risk

"Only through curiosity can we discover opportunities, and only through gambling can we take advantage of them."

– Clarence Birdseye, entrepreneur

dreams

"Our truest life is when we are in dreams awake."

– Henry David Thoreau, essayist

Fear

"He has not learned the lesson of life who does not every day surmount a fear."

– Ralph Waldo Emerson, poet

Looking dumb...

"Unremarkable lives are marked by the fear of not looking capable when trying something new."

– Epictetus, philosopher

Important..

"Learn to differentiate between what is truly important and what can be dealt with at another time."

– Mia Hamm, soccer champion

Your own path

"To go against the dominant thinking of your friends, of most of the people you see every day, is perhaps the most difficult act of heroism you can perform."

– Theodore White, author

Potential...

"Few men during their lifetime come anywhere near exhausting the resources dwelling within them. There are deep wells of strength that are never used."

– Richard Byrd, explorer, aviator

Destiny

"Destiny is no matter of chance. It is a matter of choice. It is not a thing to be waited for, it is a thing to be achieved."

– William Jennings Bryan, secretary of state

It comes down to...

It comes down to....

1. Being clear on what you want to do
2. Doing what you choose
3. Recollect thoughts and repeat

Next Idea ..

"To stay ahead, you must have your next idea waiting in the wings."

– Rosabeth Moss Kanter, educator

Don't wait

"The longer you wait to decide what you want to do, the more time you're wasting. It's up to you to want something so badly that your passion shows through in your actions. Your actions, not your words, will do the shouting for you."

– Derek Jeter, baseball player

Learning Annex Real Estate Expo - Day II

Robert Kiyosaki

Robert talked about investing and introduced various people on his team (his wife, executives at an oil company). He got quite upset at a guy who wouldn’t lower his hand, demanding that it was his turn to talk.

Reggie Brooks

Today was much much less crowded. Only 8 or so rows were filled in the seminar.

Reggie Brooks told his story … of how he fixed up his first house and made a 41K profit. And then he explained that he didn’t know how to look at comparable sales, and therefore left 40K of profit “on the table”, so therefore we should buy his program and learn more from him.

Ebay Riches – Duane Barney

Another room where only the first 5 rows were filled, but they insist we leave no empty seats so we have to touch arm to arm with neighbors. We also can’t move back to an empty row. He’s hasn’t gotten into talking about anything about eBay yet, so I’ll go check something else out.

David Lindahl

He was presenting in the keynote room. They keynote room has much much more space and they let you sit where you ant and the sound is better today….A good number of the non power-house speakers speak once in the keynote and then several times in the breakout rooms. So even through the first few seminars on Sat were extremely crowded and they had to exclude people, by Sunday, there are lots of seats. Since the same seminars repeat, I’m sure you can see whatever you want in the course of the weekend.

David partners will his students…. He matches up students with money and take a percentage for the brokerage. Owns the Lindog group. Acquisition teams buying up multi-families.

It begs to question that if these guys are so rich off real estate, why do they spend this time speaking to the mob and diligently preparing to making lectures that are masterpiece works at selling their product. Most addressed this in their lectures saying that they loved to help others. Another claimed that all his book, lecture and program sales went to charity. I suspect that the source of students leads not only to immediate revenue to others things…. One had setup a network of professionals he would make available only to his students, David partnered on deals with his students.

The speakers did seem to know their fields…. And if I was interested in pursuing that particular area, I’d would consider their program. The lectures seemed to focus very little on the quality of the program, but on the ease of how it will be to strike it rich with one particular area of investment. From the Tax Lien lecture, we are going home thinking it’s trivial to earn 25% back with no risk and a few hours of effort a week…. That’s the worse case and every so often you get a whole house for a few thousand dollars. Hey, it sounded so good, I’ll definitely investigate, but I’m going to fork of $2000 on the spot.

The speakers say that their offers are special Learning Annex deals. Or, a funny one, one claimed that only 50 people will get a special extra offer because there is limited room (which almost caused a stampede to the back) – I went back at the end of his next seminar and the same thing happened.

Tax Strategies –Patrick James (representing Scott Estill, a former Senior Trial Attorney for the IRS)

Patrick started out by saying he supposed to introduce Scott, but instead he had to do the seminar. He we representing Scott Estill, a former Senior Trial Attorney for the IRS.

