(photo credit: apple.com)
Steve Jobs | What could we learn about Real Estate Investing from his brilliance?
Today, sitting here with my bowl of cereal… aka breakfast of gold medalists, my intention was to begin blogging shortly about the real estate investing market,
-which can royally SUCK if you are new at it.
…and tell you why I think it is a BIG MISTAKE getting involved in it. (UNLESS) you have tons of money to lose.
Otherwise, you might fail!!!! like I did. and you need to be
Warned about what can go wrong. You know…the stuff they don’t tell ya. ;-)
If this is your first time on my site…
well…a big southern cheek grin “Hyello” from me.. Just FYI…I’m not that southern, but you deserved be treated well while you are here.
>They call me the Real Estate Spy.
To “maximize” my kung fu grip on life, my schedule involves some mindset prep work every morning.
I research people that my “million dollar mentor” (BRAD if you didn’t already know) coaches me on. By the way, that’s him up top. He’s a 7 figure income earner online and I hired him to teach me.
Back to what I was saying….
Then I study their material closely looking for the gold… Know what I mean? The golden nuggets that keep you from getting…
your ass kicked
….in the business world and help you make and keep some money in the process.
It really doesn’t matter how much you make…it’s how much you KEEP!
This morning I looked at Steve Jobs.
If Steve were sitting in your living room right now, what would he be telling you to do? What would he tell you NOT to do?
Let me talk about the 6 Secrets I uncovered, and reasons why you will PROBABLY FAIL at real estate investing
-if you don’t know them intimately.
They are some of the reasons I failed miserably when I tried to go into real estate investing:
Just a short recap in case you are just getting to know me:
-I had a good “corporate” job, making mo’ money than I had sense. I was unstoppable. ;-)
“I charged the field, fought valiantly and died swiftly.” Why? ’cause I thought I was smarter than everyone else.
-What followed?
Foreclosures, Bankruptcy….Divorce, Alimony
I lost it all, money, respect and relationships.
One thing I learned? You gotta know what you are getting yourself into.
Be prepared… (or don’t and see what happens.)
It’s an understatement to say that Steve jobs was a Revolutionary. He saw the world of personal computing in a way that no one else did. The following 6 secret sauce scoop review are his ultimate golden nuggets that can be applied to real estate investing:
–1. Breaking the sound barrier of constraints:
See the thing is…when you decide that you want to do real estate investing you may not know what you’re doing.
The beauty of that is one of the most important attributes that Steve Jobs talks about. He says that many of us walk around in a dogma. That is, we are living in constraints and laws imposed by someone else’s thinking. He encourages people to push beyond that. It’s almost like being imprisoned in a room that has paper thin walls. All we have to do is push through the walls.
Once we break free and are on the outside of our old restraint. (He said to do whatever it takes to learn this is hugely important in life.) Because once you’re on the other side of these walls then you can really expand and create and live in a way that is true to your passion and your ability.
I call this el Imperativo numero uno (aka pretty damn important crucial element).
Chuck Yeager was the first guy to ever break the sound barrier. He describes the experience as he approached the speed of sound. He said everything in the cockpit began to shake violently. It was uncertain whether his aircraft was simply just going to come apart. However, he decided to go ahead and push beyond the brutal threshold. -All of a sudden he broke it! The speed of sound had been dominated like a submissive dude, tied up with a bright red ball in his mouth, and it was smooth sailing there on out. I believe life is like that. As we push the barriers of our own existence, we find that everything becomes uncertain. Things feel they are coming unraveled. But if we hang on…breakthrough!
It is just beyond this point that we begin to live on a whole new level. So it makes you kind of wonder what your constraints are, right? What is really holding you back in life? For me it was the comfort of a corporate job. Yes, I hated it. However, it also paid the bills and made my life relatively easy. I mean, I knew what I needed to do in order to earn the bankroll. It was straightforward. It wasn’t easy, but the gues-work had been taken out of it on a lot of levels.
