5 Tips to Fireproof Yourself!

It’s not popular to admit, but a forest fire is nature’s method of clearing overpopulated areas. Being in real estate for decades has provided us a good vantage point to know that an economic fire is coming. We don’t know when or how or in what area the conflagration will spark, but we know that we are overdue. If we’ve learned anything, it’s that the downturn will be surprising to most, devastating to many and refreshing to a few.

We want everyone to succeed and we hope to provide the support to help make that a reality. We know, however, that not everyone truly wants to succeed. That’s as honest as a forest fire. We’re not psychologists, so we won’t discuss why people make excuses, experience fear and doubt, or surround themselves with negativity. We just know that we all do it.

Whenever we see these things in others (and ourselves) it looks to us as though that person is surrounding themselves with tinder for the flame, dousing themselves in gasoline and lighting matches. It’s one of nature’s mysteries. The only certainty we have is that all human beings behave like this. We all have behaviors that hinder our ability to achieve what we desire. We want to lose weight, and yet we spend all of our time with unhealthy friends; we want to invest in real estate, yet we make a myth of our past failures and ignore the possibility of being the hero of our future.

When the coming firestorm explodes through America’s economy—just as it did in ‘08, ‘01, ‘90, ‘81, ‘73, get the picture?—there will be plenty of investors who will blow away with the smoke. These individuals will blame the economy, but that’s not the truth. After all, we’ve been through some storms in our day. The truth is this: they did not make themselves fireproof.

TIPS TO FIREPROOF YOURSELF

TIP ONE: YOU. Stop dousing yourself in flammable material. If you have not been very successful, you need to realize that your past does not equal your future. History is full of people who failed miserably in their past and then went on to do great things. Take a deep breath and get out of your own way. Learn from your past, but don’t let it keep you from moving forward. Today is the first day of the rest of your life.

Take a look at the challenges and “failures” that Abraham Lincoln had to deal with prior to becoming the sixteenth president of the United States of America.

TIP TWO: EXCUSES. Excuses are like kindling for the fire: I’m too old, I’m too young, I don’t have enough money, I don’t have enough education, etc. FACT: when you plant the right thoughts in your mind, nature takes over and the people and circumstances needed for your success show up in your life. Just like an acorn growing into a huge tree…you don’t need to understand how it works, you just need to discover the truth that it works.

TIP THREE: NEGATIVE PEOPLE. This is like inviting a pyromaniac in your home.If you were training for an Ironman triathlon and all of the people you hung out with were fat and out of shape, you might want to start hanging around some people who are serious about their health and training. Negative people are the equivalent of fat and lazy training buddies. FACT: You can manage the amount of time you are spending with negative people. Limit your association with negative friends and family members and make a concerted effort to be around positive people. Some people may become jealous of your desire to become a real estate investor and try to hold you down. You have to be cognizant of how much time you are spending with these people and be disciplined about limiting the time if necessary.

TIP FOUR: NEGATIVE NEWS AND INFORMATION. This is like lighting matches and throwing them at random. You do not need to look very hard to find bad news. With social media and TV, we are all bombarded with negative news twenty-four hours a day. Be diligent and guard your mind. We challenge you to take a thirty-day “news cleanse.” Avoid watching any news on TV and don’t read all of the “breaking news” on the internet for thirty days. As you cleanse and purge your mind, you will be amazed how your outlook and attitude will change for the better.

Even if you think of yourself as a positive person, this cleanse will eliminate some of the garbage entering your mind and make room for positive thoughts. Don’t underestimate the importance of this one. If you can make it for thirty days, we promise you will never go back. Don’t worry: you won’t miss anything major. Other people will keep you informed if the world is coming to an end. You are weeding the garden of your mind to prepare it for some new seeds.

TIP FIVE: FEAR, INDECISION, AND DOUBT. You might as well be jumping in a fire pit with this one.

Story from my colleague Mike: While I was considering signing up for my first Ironman triathlon, I was fearful that something might go wrong on the swim portion of the race. I was not a great swimmer and my mind imagined the worst scenarios you could dream up. I was very indecisive about making the commitment and I had a lot of doubt racing through my mind that I could successfully complete the event.

Over the weeks and months prior to the race, I slowly built up my swimming distance and the fear started to be replaced with confidence. I entered several shorter races and my confidence and swimming ability grew. By the time it was Ironman race day, my mindset was bring it on! How did I go from being scared of drowning to bring it on? I took small action steps and built my confidence slowly but surely. Real estate investing and developing a million-dollar mindset works the same way. You start by educating yourself and then move toward doing your very first transaction. Slowly but surely you will become an Ironman real estate investor!

Irrational fear, doubt, and indecision are mind diseases. They need to be aggressively treated with positive thoughts and actions. If you are paralyzed by fear and thoughts are running through your mind like I might fail, I might drown financially, or What will my friends think? you need to defeat those thoughts by replacing fear with knowledge, action, and the right philosophies. Deep down your fears are begging to be squashed. Slowly squeeze them out by gaining knowledge, refining your philosophy, and taking action.

For people who have a fear of failure, for example, try this one on for size: How about choosing to adopt a philosophy and attitude that there is no such thing as failure? We believe that there are only results, and if we do not get the results we are after, we will learn from our results and do better next time. The truth about “failure” or any other event in life is this: the only meaning anything has is the meaning you give it. In other words, you can attach any meaning you want to events.

Early on in our flipping days, money was tight and we had multiple projects going on at one time. In one week we had several things stolen from three different properties. Two air-conditioning systems, one brand-new stove, and all of the electrical wiring was stripped from one of the houses. Our insurance policy had high deductibles and we did not want to file multiple claims, so we paid for everything out of our own pockets.

The following week we got a call from one of our contractors to inform us that someone had broken into one of our houses and started a huge fire in the living room. The house was a total loss. We both met at the house and then drove to the local coffee shop to discuss the situation. We could choose to believe that the real estate business is nothing but a bunch of headaches, we had invested in the wrong homes, and that everyone was out to get us. We could have decided it was time to get out of the business altogether and throw in the towel on real estate investing.

Instead, we chose to look at it this way: there are some people in life who are so lost and desperate they need to steal from others. Luckily, they stole from us and burned our home and not a residence that was occupied. We talked about steps we were going to take to better secure our homes and install more exterior lighting. We also made a decision not to install appliances until the buyer is ready to move in. We learned from our past and kept moving forward. An investor with a million-dollar mindset is not going to let anything stand in his way on the path to millions. We don’t know anyone who has achieved any real measure of success who has not overcome significant obstacles on the way to the top. Failure is like training your skin to become fire-retardant.