I’ve identified two towns that I’m going to pull Out-of-State owner lists from (Bound Brook and Somerville), not sure how many leads will come from those two, but I usually average around 45 per town.   I also have a second mailing that needs to go out (forget the town) and that should get me my 150 mailers.

Great Books for Real Estate Investors

As part of the Diva Money Club that I joined earlier this month, they gave me a list of books that would be great reads.  Over the past year I’ve really slacked on reading and have slowly begun watching TV more and more  in my down time.  That always happens to me when baseball season starts.

During my vacation I decided to bring my Amazon Kindle  and see if I could re-kindle (yes…that just happened!!) my interest in reading.  One of the great things I love about the Kindle is that you can download any book that you want right onto the device from anywhere there is a wifi connection.   Since I got the Kindle about 9 months ago, I’ve yet to really use it so I’m just now figuring out everything that there is to it.  I highly recommend it!

In total I read 2 full books and finished off half of another that I failed to finish over the winter.  The first book I read was called The Dip by Seth Godin.  I’ve read a few other Seth Godin Books before (All Marketers Tell Stories and Tribes), so I’m already a big fan.  The Dip is a quick read and really helps you decide if something is worth quitting.   We have always been taught that “quitting” is a terrible thing.  I used to think the same way until a read this book.  He really opened my eyes to when I’m in a Cul-Da-Sac, Dead End or just a Dip.  You should read the book.   Get it here

The next book I read was Shae Bynes’ favorite, The Go-Giver by Bob Burg.  I am completely a convert now and this is my favorite book to date.  The concepts in this book I believe can truthfully change my life and the best part about it is I agree 100% with the 5 laws of success.  Giving!  This is a must read book, so go get it or borrow it from somewhere.  Here is an affiliate link for those that are interested, Get it here.

After reading those two books, I decided to go back and finish off another Seth Godin book, Purple Cow.  I don’t know where Seth gets it from, but this is another good book.  It’s about standing out in a crowd, but not just any crowd, your tribe.  It goes very well with his book Tribes as you might have guessed.  If I could take one thing out of the many lessons in this book it would be to not do what everyone else is doing.  Get it here.

Even though I’ve gotten some great ideas from the Seth Godin books, the one book that I’m definitely going to read again is Go-Giver.  I truly want to model my life and business after the ideas in that book.  I love giving and the feeling I get from helping someone else out.   I’ve always wondered why I never minded helping my friends move.  haha

Has anyone else read the Go-Giver?

**Links to products in this post are amazon affiliate links. **

Related posts:

1. $1800 and some Books to Give Away
2. P90x: Week #1 in the books
3. Probate Monday – Week #1 Update – Ron Mead

That is the reason I picked up Seth Godin’s All Marketers are Liars Tell Stories.  I became a big fan of Seth after reading his last book Tribes.  He has a clear and concise way of explaining complex theories by relating the topics to stories and life experiences.

All Marketers Are Liars Tell Stories is the same book as All Marketers Are Liars accept he re-jacketed it with the new name and changed the introduction a bit.  The reason for the change was simply about marketing, go figure!

The premise of the book is that what sells in today’s world is not a product or a service, but the stories behind those items.  If there is no story,  the story is the wrong one for the target market or the story is not true then the product will fail to sell.

It’s a simple concept to understand, but not very simple to pull off.  The characteristics of a great story are as follows…

- Must be true
- You as the marketer must believe it to be true
- Your target audience must believe it to be true

As marketers, your job is not to convince people that your story is true, it is to find those people who already have the same world view as you do and then share your story with them.  Only then will your product be truly successful over a long period of time.

This is an outstanding book, and one I’m going to buy again.  uhhh buy again?  Yup!  That is because I’m going to give this book away to the first person who posts a comment saying “I WANT IT SCOTT!”.

After every book I read, I am going to be giving it away to the first poster, so if you want to have a chance to be the first commenter you should sign up for my RSS feed or email subscription.

