Just after turning 30 I rounded into 2017 with a fresh idea of being in business. Although I was now reaching for my potential, rather than making the best of my current reality.
Evaluating where I was personally at, and the vehicles I could use to reach my potential, or rather close the gap between my reality and potential, I looked at all ways of making money. I did not look at money for the sake of money. I looked at how to make money so I had the freedom to do what I really wanted to do. I wanted choices, which at that point I did not have any.
With the idea of choices in mind, I decided I wanted residual income, with as little work for that residual income as possible. I knew in the forefront there would be an enormous amount of work involved to get to the point where it was possible to be able to make my own decisions.
I had always wanted to get into Real Estate, but the stereotypical stories we all hear kept me at a level of fear. I'd tell myself, maybe when I get really rich I'll look into it. I always kept pushing it aside and away as something that is reserved for the rich.
True you do need some money to go into Real Estate, but remember I was reaching for my potential. When I convinced myself that I wanted to do it, the only question became how. I dove head first into books, blogs, posts, articles, anything and everything I could get my hands on revolving around Real Estate. I started this in early December of 2016. Initially I set out a goal to get 1 property that cash flowed before the end of the year. At the time I had no idea what I was getting into or the process required to purchase a property that was for business.
I spent the next three weeks reading and learning. I absorbed at a high rate, because I was so interested in it. It was going to be my way to start my residual income journey. After three weeks of studying, I began to feel like I grasped enough of the concepts and ideas to start hunting for a property.
So I began property hunting, I spent my nights, and days off hunting for a property. Looking them over, driving by, guessing on repairs needed, and estimates for those repairs, then looking at comparable properties in the area and running the basic numbers to see if they would cash flow...or rather if it would be a good investment for my money.
This was the first actions I took towards reaching my potential. What do I want, and then how do I get there. This is what you need to decide. Set your goals, set them high, and then break it down into the parts you need to so that you can get there.
Reverse engineer it. I want to be financially free in 9 years, so that I can make my own decisions in life. The goal is financially free...well what is that? Lets pretend that is $10,000/mo in residual income. So $10k per month by year 9. If I were to divide it out evenly that would be an extra $1,111.12 per month increase each year over 9 years.
If at the end of year 1 I need to hit $1,111.12/mo, how many properties do I need to buy in that first year? Lets say that each property will cash flow $150 per door, assuming not all properties will be single family homes (some might be duplexes, triplexes, quads, etc). $1,111.12 / $150 per door. That is 7.5 doors in the first year. Obviously if you found better or worse deals these numbers would change, but that is the jist of how you reverse engineer your goals.
Bigger pockets has been a good source of information for me. I have read a couple of books published by Bigger Pockets, I like the writing style of them. Here is their newest book by Scott Trench, super smart guy.
Sunday, April 30, 2017
Friday, April 28, 2017
Turning 30 is Harder Than You Think Part 3
So as mentioned in my last post (HERE), that I belong in business. However, we never really addressed the issue of what we should consider how to sense your potential.
In order to see your potential, you have to revisit your youth. You need to take a re-look at that thought of "I can do anything, and nothing can stop me." Now that you have the weight of being an adult, and have adult responsibilities, you can look forward to some realistic goals. Once you think you can hit some realistic goals as your potential....reach higher. I mean really stretch yourself. If you want to make $50,000 a year, turn that into $500,000. This is called 10xing your dreams and thoughts.
Once you can adjust yourself to this train of thought, the next step is easy. You see, if you believe you have it in you to hit that $500,000 a year, the problem then becomes how. If you have the confidence in yourself that you can really hit that number, then rest is easy.
Do you believe there is a shortage of money? Your not smart enough? Daring enough? Whats your excuse? Because of you do not think you have it in you to hit that number, whatever the number is, you are wrong. Quite honestly, stop making excuses. Your too tall, short, fat, skinny, the wrong color, born into a "middle class"....all excuses. There is more than an abundance of money on this planet, especially in America. When we run low on money in this country...we literally print more. Mr.Benjamin just gets to printing more.
All you have to do is find out who has the money, and how to get closer to that person.
