As you point out, real estate can provide confidence, learning, inspiration, creativity etc... but for us the goal and focus has always been on the freedom it can provide.  

Maybe, hopefully, this inspires a few of you to stop following others and start thinking on their own.

Relatively new to the site but I have been actively looking at forums and engaging in inspiring posts.

And inspirational!

It's meant to inspire hope though they often fail to inspire the creativity and social skill building it will take to bring it all together.Self-direction of retirement accounts, soliciting other sources of investment in your deals, ... that's all part of it.While you may not need your own resources, you will need to know or be able to learn how to find them, gather them and deploy them to the benefit of everyone involved.That's where most of it falls short. 

They're definitely inspirational but prefer to hear about people who are closer to the beginning of their investment career. 

Books can be informative and inspiring but without any practical experience, simply theory.

I find most of my inspiration from reading about great historical figures and picking up on what made them stand out.

I was 22 years old and it inspired me to buy my first house.Years later The Book on Rental Property Investing (audiobook actually) by Brandon Turner is what inspired me to dive deeper into REI.

Full confession, inspired by @Michael Vialpando's remarks- we also were not totally responsible.