My mom taught me something which I will never forget…
I had always been very disciplined as a child because I spent a lot of time with my mom in my formative years, like going with her and cleaning homes.
We went through all types of trauma, from cleaning people's homes - not getting paid on time or not getting paid or getting paid in rotten vegetables. I saw a lot of tears from my mom, and I made it my mission to be as focused as possible.
What I learned about focus from my mom is that you don't need to be super educated. You don't need to come from a wealthy family. You don't even need to read and write as long as you have focus.
My mom had put all her energy and focus into being a homeowner. That struck me because I learned a lot during that time. Her goal was to get us out of the projects, and my mom got us out.
If she didn't have focus, we would all be over the place, running from house to house.
So she saved up enough and worked hard until she could move us. This is the same concept I used for myself.
This is the same concept I used for What's The Focus.
In the military, I kept reading everything. And one of the sources of knowledge for me was to focus on gaining expertise in an area by reading other people's expertise. So I became an avid reader. And I just wanted to focus on one thing, and it was real estate.
During the early years after the military, I started saving everything to magnify what my mom had done - saving money and investing.
So I started to save money and invested it. I started roughly around 21, and in nine years, I started buying apartment buildings and doing condo conversions - turning apartment buildings into condominiums and then selling them.
I quickly became financially independent by the time I was 30.
And it wouldn't have happened had I not focused because many of my friends of similar age would tell me,
“Hey man, why do you want to save all this money, and why do you want to get into rentals?”
“Why do you want to buy this headache of apartment buildings?”
“Why don't you just chill out, or why don't you party with us, or why don't you call in sick for work?”
“Why don't you be like everyone else?”
It's not because I was smarter. It's not because I was gifted or talented, good-looking or bad looking, or whatever it was.
If it weren't for the art of having focus, I wouldn't have been able to amass the wealth I did early on.
Today, most of my net worth comes from real estate.
I started in the construction development game very early on.
And before I knew it, I could go to the bank with million-dollar checks. With focus, discipline, and determination, I was able to close billions in sales.
I don’t say these things to brag. But I want to let you understand that ANYTHING IS POSSIBLE if you put your commitment and focus into it.
