Origin Story

The vision for Sway Success VFO Network came to Mike Kurth several years ago on a trip to Yellowstone with his wife and two daughters. At an early age Mike enjoyed seeing others successfully accomplish their true passions in life. As a young adult he noticed others struggled with their true passion as it just didn’t come so easy for them. Some who seemed to have it all together, unexpectedly fell apart due to an unmitigated family crisis such as a breadwinner passing away or becoming disabled. Mike thought to himself about how there must be a better way to be prepared for life’s uncertainties with more clarity and confidence. How can he help the community become the best version of themselves?

At 17 years old, Mike took off cross country driving from Connecticut to Arizona looking for clarity with only a few hundred dollars in his pocket. The experience left a major footprint on his life as he found himself stranded in Texas with under $20 cash, no credit card and a broken-down car. Several days later with a horrible feeling of loneliness he stumbled upon a generous group of local Texans. These generous Texans pooled their available resources together to provide Mike with a major car repair at no cost and around $400 (inflation adjusted to 2025 at 3% is $837) cash. Mike owed a great debt of gratitude for the gift of community given to him. It became clear to Mike he was not alone to accomplish his personal mission. He realized YOUR NETWORK IS YOUR NET WORTH. From this point forward his view about designing his ideal life and the alignment of his finances was forever changed. We enjoy spending money when it aligns with our values or better yet our personal mission. Mike’s personal mission started to take shape by this unimaginable generosity shown by the community in Texas. After some self-reflection about his life purpose, he knew this generosity must be paid forward to others somehow. But how he thought to himself?

Mike knew he must build more confidence in understanding the financial arena to become a financial advocate to sway success for people in all walks of life. He decided to earn his bachelor’s degree and master’s degree in accounting at Pace University. The financial literacy gained by Mike made him realize how his own financial habits could be improved, and he further realized most people struggle with money due to the taboo topic of personal finances and the lack of emphasis put on financial education. Now realizing YOUR NETWORK IS YOUR NET WORTH he was inching closer to fulfilling his own life purpose to provide a network for people aspiring to design their ideal life while aligning their finances to complement this ideal life design.

The next step was to build clarity around personal financial concepts by gaining real life experience working in a multi-family office environment. Here I was able to learn the arts of holistic planning in a family office where we must consider the family members ideal life and how that aligns with their financial needs. Mike gained an appreciation on how the family office successfully grow and preserve their resources by mitigating risk while staying true to their family values. He learned about the importance of estate planning, net worth analysis, tax planning, investment strategy, retirement planning and evaluating insurance on a regularly basis (ENTIRE). These ENTIRE needs must be managed with an all-star financial team comprised of great financial experts who excel in their specialty fields. It became clear those of us without access to an all-star financial team were up a creek without a paddle in the financial arena. 

After gaining clarity, confidence and community the vision was completed for Sway Success VFO Network to provide a family office comprised of great financial experts for those aspiring to design their ideal life. Today, the financial landscape is more complicated than ever with regards to the financial decision-making process, especially all things involving tax. In John D. Rockefeller’s era the complication of income tax and estate tax didn’t even exist when he started his family office in 1882. He taught us all families can thrive with a written personal mission statement, a well-defined life purpose and specific written goals. John D. Rockefeller, Jr. was a staunch advocate in preserving the beauty of nature and access for the public and future generations to see this beauty.  My family is grateful for the Rockefeller family mission to preserve the beauty of nature and access for the public. In fact, please enjoy the pictures on the Sway Success VFO Network website as an inspiration for what a family office can accomplish.  The creation of Sway Success VFO Network is designed to build an environment with clarity, confidence & community by providing you your very own personal Chief Financial Officer (CFO) to guide you in designing your personal mission.

YOU ARE IMPORTANT. HIRE YOUR PERSONAL CHIEF FINANCIAL OFFICER (CFO)

BE THE JOHN D. ROCKEFELLER IN YOUR FAMILY

JOIN SWAY SUCCESS VFO NETWORK TO START DESIGNING YOUR IDEAL LIFE