fukuan, how he's persevered in life and 0:01:17.160 --> 0:01:19.280 in business, and how he's using his company to give 0:01:19.319 --> 0:01:20.240 back to his community. 0:01:20.480 --> 0:01:23.200 Can't wait to hear this one. 0:01:22.640 --> 0:01:26.479 On today's episode. An MG Capital Fund from Newark, New Jersey. 0:01:29.280 --> 0:01:31.000 Now here's a little behind the scenes about the show 0:01:31.040 --> 0:01:33.280 for you. We recorded a lot of this in New 0:01:33.360 --> 0:01:35.480 York City, but Fuquan is from Newark, which is only 0:01:35.520 --> 0:01:38.280 about thirty minutes west of here. Now the Newark from 0:01:38.280 --> 0:01:40.600 when Fuquan was growing up, it looked a lot different 0:01:40.600 --> 0:01:41.399 than it does today. 0:01:41.800 --> 0:01:44.480 If you can remember early eighties, it was a lot 0:01:44.520 --> 0:01:46.440 of drugs an the area. To walk out your door, 0:01:46.440 --> 0:01:49.480 it is crack bottles, dope, syringes. But we were sheltered 0:01:49.520 --> 0:01:51.920 from that from my mom putting us in private schools. 0:01:52.000 --> 0:01:54.600 My mom was a single mom of five kids when 0:01:54.640 --> 0:01:55.160 I grew up. 0:01:55.240 --> 0:01:59.360 Remember having candlelight dinners because the powers out having no electricity. 0:02:00.040 --> 0:02:02.440 Fukuan's mother had cleared a safe path for her children, 0:02:02.840 --> 0:02:04.720 and while he didn't fully realize it at the time, 0:02:05.160 --> 0:02:07.640 she'd also given him the foundations to one day start 0:02:07.640 --> 0:02:08.440 his own company. 0:02:09.639 --> 0:02:12.000 When we were younger, my mom would take us to 0:02:12.520 --> 0:02:15.720 Chinatown to get the scarves, hats, gloves, and then we 0:02:15.720 --> 0:02:17.880 would go back to Noork at the bazaar and we 0:02:17.919 --> 0:02:20.280 would sell them. Me and my younger brother would sit 0:02:20.320 --> 0:02:22.720 there and sell items from the table, and every one 0:02:22.760 --> 0:02:24.880 hundred dollars worth of the items we sold, we would 0:02:24.880 --> 0:02:27.639 get twenty five dollars and pretty good margins. Yay, yeah, yeah, 0:02:27.639 --> 0:02:29.639 Well she was flit the profits with us fifty percent, 0:02:29.880 --> 0:02:30.560 and I loved it. 0:02:31.760 --> 0:02:34.240 Fuquan knew he liked talking to people, but he didn't 0:02:34.240 --> 0:02:36.680 think a ton about starting a company someday. For him, 0:02:36.680 --> 0:02:37.880 it was more about making money. 0:02:38.880 --> 0:02:42.000 My first real sales job was in telemarketing, and that's 0:02:42.040 --> 0:02:43.840 when I learned what they say, you had the gift 0:02:43.840 --> 0:02:47.040 the gab. So within six months I went from starlin 0:02:47.080 --> 0:02:49.560 on the phone making minimum wage to having the night 0:02:49.600 --> 0:02:52.040 shift as a manager, to be in a direct. 0:02:51.720 --> 0:02:53.040 That seals for this company. 0:02:53.440 --> 0:02:55.880 But he saw a cousin of his in arch Nemesis 0:02:56.040 --> 0:02:58.600 his words, not mine, making a ton of money working 0:02:58.639 --> 0:02:59.679 solely for himself. 0:03:00.000 --> 0:03:01.520 He was started offrom real estate before me, and I 0:03:01.560 --> 0:03:03.840 remember him doing a deal and making like forty fifty 0:03:03.880 --> 0:03:05.880 thousand dollars something like that, and he was like, I 0:03:06.000 --> 0:03:07.720 make more than you, and you working for the man 0:03:07.760 --> 0:03:10.600 and everything else. So I started to shadow home around 0:03:10.600 --> 0:03:12.760 and speak to contractors and I was like, Wow, this 0:03:12.800 --> 0:03:13.480 is really great. 