I did things in stride if you know what I mean. Yes, the perfect chameleon. I knew all I needed to do was keep up the smile, wear the suit and show up and contribute on all levels within the organization. But, inside… I was dying a very slow death. It was eating me alive. I hated what I did. There was really no passion involved. I just did what I had to in order to go unnoticed.
Now you might judge me. That’s ok with me. I just couldn’t do it with my whole heart any more. I felt psychologically unemployable. I knew I didn’t really care any more. That was a bad place to be.
The game felt like it only had one goal…. Make RICH people RICHER.
Meanwhile I didn’t feel like I was helping anyone really. What’s more was that I never used to care about money. But suddenly I found myself in a world where that was all that really mattered. I mean sure, we were great at hiding that fact, but it all boiled down to the bankroll, BABY!
I remember being involved in corporate lunches that felt like they sucked the life out of me. I remember standing there thinking what am I doing with my life? I mean… What kind of value am I actually bringing to humanity? It felt absolutely empty.
–2. Managers Suck
I didn’t say it. Steve did. (Let’s try not to get out undies in a crunch.) Keep reading.
Steve Jobs was clear on this. As apple grew, they realized that they needed to change the structure of their company. They began to higher managers from the outside. Steve laughingly admits that all of those managers were great at managing but didn’t DO anything. He said that it really changed the atmosphere in the corporation because everyone up to that point had been completely committed to making the products the best they could be. They were “Doers” real “hands-on” people. These new managers were too focused on managing and not passionate about results.
He later realized that he had to get rid of all of these professional managers. He said they were bozos. He said he was much better off taking somebody that was hungry and had a high level of work ethic, who did NOT want to be a manager but who was so committed to getting something done, they would stop at nothing. They would even put on the manager’s hat to get it done. Those were the people that made things happen and managed well.
This is really true to Steve Jobs form. He was a grassroots type of individual who wasn’t afraid to reach down and pull up his own bootstraps and get busy. He wanted to see this same attribute in his managers and his personnel.
One of the things that they (the Apple Team) used to do was when they were looking to hire someone; they literally spent all day interviewing them. He interviewed them. Then everybody in the corporation interviewed them and at the end they would take the candidate into a room and unveil the newest Macintosh computer.
He said if the candidate’s eyes didn’t literally pop out of their heads, they knew that even though they might have passed all of those interviews, they were the wrong person for the job.
He wanted to find other individuals that were like-minded. They wanted to find individuals that were enthusiastic about changing things.
They wanted to find people that were engaged and ready to take their game to the next level. He understood this type of synergy brings about advancement between people when they’re committed to the same goals and have the same level of energy and enthusiasm.
–3. Pure Passion is the ingredient for long-term progress:
Steve talks about passion. The reason why passion is so important is that creating a reality based on the things that you have dreamed up or created in your mind is really tough. It is especially tough to maintain. You need passion because you need to have enough sustainable enthusiasm to make it through the valleys of life on your way to growth. It’s almost like having enthusiasm in reserves.
Passion = Enthusiasm in Rerserve
That is the only way that you can have enough fuel for the journey. You have to ensure that you have properly filled tanks for the trek ahead. Without this passion and makes it almost impossible, and if you are not passionate about what you are doing, you will most likely fail.
In the speech that he gave to a graduating class of college students, Steve talks about a few things that become very relevant when it comes to passion.
One are my favorite songs that embodies Steve’s perspective is Tim McGraw’s “live like you were dying.” In the speech Steve Jobs spends a lot of time talking about living as if you were living your last day. He said when he was younger he read an inspirational quote that sound something like
Live each day like it were your last because one day it will be.
He said from then on every morning, well probably almost… he considered whether what he was doing that day would be something that he would be willing to do on his last day. He said if there were too many days in a row that went by and he answered no to this question, he was certain that he was on the wrong path and had to change something.
