A book’s vision, 8 years later

This book has been on my shelf for as long as I can remember. I’ve avoided it for years. For some reason last month, I finally plucked it off the book shelf and sat down to start skimming its contents.

I had no recollection of when, where, or why I bought this book. Remember this for later.

I’ve read a couple dozen books on investing in real estate, and only a handful of them have come close to describing the philosophies and methods that we actually follow. Not that how we choose to invest in rental properties is the only way to do it, only that there are a TON of different ways to do it. Most books on the subject I read and think, “Thanks, but I politely disagree.”

This book had be nodding my head and yup yup yupping to practically every page. It described our process to a T. It was perfect.

Once I had skimmed the majority of the book and excitedly shared the discovery of it with Hubz, I happened to take a glance at the inside front cover.

Actually, before I show you what it said, a quick reminder about my background:

I graduated college in May of 2003, moved to Kansas City, and started my corporate job that July. I started really getting into personal development in college, mostly by reading books, but I was very much at the beginning of my journey. I wasn’t actively learning about investing in real estate, I knew no one who had invested in real estate, I was in no position to invest in real estate. I was just beginning to form the idea that I could work for myself someday if I found a way to build a business that could support me.

What I did have, however, was the knowledge that someday, somehow, I would have rental properties. That’s it.

Ok, here’s the inside cover:

“ALP Mar 2004”

I bought this book in the spring of 2004, barely nine months into my corporate, post-college life. Why I bought it then, I have no idea, but I like to think that I was meant to.

At a time in my life where all I knew about real estate investing was that someday I naively wanted to be involved in it, I purchased a book that described the exact methods I would someday follow, didn’t know it, ignored the book for years, forgot all about its existence, in fact, and proceeded to learn the hard way through trial and error and mentors and experience about investing in real estate exactly as the book described.

I’m not sure what all of that means – Vision? Fate? A higher power? – but I think I like it.

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Tagged as: books, business, real estate