0:03:14.200 --> 0:03:16.880 So Fukwan quit his job and started working at his 0:03:16.960 --> 0:03:20.240 cousin's business full time. His role was to consult with 0:03:20.280 --> 0:03:24.280 prospective homeowners and build a network of potential buyers. To 0:03:24.320 --> 0:03:26.760 get people in the door, he would hand out flyers 0:03:26.760 --> 0:03:29.800 for free seminars where he'd teach aspiring homeowners about how 0:03:29.840 --> 0:03:33.640 to qualify for loans and earn passive income for mental properties. 0:03:34.120 --> 0:03:36.080 It made him feel good to pass along what he 0:03:36.120 --> 0:03:38.360 had learned about real estate from his cousin to his 0:03:38.400 --> 0:03:39.200 own community. 0:03:39.640 --> 0:03:41.720 We was never taught financial literacy where I grew up 0:03:41.760 --> 0:03:44.480 at let alone, you know how to qualify for home right, 0:03:44.520 --> 0:03:47.120 it was only for middle class and upper class people. 0:03:47.600 --> 0:03:50.280 So being able to do that value add and give 0:03:50.360 --> 0:03:53.160 that back to the community from education I knew, and 0:03:53.200 --> 0:03:55.360 nobody was doing that. Nobody was coming to the hood 0:03:55.480 --> 0:03:58.720 so to speak, and educating people on how they can 0:03:58.800 --> 0:04:00.280 get a foot in and get a lake up. 0:04:00.320 --> 0:04:01.200 So it felt good. 0:04:01.240 --> 0:04:03.400 That was what gave me my full of the importance 0:04:03.720 --> 0:04:06.360 educating the community on what they can do to have 0:04:06.440 --> 0:04:07.720 financial freedom. 0:04:07.880 --> 0:04:11.120 And his seminars they were working. He was helping dozens 0:04:11.120 --> 0:04:13.560 of people learn how to become first time home buyers 0:04:13.600 --> 0:04:16.599 and passing along those connections to his network of realtors 0:04:16.600 --> 0:04:20.000 and loan officers, and timing was on his side. Around 0:04:20.000 --> 0:04:22.719 this time, banks had made it really easy for folks 0:04:22.800 --> 0:04:25.320 of all financial backgrounds to qualify for loans. 0:04:26.839 --> 0:04:30.599 The banks were literally approven any and everybody, so it 0:04:30.720 --> 0:04:34.200 made it easier for people to qualify. So you would 0:04:34.279 --> 0:04:37.159 actually go out to a seminar and educate people, and 0:04:37.200 --> 0:04:39.599 then people would take the leap forward and take action, 0:04:39.760 --> 0:04:41.400 and then that would spread like wildfire. 0:04:42.680 --> 0:04:45.159 He was also helping his cousin's company fix up and 0:04:45.200 --> 0:04:48.840 flip properties for profit. He focused on reinvesting in his 0:04:48.880 --> 0:04:52.720 own community, Newark, New Jersey, where he grew up. How 0:04:52.720 --> 0:04:55.159 did you make that happen in a way that was sustainable. 0:04:55.640 --> 0:04:57.480 There were a lot of dilapidated properties, a lot of 0:04:57.480 --> 0:05:01.280 burnt out properties, vacant properties, and it was just a 0:05:01.279 --> 0:05:04.080 war zone pretty much. So being able to start going 0:05:04.120 --> 0:05:06.760 and repair properties block by block and bringing the community 0:05:06.800 --> 0:05:09.320 back gave us an opportunity for the town to get 0:05:09.320 --> 0:05:11.960 properties back on the tax road and give the residents 0:05:12.000 --> 0:05:12.920 a better place to live. 0:05:14.560 --> 0:05:17.800 And it wasn't just properties. Fu Quan also gave formally 0:05:17.839 --> 0:05:20.520 incarcerated people jobs that they usually couldn't get. 0:05:21.600 --> 0:05:22.480 Growing up in NewYork. 