Why Influenza is Great for Real Estate Investors

When I woke up this morning something was different. The feeling was a good different. I could breathe through my nose!

I know it doesn’t sound very life changing. Just a few weeks ago, I too, took for granted the constant flow of air through my nasal passages. But then something happened.

I can’t precisely pin down the date or the specific cause. Maybe it was the kid with the runny nose, or another guest at my nephew’s 6^th birthday party. She may have gotten it from a contaminated door knob at the grocery store. Who knows? The point is, my wife got sick.

If you have kids, you probably know that when one member of the family catches a bug, eventually everyone is going to get it. Well, I got it.

This flu was a crafty one. Its stealthy timing and debilitating attacks crippled each member of my household in succession. Just as one of us recovered, someone else went down. This morning marks the end of our second round of infections in as many months.

With my cleared airways came a clear mind. This morning I was thinking about how that illness passed back and forth and back and forth between each person in my home. The same back and forth process happens a lot in other aspects of life. One of the most significant areas is within the realm our thoughts and ideas.

Several years ago I had a major breakthrough as a Real Estate investor. I’d hit a wall with my marketing and couldn’t seem to squeeze any more deals out of the campaigns I had running. I upped my budgets. I tried altering my message. I even ventured into some new markets. Regardless of the changes I made, my closings were stuck at a plateau.

Then I got the hint of an idea. Like the first cough of an oncoming cold, I knew something was there.

I have a group of fellow investors and like-minded employees with whom I am very close with. They’re part of my success team. In essence they’re my family of Real Estate Investors. I shared my budding idea with my team.

Over the following months our discussions resembled a cold epidemic. My idea was passed to the other members of the group where it continued to grow. Each idea was passed back and forth, around and around, to everyone else. It became an epidemic.

The result of our combined ruminations is my most effective and financially successful marketing campaign. It’s made me hundreds of thousands of dollars and made my company a household name in my market. But it’s something I could never have done alone.

Ideas are contagious, just like the flu. Tiny thoughts and ideas grow or fester into something beautiful or terrible depending on our focus. A strong success team, with similar goals and beliefs, is an invaluable resource to our personal and professional development as a Real Estate investors.

The next time you feel the tickle in the back of your throat of an oncoming cold, remember one thing. There are some contagions much more powerful than even the strongest flu.