Obstacles are Stepping Stones to Success - NOT Millstones!
- By Geoff Morris
- Published 12/10/2008
- Advice
- Unrated
Tell me, how many of you reading this are millionaires? Not many, probably.
Well, how many of you would like to be millionaires? How many of you have a burning desire to achieve that certain special something in life, whether it be a special relationship, a qualification, or simply, financial independence?
So - what's stopping you? What obstacles have you got to overcome before you meet your goals, your targets, and your own self-satisfaction?
Do you realise that the place where the biggest obstacles are to be found, is in your head.
And do you know what your biggest obstacle is?
No? - Well I'll tell you. It's the 'Fear of Failure'.
What if I make all this money? If I do, I might lose it all...
So your mind freezes, and comes up with all sorts of obstacles - both real and imaginary - and you sit there in your comfort zone, and achieve NOTHING.
And when you are lying there, on your death bed after 70 years or so, it's a bit late to think that 'If only I took a chance...'
Well, let me tell you a true story. I know its true - its part of my 'Life Story'...
I was that person, sitting there, wishing I was rich, but not daring to make the first move to break out of my comfort zone. After all, I had been a very successful salesman in corporate life for 30 odd years; my wife Jane had a very good position as Operations Manager of a large software firm. Together we earned around 100,000 Sterling a year, had a company car each, had lots of wonderful holidays - why should we want to change anything...
Would you believe - lack of security?
Lack of security in the fact that we had both had broken relationships, both walked away (me twice times) from earlier homes, I had a whole clutch of kids and grandkids, and neither of us were getting any younger. We were also both working in a very fast moving technological industry, and neither of us had brilliant educational degrees - we had got where we were by shear hard work and determination.
Both of us had had bad pension experiences, so we knew that if either of us lost our jobs, or when we came up to retirement, all this good life would come crashing to a halt. Not maybe - we knew that was what would happen.
At about the same time - in the early years of this century - there was great talk of using property as the best, and some said, the only way, to secure financial independence, both then, and for our future.
So we looked at all the reasons why we shouldn't move into property investing - after all, we had good equity in our house, we were earning good (although highly taxable) money.
Why did we delay in doing anything? Was it because we had these massive obstacles in our heads - drummed into us from our earlier schooldays - that society as we knew it was built on the framework of:
- We go to school.
- We get good grades.
- We go to work.
- We trust the banks and other pillars of society
- We trust the government to provide us with pensions, and law and order
- We work hard, selling our time for money.
- We use credit to buy our house, our possessions, our holidays
- We work longer hours - until there are none left.
We are definitely not usually taught that to get on in life, you have to make money work for you, rather than by selling your time in exchange for money.
All these points build up a raft of obstacles in everyone's heads about breaking out of this straightjacket, and trying to get to a situation where you have money working for you, not the other way round.
So Jane and I decided that enough was enough, we had to do something to build up our financial independence, especially for our later years.
So, we remortgaged the house, we got ourselves a bunch of 'Interest Free' credit cards, and over a period of less than two years, amassed a property portfolio of over 3 million Sterling! Now this was back in 2003 to 2005, when property prices were still rising at around 8 - 12% year on year. On paper at least, we should have been making over a quarter of a million in increased assets year on year.
We were doing so well, we even left our 'Day Jobs' and set up a Property Club, helping others on to the property ladder as well.
But then - disaster struck!
Over half of the properties we had bought, were part of a massive property scam, where due to some very expensive marketing in all the big national papers, on the internet, at massive Property Shows, we, alongside thousands of others, had bought properties that were in many cases never properly renovated, had 'invisible' tenants, and worst of all, had been over-valued by so-called professionally qualified people, sometimes by as much as 100%.
On top of all this, I wrote an article and published it on the internet, warning others of my mistakes, and what to watch out for when buying investment property. That was fine, and a lot of other investors signed up to my campaign, but as the main 'Whistle Blowers' both Jane and I got hit with a High Court Writ for Defamation and Libel, for over half a million in damages and costs, from someone not even mentioned in that article!
Then, because of this legal threat against us, we had to shut down our company, and now with no income, and these overpriced, un-tenantable properties, we have watched as everything we ever owned was slowly destroyed due to getting involved in this massive property scam.
However, due to our efforts, it would seem that the people responsible for this and all of their companies have now been brought down, and criminal investigations are under way.
The greatest gift to us was that this also meant that the High Court action against us - unjustified as this was anyway - was dropped.
This meant that we were now free to try and rebuild our shattered lives.
To most people, the stress of what we had been through would more likely have caused depression, divorce, and perhaps even contemplation of suicide, but how we survived, and how we have managed to get back on track to becoming millionaires again, is probably due to our ability to keep thinking in a positive frame of mind.
Obstacles are indeed 'Stepping Stones to Success - NOT millstones!'