0:05:22.560 --> 0:05:25.160 These were the people that were in my community, friends 0:05:25.320 --> 0:05:28.479 and family members of course, who ran the streets and 0:05:28.520 --> 0:05:30.280 got involved with the wrong thing. And I know these 0:05:30.279 --> 0:05:32.560 were good people, right, there's good people in bad areas. 0:05:32.560 --> 0:05:35.320 They just caught up from what's happening in the community. 0:05:35.400 --> 0:05:38.120 So for me, it was an opportunity to kind of 0:05:38.200 --> 0:05:41.680 throw the lifeboat in, right. So hiring these people gave 0:05:41.720 --> 0:05:45.359 them more of a chance to be employee, first of all, 0:05:45.520 --> 0:05:48.159 and have the confidence that they actually can do something 0:05:48.200 --> 0:05:50.599 besides being in the street doing the wrong thing. 0:05:51.720 --> 0:05:54.440 After a few years, Fuquan and the business were doing great. 0:05:54.600 --> 0:05:56.800 They had a solid customer base, they were giving back 0:05:56.800 --> 0:06:00.279 to their community, and they were financially stable. One was 0:06:00.320 --> 0:06:03.159 riding high until one day something happened that changed the 0:06:03.200 --> 0:06:04.640 direction of his life forever. 0:06:06.680 --> 0:06:09.680 So it was my cousin's birthday and the day before 0:06:09.720 --> 0:06:12.640 we were actually visiting a lot of construction sites, and 0:06:13.120 --> 0:06:15.280 we were talking about a celebration party he was going 0:06:15.279 --> 0:06:17.760 to have the next day. Then the next day came 0:06:18.000 --> 0:06:19.840 and he came to the office and said, you know what, 0:06:19.920 --> 0:06:21.880 I'm not going to work the full day. Let's make 0:06:21.920 --> 0:06:25.040 payroll early. So we did that. He left for the 0:06:25.120 --> 0:06:27.560 day and I stayed to work and then I saw 0:06:27.640 --> 0:06:29.800 someone just walk past the office and I'm like, well, 0:06:29.839 --> 0:06:32.599 we're closed today, who can this bee? And I saw 0:06:32.680 --> 0:06:34.440 this shadow walk past the door, and I got out 0:06:34.480 --> 0:06:36.400 to approach the person to figure out, you know, who 0:06:36.480 --> 0:06:38.920 they were looking for. And by the time I walked 0:06:38.920 --> 0:06:40.880 out the door, the gentleman was turning back around and 0:06:40.880 --> 0:06:43.120 I just said to him, Hey, who are you looking for? 0:06:43.400 --> 0:06:45.840 And a guy turned around and looking for you. Boom 0:06:45.880 --> 0:06:48.600 boom boom boom boom shot me five times. 0:06:48.920 --> 0:06:49.520 Oh my god. 0:06:50.120 --> 0:06:52.960 And I had to play dead actually for him to 0:06:53.040 --> 0:06:55.000 actually stop shooting. I like lay it on my back 0:06:55.120 --> 0:06:57.760 and then he ran off out the door. And it 0:06:57.800 --> 0:06:59.640 was such a rush I was able to jump up. 0:07:00.120 --> 0:07:02.839 Adrenaline was going in down nine one one. I just 0:07:02.880 --> 0:07:05.320 remember being in the back of the ambulance and going 0:07:05.360 --> 0:07:06.720 to a university hospital. 0:07:10.880 --> 0:07:14.000 The surgery was extensive and after he was stitched back up, 0:07:14.120 --> 0:07:16.920 Fuquan was in the hospital for a week, he went 0:07:16.960 --> 0:07:19.760 home and that's where he stayed for the next six 0:07:20.000 --> 0:07:21.280 months while he recovered. 