First in a series of videos, live, unedited from a seminar I taught recently to raise funds and awareness for Habitat for Humanity in Oakland County. Next video in the series is about the coming foreclosure boom in apartments REO's and short sales in Michigan. If you cannot watch the video then click here for the direct link.
October 2009 Archives
I stumbled into a former employee of mine recently. When I hired her, despite some objections from my staff back in 2003 - she was waitressing in a Coney Island. I don't even think she bought a resume to the interview. I hired her anyway because she was working 10 hours per day for almost nothing and her work ethic and her cheerfulness even in that tough job impressed me. She turned out to be a good hiring decision. Quick learner and hard worker. Fast to think and react to any crises that came our way.
Once in a while we ended up sharing a meal together on the road and although it served me no purpose, I told her that she should really consider going back to school. She just looked at me and laughed. She was 33, with two kids, about to get married again and the mere thought of going back to school with a full life and not too much money in the bank sounded ridiculous to her.
We ended up parting company sometime later and I forgot all about her until recently. Turns out she did remember our conversations. Got married. Kids got a little older and she dusted her brains off, got a nighttime job and went back to school at 37. She will become a nurse in two and half years. She gave me credit for ignition. I told her that she has nobody to give credit to but herself.
In the blink of an eye, she is going to go from working for minimum wage to a respectable profession with good income, benefits and a future. There is no luck at play here. There is no talent at play here. Just determination, a plan and action to take out what is not to her liking in her life anymore and put in place a future that she knows she wants in her life. Change, manufactured by her.
During my first year in USA, I met a professor from Bangladesh, who was working in the local Meijer in Ypsilanti at that time. I used to go there, late at night to pick up groceries. The buses ran till midnight so I could leave work at 11 sometimes, run to Meijer and take the bus home before they shut down the route for the night. We talked sometimes and he was an angry little man. He had a useless PhD that was unable to get him a decent job. Somebody told him that doctors get paid well in Michigan.
At the age of 56, he applied for Medical school. Failed to get into Wayne State. Applied to the medical school in the Caribbean who has a more relaxed admissions policy. Got in and moved to the Bahamas for a couple of years. Finished school, came back and did his residency here and by the time it was all said and done, at the tender age of 61, he was making $110,000 per year as a M.D. Just did not like what he was doing and how his life was looking standing eight hours on his feet at the Meijer on Carpenter Road in Ypsilanti. So he decided to make a change.
Once again, he did not wait for the auto sector to stage a comeback, for Jenny to figure out Economics 101, for Obama's stimulus package to launch, for the bailout funds to reach him - he just manufactured change in his life. Investigated his options, made a plan, and got started doing things (moving to Bahamas, going to school) that would bring the change in his and his family's life that he wanted to see.
Change, made in America, manufactured by him and her alone. Very very few things in this amazing country are out of your reach. Despite of what you might hear or made to believe. As long as you know that you are the founder, architect and executor of all the change in your life. You can have whatever you want. Believe what you may. Those are the lies. This is the truth.
"The biggest life lesson I have learned is that you have to discipline yourself to do the work. If you want to accomplish something, you can't spend time hemming and hawing and making excuses. You actually have to do it. I still have to go home every single day, know where I am, what I'm doing - and include 45 minutes of practice on my clarinet, because I want to play. I want to write, too, so I get up, go in, close the door and write. You can't string paper clips and get a pad ready and play around."
- Woody Allen
Mark Ijlal teaching a completely sold out, full room, we ran out of chairs not once but twice seminar
Thank you everyone who found time to support a great cause on Saturday. I had a great time on Saturday and finally got to meet several dozen new MarkIjlal.com readers. We did got the seminar on video and in the next few days I will be putting it all up here.
But next time try to make it even though you can watch the video, download the audio later but nothing REPEAT NOTHING beats being there and shaking hands and making new friends who will become your strategic contacts as you launch and grow your Michigan real estate investing business.
One of the things that almost everybody said to me at the end of the day was "I cannot believe how many new and valuable contacts I have made today."
No great or little fortunes for that matter have ever been made while sitting in your home and hoping that things will turn for better.
You got to go out, whether it is cold or rain, foggy or hot, even on a cold Saturday like today and meet not just anybody but right people like today's full room, people who are in the game, want to be in the game like you and learn and exchange information that can literally change your business overnight in Michigan.
Pics from the wine tasting fund raiser my Inner Circle member Eric Tomei just hosted in Royal Oak. We all had a great time and ended up raising money and awareness for the good things Habitat for Humanity Oakland County Chapter is doing.
Mark Ijlal and bunch of Michigan real estate investors and guests
Mike and Nannette Simmons with Marilyn Boike, they are my Inner Circle members from Troy and St.Clair Shores. You just heard Allan Boike, Marilyn husband last week on the audio interview I did with him about his new short sale negotiating service.
Guests having a great time. The wine was great.
Eric Tomei raffles of some great prizes for attendees.
Mark Solobic who I am trying to convince to convince his dad to start teaching how to make wine because his dad has been making wine all his life.
We took over the whole winery
Next Saturday I am teaching the last seminar I will teach in 2009 about real estate investing in Michigan. The goal was to raise money for Oakland County Habitat for Humanity by doing a wine tasting which happened last night and we had a great time.
Some folks emailed me and asked if they could still attend the free seminar next Saturday by donating $15 per person to Habitat for Humanity. The answer is YES as I have some seats left for next Saturday.
If you are interested in attending next Saturday's seminar with me, please email nora@markijlal.com with your name, guest name if you are bringing somebody with you, cell phone number so she can call you back on Monday and give you the location etc.
Bring a check with you made out to Habitat for Humanity Oakland County with you next Saturday. It is a non-profit 501 C3 so your check is actually tax deductible.
I have three of my Inner Circle members also joining me on Saturday. These guys are kicking butt and taking names in their Michigan cities and you want their cell phone numbers. Very small and intimate setting.
We will start at 9am sharp and end somewhere around 1pm. No lunch break. Just don't have time for it. I will however provide some snacks drinks etc all throughout the session so you guys don't pass out.
We have limited seating. 2/3 of which are already taken by people who attended last night's wine tasting or left Nora voice mail messages so don't wait too long to reply.
If you emailed her on Friday / Saturday, you will be getting an email from her on Monday, but email her your phone number anyway so she can also talk to you on Monday. Any questions? Call her at 248-561-3535 ASAP.
The seminar topics are here:
- How to find, convince and do business with other Michigan real estate investors with a private money LLC company.
- How to get your short sales done really fast without spending hours on the telephone waiting for loss mitigation officers to talk to you.
- How to fund your short sales as cash buys for quick flip to other real estate investors.
- The coming $100 billion dollars foreclosure boom in small apartment buildings and how you can start buying them in your Michigan cities. One of my clients Dennis Fassett is looking to buy a building that just dropped in price a cool $100,000. This is just the beginning of the one in a life time opportunity in Michigan to become cashflow rich.
- What if you get fired tomorrow? Are you doing something on the side to build a business? 15 business lessons I learned in the last 9 years of being on my own that you can use to build a business faster than ever in Michigan.
- Hard money, business credit and non-owner occupied financing is not coming for another 2 years. My backup plan for buying foreclosures without using your own money.
