"Pure Hell Forces Action..." What pushed you?

[MuseMojo]

“Pure hell forces action, but anything else can be endured with enough clever rationalization.” 4HWW, page 43.

That is the reason why with over 100,000 copies of 4HWW sold, only 280 are here and only half of those are posting and actually DOING something to find their muse. I am the former queen of rationalization. I’ve been through hell. Now I’m here.

My husband and I are presently realtors in southern California. And we care passionately about doing it right for our client’s families. Unfortunately, residential real estate sales is probably the ultimate example of a business that owns you. Competition’s fierce. Your income is dependant upon a myriad of factors totally outside of your control. There are many times that there is absolutely no substitute for your physically being there with near-hysterical clients. The perception of being rushed and out of control has been our constant companion for almost fifteen years. We accepted it because the money was good and we didn’t have to report to a 9-5 job.

Last week was our hell. It involved a family emergency, the realization that the market has started a long-term decline (maybe 10 years?), a buyer that kept changing her mind, and a final walk-thru inspection that featured a belligerent gang-banger with prison tattoos. But the real kicker was having a fireman and then a sheriff who’s job it is to transport high-risk prisoners telling me that the process of selling a home was too stressful for THEM. :eek:

We’re finally burned out. And the cold hard truth of the matter is that, aside from the potential for lost income, we no longer care whether a house closes or not. For ourselves and our clients we’re getting out.

I’m creating a muse. NOW. :D

[mdfloyd@gmail.com]

Better now than next week. Or next month.

Congratulations!

[Marcie]

Yep, pure hell for me too, but I can't really give details here :/ I watch my mom go through the stress of being a Real Estate Agent though and I am going to try to help her make it more of a part time thing...after I get her to read the book :)

[lindalein]

hy everyone,

have you guys though of switching gears and becoming real estate investors. me and my husband are starting with it. first we have to find out how to systematize our business. meaning directed marketing. where we have a website for buyers and sellers and our marketing will lead people to our website so they can read it over, one way to eliminate tire kickers. i truly believe this business can take off once we get things into place.

linda

[VitaminD]

For me, there were a few things that got me off the ground:

-Hating waking up to alarm clocks
-Reading Tim's book and realizing that automated income is possible (this was a huge paradigm shift for me)
-After realizing that automated income is possible, disliking work MORE
-On the monday I launched my muse, realizing that if I didn't do it that day, there was no guarantee I'd ever do it

I also talked to Tim on the phone, which helped "ground" the idea of this book being real to me.

[MuseMojo]

Lindalein - re: Real estate investing:
We've sold off all our CA property with the exception of the house we live in. Please be VERY cautious if you are investing in so CA real estate. If you can't get positive cash flow with at least a 5% yearly return on your cash investment forget it. You're better off putting your cash in a money market fund. And don't even THINK about flippers.

[MuseMojo]

For me, there were a few things that got me off the ground:

-Hating waking up to alarm clocks...

VitaminD - I just hate alarm clocks too. In fact one of the only things that I really like about real estate sales is that I can sleep in until at least 7:30am every morning. I admire someone who can get moving as fast as you did! All too many of us are in denial or caught up in rationalizations (all fingers pointing at musemojo).

[MuseMojo]

Yep, pure hell for me too, but I can't really give details here :/ I watch my mom go through the stress of being a Real Estate Agent though and I am going to try to help her make it more of a part time thing...after I get her to read the book :)

Marcie - Actually, since I'm going to be documenting the details of Elimination & Automation phases of my own real estate business one of my first 'muses' may be a course directed at time & life starved southern CA real estate agents. If your mom is in southern CA, do you think your she would like to get a freebie in exchange for feedback and/or a testimonial?

[MuseMojo]

Better now than next week. Or next month.

Congratulations!

I'm really scared, nervous and uncertain. But I've got a plan now and hope.

[Marcie]

Marcie - Actually, since I'm going to be documenting the details of Elimination & Automation phases of my own real estate business one of my first 'muses' may be a course directed at time & life starved southern CA real estate agents. If your mom is in southern CA, do you think your she would like to get a freebie in exchange for feedback and/or a testimonial?