0:07:21.640 --> 0:07:24.000 For me, it was at six months of healing, it 0:07:24.200 --> 0:07:27.080 was a lot of self searching and just went more 0:07:27.160 --> 0:07:30.080 deeper within, kind of separated myself from a lot of 0:07:30.080 --> 0:07:33.480 different people and figure out how can I add more 0:07:33.560 --> 0:07:36.480 value to my life and started to build the journey 0:07:36.480 --> 0:07:36.840 from there. 0:07:37.440 --> 0:07:39.320 For most people it would have been very easy and 0:07:39.400 --> 0:07:42.960 certainly understandable to slip into why me, why now self pity, 0:07:43.400 --> 0:07:44.240 But not Fuquan. 0:07:44.880 --> 0:07:46.480 I think that was the best thing that happened to 0:07:46.520 --> 0:07:49.840 me because it really taught me to real value of life. 0:07:50.200 --> 0:07:53.040 And at the time I didn't have kids, and it 0:07:53.080 --> 0:07:55.800 really made me appreciate the simple things that people don't 0:07:55.840 --> 0:07:58.360 even pay attention to every day, like tiny shoes, right, 0:07:58.440 --> 0:08:01.680 So I started to appreciate the simple things in life. 0:08:02.560 --> 0:08:04.400 I'm going to pause for a second because I to 0:08:04.400 --> 0:08:06.120 hear that story and then say someone say that's the 0:08:06.120 --> 0:08:08.640 best thing that ever happened to me is pretty astonishing. 0:08:08.920 --> 0:08:10.080 Well, it's a life lesson. 0:08:11.800 --> 0:08:14.640 Fuquan and his girlfriend decided to get married and start 0:08:14.640 --> 0:08:18.200 building a family. The aftermath of the shooting also changed 0:08:18.240 --> 0:08:19.400 how he did business. 0:08:19.680 --> 0:08:20.880 That kind of went into a shell. 0:08:20.920 --> 0:08:23.800 I couldn't trust anybody around me, so I disconnected from 0:08:23.840 --> 0:08:26.160 my business partner and started my own venture and started 0:08:26.160 --> 0:08:27.000 to go off of my own. 0:08:27.920 --> 0:08:31.080 The company did exactly what Fuquan was doing before, but 0:08:31.200 --> 0:08:34.080 this time he owned one hundred percent of it. Though 0:08:34.120 --> 0:08:36.800 he'd still be flipping homes. He wanted to do things 0:08:36.840 --> 0:08:38.280 differently from his cousin. 0:08:38.960 --> 0:08:41.600 And then started to focus on business from there, and 0:08:41.640 --> 0:08:43.600 how can I structure a business where it was a 0:08:43.600 --> 0:08:47.520 lifestyle business? And I really wasn't killing myself, so to speak. 0:08:47.600 --> 0:08:49.160 And that's when the light bulb went off, Hey, have 0:08:49.280 --> 0:08:51.040 you build your own construction team. 0:08:51.240 --> 0:08:52.240 You can control more. 0:08:52.160 --> 0:08:55.079 Costs and that way you've been do less and still 0:08:55.080 --> 0:08:57.960 make more profit and still have a quality life. 0:08:58.640 --> 0:09:01.000 Luckily, he had a large client list from working at 0:09:01.040 --> 0:09:03.840 his cousin's company and running the seminars for so long, 0:09:04.320 --> 0:09:06.240 and by the end of his first year he had 0:09:06.280 --> 0:09:09.080 a portfolio of thirty properties that he had flipped and sold. 0:09:09.960 --> 0:09:13.199 He reinvested any profit he made right back into the business. 0:09:14.240 --> 0:09:17.240 I was hungry. I had something to prove I had life. 0:09:17.280 --> 0:09:19.199 I knew the meaning and value of life, and I 0:09:19.280 --> 0:09:21.200 knew that I had a purpose. And in fact, I 0:09:21.240 --> 0:09:24.440 did more deals that year than I did the year previously. 0:09:25.360 --> 0:09:27.800 The real estate market continued to boom. 0:09:28.080 --> 0:09:31.120 It started to develop fast because I had a lot 0:09:31.160 --> 0:09:34.120 of people my network who were looking for houses. I 0:09:34.160 --> 0:09:36.600 had a lot of people who wanted to sell me houses. 