Welcome to the new year and new opportunity. Maybe 2012 is the year you get to make a big difference in the world? Maybe instead you’re waiting for that big windfall?

Don’t.

Just spend 10 minutes with Sebri Omer. You’ll find him with an orange apron working at a Home Depot outside of Atlanta. He can tell you where to find paint, nails or a garden hose.

Even better, he can tell you where to find hope and possibility.

“I’ve seen in my 30 years in America, you don’t have to be a billionaire to get things done and make a differnce,” he assures me.

What a journey it has been for this man. His family smuggled him out of Ethiopia when he was only 17 so that he could evade a crazed military targeting young men.

After three years in a refugee camp, he won the golden ticket — a visa to the United States. Talk about making the most of an opportunity. Sebri went to college, married, had a couple kids and truly lived the American dream when he bought two gas stations.

Two decades after he snuck out of his country, it was finally safe to go back. He thought he was going back as Mr. Big Shot, maybe buy some land, a few hotels.

What he found back home changed his life forever. As he visited a dear relative in the hospital, this now-Westernized man couldn’t believe what he saw.

“There were 20 patients in every room, each with different illnesses,” Sebri told me. “Tiles were hanging from the ceiling.”

Sebri suddenly knew what he had to do — build a modern medical facility.

Sounds like crazy talk, I know. How could he pull that off? After all, living the American dream is one thing, not having a wad of Donald Trump-sized cash is another. Sebri shows that when you mix determination, hard work and sacrifice amazing things happen.

First, he convinced the new Ethiopian government to donate a plot of land for his hospital. Then, Sebri came back to the U.S. and did what he had to do — sold one of his gas stations to finance his dream.

In 2004, the Yemage Medical Center opened in Harar. Today it has 53 beds and the only ambulance in the city. A professional staff of doctors and nurses sees about 80 patients a day.

It has not all been easy for Sebri and his family. The bad economy cost him his one remaining gas station. That’s how he ended up working at Home Depot.

Still, you won’t find an ounce of bitterness in this man’s voice. From the time he escaped his country, he has always done what had to be done, been grateful for all the good fortune that comes his way.

It’s as if he doesn’t have time to mourn what he’s lost. He’s too busy enjoying the incredible feeling of being able to make a difference and creating even bigger dreams.

The cynical shake their heads and doubt. “How can you do that raising two kids and working at Home Depot?” Look at all that he’s created. You going to bet against Sebri Omer? I’m not.

He’s betting on you, as well. His biggest secret to making a difference? “Don’t wait,” he tells me.

“Do what you can do now. From the moment I dreamed of building a hospital, I decided if I could afford one bed, it would be a one-bed hospital, knowing it was one bed they didn’t have before.”

Daryn Kagan is the creator of DarynKagan.com. She is the author of “What’s Possible! 50 True Stories of People Who Dared to Dream They Could Make a Difference.”