Serendipity abounds, there are no coincidences. It’s a phrase I often use in attempt to explain the abundance of goodness that exists among what people normally perceive as ordinary. Such was the remarkable life and the historical contributions of Martin Luther King Jr. The actual imprint he will have left on humanity will long survive the fading memory of the significance of his contributions.

Just as Martin Luther impacted the religious traditions of the known world by triggering the protestant reformation with the tacking of his famous 95 Theses to the door of the Wittenberg church in 1517, MLK is singularly credited as being the progenitor of the modern civil rights movement in the United States. The parallels of significance between these two seemingly very different personalities and the depth of contribution to civilization cannot be understated, although a parallel is rarely, if ever drawn.  Read More→

For some reason, many folks think luck plays an important role in whether a real estate investor is successful or not.  The truth is, luck plays almost no part in an investor’s success – or lack thereof. 

Think of it this way: Let’s say you decide to run a five-kilometer (3.1 miles) race three months from today.  You run every morning.  Each morning, you run a little further than the day before.  Finally, two weeks before your big race, you’re able to run four miles without stopping.  When race day comes, you easily cross the finish line – raising your arms in celebration for having achieved your goal.  Here’s the important question: Was your success due to luck or was it due to persistence and determination? Read More→

In business, goal setting encourages business owners to put in substantial effort. Also, because every one has defined expectations for their role, little room is left for inadequate effort to go unnoticed. Goals are therefore an important tool for business owners, since goals have the ability to function as a self-regulatory mechanism that everyone involved put forth a certain level of activity. Shalley, Locke and Latham have distilled four mechanisms through which goal setting can affect individual performance:

1. Goals focus attention towards goal-relevant activities and away from goal-irrelevant activities.
2. Goals serve as an energizer; higher goals induce greater effort while low goals induce lesser effort.
3. Goals affect persistence; constraints with regard to resources affect work pace.
4. Goals activate cognitive knowledge and strategies that help employees cope with the situation at hand.

On Monday, January 9th at the Atlanta REIA Main Meeting & New Year’s Celebration, I will be talking about how we can all set some realistic, easily achievable goals to make 2012 our most successful and profitable year ever. I hope to see you there! Read More→

To be or not to be – that is the question.  Are you a monomaniac on a mission, or are you a wandering generality?  It’s YOUR choice to make.

It pains me when someone answers, “I don’t know, I never really thought about it,” to the question, “What are your goals?” 

A person with written, clearly defined goals becomes something like a magnifying glass.  Goals allow one to take scattered energy – like the sun’s rays – and focus that energy into a single point of immense power.  On the other hand, a person without goals is like a wind-up toy that hits a wall, bounces off, heads in another direction, hits a wall, bounces off, heads in another direction, hits a wall…you get the idea – no focus and no direction. Read More→

Over the years, Kim and I have had the opportunity to work with a lot of folks who are interested in learning more about real estate investing.  Deep down they know their work-for-the-man-forty-hours-a-week jobs, going into debt to support their keeping-up-with-the-Jones’ lifestyles and not investing for retirement is nothing more than a recipe for financial disaster.

Jack Miller said it best: It’s inconvenient to be physically alive but financially dead. Read More→

A few weeks ago, Kim and I left out of Tampa on a five-day cruise to Cozumel and Costa Maya.  Our goal was to inspect and photograph Jewel of the Seas – the cruise ship we’ll be on when we do our first annual Captains of the Deal Cruise in 2013 for real estate investors. (See CaptainsOfTheDeal.com)

When we were underway, Kim and I did what lots of folks do – we went to the bow (front) of the ship to see what we could see.  We met a young couple there.  The guy, of course, stood on the rail with his arms outstretched and screamed, “I’m king of the world!” Read More→

When you are married and work together like Bill and I do, sometimes it’s easy to take one another for granted.

Several months ago, in an attempt to help Bill catch up on work, I took over the clean-out and marketing of one of our vacant homes. I don’t have the landlording experience that Bill has, so I assumed the task would be a breeze.

I took Bill’s 6-page To-Do List and went to work.  I cleaned the house from top to bottom, raked and bagged the leaves, and gave everything a good sprucing up.  Then I staged it with everything from tables and chairs to towels and toilet paper.  I made sure there were flyers in the box and applications in the house.  I updated the ads every few days and made sure the directional signs were pointing toward the house.  I kept referring back to Bill’s To-Do List to make sure I wasn’t forgetting anything.  Thank goodness for that list! Read More→