The Benefit of Investing Money in Your Dreams

I’ve thought about this a lot over the last decade of pursuing my dreams. Do I need to justify the money I choose to invest in my dream? Does it need to pay back this month, this year, or this decade? And if I never achieve my dream will I still be glad I invested in it? My short answer: I believe investing money toward achieving our dreams is perhaps the best money we’ve ever spent.

Money is a tool

There’s a reason why founders take money from investors to ignite growth. It takes money to hire people, invest in software, and even invest in your skillset whether that’s through a coach, course, or attending a conference where you’ll learn about the industry and join the right network.

Here’s an example that will make you think differently about investing in your dreams

Bring to mind the vision you’re trying to achieve. Let’s say it’s to build a business that lets you quit your full-time job in the next 12 months.

Imagine a person stops you and hands you $100,000. There’s only one stipulation: you have to spend it on your vision, and if you don’t achieve your vision in the given timeframe, they’re going to come back and say you owe them the same amount of money.

You have a few options.

You could keep the $100k in your pocket, invest no money toward your goal, and just in case you fail, you have the original $100k in your pocket that you can hand back to them. I’d say that’s what most people are doing figuratively speaking: working toward a vision but not investing large amounts of money in it just in case it doesn’t work out. Agree or disagree? What are your thoughts so far?

Now, let’s change the scenario. They’re gifting you $100k and the only thing you can do with that money is spend it on your vision, but they’re never going to ask for their money back. The money is simply yours. It’s sitting in a bank account and the only use for it is spending it on your dream. Whether you choose to spend it or not, it doesn’t matter. It can either sit there, unused as lost potential, or it can be put to use. Potentially you will misuse the $100k and it will simply be gone. But what if the use of that money is actually what catapults you to achieving your vision that you had been circling on for years with no progress? What would be the ‘correct’ way to use that money so it actually helps you achieve your dream?

If you were forced to spend $100k toward achieving your vision at no cost or risk to you, how would you spend it?

Let’s do an exercise called ‘how would you spend the money?’

Pull out a notebook and pen and start writing down all of your insane ideas for how you’d spend the money to achieve your vision. This exercise isn’t about actually executing the plan. It’s just to get you thinking differently.

I’ll share my brainstorming list as a jumping off point for you.

My vision: I’m a published author with multiple six-figure book deals. I write bylines in great magazines for publicity for my books and myself. I have several thousand loyal email subscribers who follow my writing closely, and I make at least another few six figures on a business with recurring income.

When I started brainstorming, I started by listing everything that I can’t outsource because it’s my unique thought content, writing, and zone of genius:

• Write books

• Write blog content and articles for publications

• Show up on podcasts or events for networking

But there are a lot of things on my plate that I don't personally have to execute and that’s where these ideas came from:

• Hire professional book editors who help me with both line edits and developmental edits on the book

• Hire a freelancer who is in charge of sending my pitches to the agents on my agent spreadsheet

• Hire a freelancer who is in charge of sending pitches for bylines and managing following up

• Hire a freelancer who is in charge of scheduling my blogs, creating the newsletter for them, and scheduling the newsletter

• Hire a freelancer who helps me with my marketing so I start to see real growth on my email list. They help me build a referral program, for example

• Hire a freelancer who is in charge of updating my website’s storefront with improved offerings

• Hire Scout’s agency or something similar to get on podcasts and grow my newsletter list

• Hire a freelancer to help me create/edit social media content like reels to grow my audience. Hopefully that same freelancer will help me network with other authors and bookstagrammers

I also thought of a few tangible things I could buy:

• New professional photos for my website

• Better equipment for filming on social media like a new camera

• Professional outfits

• Better software or tools, whether it’s a new computer or a new productivity tool like Motion

Now that I’ve listed all of that out, I can see a to-do list. I can accomplish that list by myself (albeit it would take longer), or I can invest money into these tasks, or I can do a mix of both.

The point of the exercise is simply to get us thinking through how money can be used as a tool. If we choose to use it that way toward our visions, what might we be able to achieve, and in what timeframe?

The energetics of investing in your dream

When I recently hired a virtual assistant, it immediately made my work feel more elevated and professional. My vision feels cleaner, crisper, and more valuable—even to me.

I recently watched this video with Mel Robbins on the Pivot podcast and she made a great point. When we have a boss, and a team, and we’re getting a salary, there is a lot of built-in motivation for that endeavor. You want to be a good teammate, you want to perform, and you want to keep your paycheck. But what if you’re a solopreneur-slash-wannabe-author like me? Where does the motivation come from other than a strong dream and will to see it through?

If you’re like me and you’re working on this type of endeavor day after day without a big paycheck, team, or boss…first of all, congratulations…you’re in the top .001% of people with intense self-motivation. If you’re trying to achieve a solo vision that doesn’t incorporate a team or paycheck (right now) keep in mind that investing money can be a way to motivate the hell out of you:

1. It levels up what you’re doing. It’s not just a side hustle you’re bumming around with on the weekends. This is your job.

2. It holds you accountable. If you’re investing money, you’re committed. You likely want to see your money back sooner rather than later. When you pay, you pay attention.

3. It elevates the energy with which you are performing.

4. You don’t have to do this alone. Wow, that one is a huge sigh of relief. If you can afford to hire help for a few tasks, even if it’s just someone to clean your house or babysit your kids for a few hours, then it means you don’t have to be spread so thin.

5. Your endeavors can financially support you and other people you love working with. Imagine adding a contractor to your team who is receiving valuable money from you and in return you’re receiving valuable work from them. What if their work helps grow your business and in the process supports them as they invest in their dreams?

Is money and the mindset around it perhaps one of the biggest blocks for most business owners and creatives?

I started wondering recently if money is most people’s #1 hurdle toward achieving their visions. Here are a few ways this plays out:

1. You aren’t able or willing to leave your day job to work on your business so you’re struggling with time/energy limitations

2. You’re making so much money at your current job—aka golden handcuffs—that the thought of switching over to being an entrepreneur becomes a much bigger proposition because the “loss” of opportunity feels like too big of a risk

3. You aren’t able or willing to invest money into your business which leaves you spinning your wheels because building a business usually requires some capital/risk/investment to get it going

4. You’re worried that if you build a business and people start to rely on you for income (your family, employees, contractors, etc) the pressure becomes too high and you don’t want to let anyone down

5. You’re just plain scared of failure and losing money in the process

What if common money blocks come down to risk, trust, and how much we’re willing to potentially lose?

Investing money in your dream communicates to yourself and others a high sense of self-worth and self-belief

Did this concept spark anything for you?

What’s on your brainstormed list for how you’d spend money toward your goal hypothetically, or perhaps not hypothetically?

If you do the exercise, I’d love to hear about your brainstormed list and what this brought up for you. You can reach me at kasia@kasiamanolas.com