It’s July 4th… our country’s birthday.
Thank you for reading this post, don't forget to subscribe!It’s a day we gather to watch fireworks (my favorite part) and celebrate all the many freedoms we enjoy.
The fireworks represent “bombs bursting in air” in battles during which countless thousands of men… and later women… laid down their lives.
So, freedom isn’t really free.
It comes at a cost.
That includes the financial freedom you say you want so desperately.
I’ll even say something that might make you a little mad if you work a 9-to-5 J.O.B. Your boss has more freedom than you do.
If you don’t like it, guess what? You have the freedom to choose another path. Lots of people have…
They became entrepreneurs, which means so can you!
Today, along with celebrating the freedoms and independence I get to experience as an American, I also celebrate my entrepreneurial freedom of choice to seek independence from being “meat in the seat” for eight hours a day.
I hope one day you will join me.
For now, I want to share a few great quotes with you about freedom, independence and the entrepreneurial experience!
Drew Houston, Co-Founder of DropBox
“In the real world if you’re not moving around and hitting the guard rails once in a while you’re not going fast enough.”
Hey, he’s right!
We all need boundaries and we need to know where they are, because without them we don’t know what we have to push against. Boundaries are there to show us the way to something better.
We can drive a little wild while also being cautious in our next steps, because that action can lead to discovery. That ain’t gonna happen without hitting a few guard rails along the way!
Phil Libin, Founder of Evernote
“You get flexibility as an entrepreneur. You get to work any 20 hours a day that you want!”
This is the same concept I talk about in my Cashflow Foundation's videos. It’s all about the word “until.” What I mean is that often as newbie investors, we want to know how many hours are we going to have to work till our first offer gets accepted or first investor funds our deals. We want to know how long till we are going to reach our goals.
That won’t work.
As an entrepreneur you have to look at things a little differently. You have to look at your accomplishments not in number of hours you put in to reach your objectives but rather celebrate when you reach the first goal post, no matter how long it takes you.
If you spend 1,000 hours and still didn’t get your objectives done, you get to work more. You may not have a deep enough, burning desire. Time will tell. That’s for sure.
When I first got into real estate, I spent hours each and every night putting cards that I made with simple messages on car windows. I gave myself a goal; I didn’t count hours. I used the time it took to put all those thousands and thousands of cards out by listening to audio books and podcasts, so I could learn while working. (If you want to read about my journey, I wrote a book about it, which has a lot of great information and strategies you can replicate.)
What I learned is that as entrepreneurs, we work UNTIL… And we don’t count the minutes.
Reed Hoffman, Co-founder of LinkedIn
“Do not pay too much attention to rules set by other people. Entrepreneurs are inventors. They are successful when they make something work for the very first time.”
Wow! This one hits home for me.
We are all taught rules and we’re raised to believe they are true and we have to follow them. That’s just not so.
For example, you’ve probably heard that:
- It takes money to make money,
- You can’t do real estate investing with bad credit,
- If you don’t have money you can’t write the offer,
- You can’t own a house if you have a foreclosure, or
- A lender won’t give you money for “that” and if you can’t get a bank to say yes, and if you can’t why even try?
That all backwards and so wrong that I don’t know where to start.
Everything my wife and I have accomplished as investors is because we didn’t pay attention to all the rules set by other people that told us we couldn’t do something.
These rules are just guidelines; they are not set in stone. These rules don’t take into account what you need in order to feed your family.
Sticking to the rules is like riding a bike with the training wheels still on.
You first have to learn to ride the bike and then you take the training wheels off and head on down the street, pedaling on your own! Following the rules is actually adverse to success as a real estate investor.
That said, it is good to know the rules so you can manipulate them later.
I’d love to hear from you any thoughts you might have on your journey and goals toward living a more financially free and independent life.
Until then… Happy Independence Day!!!
