BiggerPockets

"The Journey is as important as the destination" Keep in mind that real estate is a process that typically does not produce immediate cause and effect outcomes like many things in life. You don't start to be successful as a realtor or an investor when you do your first deal, you start to be successful the day you start doing. Make your joy in real estate not come from the end sale, but from each successful effort toward the end goal.

There is a story of a climber who ran into another climber who was coming back from the top of a mountain. The hiker who was on his way to the top of the mountain asked " Do you know the way to the path that will lead me to the top of the mountain" the hiker who was returning from the top said "simply make every step that you take go towards the direction of the mountain top and you will get there".

If you are unhappy with the direction that your real estate or investment career is going then you need to change things. If you keep doing today what you did yesterday, then you will keep getting what you got yesterday. Take the time to sit down and find out what habits, beliefs, and actions got you to where you are, then change them to the habits, beliefs, and actions of a person who is where you want to be.

Be a super model. If you want to be a successful agent or investor do what other successful agents or investors do. If you want to fail in the real estate business then do what the failures do. Many times the time commitments between the two are exactly the same, what it really comes down to is what you decide to do with your time. When I was just selling real estate, I was making $100,000+ without working more than 15 hours a week. The amazing part to me is that all the agents in the office who "worked" were many times making 1/4 of what I was, yet they were working up to 50 hrs a week. They had essentially become experts at looking and feeling busy rather than experts at making money in real estate.

"Fake it till you make it" When you are talking to potential investors be sure you come off with confidence. People want to deal with successful people, but they don't know the difference between someone who is successful or someone who acts successful. Imagine in your mind how you will feel when you have done 10-20 deals, how will you talk to people, how will you carry yourself (posture, facial expressions, tonality of voice). Once you can vividly picture in your mind how you will act when you many deals under your belt, then all you need to do is duplicate that picture in your mind.

These are all I have time for, I will shoot to add more later. Im sure the big dogs on the boards can fill in the blanks

Eric,
You have hit the nail on the head. I read that three times and I think I'll print it and read it some more! Amen.

I agree wholehardedly with your post. The whole concept of networking is key and coming across as a confident and able investor is part of the package we bring to the table. Would you really lend money to a nervous underconfident person? Of course not.

Confidence is probably one of the top 5 traits of all successful real estate investors. The sellers you are working with want to feel like they are working with someone who has done 1,000 deals, so you certainly must " fake it until you make it."

No one likes to work with someone who isn't confident in what they do.

esnuts,
Thanks for taking the time to compile what many of us may know or have read. It is important to bring it to the forefront of the mind. Your points certainly need reinforcement no matter how sucessful a person becomes.

By the was what does your user name mean???

Great post!

Another thing that contributes to future success are the people around you. You become, more often than not, like the people you hang around with the most. Being surrounded by successful people, you will have no choice but to be successful.

Erik G.

effing excellent post!!

That is what I love about Real Estate.... so much of its general rules apply to life in general. Becoming an REI has helped me in so many different aspects of my life than I ever imagined. Just to mention a few it has helped me enormously with

-Getting out of my comfort zone
-money management
-organization
-motivation

.... I could seriously go on and on.. but this is the only job i have ever had that has made me a better person. Almost everything REI requires.. it requires you first to get your life in order. I owe so much to it.

The whole concept of networking is key and coming across as a confident and able investor is part of the package we bring to the table.

Wonderful post!! Thank you for this! I could not agree more.

Thanks for a terrific post! I am pretty new to this game, and today as I was talking on the phone I felt like such a lying hypocrite by acting all confident, pretending this wasn't just my fourth house. I guess I shouldn't worry so much about faking it.