You're about to discover the missing ingredient to most real estate investors success recipe. It's not a specific investing technique or strategy. Instead, it affects the ability of a real estate entrepreneur to withstand the inevitable obstacles that will most certainly try to keep them from reaching the top of their success summit. In fact, what you're about to learn will be as helpful to your career in real estate as anything you'll learn from me. Here is the missing real estate success ingredient...
Missing Real Estate Success Ingredient
What I've also discovered is there's other challenges that are going to go against your ability to finally break through, and this ingredient I want to share with you here is missing because I guess some people feel like either, A, it's not that important, B, maybe they feel like they're too good for it, C, some just don't make the time, but what I want to point out is this ingredient is emotional and mental armor. Armor. Like a soldier in a battle has armor, back in the old days, or if you're a construction worker and you're putting on a hard helmet, you're going to have some sort of protection.
Emotional and Mental Armor
I believe that real estate investors need emotional and mental armor or protection. Emotional, mental. Because not only is the road to real estate success not a straight, paved, comfortable suburban drive, it's more like a mountainous road with switchbacks and all kinds of different directions, but then you have to deal with the fact that there's people in your life, friends, family, co-workers, associates, just people you run into in the business, and they're always yapping in your ear, aren't they? It can be as innocent as being at a Superbowl party, for example, and someone saying, "So, have you closed any deals recently?" or "How long you been doing that real estate thing? Oh, four months. Have you closed a deal yet? None yet? Oh, wow. Okay." It can be that innocent, which could completely deflate you.
It can be as human nature-like as those that want to bring you back down to their level. Some may consider what I'm about to share a little bit controversial, but I believe it to be true because I've seen it so often in life, and that is a lot of people don't really want you to be successful. Have you ever seen crabs in a box? I want you to picture a little box about that high, whereby the crab does have the ability to crawl out themselves. If you've ever seen this before, what'll happen is that one of the crabs is trying to crawl out. The other crabs in the box will pull them back down into the box. They really will, and humans do the same thing.
Delayed Gratification
Here you are trying to crawl out of your current economic situation and get into a better situation by investing in real estate and you've got these people pulling you back down, friends, family. Not everyone, but a lot of the people around you are probably not incredibly supportive, or if they are, they don't know how to be as supportive as they can be, so you've got the challenges of real estate, you have the issues of people trying to just pull you back down, and another problem with real estate that it may not apply to a lot of other industries is it's complete delayed gratification, meaning the effort you put in today, you bear fruit on months into the future. Minimum. Sometimes even longer depending on the kind of deals you're working on.
By contrast, if you owned a hot dog stand and you were selling hot dogs, you would get instant gratification. You're making the hot dogs, selling the hot dog, he gives you a dollar, and you just boom, boom, boom, boom, boom. At the end of the day, you can count up how many dollars you earned, how many hot dogs you sold. Real estate doesn't work that way. We humans have a very short memory in many cases, so what happens is the work you have done, you have forgotten about all that effort three or four months from now when you actually get the benefit, and so if you don't build a pipeline, that causes all sorts of stress, as well.
Armor
When you add all this up, real estate can be very, very difficult emotionally and mentally, and if you've been in the business a while, you're shaking your head, you know exactly what I'm talking about, so I believe that the missing ingredient for many real estate investors is armor. You need armor. What kind of armor am I talking about? This is specifically what I feel is the best armor you can put on. Stories of successful people. Those stories, they could be books. They could be documentaries. They could be made for TV movies. They could be true story, full-length feature films. They could be little snippets of little bios, any number of different ways in which you could get that information.
It doesn't have to be business. It could be sports. It could be political leaders, social leaders, anyone and everyone that you consider successful, that you highly respect. That is what you want to continue to soak into your brain consistently, and you don't grow out of this. This is armor. This is like the hard helmet on a construction site. It doesn't matter how successful that developer is. He's still putting the hard helmet on when he's going out there where they're building the development, so you don't grow out of this. In fact, I would argue that you actually have to do more and more the more successful you get because the more successful you get, the bigger of a target you become.
Study Success Stories
What this means is mentally, if your constantly soaking your brain with the stories of successful people, and you don't knock over the light that's helping light the video, when you do this, you're brain is going to constantly have the protection it needs when you're out there trying to make it happen, and that may sound simple, but it's incredibly powerful and very few people take advantage of it. I do see where some people will read books on success, and those are good. The Twelve Success Secrets of Successful Success People. That's fine, but I think it's even better to read the stories of people. Read their hurts and their pains and the bad times and what happened and what made the difference for them.
