Often times during my platform presentations at real estate events I share the stories of the BIG ones that got away in my real estate career. I even share the story of when things went horribly wrong with a large rehab project I was working on. So wrong in fact, the experience nearly wiped me out of the business for good.
I tell those stories as my way of keeping things real. I want the people in the audience to understand that this is a business like any other whereby things occasionally go wrong. Such stories could affect my back-of-room sales, so says conventional wisdom. Not hardly! Just the opposite becomes my reality. I intend to attract the student who is a realist. I don’t care to work with people who think real estate investing has some magic pill to make them money.
Rather I pull in people as clients who understand risks are present and the objective is to minimize risk as mush as possible. As a result of my harsh reality of things gone wrong I invariably hear from others in the audience who’ve had a thing or two go wrong in their own financial lives. Like a common denominator our bumpy experiences serve to link us as alumni from the school of hard knocks.
Most recently I spoke in front of a large audience that was alive and enthusiastic. At the end of my presentation as I was in the back of the room signing orders from a frenzied crowd, I noticed a gentleman kind of hanging around in the near distance. After four years as a platform speaker I’ve come to recognize that “hanging around hesitancy” as a person with something heavy on his mind. Usually they’re waiting to have a private conversation with me. This guy was the big strong silent, contractor type, complete with the rugged jeans and lumberjack shirt.
Finally, as the crowd disseminated, he approached me then leaned in over the table between us to speak. My mind prepared for a personal story of some kind. This gentleman said to me with a teary-eyed far away stare, that my story had really inspired him. He apologized for not being able to invest in my program due to his financial shortage.
He went on to explain, “You see Ken, I just lost $300,000 last month on a commercial deal gone wrong.” I nodded my head letting him know it happens to the best of us. I also let him know, it is the best of us who get up after a knock down and keep plowing ahead. His grim serious look slowly turned to a slight crooked smile. He nodded his head in agreement. His next statement caused us both to laugh a hardy laugh between understanding souls.
“Ken” he said “it’s good to know I ain’t the only one to make a dumb*** mistake in this business.” “Well my friend,” I said while packing up my things, “look on the brighter side of life, at least it wasn’t your arm you lost. Money, is something we can always replace, especially in the world of real estate investing.” His $300,000 loss could easily be turned into a $million dollar recovery, on his very next deal.