–4. Gravy and Greenbacks get cold aka…don’t do it for the money.
So, after spending some time researching all of this and trying to learn the most important and relevant things possible as if Steve Jobs were sitting with me right now in my office, I began to think about whether or not (if today were my last day) I would be doing what I’m doing right now.
I recognize very strongly that I would be. You see every blog post that I ever write is like a message in a bottle to my loved ones.
It is uniquely mine. It is how I see the world, and in it my hidden treasures for my children. So, if today were my last then most likely I would be sitting here writing something. Something that expresses ideas and concepts that are important to me. Ideas and concepts that are important enough to tell you.
That explains it for me. At least now I know why I’m passionate about what I do.
In this blog posts in particular I’m passionate about what I am doing because I believe that you are looking for a new way, new concepts, and a new strategy in life AND can easily make the wrong decision like I did.
I don’t want to see you go down that road, potentially making a decision or string of decisions that end up costing you everything.
One of the things that I’ve noticed as a trend in all the gurus that I’ve studied for the most part. Is that
most of them went bankrupt and lost everything they had. If I told you that the price of entry for real estate investing was the following statement, what would you think?
Well Mr. Jones be prepared because now that you’ve signed up for this real estate investing program you are going to lose everything. Hello? Mr. Jones? did you hear me? Yes, I said lose everything…possible bankruptcy, foreclosure and the guys outside taking your car on Christmas day.
When I lost everything it pushed me to a place in of defining moments that have shaped who I am today, but I don’t think it is absolutely necessary for everybody to lose everything in order to become a millionaire.
Now, if you think that I am just saying this because I want you to do the program that I suggest, I’d tell you. Sure. But even if you don’t I want you to really think through the real estate game before you double dog dare yourself to flip a house. There is simply a lot that can go wrong.
I think with the proper preparation, you can skip the part of losing it all. You don’t have to go broke to learn how to do it.
Don’t get me wrong. I am all for you succeeding in real estate. However, if you’ve not made up your mind to go into real estate I would highly recommend that you consider some alternatives.
For example what I do for living is so much lower risk than what I experienced when I was investing in real estate. I have to share this with people. It really is that simple.
You go into real estate and you leverage everything you have in order to own a few properties. Then, those properties could do well or they could not do so well. The problem is if they don’t do well like they often do in so many cases with newbies, you have no safety net.
Andrew Cordle talks about making sure that you have a safety net. Now, you might have some rich parents that are ready to catch you as you fall, But many people don’t have this as an option.
That is why I am all for owning digital assets…digital properties, lead generation sites. It’s crazy what is available to us online. I learned it all thanks to James. You can find out more about him here.
Consider a much leaner, sexier approach to making money. Get into a business where you don’t have to leverage everything you own in order to do well.
It’s like telling somebody, Hey you can make your own rocking chairs on the side and when it gets big enough, maybe you can quit your job and sell rocking chairs full time.
That is a much better strategy than leveraging everything you own because you want to be a real estate investor only to find out but you didn’t know what you didn’t know.
–5. Live through the Last Minutes Lens:
Speaking of rocking chairs have you ever heard of the rocking chair test? I think I got this one from Tony Robbins.
He said imagine that you’re sitting in a rocking chair close to the end of your life. You have your glass of lemonade and you’re on the front porch of some a toe tag home (That is the last home you will ever live in).
You are in your late 80s. You think back to this time right now and you ask yourself if I had to do it again, would I still want to do the things that I am doing or planning?
Will it matter then. In understanding the answer to that you’ll be on understand whether or not Real estate investing is for you. If at the end of your life you have decided that you’re really only in it to make money, that’s red flag number 99. I would highly advise you to consider that it is probably not the best use of your time. Or maybe just not now.
–6. Keep the Coolness Factor Soaring
What are you passionate about? This might be a time to ask yourself. The itch that you are passionate about indicates a strong suggestion to what you should be doing. Don’t should all over yourself. Keep it light. Just consider what you would find really cool to do.
