Just came back from Mrs A's house. I was notified about the notice of default on her property from a foreclosure website. I dropped a letter offering my services to stop the foreclosure. It is a dreary rainy cloudy grey day.
I rung the door bell
ME: "Hello I am here to see Mrs. AM is she here?"
Mrs. A: "What is going on?"
ME: "I left a message with her and wanted to talk with her regardining an issue with the house."
Mrs. A: "She is not here and she will never come back" Slam the door.
* I waited for a few minutes debating on how to ring the doorbell and seeing what else I can say to start the conversation. I didn't want to talk with her about the foreclosure unless she is the owner. Many things going in my head. Next thing I know she opens the door*
Mrs. A: "Why are you here? I told you she is never coming back. Why don't you leave?"
ME: "I am a 3rd party vendor who talks with lenders regarding the house. I am here to help the situation."
Mrs. A: "Look you are not dressed professionally [I was in a white clean tee shirt, black jeans, and black sneakers with a napsack.], you don't have any identification for the 3rd party company you are from and you don't have any cards, you ring my doorbell and stand out here. Just get out of here."
ME: "I am here to help Mrs. Are you the owner of the house?"
Mrs. A: "Leave now or I am calling the police."
*Looking at the situation the shields are up with her and I wasn't sure how to take them down. I left in stride and went on my next run.*
It is a learning experience that I am still digesting. The 2nd was foreclosing but it was less than $12K in arrears. I figured some of the things gave me feedback:
* It would serve to have a stronger script and verbal rebounding skills.
* Dress more professionally.
* Offer the owner a business card for them to feel that I am for real.
Hopefully I can illuminate more with any successes that I do have.
Wednesday, June 29, 2005
What Constitutes a Good Life? by Jim Rohn
What Constitutes a Good Life? by Jim Rohn
The ultimate expression of life is not a paycheck. The ultimate expression of life is not a Mercedes. The ultimate expression of life is not a million dollars or a bank account or a home. Here's the ultimate expression of life in my opinion, and that is living a good life. Here's what we must ask constantly, "What for me would be a good life?" And you have to keep going over and over the list. A list including areas such as spirituality, economics, health, relationships and recreation. What would constitute a good life? I've got a short list.
1) Productivity. You won't be happy if you don't produce. The game of life is not rest. We must rest, but only long enough to gather strength to get back to productivity. What's the reason for the seasons and the seeds, the soil and the sunshine, the rain and the miracle of life? It's to see what you can do with it. To try your hand, other people have tried their hand; here's what they did. You try your hand to see what you can do. So part of life is productivity.
2) Good friends. Friendship is probably the greatest support system in the world. Don't deny yourself the time to develop this support system. Nothing can match it. It's extraordinary in its benefit. Friends are those wonderful people who know all about you and still like you. A few years ago I lost one of my dearest friends. He died at age 53 - heart attack. David is gone, but he was one of my very special friends. I used to say of David that if I was stuck in a foreign jail somewhere accused unduly and if they would allow me one phone call, I would call David. Why? He would come and get me. That's a friend. Somebody who would come and get you. Now we've all got casual friends. And if you called them they would say, "Hey, if you get back, call me we'll have a party." So you've got to have both, real friends and casual friends.
3) Your culture. Your language, your music, the ceremonies, the traditions, the dress. All of that is so vitally important that you must keep it alive. In fact it is the uniqueness of all of us that when blended together brings vitality, energy, power, influence, uniqueness and rightness to the world.
4) Spirituality. It helps to form the foundation of the family that builds the nation. And make sure you study, practice and teach. Don't be careless about the spiritual part of your nature, it's what makes us who we are, different from animal, dogs, cats, birds and mice. Spirituality.
5) Don't miss anything. My parents taught me to miss anything. Don't miss the game. Don't miss the performance, don't miss the movie, don't miss the show, don't miss the dance. Go to everything you possibly can. Buy a ticket to everything you possibly can. Go see everything and experience all you possibly can. This has served me so well to this day. Just before my father died at age 93 if you were to call him at 10:30 or 11:00 at night, he wouldn't be home. He was at the rodeo, he was watching the kids play softball, he was listening to the concert, he was at church, he was somewhere every night.
Live a vital life. Here's one of the reasons why. If you live well, you will earn well. If you live well it will show in your face, it will show in the texture of your voice. There will be something unique and magical about you if you live well. It will infuse not only your personal life but also your business life. And it will give you a vitality nothing else can give.
6) Your family and the inner circle. Invest in them and they'll invest in you. Inspire them and they'll inspire you. With your inner circle take care of the details. When my father was still alive, I used to call him when I traveled. He'd have breakfast most every morning with the farmers. Little place called The Decoy Inn out in the country where we lived in Southwest Idaho.
So Papa would go there and have breakfast and I'd call him just to give him a special day. Now if I was in Israel, I'd have to get up in the middle of the night, but it only took five minutes, ten minutes. So I'd call Papa and they'd bring him the phone. I'd say, "Papa I'm in Israel." He'd say, "Israel! Son, how are things in Israel?" He'd talk real loud so everybody could hear - my son's calling me from Israel. I'd say, "Papa last night they gave me a reception on the rooftop underneath the stars overlooking the Mediterranean." He'd say, "Son, a reception on the rooftop underneath the stars overlooking the Mediterranean." Now everybody knows the story. It only took 5 - 10 minutes, but what a special day for my father, age 93.
If a father walks out of the house and he can still feel his daughter's kiss on his face all day, he's a powerful man. If a husband walks out of the house and he can still feel the imprint of his wife's arms around his body he's invincible all day. It's the special stuff with the inner circle that makes you strong and powerful and influential. So don't miss that opportunity. Here's the greatest value. The prophet said, "There are many virtues and values, but here's the greatest, one person caring for another." There is no greater value than love. Better to live in a tent on the beach with someone you love than to live in a mansion by yourself. One person caring for another, that's one of life's greatest expressions.
So make sure in your busy day to remember the true purpose and the reasons you do what you do. May you truly live the kind of life that will bring the fruit and rewards that you desire.
To Your Success,
Jim Rohn
The ultimate expression of life is not a paycheck. The ultimate expression of life is not a Mercedes. The ultimate expression of life is not a million dollars or a bank account or a home. Here's the ultimate expression of life in my opinion, and that is living a good life. Here's what we must ask constantly, "What for me would be a good life?" And you have to keep going over and over the list. A list including areas such as spirituality, economics, health, relationships and recreation. What would constitute a good life? I've got a short list.
1) Productivity. You won't be happy if you don't produce. The game of life is not rest. We must rest, but only long enough to gather strength to get back to productivity. What's the reason for the seasons and the seeds, the soil and the sunshine, the rain and the miracle of life? It's to see what you can do with it. To try your hand, other people have tried their hand; here's what they did. You try your hand to see what you can do. So part of life is productivity.
2) Good friends. Friendship is probably the greatest support system in the world. Don't deny yourself the time to develop this support system. Nothing can match it. It's extraordinary in its benefit. Friends are those wonderful people who know all about you and still like you. A few years ago I lost one of my dearest friends. He died at age 53 - heart attack. David is gone, but he was one of my very special friends. I used to say of David that if I was stuck in a foreign jail somewhere accused unduly and if they would allow me one phone call, I would call David. Why? He would come and get me. That's a friend. Somebody who would come and get you. Now we've all got casual friends. And if you called them they would say, "Hey, if you get back, call me we'll have a party." So you've got to have both, real friends and casual friends.
3) Your culture. Your language, your music, the ceremonies, the traditions, the dress. All of that is so vitally important that you must keep it alive. In fact it is the uniqueness of all of us that when blended together brings vitality, energy, power, influence, uniqueness and rightness to the world.
4) Spirituality. It helps to form the foundation of the family that builds the nation. And make sure you study, practice and teach. Don't be careless about the spiritual part of your nature, it's what makes us who we are, different from animal, dogs, cats, birds and mice. Spirituality.
5) Don't miss anything. My parents taught me to miss anything. Don't miss the game. Don't miss the performance, don't miss the movie, don't miss the show, don't miss the dance. Go to everything you possibly can. Buy a ticket to everything you possibly can. Go see everything and experience all you possibly can. This has served me so well to this day. Just before my father died at age 93 if you were to call him at 10:30 or 11:00 at night, he wouldn't be home. He was at the rodeo, he was watching the kids play softball, he was listening to the concert, he was at church, he was somewhere every night.
Live a vital life. Here's one of the reasons why. If you live well, you will earn well. If you live well it will show in your face, it will show in the texture of your voice. There will be something unique and magical about you if you live well. It will infuse not only your personal life but also your business life. And it will give you a vitality nothing else can give.
6) Your family and the inner circle. Invest in them and they'll invest in you. Inspire them and they'll inspire you. With your inner circle take care of the details. When my father was still alive, I used to call him when I traveled. He'd have breakfast most every morning with the farmers. Little place called The Decoy Inn out in the country where we lived in Southwest Idaho.
So Papa would go there and have breakfast and I'd call him just to give him a special day. Now if I was in Israel, I'd have to get up in the middle of the night, but it only took five minutes, ten minutes. So I'd call Papa and they'd bring him the phone. I'd say, "Papa I'm in Israel." He'd say, "Israel! Son, how are things in Israel?" He'd talk real loud so everybody could hear - my son's calling me from Israel. I'd say, "Papa last night they gave me a reception on the rooftop underneath the stars overlooking the Mediterranean." He'd say, "Son, a reception on the rooftop underneath the stars overlooking the Mediterranean." Now everybody knows the story. It only took 5 - 10 minutes, but what a special day for my father, age 93.
If a father walks out of the house and he can still feel his daughter's kiss on his face all day, he's a powerful man. If a husband walks out of the house and he can still feel the imprint of his wife's arms around his body he's invincible all day. It's the special stuff with the inner circle that makes you strong and powerful and influential. So don't miss that opportunity. Here's the greatest value. The prophet said, "There are many virtues and values, but here's the greatest, one person caring for another." There is no greater value than love. Better to live in a tent on the beach with someone you love than to live in a mansion by yourself. One person caring for another, that's one of life's greatest expressions.
So make sure in your busy day to remember the true purpose and the reasons you do what you do. May you truly live the kind of life that will bring the fruit and rewards that you desire.
To Your Success,
Jim Rohn
Monday, June 20, 2005
Foreclosure FAQ on the RichDad Forum
Locutus 9 started posting some good faq on how to start doing preforeclosures. I believe it is a great tool to learn more about it.
Click here to read Locutus9's foreclosure faq on the Rich Dad Forum
Click here to read Locutus9's foreclosure faq on the Rich Dad Forum
Friday, June 17, 2005
Steve Job's Commencement Address to Stanford Graduates 6/12/2005
This is the text of the Commencement address by Steve Jobs, CEO of Apple Computer and of Pixar Animation Studios, delivered on June 12, 2005.
(http://news-service.stanford.edu/news/2005/june15/grad-061505.html)
I am honored to be with you today at your commencement from one of the finest universities in the world. I never graduated from college. Truth be told, this is the closest I've ever gotten to a college graduation. Today I want to tell you three stories from my life. That's it. No big deal. Just three stories.
The first story is about connecting the dots.
I dropped out of Reed College after the first 6 months, but then stayed around as a drop-in for another 18 months or so before I really quit. So why did I drop out?
It started before I was born. My biological mother was a young, unwed college graduate student, and she decided to put me up for adoption. She felt very strongly that I should be adopted by college graduates, so everything was all set for me to be adopted at birth by a lawyer and his wife. Except that when I popped out they decided at the last minute that they really wanted a girl. So my parents, who were on a waiting list, got a call in the middle of the night asking: "We have an unexpected baby boy; do you want him?" They said: "Of course." My biological mother later found out that my mother had never graduated from college and that my father had never graduated from high school. She refused to sign the final adoption papers. She only relented a few months later when my parents promised that I would someday go to college.
And 17 years later I did go to college. But I naively chose a college that was almost as expensive as Stanford, and all of my working-class parents' savings were being spent on my college tuition. After six months, I couldn't see the value in it. I had no idea what I wanted to do with my life and no idea how college was going to help me figure it out. And here I was spending all of the money my parents had saved their entire life. So I decided to drop out and trust that it would all work out OK. It was pretty scary at the time, but looking back it was one of the best decisions I ever made. The minute I dropped out I could stop taking the required classes that didn't interest me, and begin dropping in on the ones that looked interesting.
It wasn't all romantic. I didn't have a dorm room, so I slept on the floor in friends' rooms, I returned coke bottles for the 5¢ deposits to buy food with, and I would walk the 7 miles across town every Sunday night to get one good meal a week at the Hare Krishna temple. I loved it. And much of what I stumbled into by following my curiosity and intuition turned out to be priceless later on. Let me give you one example:
Reed College at that time offered perhaps the best calligraphy instruction in the country. Throughout the campus every poster, every label on every drawer, was beautifully hand calligraphed. Because I had dropped out and didn't have to take the normal classes, I decided to take a calligraphy class to learn how to do this. I learned about serif and san serif typefaces, about varying the amount of space between different letter combinations, about what makes great typography great. It was beautiful, historical, artistically subtle in a way that science can't capture, and I found it fascinating.
None of this had even a hope of any practical application in my life. But ten years later, when we were designing the first Macintosh computer, it all came back to me. And we designed it all into the Mac. It was the first computer with beautiful typography. If I had never dropped in on that single course in college, the Mac would have never had multiple typefaces or proportionally spaced fonts. And since Windows just copied the Mac, its likely that no personal computer would have them. If I had never dropped out, I would have never dropped in on this calligraphy class, and personal computers might not have the wonderful typography that they do. Of course it was impossible to connect the dots looking forward when I was in college. But it was very, very clear looking backwards ten years later.
Again, you can't connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future. You have to trust in something - your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever. This approach has never let me down, and it has made all the difference in my life.
My second story is about love and loss.
I was lucky – I found what I loved to do early in life. Woz and I started Apple in my parents garage when I was 20. We worked hard, and in 10 years Apple had grown from just the two of us in a garage into a $2 billion company with over 4000 employees. We had just released our finest creation - the Macintosh - a year earlier, and I had just turned 30. And then I got fired. How can you get fired from a company you started? Well, as Apple grew we hired someone who I thought was very talented to run the company with me, and for the first year or so things went well. But then our visions of the future began to diverge and eventually we had a falling out. When we did, our Board of Directors sided with him. So at 30 I was out. And very publicly out. What had been the focus of my entire adult life was gone, and it was devastating.
