Before I get to the meat of this post, let me give you a little background information about myself.
As you can see from my user information to the left I signed up as a member of this forum just a little under nine months ago.
I’m almost 29 years old and I have spent the majority of my life as a sidewalker chasing illusions of the fast lane.
If you have read my introduction post you may be wondering about this
I’m going to elaborate a little bit. The $10,000 was the result of a deal I brokered selling a failing bodega. I had a mentor who had a lot of experience buying run down stores and then improving them over a few month period. He would then sell them for a decent profit. He never bought the property; he only bought the business operations. He would typically pay $30k for something that was spiraling down like a plane crash. Just before the explosion he would swoop in and make an offer.
One day I was with a friend and we were driving past this run down corner store. My friend was a heavy pot smoker and was looking to get a cigar to put his pot in. We pulled into the store’s parking lot. I went in to get a beverage. I remember thinking to myself “Damn, the least the owner could do was mop the floors in the joint”. I grabbed a diet redbull and walked to the counter. When I saw the owner standing behind the counter I noticed that he looked stressed out. I was thinking what’s wrong with this dude? Then I remembered something I overheard my mentor saying to one of his associates. “Everyone has different prices at different times in their life”. I blurted out to the store owner “Hey want to sell your store?”. He gave me a crazy look and chuckled. Then he asked “What’s your offer?”. I offered him 25k cash and made the bold “Statement I’ll be back with the cash tomorrow”. “Sure you will” he replied. I left the store feeling like a bullshiter.
Later that night I went to my mentor and told him about the store. We took a drive and he looked at it. I’ll never forget what he said “You picked a winning horse”. The thing about this store is it is the closest one, a half mile in one direction, and a whole mile in another direction. In a crowded city this is critical. But there was an even better aspect; there were 400 apartments behind the store that had a driveway leading directly to the store.
“Everyone has different prices at different times in their life”
This was my mentor’s way of saying what @zend***phin does. “The Four D’s of buying”
Distress
Debt
Divorce
Death
I told my mentor the owner wanted 40k for the store. I was trying to broker it. My mentor told me I know he would take 30K. If I can get it for anything less I’ll give you 10k. The next day I walked into the store with my mentor and paper bag full of cash. I had made 10k for about 3 hours worth of brain use.
I thought he was a sucker for giving me 10k. He could have given me $100 at the time I would have been happy. Over the course of three months my mentor got the store running like a well greased sewing machine. And sold it for 140k
Ok enough with my story. In the future I will tell you how I turned the 10k into 100k. Then 100k to 200k overnight. Had I got caught I would be in prison. Had I went through the proper licenses I could have done it 100% legit. That’s another story for another time.
So what does my story have to do with a million dollar education on the forum? Well in hindsight I could have learned what to look for when buying. @zend***phin drops magnificent wisdom on this subject all over the forum. What else could I have learned from this forum? “Don’t piss your mentor off” (Use the search function to find this!). After my mentor gave me the 10k, I then proceeded to know everything. I became the ultimate know it all. The guy now owns a chain of used car lots making big bucks. He is definitely fastlane and there was a time where he would have done anything for me. Sadly I pissed him off.
I can honestly say that over the past 9 months I have received a million dollar education from these forums alone.
Here Are The 5 Tips For The Fastlane Forum – Especially if you are broke.
Tip #1
Never ask any question without first using the search function diligently. I have personally had many questions that I wanted to ask some of the top users here. I decided, you know what.. .Their time is valuable. I’m not going to waste it asking questions they have answered countless times. Many of these questions took me an hour or more searching the forums to find (Sometimes 3 hours). In the process of searching I learn so much more than I set out to in the first place (Million Dollar Education???)
Tip #2
Who do you like on the forum? Who has the type of business that you would like to one day have yourself? Use the follow feature and follow that person! Read everything they posted from A-Z. MJ has 15,000 or something posts. If you were to read everything MJ has said across this forum, you probably wouldn’t have to ask him a question for a long time. I’d be willing to bet you could make a quick buck in a bind if you needed to just by doing this, I know I have (Million Dollar Education???).
Tip #3
Spend more time shutting up. Is there a reason for posting what you are about to post? Is it too make you look good? Is it for advice? Has someone with good rep already answered your question 20 times to 20 different people? Think about this before you post anything.
Tip #4
Spend more time listening to the right people. I’m going to make this one short. Only you can determine who has the right mix of advice for you.
Tip #5
Last but not least. If you have found a piece of actionable advice that you plan on using. The least you could do is hit the like button. Or you could take it a step further and transfer them some rep. Say thank you every once in a while by transferring rep (What a cheap tuition for a Million Dollar Education???).. Everyone likes to know that there are people that feel grateful for their sacrifices. There are a ton of people here who sacrifice huge amounts of time voluntarily just to see you grow!
But seriously. It’s all here on this forum. By my best estimate there is a minimum of $10,000,000 worth of actionable advice and Ideas on this forum.
Read Read Read and show some gratitude every once in a while. Share your experiences every once in a while. When you can, offer your help.
I want to personally say thank you to
@MJ DeMarco @SteveO @AllenCrawley @Kak @Runum @zend***phin @smarty @IceCreamKid
And Many More.
I'll do my best not to muddie up this forum with my puppy paws
As you can see from my user information to the left I signed up as a member of this forum just a little under nine months ago.
I’m almost 29 years old and I have spent the majority of my life as a sidewalker chasing illusions of the fast lane.
