The right you + The right opportunities = Wealth.  This equation is important.  Don’t chase money to build wealth.  Chase the right opportunities.  My journey to wealth began when I made the decision to become a professional opportunity seeker.  Mastering life is all about finding the right opportunities for you, and then turning those opportunities into money and awesome adventures to experience life.  This is what I mean:

I was twenty-five-years-old when I decided to take my life seriously.  As my drugged-out past faded into the background of who I was, I began to hear God’s voice guiding me to who I was supposed to be.  This voice told me that the secret to creating my dream life was not to chase money.  The secret was to chase the right opportunities that would naturally lead me to my dreams.   The equation I saw in my mind looked something like this:

The right you + The right opportunities = Wealth.  

So at the age of 30, I began looking for the right opportunities that could transform me into an amazing human being who could live an amazing life.    

My parents looked at me strangely the first time I told them I was going to be a “professional opportunity seeker” in 2012. It was the type of parental gaze that was a mixture of disbelief, and kind-of- belief.  They thought about it for awhile, and then they both said:

“Well, there’s not many job-openings for professional opportunity seekers out there, so we hope this works out better for you than the thousands of people whose dreams don’t work out for them.”

It’s not that my parents didn’t believe in me.  They just had experiences that I didn’t have.  They knew how hard it is to create a job for yourself that doesn’t exist.  My parents came from a different generation than I did.  They grew up in an America where the wise, sensible thing to do was to get a good job, climb the corporate ladder, save a portion of your income, and then eventually retire with an awesome pension, and enjoy your “golden 10-20 years” in retirement after giving 30+ of your best and healthiest years to a company.  

My parents became successful by picking a job they may not have loved, but a job that paid well, and could buy them their dreams after giving 30 years of service to it.  In my parents view, you either had a good-paying job, or you didn’t.  So when I told them I wanted to be a, “Professional Opportunity Seeker,” they saw a job-title that sounded cool, but didn’t pay as good of a salary as a “real job” would out of the gate.

But I believed strongly about my visions.  I believed they were powerful.  I at least had to try my ideas.  After all, these visions were what inspired me to quit partying in my early-twenties.  I knew that if I was going to live my dreams, I was going to have to manufacture the most sober, disciplined, and totally focused mindset that I could.  I would have to give up everything that was holding me back, so that I could find the mindset that could propel me forward.

My first tangible step was just to believe that I could do it.  The next step was to define what a professional opportunity seeker does.  Once I defined this role, I would then have to go out into the world and prove my concept would work.

The definition of a “professional-opportunity-seeker” I decided was a human-being who could fearlessly throw themselves out into the world, and build systems and relationships that could lead them to make money.

I believed that if I could find small opportunities first, then I could scale these opportunities to find bigger opportunities.  Just like a baseball player learns to hit singles and doubles first, my goal was just to make enough money to be able to support myself at first.

I’ll be honest, when I first started chasing this vision, I didn’t know if it would work.  But I knew I was in love with the philosophy of becoming a professional opportunity seeker, and I knew that if you’re deeply in love with something, you can find ways to make it work.

I am a person who is most excited when I view life as a test-lab, and I can conduct philosophical experiments on myself to see if they will lead me to success or failure.  I like to throw myself in the deep end of life, and see what I create as I learn to swim in unknown territories.  So at 30 years old, I ventured out into the world to see if my experiment to become a professional opportunity seeker would work or not.  

The first opportunity I found was a job stacking magazines in big box stores for $9.25 an hour.  It wasn’t much, but it’s hours were totally flexible in a 24-hour period, meaning that I could come and go from other opportunities as I pleased.  My thinking was at least I established one income-stream, even if it wasn’t much.  And this opportunity would provide me the time and flexibility to find a better job. 

At another interview, I was offered an opportunity to become an independent-contractor for a promotional clothing company and start my own sales business.  I immediately saw this as an intriguing opportunity, because if I could learn how to start one business, it would be easier to start another business for a second income stream.  As I went door-to-door meeting with businesses, I kept mental notes about each business I was meeting with so I’d be better prepared to start my next business.   

As I grew my business, I tried to save at least 50% of my profits.  Why?  It is easier to create opportunities when you have cash in your pocket to invest in them.  Slowly I started to see the next step I wanted to take: I wanted to turn my love of finding opportunities into becoming a professional investor. 

Once I had a surplus of cash in my bank account ($10,000+), I sought out opportunities to learn how to invest.   I then saw how appealing real-estate investing could be, and BAM!  Five years after starting my journey to become a professional opportunity seeker, I had established several income streams.

I’m writing all of this to say, my journey to wealth didn’t begin by chasing money.  It began by chasing the right opportunities that would lead me to my dreams.

I am now seeking the next opportunities that will lead me closer to running a full-time ministry, and a life of financial independence.  The funny thing is I am not chasing money to get me there.  I am always chasing the right opportunities that will take me there.      

I wrote this post today to let you know how powerful finding the right opportunities can be.  Look for them.  Seek them.  Massive success isn’t found by chasing money and expensive things.  Wealth is found when you chase the opportunities that can turn your life into the adventures you dream of.

My advice to any wealth-seeker is to find the opportunities that will naturally lead you to your dreams.  Don’t worry about money at first.  Just find the right opportunities. Throw yourself fearlessly out into the world.  Work your butt off.  Save 50% of your income.  Finding the right opportunities are the magic that can transform your life into an amazing adventure.  God bless you as you find your right opportunities.    

STUFF WE LOVE:

Personal Capital is a net-worth calculating tool that turns your finances into a puzzle that’s fun to solve.  It’s free and makes monitoring your money easy.

Bluehost is how we started this blog.  Launch yourself onto the internet.  Your friends are out there.  It’s an easy to start your blog today.