How to Earn More Money at Your 9 to 5 (So You Can Invest It in Real Estate!)
Real estate is hard. It is. Finding deals is hard. Finding a good team is hard. There is competition. You won't have the resources the big dogs do. Gaining experience is hard. Learning can be painful. This niche is very rewarding, but it's not easy.
If you want to succeed, you need to give yourself all the advantages you can. Having the right habits, knowing the right people, and finding good mentors can mean the difference between a great investing career and a mediocre one. I'm here to help make sure yours is great. For many of you, the only thing holding you back is yourself. I don't mean that as an insult. You likely have no idea you're doing it. You've been trained to. I'm a Millennial. Many of you are, too. We grew up in an era where we were trained that our feelings matter first and foremost, our needs matter, everyone gets a trophy, blah blah blah. You've heard all this before. And it's true! But for many Millennials, this entitlement culture didn't actually help us by sparing our feelings. It set us back. It robbed us of the opportunity to develop the skills required to master both ourselves and our career fields. It turned our attention so far inward, so deep within ourselves, that we really can't see much more than what we are feeling or experiencing in any given moment or situation. This is bad if you want to be a real estate investor. It's bad if you want to make strong connections. It's bad if you ever want to actually be good at something at all. It's honestly just really bad, and you might have NO idea how much it's hurting your success. We have been carried on shoulders our whole life, then thrown into the work world, where the strength of our legs determines our success. It's pretty much open sabotage. The purpose of this article is to share some of the mindsets I developed that helped me to succeed at everyday, blue collar jobs so I could make enough money to get started investing. The fact is, it takes money to invest. It takes work to make money. The better you are at your job, the more money you can make and the faster you can bring around that life you really want. The sooner you accept this, the better. The stereotypical Millennial spends so much energy protesting, complaining, and stubbornly wishing the world would cave in to their desires and rearrange itself so they can find success without having to earn it. Imagine what they could do if they put that same passion, energy, and drive into actually working harder at a job. The concept is incredible, I know, but still -- what a waste. 
What I Learned From My First Jobs
My first job of note was working at a Togo's Sandwich shop. It didn't pay much, and I quickly learned there were too many sandwich makers for me to ever get more than 15 hours a week. I noticed the shift managers not only made more, but they got more hours. Double score. Once I learned the job and proved I was worth keeping on, I asked to sit down with the manager and speak with her about what I could do to become a shift manager. Turns out the standard was pretty dang low. Show up on time, make sandwiches fast, don't call in sick, and learn the menu. Turns out all I needed to do was what was expected of me and do it just a little better than the others working there. A few months later, I was promoted to shift manager. I got a dollar an hour raise and 50% more hours. Some of the other employees were upset because they had worked there longer and "deserved it." My boss told them because they had worked there longer, they should have had been faster at the job than me -- and they weren't. I'm not kidding, it was that simple. My next job was as a host/busboy at the nicest restaurant in town. When I applied, I told the owner I wanted to be a food server as soon as possible because they made more in tips. As a busboy/host, I only got a share of the tips. At the time, I was the youngest person working there. When I had finished all my responsibilities, I asked the servers what I could help them with. I made it easier for them to do their jobs, and they loved me for it. Not only did this help me in getting to learn many of the servers responsibilities, it also gave me a great reputation when the owner asked the others about me. To me, it made no sense not to help others when I had nothing to do. The other busboys didn't see it that way. They frequently replied it was not their job to help the servers. They didn't like being bossed around. I figured, if I'm offering to help them, they can't be bossing me. Turned out to be a great move. The owner saw how helpful I was and my aptitude to learn new things. She began testing me on different recipes, etiquette, and protocol regarding the restaurant. Think it might have helped to have all the servers love me and give me the answers? It sure did. I was soon promoted to server before the other busboys who had worked there longer than me -- and you guessed it, the others weren't too happy. I noticed the same "but I've worked here longer so I deserve it" mentality I had experienced at Togo's. The owner didn't care. To her, she wanted to know who was going to help her business the most. Seniority meant nothing. As a side effect, the other busboys started working a lot harder, following my lead. Eventually, each of them was promoted as well. I noticed that my work ethic had rubbed off on others and made the restaurant an overall better place. That felt good to see. I repeated this process at the next restaurant I worked at and was offered the opportunity to manage it even though I was the youngest employee there. I quickly learned that if I figured out what my boss wanted and did it better than the others, my boss would look for ways to give me a bigger responsibility. This only made sense for the boss, as the better job I did, the easier their job became. When I became a police officer, the same rule applied. The better job I did, the more special assignments, promotions, and responsibility I was given. A big side effect of this was more pay. That's the goal, right? Why we all go to work? It's to make money. Why wouldn't you want to make more of it if you could? What I'm realizing now is not everybody understands this concept the way I learned to. Some of you may have never seen how hard work does pay off and actually makes your life better. What's more, we are living in a time now when nobody really wants to work hard or even believe they need to. That creates so much more opportunity for those who will! I promise you, there is so much more money and opportunity being left on the table than what you have been trained to believe. The trick is, you can't see it if you're only thinking about _your _needs. You need to start thinking about how to meet the needs of others. If you want to start investing in real estate, it helps to have something to invest. If you want money to invest, it helps to make more of it. I'd like to shares some tips on how to do just that. This may seem simple, but I can promise you the effects will be anything but. This is a law of nature. Like gravity. If you follow it, you will make more money. No doubt about it. 