I really didn't know what to do for a few months. I felt that I had let the previous generation of entrepreneurs down - that I had dropped the baton as it was being passed to me. I met with David Packard and Bob Noyce and tried to apologize for screwing up so badly. I was a very public failure, and I even thought about running away from the valley. But something slowly began to dawn on me – I still loved what I did. The turn of events at Apple had not changed that one bit. I had been rejected, but I was still in love. And so I decided to start over.
I didn't see it then, but it turned out that getting fired from Apple was the best thing that could have ever happened to me. The heaviness of being successful was replaced by the lightness of being a beginner again, less sure about everything. It freed me to enter one of the most creative periods of my life.
During the next five years, I started a company named NeXT, another company named Pixar, and fell in love with an amazing woman who would become my wife. Pixar went on to create the worlds first computer animated feature film, Toy Story, and is now the most successful animation studio in the world. In a remarkable turn of events, Apple bought NeXT, I retuned to Apple, and the technology we developed at NeXT is at the heart of Apple's current renaissance. And Laurene and I have a wonderful family together.
I'm pretty sure none of this would have happened if I hadn't been fired from Apple. It was awful tasting medicine, but I guess the patient needed it. Sometimes life hits you in the head with a brick. Don't lose faith. I'm convinced that the only thing that kept me going was that I loved what I did. You've got to find what you love. And that is as true for your work as it is for your lovers. Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven't found it yet, keep looking. Don't settle. As with all matters of the heart, you'll know when you find it. And, like any great relationship, it just gets better and better as the years roll on. So keep looking until you find it. Don't settle.
My third story is about death.
When I was 17, I read a quote that went something like: "If you live each day as if it was your last, someday you'll most certainly be right." It made an impression on me, and since then, for the past 33 years, I have looked in the mirror every morning and asked myself: "If today were the last day of my life, would I want to do what I am about to do today?" And whenever the answer has been "No" for too many days in a row, I know I need to change something.
Remembering that I'll be dead soon is the most important tool I've ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life. Because almost everything – all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure - these things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important. Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose. You are already naked. There is no reason not to follow your heart.
About a year ago I was diagnosed with cancer. I had a scan at 7:30 in the morning, and it clearly showed a tumor on my pancreas. I didn't even know what a pancreas was. The doctors told me this was almost certainly a type of cancer that is incurable, and that I should expect to live no longer than three to six months. My doctor advised me to go home and get my affairs in order, which is doctor's code for prepare to die. It means to try to tell your kids everything you thought you'd have the next 10 years to tell them in just a few months. It means to make sure everything is buttoned up so that it will be as easy as possible for your family. It means to say your goodbyes.
I lived with that diagnosis all day. Later that evening I had a biopsy, where they stuck an endoscope down my throat, through my stomach and into my intestines, put a needle into my pancreas and got a few cells from the tumor. I was sedated, but my wife, who was there, told me that when they viewed the cells under a microscope the doctors started crying because it turned out to be a very rare form of pancreatic cancer that is curable with surgery. I had the surgery and I'm fine now.
This was the closest I've been to facing death, and I hope its the closest I get for a few more decades. Having lived through it, I can now say this to you with a bit more certainty than when death was a useful but purely intellectual concept:
No one wants to die. Even people who want to go to heaven don't want to die to get there. And yet death is the destination we all share. No one has ever escaped it. And that is as it should be, because Death is very likely the single best invention of Life. It is Life's change agent. It clears out the old to make way for the new. Right now the new is you, but someday not too long from now, you will gradually become the old and be cleared away. Sorry to be so dramatic, but it is quite true.
Your time is limited, so don't waste it living someone else's life. Don't be trapped by dogma - which is living with the results of other people's thinking. Don't let the noise of other's opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.
When I was young, there was an amazing publication called The Whole Earth Catalog, which was one of the bibles of my generation. It was created by a fellow named Stewart Brand not far from here in Menlo Park, and he brought it to life with his poetic touch. This was in the late 1960's, before personal computers and desktop publishing, so it was all made with typewriters, scissors, and polaroid cameras. It was sort of like Google in paperback form, 35 years before Google came along: it was idealistic, and overflowing with neat tools and great notions.
Stewart and his team put out several issues of The Whole Earth Catalog, and then when it had run its course, they put out a final issue. It was the mid-1970s, and I was your age. On the back cover of their final issue was a photograph of an early morning country road, the kind you might find yourself hitchhiking on if you were so adventurous. Beneath it were the words: "Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish." It was their farewell message as they signed off. Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish. And I have always wished that for myself. And now, as you graduate to begin anew, I wish that for you.
Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish.
Thank you all very much.
(http://news-service.stanford.edu/news/2005/june15/grad-061505.html)
I am honored to be with you today at your commencement from one of the finest universities in the world. I never graduated from college. Truth be told, this is the closest I've ever gotten to a college graduation. Today I want to tell you three stories from my life. That's it. No big deal. Just three stories.
The first story is about connecting the dots.
I dropped out of Reed College after the first 6 months, but then stayed around as a drop-in for another 18 months or so before I really quit. So why did I drop out?
It started before I was born. My biological mother was a young, unwed college graduate student, and she decided to put me up for adoption. She felt very strongly that I should be adopted by college graduates, so everything was all set for me to be adopted at birth by a lawyer and his wife. Except that when I popped out they decided at the last minute that they really wanted a girl. So my parents, who were on a waiting list, got a call in the middle of the night asking: "We have an unexpected baby boy; do you want him?" They said: "Of course." My biological mother later found out that my mother had never graduated from college and that my father had never graduated from high school. She refused to sign the final adoption papers. She only relented a few months later when my parents promised that I would someday go to college.
And 17 years later I did go to college. But I naively chose a college that was almost as expensive as Stanford, and all of my working-class parents' savings were being spent on my college tuition. After six months, I couldn't see the value in it. I had no idea what I wanted to do with my life and no idea how college was going to help me figure it out. And here I was spending all of the money my parents had saved their entire life. So I decided to drop out and trust that it would all work out OK. It was pretty scary at the time, but looking back it was one of the best decisions I ever made. The minute I dropped out I could stop taking the required classes that didn't interest me, and begin dropping in on the ones that looked interesting.
It wasn't all romantic. I didn't have a dorm room, so I slept on the floor in friends' rooms, I returned coke bottles for the 5¢ deposits to buy food with, and I would walk the 7 miles across town every Sunday night to get one good meal a week at the Hare Krishna temple. I loved it. And much of what I stumbled into by following my curiosity and intuition turned out to be priceless later on. Let me give you one example:
Reed College at that time offered perhaps the best calligraphy instruction in the country. Throughout the campus every poster, every label on every drawer, was beautifully hand calligraphed. Because I had dropped out and didn't have to take the normal classes, I decided to take a calligraphy class to learn how to do this. I learned about serif and san serif typefaces, about varying the amount of space between different letter combinations, about what makes great typography great. It was beautiful, historical, artistically subtle in a way that science can't capture, and I found it fascinating.
None of this had even a hope of any practical application in my life. But ten years later, when we were designing the first Macintosh computer, it all came back to me. And we designed it all into the Mac. It was the first computer with beautiful typography. If I had never dropped in on that single course in college, the Mac would have never had multiple typefaces or proportionally spaced fonts. And since Windows just copied the Mac, its likely that no personal computer would have them. If I had never dropped out, I would have never dropped in on this calligraphy class, and personal computers might not have the wonderful typography that they do. Of course it was impossible to connect the dots looking forward when I was in college. But it was very, very clear looking backwards ten years later.
Again, you can't connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future. You have to trust in something - your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever. This approach has never let me down, and it has made all the difference in my life.
My second story is about love and loss.
I was lucky – I found what I loved to do early in life. Woz and I started Apple in my parents garage when I was 20. We worked hard, and in 10 years Apple had grown from just the two of us in a garage into a $2 billion company with over 4000 employees. We had just released our finest creation - the Macintosh - a year earlier, and I had just turned 30. And then I got fired. How can you get fired from a company you started? Well, as Apple grew we hired someone who I thought was very talented to run the company with me, and for the first year or so things went well. But then our visions of the future began to diverge and eventually we had a falling out. When we did, our Board of Directors sided with him. So at 30 I was out. And very publicly out. What had been the focus of my entire adult life was gone, and it was devastating.
I really didn't know what to do for a few months. I felt that I had let the previous generation of entrepreneurs down - that I had dropped the baton as it was being passed to me. I met with David Packard and Bob Noyce and tried to apologize for screwing up so badly. I was a very public failure, and I even thought about running away from the valley. But something slowly began to dawn on me – I still loved what I did. The turn of events at Apple had not changed that one bit. I had been rejected, but I was still in love. And so I decided to start over.
I didn't see it then, but it turned out that getting fired from Apple was the best thing that could have ever happened to me. The heaviness of being successful was replaced by the lightness of being a beginner again, less sure about everything. It freed me to enter one of the most creative periods of my life.
During the next five years, I started a company named NeXT, another company named Pixar, and fell in love with an amazing woman who would become my wife. Pixar went on to create the worlds first computer animated feature film, Toy Story, and is now the most successful animation studio in the world. In a remarkable turn of events, Apple bought NeXT, I retuned to Apple, and the technology we developed at NeXT is at the heart of Apple's current renaissance. And Laurene and I have a wonderful family together.
I'm pretty sure none of this would have happened if I hadn't been fired from Apple. It was awful tasting medicine, but I guess the patient needed it. Sometimes life hits you in the head with a brick. Don't lose faith. I'm convinced that the only thing that kept me going was that I loved what I did. You've got to find what you love. And that is as true for your work as it is for your lovers. Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven't found it yet, keep looking. Don't settle. As with all matters of the heart, you'll know when you find it. And, like any great relationship, it just gets better and better as the years roll on. So keep looking until you find it. Don't settle.
My third story is about death.
When I was 17, I read a quote that went something like: "If you live each day as if it was your last, someday you'll most certainly be right." It made an impression on me, and since then, for the past 33 years, I have looked in the mirror every morning and asked myself: "If today were the last day of my life, would I want to do what I am about to do today?" And whenever the answer has been "No" for too many days in a row, I know I need to change something.
Remembering that I'll be dead soon is the most important tool I've ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life. Because almost everything – all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure - these things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important. Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose. You are already naked. There is no reason not to follow your heart.
About a year ago I was diagnosed with cancer. I had a scan at 7:30 in the morning, and it clearly showed a tumor on my pancreas. I didn't even know what a pancreas was. The doctors told me this was almost certainly a type of cancer that is incurable, and that I should expect to live no longer than three to six months. My doctor advised me to go home and get my affairs in order, which is doctor's code for prepare to die. It means to try to tell your kids everything you thought you'd have the next 10 years to tell them in just a few months. It means to make sure everything is buttoned up so that it will be as easy as possible for your family. It means to say your goodbyes.
I lived with that diagnosis all day. Later that evening I had a biopsy, where they stuck an endoscope down my throat, through my stomach and into my intestines, put a needle into my pancreas and got a few cells from the tumor. I was sedated, but my wife, who was there, told me that when they viewed the cells under a microscope the doctors started crying because it turned out to be a very rare form of pancreatic cancer that is curable with surgery. I had the surgery and I'm fine now.
This was the closest I've been to facing death, and I hope its the closest I get for a few more decades. Having lived through it, I can now say this to you with a bit more certainty than when death was a useful but purely intellectual concept:
No one wants to die. Even people who want to go to heaven don't want to die to get there. And yet death is the destination we all share. No one has ever escaped it. And that is as it should be, because Death is very likely the single best invention of Life. It is Life's change agent. It clears out the old to make way for the new. Right now the new is you, but someday not too long from now, you will gradually become the old and be cleared away. Sorry to be so dramatic, but it is quite true.
Your time is limited, so don't waste it living someone else's life. Don't be trapped by dogma - which is living with the results of other people's thinking. Don't let the noise of other's opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.
When I was young, there was an amazing publication called The Whole Earth Catalog, which was one of the bibles of my generation. It was created by a fellow named Stewart Brand not far from here in Menlo Park, and he brought it to life with his poetic touch. This was in the late 1960's, before personal computers and desktop publishing, so it was all made with typewriters, scissors, and polaroid cameras. It was sort of like Google in paperback form, 35 years before Google came along: it was idealistic, and overflowing with neat tools and great notions.
Stewart and his team put out several issues of The Whole Earth Catalog, and then when it had run its course, they put out a final issue. It was the mid-1970s, and I was your age. On the back cover of their final issue was a photograph of an early morning country road, the kind you might find yourself hitchhiking on if you were so adventurous. Beneath it were the words: "Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish." It was their farewell message as they signed off. Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish. And I have always wished that for myself. And now, as you graduate to begin anew, I wish that for you.
Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish.
Thank you all very much.
Wednesday, June 08, 2005
One - The Campaign to Make Poverty History
Be United to Beat AIDS, STARVATION, and EXTREME PROVERTY
I was watching the Diane Sawyer interview with Brad Pitt on ABC's Primetime tv magazine. I was touched by his devotion to bring peace and life to those suffering in Africa at the extreme poverty level there. How Americans can just share a slight bit of our blessings to others which can impact them forever.
Visit www.one.org and see how you can be part of the generation that can end poverty in the world!
Click here to the see the One video
Click here to see the video with Nelson Mandela
Friday, June 03, 2005
The Best Darn Document on the Planet (CYA) by Joe Kaiser
I spent a dozen years in the real estate business before I ever really took a good long moment to just sit still and think about what I was doing.
A couple words of advise...start sooner.
Had I invested the time I should have really thinking things through, my life as a bona fide investor would have started a whole lot sooner, and sooner is definitely better than later.
I didn't think things through because I was too interested in the latest wild goose chase and my energies were always aimed at something other than work. Trust me, it's work to spend time thinking things through. But it turns out it's one of the most important things you should be doing early on in your real estate career.
Just as a life unexamined is not worth living, an investment strategy unexamined is not worth executing.
