Reaching Financial Success Is An Ongoing Journey

I once had a friend named David. He was an old-time restauranteur who had managed to have a tremendous amount of success. I met David as he was shifting his goals from wanting to be rich to wanting to make a difference in people’s lives. As part of his plan, he had transitioned from the restaurant business to real estate. I met him while I was helping an elderly woman as her court-appointed guardian. I will call her Sue for purposes of this story.

Sue had some valuable real estate, and a neighbor was essen­tially trying to steal it from her. I was brought in because Sue was having a difficult time caring for herself and meeting her financial responsibilities. David had been recommended as a realtor who would work on greatly reduced commissions to help people.

As I got to know David over the years, I learned some important lessons that have continued to influence how I coach and consult with others. Number one, he told me that he didn’t have any plans beyond making his restaurants successful. In other words, his goal was to hit a certain dollar figure, let’s call it $1 million a year, in his restau­rants. And he hadn’t thought about much beyond that.

He told me that when he had his first year of $1 million, it was probably the worst year of his life, and he didn’t know what to do. He did what so many people do when they start making money—he started spending it very irresponsibly. Eventually David’s life became a train wreck due to bad habits and overspending.

This brings me to the next thing I learned from him. David said that the financial saving grace during that entire period was that he had invested in assets in the form of real estate throughout Seattle. He said even when he managed to destroy his restaurants and was doing his best to make a mess out of his life, the real estate continued to support him and, as he put it, “bailed me out and saved my ass.” Even though David lost direction, he was able to even­tually correct his trajectory. And while restaurants had previously been a source of success, he adjusted is journey to focus on helping others through his love of real estate.

David helped me with Sue, and he did her a tremendous service. I stayed in touch with him for years after that. He was always engaged in helping someone out, and I was somewhat jealous. I was a professional, and I was working hard to establish myself. I worked a lot of hours and put myself through a lot to build up my practice. I couldn’t help but be envious that David was so relaxed and seemed to be enjoying every minute of every day. To me it looked like David didn’t have a care in the world other than how to help the next person.

I think what struck me most was how David described the point when he finally accomplished his earnings goal in his restaurant business and how quickly his life unraveled thereafter. Choosing a dollar amount—a financial goal—without purpose can lead to a dev­astating fall. It is kind of like climbing to the top of the mountain with no plans to get back down. As any accomplished mountaineer will tell you, when you summit, you are halfway there, you still have the second half of the trip, coming back down. Your plan needs to cover both the accumulation and the maintenance of wealth, and that requires exploration into your purposes for building wealth.

Achieving financial success isn’t arriving at an end destination, but a journey with mile markers that requires continual dedication, diligence, and deliberate attention.