If you have also read this book, I’d love to hear what you thought about it.

Related posts:

1. Book Review: Tribes by Seth Godin
2. Book Review: Start With Why by Simon Sinek
3. Book Review: Get of Your “BUT”! by Sean Stephenson

I’m sure most of you who read my blog already have downloaded the 7 Day Action Plan e-book that Shae Bynes, over at GoodFaithInvesting.com has put together.  If you have not, then head on over to her site and fill out the form.

I just finished reading through all 17 pages.  I must say,  Shae really managed to break down the proper way to take action and succeed.  I’ve done a lot of research, read many books and experimented with different methods on this subject and and it was amazing how all my most successful techniques where covered here.

I am not just saying these nice things because Shae is my friend.  We both have no problem calling each other out if we feel something is not right.  This is a fine product and one I have no problems recommending.    Here are some “quick hit” points about the 17 page e-book that I liked…

• No Fluff!
• She gets right to it.  (if you’ve read other e-books that have taken 20 pages to get to the good stuff you know what I mean)
• Simple steps that anyone can accomplish
• Supplies forms for you to fill out and help you organize your plan
• Caring.  Shae truly cares about helping you out

7 Day Real Estate Action Plan is a great launching point for someone who is just getting started in REI as well as for someone who is stuck in a rut.  It’s a quick and easy read so head on over to Shae’s Blog and sign up to receive your Free copy before she wises up.

Related posts:

1. action
2. Giveaway #3: Flip This REO eBook by Stephani Davis
3. business plan

Tribes: We Need You to Lead Us by Seth Godin

This book is all about leading groups of people that Seth refers to as Tribes. From the jacket cover…A tribe is any group of people, large or small, who are connected to one another, a leader, and an idea.

Tribes

A tribe is not an organization, large company or a gathering of people.  It is a group of people who are passionate about a belief.  An easy example of this are the Apple Fanboys.  For those that don’t follow technology, an apple fanboy is widely know to be blindly favorable to all things that Steve Jobs introduces.  It’s not because they think his products are the best, but because they believe in what Steve believes.   Steve Jobs has form a tribe of fans who believe that products should challenge the limits of technology and are simple to use.

You can also consider his employees as a tribe because they all believe in the vision of the company and will work hard to be inventive and think outside of the box in order to further their beliefs.  This is in stark contrast to the cashier at your local Wall-mart who is just going through the paces because that is how he makes money to feed his kids.

In the modern day of marketing it’s no longer good enough to put advertisements out there in all the media outlets like TV, radio and on the internet.  That doesn’t work very well and the companies that are stubborn and want to stick with what has worked in the past have all started to fade.  To be successful you must find the passionate people. The people who will follow you to the ends of the earth.  The people who agree with your vision.

Apple and Google are great examples of giant companies who lead tribes.  But, forming a small tribe can be just as effective as a large one.  Take a look at such real estate investors like Steve Cook, Vena Jones-Cox and even Bob Norton.  Over time they have built up a small following of devoted followers who will buy any product they put out.  These fans will not only buy the products but will recommend them to other investors as if it where a reaction.  That right there is the magic of tribes.  No salesman can sell as well as a friend who recommends a product.

Tribes can also be related to investing.  If you can find people who are passionate in the same vision you have for your investing career, you can feed off each other and help each other reach heights like no other.

Leading a Tribe

Seth Godin’s purpose for writing this book is not for you to become a member of a tribe.  Those people aren’t going to be successful in many cases.  Seth preaches that you need to become the Leader of a tribe.  There are tribes of people out there who lack leadership, they lack a person who breaks the mold and challenges the status quo.  When this happens, tribes die and turn into a group of people with no heart and then become irrelevant.

Leaders are those people who show up everyday trying to think outside of the box to figure out the “impossible.”  They aren’t afraid to challenge the status quo, they are always looking for ways to break free of it.  If people laugh at what you are doing or call you names, then you are on the right track.  Just think of all the people who say real estate investing doesn’t work and then take a look at Steph Davis and you’ll see what a leader looks like.

