Investor · Member since 2021 · 129 posts · 209 votes
It seems like every guru, self-help expert, or anyone trying to sell you something all have the same advice. You need to read more! Read this book about how to sell, read this book about helping your mindset, read this book about time management, read this book about financial freedom and on and on… It’s mentioned in every business podcast, every real estate group, every course or seminar, and everywhere you look to seek help. With the amount I hear it mentioned or have had someone tell me I should read this book or that book, it’s got to be the answer to success, right?
I don't think reading is near as important to success as it is made out to be. Don't get me wrong, I absolutely believe in the power of reading, (and read almost every day) it's just that I believe that it is currently being oversold, especially in the REI world. (It may be because everyone has their own book that they just wrote and want you to go buy a copy)
In my own experience there is nothing like good old-fashioned, real-world experience. What I’ve learned from actually rolling my sleeves up and working towards something holds 100x the value any book ever could. I’ve never lost sleep over reading about someone else’s mistakes, but I’ve damn sure lost sleep over my own mistakes.
Reading is important just like getting an education is important, but without getting your hands dirty you’ll never accomplish anything.
What are your thoughts? How important is reading to your success?
It seems like every guru, self-help expert, or anyone trying to sell you something all have the same advice. You need to read more! Read this book about how to sell, read this book about helping your mindset, read this book about time management, read this book about financial freedom and on and on… It’s mentioned in every business podcast, every real estate group, every course or seminar, and everywhere you look to seek help. With the amount I hear it mentioned or have had someone tell me I should read this book or that book, it’s got to be the answer to success, right?
I don't think reading is near as important to success as it is made out to be. Don't get me wrong, I absolutely believe in the power of reading, (and read almost every day) it's just that I believe that it is currently being oversold, especially in the REI world. (It may be because everyone has their own book that they just wrote and want you to go buy a copy)
In my own experience there is nothing like good old-fashioned, real-world experience. What I’ve learned from actually rolling my sleeves up and working towards something holds 100x the value any book ever could. I’ve never lost sleep over reading about someone else’s mistakes, but I’ve damn sure lost sleep over my own mistakes.
Reading is important just like getting an education is important, but without getting your hands dirty you’ll never accomplish anything.
What are your thoughts? How important is reading to your success?
99% of people read it and forget it, they never take action.
Also 90% of books say the same thing, tough it out...
There are definitely ways books can be helpful and get you on the right mindset, but for being a real estate investor, books to me are mostly useless. They are at 30,000 feet and never get close to reality. They are used as gimmicks to sell some expensive training or pretend someone is an expert. I know someone righting a book right now with less than 3 years experience in real estate. No one under the age of 40 should be writing a book on real estate investing.
It seems like every guru, self-help expert, or anyone trying to sell you something all have the same advice. You need to read more! Read this book about how to sell, read this book about helping your mindset, read this book about time management, read this book about financial freedom and on and on… It’s mentioned in every business podcast, every real estate group, every course or seminar, and everywhere you look to seek help. With the amount I hear it mentioned or have had someone tell me I should read this book or that book, it’s got to be the answer to success, right?
I don't think reading is near as important to success as it is made out to be. Don't get me wrong, I absolutely believe in the power of reading, (and read almost every day) it's just that I believe that it is currently being oversold, especially in the REI world. (It may be because everyone has their own book that they just wrote and want you to go buy a copy)
In my own experience there is nothing like good old-fashioned, real-world experience. What I’ve learned from actually rolling my sleeves up and working towards something holds 100x the value any book ever could. I’ve never lost sleep over reading about someone else’s mistakes, but I’ve damn sure lost sleep over my own mistakes.
Reading is important just like getting an education is important, but without getting your hands dirty you’ll never accomplish anything.
What are your thoughts? How important is reading to your success?
99% of people read it and forget it, they never take action.
Also 90% of books say the same thing, tough it out...
There are definitely ways books can be helpful and get you on the right mindset, but for being a real estate investor, books to me are mostly useless. They are at 30,000 feet and never get close to reality. They are used as gimmicks to sell some expensive training or pretend someone is an expert. I know someone righting a book right now with less than 3 years experience in real estate. No one under the age of 40 should be writing a book on real estate investing.
Interesting. I really do believe in reading to gain needed education and life experience (learning from others), but I also agree with you that it's not the end all. It's really just the first step. Getting out and doing it. is a must. Failing and picking yourself up, is a must. Taking chances, is a must. I've seen many, many people on this platform say to new investors "everything you need to succeed is all right here. Just listen to the podcasts, read the books and engage on the posts". Totally not true. It's a great early step, but it's certainly not all you will need. Most people want the easy road unfortunately. They are attracted to the easier routes. I have taken the road of active investor and it cost me a lot of money, several mistakes, stress... But has also produced a lot of success, which by the way keeps increasing over time. So, at some point, you'll need to put down the books and get out there and do something!
