I started out in property investment aged 17 and have built up a very large property company as well as a real estate wealth creation education organisation. In a recent video on YouTube, I summarise my entire journey of how I started from nothing and built a £20m empire over 12 years. Because I get asked about this a lot, I thought it would be a good idea to include some of the key points in a blog post. Hopefully, this can help anyone that is getting started in business or property. If you are a young person just starting out or someone getting into entrepreneurship later in life, this article is for you.
Reading Books
I started off by reading some business and personal development books as a teenager. Those books included Rich Dad, Poor Dad by Robert Kiyosaki and Screw It, Let’s Do It by Richard Branson. One thing I noticed when reading these books was that many of these awesome entrepreneurs, who had become extremely wealthy from building businesses and investing, didn’t do very well at school. This was really inspiring for me, as I wasn’t great at school and wasn’t going to be able to go down the academic route.
Academic vs Practical Work False Dichotomy
I was working as a plasterer, on a building site and for my dad for a while. The generally accepted wisdom was that you either go down the academic route and become a doctor, scientist, accountant or one of the other professionals or you got a practical job. What I learnt from reading those books,however, was that this is a false dichotomy. There is a third way: business and investing. This third way doesn’t require a degree and you can make substantially more than people in the professions. This was exactly what I was looking for!
Networking Meetings
With this new found knowledge, I began getting into the world of business networking events. I attended meetings hosted by Business Networking International, Property Investors Network and many others. I found that, unlike in school, people took me seriously and I started to learn the ropes. I signed up as a distributor for the network marketing company, Utility Warehouse and started to sharpen my sales skills. I found all this fascinating.
Investing With No Money
Going to so many events, seminars and reading a lot of books, I soon learnt how to spot a good property deal. The only problem was that I didn’t have any money! What I learnt, however, is that you don’t need your own money to invest in property. Many of the most successful people in this business use other people’s money to invest. I bought my first property at the age of 17 with other people’s money and my step-dad acting as mortgage host. I used his credit to get the mortgage and raised money for the deposit. The second property I bought was also secured with other people’s money. I borrowed the money for the deposit from an investor. I also did a lease option agreement on another property meaning that I didn’t have to raise the capital to buy the property. The price of property went up and I refinanced my houses and reinvested. Overtime, I built my portfolio up, grew my businesses and am now worth £20 million! It all started by educating myself and taking action.
Anyone can become financially free via property with the right knowledge and a willingness to work hard. If you would like to start taking massive action today, why not book a free ticket to my next Property Investors Crash Course? Tickets are free, so there are zero excuses!
