Posted by George(OH) on October 31, 2000 at 14:35:28:
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Why do you answer the questions … - Posted by Merle
Posted by Merle on October 30, 2000 at 22:06:32:
Someone asked me why I was taking the time to answer these questions. I can best answer that question with a story …
There once was a young man who decided to start a business. In making all the arrangements, he had dealings with several established businesses.
One of these transactions involved the purchase of a very small piece of the equipment he needed. At the time he purchased the equipment, the business owner who sold it to him spent several hours advising him on the various aspects of operating a business … all very helpful to the young entrepreneur.
When it came time to go, he asked the older man, “How much do I owe you?”
The business owner replied, “Well, I detect from our conversation that you are possibly short of capital, so I will give you two payment options.”
The new young business tycoon’s ears perked up as he listened eagerly.
“You can either pay cash or you can take the equipment and the information with my best wishes. Your only obligation is to return the favor to someone else. You see, when I first started in business 25 years ago, I received the same offer.”
The young man gratefully accepted his offer to return the favor. They shook hands and he started to leave. As he reached for the door, he turned to the business man and asked, “Sir, one thing bothers me about this. If this happened to you 25 years ago, why is it that you are just now repaying the debt?”
“That,” replied the businessman, “is the rest of the offer. You must do this every time it is needed!”
I consider myself extremely fortunate to have had many excellent advisors over the years. I quit my last salaried job at age 20. My first sales manager took me under his wing and kept me going when everything seemed so hopeless. Within months, he transformed me into a salesman ? then they made me the sales manager before I turned 21.
Never took another ?job.? Have always had my own business of some type. When Pat and I began investing in real estate, we had a tremendous advantage over most people. For us, it was simply a matter of converting existing knowledge into a new form. All we had to learn was the real estate ? but, that was a lot. I don?t envy those starting from scratch ? a lot of work to do.
Remember this ? when you see someone successful at what they are doing ? it is very rare that they were an overnight success. Even when it looks like that happened, you will probably find that their life experiences all worked together to get them to that point of success. All of us are the sum total of our life experiences.
Read everything you can read that has even the slightest relationship to what you are trying to do. Look at every experience asking, ?what can I learn from this?? You may find that years down the road you use something you learned today ? even though today it might have seemed so insignificant.
So, keep asking the questions and I?ll do my best to give you some answers.
Merle
Pay It Forward! - Posted by Mark-NC
Posted by Mark-NC on October 31, 2000 at 07:31:48:
Merle,
I saw an excellent movie the other day called “Pay it Forward”. The premise of the movie, without giving it away was about a young boy that had to come up with a an idea for a homework assignment on how he could make a difference in the world.
His idea, was to do an unselfish act of kindness or generousity for three strangers without asking anything in return except that the recipiants “Pay It Forward” by doing the same thing for three other people creating a multi level pyramid of these acts.
I guess what I am getting at is your posts are very informative and complete, you have shed a new light with some of your teqniques. You have also spent a lot of time answering many questions on this board. I enjoy reading your posts.
Now, I do not want to single out just you there are many others on this board that have given the same and more. For those readers that have the courage and the ability to comprehend the information the on these posts, it will change thier lives.
If someone is a avid user of this site they will see that a lot of the same questions get asked over and over. To many of the seasoned investors on here the questions become redundant. But you will see that many times they will still answer them or you may see that A newbie has come up in the ranks that may have asked the same question and is now experianced enough to answer it themselves. As a result “It was paid forward”.
Your post provides an excellent answer to someone who asks you the question. Why do you do this or help people for free? If you ever wanted to give them the short version, You could say “I am Paying it forward”, and all I ask is, if you use this information and you are successful with it, I expect you to do the same.
Mark
Re: Pay It Forward! - Posted by JohnG
Posted by JohnG on October 31, 2000 at 20:32:45:
You have discovered the secret to making lots of money in this business (as well as enriching your life in other ways).
Everybody always asks for the money upfont - and THEN they will produce the work; make the sale; do the deal; whatever. There are a few who will do the work and produce the results without worrying aboutwho gets the credit - and they are the ones who will rise to the top in this or any other business.
Go forward - produce excellence in your own life and you will be rewarded commensurate with the service you provide. It is a natural law of the universe that has been around for a thousand years, and it still works today.
I bet you are “paying it forward” in your own life - otherwise you would not have been able to write such a great and timely post !!! Am I right ?
Re: Pay It Forward! - Posted by Merle
Posted by Merle on October 31, 2000 at 18:11:54:
That is a good story. Heard about the movie, but haven’t seen it.
Merle