argue that we are entering a new age. Some say the Information Age is over and we are entering the Conceptual
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Age. It is no longer good enough to “go to school, get a good job, and save money for retirement.” It’s time for everyone to become an entrepreneur, at least part time. A career is not enough anymore. In the near future, everyone with a career will also need a side business and a portfolio of investment real estate to maintain a healthy standard of living. The middle class is becoming an endangered species, and job security is disappearing. The average Generation Y or echo boomer will change career paths every four years. Specific career-path skills are less important today than ever; what is more important in the Conceptual Age is to become a generalist, understand general concepts, and be able to put the pieces together. In the Conceptual Age, the creative people, the conceptual people, and the entrepreneurs are becoming the leaders in society. People who can put Money, People, and Deals together will enjoy the greatest freedom in the Conceptual Age, while people who cling to job security, entitlement, and old ideas will have the hardest time of all.
Who This Book Is for
Money People Deal is for those who want to become leaders in the Conceptual Age. It’s a book for people who want to create jobs instead of looking for jobs. This book is for people who want to retire early and retire rich. It’s a book for people who want more freedom of time and place. This book is for people who want to pursue the shortest way to wealth. This book is for parents who want to look after their children and children who want to look after their parents. This book is for people who embrace change. But most of all, this book is for you.
How to Read This Book
Money People Deal is written in three parts. Part 1 is “The Rules of the Game,” and it outlines how the game of Money, People, Deal is played. The first part of this book outlines broad concepts, ideas that must be understood, and rules that must be known to play the game to win.
Part 2, “The Dealmaker, the Mind-Set, and Who You Have to Become,” focuses on the mind-set you must develop and the person who you must
become in order to be a dealmaker. This section is mostly conceptual and focuses on attitude, because entrepreneurship is 99 percent mind-set. In life, success is built on attitude, not aptitude.
Part 3 is called “The Execution: The Art of Deal” and focuses on components of real estate and making a profit. This section is specific to real estate and offers some unique strategies and techniques to consider when putting together great deals.
At the conclusion of most chapters, you will discover an action step relating to the concepts presented. To get maximum benefit from Money People Deal, ensure that you follow every action step. You may want to read this book with a notepad and pen to write down your thoughts as you move through the material.
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Part 1
THE RULES
OF THE GAME
To win the game, you must first know the rules.
If you don’t know the rules, the game is impossible to win.
This section shows you how to play the game
of Money, People, Deal.
I outline broad concepts, ideas that must be understood, and rules
that must be known to play the game to win.
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Chapter 1
The Four Fastest
Ways to Profit
A
t any crossroads in life, there are always two paths: the common road and the road less travelled. When it comes to money, most peo-
ple take the slow way by going to school, getting a good job, and saving for retirement. Like most people, I travelled on the slow road. I went to a good school and graduated with a degree, but my path had a twist on it. After finishing school, although I had earned a degree, I didn’t have a set career path or an easy way to success. After I finished school with a major in English and a minor in music, my first job out of school was a ten-dollar-per-hour sales job on straight commission in the middle of the night. I was selling luxury hotel rooms over the telephone and knew the path I was on was not where I wanted to be. I had to learn how to change directions and head down a new avenue. Making ten dollars per hour in the middle of the night was not going to help me live my dreams, and the cold reality of that first job out of university was that I was making more money working part time to pay my way through school than I was earning post education with a degree. In some ways, I may have wasted four years of my life earning that piece of paper that I thought would validate me, but I had also accidentally enrolled in the best school in the world—the school of life.
The Four Fastest Ways to Profit
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The blessing in disguise and the lesson I learned very early in life, at age twenty-two, was that there is no set path to success. For myself, I had no illusions. There was no meal ticket; no safe, secure job to cling to; no golden handcuffs to hold me down; no job security to worry about. I had to become an entrepreneur and carve a niche for myself or crawl back into school for more education. Further education was not an option, because I believed the words of Einstein: “Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result.” Instead, I began to study money, business, and entrepreneurship in the school of life, and I learned the most important concept to create all of the wealth I would ever need: Money, People, Deal.
Henry Ford, one of the greatest entrepreneurs of all time, was once asked, “So what, you’re a billionaire! What would you do if you lost it all tomorrow?” Mr. Ford replied, “I would have it all back in five years . . . and more!” Donald Trump, one of the most famous real estate investors of our generation, was nearly nine billion dollars in the hole, and he came back richer than ever. Steve Jobs, arguably the best entrepreneur of all time, was kicked out of Apple, the company he founded, only to start a succession of very successful tech companies and return to Apple to make it the most valuable company in history.
What did Henry Ford, Donald Trump, and Steve Jobs all understand that the average person does not? When I began studying business and money, I used to wonder what separated these men, with their ability to create wealth and value out of thin air, from others. What is amazing about all of these men is not just the size of the wealth they have created, but the speed at which they have done so. Henry Ford created all of his wealth in his lifetime and Steve Jobs did the same. Trump had a small head start, but the speed and magnitude of his wealth is just as unexpected.
When I began to study these men, I learned that they all understood how to create wealth by putting Money, People, and Deals together. This is the skill of the entrepreneur and the key to creating the fastest wealth possible. In my business I made the decision to focus on the fastest ways to wealth and placed less emphasis on the slow ways. Life is too short to only rely on the slow ways to reach your destination.
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