By accident, I believe that our industry does us all a disservice. How? By calling us real estate investors.
How many of you call yourselves real estate investors? Lots. How many of you feel a little queasy when you introduce yourself as a real estate investor? (No need to confess you just need to recognize that feeling).
Do you want to know why you may be feeling queasy? I’ll tell you. It’s because of the incongruent language we are using on ourselves. Let me prove it while helping bust the number one fear of real estate “investors”.
What do you think of when you hear the word investor?
I bet it’s “cash” or “credit”. Right? Maybe something that you feel that you don’t have. So if your business card declares you a real estate investor and you don’t have any cash, do you feel funny, or out of integrity, or incongruent? Maybe a little?
On the other hand, what do you think of when you hear the word entrepreneur? The answers to this question usually range from “opportunist” to “opportunities” to “ideas” to “deals”, etc.
The definition of an entrepreneur is someone who uses the time, talent and treasure of other people to realize their idea or vision. Read that again because this a subtle but important point about your real estate success.
The number one limiting belief of real estate “investors” is “I cannot do this business because I have little cash and/or bad credit.” And if your subconscious holds this belief, guess how hard you are going to work to find deals. Guess how many deals your are likely to do. That’s right, you will do ZERO.
Good news! This limiting belief is easily busted.
You are not a real estate investor. You are a real estate entrepreneur.
What’s the difference? Well, entrepreneurs bring the deals to the money. Investors bring the money to the deals.
By DEFINITION, entrepreneurs are not expected to use their own cash. They are expected to raise cash for their deals and projects. That’s what we do. We find the one thing that is much more valuable than the cash which is the deals.
Money is easy. Finding the deals is the part that requires a little work. But most real estate “investors” get hung up in marketing or making an offer because they don’t have the cash sitting in their checking account. They freeze.
You need to declare yourself a “Real Estate Entrepreneur.” That’s what I do. At this stage of my life, it’s more fun being the entrepreneur and putting deals together. It’s my form of creativity. It’s my art. Being the investor and putting up the cash is OK but it’s kind of like being the guy that furnished the paint to Michelangelo. Nobody remembers the paint supply guy.
I urge you to adopt 2 new affirmation(s):
I am a real estate entrepreneur.
I am leveraging the time, talent and treasure of others.