So, like everyone - or maybe not everyone- I’ve been reading books and making a concerted effort to learn. I just put down the book BiggerPockets - The Ultimate Guide to Real Estate Investing to write this post because I read something in it that got me thinking. Chapter 2 listed the six steps to help you overcome fear and number 3 was “Start Participating.” This one struck a chord with me. It got me thinking about my participation level on the forums (lurker) compared to other more active newbies (posters). It got me thinking about why that was and the impact that non-participation could have on my investing future.

I realized several key things:

FEAR is often cited as the reason for inaction in investing

In my case I call it ego – which I suppose, the bruising of my ego, is a form of fear. Last night, I found myself on BiggerPockets reading old posts by then newbies and began looking at the users history to see when their last post was. In countless cases it starts like this – “Hi! I’m a new investor, I’m looking to get into real estate… blah blah blah.” Then I’d scroll down to the bottom to see that the user is no longer active and hasn’t been for months.
I don’t want to be like that – I don’t want to look foolish – I don’t want to come across as a newbie and consequently, I lurk and in the background and never develop relationships. I guess I am afraid! I want to be better than that!
So, irrespective of what happens between now and the end of time – I’m participating as The Ultimate Guide to Real Estate Investing has taught me to do and I’m letting go of that fear by admitting it out loud.

The big driver of success for me is EXPOSURE to others

Most of the challenges that I’ve faced – failure to follow through – lack of stick-to-it-ivness, surrounds lack of exposure to new experiences and trying to figure out how to do it on my own. My educational success, success as a professional skydiver (hit me up), professional successes, travel successes, all came from someone else in my life helping me believe in myself. I’ve learned that of the successes that I’ve had in my life there was always someone else behind them – (usually a great woman but not always). Sure, I had to take action but I didn’t do it alone.
The importance of this is that without opening up with everyone, by allowing my ego to control me – by lurking on these forums but not participating – I’ll never gain the exposure necessary to become a successful real estate investor and then investing will only fall into my list of things that I didn’t follow through with. I’m not ok with that! So, I’m reaching out to people, irrespective of my “newbie” status.

Accountability

By introducing myself to people on here, I am in essence, holding myself and my ego accountable. If I don’t reach out to individuals on BiggerPockets and network then I can simply slip away into nothingness and leave no lasting impact. I choose to be the high-performer – be recognized as a success and I’m holding myself accountable by my own involvement in BiggerPockets.

So here’s my commitment to myself and all other newbies out there – I’m going to continue to be active with BiggerPockets. I am also going to host a meetup in my community and I’ll have closed on at least one deal by 12/31/2016 (see... my investing goals are actually far greater but for fear of looking foolish, I downplayed them – stupid ego).

In 6 months from now, If anyone happens to read this post– check in with me – scroll down to the bottom of the page and see that I am still active and recently logged on. Shoot me a message and say hi – share your new investing dreams and successes and I’ll share mine. I will use this as an accountability check for myself and you can too!

Best successes,

Eric Thomas Hildebrand

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