Well, how many of you would like to be millionaires? How many of you have a burning desire to achieve that certain special something in life, whether it be a special relationship, a qualification, or simply, financial independence?
So - what's stopping you? What obstacles have you got to overcome before you meet your goals, your targets, and your own self-satisfaction?
Do you realise that the place where the biggest obstacles are to be found, is in your head.
And do you know what your biggest obstacle is?
No? - Well I'll tell you. It's the 'Fear of Failure'.
What if I make all this money? If I do, I might lose it all...
So your mind freezes, and comes up with all sorts of obstacles - both real and imaginary - and you sit there in your comfort zone, and achieve NOTHING.
And when you are lying there, on your death bed after 70 years or so, it's a bit late to think that 'If only I took a chance...'
Well, let me tell you a true story. I know its true - its part of my 'Life Story'...
I was that person, sitting there, wishing I was rich, but not daring to make the first move to break out of my comfort zone. After all, I had been a very successful salesman in corporate life for 30 odd years; my wife Jane had a very good position as Operations Manager of a large software firm. Together we earned around 100,000 Sterling a year, had a company car each, had lots of wonderful holidays - why should we want to change anything...
Would you believe - lack of security?
Lack of security in the fact that we had both had broken relationships, both walked away (me twice times) from earlier homes, I had a whole clutch of kids and grandkids, and neither of us were getting any younger. We were also both working in a very fast moving technological industry, and neither of us had brilliant educational degrees - we had got where we were by shear hard work and determination.
Both of us had had bad pension experiences, so we knew that if either of us lost our jobs, or when we came up to retirement, all this good life would come crashing to a halt. Not maybe - we knew that was what would happen.
At about the same time - in the early years of this century - there was great talk of using property as the best, and some said, the only way, to secure financial independence, both then, and for our future.
So we looked at all the reasons why we shouldn't move into property investing - after all, we had good equity in our house, we were earning good (although highly taxable) money.
Why did we delay in doing anything? Was it because we had these massive obstacles in our heads - drummed into us from our earlier schooldays - that society as we knew it was built on the framework of:
- We go to school.
- We get good grades.
- We go to work.
- We trust the banks and other pillars of society
- We trust the government to provide us with pensions, and law and order
- We work hard, selling our time for money.
- We use credit to buy our house, our possessions, our holidays
- We work longer hours - until there are none left.
We are definitely not usually taught that to get on in life, you have to make money work for you, rather than by selling your time in exchange for money.
All these points build up a raft of obstacles in everyone's heads about breaking out of this straightjacket, and trying to get to a situation where you have money working for you, not the other way round.
So Jane and I decided that enough was enough, we had to do something to build up our financial independence, especially for our later years.
So, we remortgaged the house, we got ourselves a bunch of 'Interest Free' credit cards, and over a period of less than two years, amassed a property portfolio of over 3 million Sterling! Now this was back in 2003 to 2005, when property prices were still rising at around 8 - 12% year on year. On paper at least, we should have been making over a quarter of a million in increased assets year on year.
We were doing so well, we even left our 'Day Jobs' and set up a Property Club, helping others on to the property ladder as well.
But then - disaster struck!
Over half of the properties we had bought, were part of a massive property scam, where due to some very expensive marketing in all the big national papers, on the internet, at massive Property Shows, we, alongside thousands of others, had bought properties that were in many cases never properly renovated, had 'invisible' tenants, and worst of all, had been over-valued by so-called professionally qualified people, sometimes by as much as 100%.
On top of all this, I wrote an article and published it on the internet, warning others of my mistakes, and what to watch out for when buying investment property. That was fine, and a lot of other investors signed up to my campaign, but as the main 'Whistle Blowers' both Jane and I got hit with a High Court Writ for Defamation and Libel, for over half a million in damages and costs, from someone not even mentioned in that article!
Then, because of this legal threat against us, we had to shut down our company, and now with no income, and these overpriced, un-tenantable properties, we have watched as everything we ever owned was slowly destroyed due to getting involved in this massive property scam.
However, due to our efforts, it would seem that the people responsible for this and all of their companies have now been brought down, and criminal investigations are under way.
The greatest gift to us was that this also meant that the High Court action against us - unjustified as this was anyway - was dropped.
This meant that we were now free to try and rebuild our shattered lives.
To most people, the stress of what we had been through would more likely have caused depression, divorce, and perhaps even contemplation of suicide, but how we survived, and how we have managed to get back on track to becoming millionaires again, is probably due to our ability to keep thinking in a positive frame of mind.
Obstacles are indeed 'Stepping Stones to Success - NOT millstones!'
Geoff Morris
Have you ever let obstacles come between you and your fortune, or even your happiness? See how this ordinary couple, and even celebrities such as Bob Proctor and Jack Canfield, used their minds to overcome what could normally have seemed to be insurmountable. http://www.walkingwiththewise.co.uk
View all articles by Geoff Morris