Opportunity Perspective

Last night I attended a meet-up where they did a hot seat with one of the attendees. One of the hot seats was an individual who bought a deal that the seller said cash-flowed 80k/year, it did not, not even close. The upside, it had the potential to do that and more. The individual wanted nothing to do with it to the point they couldn't bring themself to visit the investment. Everyone was baffled by how they could walk away from something with upside over 80k/year (btw off a 300k all-in purchase), to the point people started making offers to buy it from them sight unseen. So here are my thoughts (and things I actually said to the person):

1) First, recognize when someone is speaking one language and you are speaking another. Everyone was baffled because they looked at this situation from a dollars and sense perspective, while he only looked at it from an emotional perspective. Change the way you communicate and I promise you will get more traction (btw this works when negotiating with a seller like a charm).

2) As an investor don't ever fall in love, nor out of love, with an investment. When you let emotion get in the way you cloud your judgement.

3) Last night when I said, "I will guarantee you one and only one thing in this business, and that is if you stay in it this will not be the last seller who lies to you", everyone chuckled. They did so, because it's true. Everyone in the investing game has been lied to, and more than once. With every transaction is an opportunity to build a stronger arsenal to protect yourself from deception.

4) This business isn't for the faint of heart. So many people (myself included) encourage people to get into investing, because there are incredible benefits, but if it was easy, 1) everyone would be doing it and 2) it wouldn't be so lucrative:). If you can't stomach when things get hard, this is definitely not the business for you. But, if it is for you, when things get hard "pull up your panties/boxers/whatever and do the work".

5) Know yourself. If you know you can't handle the ups and downs, you can still be in the game, but remove yourself from positions that those ebbs and flows negatively impact the overall investment. In this investor's case, I ultimately recommended that they bring on a partner to help course correct.

After the group session there was some networking and I had a chance to talk to this individual one-on-one. I told them that I was giving them tough love because I think they needed it. I thought they needed it, because I could tell they were internally beating themself up for not seeing the deception prior to purchase. But then I said this to them:

"How do you define a success in this business? I would define it is a gain on initial investment within a specified hold period. So while you are looking at this situation as a personal failure, I look at it differently. I see that this investment has not run full cycle yet. The only person who can control whether or not this investment is a success or a failure is not the person you bought it from, but you. You have the ability to not only make this a success, but possibly your greatest success to date. But in order to do that you have to stop looking backwards and blaming yourself and start looking forwards to allow yourself the grace to succeed."

Their response (no joke!):

"I could listen to you all day, who are you?"

While I laughed a little, I was also a little sad because it told me that they don't have people in their corner supporting them, cheering them on, and providing advice. And to be honest, in this business you 100% need that. So if you are reading this and in/interested in this space and don't have your tribe starting attending meet-ups until you find them. They are out there.

Big shout out to Matt Faircloth The DeRosa Group and Scott Cheek and Best Ever Conference for hosting this excellent meet-up. I hope we were able to change some lives in a positive way last night!