People who are leaders will attract people who have the same thoughts and feelings.  Those people will become your tribe.  Leaders are charismatic, not because they were born that way, it developed over time.  A leader doesn’t have to be rich, extroverted, loud, energetic or even good looking.  Leaders come from all walks of life and rise when you least expect them to.

You don’t need to be in a position of power to lead.  Many of the greatest tribe leaders where cashiers, burger flippers or just a car enthusiast who had an idea, found a group of people with the same ideas and went for it.  All it takes to lead is passion, ability to overcome your fear and not listening to all the people who wither at the sight of authority and stay on the straight, narrow, status quo line.

Conclusion

I really enjoyed reading this book and would highly recommend it!  The leadership ideas where very similar to another one of my favorite books Start With Why by Simon Sinek.

At the end of this book Seth suggests that I give this book to someone else as to spread the word and help the world find new readers.  So the first person who comments and says “I WANT THE BOOK” I will send it to you free of charge.

If you miss out on the free book,  you can get it for $14 over at amazon

Tribes: We Need You to Lead Us

Related posts:

1. Book Review: Start With Why by Simon Sinek
2. Book Review: The Five Major Pieces to the Life Puzzle
3. Book Review: Get of Your “BUT”! by Sean Stephenson

I’m really starting to enjoy books that are based on human psychology.  Being able to understand why people do what they do is mind blowing because in the normal scheme of the world people’s choices make no sense.  I mean, why do we buy certain products?  What attracts us to a company or another person?

These are all interesting questions, but the other side of the story is intriguing as well. What this book really focuses on is how do we create a following and develop loyalty?  As investors, this is so very important because we are always selling services to sellers, creating partnerships with other investors and people with money.  We want them to choose us over anyone else.  We want them to think of us when the time comes and this book can help you to make that happen.

All businesses function on 3 levels; What you do, How you do it and Why you do it.  As Simon says though, “The problem is, most don’t even know that Why exists.”

Why You Do It

Why is the purpose, cause or belief.  The Why is your driving motivation for action.

When starting a company or any type of journey the very first thing we should all figure out is Why we are doing it?  This is critical and without a ‘why’ we are destined to fail.  Why isn’t money. Money is a measuring stick to measure your success.  ‘Why’ is the reason you do what you do and the reason you will attract people to you and keep their loyalty.

Being able to explain why you do something is not easy, in fact it’s almost impossible in most instances.  Try explaining why you love your wife?  Sure you can give examples of her features, but the true reason is the feeling you get when you are close to her.  You can’t explain it, it’s just love.  ‘Why’ is a feeling and we all know how hard it is to put your feelings into words.

How You Do It

How is the guiding principles.  The Hows are the specific actions that are taken to realize your Why.

Once the ‘Why’ is in place, you can then focus on how you are going to accomplish it.  I know I want a life of freedom from bosses, one of controlling my own day.  To achieve this, one of my How’s is to invest in real estate. The way I go about investing is my ‘How’.

To put it simply, the Hows are your road map to the end goal.  It’s the hiring people to help you purchase houses or finding sellers to take you up on your offers.  The key to your How is to find people who align with your Why, people who believe in the same thing you do.

What You Do
What is the tangible proof, the results.  The Whats are the tangible ways in which you bring your Why to life.

What investor’s do is Buy and Sell houses, this is our service.  When trying to sell a service to someone many people make the mistake of trying to sell their product.  They list the features, the benefits and the great price.  We see this every day of our lives.  This may breed short term success, it is very costly over the long haul.

Look at all the truly successful investors and you’ll see that they barely have to market anymore.  The deals just seem to land in their laps.  Why is this?  It’s because they’ve created relationships based on their ‘Why’, not by selling people on their products.

Conclusion

This book was a real eye opener on why people are so loyal to certain products and services.  A great example, that runs throughout this book, is Steve Jobs and Apple.  People who buy Apple products will do so not because they are the cheapest or because they are the best, but because they agree with what apple represents.  That may not make sense to you now, but read this book and it will for sure.

