If I Had One Million Dollars
When I was younger, friends used to ask:
“What would you do if you had a million dollars?”
This question always got people talking — especially me. At the time, the most important thing to me was cars. I was, and still am, a car freak. I didn’t know everything that there was to know about cars, or how different engines compared. I just appreciated high quality products. Things that most people would never experience.
At the time, $1 million would buy me a Lamborghini Murcielago LP640. This was the first exotic sports car I ever sat in, and I look forward to the day where I own many cars like it. The reality is, however, that this car was around $400,000. So, what about the other $600,000? That money was to be saved so one day I could have my own company. I was 13.
Now, at 22, my perspective has changed quite bit. It has been almost 10 years since the first time I was asked this question. When I ask myself this question today, one thing has changed dramatically. If someone came to me, laid a million dollars on a table and said, “Have fun”, I would not buy the Lamborghini. I would spend every penny investing in building an organization that allowed me to change millions of lives and open doors for others to do the same.
The material things that become attainable through wealth can wait. I will have those things one day, but right now the only thing I desire is to change the world. As naïve as this may sound, a very successful man once said:
“The people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world are the ones who do.”
This man’s name was Steve Jobs. The founder of the company that made the tool I am writing this blog on while 35,000 feet in the air.
The reality is, $1 million dollars is a lot of money… but it’s not that much money in the grand scheme of things. I’m sure plenty of people reading this think I am officially crazy. But am I? Think about it. Let’s say I had a marketing team of 5 people. If I paid each person $50K/year, that’s $250K. ¼ of my $1 million. And that’s just marketing. No sales people, managers, or executives. I hope this puts it in perspective for you.
In the end, a million bucks can go a long way (aka building a business), or a very short way (aka buying material things that produce no real ROI other than having them). It’s all about what you want your life to look like. You can have a million dollars today and be broke 12 months from now, if not sooner.
What is the point of all this? To be honest, I don’t have a real objective here. If anything, I hope that this this enables you to think bigger than what you may have thought in the past. I have enormous goals and expectations for myself. I intend to achieve everything that I desire. It will take time, but I am prepared to learn, grow and do things that some people call impossible. Hopefully I get the chance to meet all of you along the way.
As always, I hope this provides value wherever you are in life.
Connect with me on Twitter — @JoshRamos0818
Send me an email — josh@jramosonline.com
– Josh
