Several years ago, a friend of mine said to me, “Aaron, I bet that only 2% of the time you spend ‘working’ each day actually makes you money. I bet the rest of your day is filled with minutia—things you need to do but don’t make you money— and if you could increase your ‘working’ day to be just 10% of money-making-activities, you will double or even triple your income.”
When he challenged me with this thought, I laughed. Then I couldn’t get it out of my mind. I started dividing my daily activities into two categories: that which made me money and that which were minutia. To my horror, I realized how right he was. For instance, paying contractors, something that needs to be done, didn’t MAKE me money. I started to make a list of the things that I did that actually made me money each day:
- Taking calls from leads on my marketing
- Driving to properties
- Talking to sellers and prospective tenants
- Writing up offers and negotiating new deals
- Raising money from partners for new deals
- Learning about new marketing techniques to grow my business (like Google adwords)
Then I started a list of all the things I do each day that DON’T make me money directly. I stopped after 40! My friend, who has an “8 figure” income, challenged me and identified a huge blind spot in my daily work efforts. I like to say that this friend has an “8-figure” mindset—I know for a fact his net worth is over 8 figures, and I personally watched him make an 8-figure income one year. As we worked together, I realized there were many things he, with an 8-figure mindset, focused on, said to himself, obsessed about, and incorporated into everything he did.
When I started my real estate investing journey, I made a $40,000/year salary as a high school teacher. This 5-figure income CERTAINLY came with a 5-figure mindset about money. For example, I would get excited about getting a tax refund check each year. This was like getting a bonus. I never thought about the fact that:
A. I was just getting back my own money.
B. I had essentially loaned it to the Federal and State government for a year.
C. I wasn’t being paid any interest on this loan.
Sounds embarrassing, huh? 5-figure mindset investors can never become 6-figure mindset investors till they learn 6-figure work ethic, 6-figure fiscal discipline, and 6-figure vision. HOWEVER, 7-and 8-figure net worth investors know that to EARN a 7-or-8 figure income is virtually impossible. You can only INVEST your way to 7-or-8-figure net worth. The three most common ways to invest are real estate, starting a business, and securities. INVESTING your way to a 7, 8, or 9 figure income/net worth actually changes the quality of your life. You have free time to build your life doing the things you WANT to do vs. the things you HAVE to do. These are the important “truths” I have learned over the years that have helped me graduate from a 5-figure mindset to an 8-figure mindset. I am currently mastering the truths and principles about investing money seen in 9-figure mindset individuals, and it’s exciting, to say the least.
Once you internalize the idea, simply mastering KNOWLEDGE and then acting upon it is all you need to do to be successful, and it will change the way you go about all of your efforts.
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