I really enjoyed this book and can, with out a doubt, use the Golden Circle concept in my real estate investing business.  My only gripe with the book is that Simon kept going back to the Apple/Steve Jobs example to prove his point.  Maybe that was because I’m a PC not a MAC kind of guy.

If you are interested in reading this book you can get it here…

Start with Why(affiliate link)

Related posts:

1. Book Review: The Five Major Pieces to the Life Puzzle
2. Book Review: Get of Your “BUT”! by Sean Stephenson
3. Book Review: Switch, How to Change Things When Change is Hard

The book I just finished is called Switch: How to Change Things When Change Is Hard (affiliate link) by Chip Heath and Dan Heath.  It was recommended by Pat Flynn from SmartPassiveIncome.com one a couple of his blog posts so I had to go out a get it.  This book explains how the mind works when it comes to trying to make a major change in our lives or in the actions of other people.  Change is never easy, but if we understand how our mind works in conjunction with our emotions it is very possible to alter our actions and create new habits.

Many books talk about goal setting as a way to motivate and direct yourself in order to achieve all you want in life.  This can be an ingredient to success, but as this book explains there are some very important factors that will get in the way and prevent you from fulfilling even your most desired goals.

This book review is going to be more then just a review as Switch really struck a cord in me and made me realize why I’ve failed in the past at getting myself to change as well as getting other people to change.  In our brains their are two distinct parts that must work together if we have any hopes of our end goal.  There is the rational side that will think a process through, analyze everything and come up with a plan.  The book calls this side The Rider (you’ll understand why in a second).  The other part of the brain is the emotional side, this is were your passion, intensity and energy comes from.  It’s the part of you that is instinctive, that feels pain and pleasure.  This is called your Elephant!

This makes perfect sense if you think about the Rider on top of the Elephant controlling it’s movements and directions.  Our rational side of the brain is the one that controls our emotions right?  When you get into a heated argument, your rational side (Rider) will take a hold of  your emotional reigns (the elephant) to settle you down.  The Rider is good at foregoing instant gratification in order to focus on a larger future prize.  The Elephant on the other hand wants action and instant gratification and will put it’s head down with disregard for the ramifications.

One big problem however!  It’s exhausting for the Rider to control the Elephant and eventually he will tire and lose out.  A great example of this is going to the gym.  Sure in the beginning it’s fairly easy to get yourself up off the couch and get to the gym that first week.  Come the second and third weeks you find it harder and harder to get yourself out the door to the gym.  Then one day that couch is just too comfortable or that TV show is too interesting and you skip the gym.  What happened in this scenario is your rational side of the brain got worn out and your laziness won.  You see, being lazy is instantly gratifying to your elephant.  Going to the gym is a long term goal and the results aren’t seen for a long time which doesn’t please the elephant and is the reason you must constant battle with yourself to get to exercise.

So you are wondering how can you overcome this battle?  Good question!  You have to motivate the elephant by finding that trigger, that feeling of emotion.  Think back to when you first decided to go to the gym, what did you see, hear or experience that gave you that will power?  That is what got you to the gym and working hard for that first week, the two sides of your brain agreed that it was a good idea.  Only problem is that you lost no weight the first week and your need for instant gratification quickly went away a yearned for sitting on that enjoyable, relaxing couch.

If you can continually find that motivation to go to the gym eventually it will form a habit.  A habit is something that is second nature, and does not require the Rider to pull and tug on the elephants reigns, thus becoming effortlessly.  I know this is heavy stuff, but if you break it down and put it up against your own life I bet you will see that the theory is right on.

Now lets get into how to actually make one of those hard changes.  There are tricks to reaching both parts of your brain…

Direct the Rider:

For newbie real estate investors, the rider is the one to blame for analysis paralysis.  With so much information out there and so many choices the Rider needs some direction.  To make a change you must be convinced that it’s a good idea first.  Sometimes this is simple, while other times not so much.  As real estate investors we all at one point had to convince ourselves that being an investor was a better option than what we had been doing previously.  So how to direct  the Rider?