0:09:37.200 --> 0:09:39.480 I had lenders who wanted to loan me money. So 0:09:39.559 --> 0:09:42.160 I started to put all those pieces to the puzzle together, 0:09:42.679 --> 0:09:45.080 and that's where my business really started to accelerate. 0:09:45.320 --> 0:09:48.040 He also took the opportunity to diversify the business. 0:09:48.400 --> 0:09:52.040 I had a transportation business. I had a here studio 0:09:52.120 --> 0:09:55.040 with twenty five cheers. So I was using real estate 0:09:55.280 --> 0:09:57.840 to kind of fund other businesses. I had a car wash, 0:09:57.920 --> 0:09:59.319 all these business at the same time. 0:10:00.000 --> 0:10:02.440 Majority of what he did and his passion was still 0:10:02.520 --> 0:10:05.040 real estate. By the end of that first year of 0:10:05.080 --> 0:10:08.199 setting out on his own, he was a millionaire. Things 0:10:08.200 --> 0:10:10.360 were great, but he wondered if it was all too 0:10:10.440 --> 0:10:11.240 good to be true. 0:10:12.280 --> 0:10:15.480 It was unbelievable. It was mind blowing for me because 0:10:15.640 --> 0:10:18.640 where I came from and where I was at the time, 0:10:18.720 --> 0:10:20.920 it was almost like a dream. But it was scary 0:10:20.920 --> 0:10:22.880 too at the time, because you would see people just 0:10:22.920 --> 0:10:25.920 getting into business and taking off, and I was like, okay, 0:10:26.120 --> 0:10:28.079 this is too easy. And when I was speak to 0:10:28.120 --> 0:10:29.679 the loan offices, they would tell me, hey, they got 0:10:29.720 --> 0:10:32.079 stated programs out. People just need the state how much 0:10:32.120 --> 0:10:33.720 they make and they qualify. And I was like, well, 0:10:33.720 --> 0:10:36.000 they don't do like income verification, they don't do any 0:10:36.040 --> 0:10:37.960 of that, and no, they just fell out the information 0:10:38.040 --> 0:10:38.760 how much they make. 0:10:39.600 --> 0:10:40.560 Something is not right. 0:10:41.000 --> 0:10:43.520 Unfortunately, Fuquan's instincts were right. 0:10:46.080 --> 0:10:49.080 I left the salon and I came home and me 0:10:49.120 --> 0:10:51.800 and my wife actually was in our room and she 0:10:51.920 --> 0:10:53.800 had the news on and she was like, Oh my god, 0:10:53.880 --> 0:10:56.120 do you see what's happened in the market. This is crazy. 0:10:56.559 --> 0:10:58.840 Brokers were calling me saying, hey, the deal is going 0:10:58.920 --> 0:11:00.559 to close. The bank pulled out. I'm going to switch 0:11:00.600 --> 0:11:02.320 it to another bank. I think I could make it happen. 0:11:02.720 --> 0:11:04.760 Then two days later, this bank pulled out, and I'm like, 0:11:04.800 --> 0:11:08.280 what is going on? Things started to tighten up, but 0:11:08.360 --> 0:11:12.520 I was sitting on a lot of inventory and then overnight, boom, 0:11:12.679 --> 0:11:15.320 the lights just went out, just like that, and then 0:11:15.559 --> 0:11:19.120 everything just froze. It started to be a downward spiral 0:11:19.160 --> 0:11:19.760 from there. 0:11:20.960 --> 0:11:24.160 The global financial crisis. Now most of you will remember 0:11:24.160 --> 0:11:26.000 it well, but just in case you don't. For some reason, 0:11:26.360 --> 0:11:29.000 in two thousand and eight, the entire housing market went 0:11:29.080 --> 0:11:31.079 under and financial markets were in upheaval. 