An unknown author once said, “We too often love things and use people when we should use things and love people.”
On a broad scope, there are two types of people in this world: Those who are respectful of your time and those who are not. The objective of those who are not – and, therefore, have no qualms about using people for their personal gain – is to get something for nothing. Consciously or subconsciously, their modus operandi are to psychologically abuse you by dangling in front of you a carrot called, “yet-to-be-realized revenues.” Perhaps this makes them feel superior and entitled to disrespect your time.
They expect you to be at their beck and call any time of day or night (e.g., well beyond 9 p.m. and even on weekends). They firmly believe that they have the right to be short-tempered with you. It sounds like the beginning of a master-slave relationship, doesn’t it? Due to the nature of our business, real-estate professionals can easily fall into this trap – if you’re not careful.
Recently, after I became a real-estate broker to better manage our own investments, this type of situation happened to me for a couple of months in a row during the first quarter of this year – resulting in a break from my ability to create 12 consecutive months of positive cash flow. As I write, I am still paying for the effects of it in the form of catch-up activities for all of the time spent away from my core business.
Any time there is a break in our monthly positive cash flow from our investments, I reset the clock. (This is my self-imposed restriction BEFORE allowing myself to publish my book #2, focused on the topic of investing outside of Wall Street.)
I forgive those who have proven themselves to be disrespectful of my time. And, yes, I forgive myself as well for the big mistake I made by allowing this to happen in the first place. I don’t have time to stew over things that will produce nothing positive in the end. That said, will I give another chance to those who blatantly abused my time? Now that I know their true colors, it is highly unlikely.
A lesson learned is this: If you let them, people WILL walk all over you. So it is up to you to decide (1) what your focus needs to be each and every day and (2) how you expect others to treat you.
Thankfully, almost all of the people I count as long-time investor friends and colleagues treat me with dignity and respect. What had happened recently was an anomaly and I am determined NEVER to let it happen again. After all, my life since 2000 has been focused on remaining financially free and independent – so that I can spend my time doing what I want, with whom I want, when I want, and wherever I want.
I firmly believe that obstacles exist to make you stronger. Armed with all of the technical tools and financing necessary to achieve 12 consecutive months of positive cash flow, it will be interesting to see how many other roadblocks I may encounter on my way to achieving what still remains as a lofty goal.
Happy investing!
