Issue No. 18

Most people are not born rich, but somehow many of them also become rich as time passes. How is that possible? How can someone who grew up in a poor family become a millionaire with the wealth of time, money, network, and resources?

A lot of the people at the bottom of the ladder of society tend to hate the wealthy. But why? Granted, many of these wealthy families have a record of unjust and corrupted activities, but wealth can be achieved in many other ways. So why do people hate people with money yet love to chase money? It's simpler than I thought. It's because many of us think being rich is taking something away from someone else and that it's always coming from an unfair advantage such as network and insider information. The media and written materials that target them will have them hear or read the words “Money will not make you happy" or something along the line of “Money is the root of all evil." If you internalize these ideas, guess what's going to happen. You're going to continue being poor.

When you have money, you can make people work for you to multiply and scale your business, so that it now becomes a machine that uses money as its fuel to make more money. When you have a running business that you can delegate to people smarter than you, you now have the time to build better relationships with your family, friends, and loved ones. That is one of the fool-proof ways to achieve happiness.

If you are someone with the privilege of health and education, there's no reason for you to remain poor for the rest of your life. In the modern world, anyone can make money online. What separates you from the rich at this point is leverage.

Leverage is an advantage that you can use to climb up the ladder. You can consider it as a tool to achieve your goal faster. A good example of leverage is wealthy parents. Both Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos had rich parents, so they used that leverage to build their companies faster. The business knowledge that came from their parents was also useful for them to prevent some of the most common mistakes in building a successful business. Everyone has leverage no matter where they are on the ladder. A poor boy may have the leverage of a free education which he can use to slowly learn about the world, which can lead him to ideas that could bring him to another place where there are better opportunities.

To give you a more realistic example, let's talk about my journey so far. My family was considered a middle-income family. My leverage was being in a family that could provide education and a home strong enough to shelter us during typhoons. There was just enough money for us to survive. Saving something could be considered a luxury. I remember when my parents lost their job, we had to resort to eating just eggs and rice. That's also when I stopped college. I was 16 when I realized my parents wouldn't be able to bring me the education I wanted anymore. It was up to me and me alone. As the oldest of my siblings, I have the responsibility to do better and lift them up from our current position on the ladder. Failure was never an option because if I fail, everyone else in my family fails. A lot of you reading this right now probably have not experienced that position, but it was one of the darkest times of my life. Realizing that no one else can save me but myself stretched my capacity to its maximum.

Because of my leverage of access to the internet, I was able to find a scholarship abroad after many tries and failures. Studying at a top university in Korea was my next big jump on the ladder, which made every other door in my life more possible to open. When I reached Yonsei University, I made sure I make use of all resources that have become available to me. I made a network of people who became my close friends, of people from high society who became my mentors and advisors. I wrote a book that allowed me to reach people who became my followers online. I created my first business, which allowed me to help other people get the same scholarship in Korea and to make myself financially capable of traveling to other countries I could only dream of as a child. I built a leadership organization in Yonsei which has now become a permanent organization that is transferred to the younger generation year after year. I think of it as my legacy to my alma mater. I made sure to attend classes that I can use as leverage in the future. I learned more about business through my elective classes even though my major was chemical engineering. When I graduated, I realized I did not want to become an engineer, so I pursued working in a startup as a global business manager. I got one, and the CEO became my mentor. Now, my mentor became my next-level leverage to learn how to build my own company. I made sure that I bring value to his company as he brings back value to me. Because of my work ethic and result-based performance, I have helped his company grow in a matter of months. When I started Fusionate this year, he became the first investor as a sign of trust he imbued in me. Currently, at this moment of writing, I am preoccupied with several businesses that I have built and currently building.

Now look back at how I was 10 years ago. I came from being a boy who had no opportunity to pursue college and in a family whose parents lost their jobs to someone who's building his own company in another country with a degree from the top university in Korea. I could not, for the love of my life, imagine this. Now that I look back, I have come so far, and I cannot stop. I am addicted to a better life for myself and the people around me. I have more things to learn, and I am, for the first time, happy to now know what's coming.

One of the best ways to find it is to think of the resources and skills you currently have. Which of them can bring you closer to your goal faster? Is it education? Then study harder. After graduating, think of your current set of leverages. Is it money? Then use it to build a side business. When your side business becomes profitable, your set of leverages will change, and then you can use them to do better. Do you see the pattern here? The "set" of leverages I was talking about is just a toolbox, and those leverages are your tools for success. Use them to climb up the ladder carefully and slowly. There are different sizes of leverages. Some leverages are spread thin, which will take you time to harvest their real value. Education is one of those. You won't immediately feel its benefit until you graduate from college. Some leverages come in the form of a compact bubble, such as winning the lottery or getting a high-paying job. Whatever form they take, leverage is everywhere around you.

I know there are many obstacles in life, and not everyone will be successful. You can die before that happens. I can die tomorrow, and you can die tomorrow. This world can collapse anytime. But most of us with the privilege of health, education, and freedom are capable of change, and when this change is focused on a better life, it will bring you to places you think are just a dream. Trust me. I've been there, I've done it, and I'm doing it. You can too.

You took a glimpse of my journey. There were many things in between that I did not tell you, but one thing is for sure: I am not special. None of what I did made me special. If there's something I can tell you that helped me reach this far, it's my persistence. I have an almost unlimited amount of it. But even that is the bare minimum for anything in life. So, if I could do it, there's absolutely no reason that you can’t.

A photo of my grandmother and my sister
on their first-ever plane flight

by Ace Apolonio