The daydreaming technique that Leopoldo Alejandro Betancourt López credits for his success

Long before Alejandro Betancourt López built a portfolio spanning eyewear, ride-sharing, and energy investments, he was a young man in South America with a habit that irritated the people around him. He spent hours thinking about things that hadn’t happened yet—picturing himself somewhere else, doing something bigger, becoming someone more significant than his circumstances suggested was possible.

“I always was daydreaming about being somebody more important or achieving higher goals,” Betancourt López recalled. “Everybody thought I was losing my time or wasting or being irrelevant, and I was always sure that I was going to get somewhere else.”

That tendency toward mental projection, which others dismissed as distraction, became a cornerstone of his approach to business and investment. What skeptics saw as idle fantasy, Betancourt López experienced as rehearsal—a way of preparing his mind for outcomes that seemed improbable at the time but eventually materialized.

Research supports the notion that visualization affects goal achievement. According to a study by Dr. Gail Matthews at Dominican University, people who write down and visualize their goals are 42% more likely to achieve them than those who simply think about what they want. Another survey found that 59% of people who visualize their goals report feeling more confident and are more likely to accomplish what they set out to do.

Alejandro Betancourt López discovered this principle through lived experience rather than academic study. Growing up among wealthy families, he watched peers who had inherited money and status take their positions for granted. Many of them, he noticed, lacked the hunger that comes from wanting something you don’t yet possess. They couldn’t picture a future different from their present because their present already felt sufficient.

“And what is funny, that all those people that took things for granted, later on, they just didn’t have that… They were not hungry for success,” Betancourt López observed.

His own hunger expressed itself through visualization. He pictured himself traveling to Europe, building businesses, operating on a global stage. These weren’t fleeting thoughts but persistent mental exercises that shaped his expectations and, eventually, his decisions.

“Once you start believing in it, it becomes reality without you noticing it,” he said.

The psychology of optimism

Neuroscience offers some explanation for why this technique works. Brain imaging research shows that vividly picturing an experience activates many of the same neural networks as actually living through it. When someone repeatedly envisions a successful outcome, they strengthen the neural pathways associated with that scenario—a form of mental rehearsal that makes the envisioned future feel more familiar and attainable.

Alejandro Betancourt López frames the concept in simpler terms. For him, the connection between mindset and outcomes isn’t theoretical but observable. He has watched optimistic people attract opportunities while pessimistic ones repel them, and he has experienced the phenomenon in his own career.

“I’m very optimistic, always, and I think that’s one of the keys to success,” he said. “If you’re pessimistic, it’s going to rain. If you’re optimistic, you’re going to see the sun. I don’t know how, or energies or religion or what’s that fifth element that makes it, but it happens. I’m telling you, if you visualize you’re going to see the sun, you’re going to see the sun. If you want rain to come, you’re going to attract it.”

This philosophy doesn’t mean ignoring reality or pretending challenges don’t exist. Betancourt López distinguishes between productive visualization and empty fantasy. Daydreaming about success serves a purpose only when it fuels action rather than replacing it. The mental picture has to connect to concrete steps, specific decisions, and sustained effort.

His approach at Hawkers, the Spanish eyewear company where he serves as president, illustrates this balance. When Alejandro Betancourt López invested in the startup and took over its leadership in 2016, he could envision what the brand might become—a global competitor to established names like Ray-Ban. But that vision required execution: expanding manufacturing capabilities, building retail presence across multiple countries, and refining the company’s digital marketing approach.

The same pattern repeated with Auro Travel, the ride-sharing venture he backed in Spain. Betancourt López anticipated that the market would shift toward private vehicle services before major competitors fully entered the Spanish market. He accumulated licenses while others saw little value in them, betting on a future that existed only in his mind at the time.

“It was a gamble, but it was a calculated gamble because we knew that the market was going to shift to the private riding industry instead of taxis,” he explained.

From daydream to discipline

What separates productive visualization from wishful thinking? For Alejandro Betancourt López, the distinction lies in coupling mental pictures with relentless execution. The daydream provides direction; discipline provides momentum.

“Once I start something, I just don’t stop,” he said. “I try to see every single option that could turn negative and try to mitigate it beforehand. Even if the idea is great and you have the right people, it’ll always surprise you with things that are not expected. You’ve got to be there to make sure you push through.”

His investment philosophy reflects this dual emphasis. Betancourt López describes himself as someone who swings for home runs rather than settling for base hits—a high-risk approach that requires both the confidence to commit and the work ethic to follow through.

“I hit more home runs than I strike out,” he noted. “I’m very proud of that, that I don’t swing for first base. I always swing for a home run, and I do strike out and that’s a human thing, nobody gets everything perfect, but I have a good batting average.”

That batting average didn’t emerge from visualization alone. Alejandro Betancourt López pairs his optimistic mindset with an almost obsessive attention to operational details. He surrounds himself with talented people, studies industries before entering them, and maintains involvement in his companies long after the initial investment closes.

The combination matters. Research on visualization suggests that picturing outcomes works best when paired with process-focused mental rehearsal—envisioning not just the destination but the steps required to reach it. Athletes who visualize their training routines alongside their victories outperform those who only picture winning.

Betancourt López arrived at a similar insight through practice rather than theory. His early daydreams about success evolved into a systematic approach: identify where markets are heading, position investments accordingly, and execute with intensity.

“The edge you have is because you have that passion,” he explained. “That’s the advantage. It’s not how smarter you are than most people, it’s about how much dedicated you are and how sure you are you’re going to achieve that. And that puts you in front of everybody else because it’s time. They unconsciously dedicate more time to it than anybody else, because you can’t stop thinking about it.”

For Alejandro Betancourt López, the daydreaming never really stopped—it simply matured into something more actionable. What began as a young man picturing himself beyond his circumstances became a billionaire investor still envisioning where markets will move next, still betting on futures that others cannot yet see.