Quote from @Mike Kehoe:
@Melanie Hartmann I'm reading this a few years behind, but I absolutely love this. I would have advised against posting originally because, as you saw, most people try to discourage unconventional ideas, but I'm glad you didn't listen to them.
10 years ago, I quit my full-time job immediately after my wife and I got married to build a software company. Her job covered our expenses. EVERYONE besides my wife discouraged me from quitting and thought I was crazy. I sold that company six years later for 7 figures. I would have never had the freedom I have now without taking that leap.
You took a calculated risk, and you're receiving the benefits of doing so.
The other thing that is glaring to me, that many naysayers on this forum don't realize, is that if you're building your wholesale company correctly, you're building a saleable asset. This could give you a far greater return than any real estate investment ever could. Just make sure to focus on building your systems so that the company can run in your absence.
You can also cherry-pick the deals that make sense for your investment strategy and pay way less than other investors that buy on the market or from other wholesalers.
Congratulations on your success! Keep pushing!
Love this! And 100% agree with everything. Thank you for sharing your experience doing something similar.
People succeed and fail at things like this every single day. I've done plenty of "difficult" things in my life. Continue to do so. I've gone through more hardships than most would ever know to simply look at me. As people find out some of these things, they tell me how shocked they are. However, they just see the exterior, what I allow them to see. No one sees what goes on behind the scenes, the self-doubt, the tears, the vulnerability, the rough times. People keep that to themselves for the most part, as they should. The world is pretty cruel.
No one knows what anyone else is truly capable of. Most people don't even know what they, themselves, are truly capable or even what they truly want because they get in their own way and don't allow themselves the opportunity to try. [I'm guilty of this].
Anyway, after a little hiatus for personal/professional reasons (I say little because we did go on to flip a few houses and close many wholesale deals during that time), I am BACK!
I am now living my dream of traveling the country with my family in an RV (not everyone's idea of ideal, but it truly is mine. The pandemic made me realize it was possible, especially because I had to shift so many things in our business because of it and mostly began working virtually anyway because of the kids.) For that I am thankful, I now own and operate a real estate business virtually and have now rehabbed a house from the road. Something I never ever thought I'd be capable of doing.
I let our rankings on Google slip, and am back at it again. Updating, upgrading, and shifting. I left carrot.com because their customer service is poop once you begin working with @Jerryll Noorden and ever since they "updated" their system I and members of Jerryll's team were spending hours just trying to configure the littlest things on their newer website building platform.
Since then, I've taught myself how to build/design websites so I can work on my own and control it entirely. Along with websites for the other businesses we are launching from the road. I tried hiring this out but was never satisfied with the results. No one really knows what they are talking about/doing unless you are dish out 10s of thousands of dollars (and I just couldn't stomach paying that and then to still run the risk of ending up with a subpar product), so I just do it instead and hire out the other aspects that are much more straightforward.
Really, your (anyone reading this) path doesn't have to be neat and pretty and follow a straight line. I've been an entrepreneur since I was little. i.e. making and selling little beaded ribbon animals in elementary school. (I saw someone doing this, found materials at a better price (and didn't reveal where I got them) and found new designs to use, so I could offer a similar/better product for cheaper than "my competitors" and still rake in higher profits. I would have put the others "out of business." However, before that could happen the school shut the whole operation down once parents complained their kids were spending their lunch money buying these things instead of eating, hahaha. So it was on to the next thing...)
My path has been all over the place. I've done the "do what you are supposed to" path for years. It never felt right and never brought me true happiness. Quite the opposite really.
As I get older, I get even bolder, and I love making my own rules to live by. I've really been doing it since I was little, just didn't realize it till recently. I always presumed I was risk averse and afraid of commitments. That's not true at all, I take calculated risks and will willingly commit to anything (until it no longer serves me or is diverting attention from where I want to be). We all change, grow, and shift. That is ok. That is life.
Maybe I'll be like you one day and sell a company for 7 figures! For now, I build businesses slowly, knowing that it won't happen over night or maybe ever. I make enough to be comfortable and live the life I want, not the one I'm "supposed" to have.
That last statement has taken me many more years to figure out than I care to admit
