- Dato' Yap shared forecasts for the Year of the Earth Boar and shed light on the global economic landscape of 2019.
- Auspicious dates to start work in 2019 were also highlighted – 8 , 11 and 12 February
- Yap collaborated with EZ-Link to release a series of limited-edition EZ-Link cards
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| Source: Joey Yap Group. The event in Singapore was sold out. |
On 13 January 2019, global best-selling author and fengshui expert Dato’ Joey Yap shared forecasts for the upcoming lunar new year with 5,000 people at his annual Feng Shui & Astrology seminar in Singapore.
The straight-talking expert engaged the audience at the fully-sold out ticketed event – where people were still asking about buying tickets during the breaks – with lots of practicality, humour, pithy Cantonese phrases and insights from fengshui, qimen philosophy, face-reading as well as his own experience of running a business.
According to him, the Year of the Earth Boar can be summarised into two words: stable progression. On a grand political and economic scale, sluggish development will likely be the theme for the first half of the year. However, things are anticipated to pick up towards the latter half of 2019, as investments in time and resources during the first half start to show tangible results.
Given that the vibrancy of the year favours the fire and water elements, industries that will do well include online retailing due to the mixture of fire element (technology/online) and water element (retail). Industries that emphasise high mobility including the water, hospitality, tourism and fast-moving consumer goods sectors, will see growing potential while the property market will face stagnation.
Prices are forecast to remain sticky while loans from financial institutions are scarce, impacting property purchases negatively. Technology companies are advised to work on securing their customer base in light of the tighter controls and governance being introduced to the industry.
With all these in mind, he advised participants to always fall back on their individual bazi (八字, literally eight characters) charts* so as to discern all obstructions in the next twelve months. The bazi chart shows the potentials possible, and is a guide on how external energies interact with personal characteristics.
For example, the Year of the Earth Boar is a vibrant year and the market favours the new and risky. If a person's bazi chart is dominated by the water element, the person will be able to handle the new, bold and risky. However, those that has little or no water at all will feel lost or umcomfortable. This can nevertheless be managed by an increase in self-awareness and willingness to accept change.
Dato’ Yap further highlighted auspicious dates for the year. Starting up the business in the new year is best on 8, 11 and 12 February.
According to him, the Year of the Earth Boar can be summarised into two words: stable progression. On a grand political and economic scale, sluggish development will likely be the theme for the first half of the year. However, things are anticipated to pick up towards the latter half of 2019, as investments in time and resources during the first half start to show tangible results.
Given that the vibrancy of the year favours the fire and water elements, industries that will do well include online retailing due to the mixture of fire element (technology/online) and water element (retail). Industries that emphasise high mobility including the water, hospitality, tourism and fast-moving consumer goods sectors, will see growing potential while the property market will face stagnation.
Prices are forecast to remain sticky while loans from financial institutions are scarce, impacting property purchases negatively. Technology companies are advised to work on securing their customer base in light of the tighter controls and governance being introduced to the industry.
With all these in mind, he advised participants to always fall back on their individual bazi (八字, literally eight characters) charts* so as to discern all obstructions in the next twelve months. The bazi chart shows the potentials possible, and is a guide on how external energies interact with personal characteristics.
For example, the Year of the Earth Boar is a vibrant year and the market favours the new and risky. If a person's bazi chart is dominated by the water element, the person will be able to handle the new, bold and risky. However, those that has little or no water at all will feel lost or umcomfortable. This can nevertheless be managed by an increase in self-awareness and willingness to accept change.
Dato’ Yap further highlighted auspicious dates for the year. Starting up the business in the new year is best on 8, 11 and 12 February.
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| Certain dates and times are considered more auspicious than others for beginning work for the first time in the year of the pig. However, these dates may be ineffective for those who have specific animals in their bazi charts. |
The Year of the Earth Boar is especially good for those who can provide clarity, associated with the fire element. Dato' Yap recommends thinking along the lines of a technology or framework that can help consumers verify a provider via their online footprints. Those born in the years of the monkey, horse, tiger and rabbit will also be exceptionally fortunate.
