This may sound like a funny title for an article, but think about it for a moment! How many people have you met that are just as broke at $90,000 as they were at $20,000?
You see, we tend to always try to “keep up with the Jones'” and buy the latest and greatest gadget or trinket. So, even though we live in a nicer home and drive a nicer car, at the end of the month, we’re left with little more than a few dollars at the end of the month – if we’re lucky! So what does all this mean?
It simply means that in order for you to achieve true financial freedom, you’ve got to get to the bottom of why you’re not where you want to be. Because without it, you’ll have a hard battle to fight for financial freedom.
Back in 2003, I was in a rather difficult situation. I’d just lost my home and moved in with my boyfriend’s sister and brother-in-law. I’d spent Christmas in Spain with my boyfriend and managed to max out the rest of my credit cards and spent all but $239.00.
I was working odd jobs and had been severely affected by 9-1-1 and some major mistakes on my very first real estate investment. I was nearly paralyzed by fear and stress. I didn’t know what I was going to do next.
Just when I thought that things couldn’t get any worse, my boyfriend and I broke up. I still had just $239 and not a dollar to spend on my credit cards. I’d sunk all the money I’d managed to save up from when I had a “real job” into my first deal that I’d over-improved and desperately tried to sell since August, 2002 (It was now February, 2003). I was about to throw in the towel when opportunity came knocking. Unfortunately, opportunity cost me $4000! The good new was I found a way to make it work. It was my very first introduction to private lending! (I’ll save that story for later).
Long story short – I was now plopped into the middle of my new career as a real estate investor and had no other option but to make it work. Things got tough, but I never lost hope once I made the choice to go forward. I believed that I would do it and realized it was up to me. Sure, I got upset, but I realized that I couldn’t blame anyone else. I had the tools in front of me and it was my responsibility to implement them all. But, after a short while, I started to doubt that I was ever going to be any better than ‘just average’; that maybe I was supposed to be like everyone else out there! I was starting to believe those fears that were popping into my head. I had tried to start other businesses, and failed. They never got off the ground. They were not successful and maybe I just wasn’t successful. Then one day, I realized that I had held all the cards all along. I was sabotaging my success. Not because of anything I was, or wasn’t, doing necessarily, but because I was somehow more afraid of success than failure. I was “comfortable” being jsut like everyone else and making excuses. Because of this, I was not making the “right” business choices. I simply wasn’t “ready for success”
The turning point was when I took my first three day financial seminar entitled: “Creating Wealth”. I listened and absorbed and my mind started spinning and I was feeling my enthusiasm come back. I not only learned the mechanics of real estate, but also the mindset. The instructors helped me climb over my fears and get in the game. I literally negotiated a deal that weekend that put $12,000 in the bank in just 21 short days.
That weekend, I learned to work through the first of many successful deals. The instructors stood by me and made me believe that I deserved the profits I would make from the deal. I learned posture that weekend and I discovered that I really could do this – EVEN IF MY HANDS WERE TREMBLING at first.
In less than a week after leaving this event, my partner on my first deal and I were able to secure a contract on the foreclosed property we had invested in months before. I contacted the Realtor and gave him some options that I learned that weekend. We were able to assist a family with their down payment through a charity program and got more than full price. Three weeks later we put over $39,000.00 back into our pockets.
In that first year, I purchased and sold over a million dollars in real estate. Most was sold for a quick profit, but I was also able to negotiate my own home on a lease option, successfully complete a number of rehabs and put together a handful of wholesale deals.
It’s important to recognize your fear, address it and, ultimately, overcome it! “Fear and pride will not provide for you, it will only hinder the greatness of the human spirit!”