Harvey Mackay is chairman and CEO of Mackay Envelope Corporation, an $85 million company he founded at age 26. Mackay Envelope has over 500 people and manufactures something like 23 million envelopes a day. Mackay, who is a graduate of the University of Minnesota and the Stanford University Graduate School of Business Executive Program, first came on the scene in the late 1980's with his book: "Swim With the Sharks Without Being Eaten Alive!"
Needless to say, writing and selling books is great way to sell envelopes. But that is a post for another day.
In 1997, Mackay wrote another national best seller called, "Dig Your Well Before You're Thirsty" with the subtitle: The Only Networking Book You WIll Ever Need..." Not sure if it is the ONLY book on networking you will ever need, but if you do not have Any books on networking, this is a MUST HAVE!
It is the topic of "digging your well..." that I really want to focus on.
There are way to many people out there who approach real estate investing as a "hobby", if that is you, you can stop reading now, because everything from here on out will not be very "flattering" for you". Any idiot could have made money in real estate over the past couple of years. All you had to do was "jump into the pool" and you would have made at least a 20%-30% return on your money. There have been a number of folks who simply had the cash to buy real estate, and did it. However, they did it all wrong and still managed to squeeze a 10% to 15% return on their investment. Better than the stock market, YES! But in reality, THEY did not make money in real estate, as much as the marketplace simply bailed them out of their bad moves. And in most cases, the biggest mistake they were making was simply flying blind - being out there on their own, making decisions simply based on something they picked up in a book, or read in a newspaper and then implemented it without any guidance. Not bad when everything is going up at a 30% clip, but you can hardly pat yourself on the back and call yourself a "genius" when you beat the stock market, but made 1/2 as much as you should have.
Based on the emails and phone calls I get, there is one area that new investors clearly need to work on, if they are not going to fall victim to some of the things which await people who invested in real estate "flying blind". You need to get into the habit of networking with those who are doing what you want to do. More importantly, you need to continue to work on the habit of networking with those more successful then you - this is how you learn, this is how you grow.
If you are not going to your local REIA, (real estate investor's club/association) meeting, then you are hurting your own grown as an investor. More importantly, you are not 'digging your well", which you will need in the future when a potential deal comes up, or the marketplace turns and you need "HELP!". The first time you call on someone should not be the first time you need "HELP!" Develop the habit of building relationships with those who can help you, before you are under the gun.
As a kid, my father would often say to my sisters and I, "When the door to opportunity opens, you don;t want to have to go back and get your bags!". I use to think this meant you needed to know everything about everything. I now realize it means, you need to know who to call when an opportunity presents itself and you need the right answers!
Dig your well before you're thirsty - build your database of contacts, before you NEED them.
Harvey has a new book out now called, "We Got Fired! ...And It's the Best Thing That Ever Happened To Us..." Looking forward to reading it. Everything he writes is full of pragmatic, insightful information.
See you at the next REIA meeting...
