My dad is getting married next month. He just bought a brand new house. And that means I recently had to clean out all of my junk from my childhood home. I had a lot of junk — a basement full of items from a recent move where I stored things… and then my bedroom closet full of toys and stuffed animals. (Yes, I had stuffed animals, my mom didn’t throw anything away).
So, I decided to take an entire Saturday and clean everything out at once. I had a pickup truck full of garbage bags, I had a pile of furniture that I’m trying to sell and then I’ve got another pile I’m slowly donating to goodwill.
What I learned from this cleaning event…
Now, even though I hate cleaning, I learned something very valuable from the whole process. As I was cleaning out the basement I came across all of my real estate courses, which I haven’t looked at in years. I owned pretty much every big name guru’s course. I also came across old notes and business plans. I found my goals from 2005. I found marketing plans from 2006.
Other important things I found from the cleaning were all of the items that were my “failures.” I found old bandit signs. I found my first car signs. And I found a ton of yellow letters. My first yellow letters were so boring, I can’t believe I got any deals from them.
I also found key chains that I created and numerous business cards. I think early on I had a business card addiction, because I was always changing my company slogan and my phone number.
So what’s the million dollar lesson I learned from all this cleaning?
Well, that it’s obvious why I became a six-figure real estate investor. Success leaves clues, and I had years of clues buried in the house — charting my progress as a real estate investor who could barely write a marketing letter… to a person who can now write some of the best letters in the business.
My point is, if I were to come to your house today and ask to see your real estate “office” what would I see? Would I see signs, letters, envelopes, deals sheets, and CD’s? Or would there be no sign at all that you were a real estate investor?
Zig Ziglar said, “rich people have big libraries, poor people have big TV’s.” If you want to be rich, you know what you should be doing.
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Article Author: Jason HansonJason has written 194 articles for us.
Visit Jason's Website: http://www.PrimoCoach.com
Jason R. Hanson is the founder of National Real Estate Investor Month and the author of “How to Build a Real Estate Empire”. Jason specializes in purchasing properties “subject-to” and has purchased millions of dollars worth of property using none of his own cash or credit.
Joshua Dorkin
{ 5 comments… read them below or add one }
Funny, had the same experience several years go during the same kinda move. Some of the stuff made me wince. Some of it made me glassy-eyed. Superb post.
.-= Jeff Brown´s last blog ..Maryland Zoo partners with the B&O Railroad, Maryland Science Center, and Port Discovery for the Months of January and February. =-.
Odd timing on this post. I recently was told by better half to clean out the closet that has become my personal storage. I spent the entire going through the exact same old courses. Like you, I don’t think there is/was a course that I don’t own(I even have Armando Montelongo).
Like you, old business cards and bandit signs that made me ask how in the world did those ever work:) I can completely relate to this post.
Now, I have so many books that its going to require two additional book shelfs. I’m an avid reader and enjoy it.
Jason,
I had the opportunity to take Ron LeGrand’s Quick Turn Real Estate Course in Edmonton Alberta Canada in October of last year. (It was his first Quick Turn Real Estate course in Canada)
The Yellow letters were a completely foreign concept to Canadian real estate investors before then.
I take it that those were the yellow letters that you were referring to?
Best Regards,
Neil
.-= Neil Uttamsingh´s last blog ..Get Your Head In The Game =-.
Got a few hours? My old stuff goes back to 1970. The stuff I kept however, still works. Time for Investors to get back to basics. By the way – My Social Security checks start in April. The old Fart is still truckin-for a few more years at least.
.-= matt mathews´s last blog ..California posts nation’s largest foreclosure total in 2009 – Los Angeles Business from bizjournals: =-.
I don’t think it’s as much about the education as the mindset. You can have a shelf full of all the real estate training manuals in the world, and you can read them enough to know them by heart, but it all means nothing if you do not change your mindset to believe you can succeed.
On the other hand, if you believe you can succeed but you do not know where to start, it is a lot harder path. To really be successful in real estate it takes a combination of education and the right mindset. Some learn by the school of hard knocks… many like you benefit from the knowledge of others and make it to the top faster because you can learn from other people’s mistakes.