When you study successful people, successful peoples lives, they leave clues, and it not only strengthens you, but it also gives you great ideas, as well. I'll give you a good example. A great book would be Behind the Arches written by John P Love. It's the biography of the story of McDonald's, and most people know the corporation, McDonald's, and whether or not you agree with their menu selection, the one thing that is clear is that they have a very successful company, and the owner of that or the originator of that was Ray Kroc, and in that book, you read and you learn just how fragile that company was, how it could have gone out of business at any moment. You learn that Ray Kroc didn't earn a penny in the first seven years of the business, seven years, never took out a penny. Any money earned, he would throw back into paying company salaries and those sorts of things.
You learn just how difficult it was, and what happens is when you read these stories of successful people, in many cases, you realize that your situation may not be quite so bad. It is the armor to allow you to be protected from the elements, and in real estate, the elements typically aren't falling objects like you would see on a construction site. They're the emotional and mental arrows being thrown at you from all different directions. What it also does is it gives you staying power. I believe this message I'm sharing with you right here is valuable as anything I'll ever teach in any of my other videos, and if you see them, tens, if not hundreds, of thousands of views on some of my videos, and very, very popular for real estate investors, but this right here is so critical.
Staying Power
The ability to stay in the business long enough to produce great results. You've heard the phrase the harder I work, the luckier I get. Absolutely true, and I would add that as a real estate investor, the longer I stay in the business, the more opportunities I have because what happens is, inevitably, most people can't stick to anything long enough to see it work. We're here at the end of January, and for many of you, if you make New Year's resolutions, you might be here at the end of January and you're already slacking on your eating healthy, going to the gym routine. It's already starting to fall apart a little bit.
People have difficulty sticking to things long term, so when you can, when you have that staying power, magical things happen, so while the other people are busy sleeping and they're not following through, you're busy picking up great deals. Staying power. How do you make sure and insure staying power? Right here. This armor right here of the stories of successful people.
Another great example is something I just read recently is a book called The Billionaire Who Wasn't by Chuck Feeney. He, at one point, had earned over 4 billion dollars, and he had done it with duty-free shops in airports, specifically Honolulu airport, but also Guam and some other parts around the world, and his wife was a French citizen and they set up residency in the Bahamas. This guy's originally from New York, but he figured out how to avoid paying IRS taxes, so he made 4 billion dollars and nobody knew about it, and then he gave it all away without anybody knowing either. He had his attorneys make sure that if they gave money to a college or just whatever that it was strictly forbidden to mention that he gave the money, and if they did, he would stop funding, so literally, the guy gave away 4 billion dollars without anybody knowing. The name of the book is The Billionaire Who Wasn't.
These kinds of stories, and you read where he got started and where he tried to do duty-free sales of vehicles and it fell apart and he lost a ton of money and his entire business fell apart, but he picked himself back up. These kinds of stories, they're not just success principles necessarily. They're real lives of real people, and so I hope that one day when you look back, you will have read tens of thousands of biographies and autobiographies of successful people, and let me assure you, by the time you've done that, you will be the most successful person you ever thought you could have imagined yourself to be because you would have been soaking up that incredible information, day in, day out, year in, year out. That's your armor. That's protection to insure that you stay the course.
MAX TERAN says
Phil thanks so much for this inspiring video you know you are so right about you said about been on the look out for people want to drag you down to where they at. In the last two years I have read 23 books about successful people like Napoleon Hill Jim Rohn Earl Nightingale Dorothea Brande and many more and now you. I want you to be my mentor in real estate am a real estate agent since 2003 but I have not been really a success the way I want to be. Thanks
Bob says
Excellent message! The book I love to read: The Power of “I AM” by Joel Osteen
Gernot says
A great documentary on Russian hockey particularly Slava Fetisov the first Russian to be released not defect from the Red Army hockey program to play in the NHL and the first Russian to bring the Stanely Cup to the Red Square. The documentary is called The Miracle of Men.
Andrea says
Richard Branson: Screw it, let’s do it.
Anand, Madan says
Good Presentation. I am going through what mentioned in this presentation. My own dear ones are throwing stones on my path to progress by creating a bad atmosphere in home. I am 68 and still that fire is burning in me to go for my goals. But I always remember one thing and it is the Age Old saying in India and I quote:-
“When a pet elephant walks through the villages with his master, all the stray dogs of the village starts barking (Because they never saw an elephant before) but elephant undeterred, confidently walking towards his destination ignoring the barking Dogs.” Unquote.
Therefore I pickup again and keeping in mind that what I have to do, I have to do undeterred ignoring their ignorant state of mind. I hope above ancient Indian short story will offer some guidance to those who are sailing in the same boat as mine with many holes in the bottom.
