Mindset: How it's Changed My Life

I'm sipping a $5 Li-hing Lemonade from Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf in Honolulu's newest city, Kaka'ako. This is where a 230 square-foot studio starts at $550K, a CorePower Yoga membership is $189/month, and the swanky Nobu Honolulu serves its $250/person omakase.

When I moved to O'ahu in 2011, the high prices seemed unfair. I thought it was unconscionable that a $20 million dollar condo at One Park Lane was for sale while there were homeless in the adjacent Ala Moana park. I remember feeling angry, mildly hoping that a catastrophe would flatten the burgeoning luxury towers dotting Ala Moana Boulevard.

Fast forward to 2018; I'm a member at CorePower Yoga and Nobu is one of my favorite weekend spots. Just last week, I hung out the newest luxury tower, Anaha, where a 1-bedroom will set you back a cool $1.15 M. (Cough up $4.3 M and you have yourself a 3-bedroom). While swimming in Anaha's iconic glass-bottomed infinity pool, six stories above Auahi Street, I thought, "I deserve this."

Don't we all? Maybe not. I think we ought to be rewarded for hard work and ingenuity. Recent lawmakers' proposals for a Universal Basic Income, if enacted, would rob individuals of their desire to work. This would create the ultimate Welfare State in which generation after generation is dependent on the government.

We can do one of two things in life: Stand on the sidelines or jump in and participate. I think we'd all agree that a hard-won success is much more rewarding (and respected) than a handout.

Thankfully my mindset has changed since 2011. I'm less conflicted about wealth and instead of abhorring it, I'm vested in accumulating it. And why not - we were all blessed by God to soar - and let me tell you, the view from Anaha's 38th floor penthouse is as high as it gets in Honolulu.

#goals