Tuesday, October 12, 2010
Talk is cheap....
I first mentioned real estate investing to my dad in the summer of 2007. We had talked about it before, but had never really gotten any further than just a passing conversation. One day I said, "Dad I would really like to start investing in real estate." He replied, " Then start investing in real estate! Don't just say it, get out and do it!" He went on to tell me that many people talk about things they would like to do but very few of them actually make an effort to change. He told me not to be one of those people. That conversation started a fire in me! I started reading books and listening to CDs on real estate investing. I started looking online at houses for sale. I started driving through neighborhoods looking at for sale signs. I looked in the newspaper and anywhere else that might have property for sale. I couldn't get enough of the books and CDs. I didnt even like reading! To be honest, I hated reading! But each book I read made me hungrier for more information. I had finally found something that I was passionate about.
Let me make something clear...any kind of change is not easy. If it is worth doing then there will be challenges along the way. Anyone who has ever accomplished anything has encountered adversity. I heard someone say adversity lies at the heart of every success. Here's a few things about adversity that I found in John Maxwell's book Failing Forward:
1. Adversity creates resilience
2. Adversity develops maturity
3. Adversity pushes the envelope of accepted performance
4. Adversity provides greater opportunities
5. Adversity prompts innovation
6. Adversity brings unexpected benefits
7. Adversity creates motivation
The bible also has something to say about adversity in Ecclesiastes 7:14:
In the day of prosperity be joyful, but in the day of adversity consider: surely God has appointed the one as well as the other.
Most of us think of adversity as something negative. But adversity is actually a good thing. It helps mold us into something different. Something better. Hopefully this gives you something to chew on. I know it did for me. Next I'll get into our first couple real estate deals and some of the lessons we've learned so far. Experience can be a tough teacher!
Let me make something clear...any kind of change is not easy. If it is worth doing then there will be challenges along the way. Anyone who has ever accomplished anything has encountered adversity. I heard someone say adversity lies at the heart of every success. Here's a few things about adversity that I found in John Maxwell's book Failing Forward:
1. Adversity creates resilience
2. Adversity develops maturity
3. Adversity pushes the envelope of accepted performance
4. Adversity provides greater opportunities
5. Adversity prompts innovation
6. Adversity brings unexpected benefits
7. Adversity creates motivation
The bible also has something to say about adversity in Ecclesiastes 7:14:
In the day of prosperity be joyful, but in the day of adversity consider: surely God has appointed the one as well as the other.
Most of us think of adversity as something negative. But adversity is actually a good thing. It helps mold us into something different. Something better. Hopefully this gives you something to chew on. I know it did for me. Next I'll get into our first couple real estate deals and some of the lessons we've learned so far. Experience can be a tough teacher!
Tuesday, October 5, 2010
The Right Education
In life there seems to be a natural order of things. For example; you crawl before you walk, eat lunch before dinner, and attend middle school before high school, etc. After I graduated high school the next step was college, and after college came grad school. To be honest I went to grad school simply because I wanted to provide a more secure future for my family. I wanted us to be able to go on vacations, spend more time together, and not have to stress about money. It was not because I loved the profession. I was looking for financial freedom and I assumed that the way to financial freedom was through more education. Some things are not as they seem.
I graduated from Logan Chiropractic with a Doctorate Degree, and landed a steady job out of school. I was not making a ton of money but it was a decent salary. We had no kids, no car payment, and my student loans were deffered for the next two years. We bought a modest home, and the only monthly payments we had were our utilities and mortgage. Things were looking good on the outside but on the inside I knew something was missing. I could not understand how after all of the schooling I went through, and all of the hard work, that we were still living paycheck to paycheck. It seemed like we were always short on money by the end of the month. It was the most frustrating time of my life. I thought to myself, how are we ever gonna get ahead like this? We had officially joined the rat race. This was not the life that I had envisioned for my family. Things were not adding up like I thought they would. That's when someone gave me the book "Rich Dad Poor Dad." Reading it changed my life completely. For the first time I realized that more education is not always the answer, it's the right kind of education that makes all the difference. My eyes were opened to the world of real estate...and our life would never be the same.
I graduated from Logan Chiropractic with a Doctorate Degree, and landed a steady job out of school. I was not making a ton of money but it was a decent salary. We had no kids, no car payment, and my student loans were deffered for the next two years. We bought a modest home, and the only monthly payments we had were our utilities and mortgage. Things were looking good on the outside but on the inside I knew something was missing. I could not understand how after all of the schooling I went through, and all of the hard work, that we were still living paycheck to paycheck. It seemed like we were always short on money by the end of the month. It was the most frustrating time of my life. I thought to myself, how are we ever gonna get ahead like this? We had officially joined the rat race. This was not the life that I had envisioned for my family. Things were not adding up like I thought they would. That's when someone gave me the book "Rich Dad Poor Dad." Reading it changed my life completely. For the first time I realized that more education is not always the answer, it's the right kind of education that makes all the difference. My eyes were opened to the world of real estate...and our life would never be the same.
Thursday, July 1, 2010
Stepping out of the boat!
Well, here it is! My very first blog! The reason I chose the title "Unchartered Water" is because for myself this is completely out of my comfort zone. This is me stepping out of the boat and doing something I have never done before. I recently heard a man say that if you are not making mistakes then you are not challenging yourself. If you are not challenging yourself then your not growing as a person. Successful people fail more often than unsuccessful people. The reason is they are constantly trying new things, they are stepping out of the boat and going into unchartered water. Im sure I will make mistakes, typos, and many other things that will embarrass myself. Im fine with that! Most people stay in their comfort zone and do what they feel comfortable doing. They never try anything different and therefore rarely make mistakes. So hopefully through this process I will become something different, something better than before I started this blog. I hope you enjoy reading it and that somehow it adds value to you. Life is good today....
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