After his story about his idol Scott, Patrick shared some good information

- Any meals or entertainment within 24 hours of a business discussion are tax deductible – as long as your intent for the meeting is to do business. It also must be reasonable.

- Minors can earn up to $5000 per year tax free. He suggests you set up an account to pay your kids for work and then use it for purchases for the kids.

- Put your corporate logo on your shirt, then it is considered advertising and tax deductable

- Have an “employee of the month” prise. Purchase a gift certificate from the company and give it to the employee (including yourself).

- Commuting miles are NOT tax deductable. However, miles that you drive too and from mailbox are. As are miles to go to the store to get business magazined.

James suggested having a C-Corp to hold your assets and a separate LLC. As I understand, he said the LLC would pay your C-Corp a management expense and then be used to disperse dividends (which are exempt from social security and the minimum tax rule).

He sold a package too for a little under $2000. This included 2 tickets to a 2 day seminar by Scott Estill, a former Senior Trial Attorney for the IRS, and an offer for Scott to do your 1040 for 3 years. I checked his site and the seminar was $900 per person. I was interested, but I wasn’t able to attend the January conference dates, though I’m going to keep an eye on the February Chicago seminar.

I popped into a few others with my friend and also compared notes with the sessions I missed, and then decided we were seminar and sold out so we left. I’m very glad I went as I got exposed to new things. For example, though I read a lot, I don’t think I would have picked up a book on tax liens. I also ordered Scott Estill’s book on taxes and have it on the list of seminars I’d like to attend. I’m also going to examine my corporate structure as Family Limited Partnership and C-Corp/LLC combination. And Tony Robbins was very relevant in giving me a new perspective.

My hairdresser paints ATGC painters

The only person I'll let cut my hair, Francis at Safar, paints ATGC genetic paintings.  That's cool "contemporary art".

Learning Annex Real Estate Expo

A friend had an extra ticket to the Learning Annex Real Estate Expo, so I attended today. She had paid $175, but the prices went down. Yesterday the VIP pass (which includes the coffee and seats up front) for $99.

The keynote room was huge; big enough to hold 50,000 people and it looked like an airplane hanger. The floor was concrete, the chairs were touching each other. The back seats were all roped off so people would go up front. When we walked in, girls with tight T-Shirts) with “FUN” on their boobs (think Amanda on Rocketboom) were waving long balloons and jumping up and down. Pump up music was blasting. 30 minutes late, the host came out to rev everyone up – “who wants to be rich, jump up an scream!”. They are going to give away iPods. The crowd wasn’t that into it. With the sound reverberations, we had a headache.

The conference had speakers in the keynote hanger and split out into other rooms you choose. We left the opening pep rally a little early so we were sure to get in (if the room filled, you were turned away). We went to see Robert Shemin on “Good Deal or A Bad Deal”. It was entertainment…. He gave out money to people who raised their hands, had us thinking that he was going to give someone a million dollars, and wrote a “mystery check” for a charity and gave it to a woman in the audience. I’m still curious about the amount. He seemed credible and seems like a nice guy (he said he gave all his speaking fees and book sale profit to companies). The amount of information we learned you could count on your hands. A good fix-and-flip you should may 20%. Wholesale means you put down a contract and then sell writes to the contract before it closes. A bank will short sale a foreclosure for 18% under the mortgage amount. Lease to own is up and coming, not only if you live in the place, but also if you are going to rent it to tenants. He referred a lot to his CDs, his 3 day training, and a real estate network he ran.

George Foreman

We went back to the hanger to see George Foreman. George Foreman talked about his boxing career. He was very dynamic and charming. The echo in airplane hanger was so bad we couldn’t really understand what he was saying. There were people really into it, but I didn’t know enough about his fighting career to understand.

Robert Blumn – Legal Tools for RE Investors

We stayed in the hanger to hear Robert Bluhm on 6 must have legal tools for any investor: asset protection.

Three requirements to lower your takes:

1. Own a Business
2. C-Corporation (he said this was the best way to get tax writeoffs, including 100% of your family medical expenses)
3. “Key Words”

· Medical Reimbursement Plan

Sources of Suites

1. Divorce

2. Employee Actions

3. Guest Accidents at Home

4. Join Ownership Pitfalls (joint tenancy, tenancy by entireties, community property, other forms)

5. Involvement in General Partnerships

6. Service as Corporate Officer or Director

7. Implied Corporate Officer

8. Just “Owning an Asset” – Dangerous

9. A Suit Today for an Act Ten Years Agao

10. Insurance May Not Cover You

To protect yourself, Robert suggested a Limited Family Partnership. Some links to Limited Family Partnerships

· http://www.rjmintz.com/appch5.html

· Protecting a Family with a Partnership

· What protection is available through a limited family partnership?

