2 years of struggling. 2 years of consistent belief with little to nothing to show for it. The journey from struggling to flourishing is not a quick or easy one. There have been many times where others have doubted me personally. I can’t lie either, there have been times I even questioned what I was doing. I had to reinforce the idea that through persistence I would eventually find success. It is that relentless attitude that no matter what happens or what anyone says you continue to believe. That is how one deals with the adversity that strikes often on the path to financial freedom. And although I am not quite there yet, I can see the finish line for this particular journey and I know that my mindset has led me to this point. There are several things that got me through the struggle and continue to do so to some degree. The biggest one is what we’ll talk about next.
Forget about a plan B
Plan B’s are excuses to give up and move on in disguise. When you focus on the possibility of something you are supposed to believe in wholeheartedly not working out, it allows yourself to think that it is okay to fail and move on to something new. This limiting mindset is a huge inhibitor of success that plagues many people including myself at various points in time. People close to me to this day that don’t understand the journey I’m on still question why I don’t develop a “solid plan B if it doesn’t work out”. My original plan B was to become a physical therapist, go to school for a long time to get a degree, and get a “steady job with steady income”. This is most people’s plan A and only plan as this path is viewed as more acceptable by society’s standards. For various reasons, I made a change and shifted to the idea of investing and running a business part-time while I pursued physical therapy full-time. As I continued to evolve, I knew my passion was to invest and build wealth with real estate investing. However, as a plan B, I became a real estate agent because it was viewed as the safer route and more secure way to make money. It took me over a year and a half of going through this process in its entirety before shifting focus to purely real estate investing. For the last 8 months, that is all I have done with little to no closings to show for it. Throughout that time, I was and continue to be all-in on real estate investing, building my systems out, forming great relationships, and learning as much as I can. Because of that scrappiness and relentlessness, I am set to close on over $2 million of real estate in September and come very close to reaching financial freedom. The moral of the story is that once I eliminated a plan B from my vocabulary and remained laser focused on one thing, I was eventually able to put it together. There will undoubtedly be struggles, but it should not be a cause for giving up or resorting to “a safer plan B”.
Block out the noise
A big part of the struggle is that many people that are close to you will question your trajectory and goals many times and may not fully understand the answers you give them. This is normal and is a reason many people use to quit. Having this pressure on you to succeed can either push you harder to achieve your goals or crush you completely. The choice is yours to make on which direction you’d like to go. If you listen to the people who doubt you, you are sure to become like them. That is a one-way path to mediocrity that you don’t want to go down. Learning to block this all out early will be extremely beneficial to your focus and poise, making sure that all negative energy is kept out of your life so you can make your dreams a reality.
Act like you’ve done it already
This is something that many people misconstrue. Some people may interpret this as being cocky before you even achieve anything, but that’s not the point. First of all, being cocky and condescending to others is not a good trait and makes you extremely unlikable. Also, acting like you’ve been there before has nothing to do with perceived cockiness, it just means you have the confidence to feel like you belong. For example, when I started to connect with other real estate investors who are more established, I could have written myself off and never approached them in the first place because they do a lot of business and I don’t. But because I was able to project confidence and act like I’ve been there before, I was able to attract attention from some great investors that are now my partners on many deals. I’ve been able to build out various systems with the connections I’ve made with people by just being confident and acting like I belong. In addition to confidence, becoming good at this requires a basic knowledge of whatever it is you’re trying to do. Trying to network with prominent people in your field without having both the presence and the knowledgebase to do so will be an unfruitful experience. Last but not least, when you approach someone of whom you wish to build a relationship with, ask yourself how you can add value to them and their business rather than what they can do for you. People gravitate towards those who bring value to others, and that value is reciprocated over the long term. Do your homework, and exude confidence in yourself and your ability to add value to others and you will undoubtedly find success.