I’m not a big “Ra Ra” guy.
At some real estate seminars, I get quite irked when 30% of the material is motivation.
I have two shelves of personal development, spiritual, and motivational books (not including what I’ve given away) and when I go to hear about how to make money in real estate, that’s what I want to learn.
THAT BEING SAID, forgive me if this post is a little bit “Ra Ra”, but I was cleaning out files recently and I came across something I had written 3 years ago during the hardest period of my life, and I humbly share it with you just in case you might be struggling right now in the hopes that it may help.
In 2005 and 2006, when the onset of this crisis hit us personally, Cindy and I watched our savings and equity in our rehab projects evaporate. We had a newborn, and my best friend since 8th grade passed away. We lost two of our investments to foreclosure, and I really thought real estate was over for us. At one point we had to yell at the kids not to open the refrigerator because our power had been shut off. I had no idea what we were going to do.
Still, I did and do believe that a focused mind combined with bold action presents resources and genius that will create results that are mind blowing, even in the midst of dire situations. The hard part, I think, is to stay focused on what you want when challenging times tend to pull our focus on what we DON’T want.
(At race car driving schools, they have a mechanism that disables the vehicle and causes it to start veering. The instructor trains the driver to look forward in the direction he or she intends the vehicle to go, rather than looking at the wall, which is directly where the car would be heading!)
I had read “Think and Grow Rich” by Napolean Hill more than once, so in the early part of 2006 sometime I dug it out and I took one his famous quotes and printed it out and taped it to my wall. It said,
“Every adversity, every failure, every heartache
carries with it the seed of an equal or greater benefit.”
I had also read of a little exercise that helps keep you focused on what you want, versus what you DON’T. The exercise is simply to write down every possible benefit you can think of about a problem you have. The purpose is to help your mind loosen up a little and perhaps spark some creative solutions.
I asked myself, “What are the benefits, advantages, and opportunities in being flat broke right now?”
At first I drew a complete blank. Then, some answers came to me. Here is the exact unedited result that I banged out on my computer 3 years ago:
March 15, 2006
“What are the benefits, advantages, and opportunities in being flat broke right now?”
- It forces us to find a way to make big money now!
- It compels us to scrutinize our expenses.
- It compels us to pay attention to what we spend on.
- It makes it more exciting and meaningful when we become wealthy.
- Gives us a deeper understanding of managing money.
- Brings us closer together as a team.
- Gives us even deeper knowledge of real estate and how to make money in good markets and bad.
- we can share our experience with others who are struggling.
- we can help others one day, and even sell a book or something
- builds character.
- Teaches us humility.
- Teaches us to not be wasteful.
- Teaches us how to be better about hanging on to money when we get it.
- Stories to tell our kids and grandkids!
- Will give us confidence that we have the ability to get out of tough situations.
- Make us better people.
- Compels us to take action on a lot of different things.
I wrote this in March 2006, almost exactly 3 years ago. At that point there seemed NO WAY OUT.
We scrambled like crazy, I tried many different things including: getting my RE license to broker hard money loans for investors, internet marketing, a foreclosure processing company, a “staging” homes business so that homeowners could sell faster, and running auctions for homeowners trying to sell (we were getting pretty damn good at it trying to auction our OWN properties!).
After a lot of flailing and picking up a check here and there, but not nearly enough to support us, Cindy and I sat down and said, “Now what the heck are we going to do about this situation?”.
We went over our strengths and realized that finding deals was our greatest strength, and deals were starting to crop up. We had no money to do rehabs any more, so we put our entire focus on finding deals for other investors we knew, and I used what I learned about internet marketing to turbo charge finding buyers, and things turned around for us.
I really believe that things changed because as hard as it was, we kept asking the question of ourselves, “How can we not just survive this, but prosper in a way that is fun and offers value to others?” If you are struggling right now I ask you to just try this exercise, and keep asking the question, “How?”, NOT “Why?”. Our minds come up with just amazing answers, if the right questions are put in! I believe this with all my heart, even more now.
Now, this doesn’t mean that I believe that if you sit in a room and think very hard about you want but not take any action or give no value that the universe will ring your doorbell and the objects of your desire will be special delivered.
Write down every benefit you can think of about the challenge ahead of you, even when it feels like there are none.
Put it where you can see it and everyday ask “How can I improve my situation?” You will find your solution no matter the odds, if you keep focused on what you want, not what you don’t, do what you have to do when the answers come to you, even if it’s scary, and don’t give up. It will not happen overnight, but it will happen.
If you would like the audio to “Think and Grow Rich”, by Napolean Hill, you can download here.
http://www.farbelowmarket.com/thank-you.asp
Hang in there……and be NICE to yourself.
Kurtis