It seems like every guru, self-help expert, or anyone trying to sell you something all have the same advice. You need to read more! Read this book about how to sell, read this book about helping your mindset, read this book about time management, read this book about financial freedom and on and on… It’s mentioned in every business podcast, every real estate group, every course or seminar, and everywhere you look to seek help. With the amount I hear it mentioned or have had someone tell me I should read this book or that book, it’s got to be the answer to success, right?
I don't think reading is near as important to success as it is made out to be. Don't get me wrong, I absolutely believe in the power of reading, (and read almost every day) it's just that I believe that it is currently being oversold, especially in the REI world. (It may be because everyone has their own book that they just wrote and want you to go buy a copy)
In my own experience there is nothing like good old-fashioned, real-world experience. What I’ve learned from actually rolling my sleeves up and working towards something holds 100x the value any book ever could. I’ve never lost sleep over reading about someone else’s mistakes, but I’ve damn sure lost sleep over my own mistakes.
Reading is important just like getting an education is important, but without getting your hands dirty you’ll never accomplish anything.
What are your thoughts? How important is reading to your success?
Maybe it's what you read that's more important than just reading. Maybe if you want to gain learning from personal experience(s), you should read books on "personal experiences". When you learn from your own personal experience, your learning from just one source,...you. However, if your read books that include other REI's experiences, you are learning from many.
It's too broad of a statement to say that books are overrated. I do believe in your assessment that reading is over-promoted by gurus who are trying to sell books. But that's a separate argument.
There is so much more to consistently reading that just the lessons learned from the book itself.
Just a quick google search confirms that science based benefits of reading include:
-Boosting brainpower
-Increasing intelligence
-Makes you more empathetic
-Helps you relax
-Improves sleep
-Reduces stress
-Increases motivation
-Boosts your vocabulary
-Improves memory
You get the point. Tons of benefits to consistently reading. There's a reason why some of the most successful people in the world read everyday (Warren Buffett, Elon Musk, Mark Cuban, Bill Gates, Oprah Winfrey, etc)
Exercising is another one that is very similar. Every business guru out there is promoting to exercise often. Does going to the gym, running, or riding your bike directly correlate to doing more deals? Not really. But does exercising consistently make you a better businessman/businesswoman? In my opinion... absolutely.
I get a lot of inspiration / motivation out of reading. So there are a bunch of things I do to get pumped up to go do real estate that don't necessarily impart any knowledge:
-Read
-Listen to Grant Cardone
I actually think there's been too much emphasis not necessarily on reading but on mindset. As if, especially if you're a parent, you get your mindset right, and then risk your life savings on your first deal, and succeed because mindset. Not enough of an emphasis on being in a strong financial position.
@Corey Conklin. Agreed. Reading can sometimes be another form of procrastination like social media. Heck, even the BP forums can sometimes be just another form of procrastination. If you know what you need to be doing (analyzing deals, building rapport with property owners, submitting offers, etc.) but then decide to pick up a book, you're merely distracting yourself from what's important. It's along the same lines as the Pareto principle (80-20 rule).That being said, it entirely depends on the person's situation. If someone is just starting, reading is essential in my opinion.
Law of diminishing returns apply. Continuing to read books after grasping the basic knowledge = overrated.
Nothing new really has been discovered about real estate, FI, etc in a long long time.
Different niches and cute acronyms, but the meat and potatoes are the same.
Reading anything really is not a complete waste of time, but once you have the basics down, the 'return' on your time and effort diminishes and the opportunity cost grows.
Only so much rah rah one can handle. Take a break and take action👍
Knowledge is power! I believe books, podcasts, and continuing to educate yourself are important. I also believe who you surround yourself with is just as important, but it's all about taking action and getting out of your comfort zone. Experiencing failure and being uncomfortable is what helps you grow. So if your first deal doesn't go as expected or you don't get the ideal ROI, that's okay!
It's unfortunate how the media and online gurus glorify real estate and make it seem like a "Get rich quick" scheme, but they don't tell you the amount of time, money, and knowledge spent when working in this industry.
Law of diminishing returns apply. Continuing to read books after grasping the basic knowledge = overrated.
Reading anything really is not a complete waste of time, but once you have the basics down, the 'return' on your time and effort diminishes and the opportunity cost grows.
This is an interesting take on the law of diminishing returns. That's a great way to explain it! There are tons of books that just reiterate the same stuff so your time is better spent doing something else. Great point!
It seems like every guru, self-help expert, or anyone trying to sell you something all have the same advice. You need to read more! Read this book about how to sell, read this book about helping your mindset, read this book about time management, read this book about financial freedom and on and on… It’s mentioned in every business podcast, every real estate group, every course or seminar, and everywhere you look to seek help. With the amount I hear it mentioned or have had someone tell me I should read this book or that book, it’s got to be the answer to success, right?
