You have lived in the same house all your life. You own the house and the land it sits on.
One day, a geologist comes to your door, with some interesting news. He says: “We have been conducting geological tests and surveys, using advanced technologies, mapping the geological composition of all the land in this region, including identifying the prevalence of minerals in the area. It is my pleasure to inform you, that the land under your feet, precisely the plot that you own, contains the richest deposit of gold ever located in the history of the world. It is impossible to calculate its worth: its value would run into trillions of dollars.”
He gives further technical details of other minerals in the area, shows you a few maps and spreadsheets, and offers some explanation as to how such a rich concentration of gold might have formed in precisely this locale.
With that the geologist shakes your hand by way of congratulation, leaves his card in case you might need his services in future, bids his farewell and goes on his way.
You are alone again. You go back inside, to resume whatever it is you had been doing prior to the geologist’s arrival.
But you cannot. Whatever it is you were doing, no longer has any appeal. Something has changed. Everything has changed. The view outside your window has changed. Your life, which had been so well established in its routines and habits, is suddenly empty, insufficient, incomplete.
You are sitting on untold treasure of inestimable value. It has been under your feet this whole time, your entire life.
There is no going back. You gaze at the charts the geologist left with you. Their story is clear. The question is staring at you:
What now?