Meet Nick…

Nick’s an investor colleague of mine and Alpha home flipper, and he says you should stop investing in real estate.

Hmmmmmm… Sounds crazy, I know. But let’s see what kind of “rabbit hole” Nick’s trying to drag us into.

Nick’s got an interesting story to say the least…

He first got into REI like just so many of us — a 19 year old’s bleary-eyed decision to call in on a late-night infomercial pitch.

Nicely done, Nick.

Fast forward just a little and he’s landed his first deal and pocketed tidy $22K. Just a smidge more and he’s built a $2 million+ net worth by his mid 20s — had around 100 tenants and was running a huge operation.

Seriously, nicely done, Nick (that first one was sarcastic).

Then 2008 happened. And the millions he borrowed from the banks to build and feed that boheometh biz at his lunch. Welcome to the real world. And to bankruptcy. And depression.

But wait, there’s more…

Yes, “the pits” had Nick for a while after that…but not for good. Normal folks would have thrown in towel for good. But not Nick. Nick had tasted the real estate fruits, and come hell or high water, he was determined to rise from his own ashes and feast again.

This guy made it TWICE from the ground up…a feat few others can rightfully claim. That’s one great reason he’s somebody worth listening to in our little REI world. That, and because I said so of course. 🙂

Enough of that. Let’s tune into Nick now and see what kind of crazy talk he’s got for us…

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A lot of people who are interested in getting into real estate want to become an investor. Now, you’re probably thinking, “Yeah, a real estate investor…that’s what it’s called when you start to buy and sell real estate.  Nick, that’s common knowledge.”

Now, I have developed a different view on this business and even call it something different. The way I look at this and what I call it may ruffle a few feathers or create opposing views, but it makes total sense…

I call myself a real estate entrepreneur, not an investor. The only reason I’ve been able to accomplish everything I have in real estate (click here to learn a little more about me), is because of my entrepreneurial mindset and actions. Period.

Investor vs. Entrepreneur…

I came up twice from total scratch with real estate (yes twice), and the second time was after a bankruptcy. Resourcefulness, urgency, massive action, creativity, and many more traits are the reason I’ve accomplished what I have. Those are traits of a straight up entrepreneur.

I’m not trying to toot my horn, I’m proving a point that being an entrepreneur is what you actually want to be in this business.

Why?

• Most successful entrepreneurs bootstrap and start from scratch or close to it.
• They hustle their brains out and figure things out as they fail and move forward.
• They get bumped and bruised and keep getting back up.
• They learn how to deal with people and get really good at gaining rapport and learning how to sell.

If you really think about an “investor”, the above paragraph doesn’t really sound like one, does it? Entrepreneurs are constantly engaging with new people and growing their network of people for mutual benefit. I could go on and on about how to be an entrepreneur, but the bottom line is that if you really approach this business with that kind of bootstrapping entrepreneurial hustle, you’ll actually get further. Your resourcefulness will skyrocket and you’ll make more aggressive moves instead of “investing” in the best deals that come across your desk.

You are starting/running a business and you are buying something low and selling it high. In any other industry you’d call yourself an entrepreneur, so why would real estate be any different?

Words have power…

Now, at the end of the day, the actual word that you call yourself doesn’t matter in one sense, right? But you’d be surprised at what kinds of actions people take based off of their labels on themselves. That’s a whole different conversation and branch of psychology that we don’t have time for now.

But especially for newer investors, I just don’t want you to feel limited on your resources because you keep thinking that you are going to be an investor and you have limited capital to invest. As a real estate entrepreneur, you can do as many deals as you want, period. The right resources will appear with the right amount of effort.

And yes, there is massive effort necessary…make no mistake about it. But ultimately the success of an entrepreneur is highly based off of effort and hustle.

You feel me?

This isn’t just some fun theory I felt like developing, this is based off of my real life and the lives of other successful people I know.

Talk to me in the comments 🙂