Hans Jakobi's Story

Dear Friend,

My name is Hans Jakobi and I’m 49 years young. My wife Colette and I have three beautiful children. I work from home and get around in jeans or shorts most of the time. I hardly ever wear a watch and often you’ll find me in the garden or out in a paddock on the tractor.

A few years ago, I got around in a suit and tie every day and despite the appearance of prosperity and happiness, I was stressed to the max. My life felt like a treadmill of endless struggle just to pay bills without really having the time and money to enjoy my life.

Now we live on a 335 acre farm close to forests, national parks and lakes. It’s a quiet and peaceful retreat with resident kangaroos, abundant bird life and natural bushland. Our nearest neighbour is 1.5 kilometres away and our organic garden supplies a wide variety of fresh, home-grown food.

Winter presents with crisp, clean mountain air, log fires, clear days and occasional snow. Our large range of fruit and other deciduous trees announce the arrival of spring, supported by flowering tulips, daffodils, lilacs, photinias, rhodedendrons, azalias and camellias. In summer, the vegetable garden, fruit and nut trees, vines and berries move into full production while the surrounding green hills make for healthy grazing country.

It sounds idyllic doesn’t it?

I know you may not believe me at this point and why should you? After all, I could be making all this up. You probably don’t even know me from a bar of soap. Please reserve your judgement however, until after you’ve read my material because it will prove to you that it is possible, and that anyone who has the determination to succeed and follows a plan can do it. This is my story and I hope that it will inspire your life’s journey.

I feel I have now achieved the balance between my personal and business life that most people long for. My dream was to create a life of joy and fulfillment. By consistently following the wealth creation strategies I teach, I have achieved the level of financial freedom which allows me the time and money to pursue the things I enjoy doing most.

However, it wasn’t always like this.

Just a few short years ago, I was working 12 to 14 hours a day in jobs I absolutely hated. At one stage I thought that climbing the corporate ladder would lead me to a blissful life and so I fought my way through Sydney traffic for 3 hours each day to get to and from the office. I often left home before my children were out of bed and if I was home in time, I could kiss my children good night before they fell asleep and I collapsed onto the lounge. The weekends were generally spent recovering so I could do it all over again the following week.

Sure the money was good, but I often thought to myself: “there must be a better way.” Even though I really wanted my life to be different, I wasn’t sure what my ideal life would look like and I couldn’t see a way of getting off the treadmill and still supporting my family.

Then one day my world collapsed around me. I was a senior manager with a large international accounting firm at the time and just before morning tea, the managing partner called me into his office and told me to clear out my office – I was retrenched. To make me feel better, he explained that 1,500 other people around the country were also being retrenched as the company struggled to survive “the recession we had to have”.

My youngest daughter was just a toddler at the time and I was sure it wouldn’t be long before I had another job.

What I experienced then was soul destroying.

I applied for 175 jobs and was told that I was either too old or over qualified. Too old? – Good grief, I was only 36 years old! How could that be too old?

I applied for all sorts of positions only to be knocked back every time.

In the end, I got a part time job sorting parcels in a transport terminal. It was a far cry from a senior manager’s position with my own office and a company car. Back in the office I had staff who reported to me and now I was at the bottom of the heap. It was a totally different environment to what I’d been accustomed to.

In order to get that job in fact, I had to leave my qualifications and previous experience out of the discussion, during the job interview.

Here’s what I did next . . .

The date was August 15th 1991(just 9 days before my wife’s birthday)

The time was about 3.30pm in the afternoon.

I was driving to the transport terminal that afternoon to begin my shift. In anger and frustration I gripped the steering wheel of my wife’s blue Datsun Sunny (I’d lost my car when I was retrenched) until my knuckles turned white. I was feeling very lonely and totally depressed. I thought to myself: “I can’t take this any more.”

I can’t get a job where I can apply my skills. I am broke. I am too old to get another job. I am a failure. I have disappointed my wife and family. As far as I was concerned, I had no future. I had plunged to the depths of despair.

I was so depressed, I cried until I couldn’t see the road properly. I turned the car around and headed south to the Royal National Park. I figured it would be a long time before someone found me there.

As I stood at the edge of the cliff and wept, I said to myself: “this is it. Jump now and my pain is gone . . . forever.” Then I thought about my wife and children and how they would feel. I thought about how my parents would feel. I thought about the pain and anguish they would suffer. I thought about my young children growing up without their father.

For a while I stood there sobbing, . . . torn between the choice of dying and the choice of living.

In the end, my love for my family and my faith in God won out. I stepped back from the edge of the cliff and collapsed in a heap on the ground, totally exhausted. I was ashamed that I even considered this option and I knew I had to make some serious changes to my life. I didn’t exactly know what I should do and where to turn for help. All I knew was that I was very unhappy.

In that desperate moment, I prayed to God for help and guidance. As I wiped the tears from my face, I thanked God for all the wonderful things in my life to be grateful for. I was grateful for my family and friends, my parents, my good health and for the courage to face life again and to look for a new direction.

I remembered a personal growth seminar my chiropractor recommended I attend. I was totally cynical and dismissive at the time. He knew I had been depressed for a long time and thought this might help snap me out of my woes. I remember telling him: “I bet it is expensive and is just some fast talking ‘Yank’ telling us what to do.” You see, despite my woes, I still wasn’t particularly open to exploring new possibilities. I was still very sceptical and disbelieving.

