I'm new to the bigger pockets community after only having read one of their books however Im excited to be a part of such a great group of individuals who share my passion for real estate investing.

If you do that you will be just fine.I am a Keller Williams agent and they teach you to pound the phones.

haha, if you can figure out how to do the title of your post you could make millions teaching other people how to do it. 

If you're on your own with nobody to teach you, most will spin their wheels and get nowhere because they don't know how to find ARV accurately, don't know how to price rehabs accurately, etc., etc., etc.  

However, less thought about individuals range from advertising agencies to commercial printers, Web hosting companies to wedding planners.

This makes it very secure [more than wall street] for them.All of my lenders enjoy strong double digit annual returns and only spend a few hours a year [making wire transfers] to realize this profit.Yes, I am biased when it comes to RE or Wall Street - but ponder this and you'll see why:  We all know bankers are some of the most penny pinching individuals on the planet, right?  

I need meet some more like minded individuals.

The experience learning from these big companies can teach you how the successful people do things.

@Roxanne BaisdenThe following IRS links covers the self-employed topic.https://www.irs.gov/Businesses/Small-Businesses-&-Self-Employed/Self-Employed-Individuals-Tax-Center

Well again, most of these issues would be resolved by working under a seasoned real estate professional that could teach them the ropes and could steer them along the straight and narrow.My recommendation is for you to go ahead and get your license for the basic knowledge and the credentials to legally do your business, then find an investor that is buying for themselves and succeeding in this business and volunteer your services for strictly for the education.For more of this soapbox speech and practical tips on how you can actually find that person, here is another link!!