My RN wife recently attended her college reunion in Dallas, Texas. As you probably know, Filipino nurses have been on America’s front lines during the pandemic. Now that the pandemic is behind us, they all need a well-deserved break— my wife and all her contemporaries included. So when she asked if she could go to Dallas for the event late last year, I said, “Why not?? You should go!”

Ultimately, my whole family flew to Dallas, also her former city of residence. Besides, it was the kids’ spring break and I’ve always wanted to visit the city known to have one of the highest concentrations of millionaires in America. It reminds me of the rich-people drama series my family used to watch as a kid in the late ’70s.

While spouses weren’t invited to the actual event for good reason, the welcome party– held the night before the big event— is the exception. Like most Filipino parties, you can bring everyone including your mother-in-law to the party, lmao.

When I was told this welcome party would be held at someone’s residence, I thought this was just an ordinary party at one of the attendees’ McMansion. Besides, these are ordinary nurses, not medical doctors who earn way more money.

That thought came to an end as soon as I saw the front gates open automatically toward us. The private driveway was so long that my wife had enough time to look it up on Zillow:

• 7 beds, 9 baths, 6,316 sqft of living space
• 27-car barn with guest house
• Lighted sport court
• Pond, waterfall, and swimming pool

The sprawling estate is no longer for sale, but it is still listed on the website as follows:

“Masterful details include a 3-part foundation, 1M lbs of Colorado Rock, Ipe wood, a luxury 27-car barn, a lighted sport court, a thinking pond, a waterfall & pool. Innovatively built with cutting-edge architecture, chic interiors, ultra-luxurious amenities, breathtaking scenery & most importantly, vast expanses of land under starry skies.”

The Zestimate is a little shy of $4,000,000. As you probably know, a $4M house in any state, California included, must be a big mansion. In Texas, that’s a huge estate!

This raises the question: who can afford this house?

The answer came after we got invited to brunch in the mansion the next day. It turns out that one of my wife’s contemporaries, a very good friend of hers, married a successful businessman. Of course, I took the opportunity to ask her husband, Dennis, questions so I could share his story with my readers.

I asked, “You are obviously a very successful guy. What brought you this fortune?”

Dennis humbly answered, “It depends on how you define success. We are very blessed.”

He then proceeded to tell us his life story, which I will summarize below:

When Dennis was a young guy, he was diagnosed with a rare type of kidney cancer. The doctors told him that he had less than six months to live. Scared to death, he spent all his “remaining time” learning about alternative medicine, which became his passion. He started eating clean, which means dropping all the crap from his diet. He even learned how to grow his own organic fruits and vegetables.

Eventually, he learned how to process these veggies into fine powder to create multiple lines of health supplements designed not only for humans but also for pets. The big break finally came after a $14,000 advertising investment in a radio show— his products became a nationwide success. Pretty soon, money started flowing in surpassing $100,000 a week.

Forty years later, Dennis continues to defy his doctor’s expectations as he is still alive and able to reap and share the rewards of his labor with his beautiful family.

In the book, Rich Habits, best-selling author Tim Corley details five years of observing and documenting the daily activities of 233 wealthy individuals (all had at least $160,000 in annual gross income and $3.2 million in net assets), he found that there are four main paths to becoming a multimillionaire:

1. The Saver-Investors path: Grew their wealth through regular saving and investing
2. The Company Climbers path: Climbed the corporate ladder and ended up with an extremely high salary (e.g., CEOs and other top executives)
3. The Virtuosos path: Have been paid a high premium for their knowledge and expertise (e.g., medical specialists, BigLaw attorneys)
4. The Dreamers path: Started their own business and their passion shows up in their bank accounts

Among the four, the “Savers-Investors” path is the easiest, while the other three involve much more risk. The Dreamers path is the fastest way to get rich if you have what it takes. This is the path that Dennis took.

But in the case of Dennis, he turned his worst nightmare into a dream come true. Only goes to show that with faith, it’s possible to turn passion into profit even when the odds are against you— if you’re willing to put on the hard work!

See also: Why You Probably Don’t Want to Live in a Mansion