Every single person in our world has the ability to make money. Even the handicapped have the capability, save the person that is legitimately handicapped that is stuck in a vegetable state, or semi-vegetable state. There are exceptions, but take a true look at your excuses, are they really valid? I mean really valid?
Stop looking at the people around you, if you are even reading this with any genuine thought of "is that me?", although everyone has the capability, most people have tricked themselves into thinking they do not want it. What do you want?
For me, I want freedom. I want freedom of choices. I am tired of being a slave. I have been a slave my whole life, the school system, the fact I work for Corporate America, how I was taught to find what I like to do in life, and be satisfied with a middle class situation. I want the freedom to choose what I do with my time, and how I spend it.
I was taught growing up that money doesn't make you happy, quoting Grant Cardone, a quote I fully agree with, "Money doesn't make you happy, but having money doesn't make you unhappy either." I've been in the no money situation, and guess what, I'm not a fan. If I could have money, yet feel the same I do today, my options grow. The ability I have to make my own decisions and the freedom to choose.
All of you have the ability to choose the decision you want in life. My potential is the difference between my current reality and my potential. I have always had the feeling I was meant for more, and could do more. Being stuck in a lower management job has always left me feeling lack luster. I need to move up, I need to grow professionally and personally.
My wanting to grow personally has left me doing many things, and I am truely happy doing these things outside of my regular job. Most people would say I work too much. I work my 44-50 hours a week at my regular job, and then come home and work another 20-30 hours a week.
What others call work and a "trouble", I call it expanding myself, trying everything I can to see what sticks and what I'm good at.
I enjoy writing. That is why I wrote a book, I've talked about writing a book for years, yet I have never done it until this year. I decided I could do it, and was going to do it. Once I decided I could, the only question was how. A quick google search told me how to do it. I spent a couple of hours researching how to do it, and then dove in head first. I had decided I could do it, so all that was left, was to do it.
My book "Build Yourself, Build Your Career - A Different Approach to Promotions" was published earlier this year. It will pay me royalties forever. Do you see how money can be tied to happiness? I've always wanted to write a book and I did. The fruit of what I want, will pay me forever. I will forever have it published and be able to make money off of it.
If you are determined to work to your potential, you can find a way to reap the benefits of it. I am telling you, there is a way to make money off of anything. Working to your potential may leave you feeling better than anything else ever could.
Work to your potential, you will thank me for it. I can promise you.
I love inspirational quotes, in times of awkward silence it is a nice break. Check out this book some cheap but awesome quotes!
In order to see your potential, you have to revisit your youth. You need to take a re-look at that thought of "I can do anything, and nothing can stop me." Now that you have the weight of being an adult, and have adult responsibilities, you can look forward to some realistic goals. Once you think you can hit some realistic goals as your potential....reach higher. I mean really stretch yourself. If you want to make $50,000 a year, turn that into $500,000. This is called 10xing your dreams and thoughts.
Once you can adjust yourself to this train of thought, the next step is easy. You see, if you believe you have it in you to hit that $500,000 a year, the problem then becomes how. If you have the confidence in yourself that you can really hit that number, then rest is easy.
Do you believe there is a shortage of money? Your not smart enough? Daring enough? Whats your excuse? Because of you do not think you have it in you to hit that number, whatever the number is, you are wrong. Quite honestly, stop making excuses. Your too tall, short, fat, skinny, the wrong color, born into a "middle class"....all excuses. There is more than an abundance of money on this planet, especially in America. When we run low on money in this country...we literally print more. Mr.Benjamin just gets to printing more.
All you have to do is find out who has the money, and how to get closer to that person.
Every single person in our world has the ability to make money. Even the handicapped have the capability, save the person that is legitimately handicapped that is stuck in a vegetable state, or semi-vegetable state. There are exceptions, but take a true look at your excuses, are they really valid? I mean really valid?
Stop looking at the people around you, if you are even reading this with any genuine thought of "is that me?", although everyone has the capability, most people have tricked themselves into thinking they do not want it. What do you want?
