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Often I get emails about this Guru and that Guru. I get asked questions and often asked to give my opinion about other peoples systems and so called Gurus.
Here is the deal, everyone wants to know what is good and what they should get involved in, but that said there is a catch to all this and I will explain this right now in the hope of clarifying the questions about all the systems and gurus in real estate and the property investing market.
If you really want to get the best out of this post or clarification you should first come to suspend your thought of “Good” and “Bad” as definition.
I know, for some this may be too much to ask, but if you can do this for the next 5-minutes (which should be short enough to mange) you may understand much more from what you are reading.
Usually, people who ask about Gurus and systems are at the beginning of their property investing journey and the field looks very much like an endless jungle.
Between market articles, real estate agents, property gurus,
property systems preached by gurus, and the information available on
the internet, one gets easily lost in this jungle.
When lost in the jungle and in “despair” of not knowing who is right
and who is wrong, what is right and what is wrong, the risk lies in
taking the first path out. In simple words, being tired of it all and
traveling the jungle too much without finding the destination, all of
the sudden the first path out looks like a good one, even though they
may find at the end that it was misleading and hence the definition
“fake guru” that leads people astray.
So how does one know if that path is good or not, or have they just taken the path of the so called “Fake Guru”.
And here is the truth, which most don’t like to hear, but I like to
tell it anyway. I like to tell it for those that want to hear the truth
and empower themselves.
If you really want to find your way and empower yourself, read on,
but if you like to listen to gurus that have “out of the box” systems,
I suggest you stop reading because the rest may just strike a discord
with you.
THERE IS NO RIGHT PATH or WRONG PATH, which also means that NO Guru is RIGHT, but it also means that NO Guru is WRONG.
Now, you are back in the jungle and have no path, square zero. And
this is the point where you should suspend all the notions and ideas of
the right way. From here you will find the right way, I will tell you
right now how you can do that.
To better understand what I just said, you must comprehend that this notion of the right way is very misleading.
The Gurus go out there sell a system. Don’t get me wrong, that is
fine. Then they tell you how it worked for all those wonderful people
and then you say to yourself this must work for you because it worked
for others, right?
Not exactly. If you know you have exactly the same situation as
those people, then maybe that system will work for you, but if you
aren’t exactly like those people, nor in their situation, then the
chances slim it will work for you because the system may not be in your
context. But you want a certain way, right? That is why you bought into
the idea the Guru was selling.
The truth is and always was that there are not absolutes.
Therefore, some systems may work for some people and some may not
for others and some part of a system may work for some other people.
What this means is that there is no RIGHT Guru nor Wrong Guru.
To find your way in the jungle you must use, from whatever system,
idea, teaching, information you find the elements that work for you.
And here is the trick. This means that the only way out of the
jungle is by creating YOUR OWN PATH. You may want to read that again.
Yes, that is right, you will need to cut “wood” and chop the proverbial trees to find your way out of the jungle.
Think there is another way? Yes, there is. The alternative is
disempowering yourself and giving your power to some Guru and follow
his or her way, hoping and praying that the “system”, “idea” or “way”
suits your needs. Which brings us to the beginning, tired of finding
the way out, and then you just take the first path you see in the
jungle, no matter what the outcome. Which brings us to the next really
important point.
How do you “cut trees and chop wood” to find your way out of the jungle.
That is quite simple. First you get your proverbial “compass” and
you find out where you are now. Then you think clearly about where you
want to get to. This you do without any other persons influence,
concepts or ideas (including Gurus) of what you need; only what you
want. This is your moment and this exactly the way it should be.
Finding out where you are now and where you want to go means many
things to many people. For some it means starting excel sheets to find
out their affordability, calculating all income, calculating all
expenses to find out affordability, talking to a bond originator to
find out what bonds they can get.
Some people may feel a bit of discomfort with this idea; they may
not like the starting point. But here is the good news. Remember you
put yourself in the place you are right now, and if you don’t like the
starting place, understand that most likely you put yourself there by
following paths that didn’t suit you to begin with, so now you can
change all that.