Follow The Bright Spots: Seek out someone who is a successful investor and mimic what they do.  I’m sure you’ve heard this advice many times before like I have.  Now you know why it’s important, because it shows us investing can work and how we should proceed.

Script the Critical Moves:  This is not your business plan, it involves a specific behavior.  As a real estate investor, I’m going to go to an REIA meeting once a month.  Scripting your moves is about giving direction to the rider at the start or you will get confused and eventually give up.  It’s the first step.

Point to the Destination: Last but not least is setting a goal.  Change is easier if you know where you are going and why you want to get there.

Motivate the Elephant

For some of us the motivation is family, for others it was the experience of near foreclosure that is the motivation.  You ever get that nervous feeling in your stomach when you have a large task in front of you?  That’s your elephant trying to turn around for the couch and TV.  Have you ever noticed that it’s easier to accomplish a daunting task when you are inspired by others who are working towards a similar goal?  The Heath brothers outline three methods for motivating the elephant to look past the short term and work towards that long term goal.

Find the Feeling: Emotion is a powerful thing that can get you over the hump.  Finding the feeling refers to figuring out what motivates you.  For me it’s spending more time with my family and not turning into my dad who at the age of 68 is working harder then ever.  Anytime I think about giving up, I think of my dad and it keeps me moving forward.

Shrink the Change: Any change can be broken down to smaller achievements which will feel less daunting and will be much quicker and easier to accomplish.  Shrinking the change is a way to trick the elephant and build momentum.  Once you accomplish a few smaller successes, you will be well on your way to a full change.

Grow Your People: Have you ever noticed how emotional people get about something they are passionate about?  The reason for this is because it is their identity, it’s the way they define themselves and how they measure up to other people.  It’s all about pride.  If you can develop a sense of pride towards your goal, change will be that much easier.

Shape the Path

Shaping the path is how you guarantee success.   We all get side tracked by something on television, checking our email 25 times a day or anything else that is a constant interruption.  All these things distract you from changing and tempt the elephant to abandon the path.  There are ways to keep focus and to greatly improve your ability to completely and successfully change.

Tweak the Environment: If you continually check your email, turn off the notifications.  If watching TV has become a problem and takes up hours of your day, cancel your cable.  By changing small things in your everyday environment it can have huge positive results in keeping you on path.

Build Habits: Once a habit is formed you no longer have to exhaust valuable energy trying to control the elephant.   For some people going to the gym is easy, and the reason is because it is habit.  As real estate investors we have to create habits in order to be successful.  Form habits to call people back right away, keep your word and do your due diligence.

Rally the Heard: Behavior is contagious. The best way to rally yourself is to put yourself in a situation where other people are succeeding.  The good feelings will transfer to you.  Avoid opposite minded people as they will bring you down.  Encourage others and be encouraged by others.

Conclusion

Whether you are changing yourself or a group of people, change is very hard.  This book does a wonderful job at making sense of why people fail and what has to be done in order to be successful.  As you can tell I loved this book and recommend that everyone read it.  I’ve been trying to apply it’s teachings to everything I do, from my JOB to going to the gym.  I’m going to leave you with a few quotes from the book…

• “The weakness of the Elephant, our emotional and instinctive side, is clear: It’s lazy and skittish, often looking for the quick payoff over the long-term payoff.”
• “For things to change, somebody somewhere has to start acting differently.  Maybe it’s you, maybe it’s your team.  Picture that person.”
• “The Problem is this:  Often the heart and mind disagree. Fervently.”