For me, I want freedom. I want freedom of choices. I am tired of being a slave. I have been a slave my whole life, the school system, the fact I work for Corporate America, how I was taught to find what I like to do in life, and be satisfied with a middle class situation. I want the freedom to choose what I do with my time, and how I spend it.
I was taught growing up that money doesn't make you happy, quoting Grant Cardone, a quote I fully agree with, "Money doesn't make you happy, but having money doesn't make you unhappy either." I've been in the no money situation, and guess what, I'm not a fan. If I could have money, yet feel the same I do today, my options grow. The ability I have to make my own decisions and the freedom to choose.
All of you have the ability to choose the decision you want in life. My potential is the difference between my current reality and my potential. I have always had the feeling I was meant for more, and could do more. Being stuck in a lower management job has always left me feeling lack luster. I need to move up, I need to grow professionally and personally.
My wanting to grow personally has left me doing many things, and I am truely happy doing these things outside of my regular job. Most people would say I work too much. I work my 44-50 hours a week at my regular job, and then come home and work another 20-30 hours a week.
What others call work and a "trouble", I call it expanding myself, trying everything I can to see what sticks and what I'm good at.
I enjoy writing. That is why I wrote a book, I've talked about writing a book for years, yet I have never done it until this year. I decided I could do it, and was going to do it. Once I decided I could, the only question was how. A quick google search told me how to do it. I spent a couple of hours researching how to do it, and then dove in head first. I had decided I could do it, so all that was left, was to do it.
My book "Build Yourself, Build Your Career - A Different Approach to Promotions" was published earlier this year. It will pay me royalties forever. Do you see how money can be tied to happiness? I've always wanted to write a book and I did. The fruit of what I want, will pay me forever. I will forever have it published and be able to make money off of it.
If you are determined to work to your potential, you can find a way to reap the benefits of it. I am telling you, there is a way to make money off of anything. Working to your potential may leave you feeling better than anything else ever could.
Work to your potential, you will thank me for it. I can promise you.
I love inspirational quotes, in times of awkward silence it is a nice break. Check out this book some cheap but awesome quotes!
Turning 30 is Harder Than You Think Part 2
In my last post(HERE), we took at look at what "current reality" is. Mine is in a place of being stuck. Stuck isn't a bad thing for some people, but to achieve the next part of our definition of success, being stuck is a bad thing.
So the next part of the quote, "Success is the difference between your current reality, and your potential.", is focused on potential. Potential is what you are capable of. If everything went the way you wanted, what could you accomplish, do, learn, etc.
We were taught when we were young to reach for the skies. There is no limit to what you can do, do what makes you happy! In our early twenties we realize this was a little far fetched of an idea. When the realities of adult responsibilities set in. Sometimes we get down on ourselves for how heavy these responsibilities feel, when you start your march into adulthood the weight of the responsibilities crush down any aspirations you once had of achieving true greatness.
I was interested in becoming at doctor at one point. I was not held back by brains or physically, it was the weight of the life I had started to create. Remember...I was achieving success in everyone's eyes. I was not going after this to impress anyone, but I thought I was definitely headed in the right direction. I had a well paying job, was in school, and as all of this was going on, I started building a stable life for myself. How could I move away and take on uncertainty with all of this safeness I had created. Rather than going after the unknown for a better life, I convinced myself I was satisfied, safe, and recoiled back inside of myself in fear of the unknown.
Fast forward a few years, I look around at my surroundings and realize that I really am not satisfied. Essentially living paycheck to paycheck, a couple thousand dollars at any given time in my bank accounts. I had more cushion at a younger age than most everyone around me, financially at least.
I felt stuck, like it was time to jump ship and make a move to a new place, a new place in my life, not my physical location.
I went back to school, still chasing the idea of of what success is in another persons eyes, most peoples eyes, at least most people around me. Once again feeling the rumbles of success with a new twinkle in my eye, I marched forward hard crashing through school like a hot blade through butter. School comes easy to me, I do not have to put as much effort into learning enough to get good grades, although in my opinion schools are not even close to what they should be. You can slide through college with a four year degree pretty easy, as long as you show up, do the homework, you can fail most tests and still get a degree, which is somewhat sad.