General predictions for 2019, the Year of the Earth Boar included:
Those who have pigs as part of their bazi
“Everyone is paying attention. This is your year to shine,” Yap said.
He explained that existing problems from the year before will see resolutions in the Year of the Earth Boar. “You're not going to have a year without problems,” he said. “As long as you are alive there are problems. But you want to have better-quality problems than the year before.”
An example of a better-quality problem, Yap said, is when he began his seminars in 1999 with an audience of eight – including himself, and a friend. This year, his seminar in Malaysia saw thousands of people and Singapore's event was sold out.
“Next year's problem is that I need a new place,” he said. “I'd rather have this problem than an eight-person problem.”
“(Pigs) need to be more forgiving, more compassionate - “then your problems are released,” Yap added.
Pigs could become famous or infamous in their year. “Be careful of your posts,” he warned.
Those who have snakes as part of their bazi
They will see change no matter what they do. Female noble friends (贵人), or people who are in a position to help them, such as a boss or a business partner, will be particularly helpful. Noble people, sometimes called benefactors, are able to provide invaluable help to individuals.
Monkeys
Monkeys should just eat and enjoy the year. If they do not, they lose out on the opportunity to meet people. “Make as many contacts (at this event) as possible – but (get in touch) only after February 4,” Yap told the audience, stressing that the predictions only take effect from the first day of the year of the pig, and will not have the same effect before.
Monkeys will attract a lot of people who are generally jealous of their good lives, Yap added. “Since you know that, you might as well party to the max,” he commented.
Rats
“Your job is to be used by others,” Yap said. “You can choose to be useful or useless. Which one do you prefer?
“If you are useful you are the noble person to other people.”
Rats will also be able to buy good properties and cheap, but at the standards of those who are billionaires or multimillionaires. Those who are not can still benefit. Yap said, “If you work for them you can fish these deals for your bosses, take a small cut; you know what to do.”
“Forgetfulness” is also something to watch in 2019, at least for rats. Those who are salesmen or brokers should be careful of ove-rpromising and under-delivering, Yap said.
Horses
Horses will be able to spot good deals for property. “(Whether you) can or cannot buy depends on whether you have enough funds,” Dato' Yap noted, advising those with horses in their bazi to work on partnerships so they can be in the best position to grasp a deal.
Rabbits
People will recognise rabbits for their expertise, if they are in the right place at the right time. “Do something that allows you to be famous, be seen,” Dato' Yap advised. As an example, if a rabbit posts a YouTube video, it has a higher chance of going viral, he said.
Roosters
Roosters will suddenly understand complex things more easily, Yap predicted.
For roosters, things will also tend to break down. “You conflict with items and equipment,” Yap said. “If your job and work heavily depend on tools, you should be careful.”
Goats/sheep
“If you want to learn anything associated with art, this year is the year for it,” Yap said.
Art does not necessarily mean the fine arts alone. Yap suggested that marketing, public relations, networking, presentations, and deal-making can also be arts. “You will master it this year,” he said.
Catching the opportunity is crucial mainly because the stars will not be aligned this way again for another 12 years, when the year of the pig returns, he said.
“Pick up a new skill or research. If you learn something new this year you get maximum benefit from whatever you learn. Learn something beneficial for your career; you can increase your income, your success rate,” he said.
Dogs
Dogs may become depressed, but can banish depression with forgiveness and kindness, Yap said.
“If you can forgive yourself and be kind to yourself, you will free yourself from inner drepression and unhappiness.”
“Karma is cause and effect. If you don't want the effect, remove the cause lah,” he advised.
Dogs will have to deal with above-average amounts of pettiness. “A lot of people will come in and they harbour hatred for you. You should also learn to forgive them in order to move on,” Yap advised.