I don't think reading is near as important to success as it is made out to be. Don't get me wrong, I absolutely believe in the power of reading, (and read almost every day) it's just that I believe that it is currently being oversold, especially in the REI world. (It may be because everyone has their own book that they just wrote and want you to go buy a copy)
In my own experience there is nothing like good old-fashioned, real-world experience. What I’ve learned from actually rolling my sleeves up and working towards something holds 100x the value any book ever could. I’ve never lost sleep over reading about someone else’s mistakes, but I’ve damn sure lost sleep over my own mistakes.
Reading is important just like getting an education is important, but without getting your hands dirty you’ll never accomplish anything.
What are your thoughts? How important is reading to your success?
It's about intentionality. Reading will not change your smarts, perseverance, work-ethic, stress-tolerance, or any of the other myriad of skills needed to be a successful investor at scale. But there is great value in reading. It can expand ideas, provide frameworks, provide contrasting viewpoints, inspire, and give tactical untailored advice.
It can be overdone though. I once read 50 books in 1 year. It took a lot of time, and was not the fastest way to get financial success. But my breadth and depth of understanding improved greatly for many areas of my life.
There's a balance. Be intentional. Focus on Just-In-Time learning vs. Just-In-Case learning. Maybe focus more on the latter initially (read 1-3 generalist books) and then move to Just-in-time learning to understand exactly what you need to do for your current biggest needle moving sticking point.
Reading is no substitution for action, but isn't worthless. You just need to know why you're doing it, as with most things in life.
It seems like every guru, self-help expert, or anyone trying to sell you something all have the same advice. You need to read more! Read this book about how to sell, read this book about helping your mindset, read this book about time management, read this book about financial freedom and on and on… It’s mentioned in every business podcast, every real estate group, every course or seminar, and everywhere you look to seek help. With the amount I hear it mentioned or have had someone tell me I should read this book or that book, it’s got to be the answer to success, right?
I don't think reading is near as important to success as it is made out to be. Don't get me wrong, I absolutely believe in the power of reading, (and read almost every day) it's just that I believe that it is currently being oversold, especially in the REI world. (It may be because everyone has their own book that they just wrote and want you to go buy a copy)
In my own experience there is nothing like good old-fashioned, real-world experience. What I’ve learned from actually rolling my sleeves up and working towards something holds 100x the value any book ever could. I’ve never lost sleep over reading about someone else’s mistakes, but I’ve damn sure lost sleep over my own mistakes.
Reading is important just like getting an education is important, but without getting your hands dirty you’ll never accomplish anything.
What are your thoughts? How important is reading to your success?
This is a controversial opinion indeed! I completely disagree. I had no interest in business so I went to college for Philosophy. Since graduating I realized i was at a massive disadvantage to people who had specific training in business, Real Estate, operations, logistics or whatever...
Being an avid reader has been a competitive advantage for me. Although I have no formal business training I am "sort of" trained in reading complex texts, analyzing, and producing key points to take forward.
The greatest ability is not a specific skill set, its the ability to develop a specific skill set quickly. I will take the ability to learn quickly over just about anything. Although reading is not the end all be all, and you do not read a book and become an expert contractor, you can read a book and get a base level understanding of almost any issue. Jumping in and doing anything before having some kind of base level understanding is going to slow your progress not speed it up.
The combination of reading, doing, reading more, doing again, more reading is a winning formula. Like I said I have no formal training so people that spent 4 years in school may disagree. I have approached every industry I am interested in with the same formula of reading, doing, and more reading.
I continue reading books on strategy, leadership, psychology, philosophy, history, and business to this day.
Some people may be highly educated and have a head start, but I will take the book worm and life long learner all day if you are playing the long game. Reading is the proven best medium for learning. I don't believe its really even that close with any other medium.
It seems like every guru, self-help expert, or anyone trying to sell you something all have the same advice. You need to read more! Read this book about how to sell, read this book about helping your mindset, read this book about time management, read this book about financial freedom and on and on… It’s mentioned in every business podcast, every real estate group, every course or seminar, and everywhere you look to seek help. With the amount I hear it mentioned or have had someone tell me I should read this book or that book, it’s got to be the answer to success, right?
I don't think reading is near as important to success as it is made out to be. Don't get me wrong, I absolutely believe in the power of reading, (and read almost every day) it's just that I believe that it is currently being oversold, especially in the REI world. (It may be because everyone has their own book that they just wrote and want you to go buy a copy)
In my own experience there is nothing like good old-fashioned, real-world experience. What I’ve learned from actually rolling my sleeves up and working towards something holds 100x the value any book ever could. I’ve never lost sleep over reading about someone else’s mistakes, but I’ve damn sure lost sleep over my own mistakes.
