Gary Fong - The Accidental Millionaire. How to Succeed in Life Without Really Trying

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praise for the accidental millionaire

Garys book is a true source of inspiration, while also very engaging and entertaining. Through his journey of life, he demonstrates that opportunities are everywhereyou just have to seize them. He also is living proof that success is not just about numbers but more the fun and excitement of every day. When you are done reading you will be ready for the sequel!

JEN GROOVER, author of What If? and Why Not?, creator of Launchers Caf

Gary Fong is a world-renowned photographer, inventor, and entrepreneur who has made multiple fortunes and lived a life far more colorful than any of his photos. From his inauspicious beginnings in a tiny, hairspray-saturated apartment that doubled as his parents wig studio, he went on to become, at a very young age, one of the worlds most successful wedding photographers. After making millions in an industry traditionally reserved for small businessmen, he practically stumbled upon serial successes in the photo printing, software, real estate, and camera accessory industries by making intuitive decisions based on his own quirky impulses.

Gary Fong is not a traditional businessman and his story is not a traditional rags-to-riches tale. Known to make important life choices on the flip of a coin, he has followed the whims of fate and instinct to create a life of astounding prosperity and adventure.

Sometimes hilarious, sometimes touching, The Accidental Millionaire is a series of snapshots from key periods of Garys life. When strung together, they form a rich mosaic of a life fully lived and an adventure that is still unfolding.

ANDY WOLFENDON, story editor for Chicken Soup for the Soul

the plan

My life has not gone according to The Plan.

The Plan was for me to go to medical school and eventually pull down a respectable salary of about $150,000 a year.

Had I gone with The Plan, by this point in my life (Im in my mid-forties) I probably would have just finished paying off my student loans and would be eyeing that thirty-two-foot Catalina sailboat with the FORSALEsign that I passed every night on my way home from the clinic. Id be settled into a comfortable home in the burbs, with my wife of twenty years and my 2.3 kids, driving a Lexus sedan. And living the life of my dreams.

Well, my parents dreams.

Which I tried, for a time, to convince myself were my dreams too.

Following The Plan made me cry a lot. Eventually I found myself with a literal gun to my own head. Thats when I ran from The Plan and began an adventure into uncharted territory.

Uncharted territory goes completely against the grain of my upbringing.

My parents were first-generation Asian immigrants. Their lives territory was very well charted. And theyd charted mine too. My destiny was determined before I was born, and I had absolutely no say in it. My parents didnt know (or particularly care) if I was going to be gay or blind or a violent psychopath. All they knew was that I was going to be a doctor. Secondarily to that, of course, I would be married at a young age to a nice Chinese girl whom my mother endorsed, and I would deliver my mother numerous grandchildren for her to spoil. ASAP.

While I was growing up, my family suffered through sobering bouts of poverty. My parents sacrificed everything to ensure that I could get a good education. All they wanted was for me to not have to face the same financial struggles that they had. As a side benefit, they also werent going to mind the privilege of saying, My son, the doctor.

I didnt want to live in poverty either, so I gave The Plan a go for many years. I even got a degree in pharmacology in my attempt to become a physician.

I failed.

And what did I do instead? I became a wedding photographer.

You can imagine the songs of joy this caused to leap from my parents hearts.

And yet, spring-boarding from that career, which began with moving back into my parents apartment and shooting weddings for $150 each, I became a multi-millionaire within a fairly short period of time. And it happened due to one improbable accident after another.

I use the word accident because I never set out to be rich. I am really not all that gung-ho ambitious, as youll discern from the pages of this book. I guess ambition is a relative thing. I certainly dont fit the mold of the inspirational characters Ive read about. And this book does not contain conventional wisdom about getting rich. Becoming wealthy was never the dream for me. The dream was simply to get as far away as possible from the brutal struggles my parents had gone through.

It wasnt their modest lifestyle that troubled me. I could have lived with that. It wasnt the lack of money either. What got to me was the constant panic on my parents faces as they sweated out how they were going to survive another day, another week, another month. To me, that look was hell itself. I still have nightmares about it. Its probably something Ill take to my grave.

I credit two very small events in my life, separated by many years, with changing my life. The first occurred when I was ten years old. I wrote in my journal, with oddly grown-up clarity, that I was going to become my own parent. I was no longer going to derive my sense of safety and well-being from Mom and Dad. I simply realized that they would never be able to provide it. This journal entry became a mandate for me to take complete responsibility for my lifes direction.

The second event occurred when, as a grown man, I glanced at a bumper sticker on a car. Yes, a bumper sticker.

I was stuck in heavy L.A. traffic, feeling utterly frustrated with the fact that my life was not going according to The Plan, mired in the depths of apathy and frustration, when I saw nine little words on the rear window of a Subaru wagon. Instantlyand I do mean instantlymy perspective changed.

The bumper sticker said: SINCE I GAVE UP HOPE, I FEEL MUCH BETTER. I read it, laughed myself sick, and immediately felt the proverbial weight of the world lift from my shoulders.

In that one instant, I gave up all my focus on things going the way I wanted them to. Ever. I surrendered all my goals, my visions, my fantasies, my expectations. My Plans. I was suddenly knocked from my inner railroad tracks and felt my perspective opening up like a morning glory in the sun.

That bumper sticker gave me my freedom.

chapter one

My Mom, the Guinea Pig

Im convinced that an only child has formative experiences that are vastly different from those of a child with siblings. First of all, only children spend most of their time around adults, adults who lack the curiosity and sense of wonder that children have. Adults find the everyday world humdrum and mundane, whereas everything is fascinating to a fledgling human. When an adult and a child are constant companions, the child matures fasterand the adult is reduced to blithering infancy.

As the mother of an only child, part of my moms job description was to be my primary playmate. She was a great sport about it. We would play army games for hours, wearing salad bowls on our heads as helmets or sitting under a laundry hamper and pretending I was in a car with a mesh cage. She was fun, and she never gave me the Okay, thats enough too soon. She played for as long as I wanted.

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