5,000 people; a combined net worth of $100 trillion. This is my impossible dream. To support you, the dreamers of the world, in finding your billions. How is this even remotely possible? I’ve no idea. Can and will it be done? I’ve bet my life on it…because that is why I am here on earth.
It was spring of 2012, and I was asked to be interviewed by our new marketing department training manager at that time. I had recently been replaced as the Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) of my company, and he asked if I could shed some light on the history of the organization I had co-founded and the marketing department I had built. While volleying back and forth with questions and answers, the interview was going as expected until he asked, “What do you see that your personal future holds?” I paused for a moment, closed my eyes, and without thinking, said, “to support a minimum of 5,000 people worldwide to discover their full potential. In benefit to all of humanity; the expression of their gifts, talents, dreams, and abilities will be measured by their creating a combined net worth of one hundred trillion dollars.” Immediately after uttering these words, I literally started crying.
“WTF did I just say?” I remember clearly thinking. One hundred trillion dollars?! Aghast, I tried to recant what I had just said as my stunned brain started doing the math backwards. Divided by 5,000 people, I could wrap my head around a trillion. I could even…almost wrap my head around $10 Trillion. But $100 Trillion? Not a snowball’s chance in hell. Still in shock, I semi-composed myself to finish the interview and surrendered. I knew too well these two facts I learned from my mother: one, God doesn’t put a dream inside you that you also don’t have the ability to achieve, and two, we are hung by the tongue. If that’s what came out of my mouth, then that’s exactly what I’m meant to do.
Most people reading this ‘beyond audacious seemingly impossible dream’ might dismiss it as a pie in the sky or think you’ve lost your everlasting mind with wishful thinking. If that’s you, it’s completely okay to stop reading right now and move on with your day. Some will keep reading because it’s so outlandish that it piques their interest enough to wonder ‘how’ this can and will happen. If that’s you, you’ll be disappointed because, as I mentioned earlier, I don’t know exactly how this will occur. This dream isn’t about me; it’s about supporting you and your ambitions. A very small group of you are reading this thinking, “I want to leave a legacy, change the world, and be one of the 5,000!” Like me, you are believers and entrepreneurs crazy enough to believe it’s possible and eager to make a meaningful difference through your contributions to humankind. If this is you, keep reading because I am certain that, somehow, some way, I can help you.
I became crystal clear about my desire to help others discover their full potential in 2004 during a weekend seminar my company hosted called ‘Life Path.’ I worked to gain clarity on both my highest values and purpose. I learned that most of us live our lives based on values we assume ‘should’ be important to us rather than what our lives show are ‘really’ important, as evidenced by where we spend our time and money. When first asked to list my hierarchy of seven life values from most to least important, I wrote: 1-Spiritual; 2-Family; 3-Vocation; 4-Financial; 5-Mental; 6-Physical; 7-Social. Being raised in a strong Christian family, I was taught that God always comes first, followed by family, thus ranking them first and second. Both of my parents instilled a tremendous work ethic in me, so vocation was ranked third. Regarding money, I had a love/hate relationship with it because of my religious upbringing (‘money is the root of all evil’), but I also understood its value and importance—just not before God, family, and work. Although I had aimed to be a millionaire after watching “The Strangest Secret” by Earl Nightingale in 1977 and had been making $100,000 a year since graduating from college in 1989, I had not achieved either by this point in my life.
However, when I looked at where I spent my time and money, my true hierarchy of values was 1-Mental; 2-Vocation; 3-Financial; 4-Physical; 5-Social; 6-Family; 7-Spiritual. When I recognized this, I thought I was going straight to hell. How in the world could the values I thought were supposed to be the most important be last? After believing I had done something wrong, I learned and realized there are no right or wrong answers. Our highest values are simply those we feel we lack the most, which is why we spend an inordinate amount of time and money on them. Those we value least are the ones we’re most complete with and don’t feel like something’s missing. Once I had this breakthrough, I stopped feeling guilty about working so hard and wanting to be wealthy and accomplished both lifelong financial goals within the next 30 months.
Regarding my purpose, after spending focused time during this weekend retreat on clarifying and verbalizing it, this is what emerged for me: “I, Brett Anthony Penager, hereby declare before God, myself, and others that my primary purpose in life is to be a man of total integrity, love, and excellence in every area of my life and to share freely the universal laws of success that God has granted me the wisdom to learn and use in creating extraordinary success for myself and others.” This is my ‘why,’ and I’ve lived it fully expressed ever since. This brings us back to the $100 trillion dilemma of 5,000 people.