I finished the degree and looked hard for a new job. Doing everything in my power to start anew, still chasing the fabled dream of what success is. I began feeling doubt creep in, it seeped into my entire being, and before I realized, it had overtaken me. I hit my lowest point, not being able to learn programming quick enough, and could not find a job with either of my degrees.
I looked inward first, and assessed. I stopped blaming external forces, and started to take responsibility. Becoming a programmer was not in my cards. I know I could have done it if I continued, but the cost was just too high for me. It was in this time period of assessing that I realized I belong in business, and business is where I need to be.
So the next part of the quote, "Success is the difference between your current reality, and your potential.", is focused on potential. Potential is what you are capable of. If everything went the way you wanted, what could you accomplish, do, learn, etc.
We were taught when we were young to reach for the skies. There is no limit to what you can do, do what makes you happy! In our early twenties we realize this was a little far fetched of an idea. When the realities of adult responsibilities set in. Sometimes we get down on ourselves for how heavy these responsibilities feel, when you start your march into adulthood the weight of the responsibilities crush down any aspirations you once had of achieving true greatness.
I was interested in becoming at doctor at one point. I was not held back by brains or physically, it was the weight of the life I had started to create. Remember...I was achieving success in everyone's eyes. I was not going after this to impress anyone, but I thought I was definitely headed in the right direction. I had a well paying job, was in school, and as all of this was going on, I started building a stable life for myself. How could I move away and take on uncertainty with all of this safeness I had created. Rather than going after the unknown for a better life, I convinced myself I was satisfied, safe, and recoiled back inside of myself in fear of the unknown.
Fast forward a few years, I look around at my surroundings and realize that I really am not satisfied. Essentially living paycheck to paycheck, a couple thousand dollars at any given time in my bank accounts. I had more cushion at a younger age than most everyone around me, financially at least.
I felt stuck, like it was time to jump ship and make a move to a new place, a new place in my life, not my physical location.
I went back to school, still chasing the idea of of what success is in another persons eyes, most peoples eyes, at least most people around me. Once again feeling the rumbles of success with a new twinkle in my eye, I marched forward hard crashing through school like a hot blade through butter. School comes easy to me, I do not have to put as much effort into learning enough to get good grades, although in my opinion schools are not even close to what they should be. You can slide through college with a four year degree pretty easy, as long as you show up, do the homework, you can fail most tests and still get a degree, which is somewhat sad.
I finished the degree and looked hard for a new job. Doing everything in my power to start anew, still chasing the fabled dream of what success is. I began feeling doubt creep in, it seeped into my entire being, and before I realized, it had overtaken me. I hit my lowest point, not being able to learn programming quick enough, and could not find a job with either of my degrees.
I looked inward first, and assessed. I stopped blaming external forces, and started to take responsibility. Becoming a programmer was not in my cards. I know I could have done it if I continued, but the cost was just too high for me. It was in this time period of assessing that I realized I belong in business, and business is where I need to be.
Wednesday, April 26, 2017
Turning 30 Is Harder Than You Think Part 1
So here I am, with a new sense of what success looks like. Taking a look at my situation and where I am at in life gave me a pretty good idea of how successful I was. If you recall in my last post (HERE) I quoted the definition of success as "The difference between your current reality and your potential.
First off, lets dive into the first part of that quote, specifically "current reality". When you take a look at your current reality, you need to be honest with yourself. What is working for you? What is not working for you?
When I turned 30 this last year I took at look at my current reality. A very harsh and truthful reality. It actually hit me while showering. I had been unhappy in my job for awhile, I didn't feel like I was gaining traction in programming at a rate that would allow me to quite my job before I went crazy with negative thoughts.
I was 30 and not anywhere close to where I wanted to be in my life. By my friends and family's definition I was a success, and over achiever even. With two Bachelors degrees, my own house, a well paying job...life should be good no?
Grant Cardone talks about finding your purpose, what drives you. You see, when you work towards achieving another person's vision of success you automatically are failing yourself. For 30 years I had worked towards someone else's definition of success, and for 30 years I had drug my feet along, going through the motions to get there. At the end of the tunnel there was a pale light, over the years it got dimmer and dimmer. This pale light showed images of myself being rich, a big house, lots of land, and all the other material things a younger person could want.
