A little over a year ago, I joined a real estate investing and mentoring group called Lifestyles Unlimited. Even though I had read a tremendous amount of literature on passive income sources including real estate, I finally realized that Andrew Carnegie and Napoleon Hill were right in “Think and Grow Rich”.
A Mastermind Group
In Napoleon Hill’s research on dozens of the world’s wealthiest people over 100 years ago (and most influentially Andrew Carnegie), he found that the concept of a mastermind group was a top priority of the rich. When I first read this, I thought, “Hmm, that sounds good,” and then continued reading without doing anything about it.
Napoleon Hill writes in the 1st chapter that the secrets in the book will only be revealed to you when you are ready to hear them. This was one of those secrets for me. Even though it sounded like a nice concept, I didn’t finally “get it” until the 2nd or 3rd time I read the book. I took action and found an investor group in one of my homes, Texas.
Why Smart People Have Trouble Getting Rich
At one of the 1st meetings, a concept smacked me so hard across my head, it’s still wedged somewhere behind my ear. I struck up a conversation with a man who had been a member for a couple of years and had accumulated a few dozen single family homes; enough to pay all of his bills.
As you know, I love books and theories on creating wealth, so I asked him what he had been reading to get where he was. His answer blew me away and explained to me why smart people have such a hard time creating wealth.
He hadn’t read a single thing.
How could this possibly be? Here I was, a guy who had dedicated his life to reading the literature of the wealthy. I had created some passive income, but not yet enough to retire.
This guy had been at it for about the same time I had and, without reading a thing, had created enough passive income to retire. To be honest, I kind of ticked me off at first until I let it soak in and teach me what I needed to learn.
Stop Reinventing the Wheel
Have you ever noticed how the people who get rich aren’t necessarily the smartest? Think of the people you grew up with. The A students all went on to get 2 and 3 degrees and ended up working some technical job for a C student. The C student had no idea how to do the things the A student did, but he knew well enough not to try and do it on his own.
That’s not to say that no smart people ever get rich; but I would propose that they did so because they learned a lesson from the C students: “Stop reinventing the wheel.”
Smart people are tremendously talented, but often at a cost. Just because you can do many things doesn’t mean you always should. C students realize that they can’t do it all, so they find smart people to do it for them.
I picked up every book in the world on passive income and real estate, trying to invent some ground-breaking new technique on real estate investing; but only had 1 investment property.
This guy realized that he needed help and went and got a mentor. The mentor told him how to do it and he went out and did it! Duh.
Find a Mentor
It makes so much sense now. Simply go out and find someone who has done it and imitate them.
The lesson is that the education is important, but no where near as important as finding a mentor.
Knowing what I know now, it’s hard to believe that I thought I could do it on my own before. My ego must have had something to do with it. I wanted that title “Self-Made Millionaire”; but really there is no such thing.
It turns out that one of the qualities required to build wealth is humility. Who knew? The common perception is that the rich are selfish.
Quantum Leaps
Once I let my ego down and started asking questions of the mentors at Lifestyles, I started making quantum leaps in my understanding of real estate investing. Even though I had read everything out there on investing, I still was still facing little problems that were holding me back.
Why can’t I make the numbers work?
Why can’t I find properties that cashflow?
Why is it taking so long to rent my property?
Why is maintenance and vacancy eating up my cashflow?
By talking to people who were actually doing it successfully in my market, I got simple, “ah-ha!” answers to these questions that I never found in a book.
My Mentors
I hit the mentor jackpot when I joined Lifestyles. The founder is Del Walmsley, a multi-millionaire who retired himself with real estate at the age of 34.
He now owns something like 5 apartment complexes and is closing on 2 or 3 more this year. Del has been mentoring since 1990 and Lifestyles has grown to over 8,000 members.
The 1st office was in Houston, where Del’s students now own over 400 apartment complexes. That’s almost 1/3 of ALL apartment complexes in Houston. Isn’t that amazing?
Del now works about an hour a day on his radio show where he answers questions about real estate, and once a month, he teaches a 2-day seminar detailing his methods for creating wealth in real estate.
Steve Davis was one of Del’s 1st students. He is now a partner in over 3000 units and is the Vice President of Lifestyles Unlimited.
Steve also has a radio show 6 days a week where he talks about creating passive income through real estate and takes calls from listeners. He was actually the reason I found Lifestyles Unlimited.
I was driving around Austin on my vending route and I came across his show on the radio. Once I learned more about him, I found Del’s show and started streaming them on the internet. They now have all their shows available on iTunes (click here).
In addition to Del and Steve, Lifestyles now has dozens of mentors to service all the members.
Expanding
Lifestyles opened up a 2nd office in Dallas in 2006 and just opened a 3rd in San Antonio. One of the great things about this particular investment group is their hands-on approach. Members have unlimited question and answer with mentors who are currently investing in their area.
As I got to know the company more, I started to share what I had created in the realm of passive income and the internet. We found that we had a lot in common and I ended up getting a job!
The Best Job Ever
I often talk down working 9-5, but it’s really hard to call this working. I get to do two things that I love every day: create content for the internet and talk about passive income.
My job is basically a two-parter. First, I re-invented their website and turned it into what I know very well: a blog. LifestylesUnlimited.com
Second, I teach an introductory class on real estate investing in San Antonio twice a week. If you’re in town, please stop by to see me. You can find the schedule here.
The best part about the job is that I get to hang around with a bunch of wealthy real estate investors all day and talk passive income. I’ve got to tell you, this sure beats sitting in my office and reading all day.
{ 1 trackback }
{ 21 comments… read them below or add one }
Awesome post! I am definitely liking the idea of getting out there and doing something rather than reading about it all day!