· Family Limited Partnership

Robert had a program he was selling, with all the forms, for around $2000.

Wayne Gray – Earn 5-10K/Month with Tax Liens

Wayne explained the basics of the tax lien process.

• Wikipedia Entry
• Tax Liens and Real Estate

He offered a program that had educational materials, contact information of counties’ tax liens, connected you to a network and had some software for around $1800.

Raymon Aaron - Automatic Prosperity

We entered the room to wait for another seminar and the room was a frenzy… people were running to the back to purchase the Monthly Mentor…. I think I might go to this tomorrow to how he got everyone into a frenzy.

Chris Johnson - Free Money from the Government

Number Programs Available

• 1453 Federal Programs
• 17,215 State Programs
• 30,089 Private Foundations
• 20,000+ Scholarship Programs

Programs:

www.cfda.gov – catalog of federal domestic assistance

• Women Business Ownership – 59.043 – to help women own a business, last year the average grant paid out $75,000.
• 14.117 – Purchase a 2-4 Unit Builidn
• 14.112 – Build or Rehabilitate Condos ($2,000,000)
• 14.151. – Fix up Multifamily United ($2,000,000)
• 14.197 – Fix Up Apartment Building
• 47.070 – Computer and Information Science and Engineering
• 45.301 - Museums for America (also 45.302)
• 23.009 - Appalachian Local Development District Assistance
• 11.003 - Census Geography
• 11.002 - Census Government Agreement
• 11.001 – Census Bureau Data Products

• http://hod.gov – takes back 1000’s of properties through foreclosure, then lists with relator. Most have sold after 6 months, but then they try to get rid of them (10 days), then (4^th) stage, you can get them for $1 (but also must do the repairs) Information about how to buy a HUD home.

• HEMAP – Homeowners Emergency Mortgage Assistance Program
• Homeowner Rebate Programs
• Community Development Block Grants
• 203(k) Rehab Program
• Housing & Rehabilitation Grants
• American Dream Downpayment Initiative
• AmeriDream Charity Grant 5%
• Future Home Assistaance Grant 6%
• Partners in Charity Grant 10%
• Home Quest Down Payment Fund (6% OF UP TO $300,700)

Business Grants and Loans

• Sba.gov – small business administration
• Gsa.gov – over half-trillion dollas in government contracts
• Book – Free Money Grants & Loans

Government Grants for Real Estate

• Books – Real Estate Free Moneyy Grants & Loans
• www.students.gov – 1000’s of programs

At the end, Chris gave away his program to a single mom in the audience. Then he asked if we all wanted one free and if so, to go to the back. Then threw in some more items (email coaching with him for a year, a piece of software) and the explained that he’d go out of business if he sold it for less than $685. A lot of people bought.

Tony Robbins

3 Mandates of Leadership

1. See it as it is … but not worse that it is!

2. See it better than it is.

3. Make it as you see it.

Emotional fitness is the difference.

Have you ever failed to achieve your goal? When you ask people why, their reasons are:

• Time
• Money
• Lack of Technology
• Lack of Education
• No Energy
• Not Enough Research
• Terrible management
• Terrible people
• Not Enough Supreme Court Justices

The most successful people on earth are the people that understand that the above is just resources. Resources are never the problem; it’s always a question sof RESOURCEFULNESS.

Emotions are the Ultimate Resource.

This is about creating an Extraordinary Quality of Life –

Definition: a life of meaning, a magnificent life, fulfilling and on your own terms.

The 2 master skills of life:

1. The Science of Achievement
2. The Art of Fulfillment

You can change your state in a moment.

Emotion comes from motion. The way you use your body can determine your state.

Two factors control how you feel in a given moment

1. Physiology
2. Focus – Focus = feeling = reality (even if it is not true)

You need to control your focus. At any moment, you are making 3 decisions

1. What are going to focus on
2. What does it mean?
3. What am I going to do?

A lot of this is timely as it reminded me of the “Flow” CD that I recently listed to. In particular, Tony was addressing how to influence your state of mind.

All of thought is asking questions. Changing focus in life can be done by reframing questions. Changing Physiology is faster than changing focus. Wherever focus goes energy flows.

