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 the spring of 2012, and I was asked to be interviewed by our new marketing department training manager. I had recently been replaced as the Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) of my company, and he asked me to shed light on the history of the organization I had co-founded and the marketing department I had built. While volleying 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 the benefit of 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’ve chosen to focus on supporting the relative few (5,00 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 Gandhi, Barack Obama, Jeff Bezos, Bill Gates, Quincy Jones, Steve Jobs, Elon Musk, and many more show us the impact their dreams 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 causes 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 don’t know how we’ll pull this off, but I plan to live to 113, 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 53 years to make a run at this craziness.
I’m proud of what I’ve achieved so far, but I wrestle with the fact that there’s so much more to do and more I don’t know than I do. Though I am 60 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…
