Business

Saturday March 21, 2009

Feng Shui master extraordinaire

By TEE LIN SAY


Joey Yap’s personal mission is to make his profession recognised and respected.

In Mian Xiang (face reading) terms, Feng Shui extraordinaire Joey Yap has the perfect face. His long and broad nose with wide nostrils indicate superior wealth storage while his power cheek bones and high forehead denote influence and nobility respectively. And here’s an additional information – his thick lower lip and deep philtrum (vertical groove in the upper lip) indicate fertility.

This July, Yap turns 32 and his list of accomplishments can put many to shame. In less than a decade, he’s written over 25 books, given countless talks in many parts of the world and currently, has some 200,000 students (and growing) under his tutelage.

Yap, an ultra-driven personality, is the founder and master trainer at the Mastery Academy of Chinese Metaphysics. He is also the chief consultant at Yap Global Consulting, an international consulting firm specialising in Feng Shui and Chinese Astrology services and audits.

“I’ve been doing this for 12 years. This is my first and only job. I’ve never been to a job interview and I don’t know how to write a resume,” he says with laugh.

On a more serious note, Yap says he needed to do a lot of “cleaning up” in terms of public perception of Chinese metaphysics.

In the past, he says, corporations and businessmen shied away from it, branding those who had mastered the subject as Feng Shui freaks, more suited for the “uneducated”.

“People used to think that if you collected a few ang pows and hung a few ornaments around your house, that’s practising Feng Shui. There was also the stereotype that the master comes with beard and white hair,” he scoffs.

From hobby to vocation

Instead, he says, Feng Shui is about direction and location. “I made it a personal mission to make the profession recognised and respected. I wanted to educate people that there is a science behind this. Today, (many) people realise that Feng Shui works as they can see the results. That is why I am so passionate about what I do.”

But Yap is quick to add that Feng Shui merely plays a supporting role in the well-being and luck of a person by providing a harmonious environment to make things better. “I don’t understand how some Feng Shui masters can say they are the reason for a person’s success.”

Joey Yap has all the perfect Mian Xiang features.

Yap’s foray into Chinese metaphysics began when he was 15 years old. Young and curious, he was disappointed to discover there were no schools or authoritative books on the subject.

“During my teenage years, while I was in Hong Kong on family trips, I’d meet up with some masters and studied the subject with them,” he recalls. He honed his understanding of the subject by following the masters in their consultations and his interest grew further as he became older.

No doubt, he would have stood out. While his peers were busy pursuing regular interests such as guitar and sports, Yap buried himself studying all he could about Chinese metaphysics.

Still, he did not foresake the conventional route, studying for an accounting degree at Australia’s Curtin University of Technology.

As it was common for students to take up part-time jobs while pursuing their degrees, Yap, not surprisingly, started giving Feng Shui consultations. It paid off handsomely – on a part-time basis, he earned between A$3,000 and A$4,000 a month.

“I was so amazed by what I could do,” he exclaims.

After graduation, he returned home to Malaysia and “negotiated” with his dad for his chosen career path but minus the details. “I asked him to give me six months before I start to look for a job in accounting. But I couldn’t say, ‘I want to pursue a career in Feng Shui’. My dad would have thought I had gone mad!” he says.

By the end of the agreed deadline, clients were flooding in and he was making some serious money. The rest, as they say, is history.

The early years

During the initial years, Yap travelled frequently to the United States, Germany, Ireland and many other parts of the world to give talks and provide informal courses with the aim of promoting interest in the subject.

As his popularity grew, many started coming to Malaysia to seek his advice. He also started drawing substantial local interest. At the age of 26, he raked in his first million doing what he loved most.

He set up the Mastery Academy in 2004 to offer formal classes to those interested in pursuing a career in Chinese metaphysics. The academy has since drawn some 200,000 students from 30 countries. And he has 30 instructors assisting him.

To cater to the growing interest and rising demand, he launched the Mastery Academy E-Learning Centre two years ago, which easily comprises some 3,000 online students at any one time.

Yap is proud of his achievements, no doubt, but more so of having managed to tweak public perception and raised awareness of the subject.

“Now, more people view Chinese metaphysics as something they like to be associated with. It is respectable…,” he says.

The pursuit of this dream, however, has not been cheap.

“It’s been so hard for me to learn it. I went around with different masters for different subjects. I’ve spent millions! I work, make money, then use that money to study again.”

Respecting the profession

Some masters, he says, jealously guard their “formulas” but were willing to reveal the secrets for a high price – some 40,000 euros for a single feng shui formula!

Having faced the frustration of scarcity of information or courses on the topic, Yap is eager to make it more accessible to the public. To do that, he says, he will continue writing books for the layman. Many of his books are the result of arduous transliteration of text from ancient classics to simple English.

“You can say I am Western in this aspect. I do not believe in holding on to these ancient secrets on my own,” he says.

Yap, born in the Year of the Snake and the eldest of four children, is passionate about his job. And there’s one sure way of ruffling his feathers. “I really dislike people who try to make a quick buck out of Feng Shui by making commercial-driven statements,” he says, citing the example of someone who wore red undergarments during Chinese New Year, claiming it would bring him luck. “I was very angry. It was very degrading to my profession.”

“I have met so many people and have travelled to so many places. I consider myself the unofficial ambassador for Feng Shui,” he says.

Yap is understandably pleased that his clients include successful businessmen who employ Feng Shui elements in their businesses.

“The corporates know their stuff. If they thought I was some freak, I don’t think they would engage my services or want to be associated with me. Now, they call me on my handphone and ask me out for drinks. I would like to think that I have added some credibility to Feng Shui,” he says.

All work and no play is no fun, it is said, but unfortunately for Yap, his busy schedule leaves little room for play, let alone exercise. But when he can manage to sneak in the time, he is fond of snowboarding whenever he is in Japan, Australia or Canada.

He plans to take up yoga this year, to “tone up and look a bit better”.

And what about indulgences? Watches and great food, he says.

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