Book Review: The Wealth Dragon Way by John Lee and Vincent Wong

Con Artists and Bullies. I have a 4-word review for The Wealth Dragon Way: The Why, The When, & The How To Become Infinitely Wealthy by John Lee and Vincent Wong.

Nope.

Nope nope nope.

That sums up my view of this book. If that sounds redundant, well I’m sorry, but so is their book.

We learn from the introduction that authors Lee and Wong started out as poor children of Hong Kong immigrants to the UK, but through spending money on classes on how to make money from real estate, plus careful readings of Guy Kiyosaki’s Rich Dad, Poor Dad, they each bootstrapped themselves up to a position of giving classes on how to make money from real estate.

This book, one realizes quickly, is a companion to these classes.

Now, I’ll admit from the beginning that theses types of ‘how to make money from real estate’ courses always get my hackles up, smacking as they do of snake oil and hucksterism, similar to Secrets of The Millionaire Mind by T. Harv Eker.[1]

But I plunge onward, hoping for some insights to accompany the salesmanship.

Oh the clichés!

On one typical page titled “The Learning Curve” Lee and Wong serve us inspiring thoughts by Malcolm Gladwell, Bruce Lee, and Rocky Balboa (in particular the Rocky III with Mr. T version). On the next page we read hot takes on Steve Jobs, Sun Tzu, Bill Gates, and Mark Zuckerberg. Is there any cliché they will leave unturned?

In Chapter 8 we learn that fear is holding back many people, and that we all have to overcome our fear.

In Chapter 9 we read stories of people who have suffered from the ‘rat race’ of working for a salary.

In Chapter 10 we get prepped to work hard.

Finally, in Chapter 11, we will learn how to become “Infinitely Wealthy.”

Ideas for Infinite Wealth

The first piece of advice, obviously, is to buy property for rental income. I am not surprised, since these guys are in the ‘classes on how to buy real estate and get rich’ business.

The second piece of advice: Start trading currencies. Oh, no. Please no.

The third piece of advice: Become a niche micro-brand expert, like a mascara specialist via Youtube vidoes. Ok…maybe. I guess?

But perhaps you should read on, because their secrets to building passive income through purchasing real estate surely is next? Don’t worry, I already read it for you, to save you the time.

In Chapter 13, we learn that the key to successful real estate investing is to purchase properties below their value. That sounds good! Unfortunately, it’s actually kind of hard to buy property below market value, as markets tend to be more efficient than we think. But still, they advocate – numerous times – to always buy property below market value. From there they mention the importance of generating leads, speaking with sellers directly, and making sure the bank valuation is high enough to extract equity after loading up on debt.

Lease Options

One of the two authors, Vince Wong, explains that his further secret to success is the “Lease Option,” in which he takes over a set number of mortgage payments of a (presumably desperate) homeowner, in exchange for an option to buy their house at a set price in the future. This kind of strategy works in an environment of underwater sellers eager for a way to avoid foreclosure or bankruptcy. If the property recovers its value, the option-holder has the right to purchase a property. It’s not a terrible idea if you’ve got a access to a wide range of desperate sellers. Wong claims he built a massive pipeline of desperation and I don’t have reason to doubt him.[2]

Desperate customers

This, we learn toward the end of their book, is the real key to the authors’ real estate successes. Their niche, I assume, works just as well in attracting students to their ‘how to get rich with real estate investing’ classes.

As the third leg of their marketing pitch, this book is built around the same type of customer as their students and property sellers.

 

Editors addendum: After I wrote this post, the vast majority of commentary I received – by people who have been taken in by their live course – has confirmed what I thought about their book. Cliches, inappropriate financial strategies, marketing gimmicks, up-sell tactics preying on the financially vulnerable.

Their tactics actually are worse than that though.  They have a litigious approach to criticism, threatening and initiating lawsuits against people who find their courses bad, bordering on fraudulent. They go after people who have the audacity to let others know what they experienced. So, add bullying to the list of ways in which everyone should avoid these folks. Bad news all around.

 

 

[1] Eker’s book, which is apparently quite famous and often appears on the lists of best personal finance books (!), even has specific advertisements/coupons/come-ons to his ‘get rich’ classes printed on the cover.

[2] Except why spend one’s time giving “pay us to learn to get rich buying real estate” classes? I guess that’s the point from which my real prejudice derives. If real estate is so damned profitable, what is the point of teaching other people your tricks?

 

 

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15 Replies to “Book Review: The Wealth Dragon Way by John Lee and Vincent Wong”

  1. I paid several thousands for a business course in 2015. . Don’t do it! Con artists. They made lots of promises what they could do for my business to make me sign up. Salesmen. That’s how they’re rich – it’s similar to a pyramid system, where they become rich from getting money from gullible people like us who believe. I feel sorry for the people that they’ve screwed. They encourage people to get into debt, particularly the desperate and vulnerable. Promise dreams and they make expensive, unrealistic suggestions – they don’t know about other businesses but property. Don’t do this! I know lots of people who regret it.

    They make an offer that they’re selling these courses at a substantial discount on the day. And limit this to around 50 places to get people to sign up.