The problem is, when you're new, you don't have a clue about what to think about. Sure, you're considering trying to pull something off and have a general idea regarding what it'll take to make it fly, but you really don't have anything more than that. Frankly a general idea isn't much of an idea at all.
All the ways it could go wrong
Try this . . .
Think about all the ways it could go wrong. Seriously examine the weak spots and look to see where problems are likely to make their presence known. Make up your list of horribles that can affect your strategy, and then figure out a way to make sure those things are handled so they can't happen. If that's not possible, make sure you've figured out your position should those things actually come true.
There's a house I'm looking to buy from an owner facing foreclosure. She wants to stay in the house and rent it back from me and maybe buy it at a later day for significantly more than I'm paying her.
Good strategy, but do you see any problems? Years ago I would have just signed her up and been happy with it. In fact, I did a bunch of these kinds of deals with distressed sellers and never gave a second thought to the likely outcomes. Since I was only focused on doing another deal, I never stopped to just think things through. Had I done so, I could have saved myself countless hours of frustration along with the thousands of dollars lost when things ultimately went sideways.
I had one deal like this where the lady filed bankruptcy shortly after we closed. I hadn't planned for that and didn't have a clue what to do about it. That should have been an obvious likely outcome.
One guy sued me on a similar deal when I later refused to sell the property back to him. His checks had bounced a number of times, and his right to purchase the property was supposed to end when that happens. While that was my understanding, it wasn't his attorney's.
That, too, was easily predictable.
One gal claimed that I hadn't really bought the property from her at all. She said I'd agreed to make her a loan and all that other stuff she didn't understand.
One guy later told me he'd been on drugs when he signed the paperwork and now wanted out. Another had his attorney advise me that his hearing aids weren't working when I explained the terms of our deal to him and now he wanted the property back.
You need a good plan
Had I been smart, I would have had a plan in place for all these kinds of events. Remember, we're not talking about remote possibilities here. The problems that surfaced are obvious to anyone who spends more than a moment or two thinking about what could go wrong with this kind of deal, and you're advised to take that time and really think things through.
Unfortunately, when you're new, you really don't have enough of a background to hit all the likely outcomes. If that's the case, get together with someone who does, and the two of you brainstorm the deal out. Having an experienced person along for the ride is a tremendous asset and should not be overlooked.
No real estate friends?
Go hire one - that's why they make attorneys. Real estate attorneys who've been in business for any length of time have seen things you and I can't begin to dream about, and running your plan past them with an eye on anticipating and avoiding potential problems is money well spent. Don't overlook the benefits of having someone looking over your shoulder.
And don't just think about worst-case scenarios . . . figure out your exit strategy. you'll want to know with a high degree of certainty how things will end up and, most importantly, how you'll get paid when things do. With proper planning you really can predict outcomes and, if you're paying attention, and you fine tune along the way, the outcome you design into the plan can in fact be the outcome you end up with. Or at least be something that sort of resembles it. What you don't want is something entirely unanticipated entering into the picture and putting the crimps on your profit.
Final answer: The Seller Disclosure Statement
For years we've made sellers sign a disclosure statement that makes it difficult for them to later change their story and attempt to "unwind" our deal. When you're dealing with distressed sellers, it's mandatory to have something like this in the file, because you can be certain that once the problems are solved and the pressure is off, that friendly seller of yours is going to change his tune and decide you took advantage of him.
Here it is:
Seller's Acknowledgements
I ,_________________________________________________________ (Seller), on this ____ day of ______________________, 20_____, have agreed in writing to sell the property commonly known as ______________________________________________, (The Property) to ________________________________________ (Buyer) and or assigns, according to the terms and conditions contained in the Purchase and Sale Agreement (The Agreement) of even date, a copy of which is attached hereto. I further state as follows:
________ 1. OWNERSHIP OF THE PROPERTY: I am the owner of The Property (or I have an equitable interest in The Property) and am able to contract for its sale.
________ 2. ACCEPTANCE: I have reviewed the terms and conditions contained in The Agreement and have accepted Buyer's offer to purchase The Property.
________ 3. GOOD AND VALUABLE CONSIDERATION: I have received good and valuable consideration in signing The Agreement, and I acknowledge both the receipt and the sufficiency of the consideration.
________ 4. IN MY BEST INTEREST: I am satisfied with The Agreement and have agreed to sell The Property because it is in my best interest to do so.
________ 5. FULLY INFORMED AND NOT CONFUSED: I have signed The Agreement being fully informed and with sufficient understanding of all terms and conditions contained therein. I am not confused about any aspect of The Agreement.
________ 6. SATISFIED WITH THE SALES PRICE: I understand I may be selling The Property for less than market value but have chosen to do so because circumstances dictate that an immediate sale, even at a discounted price, is in my best interest. I am satisfied with the sales price I have negotiated.
________ 7. SALE IS FINAL: I understand by signing The Agreement, I have agreed to sell The Property to Buyer and am now bound by the terms and conditions described in The Agreement. I further understand that I cannot change my mind or cancel the contract at some later date, nor can I continue to market The Property to any other buyer.
________ 8. CONTINGENCIES MAY EXIST: I understand the sale may be contingent upon Buyer's inspection and approval of certain items described in The Agreement. I further understand that if Buyer does not approve of these items, Buyer may cancel The Agreement and if cancelled, I must return Buyer's earnest money in full.
________ 9. NOT A LOAN: I understand The Agreement I have signed is for the outright sale of The Property and is not intended to be a loan of any kind.
________ 10. AGREEMENT MAY BE ASSIGNED: I understand Buyer may assign The Agreement to another party and I may be closing the sale with someone other than Buyer.
________ 11. NO ESCROW: I understand Buyer may choose to close this transaction without the use of an escrow company and may record the conveyance documents himself.
________ 12. CLOSING DOCUMENTS: I understand there will be additional closing documents to sign and upon receipt, agree to sign and deliver the closing documents either into Escrow or directly to Buyer, as Buyer may direct, in a timely manner.
________ 13. COPIES OF THE PAPERWORK: I understand that copies of the paperwork I've signed will be provided to me in a timely manner and I acknowledge that circumstances dictate that copies may not be immediately made available to me.
________ 14. BUYER ENTITLED TO MAKE A PROFIT: I understand Buyer may resell The Property and may realize a profit in doing so. I agree Buyer is entitled to any profit that may ultimately result from the subsequent resale of The Property.
________ 15. LEGAL COUNSEL ADVISED: I acknowledge Buyer has advised me to seek independent legal counsel to review The Agreement.
________ 16. FINANCIAL REVIEW ADVISED: I acknowledge Buyer has advised me to seek an independent financial advisor to review The Agreement.
________ 17. FAIRLY NEGOTIATED: I understand Buyer has negotiated on his own behalf and likewise, I have negotiated on mine. I acknowledge The Agreement has been negotiated fairly and Buyer has not taken advantage of me or my current situation.
________ 18. NO PRECLUDING AILMENTS: I have no physical, mental or emotional ailments that preclude me from signing The Agreement.
________ 19. NOT UNDER THE INFLUENCE: I am not now under the influence of alcohol or any other mind-altering substance, nor am I taking medication that would cloud my judgment or make me unable to think clearly.
________ 20. NO OTHER PROMISES: I have not been promised anything other than what is described in The Agreement. There are no unresolved issues, no ¡°side agreements,¡± nor are there other terms not disclosed in The Agreement.
________ 21. NOT UNDER DURESS: I am not under duress and have signed The Agreement of my own free will, without any undue financial pressure. Buyer has in no way pressured me into signing The Agreement.
________ 22. FULLY SATISFIED WITH AGREEMENT: I am fully satisfied with all terms and conditions contained in The Agreement.
Dated this _____ day of ___________________, 20____.
___________________________ Seller (Signature)
___________________________ Seller (Signature)
Use THE BEST DARN DOCUMENT ON THE PLANET to put the finishing touches on your latest deal. There's no better feeling than knowing you've got that little beauty tucked safely away in the file.
Reprinted with permission by Joe Kaiser (www.foreclosureclues.com)
A couple words of advise...start sooner.
Had I invested the time I should have really thinking things through, my life as a bona fide investor would have started a whole lot sooner, and sooner is definitely better than later.
I didn't think things through because I was too interested in the latest wild goose chase and my energies were always aimed at something other than work. Trust me, it's work to spend time thinking things through. But it turns out it's one of the most important things you should be doing early on in your real estate career.
Just as a life unexamined is not worth living, an investment strategy unexamined is not worth executing.
The problem is, when you're new, you don't have a clue about what to think about. Sure, you're considering trying to pull something off and have a general idea regarding what it'll take to make it fly, but you really don't have anything more than that. Frankly a general idea isn't much of an idea at all.
All the ways it could go wrong
Try this . . .
Think about all the ways it could go wrong. Seriously examine the weak spots and look to see where problems are likely to make their presence known. Make up your list of horribles that can affect your strategy, and then figure out a way to make sure those things are handled so they can't happen. If that's not possible, make sure you've figured out your position should those things actually come true.
There's a house I'm looking to buy from an owner facing foreclosure. She wants to stay in the house and rent it back from me and maybe buy it at a later day for significantly more than I'm paying her.
Good strategy, but do you see any problems? Years ago I would have just signed her up and been happy with it. In fact, I did a bunch of these kinds of deals with distressed sellers and never gave a second thought to the likely outcomes. Since I was only focused on doing another deal, I never stopped to just think things through. Had I done so, I could have saved myself countless hours of frustration along with the thousands of dollars lost when things ultimately went sideways.
I had one deal like this where the lady filed bankruptcy shortly after we closed. I hadn't planned for that and didn't have a clue what to do about it. That should have been an obvious likely outcome.
One guy sued me on a similar deal when I later refused to sell the property back to him. His checks had bounced a number of times, and his right to purchase the property was supposed to end when that happens. While that was my understanding, it wasn't his attorney's.
That, too, was easily predictable.
One gal claimed that I hadn't really bought the property from her at all. She said I'd agreed to make her a loan and all that other stuff she didn't understand.
One guy later told me he'd been on drugs when he signed the paperwork and now wanted out. Another had his attorney advise me that his hearing aids weren't working when I explained the terms of our deal to him and now he wanted the property back.
You need a good plan
Had I been smart, I would have had a plan in place for all these kinds of events. Remember, we're not talking about remote possibilities here. The problems that surfaced are obvious to anyone who spends more than a moment or two thinking about what could go wrong with this kind of deal, and you're advised to take that time and really think things through.
Unfortunately, when you're new, you really don't have enough of a background to hit all the likely outcomes. If that's the case, get together with someone who does, and the two of you brainstorm the deal out. Having an experienced person along for the ride is a tremendous asset and should not be overlooked.
No real estate friends?
Go hire one - that's why they make attorneys. Real estate attorneys who've been in business for any length of time have seen things you and I can't begin to dream about, and running your plan past them with an eye on anticipating and avoiding potential problems is money well spent. Don't overlook the benefits of having someone looking over your shoulder.
And don't just think about worst-case scenarios . . . figure out your exit strategy. you'll want to know with a high degree of certainty how things will end up and, most importantly, how you'll get paid when things do. With proper planning you really can predict outcomes and, if you're paying attention, and you fine tune along the way, the outcome you design into the plan can in fact be the outcome you end up with. Or at least be something that sort of resembles it. What you don't want is something entirely unanticipated entering into the picture and putting the crimps on your profit.
Final answer: The Seller Disclosure Statement
For years we've made sellers sign a disclosure statement that makes it difficult for them to later change their story and attempt to "unwind" our deal. When you're dealing with distressed sellers, it's mandatory to have something like this in the file, because you can be certain that once the problems are solved and the pressure is off, that friendly seller of yours is going to change his tune and decide you took advantage of him.
Here it is:
Seller's Acknowledgements
I ,_________________________________________________________ (Seller), on this ____ day of ______________________, 20_____, have agreed in writing to sell the property commonly known as ______________________________________________, (The Property) to ________________________________________ (Buyer) and or assigns, according to the terms and conditions contained in the Purchase and Sale Agreement (The Agreement) of even date, a copy of which is attached hereto. I further state as follows:
________ 1. OWNERSHIP OF THE PROPERTY: I am the owner of The Property (or I have an equitable interest in The Property) and am able to contract for its sale.
________ 2. ACCEPTANCE: I have reviewed the terms and conditions contained in The Agreement and have accepted Buyer's offer to purchase The Property.
________ 3. GOOD AND VALUABLE CONSIDERATION: I have received good and valuable consideration in signing The Agreement, and I acknowledge both the receipt and the sufficiency of the consideration.
________ 4. IN MY BEST INTEREST: I am satisfied with The Agreement and have agreed to sell The Property because it is in my best interest to do so.
________ 5. FULLY INFORMED AND NOT CONFUSED: I have signed The Agreement being fully informed and with sufficient understanding of all terms and conditions contained therein. I am not confused about any aspect of The Agreement.
________ 6. SATISFIED WITH THE SALES PRICE: I understand I may be selling The Property for less than market value but have chosen to do so because circumstances dictate that an immediate sale, even at a discounted price, is in my best interest. I am satisfied with the sales price I have negotiated.
________ 7. SALE IS FINAL: I understand by signing The Agreement, I have agreed to sell The Property to Buyer and am now bound by the terms and conditions described in The Agreement. I further understand that I cannot change my mind or cancel the contract at some later date, nor can I continue to market The Property to any other buyer.
________ 8. CONTINGENCIES MAY EXIST: I understand the sale may be contingent upon Buyer's inspection and approval of certain items described in The Agreement. I further understand that if Buyer does not approve of these items, Buyer may cancel The Agreement and if cancelled, I must return Buyer's earnest money in full.
________ 9. NOT A LOAN: I understand The Agreement I have signed is for the outright sale of The Property and is not intended to be a loan of any kind.
________ 10. AGREEMENT MAY BE ASSIGNED: I understand Buyer may assign The Agreement to another party and I may be closing the sale with someone other than Buyer.
________ 11. NO ESCROW: I understand Buyer may choose to close this transaction without the use of an escrow company and may record the conveyance documents himself.
