Work to learn, not to earn

 

Last week I told you about me getting invited to teach three classes at a local high school as a guest speaker, and some of the lessons we went over while I was there. Today I would like to expound on one of those lessons because the more I’ve thought about it, the more I realized it changed mine and Ashley’s lives. The lesson is called, “Work to learn, not to earn.”

That’s almost a direct quote for the author and investor Robert Kiyosaki in his famous book “Rich dad, Poor dad.” What he said in the book was that when you are young, you should work to learn, not just to earn. The purpose of this was to gain skills that you could take with you throughout life.

 

For instance, Robert talked about going into the military to learn leadership. Afterwards, he took a job in sales to learn that whole process stating that in life, you’re either selling or being sold to. And he wanted to make sure he was the one doing the selling.

 

But one of the things Robert said that made all the difference in the world was he would approach successful people he wanted to learn from and ask if he could work for them without pay. It took him being insistent to get the successful person to say yes, and after he did what they needed cheerfully, they brought him into their sphere and were willing to teach him. Robert said the education and, more importantly, the relationships he received from working for free were huge.

 

I have that same story. This goes all the way back to 2010. Ashley and I were fresh out of college and desperately wanting to get into investing. Our problem was we were two broke kids, with a mound of student loan debt, and because I was a contractor, we had no verifiable income. In other words, we couldn’t get a loan from a bank to do a deal.

 

But we knew real estate was going to be the key to our financial success. So, we started looking into any way we could learn. And eventually we made it to Bill and Kim Cook’s “REIA Rancho.” This was a monthly investor meeting Bill and Kim hosted at their home in Adairsville. There, Bill would put a deal on a whiteboard and ask the group to structure it in as many ways as they could. Not only did we learn a ton from this, but it’s the inspiration for what we do at my monthly lunch meeting.

 

One night Bill told everyone that he was about to do his first sit-out in over 18 years of being a landlord which is where the landlord has to ‘sit out’ all the tenants personal possessions from the property at the end of the eviction process. And he wasn’t excited about it either. Seeing an opportunity, I approached Kim and asked if Bill needed any help. And she told me to ask him directly.

Nervously, I approached Bill after the meeting and asked him if he needed help with the sit-out. His response was “No, we’re good. I can’t pay any more for this.” I responded that I didn’t need to be paid and that I just wanted to come work with him to learn.

 

You should have seen the puzzled look in his eyes as he questioned me about this saying, “You’ll work for free?” I affirmed that and told him I just wanted to learn from him and my labor was the only thing I had to bring him any value. Still puzzled, Bill explained that the work would be hot, sweaty and would not be fun. He even injected, “And I’m not going to buy you lunch.” I smiled and eagerly nodded in acknowledgement.

 

One more time, he questioned, “You’ll work for free?” When I gave an emphatic yes, he agreed and told me to be at his house at eight in the morning.

 

I remember being so excited I could barely sleep. I got there before eight and Bill and I were off in “Big Stinky,( Bill and Kim’s Dodge Dually)” in no time. They called it Big Stinky because it was big, and it had that very distinct, emphasis on stink, smell of a 1990s diesel truck.

 

Y’all, we had the best time. What Bill and Kim didn’t know was that because I was in construction, I was used to working hard in the heat. They found out quickly that I like to work hard but laugh and cut up while doing it. And because I was there, they got the sit-out done and moved on to two other projects.

 

Afterwards Bill came to me and told me he had never had someone approach him that was willing to give first to receive. And because I was willing to do that, work cheerfully for free, he invited me into their inner circle. And that one day made a relationship that not only opened the doors to education and lenders across Georgia, but it led to doors being open all over the country.

 

But the best part was Bill and Kim took me and Ashley under their wings. Not only did they treat us like family, but they poured into us and helped us obtain our success. They were influential in teaching us creative deal structuring, how to invest in mobile homes, how to do subject-to deal correctly and the list goes on. The mere fact that I’m writing here is a direct result of that day because I took over Bill’s column in 2016.

 

Working cheerfully for free may sound crazy, but I’m here to tell you it can make all the difference in the world. To summarize, work to learn, not to earn, especially when you are young. And see how far that takes you.

 

Joe and Ashley English buy houses and mobile homes in Northwest Georgia. For more information or to ask a question, go to www.cashflowwithjoe.com or call Joe at 678-986-6813.