Unlock the Secrets to Becoming a Fortune King in Today's Economy
I remember the first time I truly understood what it means to build wealth—it felt like discovering a secret language that had been playing in the background my entire life. Much like the way Hazel's platforming abilities in South of Midnight are accompanied by soft choral singing, our financial journeys have their own subtle rhythms that, when recognized, can transform everything. The game's approach to storytelling through music offers a surprisingly relevant metaphor for wealth creation in today's economy. Just as each spirit Hazel encounters has its own unique song that builds gradually throughout the chapters, every financial opportunity we face has its own distinct melody—if only we learn to listen.
When I first started investing, I approached it like most people do—looking for quick wins and immediate gratification. But what I've discovered over 15 years of building multiple income streams is that wealth accumulation works much like the musical progression in South of Midnight. Remember how the game starts with just a few instruments breaking through the sounds of Prospero? That's exactly how financial growth begins. My first successful investment—a modest $2,500 in a tech stock that grew to $8,700 over three years—started as quietly as those initial game instruments. As Hazel uncovers more of a spirit's story and the music builds with added vocals and instruments, our financial understanding deepens similarly. Each piece of knowledge, each experience, adds another layer to our wealth-building symphony.
The most fascinating parallel lies in how the game's music eventually overwhelms the natural cadence of Hazel's surroundings during spirit confrontations. I've experienced similar moments in business—those breakthrough instances where all the pieces suddenly fall into place. Like when I launched my second e-commerce store after my first failed spectacularly (costing me approximately $17,000 in savings). The second time around, having learned from my mistakes, everything clicked into place with the same overwhelming certainty that Huggin' Molly's boss fight song brings in the game. The music—or in our case, the strategy—becomes the star of the show, impossible to ignore and incredibly compelling.
What South of Midnight understands about storytelling through music is precisely what successful wealth builders understand about money: it's not about complex formulas or secret hacks, but about rhythm, timing, and emotional resonance. Those catchy, lyric-driven songs that players find themselves humming days later? They're the financial equivalent of the simple, repeatable systems that create lasting wealth. I can't count how many times I've explained to friends that my most reliable income source—a portfolio of dividend stocks yielding around $2,300 monthly—works exactly like those campfire songs you can't help but sing along to. It's not flashy, it's not complicated, but it works consistently, building momentum with each passing quarter.
The game's approach to honoring oral traditions through musical storytelling mirrors how we should approach financial education. Just as the Deep South's folklore originated as oral stories passed down through generations, the most valuable financial wisdom often comes not from textbooks but from lived experience and mentorship. I learned more about money management from my grandfather's stories about building his hardware store than from any finance course I took in college. His tales of surviving three economic downturns while growing his business had the same gradual build-up as South of Midnight's spirit songs—starting simple but growing richer with each retelling and additional perspective.
There's a particular magic in how the game makes music integral to every interaction, not just the dramatic moments. This reflects what I've found in building wealth—the daily habits matter more than the occasional grand gestures. Tracking my expenses for 20 minutes each evening, automatically investing 15% of every paycheck, reviewing my portfolio every Sunday morning—these are the soft choral singing that accompanies my financial double-jumps and glides. They're not exciting in isolation, but together they create the foundation for extraordinary outcomes. Last year, these small habits helped me identify an unnecessary $287 monthly subscription drain and redirect those funds into an investment that's already grown by 34%.
What fascinates me most about South of Midnight's musical approach is how it matches emotional cadence to gameplay. The spirits' songs evolve as Hazel understands them better, mirroring how our relationship with money transforms as we become more financially literate. I've watched friends transition from fearing investment risks to understanding them, their emotional response shifting as mine did—from anxiety to curiosity to confident decision-making. It's the same progression I notice when introducing people to index fund investing: initially intimidating, then intriguing, then ultimately empowering as they watch their money compound.
The game's director understood something crucial about human psychology—that we connect with stories through multiple senses, and music creates emotional anchors that pure text cannot. Similarly, the most successful wealth builders I know approach money through multiple perspectives: numerical analysis, psychological understanding, historical context, and personal values alignment. They don't just look at spreadsheets—they feel the rhythm of cash flow, understand the melody of market cycles, and recognize when to harmonize with economic trends rather than fight them.
As I write this, thinking about how I'll be humming Huggin' Molly's boss fight song for weeks, I'm reminded of the financial principles that have become equally ingrained in my daily life. The power of starting early (I wish I'd begun investing at 22 instead of 28—that six-year delay likely cost me over $400,000 in potential growth). The magic of compound interest. The importance of multiple income streams. These concepts have become the soundtrack to my financial journey, playing constantly in the background of every money decision I make.
Ultimately, becoming a fortune king in today's economy isn't about finding one secret weapon or following someone else's blueprint. It's about developing your own financial symphony—learning which instruments to introduce when, understanding how to build toward crescendos, and recognizing that sometimes the most powerful moments come from the quietest beginnings. South of Midnight shows us that the most memorable stories are those told through evolving, emotionally resonant music. Our financial stories deserve the same thoughtful composition—each decision, each investment, each lesson learned adding another layer to the wealth-building masterpiece we're all capable of creating.
We are shifting fundamentally from historically being a take, make and dispose organisation to an avoid, reduce, reuse, and recycle organisation whilst regenerating to reduce our environmental impact. We see significant potential in this space for our operations and for our industry, not only to reduce waste and improve resource use efficiency, but to transform our view of the finite resources in our care.
Looking to the Future
By 2022, we will establish a pilot for circularity at our Goonoo feedlot that builds on our current initiatives in water, manure and local sourcing. We will extend these initiatives to reach our full circularity potential at Goonoo feedlot and then draw on this pilot to light a pathway to integrating circularity across our supply chain.
The quality of our product and ongoing health of our business is intrinsically linked to healthy and functioning ecosystems. We recognise our potential to play our part in reversing the decline in biodiversity, building soil health and protecting key ecosystems in our care. This theme extends on the core initiatives and practices already embedded in our business including our sustainable stocking strategy and our long-standing best practice Rangelands Management program, to a more a holistic approach to our landscape.
We are the custodians of a significant natural asset that extends across 6.4 million hectares in some of the most remote parts of Australia. Building a strong foundation of condition assessment will be fundamental to mapping out a successful pathway to improving the health of the landscape and to drive growth in the value of our Natural Capital.
Our Commitment
We will work with Accounting for Nature to develop a scientifically robust and certifiable framework to measure and report on the condition of natural capital, including biodiversity, across AACo’s assets by 2023. We will apply that framework to baseline priority assets by 2024.
Looking to the Future
By 2030 we will improve landscape and soil health by increasing the percentage of our estate achieving greater than 50% persistent groundcover with regional targets of:
– Savannah and Tropics – 90% of land achieving >50% cover
– Sub-tropics – 80% of land achieving >50% perennial cover
– Grasslands – 80% of land achieving >50% cover
– Desert country – 60% of land achieving >50% cover