Four Core Lessons for a Fulfilling Life
The following is an edited excerpt from the book, Building Wealth and Living in Faith: A Father’s Guide to Leaving Your Legacy by Mark Aho.
With love at the heart of it all, my parents imparted some core lessons throughout my childhood and adolescence. Their lessons shaped my personality and played a significant role in who I am today. These four valuable teachings can provide a sound foundation for anyone looking to experience a richer, more satisfying life.
1. Hard work
2. Faith
3. Belief in the future
4. An entrepreneurial spirit
Lesson 1: Hard Work
My mother and father both worked hard throughout their lives. Dad was a painter at a copper mine, but he was always working on something outside of that job too. He and my mother owned and operated some motel-style cabins as an entrepreneurial endeavor, and my dad was always either building or fixing something for that business.
Growing up on a small dairy farm near Hancock, Michigan, my dad’s strong work ethic took hold at a young age and he carried that harried pace into adulthood. He worked long days as a painter in a copper mine, come home for an early dinner and a catnap, and then went off to work on the cabins — plumbing, painting, electrical, and building upkeep — until 10:00 p.m. most weeknights.
I spent a lot of time helping dad and I didn’t think much about it then but looking back on those days, I realize how fortunate I was to have that time with him. We can never replace the years with our parents and for me, I learned everything I needed to know about owning a house — from rewiring an outlet to replacing a roof.
I played sports as a kid and had a great time with it but no matter what I did during the day, Dad expected me to help with chores afterward. I sometimes thought I was missing out when my friends got together to goof around, but today I am very grateful for the time spent with my dad. He taught me the value of hard work at a young age and reinforced the idea throughout my life.
My mom was an equally hard worker, with a different skill set. She was very extroverted and loved the hospitality aspect of their business, meeting and greeting guests. I got the best of both worlds when it came to learning my way around hard work. Dad taught me much about physical labor and mom taught me about people.
Lesson 2: Faith
My mother’s involvement in the church was a big influence in establishing and maintaining my own faith. Everyone is entitled to believe what they want to believe, and it’s part of being human to ask questions like, “Is there really a God?” But I’ve always held very tightly on to my faith and religion. It works for me and plays a central role in who I am today. I love God and all he has done for humanity — that will never change.
My wife is Lutheran and I’m Roman Catholic, and after many conversations throughout our marriage, we came to the conclusion, together, that all Christian religions point to Christ and God. From those talks over the years, our marriage grew even fuller and more beautiful. In any marriage, it’s important to not get caught up in semantics or dogma. We should always support our partner’s faith journey; that support through love and devotion is far more important than debating the principles of one religion over another.
Lesson 3: Belief in the Future
My faith extends to a belief in the future of humanity’s ability to make the world a better place. It’s not healthy or productive to dwell on negative actions of the past. Regret is not something we should waste our energies on because it doesn’t help us to contribute to a better future. If you do that, you’re only making things worse. The way I see it, you can choose to live optimistically positive or pessimistically negative.
The Negative Space
Most people live in either a negatively or positively influenced space. People living in the negative space think the world is against them and there’s no sense in trying to make things better. It’s a glass-half-empty mindset that seems like such a sad place to waste too much of your precious time.
The negative space is so devoid of hope and makes it difficult — almost impossible — for love to fill their hearts. That’s not to say those with a negative mindset are incapable of love, but I think they miss out on a lot of love and happiness because they’re too busy dwelling on negative things. Growth in any aspect becomes challenging at best if you have little hope for the future.
The Positive (Transformative) Space
The transformative space starts with being optimistic about what lies ahead. By thinking positively and believing in the future, you can change things and grow spiritually, mentally, physically, and financially. You just need faith — faith in God, faith in your fellow human beings, and faith in yourself.
Sometimes it’s hard to wake up in the morning and not have a pessimistic view of the day because we’re constantly bombarded with so much negativity. Protest, anger, hatred, and violence are publicized every day in mainstream media. But miracles are happening all around us. On a smaller scale, I see at least five to ten acts of random kindness every day; we just need to have the right mindset to recognize them when we see them.
A lack of faith can cloud your financial decision-making, as well as your life choices. Many times, a client will tell me they think there’s nothing out there left to invest in; that all the good ideas have been taken. I spend the rest of our meeting convincing them of the opposite. For some reason, they must have been weighed down with negativity and my job at that point is to transform them. I need to get them back into a mindset that enables growth and fosters prosperity.
There are many reasons to be optimistic about the future. Just think about all the innovations going on in the energy and automobile industries. No matter what, we’re going from coal to natural gas at some point in the near future. Cars are going from gas to electric. In the healthcare industry, advancements in disease prevention and remedy progresses at high speed every day. And that’s just a small sampling of what’s coming. There’s so much more to look forward to that can provide great reasons to be optimistic about future investments and financial planning.
There’s a lot of good in the world and many reasons to believe in the future. All you have to do is stop dwelling on the past, focus on the present moment you can control, and have faith in the future.
Lesson #4: Entrepreneurial Spirit
My parents instilled the importance of an entrepreneurial spirit in me at a young age. I saw how hard they worked multiple jobs to make ends meet, and I knew early on how important it was to save. In a lot of ways, the example they set gave me a leg up in my career and my lifestyle.Just watching the way my mom’s remarkable gift for conversation with everyone who came to our door, and the way my dad worked morning, noon, and night to keep up with maintenance was very inspirational to me.
In a similar respect, being accountable for your own financial well-being as an entrepreneur can be motivating and satisfying in many ways. I encourage you to accept a path of entrepreneurialism if it’s in you. If you have a calling to make your own business work, do it while you’re young because youth is a tremendous opportunity for all of us. If you’re part of a young married couple and one of you has an entrepreneurial spirit, it’s important for your spouse to embrace and support it. Entrepreneurialism doesn’t always involve one success after another. Failure is a big part of it. How you respond to failure plays a big role in determining your ultimate success. In order to respond favorably, you need the support of your significant other to get through it and persevere.
For more on how to create a more satisfying life, pick up Building Wealth and Living in Faith: A Father’s Guide to Leaving Your Legacy by Mark Aho.