Tips for Earning More Money to Invest
First things first, ask your boss what you can do to make their job easier. I know this is a novel concept, but you aren't the only person in the world, and your concerns aren't the only ones that matter. Everyone else in the world is just like you, and if you do unto others how you would want done, good things tend to happen. Once you start doing things to make your boss look good, they are apt to like you more. Trust me, you want this. At this point, you should ask them what you can do to make more money. I got promoted at Togo's, made server at the restaurant, and was offered a management position at another one, all because I asked what I could do to make more money. That was it. Because my boss already liked me, they gave me opportunities to make more. This can work for you, too. _ Related: The Surprisingly Simple “Secret” to Financial Freedom Most 9 to 5-ers Overlook_ Once you start making more money than you were before, ask yourself if you are really pushing yourself at this job. If you are a genius mechanic and could learn to work at a fancy European shop where you get paid top dollar, but you're in a comfort zone working part time in someone's garage, maybe it's time you started pushing yourself some. Small amounts of money become big amounts of money over time. As a general rule, you should always be pushing yourself to the max of your abilities. Once you master a new job and it's not hard anymore, start looking for where you can move to in order to make more. Money is the name of the game when it comes to why you go to work every day. It's also pretty important if you want to get into this real estate investing thing. Understand that you are being given money by someone else because you are performing a service for them. Perform it better! Look for ways to make your boss more money. Increase sales, book more clients, save them money where it's being wasted, bring up new ideas to make things more efficient, share this with them. They own the business for the purpose of making money. If you show them you give a crap about their goals, they just might be inclined to give a crap about yours, and that's what you want, right? If you're in a dead end job and feel you have no room to move up or make more money, that's not a reason to ignore this article. It's a reason to get a new job! If you're willing to learn new things, be reliable, and work hard, have confidence there are a ton of people out there who want to hire you. Remember, a lot of Americans just don't want to serve anyone but themselves and don't like to be uncomfortable. This makes you a valuable asset. Carry yourself like one and don't stop until you find a job with room to grow.
"But You Don't Understand -- My Job Sucks"
If you're genuinely stuck and can't think of any other way to make more money, look at someone else who is and start asking them questions about what they do. Ask questions about how they got started, what it took, what qualifications they needed, and what entry level positions are available in their company. Most people know what they wish they had done differently and will subconsciously want to help you avoid those mistakes if they see a part of themselves in you. I don't know why this is the way it is, but it is. Which brings me to my next tip. Make people like you. This is pretty important. We are all inclined to help people we like, even if we know we are supposed to be fair. It's just harder to do it for people we don't like. Ever wonder why some people just seem to have so many opportunities fall in their lap? It's not all dumb luck. Most of those people are very likable. How do you make people like you? Well, for one, ask them about themselves. Make them the focus of each conversation. Ignore your inner narcissist that loves to be fed and feed theirs instead. It makes people feel good to talk about themselves. They will remember you made them feel good. They will probably have zero idea why; they will just know they like you. That's what you want! Compliment people in a genuine way. Do it about things they don't expect. Point out things you admire about them that others may not be likely to reference. Mention you like how they dress, how they carry themselves, how classy they are. Make people feel good and they'll like you, they will. Just make absolutely sure you're genuine. 