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9 Personal Philosophies to Live and Die By as a Real Estate Investor

Mike LaCava
5 min read

As a real estate investor, whether you like it or not, you’re going to have to find your own unique way of doing things. And this includes both for your work and for your personal life as well.

In fact, it took me years to learn what I now know about house flipping, building teams, managing multiple projects and networking – all while learning how to balance this with family and all the other myriad job-related details. It took me years to learn what I know now. And I’m nowhere near done yet!

But believe it or not, the best business and entrepreneur lessons are the ones that are the simplest and easiest to remember. It’s amazing that the more I get involved in what I do, the more I come back to the simplest lessons and the simplest philosophies.

Here are 9 simple philosophies that have really impacted my business life:

1. No Excuses, Just Solutions

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In any line of work, things don’t work out the way you always want them to.  From falling victim to the 7 deadly sins to making an epic fail house flip, it’s not always a smooth road to success.

Because of that, it’s completely natural to make excuses on why things didn’t work out how you wanted them to. It’s just that it won’t do you any good if you do this, because it simply wont solve your problems.

Instead of making excuses – focus on solving problems. We have a big sign in the  House Flipping School offices that says:

“No Excuses, Just  Solutions”

Your problems probably won’t get fixed right away, but as long as you are making improvements and looking for solutions, you’ll eventually get there.

2. Don’t Stop When You’re Exhausted, Stop When You’re Done

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You’re going to get tired at times. Being an entrepreneur and a real estate investor takes hard work and long hours.

Sometimes, you’ll even get completely burned out. You’ll probably feel this way more frequently when things aren’t going so well for you. But the biggest thing that helped me to succeed over the years was persistence.

It doesn’t matter whether I’m bone tired or its late at night and I just want to go to bed, I long ago decided that I just wouldn’t stop until I get all things on my to do list that day done.

The very moment you stop – is the precise moment that you start to fail. As long as you keep on chugging along, eventually you will accomplish your goals.

3. Honesty Is An Expensive Gift, Don’t Expect It From Cheap People

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As a real estate investor, you’re going to need others to succeed. You’ll also need other people advice and counsel. Over the years, I’ve realized that the advice you get is not all measured equally.

The best advice is truthful advice – although it may sting, it will make you see things in different ways. and if you don’t take it personally, it can drive you to succeed and improve more than ever.

Just don’t expect to get the truth from people who are worried about hurting your feelings. Although that kind of advice is easier to swallow, it won’t help you accomplish your goals, instead it’ll just set you back.

4. Work Hard in Silence and Be Humble

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When I started to make money flipping houses, I really wanted to show it off. I really wanted to tell people how successful I was. I wanted to buy a flashy new car and show everybody that now I had really “made it”.

In the long run, buying materialistic objects doesn’t make you happy. And telling people about my success just caused people to think I was arrogant. Thankfully, I only did this for a very brief period of time.

Don’t worry about telling people about your success, as it won’t do you any good. Just focus on your work and keep your mouth shut because the last thing you need is people thinking your arrogant.

5. Don’t Get Sidetracked – By Negative People or Shiny Objects

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It’s easy to get sidetracked and follow the latest shiny object in real estate investing – especially by other people. If you don’t focus on your core business model, you’ll just spin your wheels and get nowhere.

One the best ways to avoid this is to focus on one thing and not let people who don’t have their lives together get you sidetracked. If you want to succeed hang with people who are in tune with your goals and objectives. Networking groups and mastermind groups are great for this. The more you hang out with people who are goal oriented and successful, you are less likely to get sidetracked.

6. Behind Every Successful Person are Many Unsuccessful Years

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When people ask me about my success, they usually think it happened just recently. Not true. What they don’t realize is that it been done over nearly five years – which isn’t super long, it’s just that it’s hardly “overnight success”.

During that five-year period, I’ve lost thousands of dollars, made hundreds of mistakes and worked more than the requisite 10,000 hours Malcolm Gladwell says is essential for success.

Most real estate investors don’t hit it big on their first deal. Most fail miserably before they even catch the first taste of success. If you keep pushing forward, your odds of success dramatically improve.

7. Live So That If Someone Spoke Ill of You, Nobody Would Believe It

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In business, great businesses coma and go, but reputations last forever.

Even if you fail on your first house flip or rental property, if you didn’t cheat or deceive and did your best to always behave in the most honest manner possible, it will come back to you later on. Your reputation doesn’t live and die by one deal – but how you deal with others and with failure speaks volumes about who you are.

Your reputation is the one thing that takes time to build but can be destroyed in an instant. Its your mot valuable asset. In so doing, always help other people, don’t speak badly of others and treat everyone with respect. Because if you always behave this way, if someone ever spoke ill of you, nobody would ever believe it.

8. Bring Others Along For The Ride to Success

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As I’ve said many times before, house flipping is not a solo venture. You need others to succeed and better yet – you’ll succeed even more when you can help others realize their dreams as well.

As you climb the ladder of success, don’t forget to occasionally reach down and give a hand to others who are a few rungs below you.

It doesn’t cost you anything to help them except your time. Better yet, if you can find out what their dreams are and help them to get there with just a little bit of your help, all the better.

9. Never Confuse Struggling With Failing

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Every big successful person has experienced times of struggle and hardship. However, never confuse a singular defeat with final defeat. Struggle and hardship are all a part of success because nothing truly worthwhile attaining doesnt have some element of struggle in its attainment. So don’t expect your real estate investing career to be easy – because it wont be.

You’ll have to fight, work harder than you ever thought you were capable of working, and keep pushing forward despite the temporary setbacks. After all, if it were easy and didnt require pain and hardship to be successful, then everyone would be successful.

Conclusion

These are just a few philosophies I live by – but what are yours? Better yet, what do you think about them? Are there any other philosophies you have that we should all follow?

Please leave a comment below and let me know what you think!

Photo: Hartwig HKD

Note By BiggerPockets: These are opinions written by the author and do not necessarily represent the opinions of BiggerPockets.