All Forum Posts by: Kohei Hayashi

@Jim K. Thanks for the in depth response. It sounds like in your experience, creating meaningful relationships comes from producing at a high level, through both hard work and quality work.

I hadn't considered that as you grow your wealth and business, some of the people around you might feel alienated and defensive. I'll keep that in mind. I hope that even if I can't help all my closer friends, I can nudge just one or two towards the same pursuit financial freedom and a better life. 

Great advice! I think a lot of times, I'm able to get that initial relation and common ground, but the follow up is something I can definitely work on. 

And with Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, what a coincidence! I actually started training with a friend last November during COVID and then at a gym later in June. No-gi is a blast for me, but in the gi, I didn't know that it was possible to be controlled by your opponent in so many different ways.

You come across the saying "you are the average of the five people you spend the most time with" in books, podcasts, and online. Anytime you're talking about real estate, business, and personal development. It's become cliche, but because there is validity to it.

When I was still a student, I had a small group of close friends who were all in good shape, except for one - let’s call him Ned. Back then, I never closely thought about Ned’s exercise and nutrition habits, but when I look back at it now, they were far from ideal. At some point, he started to ask us for advice about health. Of course, we obliged and though we didn't have any formal system of accountability, I think that the time he spent with all of us helped establish a new standard for what was normal. Over time, he ended up losing over 60 pounds! 

This personal anecdote shows the power of social norms and the environment. Now, bringing it back to real estate investing, I've realized that although the people around me are hard workers, are good people, have high standards for their health, and have personalities that I love, they don't necessarily have the same type of goals for wealth and meaningful work that I value, meaning I've put myself in an environment where I'm working against the grain! I'm in a good environment for health, quality work, and day-to-day happiness, but I haven’t put myself in an environment where it's the norm to achieve financial freedom, take calculated risks to build businesses, and build wealth for my future family and community. So my question for the forums:

Besides the obvious ones of real estate investment meetups and social media groups, what have you personally found to be the best way to meet with and develop genuine relationships with people who are achieving at a higher level than you financially and in business?

And related to that, how much overlap do you personally have between your close circle of friends and those with whom you talk about your goals for wealth, business, and contribution?

@Scott Trench The man himself, that's awesome! 

I started writing my last reply before you sent yours whoops. Shows how long it takes me to think up something decent to say. Appreciate you taking the time to write a quick reply!

Sorry about the format with the original post - not quite sure what happened there. 

I really appreciate you all taking the time to share some of your thoughts. 

@Tim Johnson I'm definitely in that third group that you mentioned, the hesitant type. Overcoming fear is going to be a hurdle for sure but your words are encouraging. Also, I was recently reminded of Tim Ferriss' exercise of Fear Setting which has been helpful for defining what exactly it is I'm fearful of and how I can potentially respond.

@JD Martin "So poor my stories make most people cringe"  Dang! I haven't had a chance to listen to your podcast episode yet but I'll hop on that tonight to hopefully hear some of those stories. I see what you mean about developing new skills for sure. 

I'll be taking all of your guys' thoughts and advice: Getting started no matter what, staying adaptable, building skills and momentum, and @Lynnette E. maybe I won't reach that level of sheer hard work, but I'll definitely be putting in the time and effort!

A couple years back, I bought Scott Trench's book, "Set for Life" because I heard through the BP podcast that it was a great book for young people looking to attain early financial freedom. I've read and reread it a few times now but I just realized yesterday that I actualized Part 1 of the book earlier this year without much fanfare. For those who haven't read it, Part 1 is about building up your first $25,000+ in cash or equivalents through a frugal and economic lifestyle, or as David Greene would describe it, through good defense.

Now that I've gotten to this point, it's time to move to Part 2, which is using what I've saved up to start building up income producing assets and scaling my income so that I can go from $25,000 to $100,000 in net worth. In the near future, I plan on house hacking a small multi-family property in the Omaha, NE area to get my first property under my belt. From there, as I continue to save money I'll look to find distressed properties to BRRRR or flip so that I stay active in real estate investing and I develop the skills I need to be successful in the long run.

With that being said, in the last chapter of Part 1 Scott says that for many people, saving the initial nest egg is one of the more difficult parts on the road to financial freedom.

What do you think? If you were to look back to when you still hadn't gotten into your first investment property, do you feel that getting started was the hardest part, the easiest part, or maybe somewhere in between?

As a side note, I loved Scott's book and would definitely recommend it to college students, young professionals, and anyone else looking to achieve early financial freedom. The road ahead is long but I'm glad that others have come before and mapped out the course.