Tigers
Tigers should learn something to do with business, though learning how to manage a business is important for anyone. “If you rise to (a) very senior (position you) have to know business...(this is) the best time to acquire knowledge about making money,” he said, pointing out that anyone who has to make decisions has to have business skills.
Those whose bazi contain all four animals – rooster, goat, monkey and tiger – will have to pay particular attention to personal safety, Yap said.
Roosters will find themselves near natural disasters, so should avoid dangerous places, while goats may see more physical injuries. Tigers will smash into things while monkeys will suffer cuts “here and there”.
On the subject of health, dogs will tend to be the first to get sick, while pigs may need surgery. Oxen should not attend funerals – not because they attract evil spirits as traditionally believed, but because they will likely catch any viruses that are going round.
“If you don't have the ox in the chart you can attend as many funerals as you want,” Yap said to laughter.
Snakes will be able to solve problems with existing illness. “This is the best year to do (surgery), it reduces potential problems at least by 50% or more,” he said.
In terms of directions, illness is based in the northeast in 2019. “If there are two or more illness stars in your (bazi) I would not suggest sleeping in the northeast sector. You could have a very long downtime,” Yap said. If however a bedroom is in the northeast but the sleeper does not have any of the illness stars, that is fine, he added.
Getting rich is easy, but staying rich is difficult. In the new year, monkeys can lose money, snakes have to spend money and rabbits should save money.
Yap said monkeys should be concerned with losing what they have obtained easily, in trade, partnerships and so on. “On the flip side you have something to lose,” he said.
Snakes should be prepared to spend a lot of money up front. Yap advised them to spend on experiences, but only after February 4.
Rabbits must save money. “It's good if you save 70% but 30% should be actively working hard for you,” he said, noting that it takes a long time for a nest egg to grow from savings alone.
Dogs must use money to serve others, so could serve the community by becoming a community leader, while dragons will be compelled to buy what they do not need. “It's going happen anyway - you might as well do it,” he said. “It doesn't mean you don't have money, (it's just that) there's a different way to treat your money.”
Questions at the event focused mainly on career choices, running the business and investments, though audience members also asked about improving health. Some of the insights Yap shared included:
Improving work-life balance – balance means stasis, while not being balanced means that there is progress towards a desired destination. “Balance is no good,” he said, illustrating his point with a stationary marker standing vertically versus one which is rolling on its side.
Yap advises getting paid more for work or being able to complete the same work more quickly by improving your value instead.
Relationship problems – these occur when you expect the other person to do something and they don't. Yap said that while such problems can be blamed on other things, such as a clash of bazi between a dragon and a dog for example, it is actually about unmet expectations.
“If your expectations are met, you will have longer-lasting relationships,” he said.
Social media – On a related note, Yap observed that “it's all so perfect on Instagram and on Facebook”, while viewers may wonder why their relationship and life is so much worse.
'(It) gives you an unreal expectation of what life should be,” he said. “The whole idea of Instagram and Facebook is to make other people jealous...but in reality their life is not like that.”
“If you want to make things good, be your partner's noble person,” he said, in a take of 'do unto others what you would like others to do unto you'.
Fame – Dato' Yap is a big believer in becoming more well-known. “If you can capitalise on your fame you save on many years of marketing,” he explained. “Fame allows you to enter into the minds of other people and own real estate space...if you own that space in other people's minds, you literally carve out your market.”
Academic merit – Academic prowess does not only refer to studies. For Yap, it is about graduating from the university of life and not “the university that you're studying in, with straight 'A's”.
“It's harder to graduate from life,” he said. “If you knew what you need to know, you'd already be there.”
As an example, he pointed out that the full-house event the audience were at required a lot of effort in the background, from building mindshare to having expertise to share. “To make this happen, (to get from) where you are to where you want to be, (this) needs knowledge,” he said.
Offerings to the god of wealth - the god of wealth is actually a star in the south, personified, Dato' Yap said. While the traditional way of welcoming the god of wealth is with a table of physical offerings, Yap says that it is all about balance.
