“Are You Seeing With A New Set Of Eyes?”

Time to Jump Ship?
How do you see? I’m not talking about whether or not you have 20/20 vision or if you need glasses. How do you see the world around you? What do you focus on? Are you tuned in to the nightly bad news? Have you listened to the prognosticators long enough to agree that the sky really is falling?

There are many of them who are saying exactly that about today’s real estate market. And the worse the news gets, the happier some of these harbingers of bad new news seem to be. They knew they were right, and now they seem to be glad they were right.
You’re shaking your head, wondering why you picked this time to step into the world of real estate investing. Or if you’ve been in the business a while, you may be wondering if this is the time you should jump ship. How will you ever find motivated home sellers in this crazy market? And how will you ever get your business off the ground?
It’s all in how you look at things.

Seeing a Continent
When a young man by the name of John Jacob Astor arrived in America in 1784, just after the War of Independence, he had a few dollars in his pocket and had brought with him seven flutes. With his flutes he opened a music store in New York. But his eyes were on the entire continent! While others were thinking of settling new lands just over the Alleghenies, Astor was looking at the fur trade all the way to the Pacific. Before long, the music store was selling musical instruments and furs.

While others were dealing with the Indians and the French, Astor was making inroads in political circles. He saw he would need government contacts to gains the pacts, treaties, and authorizations needed to expand his fur trading endeavors. He saw what others did not see.
While others were trekking across the frontier, forging new trails, Astor was purchasing ships to travel around Cape Horn to Oregon. His ships would carry American manufactured goods for trading with the Indians. The furs obtained then would be sold in the Orient. His plan was to send out two ships per year.

It was an aggressive plan; a daring plan. But it failed miserably: a ship explosion, the War of 1812, trouble with the Indians, trading patterns totally disrupted all led to the demise of his fur trading empire. Adding to the problems, styles were changing and furs were no longer in great demand. The picture looked pretty dismal. But Astor never saw failure or defeat.
Astor had already accumulated a small fortune, and now his eyes turned to real estate in New York City. He used his money to buy up large tracts of land in Manhattan. Even as far back as 1830, Astor had the vision of the rapid growth northward on Manhattan Island. He saw what other could not, or did not see.

Rarely did he ever build on his land. His plan was to let others pay him rent for the use! Once he had a plan in place, he seldom veered from that plan. His motto — “Buy and hold. Let others improve.”

Get a Vision; Dream Big
How is your vision? What do you see? Do you see the entire continent as Astor did? It takes a person with a big dream and an even bigger vision to make things happen when others are sitting idly by. When you dream big, big things become possible.

Where were all the other investors when John Jacob Astor was purchasing Manhattan Island one small lot at a time? He had the big vision; they did not. He had the plan; they did not. He had the determination and stamina; they did not.

If you are lamenting the fact that all is going sour in the real estate market, stop and take stock. Why did you choose this field in the first place? What drew you to real estate investing? What did you see at that moment? What were your original goals and visions? Go back and reassess. Whatever the reasons were that directed you toward real estate investing, realize that that has not changed.

Accept Fate or Create Fate?
The winds may have changed, but that simply means you adjust the sails. There will be many who bring down their sails and float into the safest harbor to wait it out. But you can keep on sailing. It’s your decision. Do you accept fate, or get out there and create your fate? What do you see?

Take the time to experiment with possibility thinking. Brainstorm for new ideas, new plans, new advertising thrust, new marketing ploys, new ways to negotiate, new ways to fund your deals. What can be done that you had not thought of before? What could be attempted that you had not attempted before? If you have slowed down your real estate investing business in a knee-jerk reaction to all of the recent gloom and doom, it’s time to shake yourself and get back up and get back in the game.

Make a list. What needs to be done and when. Is it time to create that new real estate investing website so your business will be more visible? Is it time to join the local real estate investing club and network with like-minded people? It was St. Francis of Assisi, who said, “Start by doing what’s necessary; then do what’s possible; and suddenly you are doing the impossible.” But it begins with taking that first step.

You’ve no doubt heard this question before, but if you knew for sure that you could not possibly fail, what would you attempt? Write it down. Look over you list. What do you see? Does it stretch your imagination? Does it stretch your vision?
It comes down to choice. Are you seeing the negatives in the real estate market? Or are you ready to move that obstacle out of your way and see what is right in the market. It’s up to you.

Before his death, John Jacob Astor commented, “If I could live all over again, I would buy every square inch of Manhattan.”
When it’s time for you to leave this world and you take a look back, what will you say? “If I could live all over again, I would…” Fill in the blanks. Then add that to your list of what you would do if you were certain you would never fail.