This post is also available in: Español (Spanish)

Max here……..Today of all places I was sitting on my toilet reading my email, Yeah I know, like you have never done that before right? Lol. Yeah, so as I said I was reading or rather purging emails and I came across an email that held the significance that I have been looking for.
You see, I have been looking to put a 12plex on one of my properties. My drawback? Is that I don’t know how to do it, Nor do I have the money or capital to do it. Hell I still have yet to finish getting my current 8 doors up and running. Let alone begin construction on an even larger project. Currently work, real estate, and personal life is a juggling act. By night a strip club DJ, and by day a real estate guru (or at least that’s the goal). The one thing that I do know, is that if I don’t start planning, putting it in my minds eye then I stand a 100% chance of not getting any of my goals and dreams up and running. And this 12plex thing is something that I have been wanting for the last couple of years.

Over a year ago I decided to take on the task of working to get a curb and sidewalk on the block where I live. This block also just happens to have 2 of my properties. So, about a year ago I went to the city and called enough people, met enough people, and went to enough meetings to where I was able to get the curb and sidewalk. Very time consuming, but I subconsciously learned a lot. And for those that don’t know, a curb and sidewalk is actually uber important to help the sale of an urban city home (whether it be renting or flipping). Curb appeal baby, Curb appeal .

Now cutting to the chase, during one of these events of me trying…. working at getting that curb and sidewalk, I met a man who was the CEO of a company that helped to build a 10+ million dollar apartment/restaurant/urban living environment that is located downtown. When I met him, and for writing sake, we’ll call him “Mr. X”. I asked if he would be kind enough to meet with me at a later date. (I am paraphrasing and condensing the convo down into just a sentence but it was a much more in depth conversation about my gratitude in meeting him and asking for a 15 minute meeting with him as well as giving him a little info about myself and the direction that I am trying to go in life) His response was by giving me his business card and telling me to email him and that he would try and make time for me. It took me about 6 to 8 months but I finally emailed him.

Why did I wait so long to email him? idk for sure. But if I had to guess, I would say that I either hadn’t worked up the nerve (call it inner fear) and or I just didn’t believe in myself (my personal ability to achieve) either way it took me forever. It’s kind of like a dog jumping into the water for the first time. Sometimes your just kinda skiddish. But yea…. I finally emailed him. Truth be told I wasn’t even sure if he would remember me since it had been so long and of all things, it was only one initial meeting.

Now back to the john…. I was sitting on my toilet purging emails and low and behold, after over a month, I get an email response. Needless to say I was ecstatic. There are very few, and I mean very few times that I get ecstatic while sitting on the john. Luckily this just happened to be one of those times. I immediately emailed him back…..Wait, I lie…. I actually opened up a note taking app on my phone and began scripting my email. Last thing I want is to be so excited that I misspell words, forget words, and or don’t have my thoughts in order. But immediately after composing the email in notes, I copied, pasted and hit the “send” button. Now it’s just about waiting for the response on when and where to meet him.

Now why am I blogging/posting about this??? Because for me this really is a big event, the possibility of finding the first person who can help jump start the cooking for this 12plex from the soup of thoughts scattered in my head into something that can have structure. Enough structure to find and build ways to move forward on this desire. And of all places, it happened in the john! For some reason God has a way of providing things when you least expect it. I actually had, and in many ways, pretty much given up hope on hearing from Mr X. And like a dumb ass I was just probably to shy and scared to call him or try any harder. Now in hindsight, I would say that maybe I wasn’t believing that I could really do it, maybe I didn’t believe that I deserved it. Hell, I am sure that my negative caveman brain could come up with 100 or more reasons for not having the drive that I should have had. But…… sometimes it’s just that small push from something larger than ourselves that can help us to remember in our own ability. So yeah, my goals are many and I must learn how to work them in tandem, This goal of learning how to build a 12plex must become one of my rituals along with getting my 8 doors up and running, skydiving, and working at learning how to cement my night job. Because the reality is that I can feel myself push away from the strip club job, but painfully it is still how I survive and pay for my real estate dreams.

Of all things, and after all this time of reading books, articles, blogs, and videos on business, leadership, management, advertising, and personal development, It is now a nightly challenge at work to interact with some people and to have belief in my upper management when I can now see that they themselves have no formal training in leadership, advertising, marketing, or even proper training in people skills. Hell I would guess that less than 90% of my upper management has never read 1 solid article on true personal development, let alone do as Stephen Covey suggests “sharpen the saw.”

Its tough. Just plain tough. But keeping the night job is a MUST until I can transition laterally. So I have got to make sure that I put a large amount of energy into the people that I work with. Especially the ones that help me to pay my bills and dreams. These people (the ones that tip me) are my everything. Without them….Without them…….It’s a thought that I just can’t fathom. They are my everything.

So for now…… work deeply at keeping the job, push the dream from all angles, like a pitbull to a tire, don’t let go of my goals, and always, always, consistently find gratitude in everything around me…… It’s currently, and hopefully will always be my personal recipe for success.

Max.