0:11:31.720 --> 0:11:33.800 I was like the rug got pulled from under my feet. 0:11:34.040 --> 0:11:37.000 The banks stopped lending. I had deals literally at the 0:11:37.000 --> 0:11:39.920 closing table, lined up the close, and all the funding 0:11:39.960 --> 0:11:42.880 got pulled. And during that time I was just flipping properties. 0:11:42.880 --> 0:11:44.079 I had no cash flow. 0:11:44.400 --> 0:11:46.920 It was just by fixed cell, by fixed seal, so 0:11:46.960 --> 0:11:48.959 I had no income coming in from rental properties. 0:11:49.000 --> 0:11:52.680 So when they stopped funding the closing, my business was 0:11:52.720 --> 0:11:53.920 on standstills and I. 0:11:53.880 --> 0:11:56.040 Stuck with These properties were sort of mid. 0:11:55.920 --> 0:11:59.080 Renovation, absolutely, and then values dropped. Fifty percent. 0:12:00.120 --> 0:12:03.760 Of the twelve properties Fuquan's company had in closing, nine 0:12:03.800 --> 0:12:07.000 of them fell through. Fuquan owed his lenders money for 0:12:07.040 --> 0:12:09.960 every property he was renovating. He sold off all of 0:12:10.000 --> 0:12:12.840 his other businesses, the car wash and the transportation company 0:12:12.880 --> 0:12:15.959 to fund those properties. And still it wasn't enough. 0:12:16.840 --> 0:12:19.040 You took all the losses, two million dollars of your 0:12:19.080 --> 0:12:22.920 own money out the door. Absolutely, His accountant advised him 0:12:22.920 --> 0:12:24.000 to file for bankruptcy. 0:12:24.559 --> 0:12:26.000 I said, I'm not going to do that because I 0:12:26.040 --> 0:12:28.000 had some investors that is still with me today that 0:12:28.080 --> 0:12:31.240 believe and said, well, you have our money from our ira, 0:12:31.400 --> 0:12:33.920 our retirement. You know what's happening while everyone else was 0:12:34.000 --> 0:12:37.160 not paying. I stood tall fire, sold the properties, paid 0:12:37.200 --> 0:12:38.600 them back, and I took the loss. 0:12:39.559 --> 0:12:42.880 Ben Wow, Fuquan loses two million dollars of his own 0:12:42.880 --> 0:12:46.680 money and still decides to go against his accountant's advice 0:12:46.760 --> 0:12:49.440 and not declare bankruptcy. I think that was a really 0:12:49.480 --> 0:12:50.120 bold decision. 0:12:50.200 --> 0:12:52.120 Yeah, I suppose it was bold, but it's easy to 0:12:52.160 --> 0:12:54.199 say that now. You know. Everything looks good in hindsight, 0:12:54.240 --> 0:12:55.880 but it must have been terrifying at the time. 0:12:56.200 --> 0:12:58.520 I want to make sure that we circle back to 0:12:58.559 --> 0:13:01.439 this part of the conversation because this is something that 0:13:01.520 --> 0:13:04.320 so many business owners have to think about. You know, 0:13:04.360 --> 0:13:07.040 they might disagree with how Lukwan handled it, but I 0:13:07.160 --> 0:13:09.000 want to make sure we talk about this later. It's 0:13:09.080 --> 0:13:10.600 way too important to miss. 0:13:10.840 --> 0:13:12.600 But taking back to the story. 0:13:14.080 --> 0:13:17.240 Like for so many others, Fukuan had to completely change 0:13:17.280 --> 0:13:19.800 his way of life after the crash. He sold his 0:13:19.840 --> 0:13:22.600 single family home and moved into one of the apartments 0:13:22.600 --> 0:13:25.720 his company had been renting out with his two young sons. 0:13:26.200 --> 0:13:29.920 So I moved from a five bedroom, four bathroom house 0:13:30.640 --> 0:13:33.960 to a two bedroom, one bathroom apartment. So I did 0:13:34.000 --> 0:13:36.559 what I had to do to cut my expenses down 0:13:37.040 --> 0:13:39.640 to survive through it. You know, for a couple of years. 