Reading is important just like getting an education is important, but without getting your hands dirty you’ll never accomplish anything.
What are your thoughts? How important is reading to your success?
what everyone should do is pick zip code, check its price and its DOM and buy the lowest price house done. Repeat 99 times. Don't even budget for rehab because that would be the fun part :)
Reading ? I only read twitter and macro economic these days, I read 99% statistic and chart only.
It seems like every guru, self-help expert, or anyone trying to sell you something all have the same advice. You need to read more! Read this book about how to sell, read this book about helping your mindset, read this book about time management, read this book about financial freedom and on and on… It’s mentioned in every business podcast, every real estate group, every course or seminar, and everywhere you look to seek help. With the amount I hear it mentioned or have had someone tell me I should read this book or that book, it’s got to be the answer to success, right?
I don't think reading is near as important to success as it is made out to be. Don't get me wrong, I absolutely believe in the power of reading, (and read almost every day) it's just that I believe that it is currently being oversold, especially in the REI world. (It may be because everyone has their own book that they just wrote and want you to go buy a copy)
In my own experience there is nothing like good old-fashioned, real-world experience. What I’ve learned from actually rolling my sleeves up and working towards something holds 100x the value any book ever could. I’ve never lost sleep over reading about someone else’s mistakes, but I’ve damn sure lost sleep over my own mistakes.
Reading is important just like getting an education is important, but without getting your hands dirty you’ll never accomplish anything.
What are your thoughts? How important is reading to your success?
99% of people read it and forget it, they never take action.
Also 90% of books say the same thing, tough it out...
There are definitely ways books can be helpful and get you on the right mindset, but for being a real estate investor, books to me are mostly useless. They are at 30,000 feet and never get close to reality. They are used as gimmicks to sell some expensive training or pretend someone is an expert. I know someone righting a book right now with less than 3 years experience in real estate. No one under the age of 40 should be writing a book on real estate investing.
Also too many books are only talking about the good part of doing business or investment, they don't discuss a lot about the risk or how to manage the risk.
If there're 2000 pages book that read why we should not invest at real estate, at public equity , on mortgage fund , not to do BRRRR ; I would be the one that purchase the book.
There have been a few books that helped me get over the internal struggle lacking confidence to pursue REI early on that I look back on were motivational and anecdotal more than tactical which was exactly what I needed at the time being so foreign to the idea of investing.
Personally, reading has been vital from a motivational and strategy building view early on and now having a few years of experience my reading has shifted, but I still look to educate myself on the unknown that I lack real world experience in. There is massive value educating yourself before getting your hands dirty and I will always take that approach whether it be a small project around the house or a large idea like a new acquisition!
It seems like every guru, self-help expert, or anyone trying to sell you something all have the same advice. You need to read more! Read this book about how to sell, read this book about helping your mindset, read this book about time management, read this book about financial freedom and on and on… It’s mentioned in every business podcast, every real estate group, every course or seminar, and everywhere you look to seek help. With the amount I hear it mentioned or have had someone tell me I should read this book or that book, it’s got to be the answer to success, right?
I don't think reading is near as important to success as it is made out to be. Don't get me wrong, I absolutely believe in the power of reading, (and read almost every day) it's just that I believe that it is currently being oversold, especially in the REI world. (It may be because everyone has their own book that they just wrote and want you to go buy a copy)
In my own experience there is nothing like good old-fashioned, real-world experience. What I’ve learned from actually rolling my sleeves up and working towards something holds 100x the value any book ever could. I’ve never lost sleep over reading about someone else’s mistakes, but I’ve damn sure lost sleep over my own mistakes.
Reading is important just like getting an education is important, but without getting your hands dirty you’ll never accomplish anything.
What are your thoughts? How important is reading to your success?
99% of people read it and forget it, they never take action.
Also 90% of books say the same thing, tough it out...
There are definitely ways books can be helpful and get you on the right mindset, but for being a real estate investor, books to me are mostly useless. They are at 30,000 feet and never get close to reality. They are used as gimmicks to sell some expensive training or pretend someone is an expert. I know someone righting a book right now with less than 3 years experience in real estate. No one under the age of 40 should be writing a book on real estate investing.
Also too many books are only talking about the good part of doing business or investment, they don't discuss a lot about the risk or how to manage the risk.
If there're 2000 pages book that read why we should not invest at real estate, at public equity , on mortgage fund , not to do BRRRR ; I would be the one that purchase the book.
HAHAHA. I was on a day long seminar and my topic was "how to lose money in mortgage note investing" - I was told I had the most viewers out of anyone as every other speaker was selling something or telling you how to make millions.