________ 12. CLOSING DOCUMENTS: I understand there will be additional closing documents to sign and upon receipt, agree to sign and deliver the closing documents either into Escrow or directly to Buyer, as Buyer may direct, in a timely manner.
________ 13. COPIES OF THE PAPERWORK: I understand that copies of the paperwork I've signed will be provided to me in a timely manner and I acknowledge that circumstances dictate that copies may not be immediately made available to me.
________ 14. BUYER ENTITLED TO MAKE A PROFIT: I understand Buyer may resell The Property and may realize a profit in doing so. I agree Buyer is entitled to any profit that may ultimately result from the subsequent resale of The Property.
________ 15. LEGAL COUNSEL ADVISED: I acknowledge Buyer has advised me to seek independent legal counsel to review The Agreement.
________ 16. FINANCIAL REVIEW ADVISED: I acknowledge Buyer has advised me to seek an independent financial advisor to review The Agreement.
________ 17. FAIRLY NEGOTIATED: I understand Buyer has negotiated on his own behalf and likewise, I have negotiated on mine. I acknowledge The Agreement has been negotiated fairly and Buyer has not taken advantage of me or my current situation.
________ 18. NO PRECLUDING AILMENTS: I have no physical, mental or emotional ailments that preclude me from signing The Agreement.
________ 19. NOT UNDER THE INFLUENCE: I am not now under the influence of alcohol or any other mind-altering substance, nor am I taking medication that would cloud my judgment or make me unable to think clearly.
________ 20. NO OTHER PROMISES: I have not been promised anything other than what is described in The Agreement. There are no unresolved issues, no ¡°side agreements,¡± nor are there other terms not disclosed in The Agreement.
________ 21. NOT UNDER DURESS: I am not under duress and have signed The Agreement of my own free will, without any undue financial pressure. Buyer has in no way pressured me into signing The Agreement.
________ 22. FULLY SATISFIED WITH AGREEMENT: I am fully satisfied with all terms and conditions contained in The Agreement.
Dated this _____ day of ___________________, 20____.
___________________________ Seller (Signature)
___________________________ Seller (Signature)
Use THE BEST DARN DOCUMENT ON THE PLANET to put the finishing touches on your latest deal. There's no better feeling than knowing you've got that little beauty tucked safely away in the file.
Reprinted with permission by Joe Kaiser (www.foreclosureclues.com)
Sunday, May 22, 2005
CNN Article - "No-money down mania: Wannabe millionaires are flocking to gurus who say anyone can get rich in real estate. Not exactly."
Click Here to Read the Article
Great read that brings some healthy balance to the continuous upselling and "get rich quick schemes" by the numbers. I believe it holds water as alot of information is out there for free.
What is everyone's else experience about these courses?
Great read that brings some healthy balance to the continuous upselling and "get rich quick schemes" by the numbers. I believe it holds water as alot of information is out there for free.
What is everyone's else experience about these courses?
Monday, May 16, 2005
Financial Lobtomy? - Review of T Harv Ecker's Millionaire Mind Intensive Workshop
A few weeks I attended an intro to new best selling author T Harv Ecker who wrote THE SECRETS OF THE MILLIONAIRE MIND.
Many of my Cashflow members shared how great it was and I don't like to be sold but I was open to learning so I attended their 3 full day workshop called THE MILLIONAIRE MIND INTENSIVE.
The word I can describe is "VERY VALUABLE" - ok.. that was 2 words!
When I went into the workshop I was a bit skeptical as I have been to business seminars from Robert Allen, Business Week, Primerica, etc... and all of them were rather hard sells and promotions. I expected the same I quickly changed my mind as it resembles more of a motivational session with Anthony Robbins BUT I didn't have to pay thousands for it!
Each day is a full 12 - 14 hrs of experiential processes, lecture, affirmations, and group discussions for an intensive "surgery" of my psychology. Even after years of learning Rich Dad principles I still have things in me that was to be reminded and instilled in my heart. Each session is filled with strategies and techniques to TRAIN MY MIND on becoming a millionaire.
It is more than just the simple techniques in THINK AND GROW RICH but instead
something more sophisticated in behavioral technology.
I found out things like...
* I was too hard on myself.
* I didn't like receiving compliments.
* I choose hard instead of easy to get wins.
* I believe the rich are snobbish elite people.
I would say it is uses some of the principles and ideas from personal development
courses like The Great Life Foundation (aka Harmony Trainings) and Landmark Education.
The difference is that it applied those ideas into the area of finance and our
relationship with it. Overall I experienced an incredible blessing and signed
up for one of the courses.
If you would like to attend a FREE introduction session.
Just go to: http://www.millionairemind.com/preview/mme/
Please fill out and use the selection AMBASSADOR for how you heard about this intro. My code is 233818.
Again, it is the best seminar that has high value that I would pay to go into it again.
It was a very fun and high energy session as it used various NLP and He writes... Give me five minutes, and I can predict your finanical |
Many of my Cashflow members shared how great it was and I don't like to be sold but I was open to learning so I attended their 3 full day workshop called THE MILLIONAIRE MIND INTENSIVE.
The word I can describe is "VERY VALUABLE" - ok.. that was 2 words!
When I went into the workshop I was a bit skeptical as I have been to business seminars from Robert Allen, Business Week, Primerica, etc... and all of them were rather hard sells and promotions. I expected the same I quickly changed my mind as it resembles more of a motivational session with Anthony Robbins BUT I didn't have to pay thousands for it!
Each day is a full 12 - 14 hrs of experiential processes, lecture, affirmations, and group discussions for an intensive "surgery" of my psychology. Even after years of learning Rich Dad principles I still have things in me that was to be reminded and instilled in my heart. Each session is filled with strategies and techniques to TRAIN MY MIND on becoming a millionaire.
It is more than just the simple techniques in THINK AND GROW RICH but instead
something more sophisticated in behavioral technology.
I found out things like...
* I was too hard on myself.
* I didn't like receiving compliments.
* I choose hard instead of easy to get wins.
* I believe the rich are snobbish elite people.
I would say it is uses some of the principles and ideas from personal development
courses like The Great Life Foundation (aka Harmony Trainings) and Landmark Education.
The difference is that it applied those ideas into the area of finance and our
relationship with it. Overall I experienced an incredible blessing and signed
up for one of the courses.
If you would like to attend a FREE introduction session.
Just go to: http://www.millionairemind.com/preview/mme/
Please fill out and use the selection AMBASSADOR for how you heard about this intro. My code is 233818.
Again, it is the best seminar that has high value that I would pay to go into it again.
Sunday, May 08, 2005
The Awakening - My Witness to Transforming Lives!
What is the Awakening?
It is the first level of a life tranformation training called The Great Life Foundation (click here for their former site called Harmony Trainings) that I have been attending for the past several months. To further develop in my personal growth, the 4th level is STAFFING or serving others in the training to find their heart, spirit, or inner child.
I was part of a team of 10 staff with one trainer witness and faciliating the breakthroughs of 22 people who wanted something extra or next level in life. In 4 days, I saw and experienced them turning into half hearted, hard, and cold people to warm, passionate, loving, strong, courageous, and alive people! It was truly a breath of fresh air as their aura totally changed.
I was served an image of myself as I lead a small group of 2 people. One was analytical and another passionless. It reflected me as I see how they were like me in many ways. It served me a great lesson.
I have the opportunity to meet and staff the Awakening of Mark Archer and Exhibuilder.
What I am learning:
* Be accountable doesn't mean beat up time. Fault or blame is not the same as accountable. Being accountable means looking at how I contributed to my present and the power of decisions and meanings create how things look in my life. When I am accountable I am not a victim.
* I still feel uncomfortable at times moving out of my comfort zone with regards to relationships. Being open to people is still a challenge to me.
* It is good to connect with people I love and it takes living up to my commitment.
* It is inspiring when people open themselves and show their inner spirit and heart.
* I deserve to be in unity with powerful people as I am a powerful person.
Overall, I am honored to witness and be a part of the Awakening of wonderful people.
It is the first level of a life tranformation training called The Great Life Foundation (click here for their former site called Harmony Trainings) that I have been attending for the past several months. To further develop in my personal growth, the 4th level is STAFFING or serving others in the training to find their heart, spirit, or inner child.
I was part of a team of 10 staff with one trainer witness and faciliating the breakthroughs of 22 people who wanted something extra or next level in life. In 4 days, I saw and experienced them turning into half hearted, hard, and cold people to warm, passionate, loving, strong, courageous, and alive people! It was truly a breath of fresh air as their aura totally changed.
I was served an image of myself as I lead a small group of 2 people. One was analytical and another passionless. It reflected me as I see how they were like me in many ways. It served me a great lesson.
I have the opportunity to meet and staff the Awakening of Mark Archer and Exhibuilder.
What I am learning:
* Be accountable doesn't mean beat up time. Fault or blame is not the same as accountable. Being accountable means looking at how I contributed to my present and the power of decisions and meanings create how things look in my life. When I am accountable I am not a victim.
* I still feel uncomfortable at times moving out of my comfort zone with regards to relationships. Being open to people is still a challenge to me.
* It is good to connect with people I love and it takes living up to my commitment.
* It is inspiring when people open themselves and show their inner spirit and heart.
* I deserve to be in unity with powerful people as I am a powerful person.
Overall, I am honored to witness and be a part of the Awakening of wonderful people.
Saturday, April 30, 2005
1st Assignment Flip in Philadelphia! Yahoo! :)
My team purchased a property at 38th and Cambridge in Philadelphia close the Girard and Parkside as it is receiving heavy inflow of investors with the future Microsoft High School is being built around there area.
We made a bid for a 4br / 1ba after speaking with a neighbor about 2 door steps away who is a contractor. He told us it would take 25K to 35K to rehab and we took it face value when bidding at the Sheriff Tax Lien Sale.
We got the property for $11,2000 from the initial open bid of $5,000. We put our 10% down to secure our option on the property.
After opening up the property, we found that it requires exactly what the contractor said - 25K to 35K of work. During this time we were going to go ahead with it but we found a better deal in South Philly which we have built in equity in less than 3 months. We decided to let this go as there were better deals elswhere. Comparable houses were selling for 45K on average. After repair would would have broken even or have a little equity.
I started marketing the property on craigslist with the following ad:
$15000 - Handyman Special - Fairmount Park / Parkside Area
Date: 2005-04-02, 4:58AM EST
Semi attached 4 bd / 1 ba shell needs alot of TLC. It is about 1100 sq ft and great for a handyman wanting to own and live close to Fairmount park and Parkside.
Needs new plumbing, electrical, heat, back roof has burnt joists.
Cross section is 38th and Cambridge.
If you are seriously interested email the following:
Name, Telephone #, Proof of Funds
EMAIL ONLY IF YOU ARE SERIOUS
I received many bogus calls and usually the Philadelphia natives low ball as much as possible as there are usually other deals in the hopper. My strategy involved creating a buyer's list for future inventory and also getting a feel for what people may pay for properties out there. Most of the time any type of marketing is better than no marketing.
After 3 weeks of going back and forth I found 2 good buyers who was able to comply with the conditions set forth in the ad. They bidded the same bid and to end the stalemate I asked for a silent bid - "put your best offer in". One came up with $13,000 and we sold with an assignment of contract.
So for those who are into #s
Purchase Price: $11,2000
Sell Price: $13,000
Actual Cash Outlay: $1,120
Cash on cash Return (Purchase price - Sell Price / Cash Outlay): 160%
ROI (CCR for the year: in this case it took less than 2 months to close): 960%
For the most part if wanted to have long term wealth I would have definitely kept that house as I know the area is booming as we speak. I would say it will shoot up easily 25% appreciation in one year if not more. This is a definite buy and hold deal and we felt it the person receiving it would be well pleased.
LESSONS LEARNED:
* Create win win situations for myself - I could have won by holding or fliping. The more options I have the better.
* Create win win situations for others - it creates branding or reputation; the investor we sold it told me that they were cheated on another deal and were apprehensive about getting this done but I walked them through it
* Marketing is powerful - this deal was going to be a dead deal until some intiative is taken; my ad was not powerful but the exposure made it unique as it is rare to have a 5 digit property on it right now.
* Silent bids - I don't like going into bidding wars. No investor really likes it and in this case it was the same. I just ask for the "best bid" close to asking price of $15000. All good investors will ask for less than asking and it is expected. Price the property at near where you want it and ask for a silent bid if you don't want to go back and forth to push the price.
* Do not give a discount in high demand areas - we didn't give a discount and people STILL lowballed us. It is the nature of the game. Play it like that. First person that usually puts a # out there loses so unless warranted don't do it.
* Creating a buyer's list - now I have a list of buyers to pass on properties to. I created the list so it is more easier than blasting out on the Internet and getting bogus calls.
We made a bid for a 4br / 1ba after speaking with a neighbor about 2 door steps away who is a contractor. He told us it would take 25K to 35K to rehab and we took it face value when bidding at the Sheriff Tax Lien Sale.
We got the property for $11,2000 from the initial open bid of $5,000. We put our 10% down to secure our option on the property.
After opening up the property, we found that it requires exactly what the contractor said - 25K to 35K of work. During this time we were going to go ahead with it but we found a better deal in South Philly which we have built in equity in less than 3 months. We decided to let this go as there were better deals elswhere. Comparable houses were selling for 45K on average. After repair would would have broken even or have a little equity.
I started marketing the property on craigslist with the following ad:
$15000 - Handyman Special - Fairmount Park / Parkside Area
Date: 2005-04-02, 4:58AM EST
Semi attached 4 bd / 1 ba shell needs alot of TLC. It is about 1100 sq ft and great for a handyman wanting to own and live close to Fairmount park and Parkside.
Needs new plumbing, electrical, heat, back roof has burnt joists.
Cross section is 38th and Cambridge.
If you are seriously interested email the following:
Name, Telephone #, Proof of Funds
EMAIL ONLY IF YOU ARE SERIOUS
I received many bogus calls and usually the Philadelphia natives low ball as much as possible as there are usually other deals in the hopper. My strategy involved creating a buyer's list for future inventory and also getting a feel for what people may pay for properties out there. Most of the time any type of marketing is better than no marketing.
After 3 weeks of going back and forth I found 2 good buyers who was able to comply with the conditions set forth in the ad. They bidded the same bid and to end the stalemate I asked for a silent bid - "put your best offer in". One came up with $13,000 and we sold with an assignment of contract.