Thanks but we're in NC :)

[Wooderson316]

What pushed you?

Boredom. Tim is right - it is the antithesis of excitement. This life is short and it is singular. To be bored with it is virtual suicide. The work-a-day life takes away our ability to leverage our most precious and only true finite resource - time - and trade it at wretched exchange rates for those things we need to live, let alone be content or excited.

It's time to get a better exchange rate, spend less time on needs and invest more time in discovery.

[VitaminD]

In fact one of the only things that I really like about real estate sales is that I can sleep in until at least 7:30am every morning.

Sleep in until 7:30? Sheesh! I'm a zombie at 7:15. You sound like my parents :)

All too many of us are in denial or caught up in rationalizations (all fingers pointing at musemojo).

Don't worry, they're just thoughts. If our lives were a government, "actions" have veto power.

[lindalein]

hi musemojo,

actually i am not looking to get positive cashflow here. there are thousands of re investors from all over the country investing here. you cant do what the flip your house shows on tv. teach let them rehab houses i am not interested in that at this point. but i can find property and flip it to another investor by assignment of contract. i can also do lease options here. the difference in doing it here versus lets say the midwest is just more zeros here. i'm glad there are people out there thinking it cant be done, because that gives me less competition.

linda

[lindalein]

one thing i wanted to add is that i am a little weary of dreamstealers on discussion/message boards. i want to use a forum like this to pass on my ideas and thoughts and learn from others. what i dont like is getting feedback from people that are not experts in a field and i find they are more than happy to dish out why things cant be done. i guess i was sort of stumped by the real estate reply. obviously positive cashflow doesnt work here, then my next question is how can we profit here in CA. i am more than happy to invest out of state once i have enough money made here first that i can then funnel into out of state lets say pre-construction etc...
anyways those are my thoughts.

linda

[MuseMojo]

[QUOTE=VitaminD;735]Sleep in until 7:30? Sheesh! I'm a zombie at 7:15. You sound like my parents :)

At 49, I probably AM like your parents :)

It doesn't mean I'm not too old to turn everything upside down and start something better. Now there's a scary thought...

[MuseMojo]

one thing i wanted to add is that i am a little weary of dreamstealers on discussion/message boards. i want to use a forum like this to pass on my ideas and thoughts and learn from others. what i dont like is getting feedback from people that are not experts in a field

I AM an expert in the field. Think of me in the same way as an AdWords testing campaign for southern California real estate. I too don't want my dreams squashed, but we all need feedback and to run tests. I EXPECT to have several failures during testing. Consider this feedback on a test.

The reason that I brought it up at all was that my husband and I have rescued 3 real estate 'investors' this year who thought that they were getting a great deal when they bought. They all ended up grateful to have gotten out with a couple of grand in losses. No one told them that the market trends here are DOWN and that they have been going down in LA & Orange counties at a rate of about 1% per month since about Oct 2006. Riverside and San Bernadino are worse.

In southern CA the last market downturn lasted from 1990-1996. This one will be worse because we don't have a horde of people entering their prime move-up home buying years again until 2016 or so.

That being said, it sounds like you're doing your homework. If it were me, I'd concentrate on doing flips to other investors who'd hold them, fix or rent them. Or do lease-options taking into account the 1% down trends for LA/Orange counties.

Also, definitely take a look at out of state investing. Don't be afraid of it! It may be easier than you think! In some spots property is actually appreciating. Management is cheaper. Labor is cheaper. Contact Marcie (a few posts up), her mom is in North Carolina where the numbers are more favorable to investors. Also try Texas. And you can always travel to 'supervise' your out of state property and write it all off. Hmmm....I've also heard of people starting to invest in places like Costa Rica and South America...I sense a trip/mini-retirement coming on that I'm just going to write off on my taxes...

