The most Violent Confrontation

[Ben Leybovich]

Well,

You guys all likely made your resolutions for this new 2015 year.  Not to dump a bucket of ice-cold water on you, but just to remind you newbies out there - it's a lot easier to get in than to stay in this game.

The second deal I did lost me $20,000 at a time when $20,000 might as well have been $20 mil.  I almost quit, but I don't like to quit...

Then, a sub pulled a knife on me calling me an fing Jew.  I almost quit, but I couldn't give the *** the satisfaction...

I am full-time in RE.  I haven't had a gig outside of RE in 4 years.  I've been knocked down many times and always got up, though it gets harder each time.  I am fortunate that my wife supported "frugality" for many years.  We drove junkers for 12 years.  We didin't spend money on vacations and toys.

In 2014 I bought 2 new cars.One was to replace a minivan which literally fell apart - bought a nice Nissan Quest.  The other car we really didn't need to buy - but Patrisha wanted to and we can afford it, so we bought a Maxima.  My tenants are paying for both...

Guys - this is full-contact sport indeed.  You WILL bleed.  It's part of the game.  RE is one of the only investment vehicles that allows a nobody to get in and learn and do and become somebody.  You Must learn and you WILL hurt!

Are you ready?  Will you stick around long enough to get over that hump?  Why will you?  Why won't you quit?

Best of luck to all of you.  I plan to knock some stuff out of the park in 2015, and I wish all of you the same.  The trick - when you fall, fall forward! 

God Bless. 

[Brian Burke]

When I was 20 years old my wife and I and some friends of ours from work used to go bowling. I wasn't great but I could at least break 100 most of the time. We heard about a bowling league called "The Lousy Bowler's League" and knew it was perfect for us wanna-be bowlers so we all joined. At the conclusion of the league's season, I won the trophy for "High Score Handicap". They basically took an average of our first few games and then applied that average to arrive at a handicap and when factoring in each player's handicap one of my games came in higher than anyone else's. I guess you could boil it down to being "most improved". So there I was, the best of the worst in the Lousy Bowler's League.

Like my bowling "career", I think that most newbie real estate investors fit into one of three metaphorical categories:

• Those who have spent 7,496 hours trying to figure out how to hold the ball so that it throws with the right amount of curve to hit the strike pocket and get so frustrated that they decide to give up and take up golf instead. They never join the league.
• Those who join the league and throw nothing but gutter balls and don't survive to play another game or are lucky enough to survive but get too frustrated to even try again. They quit the league.
• Those who have an early win. They win the darn league trophy and now they are ready (or think they are) to go out on tour and play with the big boys. Maybe it was skill and maybe it was beginner's luck but they don't know the difference yet.

Same goes with my contributions here on BP. Some people on BP have told me that I know all kinds of stuff and I have all kinds of skill. Compared to who? @Ben Leybovich ? (ok, maybe, LOL)  But if you asked @Donald Trump, @Sam Zell or @Barry Sternlicht (what? The @ mentions don't work so I guess they aren't on BP?) about me they'd say "Brian WHO? Never heard of him, must be some newbie punk."  Just because I've been doing this a long time doesn't mean I don't fight the same "violent confrontations" as everyone else in the business, new or not, nor does it mean that I've learned everything I need to know.  Neither I nor anyone else can give up on absorbing knowledge and expanding our horizons. That's all part of the fight.

So, Ben, if you are looking for the "most violent confrontation", you must first know your opponent. Allow me to introduce you--go stand in front of the mirror and say hello. To excel in this business or in any business or sport you have to not only fight the process but you have to fight yourself. Which is worse?

I've been a full time RE investor for 13 years now. Why? Not because I won a trophy, but because I'm not wired to do anything else. That's why I don't quit--I love what I do even when I shouldn't. The pain of the hardships in this business is temporary, the pain of going back to work for 'the man' would last too long for me to endure.

You are certainly right about one thing, Ben...when getting knocked down it gets harder to get back up each time. As we age, we have less tolerance for risk, loss, injury and having knives pulled on us. The fight doesn't necessarily get easier, it just changes its appearance.

Good luck to everyone in 2015. Join the league, avoid gutter balls, and get the trophy. Just don't lose sight of the fact that it's harder to win a season than it is to win a game so don't rest once you see a victory...keep fighting!