See, when I started getting closer to this goal via the route that I had been told my entire life, it felt like the light got dimmer at the end of the tunnel. The vision began to fade. I lusted hard after those things for so long, and so often, I forgot what I was really about. I forgot why I wanted those things. It wasn't greed. It wasn't about the status of being rich. It was none of those things.
It took me 30 years to finally find my purpose, or rather the thing that drives me. Yes I still want all of those material things, but a switch got flipped for me, mentally. For so long I attached success with money. Money has nothing to do with success for me. I want freedom. I want to be able to do as I please. If I choose to work for a large corporation, it should be my choice. Although I could step away at any time, because we all have choices, I still have responsibilities. This is where my current reality lands. I am stuck with my job. I am stuck with my responsibilities. I have to slog through work when I don't feel like it, because if I don't the consequences far out weight the benefits of just quitting on the spot.
I have always felt I was better than whatever I was doing. I never thought of it in an arrogant way, its just....whatever I was doing was lack luster. Take my corporate job for example. I am damn good at what I do, and it benefits the company. However, I have always felt that I could make a much larger impact on the people I work around, and the company I work for, if I were in a higher position. That is my current reality.
I will tackle potential in my next post.
I want you to think about your current reality. Just assess, do not frown or fain on where you are currently at, just assess. Think about what your current reality is, have an honest conversation with yourself.
First off, lets dive into the first part of that quote, specifically "current reality". When you take a look at your current reality, you need to be honest with yourself. What is working for you? What is not working for you?
When I turned 30 this last year I took at look at my current reality. A very harsh and truthful reality. It actually hit me while showering. I had been unhappy in my job for awhile, I didn't feel like I was gaining traction in programming at a rate that would allow me to quite my job before I went crazy with negative thoughts.
I was 30 and not anywhere close to where I wanted to be in my life. By my friends and family's definition I was a success, and over achiever even. With two Bachelors degrees, my own house, a well paying job...life should be good no?
Grant Cardone talks about finding your purpose, what drives you. You see, when you work towards achieving another person's vision of success you automatically are failing yourself. For 30 years I had worked towards someone else's definition of success, and for 30 years I had drug my feet along, going through the motions to get there. At the end of the tunnel there was a pale light, over the years it got dimmer and dimmer. This pale light showed images of myself being rich, a big house, lots of land, and all the other material things a younger person could want.
See, when I started getting closer to this goal via the route that I had been told my entire life, it felt like the light got dimmer at the end of the tunnel. The vision began to fade. I lusted hard after those things for so long, and so often, I forgot what I was really about. I forgot why I wanted those things. It wasn't greed. It wasn't about the status of being rich. It was none of those things.
It took me 30 years to finally find my purpose, or rather the thing that drives me. Yes I still want all of those material things, but a switch got flipped for me, mentally. For so long I attached success with money. Money has nothing to do with success for me. I want freedom. I want to be able to do as I please. If I choose to work for a large corporation, it should be my choice. Although I could step away at any time, because we all have choices, I still have responsibilities. This is where my current reality lands. I am stuck with my job. I am stuck with my responsibilities. I have to slog through work when I don't feel like it, because if I don't the consequences far out weight the benefits of just quitting on the spot.
I have always felt I was better than whatever I was doing. I never thought of it in an arrogant way, its just....whatever I was doing was lack luster. Take my corporate job for example. I am damn good at what I do, and it benefits the company. However, I have always felt that I could make a much larger impact on the people I work around, and the company I work for, if I were in a higher position. That is my current reality.
I will tackle potential in my next post.
I want you to think about your current reality. Just assess, do not frown or fain on where you are currently at, just assess. Think about what your current reality is, have an honest conversation with yourself.
Friday, April 21, 2017
The Destiny was never known.
To start off, I'm sorry it has been so long since I have written anything.
I will try to pick up some where close to where my last story left off.
I continued programming and learning as much as I could. I spent nights, weekends, days off studying. Reading, writing code, analyzing the market for a job. I applied to thousands of jobs, quite literally, thousands. I probably went through two to three dozen interviews with a variety of companies.
