From Immigrant to Millionaire with Armando Olivares
From Immigrant to Millionaire, with Armando Olivares
Armando Olivares was just 13 years old when he left Peru to come live with his father in America. Today, he is a grown man with a family of his own - and while many Americans were binging Netflix, he made his first million dollars last year.
One of the most powerful ways to understand the blessings you have, is to take them away. Lose your eyesight and you will instantly realize how blessed you were to see. Lose someone you love and you immediately feel a magnified sense of how blessed you were to have them in your life. Lose your job, your marriage, your health, etc.
Many of us here in America have long been aware of how blessed we are to live here. Others are only now realizing how they’ve taken their freedom and opportunities for granted. But too many others still do not recognize or appreciate the severity and implications of what is happening right in front of our very eyes.
This is why we have made it a point to highlight what is at stake here, by bringing you up close and personal with people who have an indisputable position on freedom and the opportunities in America.
Armando Olivares was just a young teenager when he left his mom and brother in Peru, to move to America with his father.
Young Armando spoke no english, barely knew his father, and was struggling to leave the family he loved. Fortunately, says Armando, America welcomed him with open arms.
Bullies exists everywhere, Armando notes, and he encountered some here just like in Peru. But overall, he says, his experience as an immigrant has been a positive one. His teachers were very caring , he remembers. “They really wanted to help.”
Armado dove right in to his life in America, taking language classes to become fluent in english, and vowing to one day be an asset to the country he is so grateful to live in.
He had no expectations of being handed success; Armando wanted to earn it. The years went by, and Armando became a husband and a father. Providing for his family has always been his priority. If that meant he had to work two jobs to do so, so be it. By day he was a bank manager. Outside of bank hours he drove for Lyft. The steady income and full benefits meant he and his wife could wake up each day and know their children would have a comfortable home and never go without.
It was enough for Armando – but it also was not enough.
“ I always wanted to be a business owner., I always wanted to help people out. And I felt like working in a corporate job, it was going to be really hard for me to be able to give back to people,” he says.
Then came the day in 2019, when he was scrolling through social media and landed on a post about real estate investing. That post triggered something in him. He knew he’d just found his opportunity to build a life of his own design.
Within three weeks of seeing that post, Armando made his first real estate deal and netted his first paycheck from it. He was hooked. He didn’t mind that it took him going to hundreds of houses, working long hours, and sorting through all the wrong deals until he found the right one. That too, him, is part of the process. He never expected it to be easy, but it also never felt like work.
Within months he’d made enough income to pay off all his debt and quit his job at Lyft. Not long after, with a significant amount of money saved up and more income to be made where that came from, Armando broached the idea of leaving his corporate job to his wife.
Any concerns his wife had about leaping out of the stability of a corporate paycheck were quickly eased by her faith in her husband. Together they leaped, and last year, in spite of COVID, Armando made his first million dollars.
He smiles when asked how he managed to have his best year and make more money in one year than many people make their entire lives.
“Through a pandemic, you know, I have an accent and I’m probably not the best looking guy around,”he laughs, “but let’s be honest. The opportunities are still there.” The key, says Armando, is to not focus on the negativity and stress so much that we let opportunities slip through our fingers.
In spite of the insanity taking place in this country, opportunity still abounds. He is living proof.
In this episode of American Snippets, Armando lets you in on a few of the core beliefs he held on to, to build his American Dream. He offers his insight on how you, too, can build the life you find most fulfilling regardless of the political climate or current events, or overwhelming odds. And he offers a unique perspective on America, through the eyes of an immigrant.
Here are some of the things we covered in this interview with Armando Olivares
What it was like to leave Peru as a teenager
The first thing he noticed when he arrived in America
The path to citizenship
How he made $5,000 from a Facebook post, and how you can do the same
One thing he worked on that changed everything for him
How he made his first million dollars during COVID
Follow and Learn More About Armando Olivares…
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