So for those who are into #s
Purchase Price: $11,2000
Sell Price: $13,000
Actual Cash Outlay: $1,120
Cash on cash Return (Purchase price - Sell Price / Cash Outlay): 160%
ROI (CCR for the year: in this case it took less than 2 months to close): 960%
For the most part if wanted to have long term wealth I would have definitely kept that house as I know the area is booming as we speak. I would say it will shoot up easily 25% appreciation in one year if not more. This is a definite buy and hold deal and we felt it the person receiving it would be well pleased.
LESSONS LEARNED:
* Create win win situations for myself - I could have won by holding or fliping. The more options I have the better.
* Create win win situations for others - it creates branding or reputation; the investor we sold it told me that they were cheated on another deal and were apprehensive about getting this done but I walked them through it
* Marketing is powerful - this deal was going to be a dead deal until some intiative is taken; my ad was not powerful but the exposure made it unique as it is rare to have a 5 digit property on it right now.
* Silent bids - I don't like going into bidding wars. No investor really likes it and in this case it was the same. I just ask for the "best bid" close to asking price of $15000. All good investors will ask for less than asking and it is expected. Price the property at near where you want it and ask for a silent bid if you don't want to go back and forth to push the price.
* Do not give a discount in high demand areas - we didn't give a discount and people STILL lowballed us. It is the nature of the game. Play it like that. First person that usually puts a # out there loses so unless warranted don't do it.
* Creating a buyer's list - now I have a list of buyers to pass on properties to. I created the list so it is more easier than blasting out on the Internet and getting bogus calls.
Friday, April 22, 2005
First Cashflow NY Round Table of 2005 - Playing Cashflow in REAL LIFE !
The Cashflow NY that I am an organizer with had its first annual ROUNDTABLE. I got the idea from Locutus9 from the RichDad forums. It came down to the wire as we found a place to rent a room and filled it with 18 members who were all interested in playing the cashflow game in real life.
We brought together various speakers including:
* African REI investor sharing his current investments in the Philadelphia market and sharing his #s on the current deal and deals in NJ - he just completed his 1st rehab in South Philly.
* Single afro american mon raising her child and working full time as a REI investor and sharing her wealth mindset about manifesting wealth through her biggest assest -> HERSELF! Her team is working on preconstructions in Georgia
* Chinese enterpreneur sharing about his manufacturing business in China and work in website designs and his partnership with another 20+ Israeli enterpreneur
* Late 20's Israeli enterpreneur and his startup company tripe-e-soft (www.triple-e-soft.com) and collaborating with multi million dollar clients like Guess and New Balance while recently coming to USA!
* College student building a better web portal than CRAIGSLIST for classifieds!
These were some of the sharings that made the whole event GREAT! I felt real blessed to know so many people who are building abundant succes in their lives!
Thank you Locutus9 if you get to read this! :)
We brought together various speakers including:
* African REI investor sharing his current investments in the Philadelphia market and sharing his #s on the current deal and deals in NJ - he just completed his 1st rehab in South Philly.
* Single afro american mon raising her child and working full time as a REI investor and sharing her wealth mindset about manifesting wealth through her biggest assest -> HERSELF! Her team is working on preconstructions in Georgia
* Chinese enterpreneur sharing about his manufacturing business in China and work in website designs and his partnership with another 20+ Israeli enterpreneur
* Late 20's Israeli enterpreneur and his startup company tripe-e-soft (www.triple-e-soft.com) and collaborating with multi million dollar clients like Guess and New Balance while recently coming to USA!
* College student building a better web portal than CRAIGSLIST for classifieds!
These were some of the sharings that made the whole event GREAT! I felt real blessed to know so many people who are building abundant succes in their lives!
Thank you Locutus9 if you get to read this! :)
2nd Month at the Kings County Recorder's Office
It is the beginning of the 2nd month of learning the County Recorders office. Right now it is a matter of getting the information and connecting with the home owners.
The following are methods that I gather from reading and speaking to some real dealmakers in real life like SuccessEnterprisesLLC. Some of which are:
1. Direct Mail.
2. Referral Networking.
3. Cold calling.
4. Door knocking or direct sales.
All are good. I am considering which system to use for the best use of time and money at this point.
On a side note many of the people that have gone through the cashflow group are starting to bud as they are becoming active (one of which is Dumbo and Reverendro's wife). Someone called me on some deals in Queens that they are short selling. It is an ok deal but the risk is high with low reward.
The following are methods that I gather from reading and speaking to some real dealmakers in real life like SuccessEnterprisesLLC. Some of which are:
1. Direct Mail.
2. Referral Networking.
3. Cold calling.
4. Door knocking or direct sales.
All are good. I am considering which system to use for the best use of time and money at this point.
On a side note many of the people that have gone through the cashflow group are starting to bud as they are becoming active (one of which is Dumbo and Reverendro's wife). Someone called me on some deals in Queens that they are short selling. It is an ok deal but the risk is high with low reward.
Thursday, April 07, 2005
Being an ANGEL for Tai03 in The Great Life Foundation
Today is the 2nd day for my buddy Tai03 attending the Awakenings for the Great Life Foundation. It has been awhile since my graduation from Lift Off and things seem to have been up and down which I create. When Tai03 approached me and said that he and his family are going to Utah to attend the training I was amazed and inspired that they trust in me that much to go look for themselves. The funny thing is that the when we declare that we are going for a vision that is when things come up to hinder us from achieving it. His wife had issues going, finding a babysitter, dealing with past limitations on what is right and wrong, etc... It is easier just to say yes and keep that commitment. For me I don't know what an Angel does but I was very happy that he choose to believe in himself and make it happen.
In the past 3 other people have said they are going to this training and then dropped out. It has hurt in my heart and I see that loving and caring does hurt. It doesn't mean I choose to stop loving which is my normal mode of things but it does feel like someone sidekicked me!
Right now he is into his 2 day of training. He is awesome and my buddies from The Great Life are there with him supporting him. What an awesome family I have!
In the past 3 other people have said they are going to this training and then dropped out. It has hurt in my heart and I see that loving and caring does hurt. It doesn't mean I choose to stop loving which is my normal mode of things but it does feel like someone sidekicked me!
Right now he is into his 2 day of training. He is awesome and my buddies from The Great Life are there with him supporting him. What an awesome family I have!
SOLD ON EBAY!!! NOT!
I finally got rid of most of my ebay inventory. I posted an ad on craigslist.org (a relatively free classified online system) and a coin crane machine business guy came over and bought the rest of my inventory. He bought it for $.35 per doll which was a fireside sale. I feel like someone who went through a large burden for awhile. The plush was selling but not at the rate I hoped. It was a good learning experience and I believe that if I learn from it I am so mucht the better. You can see my ebay account at id d-lifeenterprises.
Saturday, April 02, 2005
Song Lyrics for Reach for the Light - Steve Winwood 1995
This is on my mp3 playback repeat today:
________________________________________
REACH FOR THE LIGHT - Steve Winwood 1995
Deep in the night
the winds blow cold
and in a heartbeat
the fear takes hold
Deep in the storm
there's a place that's soft and still
where the road waits to be taken
if you only will
The voices inside you
can lead your soul astray
Believe in what you dream
Don't turn away
don't you turn away
*chorus*
Reach for the light!
You might touch the sky!
Stand on the mountaintop
and see yourself flying
Reach for the light!
to capture a star
Come out of the darkness
and find out who you are
Somewhere in time
the truth shines through
and the spirit knows
what it has to do
Somewhere in you
there's a power with no name
It can rise to meet the moment
and burn like a flame
And you can be stronger
than anything you know
Hold on to what you see
Don't let it go
don't you let it go
*chorus*
Now, there's no turning back
when your destiny is calling
Listen to the thunder roll
and let your heart break free
*chorus*
________________________________________
REACH FOR THE LIGHT - Steve Winwood 1995
Deep in the night
the winds blow cold
and in a heartbeat
the fear takes hold
Deep in the storm
there's a place that's soft and still
where the road waits to be taken
if you only will
The voices inside you
can lead your soul astray
Believe in what you dream
Don't turn away
don't you turn away
*chorus*
Reach for the light!
You might touch the sky!
Stand on the mountaintop
and see yourself flying
Reach for the light!
to capture a star
Come out of the darkness
and find out who you are
Somewhere in time
the truth shines through
and the spirit knows
what it has to do
Somewhere in you
there's a power with no name
It can rise to meet the moment
and burn like a flame
And you can be stronger
than anything you know
Hold on to what you see
Don't let it go
don't you let it go
*chorus*
Now, there's no turning back
when your destiny is calling
Listen to the thunder roll
and let your heart break free
*chorus*
Thursday, March 24, 2005
The #1 trait of a millionarie is....? by LesGee
The #1 trait of a millionarie is....? by LesGee
If you understand this you too can have more money than you know what to do with.
It’s a two part answer.
Just one man’s bias opinion obviously. So why am I qualified to even write on the subject?
Done about 1000 tax returns and got to see lots of people’s finances.
Done about 200 mortgage loans by referrals only. I do not work for the general public hence my clientele allows me to work closely with them in a more financial planning mode. I get to see these people over many years. My average client I have refied about 5 times.
Real estate ACTIVE investor for 5 yrs.
Real estate PASSIVE investor for 5 yrs.
I recently been hearing people write,
“I have little money but want to get into real estate.”
“Can no money down investing work?”
“I have $2000 in credit card debt, should I pay off the debt first or
invest?”
“Should I get an equity line to invest?”
Yes, these are interesting topics however there is a more important fundamental issue that should not be overlooked. I can answer these questions but WHAT FOR? So they can make more money and still have no money later on? You see I know lots of people making 6 figures and still are broke. Off the top of my head I know of a couple that make $150,000/yr and are about $50,000 in credit card debt. So they make more money….letting them buy bigger toys. Big deal is all I can say.
My friend use to have a successful financial planning practice. He had one client deciding on bankruptcy yet he was making $1,000,000/yr as a successful doctor. He was spending over that each yr. They were startled they had to stop the practice of wearing clothes only once, buying the newest car, belonging to 3 country clubs. To them this was very necessary. What would the Jones think?
It is appalling, yet crystal clear when I see my close friends making good money, yet constantly buying toys! Digital camera, big screen TVs, cellular phones, video camera, and vacations…. I know they are going to be broke when they need the money later in life. Nobody continues to make the same. Things change. Two incomes before one. Medical problems, having kids, parents need help, … They just don’t have the mindset of a millionaire and live like a spoiled child “in the moment.”
I personally never made more than $30,000/yr in a job. (My last job was over a decade ago) Remember making $15,000 my first year out of college while my peers were making $30,000+. It didn’t matter, because I know that the number one trait of success is…..SAVING. That first yr by the way I save $7500. Every cent was watch closely down to buying soda at the vending machine. This changed to buying in bulk to bring it in. Then it changed to drinking water.
So the number one trait of making it I fully believe is SAVING! If you don’t learn to live below your means, then you are doomed to just have bigger toys, until your income goes down, and you lose it all. It is human nature to live at or above your current standard of living. So the income goes down, the person continues to live how they live as the savings is eroded. Now what?
Who knows how long before you can no longer make what you make? Be it medical problems for you or your love ones. Be it maternity for your wife. Be it downsizing or just feed up with your work. So from day one I use to say, do I want to be doing this when I’m 70 yrs old? If not, I’d better be saving like the dickens.
Now the second part of the equation. Learning to INVEST. Now with seed money, I can learn to invest and have those little employees of mine, called “CASH” work 24/7. They don’t complain and they continue to make money day in and day out. They make more money then I ever did. Man they are good workers.
Does a good successful farmer continue to eat his entire crop each year? That’s what most Americans do with their money. If you have a good year, save the darn stuff. Then learn to invest.
Think of storing for a 7-yr drought.
MOST millionaires I know make it by SAVING and basic boring INVESTING. Read the book, “The millionaire next door” and “The millionaire mind”. Also Robert Kiyosaki says the same thing. You can be a millionaire by simply saving and investing. Being an “E” or and “S” and learning to “I”.
Also read “the richest man in Babylon”. Human nature is such that Expenses = Income. Unless you learn to control the urge to splurge, you are doomed to a lousy retirement.
Yes, there are the exception of winning the lottery, but those folks will be broke in 5 yrs. Also what about the successful businessman. All I can say is I’m a statistician by education. I play the odds. And most of the folks I see that make it learn to SAVE.
Real estate investing is just one vehicle that helps the INVESTING side of the equation. But if you got no SAVINGS, so what if you can turn $50,000 in 1 month. You’ll just spend it on x or y. If you haven’t learn how to SAVE, then you are doomed to fail in financial terms. Truth be known I would be a millionaire if I continued to earn $30,000/yr since I had the mindset of a Millionaire Mind. Even as a 7-grade kid living in San Francisco, I would run home and beat the bus to save 5
cents. And it was healthier. So what if it was a mile each day.
Now the biggest argument I hear about savings is “you only live once”. I want to have fun. Who knows if I will live that long? My counter is if you hold off for say 5 yrs, while you save you can enjoy the riches most already had and are still paying for and who says you don’t have fun with little? Who is more blessed, the spoiled rich child OR the humble poor one.
You know it is like a spoiled child. Give a 2-yr. old candy and soda whenever they want and they become a miserable spoiled child. It’s the same with us. The more you “parent the child within”, a wonderful thing one hopefully discovers. The true blessing of doing without! Of being humble in nature and blessed in gratitude. Please begin to parent your own selfish child within, then learn to invest, and I’m not talking the stock market. Okay, I’m bias toward real estate.
Les
_____________________________
Real estate investing is 95% emotional and 5% technical.
Work on the emotional if you want to get into real estate investing.
Original Post: http://forum.richdad.com/forums/tm.asp?m=274015&mpage=1&p=&tmode=1&smode=1&key=
Disclaimer: These are the opinions of Les Gee and utilizing these teachings are solely at your discretion and risk.
If you understand this you too can have more money than you know what to do with.
It’s a two part answer.
Just one man’s bias opinion obviously. So why am I qualified to even write on the subject?
Done about 1000 tax returns and got to see lots of people’s finances.