Steve Jobs says clearly that he didn’t do it for the money.
- At 23 he was worth $1 million
- At 24 10 million and
- At 25 $100 million.
He said that it didn’t really matter to him. It didn’t change him. He was still the same guy. He really only cared about one thing. He wanted to do some things that were super-cool.
This reminds me of Mark Zuckerberg and the movie that was made about his development of Facebook. He stated that he wanted to maintain the coolness factor. So, he was against monetizing the company too early.
This is one of the core concepts that comes out of these two men is that whatever you do has to be pretty cool. If you’re renovating a house you need to keep the customer in mind.
Make it COOL!
The potential customer should come to the door and say wow this is really cool?
Donald Trump even says the same kind of thing. He says that whatever he does he wants to make it beautiful.
I think at the heart of this is what makes these men successful. We want to take something ordinary and make it great. I know I do. I want to leave an extraordinary mark on my world.
That is the key. The problem is that it takes money to pull this off.
–Final Thoughts
Steve jobs tells the story to the students that he was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. He states that his doctors had told him to get his affairs in order. Steve said this is doctor language for “you’re going to die!”
He said this was the closest he had ever gotten to death and he realized a lot of things very clearly at that moment.
He continued to tell the story and said that they were able to get a biopsy and were able to treat his cancer. Interestingly enough during the speech he did not know his outcome but as we know, he would eventually die of pancreatic cancer. He believed that he had beat it. The crowd applauded and he was thankful that he had had the near-death experience to give him a better perspective on life but it wasn’t “his time.”
(My thoughts go out to his family.)
A couple of years ago doctors found something on a cat scan they did on me. I remember reading a report that I might have lymphoma.
-You always speculate that you’ll think a certain way when you’re presented with this type of information. But, nothing really prepares you for the emotional experience at all.
At the time I was going through divorce and my social network was on meltdown.
It was pretty tough and I remember thinking…so this is how it all ends? Are you serious?
For a moment I had the eyes of my first grade self. 6 or 7 years old and short.
A vivid glimpse that is fresh in my mind. It was just yesterday, right?
I remember standing on the playground seeing the other kids playing as I stood there looking at the swing set that I was about to get on.
Then I snap back to now, merge the two worlds. Next thought?
What would that little boy (my young self) think if I went could/would go up to him and told him that this was it and this is how his life was going to be.
I think he would listen and disbelief.
So that’s it.
This really gets to the point and heart of what I’m shouting out here.
We don’t get a second run at this. We don’t get to come back and do it all over again as far as we know.
-We have to make the best out of whatever we’re doing right now. If you can look at yourself in the mirror and say to yourself that you are highly passionate about real estate and that’s it. It is not about making money and you know that you’re not just sipping the Kool-Aid Ale and are drunk on th idea that you’re going to be a millionaire from your investing activities, then you might want to consider what you are truly passionate about.
It might not be anything we are discussing here.
Now, you might not know what you’re passionate about. But, from that stance: you might recognize what holds you back in life.
If you were going to die tomorrow, would you be afraid to make a phone call to tell somebody that they should try your product or service?
Big Fat No! The reason is because you got nothing to lose. You’ll be dead tomorrow anyway. Suddenly all of the fear falls off your life and you can start to think about what you would do if you could do anything.
I believe that if Steve Jobs could walk into the room right now and sit down with the two of us (you and me in internet land), he might ask us what excites us and what we are enthusiastic about.
If the answer to these questions is anything other then hey, I know exactly what I want to do and it’s really cool and let me tell you why, then chances are we’re on the wrong path.
I spent most of my life being off the right path. I spent many many years not being enthusiastic or passionate about what I was doing. But as I sit here this morning journaling about my thoughts and sharing my world with you and encouraging you to follow your heart, I recognize that I am squarely and firmly on the right path for my life.
-Cheers,
