There are many regions in the world that are small geographically, but exhibit enormous influence on global trade, geopolitics, and the way humans live on this planet.

Hong Kong is super-small, yet it is a wealth powerhouse. Singapore is a speck of dust on the global map, but it’s an island of prosperity and financial stardom. Wall Street, if you haven’t been yet, is just that – a street – yet it concentrates untold funds and moves the global markets more than anything else. The City of London, a mysterious financial district inside of London, the capital of England, is another one of these tiny geographic areas that are hugely powerful.

800 years ago, no other place was as dominant, wealthy, and critical to the lives of humans from China to Europe, than a lagoon of muddy islands in the north-eastern part of Italy, called Venice. On the shaky mud, the Venetians built a solid miracle, a city that is situated on a forest of timber.

As I write this, I’m looking at the city’s Grand Canal, where each house was a palace, owned by one of the city’s 1,200 rich merchants. Venice enjoyed plenty of luck and extraordinary circumstances, which allowed it to become the epicenter of global trade. Luck is an important part of life. Most successful people, who possess some degree of humility, understand that while skills are essential to accomplishing great things, luck still played a role in their journey to the top of the financial pyramid.

Luck makes you humble instead of cocky. It makes you appreciate the beauty around you. This city is extraordinarily beautiful. The Venetians were also incredibly smart and are behind many of the best business innovations we still use today, so it was not pure luck that birthed this gorgeous area; it was the combination of brilliance and timing. 

When they got too rich, though, they lost their way. They became corrupt and complacent. They stopped innovating and looked for shortcuts to wealth. That brought weakness and eventually, their demise.

The luckiest day of my life, financially, is the day I met self-made multimillionaire Daniel Ameduri. The chances of us meeting, he later told me, “were less than 0.03%.” I call that darn lucky.

His mentorship was the driving force behind my blowout year, when my income soared by 800% in a matter of 365 days! 

In one year of mentorship, I went from making X to making 8X in half the working hours, freeing up my day a bit, so that I could finally see my wife before 10 PM. For 5 years straight, prior to meeting him, my businesses consumed me 7 days a week, 10 hours a day.

Since meeting him, I’ve told Daniel that he must put his principles into writing, so that others could be as fortunate as I was. I know several other entrepreneurs that he has met along the way and shared his story with, who have made the same request. 

He finally did it!

Gold might be putting on the brakes for the next week or so, but Daniel certainly isn’t. He will be featured on major financial outlets in the coming days, thanks to the reviews he has been getting from experts, who have gotten a sneak peak of Don’t Save For Retirement!, which I am certain will be the MUST-READ book of 2019.