The American Dream Of Getting Rich Quick

When I was younger I wanted to be very rich and I wanted it to happen overnight.  Every time I tried taking a shortcut, I was sent back to the very beginning to pay my dues until I learned the lessons that I was supposed to learn.  Since I can be pretty hard-headed, this period lasted about fifteen years, starting when I was 22 years old and going to age 37.  

Eventually though, I started to realize that I couldn't always make things happen overnight.  Patience was the virtue that I needed to embrace.  And this was pretty hard for someone with higher than average ambition to accept. 

But now, patience is something I'm pretty comfortable with.  If things don't happen overnight or on the schedule I wanted it to happen - oh well.  In due time, I'll get the result I wanted or I'll get the result I was supposed to get.  

In my day job of doing short-term private money loans for real estate investors and talking to aspiring real estate investors, I get to hear my past, present, and future self when talking to clients about the projects that they need financed.  I like these conversations.  They're the older and wiser conversations by people (me and the clients) who've been at it for a good length of time and have learned many of the tough lessons that come only with experience.  

On the flip side, I often get to listen to my former self when aspiring house flippers call asking about financing.  They have more than enough ambition to become a success.  Unfortunately, they haven't put in the time, don't have enough money, and won’t trust the little voice in their head telling them to not do the deal.  (I ignored this voice on two deals and have spent about $150,000 over five years paying off the hard money loans with a personal guaranty all because I didn't listen to my voice of reason). 

I hear desperation in the voices of aspiring house flippers.  I hear them idolizing someone else that they think is really successful at the business.  Chances are, the person being idolized is over-leveraged and taking on way too many projects than they can handle and if/when the market flattens or declines, will be in a tough financial spot.  

It's nice to have nearly come full circle by paying the price in time and money for the mistakes that I made in my twenties.  I've learned so much along the way that I can't begin to quantify.  The big lesson is that becoming financially wealthy takes time, patience, persistence, etc.  It's not an instant gratification thing.  Rather, it's a long-term process filled with ups and downs, mis-directions and re-directions, spanning several decades.