Have a plan of action such as a business plan before you start. Well, it’s a funny thing. I’ve worked with real estate investors all across the country and for many years I’ve been teaching since 1987 and one of the things I discovered is that a lot of people, whether they’ve already started or just getting started, don’t have a plan.

Now, what I mean by the plan is you got to figure out what you’re up to. What are you trying to create with your life, with your business? And one of the things that I always think about is the fact that when you get on an airplane, the oxygen mask drops down. And what do they say? They say, put it on yourself first. So one of the things that you got to do is take care of yourself first. Your ego. You got to get the stuff that you want.

You know, God created an amazing planet and there are all kinds of wonderful things on here for us to take advantage of. So what resonates with you? What makes your heart sing? What’s your list of stuff that you want? I’ve got a few examples for you here. Now, what is it that you want? Is it houses? Is it cars? Is it boats? And you know, I’ve got students here, right? Is it college? Is it college for yourself? Is it college for a family member, for kids, for our grandkids? Is it something that you want to give to someone else in terms of education? How about travel? Travel to where, where do you want to go in this incredible world? It’s a beautiful planet.

The only problem is all the good stuff is not together. It’s spread out all over the place. So where do you want to go in your life and what kind of experience do you want to have? Do you want an RV? You know, what kind of RV do you want? Now, what are you going to do? And what I want you to do is when you make this list, be specific like houses. Where do you want these houses to be and how large do you want the house to be and how much is that house going to cost?

Start to think about what it is that you want. Start to cut out pictures of things or print out pictures off of the internet. What is it that is in your dream, in your vision of what you want? Cars? What brand do you want? What year, what make, what model? What color? Boats, what model, what length of the boat, what style? Is it a yacht? College? Where? How much does that cost?

Let’s put a list together.

What I want you to do is make that list, add everything up and a line and that’s your number. That’s your big number, but there’s a second number I want you to come up with and that’s your monthly number. How much does it cost to own these things? What’s the month that we need to have to come in order to be able to accomplish those goals in order to have those things and to keep those things too. I had one student, she wanted a budget of $10,000 per month for her shoes now. So it’s whatever you want in your life. Let’s make a list. Let’s have a great plan. What we’re going to do is follow a formula in order to build the size of the business that you need in order to accomplish those things.