How do you look at real estate investing?

[Jonathon Martineau]

Hypothetical scenario:

You have a young person interested in real estate investing, has experience with rehabbing properties, and always saw themself investing in real estate "when they had a lot of money". They always saw it as something that you did once you were already well off. Eventually they learned that it doesn't actually take a ton of money to start after all, and there's so many ways to approach it. This is something that genuinely interests them. They're urged by family and friends to take the "smart route". Get a degree, get a good job, then invest later...but those degrees and desk jobs don't interest them. Starting a business, having some risk and excitement in life is what drives them. I guess you could say that entrepreneur point of view. 

For the investors that really went after it and accomplished big goals in real estate, what do you think? What would you tell this person? More importantly, if you could go back in time, would you have started sooner.