Are You "Intact", Or Are You Only 99.% "Pure"...?

There is nothing in the world like having dinner with a good friend and catching up.

Last night I had the pleasure of catching up with my good friend Alan Cowgill, who is in town teaching at Rob Bostick;s Rehabbers Boot Camp. As you know, Alan is the absolute MASTER of raising money from private investor sources, and his home study systems are some of the most comprehensive in the entire world of real estate education. Anything Alan writes or says, I buy.

Last night over dinner we got to talking about a number of things that "went down" in 2005, including the investment careers of a couple of friends. As we were talking I began to think about how much both integrity, moral character and credibility Alan has earned with me and others. Later on the way home I began to think more about the word "integrity", both as it applies to business and to life.

Integrity is one of the most misquoted words in the entire english language. Many people mistakenly believe it is identical to the word: "MORAL" - it is not.

In fact, in looking up the word this morning on Google, I came across a reference from The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Fall 2005 Edition), in which it says specifically:

"... Persons of integrity may in fact act immorally—though they would usually not know they are acting immorally. Thus one may acknowledge a person to have integrity even though that person may hold importantly mistaken moral views. When used as a virtue term, ‘integrity’ refers to a quality of a person's character; however, there are other uses of the term. One may speak of the integrity of a wilderness region or an ecosystem, a computerized database, a defense system, a work of art, and so on. When it is applied to objects, integrity refers to the wholeness, intactness or purity of a thing—meanings that are sometimes carried over when it is applied to people...."

I agree with the last part 100%, "Integrity" = "Wholeness".

Which to me means, that you say what you do and then you do what you say 100%. This is much easier said then done.

Case in point: As many people know, we have an active "private lender program", thanks in large part to the mentorship of my friend Alan. Last year, we were telling folks that we would borrow "x" amount of money and pay "y" percent for six months. Important: "Six-months". Now all of our contracts say "one-year", but in my "pitch" I would say "six-months". So far, so good. However, a few of the projects we took on last year were taking longer then "six-months" as 2006 rolled around. So guess what kinds of phone calls and emails I got this year when we went into the seventh (and in some cases) eighth month.

You guessed right! Not very pleasant ones.

Now it seems like such a small thing, and some of you would say, "Well didn't they read their contract?"
When was the last time you read an entire contract for anything you were involved in: line-by-line...?

My point exactly, this entire real estate business is held together by something stronger than the desire to make money.

It is held together by "TRUST". and as the saying goes: "It is very hard to come by, and very easily lost".

Whether you are a multi-gazillionaire investor, or you just bought your very first book on how to make a million in your sleep, my one suggestion is that you practice the letter and the spirit of the word "Integrity" day one.

What you say, you need to do. And if you can not do it, then do not say it.

There are many areas of real estate investing where being 99.9% pure is more than sufficient, but anytime you are using money, or credit provided by others, "99.9 and a half, wont do".

As my mother use to say: "Wonder woman is DEAD...", sorry, no, she used to say " .... I make you no promises, I tell you no lies". Now we all know that in this business we all have to make commitments, so being non-committal is not the answer.

However, in those areas where we are making commitments to others, we need to make sure we "under promise and over perform" to ensure that we have enough "cushion" built in to our deals to be able meet to the commitments we make. And we have to be able to meet them even when life and circumstances throw obstacles in our way that would cause us to not be able to meet the commitments we have made.

To make promises and then not be able to perform in a manner similar to what we have promised is to be "inconsistent" and over time we will (unknowingly) earn a reputation for lacking integrity, and that is the "kiss of death" in this business.