    It’s immoral, unethical. Don’t make promises you can’t keep. People feel cheated afterwards, especially people who don’t have much money and see a negative ROI after a year. They carry on cross-selling other courses to you.

    They introduced Forex too – promising to make you financially free.
    Not just me, but many people are disillusioned….

    This is why Wealth Dragons have disabled all their comments – because people are writing in. Beware of them all!

    People start off optimistic, believing anything is possible. They just receive generic, terrible advice which is not suited for their business. They then get disappointed and drop off, realising they’ve been conned.

    Now they are travelling to developing countries to earn money off them, and promising poor, desperate, vulnerable people to part with their cash and live the dream. These people’s dreams will be shattered, and they’ll feel cheated, and there’s nothing that they can do.

    Other complaints: https://groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/john-lee—property-millionaire-secrets-bootcamp-2010/4w9WMW8Jqlw

    I would rather not give my name out, but I know other people who have been disillusioned.

  2. Avoid these people… The big scam brother John Lee, the family is greed. I have been to the free seminar and then end up enrolling onto their course… FOREX and property, not worth it at all. You then end up paying more and more.

    I have been to the FOREX ELITE course and the original price was 1299£, and they offered me for 399£ and it was not worth it at all. She teaches SNAP BACK strategy, her own and not recommended at all.

  3. I was introduced to John Lee and Wealth Dragons by Shaa Wasmund, at one of her paid business events I attended.

    I signed up for one of his course as he promised me that he had access to a consultant for my business and that it wasn’t a problem for him.

    When I attended the course, he said that because I don’t have a following, his consultant couldn’t have a look at it.

    Another friend of mine told me she paid for an event a few years ago – they cancelled it – she couldn’t get her money back. They never answered her emails.

    They changed the course dates so a friend of mine couldn’t attend and asked for money back and this was within their cancellation policy. Took her months to get it back too.

    Do be careful. I think they get referral fees from each other. I’ve lost trust with Shaa Wasmund now.

    They get rich from exploiting us and selling us a dream that it’s possible.

    They will tell you to get more products and services which are expensive from several hundred to a grand – from their friends. As a start-up which is self-funded – people don’t have the funds.

    I paid 1k for 4 sessions with John Lee, and shared them with 5 others, having half an hour to myself. That’s £250. It wasn’t value for money – I didn’t realise I would be sharing the sessions – that wasn’t clearly communicated.

    You have to deliver value for money. That wasn’t. You can’t expect start-ups to keep spending thousands of pounds.

    Ultimately, they are sales people and will say anything to clinch the deal. Beware! They make it seem easy – just believe it’s possible and do what u want – and tell your story. They will ask you to pay for more and more products and services, making u believe that u will have success.

    In reality – it’s if your product is finished and if there’s a demand for it.

  4. Hello I hope this manages to help people. I to signed up to all this. Nearly cost me £3000 I was totally brain washed into believing that through them I to would become this millionaire just by following them.

    They would say things like, pay this money and you will become financially free.
    Yes it’s true, you go on one course for the day free, then you end up signing up to the 4 day boot camp and then their elite thing which costs £20000 its compltly crazy.
    I actually signed up to the £20000 thing.
    I don’t have any money to put down on the day but some people where putting down £5000.
    They make out this is an on the day offer and it’s a here and now thing.
    Who ever said they make money from coning people is spot on.

    Lucky I tell my husband everything, he made me see what they were doing was a con. I contacted the bank and they helped me recover every penny.

    Remember the whole thing is misleading and if you can prove this, which it won’t be hard you will get your money back.

    By the way they have people in the audience that work for them, they make out they are there but really they are like secret agents trying to gather information.

    As for them CX dates. Think of it as a kinda lucky escape. Lots of people that go on them end up spending £3000 for the next course then £20000 for the one after that.

    The thing I have worked out you don’t get nothing for free, you make your own money in life, don’t give it to them to make the rich.
    I really don’t know how they are still going.
    What I’ve noticed following them is that they are a but like a limited company that goes bust, they keep changing their limited company name.
    One min wrath dragons , Then health dragons , Next it will be money dragons.
    they are always looking for another avenue.
    I hope this helps and if anyone can, call the bank, get your money back. ?

  5. Don’t pay money, very over priced courses. Alarm bells should go off when he brings on charities, brags about his wealth, talks about famous friends, uses terms like financial freedom OPM (other peoples money), lease options, stories that he wants to give knowledge to make a better future for kids. then offers big discount.

    1. He has been doing this for a very long time, and been getting away with it for many years. He tells people to focus on positive, and forget negative, so people don’t listen to warnings. listen to every one here! There is a reason why they go their way to post here!

  6. Finally some truthful reviews for this company. I went to their forex event in 2015. At the time there were no online reviews on the company so it was hard to know whether I was doing the right thing. I paid £300 after a “limited spaces” pressure sell tactic (heavily discounted from £2000).

    I have to say the 3 day course was shockingly bad. It was only one day of useful trading information spread out over 3 days. The rest of the weekend was crammed full of upsale talks. They promised to teach us many stretegies but only taught one which was broken up and spread out across the whole 3 day event. On day 2 and 3 they literally held us to ransom; making us attend from 9am to 7pm, listening to their various other upsale pitches. They finally gave us the last bit of information on the strategy in last 2 hours of day 3.

