I don’t remember who said it, but there’s a famous quote along the lines of “the more guaranteed your income, the less likely you are to become wealthy.” And how true it is. I was a government employee for 6 years and you’ll certainly never get rich working for “the man.”
On the other hand, I know folks who were miserable with their government jobs, yet who were too afraid to leave, for fear of losing that steady paycheck. Thankfully, I wasn’t one of them. However, I’m also not a fool and in all of my entrepreneurial adventures, I make sure all my risks are calculated.
Therefore, before you quit your day job, consider the following…
1) If you’re thinking of quitting your day job and becoming a full time real estate investor make sure you understand this business. Just because you’ve closed one deal, doesn’t make you a lease option expert. Even if you’ve got 6 months of living expenses in the bank, still do not quit until you have enough knowledge to close all types of deals – lease options, subject-to’s and wholesale deals.
2) Before I quit, I studied two topics like crazy. The first, of course, was real estate and the second was marketing. If you haven’t read every marketing book in your library (I’m not joking) don’t think about quitting. Marketing is, by far, the most important part of your real estate business.
3) Take a personal self-assessment and see if you’re disciplined enough to go full time as an investor. I know many people who were successful as part-time investors because they were forced to manage their time wisely since they were still working a full time job. However, when they quit and had a ton of time on their hands, they actually accomplished less and became lazier. Personally, I wake up at 5am every morning and time block my day by the hour.
4) Have the support of your spouse. This one doesn’t need a long explanation. An unhappy spouse equals an unhappy you.
5) Have your business already running as a ‘well oiled machine.’ What I mean by this is, when you quit, you should simply ramp up your marketing and begin closing more deals. Your ‘infrastructure’ of power team members, and marketing methods should already be in place.
Once you’re confident that you know this business well enough to go full time, just do it.
The last thing you want to do is be lying in your deathbed at 90 years old, wishing you would have become a millionaire investor. To tell you the truth, before I quit my government job I was waking up in the middle of the night in cold sweats I was so nervous.
However, I knew that I would have no respect for myself… and that I would never become rich… if I didn’t take the plunge. And I don’t regret it for one minute, and either will you, if you have the courage to quit in the first place.
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