Path to Wealth & Wisdom: 100 Commonsense Tips for Self-Growth & Fulfillment: 100 CommonSense Tips for Self-Growth & Fulfillment

By Younas Chaudhary

This book is a comprehensive guide to achieving financial freedom and personal growth. It's a must-read for anyone looking to create a life of happiness, abundance, and fulfillment.

In this book, Younas Chaudhary shares his personal journey of achieving financial success and the lessons he learned along the way. He provides pra

• Language: English
• Publisher: YBC Foundation
• Release date: Aug 1, 2023
• ISBN: 9781088255988

Book preview

Author’s foreword

Some might say that my life has been unusual. I was raised without electricity in rural Pakistan. Now, I am exceptionally blessed. I have lived in the bright urban cityscapes of America and have slept under the open skies of rural Pakistan. I have collected luxury cars, yet I can also recall a time when just seeing an automobile driving down our village’s dirt roads was an oddity.

I expect that few people have had the privilege to see life across such different landscapes and from such diverse perspectives. Many of us are born into a particular class or society and remain within it for most of our lives, though this is beginning to change with globalization and transnationalism. I can remember biking miles and miles to collect milk for my family, a task I used to perform every day, rain or shine, just as well as I can recount staying at the world’s finest hotels and dining at the most expensive restaurants.

I came into this world as part of Asian culture, living in a large extended family and steeped in community-oriented traditions, only to venture into the fiercely independent West. I arrived in Canada with just $30 in my pocket, a little English, and my wife. Landing in Edmonton in 1973, I moved from one job to the next, working my way up from a slaughterhouse worker to a taxi driver to a door-to-door cookware salesman. Ultimately, I headed to Kansas in search of money and oil—and I found both.

Throughout this journey, I have been at the top and the bottom, and I have seen as many struggles as I have victories. I expounded on the details of that in my first book, From Dirt Roads to Black Gold, published in 2019. In it, I told the story of my life as an immigrant, an entrepreneur, and a self-made millionaire.

Throughout my life at these different ends of society—rich and poor, East and West—I have had plenty of time to think about our world, our different cultural perspectives, and what it means to live a full life. I often find myself asking what it means to be happy and joyful. What does it mean to live well? I have found that true wisdom often lies along a middle path. I have found it in moderation, hard work, and consistency. I have found it in simplicity and quiet reflection. I have found it in family and giving to others without expectations.

The book you are holding shares the building blocks of wisdom I have gained through my life’s experience. In these pages, you will find my tools and tips for business and finance—the same ones that allowed me to establish myself as a businessman in the volatile oil and gas industry. You will find practical advice, as well as more philosophical wisdom, for facing the unexpected twists and turns of life, of which I have seen my fair share.

The first section focuses on business. From dealing with meetings to tips on being a better negotiator, I share the practices that have made me an effective businessperson and leader. The next section shares wisdom I gained growing up in the East. It draws on the lessons I learned from my parents, family, and culture in Pakistan. The third section explores living a good life more broadly, from deciding to love yourself to learning how to set boundaries and say no. Lastly, I move into some reflections on how we perceive money and offer practical advice for better financial health.

My goal in writing this book is to encourage you to find a greater depth of meaning in your everyday life, to help you rediscover simple pleasures in our contemporary world, and to offer you the kind of boots-on-the-ground practical guidance that I was given as a young person and immigrant (though I believe that anyone can find something worthwhile in these pages).

Above all, I hope that this book can offer you a starting point for your own daily reflection and mindfulness. May it serve you well as you refine your own story and travel whatever roads life takes you down.

Younas Chaudhary

July 2023

Advice for Business

Tips for long-term productivity and success.

Master the basics

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Let the fundamentals guide you.

During my younger years in Pakistan, there was a shepherd who lived in my parents’ village farmhouse. He was of Greek descent, something notable and curious for all of us in the community. He and his family had worked for us for generations. He was an expert in taking care of his flock. He was meticulous and could easily tell if a sheep was about to fall sick or needed particular care. I would frequently observe his passion and his devotion to the basics.

That shepherd had mastered the simplest and most core elements of his trade. He was punctual, enthusiastic, passionate, and always knew the health and count of his sheep.

Mastery of the basics is important, even if we find those basics unexciting, redundant, or habitual. I learned the importance of observing simple rites, like waking up early, from my parents, who would get up at the crack of dawn every day to prepare for their morning prayers. In the rare event that I did not find my father praying in the morning, he was sick and in bed.

I learned at an early age that the fundamentals are important, no matter your field or profession. In the 1980s, when I came to Kansas to scout for oil, I knew nothing about the energy business. With no prior knowledge of what a landman’s role entailed, no engineering degree, and no background in geology, the only thing I knew how to do to get myself started was to learn the basics of the oil and gas industry. I wanted to learn and be a landman, a geologist, and an engineer at the same time!

