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You move toward whatever you stare at.
Picture a man on a mountain path at sunrise. On his left, a wall of rock rises close enough to touch. Ahead of him, the path bends toward a valley filling with light. The rock is real. So is the valley. He’ll walk toward the one he keeps looking at, because his feet follow his eyes. So does a life.
Every new WealthWave leader walks that path every morning. The rock is your circumstances. The valley is your vision. You’ll get more of whichever one you keep your eyes on.
Almost everyone who walks through our door comes from somewhere they wanted to leave. A job with a ceiling. A paycheck that runs out before the month does. A boss who decides what your time is worth. A career that pays well and means little. A stack of bills and a quiet fear that this is all there will ever be.
I’ve listened to those stories for more than four decades, and I respect every one of them. There’s no shame in where you started. Most of us were never taught how money works, and almost nobody taught us how to build something of our own.
Here’s what I’ve noticed over those years. The people who change their lives talk about where they’re going. The people who stay put talk about where they are.
Your circumstances are the facts of your life today. Your bank balance. Your schedule. Your experience. Your age, your zip code, the people who doubt you. Every one of them is real. Every one of them is also a snapshot. A snapshot tells you where you’re standing. It has nothing to say about where you’re headed.
Your vision is the picture of the life you intend to build, held clearly enough that it directs what you do today. A wish asks nothing of you. A vision gives orders. It tells you who to call, what to study, and when to get up.
Focus on your circumstances and you’ll make decisions that fit your present. “I can’t afford it. I don’t have time. I don’t know anyone.” Focus on your vision and you’ll make decisions that fit your future. “What would the leader I’m becoming do with this hour?”
Circumstances describe your life. Vision directs it.
You have fears. So do I, and so does every leader I’ve ever admired. The fear of the phone. The fear of what your brother-in-law will say at Thanksgiving. The fear of starting over at forty-five and failing in front of the people you love.
Fear stays. I’ve never met a leader who got rid of it. The ones who win found a reason that outweighs it. A parent who’s afraid of the water will still jump in after a child. The fear goes into the water with them. The reason is simply bigger.
Business works the same way. When your dream is small and vague, every fear wins. A 'no' feels like a verdict. A slow month feels like proof. When your dream is big and specific, that same 'no' becomes a steep stretch of the path. You climb it and keep walking.
So make the dream specific. Your daughter’s tuition, paid. Your spouse home from a job that’s wearing them down. Your name on the door. A family down the street that retires with dignity because you sat at their kitchen table and showed them how money works. Write it down. Put it where you’ll see it before you see your phone.
When your dreams are bigger than your fears, the fears keep talking. You just stop taking orders from them.
I know the Thanksgiving fear firsthand. When I started in this business in 1982, I had no idea how the people closest to me would respond. I assumed they’d wish me well. Maybe deep down they did. I couldn’t tell. Family and friends told me I’d lost my mind.
My early struggles didn’t make it any easier. I had so much to learn, and every slow week looked like proof that they were right.
I’m convinced that headwind is why I’m where I am today. Without it, without the chip on my shoulder and something to prove to everyone, I’m not here.
History is full of people who ran on the same fuel. Michael Jordan was left off his high school varsity team as a sophomore. Tom Brady heard 198 other names called before his, at pick 199 of the NFL draft. Apple, by Steve Jobs’s own account, was about 90 days from bankruptcy when he came back in 1997. Take away the doubt and the near miss, and maybe none of them becomes the best of the best.
So when someone you love tells you you’ve lost your mind, you’re in good company. Lean into the wind and keep walking.
One caution about that fuel. The doubters gave me motivation, and motivation runs out. What has kept me going all these years came from somewhere else.
Motivation comes from the outside in and lasts a limited time. Inspiration comes from the inside out and lasts until you get the job done.
WealthWave hands you two reasons, and you need both.
The first is a crusade. People who don’t know the rules of money get taken advantage of by people who do. So we teach first and serve when asked. We educate consumers, we serve clients, and we help them make informed decisions and then act on them, because education without action changes nothing. That’s work worth getting up for.
The second is a dream. The dream of entrepreneurship. Owning your own business. Building a team as well as a practice. Deciding for yourself what your time is for.
A crusade alone can wear you out. You serve everyone and build nothing of your own. A dream alone runs thin. It’s hard to push through a week of rejection for a bigger house. Put them together and each one fuels the other. The crusade gives your business a soul. The dream gives your crusade an engine. On the day the dream feels far away, a family still needs what you know. On the day the crusade feels heavy, your own family’s future is still on the line.
That’s the inside-out kind. We’re inspired to bring our crusade and our dream to everyone who’s willing to work hard enough, for long enough, to accomplish it.
A vision needs a path. Here’s yours.
WealthWave brings the vision, the leadership, the strategy, the system, the marketing, and the technology. We leverage WFG’s back-office infrastructure for the administration and operational support that helps make it all work behind the scenes. I’ve been in this industry since 1982, and I believe that combination is unbeatable.
It means you don’t have to cut your own trail. The system is built. The books are written. The technology is in your hand. One thing is left for you, and no platform on earth can do it for you. You have to make the contact.
Every client you’ll ever serve and every leader you’ll ever develop begins the same way, as a contact. One conversation. One invitation. One “Can I show you something?”
The math never lies. Five new contacts a day, five days a week, is 25 a week. Over 50 weeks, that’s 1,250 conversations started. Nobody can promise you what any one of those people will say, and your results will depend on your effort, your skill, and your time. Here’s what the math does tell you. A leader with 1,250 contacts behind them has a completely different year than a leader with 50.
Circumstance focus counts the no’s. Vision focus counts the contacts. Start this week:
1. Write your vision. One page. Real names, real dates, real pictures. Read it every morning before you read anything else.
2. Name your fear. Write down the one that’s been stopping you. Next to it, write the reason that’s bigger.
3. Set a daily contact number and keep score. What gets counted gets done.
4. Learn the system. Read HowMoneyWorks: Stop Being a Sucker until you can teach it, and plug into WealthWaveONE.
5. Tell your leader your numbers. A vision grows faster when someone is checking on it.
Your circumstances got you to the door. They’re true, and they’re temporary. Somewhere near you there’s a family that needs what you’re learning to teach. Somewhere ahead of you there’s a version of you who owns the business, leads the team, and remembers this week as the one where it started.
Lift your eyes. Take the next step. Pick up the phone.
Your dream is bigger than your fear. Go prove it, one contact at a time.
Our story isn’t finished. Neither is yours.
Tom Mathews, CFEd®
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