Real stories, analysis,
and strategies

Patricia is now happy with her income, owns a house and has set a goal to grow to a VP level which will give her a significant salary bump.  She says her approach requires discipline and can be painful. Renovations on their house are now starting to annoy her. It was extremely challenging to move home and work 10 weeks for free with a 3 hour commute, only to get a starter job at $27,000.  But without other resources, this has been the most effective path she could find to build her career, income and net worth.  

After 15 years of struggling in the system, Aimee began to believe there had to be a better way.  Knowing that patients wanted better care, that the industry is growing with people wanting to stay home longer, and understanding the funding system Aimee decided she could be better off by working independently. 

Daniel grew up in communist Eastern Europe where 99% of people were lower middle class.  He knew that counting on government will lead you to be somewhere between poor and lower middle class.  He saw that if you wanted anything over and above the basics, be it, experiences, things or even money for the sake of money, you had to work and hustle for it. 

Since completing her Masters in 2004, Margaret has worked in three different industries, in 4 different organizations.  She has tripled her salary from her starting point of just under $50,000 annually.  She accomplished this through a skillful maneuvering of her career towards higher paying general management roles, fierce negotiation skills and 4 core strategies...

Isaac is a disciplined planner! Not just a thinker or list maker, a full out planner who has the discipline to invest significant time and effort thinking about the future and making it easier for himself.  I believe this long term thinking has been a core enabler of his success.

Faisal is successful because he is clear about where he is going, strategically looks for opportunities to enable him to get there and recognizes the importance of meaningful relationships

Like most high school students, Kavith began thinking about post secondary education.  He started to understand the costs.  He knew that he could get OSAP but wanted to be proactive.  He worked as hard as he could to get his grades up.  He spent about 5 hours a week thinking about what he was good at and looking for scholarship and contest opportunities.  He applied for and competed in a number of opportunities and was ultimately successful in securing $45 000 in funding for school from more than 10 separate providers, with awards ranging in value from $100 to $30 000.

Esfir came to Canada, driven by the desire for a career where, her contributions would be valued based on their merit and as equal to those of her male colleagues. She was frustrated that as a woman, she didn’t get meaningful opportunities at work.  “They didn’t see me as a professional… I didn’t have equity and no matter how good I was, I couldn’t get any higher”.

During his time as a project manager, Ricardo became friends with other project managers and he learned his salary was $10,000 below theirs.  He was making 33% less than those with the exact same job.

This complexity of entrepreneurship has taken up the majority of Rohan’s brain space and time.  It has prevented him from pushing forward on some personal financial pieces.  In particular, Rohan was recently dealing with the high costs of credit card debt.  As self-employed and with no assets, he has had difficulty getting reasonably priced loans from traditional banks. 

As the saying goes, when life serves you lemons, you make lemonade.  Despite the challenges, that is what Avani a single mother or two managed to do.   Avani immigrated to Canada almost 15 years ago; she was driven by the the opportunity to live in a country that offered economic growth, high standards of living, best in class education and peace of mind.