[Marcie]

Things are appreciating here. I think they are about to flatline but I'm not an expert in the field ;)

[lindalein]

hello musemojo,

thanks for all the great input. right now we are deciding to go ahead with a system that has websites customized for both buyers and sellers. we also have to figure out where to direct our marketing at a low cost.
i have just read the part in the book about a virtual assistant what a great idea to outsource many tasks. take care for now.

linda

[MuseMojo]

hello musemojo,

thanks for all the great input. right now we are deciding to go ahead with a system that has websites customized for both buyers and sellers. we also have to figure out where to direct our marketing at a low cost.
i have just read the part in the book about a virtual assistant what a great idea to outsource many tasks. take care for now.

linda

YES!!!! That's the way to go. Don't hold expensive, potentially falling in value inventory. Sell the tools for those who want to hold or do hold property. Like Levi Strauss in the gold rush. Sell the shovels and the dungarees, don't go panning for gold yourself. You GO girl!

[cartoonfan1983]

My husband and I are presently realtors in southern California. And we care passionately about doing it right for our client’s families. Unfortunately, residential real estate sales is probably the ultimate example of a business that owns you. Competition’s fierce. Your income is dependant upon a myriad of factors totally outside of your control. There are many times that there is absolutely no substitute for your physically being there with near-hysterical clients. The perception of being rushed and out of control has been our constant companion for almost fifteen years. We accepted it because the money was good and we didn’t have to report to a 9-5 job.

Last week was our hell. It involved a family emergency, the realization that the market has started a long-term decline (maybe 10 years?), a buyer that kept changing her mind, and a final walk-thru inspection that featured a belligerent gang-banger with prison tattoos. But the real kicker was having a fireman and then a sheriff who’s job it is to transport high-risk prisoners telling me that the process of selling a home was too stressful for THEM. :eek:

We’re finally burned out. And the cold hard truth of the matter is that, aside from the potential for lost income, we no longer care whether a house closes or not. For ourselves and our clients we’re getting out.

Hi! I'm a newbie real estate agent in North Carolina. The market here has taken a sharp downshift. It seems like all the agents in my office are in a tailspin, and it's all very confusing. I'm beginning to regret coming into this business because all I seem to be doing is chasing people down and battering them over the head hoping they will work with me.

I picked up Tim's book a little over a week ago and it has blown me away. Such awesome ideas poured into this book.

I'm six months into my real estate career, and it's suddenly becoming another "job" that I feel chained to. Been working on my muse and it's taking shape, but it's hard.

Let me just say that I think the biggest issue with the leap from employee to entreprenuer is figuring out how to do the cash flow right. Everything else is gravy!:D

[MuseMojo]

I've decided to forget trying to automate and eliminate in our real estate business and then sell the "how I did it" as a book or course. The reason is that I've found a bit of resistance to change, ok a lot, and it's not worth jeopardizing a great relationship for what is going to be a former profession.

So, I tested THAT muse to destruction.

So, it's on to my second muse idea. At least with the next one I'm working in a new endeavor and won't have to ask anyone's permission to rock the boat. And, since the muse is related to something that I love to do, I will be drawing on much more positive feelings. I'm going to have FUN developing this muse.

[Vacman]

MuseMojo,

More power to ya!!

It seems to me that the more you like to actually do something, the better you'll be at it so I'm sure you'll do awesome!

Keep us updated!

[Webzu]

Awesome MuseMojo, you're right on, one muse didn't work out you move to the next! Keep us posted!

I was a Realtor from 1999-2001 and it was a rough gig. :eek:

[Peter Bowen]

Just wanted to introduce myself and say that I had similar experiences.

I was getting so depressed from the stress that I couldn't sleep and often considered suicide. I woke up on my 36th birthday realizing that although I owned my own businesses I was actually a slave to them. I refused to do it again after that morning.

It took about 3 months to completely extricate myself - I sold two of the businesses, sold all the investment properties, sold everything except on commercial property and what would fit in the airline luggage allowance for myself, my wife and four kids and then we moved from South Africa to Northern Ireland to take a mini retirement and start again.

