> Introduction <
What will you do with your potential? In this book, I want to invite you to clarify the future you aspire to, and equip you to make your aspirations reality by effectively investing the time and money you have.
You get to decide what you want. It might be to attain great wealth, to generously improve our world, or both. Maybe you want to build your organization into something much more than it is today. Perhaps lifelong learning and discovery are what you value most, or maybe it’s living out your faith. You might aspire to triumph over what scares you, or to forge the fulfilling relationships you long for.
No matter what you aspire to, how you use the time and money you have will determine whether you make that future reality, or whether it will exist only as an unfulfilled dream.
At age 24 I was laid off, with just a few thousand dollars in savings. Instead of looking for a new job, I sat down at a makeshift desk in my basement and began to invest my time and money differently. Over the next 10 years I multiplied that savings a thousand-fold into a multi-million-dollar portfolio of businesses and other investments. During that time I also invested in my personal growth, transforming from a timid technician to a confident and capable CEO.
Along the way I created and refined a document that became my personal guidebook of time-and-money investment principles. When I grasped a new insight, or made a big mistake, I updated that document. When I felt afraid or confused about an investment decision, I reviewed that document to clarify my course.
This book is that guidebook in expanded form, illustrated with stories from my learning experiences. The investment rules in this book aren’t about stock markets or financial wizardry. They are about how to use your resources effectively to get where you want to go. They work just as well today as they did thousands of years ago, before stock markets and even money were invented.
If you intentionally invest for a long time toward a deliberate future, you’ll probably have more resources and more influence than most of the people you walk this earth with. Invest well.
Mark Aardsma