[Chaostracize]

Little background on me first. As some of you may know, I have recently become a real estate agent. This happened about 4 months ago. I'm really not interested in being an agent, but I figured it'd help me with my ability to sell and I'm extremely interested in investing in real estate. I do this for a little while, get my broker's license, and then I can focus on starting a business and keep my eye on nthe market.

Every day I'm involved with real estate agents, lawyers, CPAs, mortgage brokers, etc. People in the business, and some of which who understand it pretty well.

Being interested in investing, I find myself talking about it a decent amount with people I come in contact with. I make it no secret that this is what I want to do and any kind of dialogue I have with people will add to my store of information. And there are a good amount of people who know what they're talking about.

The thing is, that out of all of the people I know, only 2 people invest or have invested (another agent and my own broker). This is absolutely insane to me.

I talked with my new CPA last week. There's a sweet multi-unit investment property that I'm interested in, but I would need investors, so I was wanted to know about forming partnerships and the myriad of tax benefits to being an investor. He talked for an hour and 5 minutes straight, only stopping to listen to my more specific questions. Point after point, and if I hadn't been convinced before then I would have definitely been convinced after. When he was finished, as I was about to leave, I just had one last question.

"How about you? You know so much about this, do you invest yourself?"

He paused. Smiled. Thought about the question. And responded:

"You know, I get that question a lot. I just sat here for the last hour telling you about all the benefits of investing. But I just don't have the time to do it. Besides, if my wife were involved she'd be coming around the house all the time, she's really protective, and I don't know if I could deal with that. Some of the successful guys I know who have done this have been really involved, too. They'd have paint on their hands any time you'd meet them, you know?"

So I just shrugged, told him thanks, and went on my way.

One of my possible 'investors' is a friend's father. He's a really great guy, I'm really close with the family, but I think he's more interested in the idea of investing as opposed to actually doing it. I've come to him with multiple opportunities, but there is always another stipulation. First time, it was that he wanted a partner. Second time was that the ROI needed to be better than the S&P (reasonable). Third time, was that he needed a finite exit strategy. When I finally had an idea of exactly what he was looking for, I showed him my investment opportunity and now he is interested purely in a property where he is an equal partner with me while I manage the property. The problem with this is that if I find a property like the one he is talking about, I will be investing in it myself...I explained that the only properties I would be showing him were properties where he could invest in himself, or a property that I can't come near affording. I have ceased communications on talking about investments with him.

This is a theme that can be applied anywhere, though. People in fields who are simply ok with mediocrity. I'm not saying that being rich is the end all be all, I'm simply using investments as a jumping point. Think of any extremely intelligent in any store, and think about how successful they could be if they were just working for themselves.

How many times have I heard someone 40+ mutter to themselves: "I wish I had done that when I was your age."

And it's so hard for me not to jump out of my seat and strangle them. So do it now! It's never ever too late. In 10 years they will be saying that they wished they had done something when they were 40. And people just never learn. It's never a good time now, but 10/5/1 year(s) ago was when they should have jumped on board. This just repeats over and over with just about everyone I know.

"What you are doing is so smart, I wish I had done that."

"Why don't you start now?"

"I'm too busy. It takes money to make money. It's too late now. I don't want to risk my money. I have to pay for my kids' college."

Etc, etc, etc.

So, EDF, what is it about people that make them refuse to help themselves? People who know firsthand how they can make themselves into extremely successful people?

Like I said, the issue of investing is meant purely as a jumping off point. This applies to anyone thinking about starting a business and not doing it to people being ok with middle management and not attempting to climb whatever ladder they have to climb.

I perfectly understand the fear of building from nothing and being afraid to lose it. But is that really all it is? Is it just that fear?

Maybe as a card player I understand the inherent risks of everything I do, which is why I don't mind losing a bit because I understand that even though I risk money I stand to gain so much more.

This has gotten a bit long winded, but I'm interested in hearing others' thoughts.