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Where did you get your knowledge?

Yankees338

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Just about everyone here seems to have a very good understanding of at least one aspect of the business world -- especially everyone here who is successful! Experience obviously helps gain knowledge along the way, but where did the initial knowledge come from to get you started? Did you read a book? A series of books? Have a mentor? Learn from a parent? From a job? We all have a great deal of knowledge. If we can all share where we've gotten that knowledge from, somebody else find it useful enough to make a difference in their learning.

Me personally, I've had an interest in business since I was in elementary school. I used to just enjoy playing with cash registers and money. Then, I began talking to people who owned and ran business and my curiosity, as well as interest, grew. Eventually, at age 14, I read Rich Dad, Poor Dad which shifted my views more towards those of a "B" (business owner) and an "I" (investor). I'm still developing my knowledge, but I'm learning more and more everyday. These forums have been a HUGE help :)thankyousign: MJ!) for me as I'm sure they have been for everyone else.

Please, share!
 
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andviv

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In my case it was a combination of reading books (Rich Dad Poor Dad really opened my eyes, but before I had read everything I could about retirement, pension plans, stock market, suze orman, Dave Ramsey, etc) and then starting talking to people.

I then started lurking in RichDad.com's forum and that made me realize there was more to be done.

Then experience kicked in when I started doing. I basically dived in head first into the waters of RE and got hooked. It seemed natural. When moving up I joined a local REI group and paid $1K for a course in REI.

So in summary, reading, asking questions, networking, and DOING is how I learned what I know now. I think I've learned the most when I made big mistakes.
 

Starsky

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My early experiences come from watching my father conduct business. He ran a cpl business's and owned a cpl pieces of real estate..

After i "grew" up a little bit, my first book that opened my eyes up a little was Wealth without Risk- Charles Givens.. Then of course RDPD years later after that. After i got serious about making changes, google became my best friend with research
 

piranha526

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The markets: original interest from my father. Knowledge base from reading (IBD, books). Study the market, Actual experience: trading for 10 years, study the market, study the market, study my trades. The most important: Study ME!

Business: original interest from father (he owned restaurants). The rest from reading and doing. Most recent: I created an equity research business from thin air and a small investment. It returned 38 times the original investment in two years. I am now working on the next venture.

Real Estate: Not my strong point but I am starting to learn (I do own property but I am not an investor).
 
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nomadjanet

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What knowledge?:banana:

Grew up super poor. Dad died when I was 4, mom had 8 kids & was a stay at home mom. Learned early, poor bad. Was always expected to be an adult, had to call bill collectors & beg for time by the time I was 12, by the time I was 8 years old could run the house because mom worked 2 jobs or more all my life. Married young, to a hard core workaholic. We always thougth we could do anything (this was a delusion caused from living in Texas where it is very hot) :smxB:. Had two kids then went back to college; changed my major several times never found a fit. Decided that there was no decent day care in neighborhood, I can do that! Had antoher kid. Operated day care for 4 years, decided to go into real estate. Sold day care to my assitant at the time. Got real estate license and used it mostly to invest for us. At the same time my DH decided since I was no longer running a daycare, he wanted the opportunity to start his own business. I said, OK we can do that. We jumped in with both feet & worked ourselves to death for a long time (made lots of money but worked wayyyy to hard). Finally joined industry best practices group and started refining the things we were already doing so we could delegate to others and not have to work so hard. All along still jumping into other business ventures and real estate ventures, still suffering under the delusion we can do anything. So far the delusion has been great, if we every figure out we are two under educated, over motivated people we may stop making money & having fun.:smxD:
 

tchandy

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My mom made me pen a bank account when I was in the 1st grade so I learned about saving early on.
Grew up and saw my parents go through some hard times. They lost their house when I was 11.
Started working when I was 12 and tried not to rely on my mom to buy me things.
Continued working through junior high and high school and college.
Got mentorship from my boss when I first got my job to start investing.
Started with mutual funds and lost a good portion through the Asian crisis in the late
1990s.
Started real estate investing after living in a condo for six months.
Bought another home to use as a rental. Learned a lot from both when there were no renters and a late renter. Learned that you really do need to have a money to cover your mortgage for the loss of rent because it can happen to anybody. Luckily I did.
Read through several books on Real Estate and investing.
Forced myself to watch CNBC everyday because before I thought it was all numbers and confusion but wanted to learn about the market.
Taught some young people I work with about investing. This only reinforces what you do know and what you don't know.