Done about 200 mortgage loans by referrals only. I do not work for the general public hence my clientele allows me to work closely with them in a more financial planning mode. I get to see these people over many years. My average client I have refied about 5 times.
Real estate ACTIVE investor for 5 yrs.
Real estate PASSIVE investor for 5 yrs.
I recently been hearing people write,
“I have little money but want to get into real estate.”
“Can no money down investing work?”
“I have $2000 in credit card debt, should I pay off the debt first or
invest?”
“Should I get an equity line to invest?”
Yes, these are interesting topics however there is a more important fundamental issue that should not be overlooked. I can answer these questions but WHAT FOR? So they can make more money and still have no money later on? You see I know lots of people making 6 figures and still are broke. Off the top of my head I know of a couple that make $150,000/yr and are about $50,000 in credit card debt. So they make more money….letting them buy bigger toys. Big deal is all I can say.
My friend use to have a successful financial planning practice. He had one client deciding on bankruptcy yet he was making $1,000,000/yr as a successful doctor. He was spending over that each yr. They were startled they had to stop the practice of wearing clothes only once, buying the newest car, belonging to 3 country clubs. To them this was very necessary. What would the Jones think?
It is appalling, yet crystal clear when I see my close friends making good money, yet constantly buying toys! Digital camera, big screen TVs, cellular phones, video camera, and vacations…. I know they are going to be broke when they need the money later in life. Nobody continues to make the same. Things change. Two incomes before one. Medical problems, having kids, parents need help, … They just don’t have the mindset of a millionaire and live like a spoiled child “in the moment.”
I personally never made more than $30,000/yr in a job. (My last job was over a decade ago) Remember making $15,000 my first year out of college while my peers were making $30,000+. It didn’t matter, because I know that the number one trait of success is…..SAVING. That first yr by the way I save $7500. Every cent was watch closely down to buying soda at the vending machine. This changed to buying in bulk to bring it in. Then it changed to drinking water.
So the number one trait of making it I fully believe is SAVING! If you don’t learn to live below your means, then you are doomed to just have bigger toys, until your income goes down, and you lose it all. It is human nature to live at or above your current standard of living. So the income goes down, the person continues to live how they live as the savings is eroded. Now what?
Who knows how long before you can no longer make what you make? Be it medical problems for you or your love ones. Be it maternity for your wife. Be it downsizing or just feed up with your work. So from day one I use to say, do I want to be doing this when I’m 70 yrs old? If not, I’d better be saving like the dickens.
Now the second part of the equation. Learning to INVEST. Now with seed money, I can learn to invest and have those little employees of mine, called “CASH” work 24/7. They don’t complain and they continue to make money day in and day out. They make more money then I ever did. Man they are good workers.
Does a good successful farmer continue to eat his entire crop each year? That’s what most Americans do with their money. If you have a good year, save the darn stuff. Then learn to invest.
Think of storing for a 7-yr drought.
MOST millionaires I know make it by SAVING and basic boring INVESTING. Read the book, “The millionaire next door” and “The millionaire mind”. Also Robert Kiyosaki says the same thing. You can be a millionaire by simply saving and investing. Being an “E” or and “S” and learning to “I”.
Also read “the richest man in Babylon”. Human nature is such that Expenses = Income. Unless you learn to control the urge to splurge, you are doomed to a lousy retirement.
Yes, there are the exception of winning the lottery, but those folks will be broke in 5 yrs. Also what about the successful businessman. All I can say is I’m a statistician by education. I play the odds. And most of the folks I see that make it learn to SAVE.
Real estate investing is just one vehicle that helps the INVESTING side of the equation. But if you got no SAVINGS, so what if you can turn $50,000 in 1 month. You’ll just spend it on x or y. If you haven’t learn how to SAVE, then you are doomed to fail in financial terms. Truth be known I would be a millionaire if I continued to earn $30,000/yr since I had the mindset of a Millionaire Mind. Even as a 7-grade kid living in San Francisco, I would run home and beat the bus to save 5
cents. And it was healthier. So what if it was a mile each day.
Now the biggest argument I hear about savings is “you only live once”. I want to have fun. Who knows if I will live that long? My counter is if you hold off for say 5 yrs, while you save you can enjoy the riches most already had and are still paying for and who says you don’t have fun with little? Who is more blessed, the spoiled rich child OR the humble poor one.
You know it is like a spoiled child. Give a 2-yr. old candy and soda whenever they want and they become a miserable spoiled child. It’s the same with us. The more you “parent the child within”, a wonderful thing one hopefully discovers. The true blessing of doing without! Of being humble in nature and blessed in gratitude. Please begin to parent your own selfish child within, then learn to invest, and I’m not talking the stock market. Okay, I’m bias toward real estate.
Les
_____________________________
Real estate investing is 95% emotional and 5% technical.
Work on the emotional if you want to get into real estate investing.
Original Post: http://forum.richdad.com/forums/tm.asp?m=274015&mpage=1&p=&tmode=1&smode=1&key=
Disclaimer: These are the opinions of Les Gee and utilizing these teachings are solely at your discretion and risk.
Tuesday, March 22, 2005
Opps from the Sheriff Sale! Learning Lesson from Life!
Ok. I am at the Sheriff Sale in Philadelphia and my team has purchased our first property off the Fairmount Park area. It was a good bid with it not going to high. We are going for our 2nd bid when the auctioneer starts with, "Starting bid is $9500. Do I hear any more?"
I stand up and say, "$9,600".
Auctioneer: "Going once, twice, SOLD for $9,600!"
I was very happy until I saw that NO ONE bid against me. This was TOO EASY and coming from the auctions there is usually another person bidding for any good property. I started to feel a bit worried. After the auction I drove as fast my hot foot can get me to the property site. To my horror and laughter I saw this:
Learning Lesson from theSheriff Sale!
A VACANT LOT!
What happened is we notated the wrong property on this street. We were going for a house that was several door steps away (which was postponed). Suffice to say this was a $1k learning experience! Life can be a hoot and I just laugh at my errors and learn from it! Cool Deal -> NEXT! *smile*
I stand up and say, "$9,600".
Auctioneer: "Going once, twice, SOLD for $9,600!"
I was very happy until I saw that NO ONE bid against me. This was TOO EASY and coming from the auctions there is usually another person bidding for any good property. I started to feel a bit worried. After the auction I drove as fast my hot foot can get me to the property site. To my horror and laughter I saw this:
Learning Lesson from theSheriff Sale!
What happened is we notated the wrong property on this street. We were going for a house that was several door steps away (which was postponed). Suffice to say this was a $1k learning experience! Life can be a hoot and I just laugh at my errors and learn from it! Cool Deal -> NEXT! *smile*
Saturday, March 19, 2005
1st Week in the Kings County Court Offices
This week moving to find out more about having power in my financial life. After reading a post on the Rich Dad community named "PLANE GIRL", I used her template to get to know the offices and get a feeling of the people as well as the information down there. Going down there was like any municipal area - full of busy and rushed people. After some hours of searching and asking questions I was able to:
* Find the lis pendens on not only KINGS but all of New York. The papers are only available for KINGS county though so the information is rather incomplete for the other boroughs.
* ACRIS and the NYC Property Taxes are online so I can find info that way also.
* Title examiners are nice but like the muncipal workers they are busy.
* Most city employees favorite word is "No!". I asked one if "Do you always say 'No'?" and they said "Yes". *smile*
* The employees are the key holders. Some keyholders are nicer than others.
* It is about creating relationships. Having sweets is a great way to make new friends. Met another investor that I can list my houses with now.
Overall it is a productive week for me as I am learning and creating more power in my life. I am still working on the County Clerk's office and learning. Next step is to find how to get a list of the Judgements of Foreclosure and Sales in the system.
* Find the lis pendens on not only KINGS but all of New York. The papers are only available for KINGS county though so the information is rather incomplete for the other boroughs.
* ACRIS and the NYC Property Taxes are online so I can find info that way also.
* Title examiners are nice but like the muncipal workers they are busy.
* Most city employees favorite word is "No!". I asked one if "Do you always say 'No'?" and they said "Yes". *smile*
* The employees are the key holders. Some keyholders are nicer than others.
* It is about creating relationships. Having sweets is a great way to make new friends. Met another investor that I can list my houses with now.
Overall it is a productive week for me as I am learning and creating more power in my life. I am still working on the County Clerk's office and learning. Next step is to find how to get a list of the Judgements of Foreclosure and Sales in the system.
Friday, March 11, 2005
The Art of Writing Goals are Useless, unless.... by Les Gee
This was bumped up from the RichDad forums. Good read!
(warning long post)
(*) this denotes one of my more important post
I felt that I studied the art of success with the numerous audiotapes and books and seminars, which I won't bore the reader with, but total over 100 titles. What I am about to write was only discovered after taking a 100 hours of a 200 hour experiential seminar designed with one purpose in mind. To learn about me. What makes me tick? What drives me?
For example, a simple first day first hour process would be to look at a fellow student in the class without any talking for 1 minute. Then for the next 30 minutes the class would share their thoughts. This was quite interesting what people think and how one feels about themselves.
During the middle of the seminar (it gets harder), my individual task was to break bread with a total stranger that was extremely difficult for me to ask. First I ask a homeless man, who turned me down. Then I ask a beautiful lady and she turned me down. Well with the time limit running out, I ended up talking with an elderly father and we had a good chat. Unfortunately, it was not a stretch to do that. But, we learned you can pick up a conversations with anyone in a foreign land and have a good time.
If you are interested in this sort of seminar, the one I took went bankrupt even thought it cost about $2000. I believe lifesprings or EST is the same sort of seminar and they are national. In Salt Lake City Utah, it is called mindsprings? I would say that seminar was tied for the best seminar, I’ve ever taken. The other seminar is iahp.org on child brain development a completely different subject. I have taken a bunch of seminars from “how to flirt” to “how to protect your assets.”
Well back to our story of goals.
===
Many books are written on goals. They are vital to a successful person, yet I learned goals are generally useless to the masses. Unfortunately most people write goals miss the point because they don’t understand how to make a good goal. Yeah, yeah, it must be concrete, it must be in writing, yadda yadda yadda. If you don’t do that, which is in almost all the financial books, your goals are doomed to fail. You don’t write I’m going to be a billionaire in 1 month and you only have $5 dollars to your name. I’m assuming the reader of this post is beyond the basics.
Analogy: Take a look at how many books are written on dieting. How many people can actually lose 50 pounds and keep it off? But if I wrote a goal to lose 1 pound a week and in 50 weeks I'll be 50 pounds lighter wouldn't that work? Isn't that an attainable goal? Only 1 pound a week! If I look at that day and night, won't it work? Well as a statistician that I am, I would say your probability of losing 50 pounds definitely increased versus someone who did not write it down and look at that written goal daily.
I can even make a case for all those that did write it down and those that didn’t and say incorrectly see this is all you have to do, to lose 50 pounds. But if I were a betting man, I’d vote against you achieving this goal if that were all you did. So the next question would be how could I lose 50 pounds in a year, if this is my ultimate goal? What must I do?
Precious formula which I finally discovered after hundreds of hours in seminars and books:
PURPOSE => VISION => GOALS align them all and goals are easy as 1,2,3.
It is like a pyramid. At the bottom is the most important, purpose statement. Next comes vision and at the top goals.
VISION: is closing you eyes. How do you see yourself one yr. from now? If you still see yourself overweight, then your subconscious mind is working against you. You are not aligned and you goal of losing weight is doomed to fail. Vision is more important than goals. If however you see yourself a thin person then you have a chance. It is funny that most people spend their time on goals, yet more time should be spent on your vision. In the seminar we practice closing our eyes and seeing what we would like. How did it feel to us? What were we doing? What is the setting in our quiet place. For me it is myself in my office overlooking the town lights below.
I really fun thing we did was the instructor, showed us the folly of goals. Okay your goal is to get across the room, but you can not get across like anyone prior. Yeah, you can sit and think about all the ways and boy is that a trivial pursuit. The whole purpose of this lesson. We just did it. One would walk, then hop, then crawl, then skip, then cartwheel, and 30 minutes later we were still going across, in twos, with chairs, would it never end. Goals are simple and little time should the reader spend on it. We need more things to do.
PURPOSE: Ah, the most important element in the whole thing. So you see yourself thin and you have a goal to lose 50 pounds, but may I ask, what for? What is your purpose in life? If it has nothing to do with being thin, come on! no way are you going to do all this? Maybe your purpose it to raise your son to be a fine young man and you are an obese 60 yr. widower and have an infant child. Your doctor tells you, you have to lose some weight, and your cholesterol is seriously high. Now, you got a strong burning passion or purpose in life. Now you have an even stronger vision of a healthy you raising your child and playing with him at 10 yrs and 20 yrs old. Now you can set goals and look at them everyday with a vision and purpose. Now you got a fighting chance to lose the weight and keep it off. Give me PASSION. Align your GOALS with your VISION and PURPOSE. Purpose is the key. Find yours and vision and goals are a walk in the park.
So how does this look in terms of real estate or financial success. Why is it you want to be successful? What burning desire do you have to call 100 houses? Is it an empty goal to be rich, and for what? So you can say to your friends look at me? Come on get a life! Work on your purpose, pray about it, think about it, spend more than 50% of your time discovering it. Once you have it you have the war won. If it helps to see yourself before the creator, talking about your life then so be it. If it’s the lifeboat exercise, were we had to explain to our fellow students why we should be allowed to live with only 1 seat remaining in our sinking titanic, then use it. By the way in that exercise, we were allowed 2 minute to talk. Note that no one had any convincing reason to live. Quite interesting, no one had any passion or direction. You mean to say not one of us, can talk for two minute on why we should be allowed to live with any passion. Oh, and this was not a fun experience as they had us stand there with dead time until the time was up. A shocking example of lack of passion and direction in ones life.
Now that you have a burning, driving passion in life, now that you can see, taste, touch, and feel the darn thing, work on your VISION. It should be easy from here.
Heck, now Goals are very easy. That must be align with your vision and purpose. It’s like an afterthought and goals WILL BE done next time this year. It’s truly is easy and startling to see those new years resolutions getting done because you have a purpose which drives you and a vision of what that looks and feels like.