Then you can start collecting data, learning about property,
listening to opinions and you start “chopping”. In other words, you use
what suits you and you DON’T use what does not suit you, in other
words, you chop it away, step-by-step, item-by-item and you include
what suits you in the same way.
Yes, you have to be selfish enough to want your own good and selfish
enough to stop listening to what other people or Gurus say. You do what
is good for you and what suits you.
The next trick is to understand that you will have to learn and you
will have to listen to as many ideas as possible to create you own path.
Soon you will start to see your path and the light at the end of the jungle, the clear way to reaching your goal.
For some people this means they will only want cash flow positive
properties, for some they will find out they want to trade in property,
for some it may mean doing many things in property investing, but what
it means most of all is that you will be doing what suits you at that
point in time.
You see, there are many systems and many gurus and heaps of
information. Furthermore, you haven’t seen nothing yet, because with
the growth of the internet there will be more and then more and then
some more. So you better start finding out what you want before you get
lost for a life time in this jungle of information.
Once you know your starting point you will have to read things and
collect data with a view to use what suits you and “chop away” what
does not.
In this way, if there is a Fake Guru out there you no longer have to worry about it, because you do what suits you.
You will be able to use parts of systems and maybe sometimes whole
systems, while other times you will modify systems to suits you.
Above all, you will know what you want, therefore will know if you see something that is of no help to you.
In the process you will see how both Gurus and Fake Gurus help you.
Yes Fake Gurus help and they help more than you even know. They help
you continuously define and re-define with time what you want and “chop
away” what you don’t want by the mere examples which they give and your
evaluation of those in your context. This will save enormous time to
reaching your financial freedom and every other goal, because you won’t
have to take a “path” that doesn’t suit you and pay the “price” in time
and money for trial and error.
Once you learn how to collect data, learn to sieve though
information to use what suits you all of the sudden you will use all
data to your benefit. Even the data which you previously thought was
“bad” because it will help you know what you don’t want and move closer
to your goals by acting only on ideas and systems that suit you. As
opposed to acting on everything in the hope something will work out.
Sometimes you look at a property portfolio and you really ask
yourself, why did that person buy a property when they can’t afford it?
Then you see someone that has acted on something that did not suit them
in the first place, now they are paying the price for not empowering
themselves with knowledge to make an educated purchasing decision.
You will see property investment listings in a better light, you
will be able to see properties that you would like to research more and
those that are not a good match for you.
To do all this, you must know what your starting point is and what
your goals are. Then learn about property investing with an open mind,
then take what you feel is good for you and “chop” the rest.
Above all, remain non-judgmental when you collect data and
understand that there are no absolutes in this world, therefore there
is no Right and Wrong.
Do not think for one moment that you will not change your plans, you
have to, the world evolves, once you reach your first goal, you will
need to create a new path to the next goal, and then to the next and so
life goes on.
In summary, there are no SYSTEMS that are GOOD as there are no SYSTEMS that are BAD.
By creating your path and using what is good for you, you will
empower yourself to reach your own goals, not someone else’s goals, nor
those goals of the good examples that the Gurus give. They may be good
and it may be good for them, but you will need to evaluate that for
yourself.
And when you are in doubt, it means you may need more information before you can determine if something suits you.
You will notice that through continuous learning of many other
peoples’ paths and evaluation of Gurus systems without judgment you
will be able to continuously create good solutions that suit you.
Do not fool yourself for one moment that instant or fast riches
exist, (that is what Gurus usually sell). Here is the contradiction:
THEY DO, but those riches did not happen in that famous instance that
people love bragging about. It took years for people to achieve that
instant wealth, they just don’t talk about those past years much. They
only talk about the instant moment of glory. This misleads people to
thinking that there are instant and fast riches that where created in
that moment out of the blue.
Hope you took away something from this post and you can look now at
all systems, learn as much as you can about property investing and
build yourself a plan that suits you.
Everyone in the world teaches us something, even if that something
is identifying what we don’t want or does not suit us, as through their
examples we have refined our plan and moved one step closer to our
goals which will one day “instantly” create wealth for us through the
path that we previously created.
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