“If you make a wish, ask for something, the spiritual contract says you must offer something,” he explained.
To request a specific outcome, such as to see sales increase by 30%, there must be efforts to get that 30% such as attending sales classes, or calling 10 people a day.
“Everything you put on the table is an offering.. you offer what you intend to do,” he said.
The idea is that while you can strive to conduct five meaningful conversations with people in a week to increase sales of a product, you are unlikely to be able to control whether they are fertile ground – people who like the product, or may be interested in it. This is where the god of wealth could come in.
“If you don't do your part then the god of wealth will not do their part,” he said. “If you intend to do nothing, I guarantee you won't get anything. Everything is an exchange of energy. Get something that the universe can provide you with.”
General predictions for 2019, the Year of the Earth Boar included:
Those who have pigs as part of their bazi
“Everyone is paying attention. This is your year to shine,” Yap said.
He explained that existing problems from the year before will see resolutions in the Year of the Earth Boar. “You're not going to have a year without problems,” he said. “As long as you are alive there are problems. But you want to have better-quality problems than the year before.”
An example of a better-quality problem, Yap said, is when he began his seminars in 1999 with an audience of eight – including himself, and a friend. This year, his seminar in Malaysia saw thousands of people and Singapore's event was sold out.
“Next year's problem is that I need a new place,” he said. “I'd rather have this problem than an eight-person problem.”
“(Pigs) need to be more forgiving, more compassionate - “then your problems are released,” Yap added.
Pigs could become famous or infamous in their year. “Be careful of your posts,” he warned.
Those who have snakes as part of their bazi
They will see change no matter what they do. Female noble friends (贵人), or people who are in a position to help them, such as a boss or a business partner, will be particularly helpful. Noble people, sometimes called benefactors, are able to provide invaluable help to individuals.
Monkeys
Monkeys should just eat and enjoy the year. If they do not, they lose out on the opportunity to meet people. “Make as many contacts (at this event) as possible – but (get in touch) only after February 4,” Yap told the audience, stressing that the predictions only take effect from the first day of the year of the pig, and will not have the same effect before.
Monkeys will attract a lot of people who are generally jealous of their good lives, Yap added. “Since you know that, you might as well party to the max,” he commented.
Rats
“Your job is to be used by others,” Yap said. “You can choose to be useful or useless. Which one do you prefer?
“If you are useful you are the noble person to other people.”
Rats will also be able to buy good properties and cheap, but at the standards of those who are billionaires or multimillionaires. Those who are not can still benefit. Yap said, “If you work for them you can fish these deals for your bosses, take a small cut; you know what to do.”
“Forgetfulness” is also something to watch in 2019, at least for rats. Those who are salesmen or brokers should be careful of ove-rpromising and under-delivering, Yap said.
Horses
Horses will be able to spot good deals for property. “(Whether you) can or cannot buy depends on whether you have enough funds,” Dato' Yap noted, advising those with horses in their bazi to work on partnerships so they can be in the best position to grasp a deal.
Rabbits
People will recognise rabbits for their expertise, if they are in the right place at the right time. “Do something that allows you to be famous, be seen,” Dato' Yap advised. As an example, if a rabbit posts a YouTube video, it has a higher chance of going viral, he said.
Roosters
Roosters will suddenly understand complex things more easily, Yap predicted.
For roosters, things will also tend to break down. “You conflict with items and equipment,” Yap said. “If your job and work heavily depend on tools, you should be careful.”
Goats/sheep
“If you want to learn anything associated with art, this year is the year for it,” Yap said.
Art does not necessarily mean the fine arts alone. Yap suggested that marketing, public relations, networking, presentations, and deal-making can also be arts. “You will master it this year,” he said.
Catching the opportunity is crucial mainly because the stars will not be aligned this way again for another 12 years, when the year of the pig returns, he said.