Hope this helps. Since the 10 yrs that I discovered this, I personally have been a more Powerful individual. Powerful in the sense of the ability to help others, having more of an impact to those that I contact. And for you die-hard, thick-headed, money-hungry, greedy readers, oh and yes, my financial net worth skyrocketed beyond what I even imagined. It was not about the money, but as one great book wrote, “You can’t but help be rich, if you help enough people get to where they want to get.” Okay, I paraphrased it to death, and of course to those pessimistic folks, what about Mother Teresa?, she’s not rich!. My reply to those folks are she is rich, in another sort of way (:
Les.
http://forum.richdad.com/forums/tm.asp?m=7663&appid=&p=&mpage=1&key=&tmode=&smode=&s=#7663
Disclaimer: These are the opinions of Les Gee and utilizing these teachings are solely at your discretion and risk.
(warning long post)
(*) this denotes one of my more important post
I felt that I studied the art of success with the numerous audiotapes and books and seminars, which I won't bore the reader with, but total over 100 titles. What I am about to write was only discovered after taking a 100 hours of a 200 hour experiential seminar designed with one purpose in mind. To learn about me. What makes me tick? What drives me?
For example, a simple first day first hour process would be to look at a fellow student in the class without any talking for 1 minute. Then for the next 30 minutes the class would share their thoughts. This was quite interesting what people think and how one feels about themselves.
During the middle of the seminar (it gets harder), my individual task was to break bread with a total stranger that was extremely difficult for me to ask. First I ask a homeless man, who turned me down. Then I ask a beautiful lady and she turned me down. Well with the time limit running out, I ended up talking with an elderly father and we had a good chat. Unfortunately, it was not a stretch to do that. But, we learned you can pick up a conversations with anyone in a foreign land and have a good time.
If you are interested in this sort of seminar, the one I took went bankrupt even thought it cost about $2000. I believe lifesprings or EST is the same sort of seminar and they are national. In Salt Lake City Utah, it is called mindsprings? I would say that seminar was tied for the best seminar, I’ve ever taken. The other seminar is iahp.org on child brain development a completely different subject. I have taken a bunch of seminars from “how to flirt” to “how to protect your assets.”
Well back to our story of goals.
===
Many books are written on goals. They are vital to a successful person, yet I learned goals are generally useless to the masses. Unfortunately most people write goals miss the point because they don’t understand how to make a good goal. Yeah, yeah, it must be concrete, it must be in writing, yadda yadda yadda. If you don’t do that, which is in almost all the financial books, your goals are doomed to fail. You don’t write I’m going to be a billionaire in 1 month and you only have $5 dollars to your name. I’m assuming the reader of this post is beyond the basics.
Analogy: Take a look at how many books are written on dieting. How many people can actually lose 50 pounds and keep it off? But if I wrote a goal to lose 1 pound a week and in 50 weeks I'll be 50 pounds lighter wouldn't that work? Isn't that an attainable goal? Only 1 pound a week! If I look at that day and night, won't it work? Well as a statistician that I am, I would say your probability of losing 50 pounds definitely increased versus someone who did not write it down and look at that written goal daily.
I can even make a case for all those that did write it down and those that didn’t and say incorrectly see this is all you have to do, to lose 50 pounds. But if I were a betting man, I’d vote against you achieving this goal if that were all you did. So the next question would be how could I lose 50 pounds in a year, if this is my ultimate goal? What must I do?
Precious formula which I finally discovered after hundreds of hours in seminars and books:
PURPOSE => VISION => GOALS align them all and goals are easy as 1,2,3.
It is like a pyramid. At the bottom is the most important, purpose statement. Next comes vision and at the top goals.
VISION: is closing you eyes. How do you see yourself one yr. from now? If you still see yourself overweight, then your subconscious mind is working against you. You are not aligned and you goal of losing weight is doomed to fail. Vision is more important than goals. If however you see yourself a thin person then you have a chance. It is funny that most people spend their time on goals, yet more time should be spent on your vision. In the seminar we practice closing our eyes and seeing what we would like. How did it feel to us? What were we doing? What is the setting in our quiet place. For me it is myself in my office overlooking the town lights below.
I really fun thing we did was the instructor, showed us the folly of goals. Okay your goal is to get across the room, but you can not get across like anyone prior. Yeah, you can sit and think about all the ways and boy is that a trivial pursuit. The whole purpose of this lesson. We just did it. One would walk, then hop, then crawl, then skip, then cartwheel, and 30 minutes later we were still going across, in twos, with chairs, would it never end. Goals are simple and little time should the reader spend on it. We need more things to do.
PURPOSE: Ah, the most important element in the whole thing. So you see yourself thin and you have a goal to lose 50 pounds, but may I ask, what for? What is your purpose in life? If it has nothing to do with being thin, come on! no way are you going to do all this? Maybe your purpose it to raise your son to be a fine young man and you are an obese 60 yr. widower and have an infant child. Your doctor tells you, you have to lose some weight, and your cholesterol is seriously high. Now, you got a strong burning passion or purpose in life. Now you have an even stronger vision of a healthy you raising your child and playing with him at 10 yrs and 20 yrs old. Now you can set goals and look at them everyday with a vision and purpose. Now you got a fighting chance to lose the weight and keep it off. Give me PASSION. Align your GOALS with your VISION and PURPOSE. Purpose is the key. Find yours and vision and goals are a walk in the park.
So how does this look in terms of real estate or financial success. Why is it you want to be successful? What burning desire do you have to call 100 houses? Is it an empty goal to be rich, and for what? So you can say to your friends look at me? Come on get a life! Work on your purpose, pray about it, think about it, spend more than 50% of your time discovering it. Once you have it you have the war won. If it helps to see yourself before the creator, talking about your life then so be it. If it’s the lifeboat exercise, were we had to explain to our fellow students why we should be allowed to live with only 1 seat remaining in our sinking titanic, then use it. By the way in that exercise, we were allowed 2 minute to talk. Note that no one had any convincing reason to live. Quite interesting, no one had any passion or direction. You mean to say not one of us, can talk for two minute on why we should be allowed to live with any passion. Oh, and this was not a fun experience as they had us stand there with dead time until the time was up. A shocking example of lack of passion and direction in ones life.
Now that you have a burning, driving passion in life, now that you can see, taste, touch, and feel the darn thing, work on your VISION. It should be easy from here.
Heck, now Goals are very easy. That must be align with your vision and purpose. It’s like an afterthought and goals WILL BE done next time this year. It’s truly is easy and startling to see those new years resolutions getting done because you have a purpose which drives you and a vision of what that looks and feels like.
Hope this helps. Since the 10 yrs that I discovered this, I personally have been a more Powerful individual. Powerful in the sense of the ability to help others, having more of an impact to those that I contact. And for you die-hard, thick-headed, money-hungry, greedy readers, oh and yes, my financial net worth skyrocketed beyond what I even imagined. It was not about the money, but as one great book wrote, “You can’t but help be rich, if you help enough people get to where they want to get.” Okay, I paraphrased it to death, and of course to those pessimistic folks, what about Mother Teresa?, she’s not rich!. My reply to those folks are she is rich, in another sort of way (:
Les.
http://forum.richdad.com/forums/tm.asp?m=7663&appid=&p=&mpage=1&key=&tmode=&smode=&s=#7663
Disclaimer: These are the opinions of Les Gee and utilizing these teachings are solely at your discretion and risk.
How I began in RE and what you can do today! by LesGee
Post by LesGee
X wrote:
-------------------------------
I am very interested in these products. Almost done with Rich Dad Poor Dad, and looking for more information on how to become aggressively involved with real estate. Also would like more info on what books or audio tapes will be beneficial in this area as well as smart investing. Will do whatever it takes to make it!!!!!!
les replies:
=======
how many times have i heard that before.
Will you pick up the telephone and call on ads on houses for sale? No, no say many beginneers, i don't know what to say? Tell me what to say? How about give me a break! Wing it until you get good at it. Nobody is going to hold your hand, no matter how many books you read.
Will you drive to a house if the seller sounds desperate and it sounds like a steal?
No, no say many beginners, I don't know anything about a house. Huh? Why not put a 14-day inspection clause in the contract, so you can hire people to look at it.
But I got no money? Yeah, yeah if you found a pot of gold at 30% discount, you can't sell it to a gold digger for 15% discount. Give me another "noise", that one is old.
Okay, I called, I looked, it's a steal, now will you sign a contract TODAY if you found a house for only $500,000 worth $700,000? No no say many newbies, I have to read more books. I never done this before. Huh? Stay with your day job.
Your mind is your greatest enemy.
=======
The post below and above is all you need to do it now. I just saved you thousand of dollars You don't need any books or seminar if you have half a brain.
Enjoy the reprint...
=========
HOW I BEGAN IN REAL ESTATE AND WHAT YOU CAN DO, by Les Gee
( someone sent me a personal email. I have delete the persons name and posted it on the board for all to learn.)
Ques: I know you are busy. I would ask for advice, but more so I am interested in where and how you acquired your knowledge...how you began to do what you do.
Answer: Long story 1990 was the year. I was driven, unlike 95% of the newbies. This is why some newbies consider me tough. Only 5% will actually do anything, and the rest are time wasters. They want to learn and learn and learn but do nothing, nothing, nothing. It is common knowledge in seminar circles that most attendees do knowing with the info. If I was charging hundreds of dollars, then my attitude would be please waste my time it’s your money.
SOMETHING IS NOT TRULY LEARNED UNLESS ACTED UPON.
When I started, my mentor had 2 other people working for him, and 3 others wanting to learn. I was the lowest on the totem pole, due to my age, shyness, and knowledge. I didn’t even know what an escrow was. 1 yr later I was the only one standing. All the rest were time wasters who long since left doing absolutely nothing. One was even a real estate broker already. I asked my mentor about that later. He said the difference was night and day between me and the others. Looking back I could see what he was talking about. Most people have too much psychological baggage. Let me ask you => DO YOU HAVE THE DRIVE?<= You need it since no one is going to kick your butt to do anything.
My personal plan was to start my own university of one teacher and one student, ME and ME!
It was a four yr plan. Heck, in college you don’t get paid for it, so money was not going to be in the plan for my university. It was all about learning and discoverying.
My Freshmen year, I read 20 hrs a week for a year, while hooking up with my mentor 2 hours roundtrip driving a day, and learned by being his personal assistant for zippo pay. He didn’t give me the time of day. Which worked out just fine as I learn to hustle for knowledge. Realize no one is going to hand you anything it must be win win.
It’s funny after 1 yr of reading, I packed up and found another mentor two states away, since I already surpassed this guys real estate knowledge long ago. This is the honest truth. One thing he had that others don’t is balls. That is much more important in this business than knowledge.
This is a big secret folks! You don’t have to be so smart as me. My first mentor was doing fine.
My mentor would buy for $50,000 all cash and sell for what he thinks would go for $70,000, while I use to sit there with my hp12c calculator and compute internal rates of return as a substitute for the real issue...sucking wind on my fears. But that was what I was taught in seminars. You have to analyze a deal. How to calculate yields, internal rates of return, etc. Now I understand why he won’t answer most of my questions, it was just noise in replace of fear. My mentor would just laugh. Later I noticed all he owned was a simple +-x/ calculator. Hmmmm, very interesting said my light bulb that first year. Here’s another saying, YOU DON’T STEAL IN SLOW MOTION.
I firmly believe Engineer types (like me) and Real estate Investors don’t mix well. It took me years to overcome my slow methodical style.
My next mentor had 100 students from around the country paying him $1000 for a phone expert on discounted mortgages. I was one of the 4 experts. Little ole me, only 1 yr in the business with 2 houses under my belt handed to me from my previous mentor. (of course I had to put up the money.) In this next gig that lasted two months at 20 hours per week on the phone constantly, I was never stumped with a GOOD answer! It was shocking to me that I knew all the CORRECT answers and by far was the best phone coach of the four, yet there were 2 real estate licensed brokers with 10+ yrs of experience. It dawned on me, I no longer needed mentors and hence moved on to better things. Been self-employed ever since.
I believe in the universal law of helping others. The end result, however, is the world will give back ten fold. However, it does not work if that is why you help. People are not stupid, they see a con if you are one. Work on your self and good things will happen.
A lot of people think you shouldn’t teach because you increase competition, blah, blah, blah. Heck, there is no competition! People can’t get past fear. Play cashflow 202 and try helping other players. It’s the same thing. People will be attracted to those with a gentle spirit, not a selfish attitude. In 11 years of doing loans, 100% of my business is from friends or referrals. I don’t have time for the general public, anyway they don’t know me from a hole in the wall.
Even now, us “rich guys” (yeah tell that to my wife, she’ll just laugh) are in need of money from time to time. It sure would help to have a team as opposed to be a solo player.
Even though both mentors didn’t teach me much personally, they did provide me with a vehicle to learn. It was because I was so driven to learn that I absorbed it like a sponge. And contrary to their lack of time with me, I think kindly and thoughtfully about both men. I really didn’t need them, besides to eliminate my fears. I paid for that cowardness as a mini-slave.
BTW (by the way) my goal for my sophomore year was 10 yrs per week reading. My junior year was whatever I wanted to read, but I graduated from my own university 2 yrs early.
Ques: Is the game (cashflow 101) something that I should invest in? Are there good books? Or
is just going out and doing a deal the best way to learn?
Answer: Cashflow is the best one item to do. Better than any one book I found for teaching financial intelligence. It helped me think about general strategies and also when watching others how pitiful and idiotic some thinking is. Hence, it warns me not to do that. I find that (95%) most players aren’t very good, so keep practicing. And practice with different tactics. One being buy all cash, buy big deals only, buy with partners, buy alone, etc…. Play at least 50 times, then go on to cashflow 202. Play by yourself or with others. But if you must read a book here are some gems.
Books wise: Richest Man in Babylon, this is my financial bible.
Think Like a Tycoon, by Bill Greene was is my favorite Real estate Book. Out of print.
How to Build a Real Estate Money machine, by Wade Cook was my first mentors recommendation.
Private Money Financing, by Carlos Royal, Out of Print.
How To buy at least 20% Below Market, by John Reed is a good basic analysis of 30 techniques. It will help give you an idea of which way to go or it may confuse you into giving you too many choices.