Only way to change your life long term is to raise your standards. You need to change your “shoulds” into “musts”. When something becomes a must, that is when it changes your life. When something is a must for you , it becomes your identity. Strongest force is to be consistent with how you defined yourself. To changes things you got to shift your psychology, your musts, to raise your standard. When it is a must, you find the way.

The Success Cycle -

Potential à Action à Results à Belief/Attitude --

^ |

|-----------------------------------------------------------|

1. Raise your Standards –
2. Change your Should to Musts
3. Change Your Limiting Beliefs
4. Model the Strategies that Work, Model Success
5. Give more than you expect to receive

Day-One Wrap Up

It started out slow, but I did get a glimpse of things I’d like to research some more (Limited Family Partnership, Liens). I didn’t buy programs (they are much cheaper on eBay if I really wanted them). I saw some master salespeople get people to fork over several thousand dollars on a whim. And Tony Robbins was motivating, insightful, and practical.

Success...

"Success is often achieved by those who don't know that failure is inevitable."

– Coco Chanel, fashion designer

Dreams

"The distance between you and your dreams is often the length of a single idea."

– Vic Conant, executive

Keep trunkin'

"When the morning's freshness has been replaced by the weariness of midday, when the leg muscles give under the strain, the climb seems endless, and suddenly nothing will go quite as you wish – it is then that you must not hesitate."

– Dag Hammarskjold, statesman

Productively Talk with Dave Allen

David Seah - Productive Talk Compilation: 8-episode podcast with GTD’s David Allen

How to fight with other bloggers

Paul Boutin: How to fight with other bloggers.

When you know...

Integrity without knowledge is weak and useless, and knowledge without
integrity is dangerous and dreadful. - Samuel Johnson

I see this all the time with my web application clients..... when
people don't have the skills and experience, they make costly decision
in terms of both time and money due to pure ignorance. With knowledge
comes the power to influence decisions, estimates and overall
direction and therefore save or cost a client time and money. It
takes a foundation of integrity to use the knowledge for positive
influence.

"The discipline of writing something down is the first step toward
making it happen."

– Lee Iacocca, automobile executive

Internet Deals

If you are looking for other good deals online try this website:
www.bradsdeals.com it has a comprehensive list of coupons and deals on
the internet. Very good and highly recommended.

Whatever you see determines what grows inside of you...

Make visual pictures of what you want in your life.

Make a list..

Make a list of...

1. 100 people you want to meet.
2. 100 places you want to go.

Growth

"All growth is a leap in the dark, a spontaneous unpremeditated act
without benefit of experience."

– Henry Miller, novelist

Struggle is good

"Character cannot be developed in ease and quiet. Only through experience of trial and suffering can the soul be strengthened, ambition inspired and success achieved."

– Helen Keller, author, lecturer

Can't Stuff This

Ways to have an effective network

Your network should know:

1) What you care about:

Cultivate, maintain and publish a list of things you care about.

• This will help people understand how to help you and what information to push to you.
  
• This will help people know your expertise so they can connect you to opportunities

2) What you are the "goto" person for:

This includes not only your skills, but the people you know and the resources you can think about. Your personal "Team 100" or Million dollar roladex". By knowing you, they are also connected to contacts, suppliers, and resources.

3) What you know:

Make your knowledge available to your inner circle.

How do you value beyond "the transaction" to your clients and friends.

Boston Haymarket Late Sat. Afternoon

Saturday night at around 6PM is the time to go.  Vendors are breaking down and eager to go and shouting "box for 1 dollah".  A complete mad scene, but I got 2 containers of strawberries, 2 containers of blueberries, a bunch of bananas, 6 pairs, 3 bags of grapes, 10 lemons and 3 avacodos for $6.50.

Five Simple Rules For Keeping An Empty Imbox

Five simple rules for keeping the inbox clean:

1. If you don't need to read it now, it shouldn't be in your inbox.
   
2. If you've already responded to it, it shouldn't be in your inbox.
   
3. If it comes from a known source (some person, retailer or mailing list that sends you mail more often than once every few months) it should be labeled automatically.
   
4. No one needs to look at their own inbox more than once an hour (and for many, once every 2-3 hours).
   
5. To borrow from the cult of GTD, re-factor constantly and mercilessly

Old Blog

My old blog was hosted by the Berkman Center at Harvard, thanks to Dave Winer.