Lior Cohen says
Check Weldon Long story
How one man broke a 20-year cycle of prison, poverty and addiction and built an Inc 5000 Company in 60 months. Visit
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_ed0R2OSGpk
Enjoy
Billy says
its frustrating sometimes. I often feel like the crab trying to get out of the box. Seems like with as many legs as I have I could kick them off but nothing seems to go right sometimes. one step forward two steps back. If it was easy everyone would do this. im like phil and will be homeless to prove a point that I can be successful and accomplish my goals. My favorite person that went through bad trials and persecution is Jesus in the Holy Bible.
Hosea says
Napoleon Hill: Think and grow rich !!!!!!!!!!!!!
Hosea
Audrey says
Great successful man. Bishop William Lee Bonner. His book is “And the High Places I’ll Bring Down.
Cory Baker says
Great Counsel! Books I liked: The One Minute Millionaire, Who Moved My Cheese, However Long and Hard the Road, Road to Wealth, Awaken the Giant Within. As for movies: Rudy, Rocky, Cool Runnings,The Pursuit of Happy ness, October Sky-which should have been called Rocket Boys, and the animation Meet the Robinsons
Cory Baker says
Oh, and I should have added the poem Don’t Quit….”When things go wrong, as they sometimes will, when the road you’re traveling is all uphill….”
or Mother Teresa’s, Do It Anyway…
Greg says
A couple of biographies which are a bit out of the norm but in my opinion great are Felix Dennis’s How to get Rich (he is the publisher of Maxim and other things) and the biography of Jay Gould a financier in the late 1800 who battled Vanderbilt over railroads and equity holdings in a much crazier time than now.
Greg says
A couple of biographies which are a bit out of the norm but in my opinion great are Felix Dennis’s How to get Rich (he is the publisher of Maxim and other things) and the biography of Jay Gould a financier in the late 1800 who battled Vanderbilt over railroads and equity holdings in a much crazier time than now. Thanks for all the great videos. Yours truly are the best of any I have found on line and I have relied on them to get to 11 houses right now with expectations of getting to 20 by the year end. And we are cash flow positive on every one of them too!)
Matthew Morrow says
Love your videos! I’m planning on picking up the book you mentioned. The last year I have read Davey Ramsey EntreLeadership, Every Day a Friday but Joel Osteen, And the Eat More Chic’kin biography about Chicfila Founder by S. Truett Cathy. Thank you for being an encourager. I’m modeling my youtube videos after yours as well. Look forward to meeting you one day! Have a blessed week!
Stan says
Hi Phil i would like to share my story of successes.
How i made $100 into $350.000 in just 7 years.
Hi My name is Stanislav Dzhindzhiev live in Pennsylvania born in Bulgaria move to USA when i was 17 Years old with only $100 in my name.Yes $100 which i spend in the first week 🙂 By the time i turn 21 had my own business which i have to this day. Now Im Real Estate Agent and Real Estate investor. Loved what i do……
“Hard work pays off in the long run”
D Rav says
Phil, once again, great talk! I am beginning to really like your content. Keep it coming.
You know, as my business grows, this is a questions I get a whole lot: “So, how many homes do you own now?”
I must say, as the number of properties owned INCREASES so does the anxiety in answering this question! Just like you said, often times, the inquirer is like the “hater” crab trying to pull me back to their (sub-optimal) financial level. They are asking because they are trying to find an “in” to my private business dealings, and perhaps (NOT in all cases), pull me down. I call these people haters.
What is the most clever way to answer this question??
Phil Pustejovsky says
“…It’s not about how many houses I own. It’s about how much money my investing endeavors create. And let’s just say, it is a good use of my time to continue with my real estate investing. I appreciate your concern over my financial well being. Speaking of which, how’s your money situation these days? Need a place to invest all that hard earned cash? Instead of paying that hedge fund hard money lender I work with, I have no issues paying that interest to you…” To which the person will probably make an excuse as to why they have no money right now and can’t invest with you.
Nay Watkins says
I have come very close to closing several deals and my issue was the inspection amount. It’s 600 but my return would have been 40k. I have gotten in touch with owner financing deals and tenants to move with 30k more than asking for down pay. However I needed the initial asking down to put under contract to turn around and put the home under a lease option with tenant. If I was in the mentoring program would I still come into these same issues or would my mentor fix those issues to close. If so what do I need to do to get a mentor.