Good questions, Sean. Steve really hit the nail on the head. It’s really about the abundance mentality. The act of creating wealth for other people makes the whole pie bigger.
You can check out local investment clubs in your area by visiting The National Real Estate Investors Association here.
Sounds like you’ve got a pretty cool situation going, Joshua. Doesn’t it make a difference being around someone who has actually achieved success instead of taking advice from those who haven’t?
Yes, I do intend to continue writing for GeniusTypes. Each time one of you nudges me, I’m one step closer. Look for one next Monday, if you don’t see it, post a comment to give me another nudge.
Brian it’s great to see you blogging again!
I have a few questions about this post.
1. An expert group can be extremely useful in any specialist field but how do you know if it is a mastermind group and not just a bunch of amateurs?
2. 8,000 members! How do you protect the group and prevent it from getting diluted and driving down the average quality of information?
3. What does the C student do when things go wrong if there is only a superficial understanding?
4. Why teach it? Is this part of the business model by generating revenue and ensuring that there is an expanding market for these properties?
I can see the benefits of a virtual expert team and also some of the risks.
Response Sean Reynolds: Thoughtful Questions, thanks.
1. Our members own 10,000 plus single-family houses and 400 plus apartment complexes. Two of our members were named National Apartment Association Owners of the Year.
2. The information has gotten better each year as our experience has grown and the level of mentor has increased.
3. Our members have unlimited question and answer with mentors that have done what the member is trying to do.
4. We make good money with our mentoring program. However, our long term mission is for every American to know how to build businesses and own real estate. We believe strongly in the “help enough other people get what they want, you get what you want.” We got that from Zig Ziglar. Also, read up on Stephen Covey’s Abundance Mentality in the “7 Habits of Highly Effective People.”
Hi Brian,
I’m currently undertaking a Bachelor of Business Entrepreneurship in Australia. While the education and never ending learning seems frustrating, there was one great benefit from doing the course.
I managed to gain employment with one of my lecturers who has investments in 12 businesses, and now lecturers and consults about starting businesses and investing in businesses in his spare time. Working with him and the team has been a really eye opening experience, and they were so happy with my contribution. They are now planning to keep me on until I finish my degree, and providing me with a share hold in the business.
Just as a side note, I am curious to know whether you will still continue to blog here also now that you have set up the lifestyles unlimited blog site…
Best of success in your future application ad new endeavors.
Great post Brian!
I’m also a Lifestyles member. I’ve been to countless REI (Real Estate Investing) meetings for the past three years and was immediately impressed with the quality and type of advice that they offer. Many of the other real estate investing clubs teach you how to wholesale/rehab/sub2 houses, but Lifestyles is the only organization that I’ve seen that offers a PROVEN method for one of my ultimate goals, financial independence.
Thanks!
It sure does make a difference Brian.
I have found by having mentors I get a number of things to help. The main ones are:
- Practical experience.
- Insights and learning from experts.
- The ability to see where things could be done differently.
The one thing I have always applied in my own life is that regardless of how successful a person is, they are still the same and you and I. If we treat them the same as we would an everyday person, they tend to appreciate that a lot more. Humility pays off on both ends of the equation.
Keep up the great work!
Hi Brian,
Thanks for the great post. The part about smart people having trouble is so true. I don’t consider myself smart, but I do find myself trying to do too much on my own.
A great reminder. I’ve to go figure a better way out, like finding myself a mentor, or something.
Cheers
Thanks for the comment, theconsciouslife. I really like your blog layout!
Thank you, Brian. Hope to see you at The Conscious Life more.
Congras for finding a job that you really like. Whether you’re entrepreneur or a 9-5 worker didn’t really matter, in my humble opinion. As long as you like what you are doing and it pays the bills
great post! I am definitely agree and like the idea of getting out there and doing something rather than reading about it all day!
Wow! Great article. I was thinking about investing in an apartment building, but I never thought that investing realestate could be so profitable. I really like how your article describes the importance of investment properties even though it is sometimes difficult for motivated sellers. Do you think that location is more important than timing or vice versa? Is there such a thing as short sale magic? Not sure if today’s market is a great time to buy. Anyway, have you seen this website on how to become a real estate millionaire in only 10 months.
Great post. I also liked the part about finding a mentor. So true in many aspects of life. As a business broker, this is a second career for me and I attribute much success to a mentor that I had!
Yeah, the mentor thing works, if you know what the guy who is doing it already knows, then you can do it too.
In every field we’ll land on we definitely need a mentor to guide and give us insights about the business we’ll start on. So we get a better view of what to expect about the future of our ventures.
Brian it’s happy to see you blogging again. i think this time you posted a new idea.
My ego is the main problem. I don’t ask the experts for answers. I just figure I’ll just get home and research online.
Finding a mentor is one of the best things you can do when involving yourself in real estate investing. Great blog, very interesting information and I love the idea behind Lifestyles Unlimited; it’s great to share the knowledge you have with others following in your footsteps.
What are the essential elements for a sucessful mastermind group in real estate investing?
Accountant, Realtor, Project Manger?
I am finalizing my plan and have been looking for this answer. Is there a majic formula for the creation of a mastermind real estate group? I will be joining lifestyles soon, but have been “sharpening the saw” in the meantime. The only thing stopping me right now is a busy schedule (new baby takes priority). I have the burning desire, and I have almost finished my plan, I am also using autosuggestion to stoke the fire under my burning desire, but the answer I can’t find is those skills most important to a mastermind real estate group.
Your specialists are important, but even more important in a mastermind group is a group of advisors who you would like to emulate. That is where you’re going to find those elusive answers that don’t appear in books.