The Beginning

Every story has a beginning and mine is no different. I grew up always knowing the world of business was my calling and that I wanted a big piece of the pie. I couldn't pinpoint exactly what I wanted to do, but knew my goals were sky high. I quickly realized that in order to achieve greatness, hard work and unrelenting will were a necessity. 

As I sat in a University of Connecticut classroom and listened to my professor share that 76% of the World's assets were in Real Estate, something just clicked. Ever since I have not doubted for a minute that this is where I would go after my piece of the pie. From the start, I figured that Real Estate Investing would require a great deal of capital. I became heavily involved in Entrepreneurship work. I had 27 employees in my painting company, tried unsuccessfully to get 2 startups off the ground, and ran a textbook buyback company on campus while in college coupled with 2 summer internships in Finance.

I am now almost 25 years old and currently in a Corporate M&A role for a Fortune 50 Company where I have worked for the past 2 years. Towards the end of last year I decided it was time to get serious about educating myself and put my ~30K that I had saved into my first Real Estate deal. I began looking at local markets and analyzing deals, but the deeper I got into the process, the more I realized how much I did not understand. I would rate this effort up until last week as slightly above average.

Then comes the game changer when my fellow Real Estate Investor James Bartoes introduced me to the Bigger Pockets community. This past weekend, I was watching ESPN and saw Kevin Durant, a great NBA player and a story resurfaced in my head. Growing up, Durant would sleep in the gym because he feared that every moment he was not improving, there was someone else out there getting better than him. While Real Estate doesn't necessarily have the same competitive flair I find motivation in knowing that every day I am not improving my knowledge, making great connections, and evaluating properties is a day that has not furthered my progression.

Dreams are only dreams unless you take steps to making them a reality. I want to be remembered as not only a dreamer, but as an inspiring individual who proved that with hard work and dedication, anything is possible in the beautiful space of Real Estate.