I spent the last three days at a seminar – Real Estate Wealth Mastery by Milan Doshi.
If you’re unfamiliar with the man, he’s a bestselling author and trainer who has been running seminars on personal money management, property and the stock market for the past two decades in Malaysia.
Surprisingly (and yet not so) the first day of the seminar was on nothing to do with property, and everything to do with mindset. It’s a magical word to me. Because it rings true time and time again that without the right mindset, you’ll never achieve your dreams.
In fact, to take things a step further, I believe that without the right mindset, you won’t even have dreams. Because dreams are just goals without a plan.
And as Ben Franklin says, “If you fail to plan, you are planning to fail!”
So day 1 of the seminar focused on mindset.
It goes to show that in order for a seminar to make a dent and really create a positive change in the audience, mindset is the key. And this is the same for any area that you may be in.
At the end of the first day we were given an assignment to complete a vision board, made up of goals and aspirations that we had. Initially I didn’t care to put much thought into it and figured I’d spend a few minutes pasting whatever pictures I found.
But no.
The perfectionist within me partied on into the night for a total of 6 hours to complete my vision board.
It’s always been something that I wanted to do but never found the time (or motivation) to bother doing it. On my board I added things like my family, Virgin Galactic (an outer space experience that retails at US$200,000), green protein shakes (signifying the healthy regime I want to keep up on a long term basis), Teach For Malaysia (an initiative that brings education to children without access to schools) and Tough Mudder (a hardcore obstacle course that involves bolts of electricity).
I covered every aspect of my life. I set my goals down in pictures and writing. It feels good to look at it and have an actual vision to aspire towards.
From not giving much of a crap to spending 6 hours of my time on my vision board, I ended up winning RM100 for having the Best Vision Board.
Of course winning doesn’t really matter, but it goes to show how important it is to have the right mindset.
One of the biggest takeaways I received from attending this seminar was the importance of financial intelligence.
It’s not about changing your belief system, but rather how a person interacts with money. Their relationship with money.
During the seminar, Milan did a number of case studies with participants.
Those who wanted to were given the option of filling out a form with personal information about their cashflow, salary, assets and so forth.
I found it really interesting that a guy who wasn’t earning much but was smart in his investments had good debt, was doing well with an average salary and at the age of 29, owned five properties.
Alternately, another guy who was a lecturer with a PhD had been working at the same university for the past 18 years with a salary of RM10,000 a month and yet was struggling.
Finally there was a couple whose combined salary totaled RM25,000. But were currently in RM25,000 worth of credit card debt.
Financial intelligence. Stuff they just don’t teach in school.
It brings me to a famous story about Warren Buffett. He was playing golf with friends when they all bet a dollar on a particular hole. But Buffett refused to take the bet. When they asked why, considering he’s worth a gazillion dollars, he simply replied, “I never break my discipline.”
Buffett currently lives in a house he bought in 1956 for $31,500.
That’s what I mean about having a relationship with money. What’s yours?
Personally I spend six figures on expenses in a month. Sometimes. I guess it’s a phase. I don’t really do that anymore. But sometimes I spend what I make. Regardless of how big (or small) that figure may be. You know what I mean..?
Again, it goes to show that no matter what business you go into, it’s your mindset that will determine whether you succeed or fail.
Many people jump into property with the dream of passive income and financial freedom. Buy a place, rent it out, buy another, rent that out. Live off real estate.
Milan was very clear that there’s so much more to property investment than that. You still need to be a good marketer to be able to source for cheap property, raise capital, learn how to negotiate with bankers, brokers, valuators, buyers and sellers. You have to be a people person. Over 50% of the seminar focused on the art of negotiation.
The 3-day seminar reminded me very much of Internet marketing.
You sell based on what people want. The luxury of working from home, having time freedom, being their own boss…
But you give them what they need.
And what I needed from this weekend was to look at the way I treat money.
While most people will advise to save more, I’ve always had the motto to spend more so that I have no other choice but to make more. I like the feeling of being uncomfortable and being forced to grow.
I’m not sure whether that’s really going to change. But it does give me a different perspective. It’s something to consider at the very least.