I’ve chosen to focus on supporting the relative few (500 people) because I’ve seen and experienced what one person who lives into their full potential and gives it away to the world can accomplish. Examples such as Martin Luther King, Tony Robbins, Oprah Winfrey, Mahatma Ghandi, Barrack Obama, Jeff Bezos, Bill Gates, Quincy Jones, Steve Jobs, Elon Musk, and many more; show us all the impact their dreams expressed to humanity have had on the world at large for the better. Though they show up as rare measurably, they are all human beings just like you and me.
I am a living example of exactly what I’m sharing. I failed in five businesses before I finally made a profit in my sixth. It took me 18 years of working full-time before I earned my first $100K in a calendar year. I’ve been broke, busted, and disgusted; had a car I couldn’t afford repossessed; got evicted from an apartment I couldn’t pay rent for; and have been near bankruptcy multiple times in my adult life. The mindset that helped me get through all these challenges is one I learned from wrestling. At the end of the day, the only person responsible for your success or failure is you. It’s not your coach, parents, ref, opponent, or anyone else—it’s you. When you learn to take responsibility for your failures and learn from them instead of playing the victim and assigning fault to cause outside of yourself, then you will become a source of inspiration in an otherwise dark world where most people live in quiet desperation.
Despite these failures, the companies I’ve co-founded with remarkable partners that did work have benefitted tens of thousands of families with jobs and the resultant income to pursue their dreams and goals; over half a million patients benefited from health they previously didn’t believe was possible for them and couldn’t find elsewhere; and these companies have injected hundreds of millions of dollars in taxes and investments into our national economy, supporting our children’s education, charitable causes, unemployed citizens, communities, and the unparalleled lifestyle we enjoy here in the great US of A. One person’s dream can positively impact millions of lives for generations, and that is why your dream needs to bless the world.
I’m aware there’s a lot of rhetoric today about the rich getting richer and the poor getting poorer, or the income inequality in the United States. In this discussion, some focus on redistributing wealth to create more equality for the masses. Everyone is entitled to their opinions, and I have no judgment if you agree or disagree with me—I respect your opinion regardless. To help you understand where I’m coming from, I want to share some thoughts about my impossible dream dilemma. Money itself is neither good nor bad; it’s simply a measure of value exchange. How it’s used can be seen as good or bad depending on your perspective, but the reality is that it’s energy flowing from those who value it least to those who value it most.
In building a business, money is only generated when you provide value to people who need or value your product or service more than the money exchanged for it. If you deliver enough value and multiply the number of people who can receive it, the accumulation of money is simply a byproduct of serving. If you want to make more money, all you need to do is increase your value and share it with as many people as possible. The more people that agree with a product or service that offers them a solution to a problem they face, at a price they consider worth it, the more money is created for those who provided the solution, product, or service.
Most entrepreneurs aren’t successful in building businesses because the rewards are great, but the risks are even greater. All great fortunes are made by those who provide solutions to challenges we face as human beings and are willing to risk it all to turn their dreams into reality. This is capitalism at its best and why the United States, at only 249 years old, is the greatest and most prosperous country the world has seen to date. While the examples I’ve mentioned, including myself, are individual names, none of us achieve greatness alone. Yet, the intensity with which one person chooses to make a positive difference in the world by offering tremendous value to humanity and is willing to do whatever it takes to succeed despite the risks depends on individuals who believe in their dreams. Their impact is perfectly summed up by this quote from chiropractic developer BJ Palmer: “you never know how far reaching something you think, say or do today will impact the lives of millions tomorrow.”
I don’t know how we’ll pull this off, but I plan to live until I’m 113 years old, and I’m slightly over halfway there. When the “why” is big enough, the “how to” figures itself out. If you’d like to be one of the 5,000 who change the world for the better through an idea, business, or dream— and think I may be able to support you—reach out to me, and let’s turn this and your impossible dream into reality. We still have another 54 years to make a run at this craziness. I’m proud of what I’ve achieved so far, but I wrestle with knowing there’s so much more to do and more I don’t know than I do. Though I am 59 years young, I feel like a kindergartner in life. Like that young child, I have far more questions than answers about “how life should be” and realize I don’t know it all. I am also deeply humbled by all my great mentors and teachers who have poured their lives into me so I could be here today. As you have given to me, it is my purpose to pay it forward. Connect with me, give me a call, send an email, or respond to this post. The world awaits your genius, and we will all benefit from what only your magnificence can provide.
All that’s needed is for you to simply Believe…