Phil Pustejovsky says
Perhaps we would be able to help you navigate around certain deal expenses. For example, the inspection, is paid by the buyer and so if you are flipping the property to another buyer, you wouldn’t be the one paying for the inspection. I suggest you save up (or get access to) several thousand bucks as some seed capital for your fledgling business. That’s crazy that you would let a measly $600 stand in the way of $40,000.
steve says
I Have been through hell in last 5 years. Worked up to 3.5 million inn property. Muti. Family/ comercial.. Lost all by 2009. Near homeless. Grew legal pot no Jobs , to stay home with 3 years old.. Got in trouble with meds . Did 90 days in a county jail . Came out 30 below zero . No clothes. Son in chicago with mom. Did odd job repairs at hotel so i could see son. Got steady work repairs. Got sonback. Ok with mom. Moves to Texas. Sister help w son. Oilfeild truck job. Getting Ready to do deals Again. Life throughs
Phil Pustejovsky says
What a blessing it is that the oil industry is booming in North Dakota and Texas. It’s too bad that the best real estate investing environments are not way out in the country where all the oil is.
Sherwood says
Keep the vision. You are not a quitter and will eventually be very successful. I believe you are heading in the right direction except for your drug problem which is in the past now.
My wife has a track record of getting back on her feet and becoming financially well off and loosing it all. She has been down and out twice now because of outside forces. Now she is into real estate and is doing excellent.
Emily B says
Amazing Grace: William Wilberforce and the Heroic Campaign to End Slavery
The movie is excellent, the book is even better just cause it has more of the story.
Seriously an amazing person. He just NEVER GAVE UP. Took 40+ years of staying power to end slavery in England.
Phil Pustejovsky says
One of my favorite people ever. Wilberforce was a mighty, mighty man of God.
Kathy says
It seems that every time I’m going through some emotional struggle, you send out a bit of inspiration that lifts me up. Thanks. This little vid was the antidote to this weeks’ pity party.
Doug Cochran says
A great book I was given is called Succeeding Sane by Bonnie St. John. It seems geared toward female professionals, but it has a lot of things anyone can apply to their hectic lives. I have it at bedside and when I cant sleep or get up and have those times when I don’t want to get out of bed I grab that book and reread some parts.
walter says
Call Me Ted. By Ted Turner about what he went through in his life. Awsome
Marinus says
Team of Rivals Autobiography of Abraham Lincoln
nura says
Hi…i really enjoyed your vidio on armour.meaning to surround yourself with positiveness,power & People of strenght in order to be sucessful.i am a retired housing manager investigating real estate in south carolina
Rob Arnold says
I really got a lot out of the 4-hour work week by Tim Ferriss. Also Millionaire Real Estate Agent by Gary Keller. Both of those books talk about properly building up a business, weeding out inefficiencies, and automating as much as you can.
Phil Pustejovsky says
Thanks for sharing Rob. The problem with Ferriss’ book is that it is based on the premise that you can create a 4 hour work week by generating web traffic and converting it into sales and then setting it and forgetting it. That worked for him for about a year. The web changes constantly and whomever doesn’t stay on top of it falls behind. Ever since that book became a breakaway best seller, my understanding is that his work week increased dramatically. From those who know him, I have been told that he doesn’t live the 4 hour work week. Some of his 30,000 ft concepts are fantastic. But being able to pull the signal from all his noise is not easy for most people to distinguish. The Millionaire Real Estate Agent is fantastic.
Romeo says
One that has inspired me is the old movie ” Sargent York” w/ Gary Cooper in 1941. Hope it blesses you.
Mike says
I wish I had this video a couple months ago, now. Though the points you go over are hard to comprehend to the uninitiated viewer. Let me add to your warning, for all who are reading this and wish to get into real estate investing…
People are going to perceive you as some kind of con artist. They are ignorant about creative investing. They will be HOSTILE towards you. It will be inevitable. I went through 5 different title companies, and every time until the last, it was a miserable experience. The moment they hear that what you’re trying to do is not anything but hyper-traditional, or you’re not actually buying a house, etc, they get negative on you really fast. “What?!? You’re not a real estate agent? Are you licensed??? What is this!!!? Isn’t that ILLEGAL!!!?” (imagine a scolding, harsh tone, like a parent, who heard their kid went out spray-painting).
This extends to the people who you would expect to be highly knowledgeable, and professional. Like lawyers! I talked to a lawyer, and all he did was suggest it was illegal, dodge my questions about my local laws, and sent me to his buddy to get a referral commission. And he had the same scathing tone and attitude as some of the people I encountered finding a good title company. It’s taken me a long time to get my confidence back, after doing a lot of research and talking to a few people, I’m back on my little march towards success!