“Pick up a new skill or research. If you learn something new this year you get maximum benefit from whatever you learn. Learn something beneficial for your career; you can increase your income, your success rate,” he said.
Dogs
Dogs may become depressed, but can banish depression with forgiveness and kindness, Yap said.
“If you can forgive yourself and be kind to yourself, you will free yourself from inner drepression and unhappiness.”
“Karma is cause and effect. If you don't want the effect, remove the cause lah,” he advised.
Dogs will have to deal with above-average amounts of pettiness. “A lot of people will come in and they harbour hatred for you. You should also learn to forgive them in order to move on,” Yap advised.
Tigers
Tigers should learn something to do with business, though learning how to manage a business is important for anyone. “If you rise to (a) very senior (position you) have to know business...(this is) the best time to acquire knowledge about making money,” he said, pointing out that anyone who has to make decisions has to have business skills.
Those whose bazi contain all four animals – rooster, goat, monkey and tiger – will have to pay particular attention to personal safety, Yap said.
Roosters will find themselves near natural disasters, so should avoid dangerous places, while goats may see more physical injuries. Tigers will smash into things while monkeys will suffer cuts “here and there”.
On the subject of health, dogs will tend to be the first to get sick, while pigs may need surgery. Oxen should not attend funerals – not because they attract evil spirits as traditionally believed, but because they will likely catch any viruses that are going round.
“If you don't have the ox in the chart you can attend as many funerals as you want,” Yap said to laughter.
Snakes will be able to solve problems with existing illness. “This is the best year to do (surgery), it reduces potential problems at least by 50% or more,” he said.
In terms of directions, illness is based in the northeast in 2019. “If there are two or more illness stars in your (bazi) I would not suggest sleeping in the northeast sector. You could have a very long downtime,” Yap said. If however a bedroom is in the northeast but the sleeper does not have any of the illness stars, that is fine, he added.
Getting rich is easy, but staying rich is difficult. In the new year, monkeys can lose money, snakes have to spend money and rabbits should save money.
Yap said monkeys should be concerned with losing what they have obtained easily, in trade, partnerships and so on. “On the flip side you have something to lose,” he said.
Snakes should be prepared to spend a lot of money up front. Yap advised them to spend on experiences, but only after February 4.
Rabbits must save money. “It's good if you save 70% but 30% should be actively working hard for you,” he said, noting that it takes a long time for a nest egg to grow from savings alone.
Dogs must use money to serve others, so could serve the community by becoming a community leader, while dragons will be compelled to buy what they do not need. “It's going happen anyway - you might as well do it,” he said. “It doesn't mean you don't have money, (it's just that) there's a different way to treat your money.”
Questions at the event focused mainly on career choices, running the business and investments, though audience members also asked about improving health. Some of the insights Yap shared included:
Improving work-life balance – balance means stasis, while not being balanced means that there is progress towards a desired destination. “Balance is no good,” he said, illustrating his point with a stationary marker standing vertically versus one which is rolling on its side.
Yap advises getting paid more for work or being able to complete the same work more quickly by improving your value instead.
Relationship problems – these occur when you expect the other person to do something and they don't. Yap said that while such problems can be blamed on other things, such as a clash of bazi between a dragon and a dog for example, it is actually about unmet expectations.
“If your expectations are met, you will have longer-lasting relationships,” he said.
Social media – On a related note, Yap observed that “it's all so perfect on Instagram and on Facebook”, while viewers may wonder why their relationship and life is so much worse.
'(It) gives you an unreal expectation of what life should be,” he said. “The whole idea of Instagram and Facebook is to make other people jealous...but in reality their life is not like that.”
“If you want to make things good, be your partner's noble person,” he said, in a take of 'do unto others what you would like others to do unto you'.
Fame – Dato' Yap is a big believer in becoming more well-known. “If you can capitalise on your fame you save on many years of marketing,” he explained. “Fame allows you to enter into the minds of other people and own real estate space...if you own that space in other people's minds, you literally carve out your market.”