    The whole weekend was about upsales. The main upsale was a £9000 elite forex course – fair enough. Im open to hearing about upsale pitches as a company needs to make its money but it really was overkill. They kept giving more talks and upsales for business events etc.

    The quality of the course which we were actually there for was very bad:
    – No structure
    – They didn’t use presentations
    – No printed notes were provided
    – They didn’t allow pictures but we able to film us the whole weekend for their own marketing purposes
    -They were not upfront about how long they were going to keep us each day. As a result many people who came from outside London had to leave early to catch trains.
    – Many people who were interested in the main upsale had to miss parts of the course to attend an “interview”
    – Crucially, they didn’t spend enough time talking about the risks of forex. Risk management was covered but not well enough

    For £300 there was some value in the course as the one strategy taught was quite useful but their courses are absolutely not worth their original prices so dont waste your money. I would have been extremely dissappointed if I had paid £2000. I am mainly critical due to the poor quality, lack of integrity and lack of respect for people who had paid to learn something but for the most part were not getting what they had paid for.

  7. 1. They don’t really make promises “what they could do for my business” but rather tell what can be achieved if you follow different strategies that they teach. Obviously, you still have to do the work yourself, they don’t do it for you.

    I completed paid 3-day business course last April because it’s useful for my consulting business. People, who had specific questions about their businesses, raised their hand and asked their questions, and they were answered. Some of them asked multiple questions and even found potential clients for their businesses right there in the room, which was a nice bonus for attending.

    It looks like Lara misunderstood the offer when she booked the course, they don’t do stuff for you, they teach how you can do it yourself. I think that in order to help someone who has specific issues in their business you have to have 1-on-1 consultations, many of them. Even the best conference won’t be able to solve specific issues that we have, it’s unrealistic expectation, in my opinion.

    2. Sophie couldn’t have signed up for the £20000 thing because there’s no such thing and never was.
    The highest price is for the one week long Speaker training in Bali, Indonesia, that has a lot of stuff included in the price, it’s like a holiday and training all-in-one, and even that one doesn’t cost £20000.
    I am surprised that some people post their comments and have no clue how much they paid, if anything at all? Hmm…

    3. Forex lady left them almost 2 years ago, she was pretty and her presentations were easy to understand but I personally never liked her.
    Some people made money after her training, some didn’t, it’s forex, it’s risky, it’s not for everyone.

    Conclusion: pay attention to the offer, know what exactly you are paying for, read small print, ask questions, have realistic expectations, no one is going to build or grow your business for you.
    Don’t be shy and network with as many people as you can at the event, you can easily meet potential clients, business partners and even make friends for life.
    Raise your hand and ask questions, that’s what paid events are for.

  8. I immediately smelt a rat once Darren Winters was introduced to the audience. John Lee I could relate to, he spoke of using SEO, Youtube, Instagram etc to boosts ones audience and I could not vault his points, however the upselling and pressure offer that would expire if you did not leap up to the credit card terminal were very off putting. If people actually know what they want out of social media, it’s all free on Youtube – there are many great “how to videos” explain step by step. Facebook has Facebook Blue Print (like FaceBook Uni) again all free educational content om how to leverage and use FB for your business. So why anyone would pay John Lee good money to show them is beyond me.
    Getting back to the Forex chap Darren. It was clear as day that he was out to find people with little or no financial common sense. Promising returns of 180% made by investor X and investor Y who double his investment in 3 months. I was embarrased for him, all name dropping, he’s been coached by every big wig on Wall Street and his daily fee for 1 on 1 is £30k and here the man is pitching to house wives and vunerable people. When most fund managers can’t out perfor the market how is anyone going to learn in 3 days how to protect the downside. It’s all crazy examples of how other people he’s coached are living the life. Oh this only takes 30 minutes a week to set up your trades….. sounds way to good! It’s all very manipulative and pretty well marketed BS.

  9. Let me get this straight- if you see his Instagram followers and Facebook followers- I can easily smell that he bought a lot of likes and followers. The engagement comments he gets in Facebook is very low in comparison to number of likes. You know you have companies who you can pay and get instant likes and followers in any pages. That’s what he did initially and Leveraging that to promote the hell out of himself.

  10. This is so true. He is a good speaker and a very shrewd sales guy but his delivery of his promise is so poor. Almost 60-70 percent of the people who have attended his courses have regrets doing it. I have spoken to few of them and none of them have anything good to say about his courses. He charges a lot of money for social media courses etc but you can actually get more value from the courses of people who actually does social media day in day out for other clients and it is much more affordable. Those people are real gurus because they do it for others and hence can give more actionable advice rather than from a person who just does it for himself.

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I founded Bankers Anonymous because, as a recovering banker, I believe that the gap between the financial world as I know it and the public discourse about finance is more than just a problem for a family trying to balance their checkbook, or politicians trying to score points over next year’s budget – it is a weakness of our civil society. For reals. It’s also really fun for me.

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