My amigo Preston Ely, one of the premier real estate wholesalers in the country, just sent me the following story.

If you know Preston and you were under the impression that he’s always flipping wholesale deals, partying at red carpet events, shopping for designer jeans, and looking for a bigger mansion you’d be wrong …

… sometimes he just sits in front of his fireplace in a robe and fuzzy pink slippers and writes short stories.

A little odd, but the good thing for us is that his stories help keep our minds straight when the media is telling us that we should all be depressed right now.

Read below and forward it to everyone you know. It will make the world a better place.

The Story Of The Two Flippers
By Pre$ton Ely

Read the rest of this entry…

Posted on Sunday, 5th October 2008 in Life, Real Estate | Comments (0)

Startled?

Don’t worry… this isn’t going to be any sort of scandalous, adults-only blog post! I just wanted to share a few recent lessons learned from the billionaire mastermind of the Virgin Group and the world’s greatest entrepreneur: Sir Richard Branson.

I just finished his autobiography, which shares the title of this post. It was a gift from a great friend & CEO of RealEstateInvestor.com, Colin Egbert.

While Branson’s early sexual promiscuity (he actually “wife-swapped” with his friend for a weekend) and his failure to recognize God as God certainly temper my respect, you can’t help but admire the way he did business.

Here are 8 notes I scribbled as I read the story of his success from 1950-2001…

1. A huge key to Branson’s success was his ability to leverage debt and protect his downside. For many years, the Virgin Group consistently overdrafted millions of dollars to finance their ventures. Why were banks willing to do this? Because of Branson’s uncanny sense of choosing the RIGHT ventures and his track record of success. Each of these ventures involved tremendous risk, but Branson was never without an awareness of where the risks were and rarely without a contingency plan.

2. He never shied away from competition. In fact, he seemed to thrive off of it. He entered the airline industry with a single plane when British Airways was dominating UK market share and eliminating smaller competitors left & right. He launched Virgin Cola, knowing that Coke and Pepsi held 70%+ of worldwide market share but seeing small weaknesses that he could exploit.

Read the rest of this entry…

Posted on Sunday, 27th July 2008 in Books, Business, Life, Marketing, Real Estate | Comments (1)

If I asked you to picture the “archetypal man,” who comes to mind?

By archetypal man, I mean a man who epitomizes everything a man was meant to be.

Who comes to mind? Stop and think about this.

How about Clint Eastwood? George Clooney? Russell Crowe? Denzel Washington?

It’s probably difficult to think of 3 men you actually have personal contact with because “real men” are - indeed - hard to find. Can I get an amen, ladies??

The problem is that, for most of us, Jesus probably didn’t immediately pop into your head.

Why is that?

Read the rest of this entry…

Posted on Sunday, 13th July 2008 in Books, Faith, Life | Comments (0)

I’ve always felt that the best comedians are the ones who put into words things that you’ve already observed about the world, but that - to that point - you’ve never actually put into words yourself.

They’re funny simply because they make you realize “that is so incredibly true.”

Chris Rock. Sinbad. Jerry Seinfeld.

I think this particular appreciation for one’s ability to “label reality” carries over into the authors I end up recommending as well. I just finished Malcolm Gladwell’s “The Tipping Point” and it certainly appeals to a similar part of me.

It’s the type of book that makes you think “Wow, if this guy hadn’t had the unique insight & passion to write this, I don’t know who else ever would have. And the world is a better place because he did it.”

It talks about the commonalities between the epidemics of this world; an epidemic being any sudden & rapid movement, upward or downward, of a trend.

Read the rest of this entry…

Posted on Tuesday, 10th June 2008 in Books, Faith, Life, Marketing | Comments (1)

I’ve been trying to read 30 to 60 minutes of fiction or autobiography every night before falling asleep. I find that it’s a good mind decompressor.

Last night I wrapped up The Alchemist by Brazilian author Paulo Coelho (which, by my best guess, is pronounced “quel-yo”.. like Ronaldinho). I’ve run across Coelho’s name a lot lately & I know he has some rabid fans, so I had to see if all the buzz was warranted.

I’d say it certainly is.

Coelho is a pretty enchanting storyteller who has a rare ability to say a lot about life - to even change lives - without wasting a single page on meaningless narrative. This particular book is an effortless read with a deep message about following your dreams.

Like Santiago, who leaves the simple comfort of a shepherd’s life in Spain to seek buried treasure abroad, we all have something we were meant to do. A passion that is rooted in the deepest fabric of our being.