Nothing Down, By Robert Allen is good.
Multiple Steams of Income by Allen is also very good.
How I turned $1000 into five Million in Real Estate, by Nickerson is considered the grand father of creative real estate.
Note all books have value. Go to the library and start reading. In one year, you can read a bunch. This is like learning Spanish. The more you read the better you get at it HOWEVER,
by far the best way to learn is by
============================== MAKING PHONE CALLS =============
consistently to potential house sellers. I have seen more change over a short time with newbies that talk on the phone to live bullets then the Engineer type (me) reading or attending seminars. For my first mentor I was his personally answering services. Got to answer calls on people wanting money, people wanting to sell their house, and people looking to place money. Here are some simple ads in the paper he placed.
I buy house fast xxx-xxxx AND Bad credit give me a call xxx-xxxx
Investors wanted to earn high rates on houses xxx-xxxx
Reading helps, seminar helps, but there is no substitute for a real live game of phone calls.
If you just read, big deal, you are like the masses. If you make phone calls, now you are really learning. What if you found a seller that has a live one. You will be sweating when you hang up.
Your mind will be working. You’ll wonder seriously what to do.
This is how you do it! Are you guys listening? Is anyone home? Do I have to preface with pay me $10,000 and I will give it to you? Or can I just give it to you and hope 1% of you will help those buyers out there. Will maybe I should bracket the big secret.
=> ACTION ITEM TO DO TODAY IF YOU GOT BALLS AND REALLY WANT TO MAKE MONEY IN REAL ESTATE.
=> Every week your goal should be to call at least 10 For Sale By Owners, Or rentals trying to => buy a house profitably. Look at 2 of the 10 best. Make an offer on 1 after the first month.
If you can do that for 1 yr, you would have talked to 500 people, seen 100 homes, made 50 offers.
I ask you who would be smarter and closer to their financial dreams.
=>You today -VS- you in one year having done that? <=
Sink that in your mind, because that is what I use to think when I started and made those first calls and could be found in a suit in a downtown San Francisco skyscraper, negotiating on a multi-million dollar deals in my FIRST month. One week earlier I had to force myself to call an ad.
If you need to find a mentor, we are all cheap. Buy us lunch. The mentors that will charge an arm and an leg, forget them, they are in it for the money. Have you conscious be your guide. We all have it within us, if we will only listen.
Lastly, real estate is not that hard. You don’t need to understand everything. I surely have holes in my real estate knowledge. We all make mistakes. It thoses that have the drive that will ultimately succeed. If you find a question that stops you from moving forward, it is probably just NOISE, that overcame your lack of drive.
A real estate developer remembered the time he built his first house. He said he did everything wrong in the beginning. He had ordered all the parts and there where sitting at the site. His dad came by and said son, what do you have to do first? Oh, start the foundation and off he went.
He looked at the whole job, he would still be sitting there in a daze.
In real estate, what’s the first thing YOU have to do? Here’s one path there are many.
1) Read books for 6 months. (optional)
2) Make 10 phone calls a week (highly recommended, you are building your real estate brain muscle)
3) Look at 2 houses per week (will come on you have to look at houses)
4) Make 1 offer (hey, you could look at 1000000 houses, but no offers gives no money.)
5) Oops he accepted, now what? (inevitable if you make offers)
6) Find money. Hey guys I found a $100,000 house for $70,000 who wants it for $80,000.
7) Get it in contract
8) Close escrow
9) Collect money
10) Go back to number 2.
Les.
Ps. Share your success and failures with the group.
http://forum.richdad.com/forums/tm.asp?m=181053&appid=&p=&mpage=1&key=&tmode=&smode=&s=#181053
Disclaimer: These are the opinions of Les Gee and utilizing these teachings are solely at your discretion and risk.
X wrote:
-------------------------------
I am very interested in these products. Almost done with Rich Dad Poor Dad, and looking for more information on how to become aggressively involved with real estate. Also would like more info on what books or audio tapes will be beneficial in this area as well as smart investing. Will do whatever it takes to make it!!!!!!
les replies:
=======
how many times have i heard that before.
Will you pick up the telephone and call on ads on houses for sale? No, no say many beginneers, i don't know what to say? Tell me what to say? How about give me a break! Wing it until you get good at it. Nobody is going to hold your hand, no matter how many books you read.
Will you drive to a house if the seller sounds desperate and it sounds like a steal?
No, no say many beginners, I don't know anything about a house. Huh? Why not put a 14-day inspection clause in the contract, so you can hire people to look at it.
But I got no money? Yeah, yeah if you found a pot of gold at 30% discount, you can't sell it to a gold digger for 15% discount. Give me another "noise", that one is old.
Okay, I called, I looked, it's a steal, now will you sign a contract TODAY if you found a house for only $500,000 worth $700,000? No no say many newbies, I have to read more books. I never done this before. Huh? Stay with your day job.
Your mind is your greatest enemy.
=======
The post below and above is all you need to do it now. I just saved you thousand of dollars You don't need any books or seminar if you have half a brain.
Enjoy the reprint...
=========
HOW I BEGAN IN REAL ESTATE AND WHAT YOU CAN DO, by Les Gee
( someone sent me a personal email. I have delete the persons name and posted it on the board for all to learn.)
Ques: I know you are busy. I would ask for advice, but more so I am interested in where and how you acquired your knowledge...how you began to do what you do.
Answer: Long story 1990 was the year. I was driven, unlike 95% of the newbies. This is why some newbies consider me tough. Only 5% will actually do anything, and the rest are time wasters. They want to learn and learn and learn but do nothing, nothing, nothing. It is common knowledge in seminar circles that most attendees do knowing with the info. If I was charging hundreds of dollars, then my attitude would be please waste my time it’s your money.
SOMETHING IS NOT TRULY LEARNED UNLESS ACTED UPON.
When I started, my mentor had 2 other people working for him, and 3 others wanting to learn. I was the lowest on the totem pole, due to my age, shyness, and knowledge. I didn’t even know what an escrow was. 1 yr later I was the only one standing. All the rest were time wasters who long since left doing absolutely nothing. One was even a real estate broker already. I asked my mentor about that later. He said the difference was night and day between me and the others. Looking back I could see what he was talking about. Most people have too much psychological baggage. Let me ask you => DO YOU HAVE THE DRIVE?<= You need it since no one is going to kick your butt to do anything.
My personal plan was to start my own university of one teacher and one student, ME and ME!
It was a four yr plan. Heck, in college you don’t get paid for it, so money was not going to be in the plan for my university. It was all about learning and discoverying.
My Freshmen year, I read 20 hrs a week for a year, while hooking up with my mentor 2 hours roundtrip driving a day, and learned by being his personal assistant for zippo pay. He didn’t give me the time of day. Which worked out just fine as I learn to hustle for knowledge. Realize no one is going to hand you anything it must be win win.
It’s funny after 1 yr of reading, I packed up and found another mentor two states away, since I already surpassed this guys real estate knowledge long ago. This is the honest truth. One thing he had that others don’t is balls. That is much more important in this business than knowledge.
This is a big secret folks! You don’t have to be so smart as me. My first mentor was doing fine.
My mentor would buy for $50,000 all cash and sell for what he thinks would go for $70,000, while I use to sit there with my hp12c calculator and compute internal rates of return as a substitute for the real issue...sucking wind on my fears. But that was what I was taught in seminars. You have to analyze a deal. How to calculate yields, internal rates of return, etc. Now I understand why he won’t answer most of my questions, it was just noise in replace of fear. My mentor would just laugh. Later I noticed all he owned was a simple +-x/ calculator. Hmmmm, very interesting said my light bulb that first year. Here’s another saying, YOU DON’T STEAL IN SLOW MOTION.
I firmly believe Engineer types (like me) and Real estate Investors don’t mix well. It took me years to overcome my slow methodical style.
My next mentor had 100 students from around the country paying him $1000 for a phone expert on discounted mortgages. I was one of the 4 experts. Little ole me, only 1 yr in the business with 2 houses under my belt handed to me from my previous mentor. (of course I had to put up the money.) In this next gig that lasted two months at 20 hours per week on the phone constantly, I was never stumped with a GOOD answer! It was shocking to me that I knew all the CORRECT answers and by far was the best phone coach of the four, yet there were 2 real estate licensed brokers with 10+ yrs of experience. It dawned on me, I no longer needed mentors and hence moved on to better things. Been self-employed ever since.
I believe in the universal law of helping others. The end result, however, is the world will give back ten fold. However, it does not work if that is why you help. People are not stupid, they see a con if you are one. Work on your self and good things will happen.
A lot of people think you shouldn’t teach because you increase competition, blah, blah, blah. Heck, there is no competition! People can’t get past fear. Play cashflow 202 and try helping other players. It’s the same thing. People will be attracted to those with a gentle spirit, not a selfish attitude. In 11 years of doing loans, 100% of my business is from friends or referrals. I don’t have time for the general public, anyway they don’t know me from a hole in the wall.
Even now, us “rich guys” (yeah tell that to my wife, she’ll just laugh) are in need of money from time to time. It sure would help to have a team as opposed to be a solo player.
Even though both mentors didn’t teach me much personally, they did provide me with a vehicle to learn. It was because I was so driven to learn that I absorbed it like a sponge. And contrary to their lack of time with me, I think kindly and thoughtfully about both men. I really didn’t need them, besides to eliminate my fears. I paid for that cowardness as a mini-slave.
BTW (by the way) my goal for my sophomore year was 10 yrs per week reading. My junior year was whatever I wanted to read, but I graduated from my own university 2 yrs early.
Ques: Is the game (cashflow 101) something that I should invest in? Are there good books? Or
is just going out and doing a deal the best way to learn?
Answer: Cashflow is the best one item to do. Better than any one book I found for teaching financial intelligence. It helped me think about general strategies and also when watching others how pitiful and idiotic some thinking is. Hence, it warns me not to do that. I find that (95%) most players aren’t very good, so keep practicing. And practice with different tactics. One being buy all cash, buy big deals only, buy with partners, buy alone, etc…. Play at least 50 times, then go on to cashflow 202. Play by yourself or with others. But if you must read a book here are some gems.
Books wise: Richest Man in Babylon, this is my financial bible.
Think Like a Tycoon, by Bill Greene was is my favorite Real estate Book. Out of print.
How to Build a Real Estate Money machine, by Wade Cook was my first mentors recommendation.
Private Money Financing, by Carlos Royal, Out of Print.
How To buy at least 20% Below Market, by John Reed is a good basic analysis of 30 techniques. It will help give you an idea of which way to go or it may confuse you into giving you too many choices.
Nothing Down, By Robert Allen is good.
Multiple Steams of Income by Allen is also very good.
How I turned $1000 into five Million in Real Estate, by Nickerson is considered the grand father of creative real estate.
Note all books have value. Go to the library and start reading. In one year, you can read a bunch. This is like learning Spanish. The more you read the better you get at it HOWEVER,
by far the best way to learn is by
============================== MAKING PHONE CALLS =============
consistently to potential house sellers. I have seen more change over a short time with newbies that talk on the phone to live bullets then the Engineer type (me) reading or attending seminars. For my first mentor I was his personally answering services. Got to answer calls on people wanting money, people wanting to sell their house, and people looking to place money. Here are some simple ads in the paper he placed.
I buy house fast xxx-xxxx AND Bad credit give me a call xxx-xxxx
Investors wanted to earn high rates on houses xxx-xxxx
Reading helps, seminar helps, but there is no substitute for a real live game of phone calls.
If you just read, big deal, you are like the masses. If you make phone calls, now you are really learning. What if you found a seller that has a live one. You will be sweating when you hang up.
Your mind will be working. You’ll wonder seriously what to do.
This is how you do it! Are you guys listening? Is anyone home? Do I have to preface with pay me $10,000 and I will give it to you? Or can I just give it to you and hope 1% of you will help those buyers out there. Will maybe I should bracket the big secret.
=> ACTION ITEM TO DO TODAY IF YOU GOT BALLS AND REALLY WANT TO MAKE MONEY IN REAL ESTATE.
=> Every week your goal should be to call at least 10 For Sale By Owners, Or rentals trying to => buy a house profitably. Look at 2 of the 10 best. Make an offer on 1 after the first month.
If you can do that for 1 yr, you would have talked to 500 people, seen 100 homes, made 50 offers.
I ask you who would be smarter and closer to their financial dreams.
=>You today -VS- you in one year having done that? <=
Sink that in your mind, because that is what I use to think when I started and made those first calls and could be found in a suit in a downtown San Francisco skyscraper, negotiating on a multi-million dollar deals in my FIRST month. One week earlier I had to force myself to call an ad.
If you need to find a mentor, we are all cheap. Buy us lunch. The mentors that will charge an arm and an leg, forget them, they are in it for the money. Have you conscious be your guide. We all have it within us, if we will only listen.
Lastly, real estate is not that hard. You don’t need to understand everything. I surely have holes in my real estate knowledge. We all make mistakes. It thoses that have the drive that will ultimately succeed. If you find a question that stops you from moving forward, it is probably just NOISE, that overcame your lack of drive.
A real estate developer remembered the time he built his first house. He said he did everything wrong in the beginning. He had ordered all the parts and there where sitting at the site. His dad came by and said son, what do you have to do first? Oh, start the foundation and off he went.
He looked at the whole job, he would still be sitting there in a daze.
In real estate, what’s the first thing YOU have to do? Here’s one path there are many.
1) Read books for 6 months. (optional)
2) Make 10 phone calls a week (highly recommended, you are building your real estate brain muscle)
3) Look at 2 houses per week (will come on you have to look at houses)
4) Make 1 offer (hey, you could look at 1000000 houses, but no offers gives no money.)
5) Oops he accepted, now what? (inevitable if you make offers)
6) Find money. Hey guys I found a $100,000 house for $70,000 who wants it for $80,000.
7) Get it in contract
8) Close escrow
9) Collect money
10) Go back to number 2.
Les.
Ps. Share your success and failures with the group.
http://forum.richdad.com/forums/tm.asp?m=181053&appid=&p=&mpage=1&key=&tmode=&smode=&s=#181053
Disclaimer: These are the opinions of Les Gee and utilizing these teachings are solely at your discretion and risk.
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