Hey, it’s Sherman Ragland with 10 Minute Real Estate, and here’s the deal. If you have a genuine interest in real estate and you’re willing to give me 10 minutes I promise that I’ll absolutely, positively give you something that will change your life. So you ready? Here’s our segment today. I’ve been responsible for growing the single largest real estate investor club on the entire East Coast. You guys know, who know me, of course I’m talking about the Greater Washington DC Real Estate Investors Association, otherwise known as DCREIA, DCREIA.com. See how I plugged that, right? So here’s the deal. The number one question I get asked, and I’ve been asked this for years, is Sherman, what’s the number one thing I need to do to become a successful real estate investor. So I’m gonna answer today. What’s the number one thing you need to do to become a successful real estate investor. And it goes right back to something that my dad used to say to me as a kid growing up. He used to say, son, look, there are three kinds of people in this world. And I wanna share that with you real quick because it directly relates back to how I answer this question. There are three kinds of people in this world. You ready? You may wanna write this down. Okay? There are those who make things happen. They literally make things happen. And then there are those who watch things happen. And then there are those who sit around going, what happened? Right? And my dad used to say to me, as a kid, growing up, son, you want to be in that first group. This is where you wanna be. Life will be much more fulfilling, enriching, and rewarding when you’re in that group. So you say Sherman, how in the world does that relate to this? Well, I have a theory now that I share with my members. Now, I don’t necessarily share it with all of my members, ’cause the truth of the matter is when I share it, some people are offended. So I only share with my members who I know are serious about real estate investing. And here’s what it looks like. There are three. I say guys, there are three types of real estate investors, wherever you go. And what are they? Number one, they’re champions. Any real estate investor group, any state investor club, any real estate investor meet-up. You will always find the champions. What does a champion look like? Well, they hang out with other champions. That’s number one. Number two, they ask lots of questions and they also ask for help. But here’s what’s important. Champions ask for help, champions ask lots of questions, and then they look for ways to actually implement them. Champions always look for ways to do more and be more. So it doesn’t matter if you’re just getting started or you’ve been at this business a long time. The champions, the ones who make things happen, are the ones who are always seeking and searching, and most importantly, applying. They take action on what they hear. They take action on what they see. And they look for different ways that they can actually apply it in their lives and in their businesses to grow their own successful real estate businesses. Now, there’s a second category of people and these are what I call the “victims”. And notice it’s in quotation marks, meaning they’re not really victims. It’s not like there really are victims in life. People who, they step out on a curb they get hit by a truck, right? And it’s not their fault. But these are people who have a “victim” mentality meaning, it’s a state of mind. It really is sort of the way they think. And more often than not because of the way they think they oftentimes snatch defeat from the jaws of victory. In other words, they’re really this close to being successful, and then they figure out a reason to sort of sabotage themselves. They figure out a reason why they wanna make some excuse for why it won’t work. And they let go of the ball just before they get to the goal line. And they’re always saying, you know what? It’s always the other guy’s fault. Truth, truth, right? I’ve actually gotten emails, not a lot, but one in particular was, Sherman, I could have been more successful as an investor, if only you had done this, this, this, and this. Now these are from people who weren’t active members or weren’t coming, but they sort of had this victim mentality. And you don’t wanna have a victim mentality. Now, am I saying that bad things might happen? Look, good things and bad things happen to everybody. Even the scripture says, “The rain’s gonna fall upon the just and the unjust”. So good things will happen in your life and bad things will happen in your life but you cannot adopt a victim mentality. And let me give you a personal firsthand experience. I spent 12 years of my life growing a business. Now truth be told, the reason why I grew my own business, I grew a $20 million business, $24 million actually. The reason why I grew that business was because I got sick and tired of dealing with different types of discrimination. And I finally woke up one day and said, you know what? These guys don’t appreciate me because of this and this and this. I’m not gonna have some other person write my paycheck. And I started my own company. And I grew that business over 12 years to a $24 million business. And on one day, on September 11th, 2001, that business was taken away from me. Had nothing to do with me. In fact, we had actually won several awards. I could have sat down, cried, which, I did do that. Had a pity party. Yeah, I did do that. But I could have stayed in the, woe is me. Look what the government’s doing to me. Look what these guys are doing to me. And I said, you know what? That’s not gonna put food on the table. That’s not gonna help my wife and my kids out of this financial mess that we find ourselves in. I had to move away from the victim mentality and move towards the champion mentality and say, look, if God has closed this door, he’s obviously opened up another. I need to first figure out