Finally reading the book a couple of weeks ago I realized that Ferriss was able to put a name to what I had done, and I'm really pleased to find that there are other people who don't think the concept of not working to chase more money is strange.

Cheers

Pete

[Marcie]

Hi Peter! What a great story. I turned 36 recently and had a lot of the same kind of stress (although from a different source) - good for you! I remember stumbling upon tim's website before the book came out and thinking "this is what my brain has been trying to tell me I think" - reading the book was a major aha moment for me :) Anyway, welcome!

~Marcie

[Peter Bowen]

Thanks Marcie,

Mid 30's is kind of a defining age for many people - for me it's the being double the age I feel (about 18 usually) that does it!

Cheers

Pete

[strongbif]

I read the book on a three week vacation back to the U.S., and it really inspired me, but upon returning to work, I'm starting to despair. I need some advice.

Background: I basically have a "Pure Hell" job. I'm in the military, and I work in a tiny (4 person) office overseas. My current boss is a senior officer who just got promoted, is out to prove himself, and is used to having 5-10 full-time lackeys as a function of previous positions he has held. He micromanages, and epitomizes "work for works' sake". He often half-bakes ideas and projects that he thinks will look good on his evaluation, then shovels it down to us, his tiny, over-worked staff, to implement. Often, he changes his mind once he sees what we've come up with based on his poorly-articulated or poorly-thought-out instructions, and it's back to the drawing board. Our office has a mission, and I'm being evaluated based on how I perform my role in that mission, but he seems not to care about either of those things.

Inter-personal issues aside, the job itself is typical government bureaucracy, mostly chasing around obscure regulations to avoid breaking strange, counter-intuitive rules. Every meaningful thing that we accomplish is accompanied by proportionally massive amounts of time spent in "CYA" type activities in case something goes wrong. These activities are coded in regulation and perceived as mandatory. Not what I was expecting when I pursued this assignment.

The nature of the job also prohibits any thought of tele-working whatsoever, for security reasons. Being in a tiny office populated with clock-watchers, I can't even slip out early too often without getting stern glances from above.

If this were a civilian job, I'd quit immediately and find a tele-work friendly job so I could start building my muse. Unfortunately, being a Soldier, I'm legally, contractually obligated to 1) respectfully obey the man I just ranted about and 2) not quit. Willfully failing on either count is a criminal offense. I have about another year to go in this job, followed by about 9 months of service remaining, the nature of which is undetermined. To be honest, I'm a little scared of leaving the military, since civilian life already seems foreign to me, but I think it's high time. I'd like to get started while I'm still all warm and fuzzy from reading the book, but with the lag, I'm worried that the inspiration will fail by the time I can actually do much of what it suggests.

So, I plan on getting out ASAP, but what can I do in the meantime? I've begun to get into outsourcing, and I've started applying 80/20 and Parkinson's Law, with mixed results. Is it possible to build a muse after an exhausting day of jumping through administrative hoops for 9 hours?

[Leibster]

Is it possible to build a muse after an exhausting day of jumping through administrative hoops for 9 hours?

Strongbif,

Of course it is!!

You're in for another year and 9 months, but you're also fortunate enough to work at an office job, where you have some free time in the evenings.

You can start today toward building your muses. Ideally, over the next 21 months you'll have been successful enough that you won't need to participate in the "work force" of civilian life. But even if you spend the next 21 months failing at building muses on your spare time, you'll have absorbed most of the learning curve during what would have been unproductive time anyway.

Stay strong, and get started before you let yourself get too discouraged!

--Leibster

[strongbif]

Thanks, I hadn't looked at it that way... I guess I have weekends, too. :)

[Brie0001]

Leisurely lay your plans for escaping the rat race.

Meanwhile, can you collect interesting details/ tourist spots, etc. about the country you are in? Might make for a good contrast: extreme boredom by day ??? possibilities by night.

Think how the "other half" lives -vacationers who are in the same country you are in now... how might they spend their time there .. how might you spend your time it you were not working?