Academic merit – Academic prowess does not only refer to studies. For Yap, it is about graduating from the university of life and not “the university that you're studying in, with straight 'A's”.
“It's harder to graduate from life,” he said. “If you knew what you need to know, you'd already be there.”
As an example, he pointed out that the full-house event the audience were at required a lot of effort in the background, from building mindshare to having expertise to share. “To make this happen, (to get from) where you are to where you want to be, (this) needs knowledge,” he said.
Offerings to the god of wealth - the god of wealth is actually a star in the south, personified, Dato' Yap said. While the traditional way of welcoming the god of wealth is with a table of physical offerings, Yap says that it is all about balance.
“If you make a wish, ask for something, the spiritual contract says you must offer something,” he explained.
To request a specific outcome, such as to see sales increase by 30%, there must be efforts to get that 30% such as attending sales classes, or calling 10 people a day.
“Everything you put on the table is an offering.. you offer what you intend to do,” he said.
The idea is that while you can strive to conduct five meaningful conversations with people in a week to increase sales of a product, you are unlikely to be able to control whether they are fertile ground – people who like the product, or may be interested in it. This is where the god of wealth could come in.
“If you don't do your part then the god of wealth will not do their part,” he said. “If you intend to do nothing, I guarantee you won't get anything. Everything is an exchange of energy. Get something that the universe can provide you with.”
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| Part of signage that shows the Business Academy logo and event details. |
In 2019, Dato' Yap will be sharing his own experience in running a business for the first time. While the theories will still be based on Chinese metaphysics, he will be including a lot of business principles, and bringing in billionaires to share their experiences with participants. The event will be held in Malaysia.
The Joey Yap Business Academy is Yap's take on getting started and winning in business, targeted at those starting out or thinking of going into business, or who have not yet broken free of the S$5 million mark.
“Getting real estate in a client's mind, it's what I actually do,” he said.
The first Business Academy will be from 18 - 20 May, in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. The gold places were sold out at a soft launch in 2018. Twenty silver places went for S$2,997 at the event.
Dato’ Yap’s first limited-edition Mythical Twelve Chinese Zodiac EZ-Link cards were made available during the seminar. These will be on sale at River Hongbao as well. The series is a unique collaboration between Dato’ Yap and EZ-Link.
Personally designed by Yap, the series of cards feature individual Chinese zodiac signs as well as his 2019 Chinese zodiac predictions for that animal. At the seminar, the full set of 12 in a presentation pack cost S$120, and S$12 for a single card housed in a presentation card.
The world’s largest fengshui organisation saw 15,000 sell-outs over two days in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia alone. Over the next two months, the seminar will continue its run around the world. In the Asia Pacific, it is due to take place in the Philippines, Malaysia, Australia, and Cambodia as well.
Explore:
The world’s largest fengshui organisation saw 15,000 sell-outs over two days in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia alone. Over the next two months, the seminar will continue its run around the world. In the Asia Pacific, it is due to take place in the Philippines, Malaysia, Australia, and Cambodia as well.
Explore:
Check out seminars for other countries in the global series
Download the Thriver’s Guide 2019. This document contains predictions for individual animals of the zodiac.
Hashtags: #joeyyap, #fsa2019
^This writer attended the event gratis.
*According to the Chinese, fortunes are governed by the date and time of birth. While the animal zodiac is the most well-known aspect of this, the year is not enough – there are actually eight parameters derived from the date and time of birth, or bazi (八字, literally 'eight characters'), including the hour, day, month and year which affect a person's life. Four of these characters involve animals.
A person's future depends on the prevailing forces for a particular year and how those forces interact with a person's bazi and their existing circumstances, such as the industry they are working in, directions they plan to go into and the people they encounter. The fortunes of one person can clash or be enhanced by the fortunes of others as well; it typically takes years of study to make sense of all the interactions.