Purchase Here: Switch: How to Change Things When Change Is Hard (affiliate link)

Related posts:

1. Book Review: Get of Your “BUT”! by Sean Stephenson
2. Book Review: The Five Major Pieces to the Life Puzzle
3. Hard, Smart and Consistent

When Steph Davis (flipthiswholesaler.net) picked Sean’s book Get Off Your “But”: How to End Self-Sabotage and Stand Up for Yourself (affiliate link) I quickly jumped on amazon and ordered it.  It took me about 4 days to read it and I was pissed when I got to the last page because there wasn’t more.

The book is simply about overcoming your own, self inflicted obstacles in order to live a fulfilled life.  The lesson in the book centers around the the BUTs in your life…

I would have asked that investor to help me out BUT they won’t want to talk to me because I’m a new to the game

I would have called that seller back BUT I am not experienced enough to handle his situation

I would have bought that house BUT I am nervous about what to do next

…and helps you overcome them.

Sean Stephenson is a psychotherapist and professional speaker who is a master at reversing self-doubt and lifting emotional bottle necks in other people.  He also is living with a disease called Brittle Bones Disease which has caused him to break 100′s of bones in his body.  If after seeing what he looks like and then seeing how confident and socially relaxed he is,  this book will blow your mind and inspire you to ask the question…”Why am I holding myself back by letting the BUT’s of my life get in the way?”.   I know I have since I read this book.

Before I end this book review I wanted to share one story from the book that really shocked me and made every obstacle in my life seem like a pencil on the ground in front of me…

Sean’s favorite holiday was Halloween.  He enjoyed that day because it was the only time of the year where he could be like everyone else.  As the hour approached to go trick or treating, Sean was getting so excited that while he was rolling around on the floor (his disease left his legs useless) he accidentally banged into the door jam which broke his femur.  The pain was unbearable!  His mother came running into the room to see what was wrong.  She saw what happened and didn’t call 911 or yell for help, all she could do for Sean was sit by his side.

You see, because of the brittle bones disease, Sean could not be moved, casted or anything else for fear that other bones would break.  Sean’s only course of action was to stay completely still for 6 weeks, laying in the same spot on the floor where he broke his femur, until it healed.   Who can ever imagine having to overcome that?  Sean has and did.  That to me is amazing!

Go pick up this book and read it.  Amazon has it for about $14.

Get Off Your “But”: How to End Self-Sabotage and Stand Up for Yourself (affiliate link)

Related posts:

1. Book Review: The Five Major Pieces to the Life Puzzle
2. Review: Secrets of the Millionaire Mind
3. A Book About Me??

Five Major Pieces to the Life Puzzle (affiliate link)

I’ve never heard of this book before or even Jim Rohn so I had no preconceptions going in.  After going through the first few pages I was getting the feeling the ton of the book was going to be one of preaching.  Nobody likes to be preached to, but I read on and I’m glad I did.

Jim brings you full circle from philosophy to desired life style.  He really focused on building a better you through dealing with your attitude, actions and discipline.  Each aspect of our personality must work together for us to achieve or full potential.  With out the proper philosophy your attitude will hinder you.  Without the property attitude your actions will never lead you to your goals.  With out action there will be no positive results to build your confidence.  Without results, the lifestyle you desire will be unattainable.

I can’t begin to tell you how powerful I think this book is.  It really cemented into my brain that it all starts with how I think, but that is not enough to think or take action, I have to always be learning, adjusting and growing.

I will be reading this book again in the near future.  Here are a few powerful quotes from the book…

Failure’s most dangerous attribute is it’s subtlety. Sometimes we don’t even know we are failing because that failure had little to no effect on us at the time.  These failures aren’t always acts, but sometimes just a miss judgment.

Failure is nothing more then a few errors in judgment repeated everyday. We do not fail over night, failure is an accumulation of poor thinking and poor choices.

Small neglects have a way of becoming major over sites with the passage of time. It is very easy to get off track if you don’t put the effort in to stay the course.  1 degree off at the beginning could cause you to move way off line with your long term goals.

Life is not designed to give rewords in proportion to our level of need, it gives them in proportion to our level of deserve.