I knew this work would be hard, but I learned how to do the simplest parts of it quite well. I often looked at the topography of an area and tried to figure out productive formation trends in oil wells’ production, including where the play might go next, and noted all the dry areas and patches in between.

All of us want to be well-rounded, but at the end of the day, you must master the basics. Doing that requires passion, hard work, consistency, and sacrifice.

Start by mastering one skill. Give it your time and patience. You will not be able to learn everything overnight but focusing your attention will allow you to refine one skill and then another. That will serve you well.

Find your passion

Having a niche is valuable.

I believe the first step to making money is to find an area that you truly enjoy. Recognizing your personal niche takes time and honesty with yourself. I stumbled into the energy field. I was passionate about it, and because of that, I had the patience to learn it. That became my niche. Once you find what you enjoy and do well, others will start noticing your superior skills.

If you’re doing it right, you should look forward to work. I like the smell of crude oil, the production process, and wide-open land. When I started my oil company, I was in oil fields from dawn to dusk. This passion makes me love my work.

I taught myself through consistent practice and engagement, not through lectures. That said, I’ve not kept my business methods a secret. By learning, teaching, sharing, and being transparent, I’ve built successful businesses in a volatile oil market. Once you find and learn your niche and passion, it’s time to share your expertise and knowledge with others.

Next, remember the importance of timely marketing. With today’s wide-open, 24/7 online lifestyle, social media sites can help you sell your ideas and products. Move beyond your usual circles and get noticed by people who matter in other industries and beyond.

If you have found your niche, money will follow. The harder and smarter you work, build contacts, and establish yourself as a leader, the more opportunities will come your way.

Positive thinking beats burnout

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Burnout is real.

Drilling an oil well is a risky venture. Sometimes, you drill an oil well and end up with a dry hole. It’s real, and it happens. It’s just a bump in the road, right? Right. Until you try again, and the same thing happens. At that point, you’re rightfully frustrated and disappointed. You feel your effort was all for nothing.

I have experienced burnout many times in the cyclical oil market. I watched as oil prices fell to $8 a barrel in the mid-1980s, at which point my investors took me to court, blaming me for their losses. Ironically, just a few months earlier when oil prices were higher, they had been singing my praises!

At the time, I felt helpless, nervous, and disappointed. I was burnt out. I even thought of leaving the oil business. Fortunately, I stood tall. I made a deal with my investors to buy out their stakes. A few months later when oil prices increased and stabilized, I made good money.

Each time I got knocked down, I looked at my life and thought, Well, what the heck do I have to lose? I came to the West with only $30 in my pocket, so anything more is a blessing!

It’s normal to feel burnt out when situations spin out of our control. In June 2014, my wife was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease and later dementia. My life suddenly turned upside down. I was depressed and couldn’t concentrate on my business or other aspects of my life.

I wanted to work through that feeling, so I started writing my first book, From Dirt Roads to Black Gold. It gave me an emotional release. It was hard, but I was told to get therapy and take things day by day. Thankfully, I am in a much better position today.

When I get burnt out, I practice positive thinking. I fake it till I make it. I do so because I know something good is waiting for me around the corner.

From these experiences I also learned that when I encounter a moody coworker, the best thing I can do is to be kind and ask what’s happening. It could be anything from a sick child at home to a bad financial situation, but having empathy and adding some positive energy back into others’ lives improves mine as well.

I’ve found that a combination of positive thoughts and physical fitness can help to tackle burn out. Therefore, regular walks in your neighborhood, yoga, mindfulness, good eating habits, and better sleep will all help.

Lean in during crisis

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Have you ever felt lonely at the top?

When facing a crisis, pay attention, focus, lean in, ask for help, and learn. The goal is to make timely, data-driven decisions, trust the expertise of your people, and listen to your gut feeling, while understanding that there will be no easy answers.

For example, one evening, I received a phone call that everyone in the oil business dreads: One of our deep, high-pressure gas wells had suffered a blowout. The well was out of control and was causing extensive damage. It had to be controlled, capped, and plugged. This was an unexpected, sudden, and highly expensive situation that took several teams of experts over two months to get under control. Of course, my team was there to advise me, but I was the guy alone at the top. I had to make quick decisions about how to control this well by plugging it to stop the bleeding while we suffered millions and millions of dollars in losses.

I have learned that decision-making and teamwork are important skills that can determine success or failure in times of crisis. Large-scale problems can be tackled with good, open, and timely communication with team members. If you are hands-on in your business, you can usually tackle large-scale