Tom
 

Sid23

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JScott, great post. Very informative!

rep speed ++
 
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Yankees338

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First of all, great post JScott.

Taught some young people I work with about investing. This only reinforces what you do know and what you don't know.
Now onto you, tchandy...I agree with you 100%. Being 16, most of my friends are clueless about the world of business, real estate, and investing in general. When I happen to catch a moment where one of them is interested in discussing one of the aforementioned topics, I pounce on the opportunity to talk. Teaching definitely helps one learn; it reinforces the basic points you often overlook. One thing I find extremely beneficial is the fact that often when people learn, they have questions. Many times, those questions are ones you don't think of yourself. Answering them not only benefits the person asking, but yourself as well. Having to think about these things yourself and come up with an answer on your own further enforces that you know what you're teaching. It's definitely a great way to learn.
 

EasyMoney_in_NC

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For me, aside from knowing that RE would be a good thing to be in, especially while cheaper than I had been used to seeing (lived in Ca.). I was a RE sales agent for a few years and worked for a long time development family office. The son (broker in charge) as well as the rest of the family was big in investing, so I picked up tidbits from them. He pretty much spelled out (over time) what it took to build and finance (as well as the refi plans) rental homes. He finally talked me into getting my GC's license (I felt to sell me lots the office developed and listed) and after a few years of trying other aspects of construction, I finally decided to try building rentals. I sort of all hit me at once one day, and having just come back from a Cali trip in an attempt to maybe move back, my wife and I sold a couple of house we had kept as rentals after having lived in them, 1031'd the money into the first 3 new homes and the rest was history. I learned how to manipulate the system and milk it for all it was worth. I found lenders, appraisers etc that would work with what I needed and didn't stop for 5-6 years.
Land was cheap, materials fluctuated but still allowed the #'s to work. Rates got cheaper on both sides of the financing needs........the planets could not have lined up better for the time I was doing it. Robert K's RDPD did give me an extra bit of punch I was in need of, and really taught me to use the "pay yourself first" mantra.
The party in my area is pretty much over for doing what I did, so it time to concentrate on other business ventures for me, and protecting what I have amassed.
I would have done so much more had I known earlier what the payoff was, and had the money and nerve to push harder :)
 

AroundTheWorld

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Hey MJ.... I'd love to hear your answer on this.

Where did you get your knowledge about internet biz?
 
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MJ DeMarco

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Hey MJ.... I'd love to hear your answer on this.

Where did you get your knowledge about internet biz?

First, JScott, great post, very informative and detailed ...Speed+++

My knowledge came from self-teaching -- books purchased from Barnes and Noble or borrowed from the library. To this day, most of my education comes from 2 sources: 1) Books and 2) Internet.

One of my "shit-jobs" I had years ago (and I had many) was a security guard and it had lots of downtime -- instead of doing nothing, I read ... book after book ... and taught myself programming.

As JScott says alludes to above, you CAN have a college/MBA education without the expense -- simply go buy the textbook. Enroll in online seminars. Visit internet forums that are highly specialized in your chosen craft.

In a democratic society we have the power of unlimited knowledge awaiting us -- books, the internet, the library -- all there for our consumption and the beauty is, its FREE or LOW COST.

Dollar for dollar, the internet and books/textbooks is the best education out there. The trick is, recognizing it, and having the discipline to use it.
 

M-M

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I'm starting to learn programming myself and there's a wealth of free information out there, like this forum for example. http://forums.digitalpoint.com/ (might've been pointed out to me by someone on here, I don't remember.)
Same goes for writing. A month ago I ordered $50 worth of books from Amazon that will provide me with a lot of useful information.
I've also learned a lot from the "Instant ..." series by Bradley Sugars.

And last, but not least, I learned from listening to successful individuals. That's really the best place, especially in person.
 

MJ DeMarco

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Runum

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I got what I know so far from books, internet, and other knowledgable people like on this forum. I still ask questions from RE professionals. For me knowledge is on going. It's not a destination but a great journey and it never ends.:cheers:

Greg
 

A-GAME

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im no multi millionaire......yet......but i would say everyones different and you should gather as much information from as many different sources as possible...real life experience along with as many good books,internet articles and audio books you can get your hands on...become a sponge and constantly soak up information even when your just shopping at the mall.....
 
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