Well, even though I thought I was right on both counts at the time, this seminar proved to be a major turning point in my life. It challenged my beliefs about myself and money and my relationship with others. I cleared up some incomplete issues in my life and I realised that I had the power to choose the life I wanted to live. I recognised that I had to stop blaming others for my situation and that it was time to stop feeling sorry for myself.

Did my life change instantly?

Yes and no. Whereas previously I had thought that my education was complete when I finished my university degree, I began to devour books and listen to audio tapes to learn what made me the person I was and what I could do to change the aspects I wanted to improve. The car became my “seminar room on wheels”. I read hundreds of books and attended as many seminars as I could. I revisited my spiritual connection and realised that in order to enjoy the life I desired, I had to work on myself as much as I had to focus on building wealth.

I sought out mentors for various areas of my life and followed the plan my wife and I compiled to help us reach both our financial and family objectives. We grew our share and property portfolio and continued to educate ourselves as widely as possible.

For quite a few years however, I still became depressed and struggled financially as I searched for my life’s purpose and as the needs of our family changed.

Things became clearer for me in 1997 after a short stint at selling investment real estate. Real estate was something I believed in and had enjoyed financial success with. Unfortunately I found that many aspiring investors were being misled and ripped off by property marketeers who were selling them overpriced properties in areas unfamiliar to the investors.

Once I realised what was going on, I left my job to become a wealth coach. As I explain in my book, How To Be Rich & Happy On Your Income, “that experience led me to discover my passion. I wanted to be part of the solution and not part of the problem. I wanted to teach the secrets of creating wealth honestly. Wealth to me is more than just money. It encompasses relationships, lifestyle and personal fulfilment as well as money. Money is the tool that provides us with freedom and the luxuries of life.” My purpose now is to live and teach the principles of true wealth.

You can read more of the story in my book, How To Be Rich & Happy On Your Income. The reason I am telling you all this is to make you aware that some deep seated changes may take time and that nothing is ever so bad that there are no alternatives. Even though I was down on my luck and desperate at various times, once I was committed to improving my life and once I was clear about my future direction, the rest just became a matter of putting my faith in God and the effort to succeed.

If I could go from the depths of despair, frustration and being almost broke, to being financially free and enjoying a dream life, you can too.

As I say in my book, How To Be Rich & Happy On Your Income, the biggest obstacles to achieving what you want, often lie behind the iron curtain you have erected around your own mind. The greatest battles you’ll have to face are within yourself. For every challenge there is an even greater opportunity to improve your life now and in the future.

I wish you the best of wealth – I know you can be rich and happy now.

Hans Jakobi - Your Wealth Coach®

P.S. Do I sometimes still work 12 or 14 hours a day? Yes I do. I often become so engrossed in projects I’m working on that I lose track of time. The difference is that now I do it because I love what I’m doing; I’m passionate about what I do and I do it because I choose to do it, not because I have to. In the free article, What Does It Take To Become A Millionaire?, I explain that millionaires focus intently on one project at a time and they do whatever it takes to make it a success. Perhaps you might like to read this article.

Do I ever feel down and despondent? Yes, I’m no different to anyone else. I have my highs and lows. The difference is that I now have strategies to deal with these situations so that I can get back up quicker. I find that because I’ve changed my attitude to life, money and many other things, I don’t sink to the depths I felt when life threw a few challenges my way. I know that it’s not what happens to you in life that matters – it’s how you respond to it that matters. I know that it’s not about how much money you earn – it’s about how you manage what you earn that matters. I know that I have the power to create my life the way I want it. If I’m not happy with the way my life is at present, I have the power to change it. I have the power to choose.

Many people who look at others enjoying wealth, success and happiness often assume that this is because of some special gift, or luck or advantage they may have. They may even think that you need to be dishonest in order to get ahead. Sometimes I’ve felt that way too. Now I know this is not the case. I believe that anyone, regardless of their occupation, education, or upbringing can achieve the wealth, success and happiness they desire. The wealth education tools we offer you on this website reveal how you can develop a wealthy mindset, instil prosperous attitudes and beliefs and apply proven, practical skills to achieve your goals. Every day I ask myself this important question: “What am I doing today that helps me reach my goals?” I’ve found this helps keep me motivated and on track.

Here's a wonderful quote on gratitude I'd like to share with you

Gratitude unlocks the fullness of life. It turns what we have into enough, and more. It turns denial into acceptance, chaos to order,confusion to clarity. It can turn a meal into a feast, a house into a home, a stranger into a friend. Gratitude makes sense of our past, brings peace for today, and creates a vision for tomorrow."
Melody Beattie, Author

Cus D'Amato an American Boxing Trainer is quoted as saying:

"To see a man beaten not by a better opponent but by himself is a tragedy."

When things get tough, I reflect on this quote for a moment and it helps me get things into perspective again.

I often find I get down when I've been working too hard and cannot see the forest for the trees. I then turn everything off and take a break. As Stephen Covey says: it's time to sharpen the saw.

Even though I may have been working on some high priority projects at the time, I put everything on hold and go sailing, go for a walk, drive the tractor, water the garden or do something totally different. I may take a few days off and go somewhere with my wife.

This time out is great to recharge the batteries while I switch off. It helps me to come back to what I was doing with renewed energy and enthusiasm.

It helps me be my best friend and not my worst enemy.