I didn’t have the armor I should have had, but I had my own determination. It was only barely adequate to stop me from giving up. This is why most people do give up, determination alone can fail you! You have to feel and believe you’re gonna make it all work out.
Phil, I have a reading recommendation for you, which I think you may enjoy.
It is a very unique book, to say the least. It does include in the first few chapters a story about a man who goes through an epic trial to accomplish his goals in life.
The title is “Outwitting The Devil”, by Napoleon Hill.
I’ve read it twice now, and I believe it is his best work of all (his other titles are NOT lacking, either). Due to It’s ability to help break down the barriers which stop most people from progressing in their lives, towards positive ends.
One fine day in the future, it would be fun to compare notes on this incredible work with you. I need to keep rolling with my business!
Phil Pustejovsky says
The issue I have with Napolean Hill is that he was broke at the end of his life because he didn’t practice what he preached. Had W. Clement Stone not picked him up and put him on some stages as a motivational speaker, he would have stayed broke. I still think the better approach is to read biographies and autobiographies of successful people. Napolean Hill wrote some great stuff but unfortunately, didn’t follow his own advice as much as he could have.
Tom Gates says
I was aware of this; I strongly suspect most are not. Thank-you for bringing clarity to their relationship. it was a fiduciary relationship.
Joe says
Phil,
Recently signed up for your program. Looking forward to it! I love this video…I learned just after college what reading inspirational books and stories can do for your confidence and personal development. I am halfway thru Steve Jobs autobiography. I would assume you have read it but if not, I highly recommend it! Learning about his life really gets you to think differently like Steve did. He didn’t care about money he just wanted to do something great.
Blessings
Joe
Jeffrey says
Hi Phil…I LOVE your videos. I watched all 50+ videos and read your book within a week. I plan on re-watching all your videos until I can teach them myself word-from-word.
Today I put in an offer on 2 different properties and looking at a new listing tomorrow. I don’t know if any of my offers will be excepted but…I am pushing forward.
You are a great instructor; I can relate to a lot of what you teach because of past experiences. You are my motivation!
Bradford Gonzalez says
My ultimate favorite success story is Michael Jordan’s. He was cut from his Varsity high school basketball team during try-outs for not being good enough. It’s interesting because he didn’t let that get him down, instead he trained harder and is now arguably the best player to ever play the game.
Phil Pustejovsky says
GREAT example!
Almarine Francis says
“If at first you don’t succeed, try try again.” Mr Phil’s lecture and recommendations are well received. There are a lot of jealous people out there and also negative people. So focusing on the positive ones have always given me the incentive to keep trying. And also the love and direction of our Heavenly Father always give me the strength to keep going. I am going to research the Real Estate Profiles and find the ones who are networking. I will email my findings to you. Thanks for an inspiring lecture that includes the steps we should take.
nabil says
I always thought what a great life it is to rely on passive income like no other vehicle than RE can provide and truly spent your time exploring and discovering other people’s life stories for it really inspirational.
Actually, I will take that back, kids and teenagers have some sort of passing income through their parents and indulge their abundant free time doing just that, reading.
One of the book I will recommend relate to that human nature of being conditioned, keeping all that potential from being exploited to the best: ‘The commanding self” by Idries Shah
What a better invitation than to explore yourself…
Shannon says
Thanks for acknowledging the mental and emotional factor of real estate investing. I have had nothing but obstacles with real estate over the years. It helps me to learn about the hardships successful people have gone through to keep going. I read Success Magazine which always features folks who had epic failures then made it. I recommend Joyce Meyer’s testimony of YEARS of abuse, YEARS of a rocky marriage, then YEARS of struggling to build her ministry. It is raw and powerful and yes, it is about God too. Don’t let that scare you. The big take-away was she fought and struggled for decades and is now very successful. Endurance, hard work and building/wearing A LOT of mental and emotional armor got her through it.
Phil Pustejovsky says
Wonderful example. All the great ones have been through tough times.
DAWN says
hello, why did you quit your job? even if you wanted to do real estate?
Phil Pustejovsky says
At the time, I thought that if I had all day every day to work on real estate, I would be more successful, faster. Plus, I didn’t like having a job 🙂
Steve says
Great Books: Mover of Men and Machines R.G. LeTourneau, Cereal Tycoon-by Joe Musser and It was never about the ketchup by steve lentz
Gina says
You are such a pivot point for me I am so happy you exist. Thanks for all the knowledge and help. Keep bringing the wisdom.
Nathaniel Gilmore says
The Antwone Fisher Story. It’s a movie, but same difference. It showed me that confidence is everything and people will always react to your weaknesses.