How to persevere – the above title is not meant as a title of a lecture, but rather a question. The ability to not give up; to persevere; to hold on to the vision of our objective through thick and thin is indeed the thing that makes us successful – I think you would agree. Much has been written on the subject – the most important thing you can do to drive success is not give up. But having said this, I have only a very vague idea what that entails and thus I ask – WHAT DO YOU DO IN ORDER NOT TO GIVE UP?
HERE’S THE DEAL WITH ME
I am trained as a professional musician, and in fact I’ve been playing the violin from the ripe old age of five. For as long as I can remember, there was never any doubt as to what I was destined to do with my life – I am a musician. But, when I was in the first year of the Master Degree program at the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music, I was diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis (MS), which is an auto-immune disease that I was told would eventually severely undercut my capacity to function physiologically – the exact time-frame was and still is an unknown…
In terms of my financial life, it became apparent to me that I could not rely on a 9 to 5 job to get me to my retirement as most people do, and eventually I arrived at real estate as the best chance for me to achieve financial stability through passive cash flow.
I’ve done all right, and here’s why:
I CAN’T AFFORD TO FAIL!
In setting a financial goal of replacing earned income with passive cash flow from long-term real estate investments, I am no different from a lot of other entrepreneurs – this is a common goal indeed; we all want to get out of the ret race. The difference, though, is that for most folks failure simply means having to go back to their 9 to 5; they may not like this option, but it is a valid back-up plan and they do it if they must.
For me, on the other hand, this is not a viable option because while I’ve been lucky thus far and the disease has spared me to a large extent, this may not be the case tomorrow. I just don’t know, and that’s the point. This makes it impossible for me to rely on earned income for the long term. My back is to the wall; there is no plan B. I feel I must succeed in my REI endeavor. As they say in poker – I am all in. My family needs to be provided for. I can’t fail! Continue Reading Here…
Photo Credit: Camil Tulcan via Compfight cc