what that other door is. And second, make something happen. And it wasn’t but two or three months after that change of mind I got my first series of deals done. And before you know it, I was making over a hundred thousand dollars a year as a real estate investor because that door had been closed, my previous business, my aviation business, and a new door had opened. But if I had stayed in that victim mentality you’d never even know who I am. I’d just be some other guy who got hit by a truck and laying on the side of the road and died. Sort of metaphorically speaking, financially speaking. But I decided I was not going to play the victim. I was gonna get up and do something and go hang out with the champions. And by hanging out with the champions I was able to build a six- and then seven-and now an eight-figure real estate business. Mindset. And then the last group of people is what I call, “clueless”. Now don’t get me wrong. Okay? I’m not saying clueless people are stupid. Far from it. Clueless people, and again, it’s in quotation marks. Well, half a quotation mark. Clueless people are people who intentionally just don’t care. They say things like, you know what? Don’t know, don’t care! Think about it. You probably know somebody that you’re like, this is the brightest person I know. And they would do extremely well in real estate. Let me invite them to go to the real estate club with me. And you call ’em up and say, hey, I’m gonna this real estate thing or a bootcamp or a training session, whatever. And you call ’em and say, hey, I’m gonna to this training session next week, you wanna come with me? And they’re like, yeah, okay, whatever, sounds good. Pick me up. And then the day comes to pick ’em up, and you’re there outside their house and they’re not ready. And you call ’em up and say, hey, where are you? And they’re like, I’m sleeping. What do you mean you’re sleeping? Today’s the day we’re supposed to go to the real estate thing. And they’re like, oh, is that today, is that thing today? And you’re like, I thought you wanted to go. He’s like, oh, well, next time. When I get around to it. It’s not that they’re, quote unquote, stupid people, ’cause they’re not. They just choose to be clueless on certain things. And you have to realize when you come into relationships with people like this, it’s not that you love them any less, but you really do need to move them over to the side. And let me tell you why. Because champions understand the necessity to hang out with other champions. Champions understand the necessity to get things done. And champions tend to have a very low threshold for dealing with “victims”. And they have almost no tolerance whatsoever for dealing with people who choose to be clueless. And if you’re not careful, the clueless person may very well keep you from your dream. I’ve literally had people say to me, hey Sherman, are you still doing that real estate thing? And I’m like, yeah, that real estate thing just put two of my kids through college at a tuition of $65,000 a year. Oh! Hey Sherman, you doing that real estate thing? Hey Sherman, I saw you on Facebook and you’re like traveling all over the place. How do you do that? Well, it’s that real estate thing. Remember that real estate thing I told you about 10 years ago? You remember that real estate thing I said, you may wanna come out and check it out. Well, that real estate thing is paying all the bills. That real estate thing is giving me passive income that allows me to live the life of my dreams. At which point in time the clueless person says, hey, what happened? How’d you do that? Here’s the key. When you come upon a person who’s clueless, you gotta understand. You need to take control and sort of move them to the back of your relationship. Don’t love them any less. Don’t stop hanging out with them altogether but understand if you’re not careful, they may very well hold you back from what you wanna do and from where you wanna be. So to sum it all up, what’s the number one thing you need to be successful as a real estate investor? I can sum it up in one word. Attitude. What’s your attitude? Not your aptitude, not your skill level. ‘Cause skills can come. Skills can be taught. But the one thing that I’ve never been able to teach anybody, the one thing that our most successful students all possess, is the right attitude. And they have the attitude of a champion. Meaning, it doesn’t matter what your situation is today. It doesn’t matter where you are today. It doesn’t matter where you are now. If you are determined to win then you’re gonna figure out a way to win. First and foremost, by hanging out with the other champions. First and foremost by refusing to never become a victim. And if you do find yourself adopting a victim mentality, say to yourself, this isn’t gonna get me anywhere. I need to change my attitude and stop playing the victim and start becoming the champion. And you need to eliminate clueless people. And some of these clueless people may be very well-meaning. They may be very intelligent. They may have multiple degrees, but if they’re not doing the thing you want to do and they’re holding you back because they simply choose to “Don’t know and don’t care”, then you gotta push ’em to the side and say, you know what? I’ll come back and get you later. When I get those tickets for the cruise I’ll come back and get a state room just for you. When I get those tickets to go stay at the Ritz Carlton Club for a couple of weeks down in The Bahamas or down in Cancun or down in St. Thomas or out in Hawaii, I’ll come back and get you and give you a plane ticket. But in the meantime, I’m going to do this and hang out with the champions to learn how to do this. And I cannot let the fact that you’re not interested hold me back. So that’s it guys. That’s your 10 Minute Real Estate for today. The number one thing you need to be a successful real estate investor: attitude. The right attitude.