Sample Chapter

Chapter 2
The Mindset of a Multi-Millionare
Or Someone Stole Our Tent

The first thing you must do on your quest to financial freedom is to decide what you want your business to provide and what you are willing to do to accomplish that.

This type of thinking I refer to as "3M" thinking, that's "The Multi-Millionaire Mindset," because you won't find a multi-millionaire who made his or her money alone who didn't have a strong sense of financial direction. Underline this and make it part of who you are: "Multi-Millionaires are Money-DECISIVE!" Remember, know the objective and the path will reveal itself. For the sake of this book, I am going to assume that you want to become a multi-millionaire and you want to do it through real estate investing. As real estate markets across the country have stalled, topped out, softened, or even dropped in some cases as much as 25 to 30 percent, NOW IS THE TIME TO GET STARTED!

There is no other investment that comes close to producing the sheer number of multi-millionaires as real estate. There is no other investment that can introduce you to multi-millionaire rates of return easier than real estate. It is the safest and fastest way to multi-millionaire status I know of if you do it the right way. Doing it the right way is what this book is all about.

So, how do you become one of America's multi-millionaire households? How do we attain the Multi-Millionaire Mindset? In my success training course, "The One Hour Destiny," (see http://www. dumbenough.com) I show attendees how to brainstorm their success for twenty minutes a day. All of these success tips amount to one thing-you have to write it down.

Of all of the aforementioned success giants, the one that hammered this message home for me is someone you most likely have never heard of. Her instruction to me was to write "I will not talk in class" 101 times on the board after school. You see, repetition is the secret to success. The words kept ringing in my head as I wrote it on the board in Ms. Simpson's eighth-grade English class at West Point Junior High School in West Point, Mississippi. This was my punishment for not being attentive in class and distracting others from doing their work. Of course, I probably spent as much time counting the number of sentences I had written as I did writing. This seemed like a never-ending task, but I became resolved never to do this again, which means, I will not talk in class in the future either.

This principle, I will not talk in class, is a major key to success. It distills the essence of several key ingredients to successful goal setting and goal achieving.

First, it is a written affirmation. Certainly in the quest for success, your studies have revealed that you must write down your goals. The simple act of writing cements the goals in your subconscious. All of the great trainers and speakers preach that you have to write it down.

For me it was Ms. Simpson who drove home this vital point with her instruction to write "I will not talk in class" 101 times on the board. The thought began to permeate my being. Not only did I not want to be punished this way again, but for the rest of the school year and throughout the remainder of my formalized education, whenever I caught myself talking to my friends in class, I would immediately stop. To this day when I am in church, in a seminar, or even at the movies, and the urge to talk comes over me, my hands start to cramp as I remember "I will not talk in class," and I refocus on the sermon, speaker, or movie. Sometimes I wish the pastor, speaker, or theater owner would react directly to those who feel free to disrupt the concentration of others and roll a chalk board down the aisle, hand the offender a new piece of chalk, and say, "When this is over, you owe us, 'I will not talk in class.' 101 times."

Here are some of the finer points of this lesson:

First, the fact that you are doing the physical act of writing causes whatever you're writing to become part of you. It is written across your heart and emblazoned upon your spirit. It is important to understand you cannot do this on your computer for it to reach your subconscious.

Second, I will not talk in class is specific, clear, and to the point. This is the objective for any goal. This type of short, precise goal is exactly what we must set for ourselves in our real estate investing business. We must know exactly the amount of money we want to make. We must know exactly the time frame we are going to make it in. And we must know exactly the number of deals it is going to take to reach our goal. We both know that the exact number will change as we start buying properties because we will make more money on some deals and less on others, but we must have a specific number for the purpose of creating our goal. After thirty days we will revisit the goal and make any adjustments needed.

Third, I will not talk in class was written repeatedly. This is a very important aspect of goal setting. You should repeatedly write your goals down to reinforce your resolve.

Do not misunderstand: This is not your daily planner or your "To Do" list. You need to repeatedly rewrite your most important long-term goals. This rewriting process has the same effect as I will not talk in class. The rewriting ingrains the goals in your conscious and subconscious mind. It makes them part of your living spirit. For me writing this book was one of those goals. Whenever I found myself getting off track, the small inner voice of my subconscious mind would remind me that I wasn't moving in the direction of my goals. Just as Ms. Simpson's lesson came back to me through the years whenever I was talking inappropriately, continually rewriting your most important long-term goals will keep you on track. As you start to wander off into meaningless time wasters, you'll find the goals magically popping into your head to remind you of things that are more important.

Faithfully, prayerfully, you have accepted the importance of writing down specific goals for your real estate business: the amount of money you want to make and the time frame you want to make it in. Don't forget to add the magic by rewriting these long-term goals regularly. Next we will discuss how we translate the amount of money we want to make and our time frame into the number of houses we have to sell or deals we have to do to reach our goal.

