In a conversation I had with Matt Humphrey, who is a start-up enthusiast that has created multiple companies from the ground up, he provided me with two valuable lessons he learned from both his successes and his failures in business.
Matt’s latest start-up is a real estate lending company. The idea for the company was sparked by a need that Matt had identified in the marketplace, and he created a profitable lending company to fulfill that need. The lesson he learned for how to launch a successful business, and the subsequent advice he would give to anyone that is trying to start their own profitable real estate career, is to find great people that have done it before you and try to learn from them. And what better place to find experienced, successful real estate professionals to learn from than using online real estate forums like BiggerPockets! Before BiggerPockets or the Internet, investors had to get the majority of their education in person, whether it was at seminars, courses, on the job shadowing of other investors, etc. While these are still good avenues to learn from, you can’t beat the BiggerPockets forums. What other educational platform allows you to learn while you are still at home in your pajamas? Also, you can leverage platforms like YouTube, Podcasts, and other FREE real estate education sources online. With so much free real estate information at your fingertips, it’s tough to make excuses for not getting out there, learning, and taking massive action!
Matt also provided a valuable lesson he learned through his failures, because not all of his start-up businesses were met with success. Actually, Matt has had his brush with failure on more than one occasion; he has lost a total of four businesses. As a result, his best real estate investing advice, and life advice in general, is that “if you don’t grit through some of the downs, you’ll never see the ups.” We have all seen quotes about failure, defeat, and never giving up. However, Matt is the real life exemplification of these quotes in action. Without these failures, he would have never known what it took to be successful and more importantly, what NOT to do. That is why he is a firm believer in the trial & error learning approach. If something doesn’t work out, instead of quitting, change course. And keep changing course until you’ve found the most effective, profitable technique or business model, and then focus 100% of you energies towards exploiting the heck out of it!
What is one effective and profitable technique you’ve exploited that generated massive amounts of results?
Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed in this blog post are provided for informational purposes only, and should not be construed as an offer to buy or sell any securities or to make or consider any investment or course of action.
