The Crucial Tests All Investors Must Pass
The road to real estate investing success is one long test. As they say “success is not a sprint, it is a marathon” (or some quote along that line). I am a firm believer that there are certain “rites of passage” that everyone must go through before they can become a millionaire real estate investor, so I am going to list a few of those rites:
1. Putting out bandit signs at 3:00am, on a Friday night in the freezing cold. You must almost injure yourself 24 times when you slip on the ice as you quickly throw your car in park, jump out of your car, put the sign in the ground and run back into your car before too many people wonder what is going on. (Luckily as soon as you have money, you can hire someone to do this wonderful chore for you.) 2. Getting thoroughly reamed out by some “nut job” who thinks it is the end of the world because you sent them a letter in the mail. How dare you do such a horrible thing! (this of course will never end). All you do is tell them that you apologize for the inconvenience and then take them off of your mailing list. Then you go online and fill out every form you can, using their mailing address so they receive a ton of junk mail…….. (only kidding.)
3. Feeling like you want to quit this business and crawl into a hole and die. We ALL wanted to quit this business at one point. If any successful person says they never thought about quitting, they are either lying or they were already rich when they started out (thanks to mommy and daddy) and didn’t really have the same concerns as us regular folks. The difference between success and failure is simply NEVER QUITTING no matter what. When you want to quit, you better sit down and have a long talk with yourself and take off of your bookshelf all of your “positive” books and start reading them. These books should include “Think and Grow Rich” by Napoleon Hill and “The Magic of Thinking Big” by David Schwartz.
Also, always look at the alternative if you quit. If you quit, you will be spending the next 30 years in a cubicle working for the “man”. Just the thought of it makes me shudder.
So what are some activities that you are going to do next time you are in a rut and having doubts? What can you do, to immediately put yourself in the positive mindset?
Thanks! Your next to the last paragraph really hit it head on. My first Rental has been broken into 3 times once with the carpet cut right off the floor. It's completely empty on the inside which the violator learned after working hard to get in. But I simply put this in the part of doing business column and keep on going.
That is a great attitude to have. We have made changes to how we furnish our units as well.
Optimism is a great tool to have in this business. If you think you can - you're right. If you think you can't - you're right!