How my Poor Dad helps me achieve my goals!

“Can’t believe it's Monday, I don't want to go in”, have you heard that before? Well if you have, you might have identified a poor dad. Most of the BiggerPockets Community have read "rich dad, poor dad" by Robert Kiyosaki but have you identified who that person is in your personal life? It might be your biological father or maybe an uncle but in my case, my current poor dad is a co-worker of mines, we'll call him John. John followed the route that I initially wanted to follow when I graduated college, which was to get a good-paying job, have the white picket fence and a sports car in the garage, and just live the painstaking mediocre middle-class lifestyle. Now a few years before his retirement, John is miserable and he reminds me of that every day, he even has a two-year retirement countdown clock that he checks once a week. I look up to john and I have learned a lot from him, you might be wondering what could you have possibly learned from a 9-5 lifer?

Inaction

I have learned what not to do from john; my poor dad has worked his whole life in the hopes that he will have enough in his retirement account to live the rest of his days. John and I carpool together to work and I can sense the disappointment and the regret he carries around with him. On one occasion a truck tugging a yacht passed us on the highway and my poor dad mentioned he rather be on that yacht than go to work, sadly he was still attracted by liabilities but he does not have any assets to fund the toys he desires. He often tells me of the ideas that he had when was younger but was not sure if they would work out or did not have the proper connections to give them a shot so he never made an attempt.

My poor dad has unknowingly taught me to always take action, whenever you are in a situation and you are not content and are not making progress take action. Whatever situation you find yourself in, take action! Always take action! It is better to have tried and failed in your business than to settle and do nothing wishing for things to happen. No one is coming with a golden ticket to hand to you, you have to create your own golden ticket by taking small consistent actions. Unfortunately my poor dad never learned that lesson but seeing him everyday reminds me of the reason why I make the sacrifices that I do everyday. i am not a big Dave Ramsey guy but he does have a quote that I like to live by which is "live like no one else so you can live like no one else"

Comfort

“We made it!” “Happy Friday!” “Thank god it's Friday!” These are common phrases heard around the office as the week is winding down. My poor dad is constantly uttering those words, meaning he is always content and comfortable with the weekend to relax. He groans every Monday morning but is really excited on Friday afternoons when it is time to head home. I learned from my poor dad that when you are comfortable and content in life, you achieve no growth. When you are excited for the weekend, you are essentially giving up on your dreams and are accepting your current situation.

As an entrepreneur that is crawling out of the 9-5 struggle the weekend is not a time to relax but it is a time to work for yourself and put in the hours to grow your business. There is the illusion in the 9-5 world that everything is going well and it is all going to work out but unfortunately those individuals are slowly digging a hole for themselves that eventually they will not be able to get out of. There isn’t a high enough salary or enough PTO accrual in the world to be financially free because you will always have to trade time for those items until you are in your late 60’s.

Motivation

Use the poor dads in your life to keep yourself motivated. The entrepreneur journey is a lonely one sometimes and you do get discouraged. If it was easy everyone would be doing it but it is not hence why a majority of folks are comfortable with receiving a paycheck every two weeks to fund their expenses and liability. The poor dads in your life are a constant reminder to keep pushing, keep taking action, and to use your failures and the failures of your poor dads as lessons and motivation to keep going to achieve your business and life goals.

As easy and comfortable it is to work for the weekends and continue to receive a paycheck we know that time is not infinite. We all have a finite amount of time, so when you are content in your situation, you are actually losing time to do the things that you truly want to do. It is better to trade your time for a paycheck for a finite amount of time, 5-10 years and in the meantime, as you do so, leverage as much of the W2 job as you can into your real estate business to escape the rat race.