The question: Are you living the fullest extent of your passion at this moment?

Read the rest of this entry…

Posted on Monday, 26th May 2008 in Books, Faith, Life | Comments (1)

Can we all collectively agree to behave like civil, peaceful adults when it comes to dealing in the marketplace?

I’ll explain.

First some background. I send regular emails to the Teamwork Lead System community and everyone who has opted to receive information from us. These emails typically highlight a great new product, service, or news feature that I believe will benefit our community of real estate investors.

On the sidebar I usually post ads for our Teamwork Lead System and Teamwork Comps products. These ads have been there on every email I’ve sent for months.

Today we received a profanity-laced, CAPS-LOCK-heavy email from a guy, who was apparently completely incensed that we advertised he could “try Teamwork Comps 30 days for free” and when he went to the site it was actually $9.95.

It was a mistake on my part. For a short promotional period we offered it free, but then we raised the price to $9.95 and I had simply forgotten to change the ad in my email.

Read the rest of this entry…

Posted on Friday, 9th May 2008 in Life | Comments (0)

My wife & I have been married for 14 months now & the reality of kids is still beyond the foreseeable future.

In fact, we JUST added a third member to the house… a scrappy Hawaiian mixed-martial arts kitten named Cooper. This is step #1a in preparing me for diapers & other related obligations.

Solomon gave me some serious wisdom in Proverbs 24:27 that I’ve taken to heart:

Finish your outdoor work and get your fields ready; after that, build your house.

I’ve still got some serious field work to do before I get busy on the house! But this doesn’t mean I haven’t thought about child-rearing strategy.

There’s a pervasive attitude in America that children “must be taught the value of hard work.” Having taken the proverbial red pill (comprised of equal parts Rich Dad Poor Dad & 4-Hour Workweek), I am fairly convinced it’s immeasurably more important to teach the value of “smart work” as a parent.

Read the rest of this entry…

Posted on Sunday, 4th May 2008 in Life | Comments (0)

It’s been a month since Hope Chapel Mana`olana, my church body here on O`ahu, made the change to the house/garage/beach church model. Enough time to begin to measure some results.

First of all, what has this looked like?

It’s been meeting with some friends for BBQ, surfing, worship & hanging out at Kakaako Park. It’s been early morning coffee & catching up with a friend. It’s been late night Wii Tiger Woods Golf & accountability with another friend.

It’s been creating an environment at my house where some family members - who would never “go to church” - have felt comfortable discussing God. It’s been not feeling the obligation to rush out the door on Sunday morning.

It’s been an evolving picture, but it’s all a move toward eliminating this church-as-a-destination way of thought that’s become THE model for modern Christianity. A model that personally changed my life and has been given years of opportunity to be effective, but has achieved generally mixed results and has alienated countless numbers to the gospel of Jesus Christ.

This new model is an attempt to return to our roots as an interconnected, interdependent network of believers passionately pursuing Jesus Christ together.

Read the rest of this entry…

Posted on Sunday, 27th April 2008 in Faith, Life | Comments (1)

I didn’t catch this live, but enough people told me about it that I had to YouTube it.

I’m not going to lie, I had a nice manly tear fest over the fact that 100 billion American Idol viewers saw this…

There are 4 shows I still make time for:

1) American Idol… I’m secure in saying this - they’ve raised like $80 million to support kids in the US & Africa

2) Conan O’Brien… Try it, you’ll like it

3) LOST… Somehow I run into Hurley all the time… including the magazine section at Borders yesterday

Read the rest of this entry…

Posted on Thursday, 24th April 2008 in Life | Comments (0)

“Underpromise and Overdeliver” is a common business mantra, but it’s certainly a wise approach to live by in general.

How many times have you talked up a comedian as “the funniest,” or a movie as “the best,” or a restaurant as “the most incredible food you’ve ever had.” And how many times does that object actually live up to its high billing?

If you’re experience has been like mine, I’ve let a lot of people down! If you set the bar at a height that’s so difficult to attain, you’re bound to disappoint.

I had this experience in my business this past week. I OVERpromised & UNDERdelivered, and it’s resulted in a lot of damage control & public relations efforts.

However, much of my “underdelivery” is the result of a strategic partner who has grossly underperformed what we contracted with them to do. When they didn’t deliver to me, the burden fell on me as I couldn’t deliver to my customers.

The result has been a uncharacteristically high level of stress, which I absolutely hate with all my limited capacity to hate.

Read the rest of this entry…

Posted on Monday, 21st April 2008 in Life | Comments (0)