Aw Shucks guys! Thank you so much Duncan, Anna, Bobby and Deep. You are so welcome Duncan/Anna and you do not know how much your kind words are appreciated.
I was saying to Steph (wife/busines partner/best friend) earlier today that I look back to where my life was just 4 years ago and just feel like a
millionaire!!! I have previously promised to put details of my journey to the
PMM in the Confessions section so I may repost it there, but here is my 'brief' story:
My background is 20 odd years working my way up to management roles, mainly in financial services. The real turning point was the low of a nervous breakdown and depression back in 2002. It was after then that I woke up and slowly started rebuilding my life with the support of Steph, medication and counselling. I had been out of work through yet another redundancy from a middle managment position in corporate land, had a new born baby and was working in a temporary job cleaning for the council. Our dept was building cleaning and I cleaned public toilets, litter bins along the streets and graffitti off of multi storey car park walls and motorway bridges etc. That wasn't the worst part though.....we had to wear bright orange overalls 8)
Despite the overalls and the appalling pay, it was still better than the humiliating and degrading process of waiting in the dole office to sign on and because we started at 7am and finished by 3.30 I could arrange interviews for late afternoons and then do overtime working evenings cleaning the local shopping centre or council offices.
I started studying property investment techniques and also launched my first business doing odd jobs for people. I got an old knackered van for free and just did Ł20 jobs fixing, installing etc here and there for people I knew. I never advertised but word of mouth kept me in work. Most of my clients were single mums and OAP's who couldn't do things for themselves and didn't trust builders. It was a win/win as I was cheap but diligent and reliable. It did grow with my confidence and I took on laminate flooring, fences, and refitted 3 kithcens and 2 bathrooms. It did wonders for my self esteem (which lead to me getting back into a well paid contract corporate job), but odd jobs were never going to support my family and achieve my dreams which I was slowly starting to believe were down to ME to make happen.
This post is long enough already - more details of my background and experience in corporate life can be found on my PA website, so I will just say that we bought our first investment propery about then - broken chain: had sold at Ł142 and we got it for Ł120 but we were fortunate and I admit I really didn't comprehend
BMV back then
The next 2 or 3 years were spent back in responsible management roles now that my confidence wa back. But corporate life was no longer what I wanted - I was good at it but I had found out who I was and knew that Property featured highly in my future and continued to build my portfolio and do
BTS deals in the evenings and weekends around Work and family.
Skipping forward to the last 12 months:
Jan 06- In high paid management role for big corporate company
Spending 3-5 hours a day commuting
Not seeing my young children and even when I did I was so tired & crabby
Had the worst boss of my career. She was the MD and her classic line was to walk past me in the corridor one day and say "Oh John - you're reporting to me now" (I had been reporting directly to the Chief Exec).
To which I replied " Yes I know! I have been reporting to you for about 3 months now!"
Her reply was to laugh and say "That's alright then and walk off!!!"
I was sooo frustrated that I couldn't spend enough time on my property business.
So wanted to be self employed calling the shots but was petrified
Jan 07 - Full Time Self employed
Able to devote as much time as I wish to my own property business
Have launched www.ThePropertyInvestorPA.com to help others who are where I was. LOVE doing it and the success of it has wildly exceeded my expectations. Helping others to grow thier business (and themselves if they so wish), is what I love doing and it is all connected to my 2 passions of property and personal development.
Still do 3 or 4 days a month consultancy work all over the country for cashflow.
Growing my own portfolio quicker than planned.
2 other business interests away from property
Have a fantastic network of property friends who I enjoy spending time with
Spend lots of time with my children including being involved in shcool runs, after school activities and the teachers KNOW who I am now.
Have even made friends with other parents from doing the school run!
I am a lucky man and grateful for the support of people on this forum (you know who you are) for thier friendship, support and trust - That absolutely includes my PA clients who took a chance in trying an unproven service - THANK YOU.
By most people's standards I realise I have achieved nothing yet. Have done a lot of
BTS deals and have only kept a small portfolio in UK and abroad, and 10 months on from quitting my job we are only now reaching financial stability again. But to me the achievement is in the freedom and True belief in myself, and the absolute knowledge that I know that the rest of my goals will come with this strong foundation and network in place.
If anyone else reading this feels frustrated, trapped, stuck in a rut or just down about things then I really do know how you feel and I hope that this may have helped in some way. The 3 things that I learnt and applied to help transform my circumstances are:
1. Don't be afraid to ask for, and then accept help. Being stubborn and proud are not neccesarily good qualities if taken to excess. Use the leverage of other peoples help and support - it is surprising and uplifting when you realise how many good people there are who are happy to help - but don't just be a taker. Help others even though there is no beneift and your rewards really do come in other and strange ways LOL.
2. Don't be afraid to cut adript from the negative influences in your life. In the last couple of years have lost friends of 20 years standing, and no longer have much to do with some family members because I made the difficult decision to stop listening to them telling me what I COULDN'T do and start listening and mixing with the positve and supportive people I was drawn to who believed I COULD do things.
3. SImply TAKE ACTION! Action breeds action - take the first step and the next one seems so much easier and nearer and so on it goes. The difference in those that are successful and those that are not are those that are able to successfully EXECUTE a plan. You can have a perfect plan drawn up by an expert, but it is ultimately up to YOU to make it happen. It's YOUR life.
Finally, I am so so lucky to have the support of my wonderful wife Stephanie who many of you also know. Without her trust and belief (and the occassional kick up the backside!) I would still be found bored out of my mind in some boring corporate meeting or crashing my car on the Motorway through exhaustion (true story!)
And I still do the occassional odd job for my regular OAP's from back in 2002 - not because I need to, but because I WANT to. They helped me so it might sound silly because they have no idea of this jouney I have been on and just think I am a full time odd job man, but I don't want to let them down when they need help with something.
Anyway, enough already. Would love to hear more stories from other members.
JR
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