0:13:40.040 --> 0:13:43.400 At any point along this series of woes, did you 0:13:43.440 --> 0:13:44.319 think about giving up? 0:13:44.559 --> 0:13:47.320 No, Because for me, it was I fight better with 0:13:47.320 --> 0:13:50.760 blood in my mouth. Right, It's I grew up through adversity, 0:13:50.920 --> 0:13:52.800 So growing up through that was really made me who 0:13:52.800 --> 0:13:55.880 I am today. So going through that, especially after getting shot, right, 0:13:56.080 --> 0:13:58.720 you get shot five times and you still live, It's like, Okay, 0:13:59.000 --> 0:14:00.400 what's next? 0:14:01.480 --> 0:14:05.080 What's next? Was well a lot of thinking. You see, 0:14:05.080 --> 0:14:07.319 the real estate market would be frozen for a few years, 0:14:07.400 --> 0:14:10.319 and for Kwan was now divorced, his entire life and 0:14:10.360 --> 0:14:11.960 his business had to pivot. 0:14:12.559 --> 0:14:14.839 I remember sitting on my bed watching the silling fan, 0:14:14.960 --> 0:14:16.680 swinging around like, you know, what am I going to do? 0:14:17.120 --> 0:14:20.080 Because real estate was my identity and that's all I knew. 0:14:20.120 --> 0:14:22.600 I didn't know anything else, and that time was really 0:14:22.680 --> 0:14:24.560 quiet time for me, and it was time for me 0:14:24.640 --> 0:14:27.000 to go within. During that time, I learned the only 0:14:27.040 --> 0:14:29.240 way that my business is going to grow is when I. 0:14:29.200 --> 0:14:33.360 Grow amazingly enough. Just like getting shot. Fuquan considers the 0:14:33.360 --> 0:14:35.520 global financial crisis to be one of the best things 0:14:35.560 --> 0:14:36.880 that ever happened to him. 0:14:37.200 --> 0:14:40.160 That was the second pivotal moment in my life that 0:14:40.440 --> 0:14:42.160 I look at that as something that was a blessing 0:14:42.200 --> 0:14:45.280 that happened as well, because at the time I worshiped money. 0:14:45.600 --> 0:14:47.360 I was a slave to it, and I thought that 0:14:47.560 --> 0:14:50.040 was the value. So until you learn when you don't 0:14:50.040 --> 0:14:52.360 have it, where the really value is. I learned that 0:14:52.720 --> 0:14:54.680 the true wealth it was within and it really value 0:14:54.760 --> 0:14:57.160 was in family. I spent a lot more time with 0:14:57.200 --> 0:14:59.760 my kids, becoming the best father I can be, and 0:15:00.240 --> 0:15:03.200 that's what really build a stronger foundation. So this helped 0:15:03.240 --> 0:15:05.720 me see that you can get to the other side. 0:15:05.720 --> 0:15:07.240 You may have to jump through a couple of hoops 0:15:07.240 --> 0:15:09.480 with fire, but the other side is they're waiting for 0:15:09.520 --> 0:15:10.600 you if you're persistent. 0:15:11.360 --> 0:15:14.880 But the housing market wouldn't be recovering anytime soon, so 0:15:14.880 --> 0:15:18.240 he had to pivot once again. He learned about short sales, 0:15:18.440 --> 0:15:21.000 the process of buying foreclosed homes for less than the 0:15:21.080 --> 0:15:24.560 value remaining on the mortgage. Fuquan found himself a mentor 0:15:24.600 --> 0:15:27.280 who could teach him the trade. He decided to shift 0:15:27.320 --> 0:15:31.320 his business completely towards short sales. It became so successful 0:15:31.560 --> 0:15:34.560 that he started running seminars again to build an investor base. 0:15:35.760 --> 0:15:38.400 Before I was teaching people in the front part. Hey, 0:15:38.400 --> 0:15:39.800 this is how you buy a house. This is how 0:15:39.840 --> 0:15:42.040 you qualify, it's what you do, It's how you get tenants. 