Don't Dismiss the Simple Stuff

This reminds me of the camping trip the legendary detective Sherlock Holmes and his sidekick, Dr. Watson, took in the English countryside. As darkness approached on the first evening, Holmes and Watson settled into their respective sleeping bags. Holmes asked Watson, "Tell me, Watson, what do you see?" "Ah," replied Watson, "I see a black velvet sky covered with bright stars and a full moon." Holmes inquired further, "So what does that say to you Watson?" "Well, Holmes, meteorologically speaking, it tells me that we are going to have a gorgeous day tomorrow." "Good observation, what else does it tell you?" "Holmes, astrologically it tells me that there are millions and millions of stars and therefore, millions and millions of universes." "Good work, Watson, what else does it say to you?" "Now wait a minute. Holmes, as we lie here gazing at these countless stars on this beautiful night, what does it say to you?" Holmes replied, "Someone stole our tent." So, please do not overlook the obvious.

Determine Your Real Estate Financial Goals

First, we need to determine the price of the average starter home in your area. For the sake of this book we'll use $100,000; you will need to adjust for your area. Suppose you want to acquire a million dollars worth of property over the next 120 days. The math is pretty basic: $1,000,000 worth of property divided by the cost of the average starter home of $100,000 means you must purchase ten homes in the next four months.

For those of you who are novice investors or inactive investors, this may seem like a daunting task. For those of us who are actively in the business, this is a snap. It is only two-and-a-half homes per month or one house every twelve days. Now if-as some gurus teach-you had to go to the classified section of your local newspaper to find sellers who might be offering an attractive price, this would be a very arduous task. I'm not going to ask you to call the numbers in the ads in the newspaper. I've done that and it's the quickest way for your self-image to take a severe beating. Not to worry-in Chapter 3 we will cover nine Surefire Methods to have motivated sellers calling you. Until you start your business, you'll have to take my word for some of the numbers I'm sharing with you now. Even as a beginner you will learn how to close one deal for every thirty to thirty-five callers to your business. Please note that I said callers to you. More on this later.

As you gain a little experience, your closing ratio will go up. You need to buy one $100,000 property every twelve days to meet your goal. You also need to have about thirty to thirty-five conversations with sellers and a least ten written contractural offers to close one deal. To be on the safe side, let's push the number of callers to fifty.

To talk to fifty sellers over a twelve-day period, we need to talk to a whopping 4.17 sellers per day. Using the nine Surefire Methods in Chapter 3, it's easy to have motivated sellers calling you, and 4.17 is a very attainable number. Don't worry, younot going to have to quit your job to take these calls. I'll teach you how to have your business put on autopilot. You'll still have plenty to do, but much of the busywork that eats up your time can be farmed out.

Now that you have your financial goals established and written down-the amount of money you want to make, the number of houses you have to sell in the next 120 days to make that happen, the number of calls from motivated sellers you need to receive (see Figure 2-1 for a sample)-you can get started with your business.

Equipment Checklist

Before you begin, you should make sure that you have the necessary equipment. There are a few things you are going to need:

* A phone. I bet you already own more than one.

* A fax. Most homes in America today have a fax. Don't sweat it if you don't; most local office supply stores sell them for less than $200 or you can go to http://www.dumbenough.com and click on the menu button marked PBNext for an excellent business tool that I use every day in my business-and it's cheap!

* Business cards. I'm not talking about the kind of cards you see the local real estate agent use, cards with their picture and basic contact information. I'm talking about a card that creates business by telling the benefits you can offer to a seller. Appendix C is a copy of the card I use. It's doublesided and folds over. It came to me from a very savvy marketer and successful real estate investor in Colorado, Richard Roop. Most American businesses miss an excellent opportunity to sell their company-using business cards as a sales brochure. You can make a photocopy of this card and take it to your local Kinko's and have yours ready in less than forty-eight hours. The key to these cards (and believe me, it was the hardest thing for me to get used to) is the color. They must be an obnoxious neon green. You'll hate these cards; in fact they may even be an embarrassment to you until you buy a house because of your cards and turn a profit of $20,000 or more. Then you'll love these cards as much as I do, and you will be giving them to everyone you meet.

Chapter Summary

1. The secret behind "I will not talk in class": Write it down.

2. You've committed to creating your goals and writing them down. You have committed to writing them down, right?

3. You have agreed to add the "magic" to your goals process by rewriting them regularly.

4. You've learned not to let someone steal your tent by overlooking the obvious. (Please reread items 1 through 3.)

5. Set up your office by purchasing the proper equipment: phone, fax (or do as I do and get a PBNext account) and neon green business cards.

You now know the formula for breaking into the first phase of being a multi-millionaire. There is much more later on about the three phases of becoming a multi-millionaire, what they are and how to break through each level.

In the next chapter we will cover the "Nine Surefire Methods to Get Motivated Sellers Calling You."

Pitfalls Recap

I Don't Have to Write Them Down. Written goals are a must for you to reach your maximum level of success. Take the time to create a "Top 10 Goals" sheet for your life and your business. Model your goals on those shown in Figure 2-1, making each goal as clear as possible: Be concise and be specific.

Do I Have to Create a Written Plan? Plan for your success by knowing exactly how many houses you must buy and how much profit you need per transaction to fulfill your plan. Keep your plan handy as you will refine the techniques used for its attainment daily.

Don't let someone steal your tent by overlooking the obvious.

© 2008 G. William Barnett II.
All rights reserved.
Published by AMACOM Books
http://www.amacombooks.org
A Division of the American Management Association
1601 Broadway, New York, NY 10019
To order call: 800-250-5308
Email: pubs_cust_serv@amanet.org