You can buy the book at amazon for $10:Five Major Pieces to the Life Puzzle (affiliate link)

Related posts:

1. Review: 4 Hour Work Week
2. Review: Secrets of the Millionaire Mind
3. A Book About Me??

T Harv doesn’t blame you for having the money habits you have (at first). It is ingrained into your subconscious by all the childhood messages you get about money.  If your parents were like mine, they always taught you that hard work was the way to earn money, heck they would give you chores to do and then give you an allowance based on the chores.  We were taught to be cautious with our money, but never how to use that money.

This book is a lot like Rich Dad, Poor Dad in that it describes how the rich talk about money versus how the poor/middle class do.   If you read it and can get passed the corny declarations (Hold your hand to your heart and declare “I will continually learn and grow” then place your hand to your head and say “I have a millionaire mind!”) then you will be able to learn much from this book.  I’m going to listen to the audios again because I definitely didn’t absorb all what Eker was saying.

Overall I give this book 4 out of 5 stars.  The lessons are there but it comes across as a little brain washy, but then again you’ve been brainwashed to think of money as you do so maybe that is a good thing.

Amazon has this book for $14.93: Secrets of the Millionaire Mind: Mastering the Inner Game of Wealth

Related posts:

1. Review: 4 Hour Work Week
2. Blank Mind
3. Rich Dad, Poor Dad

I have always been a proponent of working smarter not harder.  I am a computer programmer by trade which really helps me think in terms of automation.  Every day in my J.O.B. I analyze situations and try to create a process that can be run with as little human intervention as possible.  Nothing annoys me more then having to run an 8 step process, manually, every day or even once a week.  So I work hard up front in order to save me tons of time in the future.

That is the key here and the main thing I got out of the book The 4 Hour Work Week – by Tim Ferriss.  Most people are lazy and will just keep doing what they’ve been doing because it’s easy and comfortable.  Easy yes, but time consuming.  It takes a lot of motivation and time to analyze, rework and develop an automated system.   I mean you usually don’t get it right the first, second or even third time.  I guarantee you though that the time spent up front will be nothing compared to the time you will regain in the future.

The book is a quick read and very entertaining as Tim Ferriss gives you a first hand experience of a life with little work and lots of play.   I myself don’t strive to travel the world and live in foreign countries for months at a time learning how to kick box, ballroom dance or learn other languages.  That may have been his dream and even if it’s not yours you can still learn tons from this book.

80/20!  The Pareto principle which breifly stated says that, for many events, roughly 80% of the effects come from 20% of the causes.  For example,

• 80% of the wealth in the world is owned by 20% of the people.
• 80% of my daily work is done in 20% of my day
• 80% of your sales will come from 20% of your clients
• 80% of your sales leads will come from 20% of your marketing
• 80% of your flips will be sold to 20% of your buyers list

The concept here is that if you only focus on that 80% you will free up TONS of your time.  Lets illustrate this for a second.  You have a Marketing Plan that requires you to send mailers to 100 Foreclosure Leads, 100 Probate Leads, 100 Absentee owners and 100 Code Violations.   If  80% of your business comes from Probates and Code Violations, then cutting out Foreclosures and Absentee owners would cut your time spent on marketing in HALF and you would only be trimming your profit by 20%.  Think of what you can accomplish with an extra 50% of your time!   The main idea here is don’t go spending 50% of your time chasing 20% of the leads.

The 4 Hour Work Week got my mind thinking and that really is why I read it.  If you can get the audio version of this book I would highly recommend listening to it on your way to and from work.  I’ve heard some people describe this book as the 21st century version of Rich Dad, Poor Dad and I have to agree.  Life is too short to be stuck spending 80% of your life working just so you can live the last 20% comfortably.

Go out an read this book.

-Scott Costello

Buy it Here…The 4-Hour Work Week: Escape 9-5, Live Anywhere, and Join the New Rich

Related posts:

1. 4 hour work week
2. What to work on?
3. Rich Dad, Poor Dad