If you have read my introduction post you may be wondering about this
When I was about 24 I stumbled across $10,000 on a stroke of luck. Being a street savvy person I put the money to work. I essentially financed some activities that law enforcement would look down upon. Within a period of 6 months my net worth exploded to almost $100k. I then used the money to invest in legitimate enterprises my assets doubled to 200k in another 6 months. Going from extreme poverty to 200k so fast really did a number on me. I lost it all in less than a year in a half.
I’m going to elaborate a little bit. The $10,000 was the result of a deal I brokered selling a failing bodega. I had a mentor who had a lot of experience buying run down stores and then improving them over a few month period. He would then sell them for a decent profit. He never bought the property; he only bought the business operations. He would typically pay $30k for something that was spiraling down like a plane crash. Just before the explosion he would swoop in and make an offer.
One day I was with a friend and we were driving past this run down corner store. My friend was a heavy pot smoker and was looking to get a cigar to put his pot in. We pulled into the store’s parking lot. I went in to get a beverage. I remember thinking to myself “Damn, the least the owner could do was mop the floors in the joint”. I grabbed a diet redbull and walked to the counter. When I saw the owner standing behind the counter I noticed that he looked stressed out. I was thinking what’s wrong with this dude? Then I remembered something I overheard my mentor saying to one of his associates. “Everyone has different prices at different times in their life”. I blurted out to the store owner “Hey want to sell your store?”. He gave me a crazy look and chuckled. Then he asked “What’s your offer?”. I offered him 25k cash and made the bold “Statement I’ll be back with the cash tomorrow”. “Sure you will” he replied. I left the store feeling like a bullshiter.
Later that night I went to my mentor and told him about the store. We took a drive and he looked at it. I’ll never forget what he said “You picked a winning horse”. The thing about this store is it is the closest one, a half mile in one direction, and a whole mile in another direction. In a crowded city this is critical. But there was an even better aspect; there were 400 apartments behind the store that had a driveway leading directly to the store.
“Everyone has different prices at different times in their life”
This was my mentor’s way of saying what @zend***phin does. “The Four D’s of buying”
Distress
Debt
Divorce
Death
I told my mentor the owner wanted 40k for the store. I was trying to broker it. My mentor told me I know he would take 30K. If I can get it for anything less I’ll give you 10k. The next day I walked into the store with my mentor and paper bag full of cash. I had made 10k for about 3 hours worth of brain use.
I thought he was a sucker for giving me 10k. He could have given me $100 at the time I would have been happy. Over the course of three months my mentor got the store running like a well greased sewing machine. And sold it for 140k
Ok enough with my story. In the future I will tell you how I turned the 10k into 100k. Then 100k to 200k overnight. Had I got caught I would be in prison. Had I went through the proper licenses I could have done it 100% legit. That’s another story for another time.
So what does my story have to do with a million dollar education on the forum? Well in hindsight I could have learned what to look for when buying. @zend***phin drops magnificent wisdom on this subject all over the forum. What else could I have learned from this forum? “Don’t piss your mentor off” (Use the search function to find this!). After my mentor gave me the 10k, I then proceeded to know everything. I became the ultimate know it all. The guy now owns a chain of used car lots making big bucks. He is definitely fastlane and there was a time where he would have done anything for me. Sadly I pissed him off.
I can honestly say that over the past 9 months I have received a million dollar education from these forums alone.
Here Are The 5 Tips For The Fastlane Forum – Especially if you are broke.
Tip #1
Never ask any question without first using the search function diligently. I have personally had many questions that I wanted to ask some of the top users here. I decided, you know what.. .Their time is valuable. I’m not going to waste it asking questions they have answered countless times. Many of these questions took me an hour or more searching the forums to find (Sometimes 3 hours). In the process of searching I learn so much more than I set out to in the first place (Million Dollar Education???)
Tip #2
Who do you like on the forum? Who has the type of business that you would like to one day have yourself? Use the follow feature and follow that person! Read everything they posted from A-Z. MJ has 15,000 or something posts. If you were to read everything MJ has said across this forum, you probably wouldn’t have to ask him a question for a long time. I’d be willing to bet you could make a quick buck in a bind if you needed to just by doing this, I know I have (Million Dollar Education???).
find and read every post by someone you would like to follow. be mentored by their posts. start intelligent discussions, ask better than average questions, and you will ultimately get mentored from the forum.
Tip #3
Spend more time shutting up. Is there a reason for posting what you are about to post? Is it too make you look good? Is it for advice? Has someone with good rep already answered your question 20 times to 20 different people? Think about this before you post anything.
Tip #4
Spend more time listening to the right people. I’m going to make this one short. Only you can determine who has the right mix of advice for you.
Tip #5
Last but not least. If you have found a piece of actionable advice that you plan on using. The least you could do is hit the like button. Or you could take it a step further and transfer them some rep. Say thank you every once in a while by transferring rep (What a cheap tuition for a Million Dollar Education???).. Everyone likes to know that there are people that feel grateful for their sacrifices. There are a ton of people here who sacrifice huge amounts of time voluntarily just to see you grow!
But seriously. It’s all here on this forum. By my best estimate there is a minimum of $10,000,000 worth of actionable advice and Ideas on this forum.
Read Read Read and show some gratitude every once in a while. Share your experiences every once in a while. When you can, offer your help.
I want to personally say thank you to
@MJ DeMarco @SteveO @AllenCrawley @Kak @Runum @zend***phin @smarty @IceCreamKid
And Many More.
I'll do my best not to muddie up this forum with my puppy paws
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