In this interview, real‑estate investor Pace Morby explains that his ambition is not merely to acquire $1 billion, but to become worthy of it by evolving into a leader whose wealth creates meaningful impact. He describes how personal development transformed his leadership style, attracted top talent, and opened doors to high‑level networks. Morby shares a concrete mission: leveraging his $450 million real‑estate portfolio to help families transition out of homelessness, aiming to assist 2,000 families in the next year through partnerships with charities such as Family Promise. He illustrates the "secret level" metaphor, noting that personal growth unlocks opportunities that were previously invisible, exemplified by a chance encounter on a private jet with a high‑profile deal‑maker who likens himself to a "fairy godmother" for big projects like moving the Anaheim Angels to Las Vegas. Throughout, Morby emphasizes purpose‑driven wealth, the responsibility to enrich employees’ lives, and the belief that being worthy of a billion dollars means using that capital to serve others rather than focusing on cash flow alone.
Chapters
I want to be worthy of obtaining $1 billion, not get $1 billion. Okay. I want to be worthy of it, which means being a great leader, having employees and team members that their lives are enriched by us. I mean, it's every time you hire somebody. I've been telling this story the last couple of weeks over and over. Had an employee named Alyssa sends me a group chat with all of our leaders. She says in the group chat with, you know, hundreds of people, she says, Pace, thank you for dreaming so big that my dream can live with inside yours. I know, I was like, wow, that's, that's powerful. So when people say, what are you trying to do? I'm like, I have a responsibility. I have plenty of money. I have plenty of assets. I don't need to make another dollar as long as I live. I'm good. I mean, we have $450 million in real estate in our portfolio.
Yeah, you're good.
I'm good.
Yeah.
So the goal obviously changes because you want to hire more people and help more people and all that kind of stuff. But you realize you were put on this earth at some point for a purpose, and the purpose was not just to take care of your family. At some point, it's like, that box is checked. I'm done. Yeah. What do I need? My wife can only drive one car. She can't drive four cars Okay, so we don't need more cars, we don't need more houses, we don't need more whatever. And really what it was is realizing people are making decisions to have babies, get married, buy their own houses, go on vacations, invest their own money in other things because your stability and your business that you built. Yeah. And you go, okay, I have a purpose here on this earth. Somebody put me here. Take care of your family as quickly as possible, then quickly go out and try and take care of other people's. So when I have a family meeting in my family, my kids, 16 years old, 5 years old, 2-year-old daughter. She has no clue what's going on. We are talking about other families that we're impacting. And our goal next year, for example, for my kids is our goal is to get 50 families off the street that are homeless. 'Cause there's all sorts of crazy statistics talking about how 1 in 30 kids are on the street in the United States. 1 in 30 kids are homeless. These aren't drug-rattled, like fentanyl situations. These are families that are working at Walmart, Target, single mom who's making $18 an hour who can't afford rent. Yeah. Okay. So how do we go after that? Our job is to go buy real estate, figure out how to make it affordable, work with charities. There's a couple of charities we're working with. One's called Family Promise. They help working families, non-drug-related situations, to get into the houses that we as investors go out and get.
That's, that's definitely a mission.
It's a mission.
That's a mission.
It's a mission. And so I think our community, our real estate community, will probably get close to 2,000 families off the street next year by working with this charity. And when you show your kids, this is what we're doing, this is why we're buying real estate, is to benefit other people. And like, cash flow is no longer the goal, right? So I just want to become worthy of that thing. The billion dollars, would it change my life? Will it open up other doors? Yeah, I think to a certain degree.
Yeah, it's interesting what you're talking about, because when you say billion, I think of the money, but you're not thinking— it doesn't seem like you're thinking about the money. You're thinking, you're saying, what could that help? Accomplish when I get that?
Like, kind of, but like also the best people I've acquired on my team and attracted to my team were when I did some sorts of sort of personal development. I learned how to be a better leader. I learned how to do this. I got rid of a bad habit. I got rid of some bad branding or something that wasn't really in alignment with other people. And I fixed things in my ecosphere. And all of a sudden, magically, the best people start going, hey, do you have any open positions? I'm like, Why was it so hard to hire people for all these years? And now it's like people are clamoring to come work for us. Personal development. And as we work on ourselves personally, all of these other opportunities that you didn't even think existed start coming to you. So really saying, I wanna be worthy of $1 billion is just saying, I wanna be worthy of being a leader that attracts amazing people, amazing opportunities, open doors I don't even know exist. It's basically unlocking a secret level in a video game you don't know exists. You know there's a secret level. Yeah. But you don't know what it looks like. And so I know there's a secret level that I'm not aware of. I just am not worthy of that level yet. And people, I had, I was on a flight, Steve Harwood, who is a mutual friend between us, he's got a jet, calls me up and he goes, "Hey, you wanna be on this jet? I've got a bunch of like heavy hitters on this jet." I go, "Okay, cool." Jump on the plane with him. We're flying, you know, maybe a 2-hour flight. And I'm talking to the guy across from me. I go, "What do you do?" He goes, "I'm the guy that's behind some of the biggest deals you've ever seen in your life." I'm like, "Real estate deals?" "Yeah, kind of." He's like, I'm the guy that's taking the Anaheim Angels and getting them to move to Vegas. I'm like, what? That's a big deal. That's like not something you learn in school. Is that a job? Exactly.
Well, I didn't even know that existed.
And he said, he's here in Utah.
That's amazing.
And I go, is that all? He goes, no, I'm also, I'm negotiating with this senator to do this for this state that will allow for this big thing to be built and blah, blah, blah. I'm like, so what's your job title? He goes, I guess I'm like the fairy godmother to a lot of people. Wow. I go, where have you been my whole life? What a great, amazing relationship that I've been able to obtain today. Thank you so much. I'm so glad we bumped into each other. I go, where were you my whole life? He goes, you probably are going to be offended by this, but here's the answer. You didn't deserve to meet me until today.
He said that to you?
Oh yeah, straight up. He said—
what, not with pride, I'm assuming? He probably was a really humble guy.
He said, you must have been learning or working on your leadership that allowed somebody to invite you to be on this plane. They thought you were worthy of this, that then put you in the same situation. He goes, I'm asking the same question. I'm like, how am I, you know, so lucky to meet you? He's like, because we're personally developing and we finally showed people leadership and showed this and showed consistency and wherewithal long enough that people, oh, that's somebody I can invite to a thing and a gala and a charity thing and a blah, blah, blah. Next thing you know, you're in rooms that have nothing to do with real estate because somebody invited you because you showed them something that you developed on yourself. Leadership. You went to a seminar, you read a book, you got better at this, you acquired better people. You solved the problem. And all I— at one point I was like, I'm just getting in this because I just want to get a deal. Yeah.
