I'm not a PhD in anything, or a financial guru, or a particularly lucky person either. As a matter of fact, I'm typically quite lazy and unmotivated. I'm just your average guy. This is exacty why I feel that my story is a success story that anyone can relate to. Here's how it all began...

In August of 2001 I experienced the first of several life changing events. I crashed my motorcycle. Luckily for me, experience and protective gear prevented this from being a more serious accident, or even the end of my story. However, I had destroyed my beloved bike, and shattered my collar bone into four pieces. This all resulted in missing a month of work, expensive medical and hospital bills, and lots of physical pain. And that was just the icing on the cake. I had also recently broken up with my girlfriend, and was nearly $40,000 in debt with no way of ever getting caught up based on my current income. I felt depressed and hopeless.

The second life changing event was much more subtle. One night while laying on the couch watching TV, my attention was grabbed by an older, white-haired man giving a talk on PBS. Now, I never typically watch PBS, nor do older, white-haired men talking on stage attract my attention, but for some reason, this time I did. The speaker was Dr. Wayne Dyer. I had never heard of him, but what he was saying was very interesting to me. To make a long story short, I was starting to feel inspired to make some changes. The very next day, I went to the library and checked out several of his books. The feelings of inspiration continued, and began to build in me.

Now, I honestly believe that both of these events happened for a reason, and that they were, in a sense, my fate, because if they didn't both happen, I wouldn't have changed. I'm not here to promote anyone or their books, but that just happens to be the source of my awakening. The bottom line is that I was now feeling more optimistic and positive about things. I believe that this resulted in me simply being more aware of opportunities that we may not always notice or pay attention to. I honestly don't remember the exact moment of my next inspiration, but I believe it was a phone conversation with my mother. I had relatives that were real estate appraisers, and she suggested that maybe I could do that too. Since I was feeling optimistic and open to opportunities, I thought about the idea, and before you know it, I signed up for the classes that I needed to get my state license.

These classes were not easy. I took the fast course, which meant 8 hours a day of class, and then passing the tests within 3 weeks. It was a lot of information in a very short time. Plus, the commute from my home in the suburbs to the school downtown Chicago was about 90 minutes each way everyday. But I was excited. It was exciting to be learning, and the idea of having a decent income was inspiring. It was also scary, since I didn't know if I would be able to comprehend all of the information and then pass the licensing exam. Then, I still had to actually go out and get a job as an appraiser. Another thing that concerned me was all the driving that appraisers do. I'm not afraid to drive, but I've always had a hard time with directions, and getting around new cities. I used to get very anxious.

Well, I passed the classes and the exam with flying colors, and I was also lucky enough to actually have several job offers within weeks. I was also able to get over the anxiety of driving in unfamiliar places, by simply planning ahead, and getting good directions to each appointment. Now, my life was turning around. I was feeling confident in myself and my future. I was a new man. My personal life, and my financial situation was looking good. In my first year as an appraiser, I made $14,000 more than at my previous job. Then my second year, I earned another $19,000 more than that! That's a $33,000 raise from my old job!

I was still in a lot of debt. Even with the much larger income, it was going to take forever to pay off all my old bills. The solution was right over my head. My house. I had purchased my home several years earlier, but had no idea what it was really worth until now. It turned out that I had quite a bit of equity. To me, this was money coming from God. I just couldn't believe that I could refinance my house and take out exactly the amount of money that I needed to pay off all of my bills. It was like magic. All of a sudden I was completely debt free with only a small car payment, and a modest mortgage payment.

To me, this is the "snowball effect". By that, I mean that when things are going well, and you are feeling optimistic, they just keep on getting better and better. Of course on the other hand, being pessimistic and thinking negative can have the exact opposite effect. Just like the old saying: "when it rains, it pours". Now, don't get me wrong, none of this came easy, not even staying positive. I definitely had to work hard to start a new career, and I also had to work hard just to keep myself motivated and optimistic. One of the things I did was to continue reading inspiring books by self-help authors each night before bed. I even purchased some audio CDs to listen to while driving sometimes. Things were going well, but I could still remember how badly they were going, so out of fear, I wanted to do whatever it took to continue on in the right direction.

Then, I really worked on changing the way I thought about things in general. And this does take practice, just like any other skill. For example, I would practice not getting upset or angry at the other drivers that would typically get me going while in traffic. Another thing that I would practice was how I looked at people. An example of this was how I would not judge people or assume that I know how they feel about me. If you assume that everyone is friendly, and means well, then you will definitely experience most people being friendly and meaning well. On the other hand, if you feel that everyone is out to get you or that everyone is mean, then you will experience that most people are. It's all in the way that you think about things. It really changes everything.

Anyway, there's supposed to be a "Vette" in this story right? My whole life, I dreamed of owning a corvette. Ever since I was a little boy, I would lust over my neighbor's 1971 Custom Red Stingray Corvette. As I grew up, I realized that to buy a new corvette was quite expensive and always seemed way out of reach. Even with my new job, and my debt-free situation, I didn't think that I could afford that dream car just yet, but I kept on dreaming... I focused on that dream quite often. I read about that car. I talked about that car. I had the car's photo on my computer's wallpaper. I even changed some of my passwords to constantly remind me of my goal about getting a corvette. Well, once again, a large sum of money came to me in an unexpected way. Someone that I was generous to in the past came into some money, and they decided to give me $10,000. Now, the actual price of the new corvette was much more than that, but that $10,000, combined with some money that I had saved made a nice down payment so that I could have my dream car with a monthly payment that I could afford.

So, for my 30th birthday present to myself, I took delivery of a brand new, custom ordered and loaded 2005, Z51 Corvette. Buying that car made me feel good. Not in a materialistic way, but because of the sense of accomplishment that I felt. I worked hard mentally and physically to get to this point, and it was like a symbol of success. I made everything come together as proof that I could achieve anything that I really focused on, as long as I remained positive and optimistic. The moral of the story is not that everyone should become a real estate appraiser and then refinance their home for cash. The idea is that if you change your attitude about everything, and open yourself to all of the opportunities that are constantly revealing themselves to us, then you will find your own path of success. If you don't think you can change and find success, then that's exactly what will happen. Focusing on the negative doesn't allow you any extra energy to focus on the positive.

Sometimes it's not just you that creates negative thoughts. I personally had to deal with negative thoughts and comments from some of those around me. You have to learn to ignore those comments and possiblely those people. It's all negative energy that can hold you down. It's always best to surround yourself with those that are doing what you want to be doing. People tend to stay in the same levels as their peers. For example, if you work in a factory, and you're just supposed to work hard all day and maybe stop for a beer after work, and then start over the next day, this can be restraining. Many people create the "us versus them" mentality about those that are more successful than they are. Now there's nothing wrong with working in a factory, but if your friends or co-workers make negative comments or talk down about those that are more successful or are trying to better themselves, then this is creating a negative environment for you. This makes it that much harder to change. Now on the other hand, if your friends are all doing very well, they will be encouraging you to take a similar path to be "like them".

The bottom line is if you can't avoid the negative people around you, then you need to practice ignoring the negative comments and practice focusing on all the positive things. Stay optimistic no matter what. You don't have to do it out load, but you do have to do it inside. This is a continous thing that I continue to do everyday. It's not always easy, and we all have bad days. The difference between successful and unsuccessful people is how quickly they can get back to thinking positive again.