0:15:42.520 --> 0:15:45.000 Now telling people this is how you buy debt. You 0:15:45.000 --> 0:15:46.960 guys don't know about the debt business. Let me teach 0:15:47.000 --> 0:15:48.280 you about the debt business. You don't have to deal 0:15:48.280 --> 0:15:51.280 with no tenants, tallest trash, turnmites, you have to deal 0:15:51.320 --> 0:15:53.600 with any of that. You can help home uner stay 0:15:53.600 --> 0:15:56.280 in the house. You buy debt at a discount, And 0:15:56.320 --> 0:15:57.280 this is how it works. 0:15:57.920 --> 0:16:01.520 And in twenty thirteen, Fukwan decided to start Energy the 0:16:01.640 --> 0:16:03.120 National Note Group. 0:16:03.280 --> 0:16:05.680 And I said, I'm going to create a vehicle where 0:16:05.680 --> 0:16:08.600 I can raise capital, buy notes direct from the bank, 0:16:09.200 --> 0:16:11.760 sell some off to people who want to buy them, 0:16:11.880 --> 0:16:14.240 and work them out myself to make a great return. 0:16:15.000 --> 0:16:18.080 Four years into the business, Pukwan decided it was time 0:16:18.120 --> 0:16:21.520 to diversify again, so Energ started to do fix and 0:16:21.560 --> 0:16:22.200 flips again. 0:16:23.000 --> 0:16:26.440 Beyond that, and then in twenty nineteen, we started to 0:16:26.480 --> 0:16:30.760 do rentals. So now we have income from rentals, we 0:16:30.840 --> 0:16:33.040 have income from Fix and Flips, and we have income 0:16:33.080 --> 0:16:36.280 from the note business. So those three different verticals help 0:16:36.360 --> 0:16:39.880 us stay afloat, help us navigate the narrows, help us 0:16:39.920 --> 0:16:43.440 continue to be able to pivot. So, for example, if 0:16:43.480 --> 0:16:45.840 foreclosure happens again, the note business. 0:16:45.600 --> 0:16:47.520 Would be booming because banks would be selling debt. 0:16:47.640 --> 0:16:51.240 Right if Fix and Flips slowed down because interest rates 0:16:51.280 --> 0:16:54.400 are high, we have revenue coming in from multifamilies. Rent 0:16:54.600 --> 0:16:57.680 is not going down. Rent it's really expensive. Rent keeps increasing, right, 0:16:58.080 --> 0:17:00.600 So we have those three different verticals, and that keeps 0:17:00.680 --> 0:17:01.240 us aflow. 0:17:01.440 --> 0:17:02.520 In today's mark is. 0:17:03.480 --> 0:17:06.480 With Neng up and running, Fuquan could return to doing 0:17:06.520 --> 0:17:09.000 something that was at the heart of his business all along, 0:17:09.600 --> 0:17:10.280 giving back. 0:17:11.200 --> 0:17:14.280 So we raise capital from accredited investors, and then we 0:17:14.359 --> 0:17:17.360 take that capital and we invest it into our impact projects. 0:17:17.400 --> 0:17:20.439 So in the Southeast and Alabama and Georgia, we invest 0:17:20.480 --> 0:17:24.920 into a lot of the multi family apartment complexes, and 0:17:25.000 --> 0:17:28.800 we keep thirty percent of those communities with subsidized rants 0:17:28.800 --> 0:17:32.000 for their Section eight. Bad women and children, seniors who 0:17:32.000 --> 0:17:33.720 can't afford rent, bumps. 0:17:33.680 --> 0:17:35.640 For anyone listening who thinks you have to work all 0:17:35.680 --> 0:17:38.400 the time to win big take this lesson from Fukuan. 0:17:39.160 --> 0:17:41.920 His focus on himself and his quality of life has 0:17:41.960 --> 0:17:47.600 paid back big time for his business, and today he's 0:17:47.640 --> 0:17:51.080 doing more than ever before. The Energy Capital Fund owns 0:17:51.119 --> 0:17:53.920 twelve hundred properties, with a goal of getting to five 0:17:54.000 --> 0:17:56.800