Through these interviews it became very clear and inherent that I did not have the skill to gain a job as a programmer. I did get some job offers, but the ones I got were either contract, or paid so low that I could not afford my mortgage on it.
I even tried doing some freelance coding. I could not get anywhere with freelance coding either. Though I spent three years of my life, countless hours, obtained another bachelors in Computer Programming, all of this was simply not enough to replace my corporate job paying me around $50k per year.
I came across a tough decision when this realization came about. I had just turned 30 years old, last November, and it was a rough age to turn. Looking at my life I was successful by almost everyone's standards. What is success though? My whole life I have been looking for a way to define it. Everyone says "Congrats" on "that job" or "that degree", but what if you don't feel it.
What do you do when you go through the daily motions of feeling like you were meant or more than a simple degree, yet you do not know what? How do you try to even define or justify this feeling? With everyone around you patting you on the back and telling you how good you have done, its hard to pursue the feeling that you should be doing more, or should have done more.
I believe I heard this definition of success from a man by the name of Grant Cardone, "Success is the difference between your current reality, and your potential.". This hits on every single level for me, and is right up my alley.
I have achieved what everyone else considers feats of magnificence, and yet I still felt hollow and empty like I was meant for something else, something different. Not in the way of "I want to save the world!", but just something different that no one would understand until I had achieved it.
I leave you with that as a final thought. Are you working towards, and achieving success by someone else's definition, or by your own? How do you define success? Please reach out for your potential. Getting into the mindset that you have so much more to offer for yourself, your family, and the world will take you to places that you never dreamed of.
I think this is an awesome book and it touches very heavily on reaching for your potential. This is a book that I lend out to as many people as I can get to read it, then encourage them to look into the other items by this author, as I like his content. Grant Cardone is a very successful business man, and his content, in my opinion, is some of the best out there.
The 10X Rule: The Only Difference Between Success and Failure
I will try to pick up some where close to where my last story left off.
I continued programming and learning as much as I could. I spent nights, weekends, days off studying. Reading, writing code, analyzing the market for a job. I applied to thousands of jobs, quite literally, thousands. I probably went through two to three dozen interviews with a variety of companies.
Through these interviews it became very clear and inherent that I did not have the skill to gain a job as a programmer. I did get some job offers, but the ones I got were either contract, or paid so low that I could not afford my mortgage on it.
I even tried doing some freelance coding. I could not get anywhere with freelance coding either. Though I spent three years of my life, countless hours, obtained another bachelors in Computer Programming, all of this was simply not enough to replace my corporate job paying me around $50k per year.
I came across a tough decision when this realization came about. I had just turned 30 years old, last November, and it was a rough age to turn. Looking at my life I was successful by almost everyone's standards. What is success though? My whole life I have been looking for a way to define it. Everyone says "Congrats" on "that job" or "that degree", but what if you don't feel it.
What do you do when you go through the daily motions of feeling like you were meant or more than a simple degree, yet you do not know what? How do you try to even define or justify this feeling? With everyone around you patting you on the back and telling you how good you have done, its hard to pursue the feeling that you should be doing more, or should have done more.
I believe I heard this definition of success from a man by the name of Grant Cardone, "Success is the difference between your current reality, and your potential.". This hits on every single level for me, and is right up my alley.
I have achieved what everyone else considers feats of magnificence, and yet I still felt hollow and empty like I was meant for something else, something different. Not in the way of "I want to save the world!", but just something different that no one would understand until I had achieved it.
I leave you with that as a final thought. Are you working towards, and achieving success by someone else's definition, or by your own? How do you define success? Please reach out for your potential. Getting into the mindset that you have so much more to offer for yourself, your family, and the world will take you to places that you never dreamed of.
I think this is an awesome book and it touches very heavily on reaching for your potential. This is a book that I lend out to as many people as I can get to read it, then encourage them to look into the other items by this author, as I like his content. Grant Cardone is a very successful business man, and his content, in my opinion, is some of the best out there.
The 10X Rule: The Only Difference Between Success and Failure
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