Today's guest is an expert on Smart Investments, he is the creator and founder of the Smart Asset Opportunities  After 12 years serving in the military and over 20 years running a successful private practice, he realized if he didn’t alter his course he’d be trading hours for dollars forever. It was this belief that led him to launch Smart Asset Opportunities. In just four years, he has been involved in projects totaling over $100 million, and owns 40+ single family homes, 14 ATM’s, a coffee farm in Panama, apartment complexes, office parks, storage units, and ownership in a Belizean resort. As he says "After over 20 years of running a successful small business in rural Missouri, we seemingly “woke up” to the realization we were not on the path to a comfortable retirement, a course of not knowing when we would be able to transition out of the business. We truly did not have a plan to replace our transactional income – the exchanging of our hours for dollars. We needed some Smart Investments for sure. Truthfully, we felt stuck. Fast forward two years and our passive income from our investment endeavors has exceeded that of our practice income. The driving factor of this change was our mindset; we took control of our lives, our future and decided financial freedom doesn’t have just one path. We surrounded ourselves with like-minded individuals on the same journey and with the same aspirations. We sought out opportunities to learn more and partner with others in lucrative joint ventures. We understood our WHY and became intentional about taking action. These days we are dedicated to our new passion: helping others achieve their success. It is far more rewarding, interesting and exciting than lounging around on a beach, and we’re enjoying every second of it. Our WHY is to help others find their path to the financial freedom we found with their own Smart Investments. So it's ok to say, let's change direction and do something different but how do you upskill and make these changes occur? And is it still fun and exciting to be building what they have, or getting more and more like a job? Well lets find out as we bring onto the show to start joining up dots with the one and only Mr. Ross Stryker. Show Highlights During the show we discussed such weighty topics with Ross Stryker such as: We share the dawning realisation when he realised that his retirement was not going to be as comfortable as he and his wife hoped and the actions he then took. Why it is so important to start surrounding yourself with the kind of people that you want to become in your life. Dont look for less but look higher up the ladder. Ross shares why he loves, what he is doing for the reasons because it was hard, more than anything else. It's the challenge that lights him up inside. and lastly…. Why we can learn from other peoples mistakes, much more cheaply and quickly than we can hope to do ourselves. So study other peoples route to success.