Courtesy of Rudi W.

In his motivational seminars, Tung Desem Waringin casts “you can be rich” spells, telling his audience to put their hands on their hearts and say their “billionaire vows”. Off stage he is a lot more low-key.

Billionaire financial freedom guru Tung, who charges US$8,000 to speak at seminars, is not your typical member of the marketing billionaire-wannabe cult.

The marketing expert turned motivational speaker turned author doesn’t radiate much energy or seem to get super-excited about everything.

Instead, Tung, who gained notoriety for throwing Rp 100 million (US$10,600) out of an airplane over Serang city to promote his book Marketing Revolution, seems surprisingly normal.  

Even more intriguing is that he seems to have the kind of balanced life many busy urban fathers might envy, despite being a billionaire since his mid-30s — which could be why he has thousands of followers wanting to feel what life is like in the so-called “financial freedom” lane.  

“I always wake up at 6 in the morning and walk [my children] to school. It’s my favorite job,” says the 42-year-old. “No matter how late I sleep at night, I still wake up at 6 to take them. If I still feel sleepy, I just go back to bed,” he adds.

After all, getting to work is not an issue for him. “I go to the office only twice a year. They come to me.”

Fate is certainly smiling on Tung’s offspring. His three children go to an upscale international school; Tung’s own father could not even afford to bring him home from the hospital because the money relatives chipped in was used to pay off debts.

Tung says that as a public speaker he has spoken to audiences totaling around 100,000 people — indeed, his voice is hoarse from a recent seminar attended by 8,000 people. His followers come from all walks of life — from the children of farmers to the children of a former Indonesian president, from elementary school graduates to university graduates, from top executives to top celebrities.

His website shows that this month alone Tung is booked for three weeks in a row, and is lined up for plenty of other events in Jakarta until end of this year. Times are meant to be tough, so why are people shelling out somewhere between Rp 1 million and Rp 5 million to listen to him talk about business, marketing and success?

This is what Tung calls “investment from the neck up”.

“Do you remember what Benjamin Franklin once said? Invest a dollar for your mind, then you will have thousand-fold dollars back in your pocket,” Tung says. “Knowledge is fantastic.”

The former banker says that one of the rules of successful marketing is to make your product appear limited, so people think that they have to get it now.

“And that’s what happened with my seminars,” says Tung, who shared the stage with Chicken Soup For The Soul author Mark Victor Hansen in receiving the label of World Class Guru at the National Achievers Congress in Malaysia and Singapore back in 1997.

“There are lots of street smarts that you won’t find in a text book, which I teach in my seminars, that could increase people’s quality of life,” he says.  

“And it’s not that the money has disappeared, even in this hard economic climate,” Tung adds. “The money is out there, but people are just holding onto it and becoming more selective in buying stuff.”

He points to a two-seater convertible Mercedes Benz sports car parked outside.

“Like the other day when I wanted to buy a Lamborghini for my wife’s birthday, she refused and said it’s too expensive. So I bought her that car instead.”

He is practicing what he preaches when it comes to limiting the product: His plan to reduce the number of seminars next year is simply boosting demand.

“I’ve started doing my regeneration these days. So even more people are coming to my seminars,” he says. “They realize that if they want to learn from me, directly, the time is now.”

But not everyone loves and admires Tung. Some criticize him as nothing but a greedy smart mouth who manipulates ignorant people obsessed by get-rich-quick dreams.

“Well, criticism is always welcome. But really, all I wanted to do was make people happy. Like when I made the money rain down.

“I’m happy with the book. People who got the money are happy, journalists are happy because they got news. And the critics are happy now they have something new to complain about,” he adds with

a smile.

Tung says that next year he wants to focus more on his family and his other more profitable businesses in property and motorcycle manufacturing.

Besides, he’s getting ready for his 50s, the phase he says in his book should be a quiet time to enjoy the previous years’ hard work.

But Tung plans to continue a life where he can “bring added value to my life and others’” through writing more books that can inspire people to think bigger. His book Marketing Revolution even attracted the eye of President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, who invited him over to ask for ideas to make Rp 50 billion for the country.

His suggestion: Tourism.

“Look at the Middle East, they are insanely loaded now. But they have a tough time getting into the United States, and Europe eyes them suspiciously.

In our region, Thailand is still unstable because of their political situation. Malaysia is in a similar state … Singapore is good, but the economy is deteriorating with their export business with US and Europe. This means we have more opportunity to welcome them than any other country,” he explains.

“But we’re behind Malaysia, which has come up with interesting programs like ‘Malaysia My Second Home’, where it allows foreigners to buy property there, they can bring cars from home, tax free. I propose we make a better program, like Indonesia, my favorite home.”

If the thought of foreigners owning land makes people nervous “I respond, ‘Well, let’s figure out new rules’. You know, we’re still using basic agrarian law made by the Dutch in 1960!” Tung says.

“I think the government now really needs to think bigger. Because our neighbors won’t be unstable forever and neither will we be stable forever.”

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