“Be willing to walk through the doors God is opening for you.”
Erick Palacios has been in the wealth management business for about 10 years, including the past two running his own business, Plan to Prosper Wealth Management. He is currently the chairman of the Ormond Beach Chamber of Commerce.
How did he get here? What’s the best advice he ever got, that shaped his journey?
Although these words weren’t said exactly, looking back, the lesson that stands out to him is this:
“Be willing to walk through the doors God is opening for you.”
When Palacios was about to graduate high school, in 1997, in South Florida, a guidance counselor named Ms. Christie asked him what his plans were. He said he was intending to stay close to home to attend college. It struck her as a safe choice, one that wouldn’t stretch him to be his best. He knew it was safe as well: Looking back, he recalled, he was likely to end up working in construction, possibly not finishing school — a path many of his own family members had followed.
Ms. Christie knew he had the grades to try to get into the University of Florida. It was too late to apply, really. “But,” she asked, “if I can make something happen for you, will you do it?”
Palacios remembers that moment as a door that God was opening for him. He was being asked to take a risk and go farther away from home, to a more challenging academic environment, and he currently had no place to live there, no job.
Still, he took what he calls now a leap of faith. And that has made all the difference in his life since then.
“I know God put Ms. Christie in my path for a reason,” Palacios recalled, “to see the potential in me.”
Another teacher, Ron Long, had a similar impact on him by challenging him to take harder classes than he had planned, in middle school. Without Mr. Long, he wouldn't have had as much success in high school, which means he wouldn't have been in position to go to the University of Florida at all.
Palacios was recently honored to join the Gator100, which recognized his business as as one of the 100 fastest-growing businesses led by University of Florida alumni.
Today, Palacios is motivated to give back. “The point of life I’m in, I have the ability to help or be a conduit, to be the person that opens the door for someone else. It’s my responsibility, understanding where I’ve been.”
