So you want to be a guru, eh, son?

I've been in technology for 22 years. I spent the first few years taking care of computers and networks for end users, and the last few years writing web-based applications for a platform/language called ColdFusion, currently owned by Adobe.

I have no college degree. I have a tech school Associates in copier and typewriter repair, which is where I got my first exposure to networking, but that's the extent of my higher education. In fact I was homeschooled and never really did much schooling past 9th grade... which sounds bad until you realize that I was reading Shakespeare at age 5 and tested out with a 9th grade math level in 3rd grade.

It took me 15 years, but I managed to work my way up to a 6-figure income in my industry. I run one of the only conferences for programmers using ColdFusion/Railo in the whole world... and I run it on 3 continents. I became somewhat globally famous in my little niche, and I loved it. I loved the people, and the technology and the sense of community. But, as it turns out, I hated my job.

From the time I started programming I never kept a job for more than 2 years. I spent a great deal of time as an independent contractor and never managed to keep a client for more than one project. I was, in a word, an epic failure at actually working in the industry that I had built my life around. And I just couldn't seem to find a way to make it work. Ultimately I ended up losing the last job I could stand to lose in early fall 2011. When I lost that one, I knew... I couldn't go back. I had no stomach for the career I'd spent 2 decades building, but I'd spent my entire adult life building it and had NO idea what to do with myself!

Backing up a few months... I was up late one night in early summer 2011 watching something on the DVR on TV. My show ended and I was headed to bed when on whatever channel it was I saw this little bitty crazy dude in his car making fun of himself and peddling his latest NY Times bestseller book on making bazillions of dollars in real estate.

I was bemused.

I thought. I considered. I listened.

I kinda like the guy... as the Night Hob from The Neverending Story was fond of asking, "Is he a nutcase!?" And indeed it seemed he was. But the good kind of nutcase who was enthusiastic about what he does and, honestly, just wanted to share it with people. Well, share it with people and make some money at the same time, but still...

So I ordered the book, and I got the extra special incredible deal of his previous book at the same time! A week later some lady called and offered us entrance to PMI, which my wife and I took advantage of... in fact I think we're still trying to pay that off! But it came with coaching, tutorials and so on.

And I really did nothing with it. For some reason, the training just didn't work for me (I'm not a sit-still-for-slideshows kinda guy, honestly). I called the coaches a few times, but I didn't even know enough to know what questions to ask or how to ask them. I was a brand-new baby trying to play football with grownups, and it was driving me batty.

But I kept at it. I joined our local Real Estate Investors Association and started going to meetings. I went to one of Dean's 3-day events hosted by Stephen Edwards... but I spent most of the summer writing software and trying to take a whole different angle at finding deals. I'm still convinced it would work, but I needed a TON more education and experience to make a go of it. Finally I came to the firm decision that I needed to just start doing what I was told instead of trying to figure it out for myself. So I got some bandit signs. And I didn't put them out.

For two weeks I had those signs and I was petrified to put them out. To put those signs out was a declaration of capability to the world. It invited people to have expectations of me that I didn't know I could fulfill. Interestingly, I felt very insecure about the fact that I had no objective reason to put them in one location versus another location, so picking where to put my signs was extremely uncomfortable, at least at first. Eventually I realized that marketing is about experimentation... and this is all about marketing.

It is. You market to your buyers. You market to your sellers. You even market things to yourself. But when it comes to real estate, it's ALL about marketing. And once you get that down you realize that even if real estate dried up you could make money at about anything because you KNOW HOW TO MARKET. And in this game of real estate, he who markets best makes the most.

So it took me over a year to stop thinking and start doing. One day I just put out 3 signs... and started getting calls. So I put out more signs, and got more calls. And more, and more. And then fewer and fewer. So I put out more signs. I made an offer on a house and it was accepted, but I never did find a buyer for it. And I kept marketing, not realizing what I was doing (marketing). And the more I did, the more leads I got. And the more comfortable I felt with myself and my new career.

As I sit here today, I have one home under contract for a desirable price in a somewhat less than desirable location. I got it for a good deal, and I could make $35k on it if I had the time to market it that way... but I'm scared and I don't want to let the people down, so I've just restructured the selling price to assure that I get a quick and easy close. And I'm still worried about it. But, it's all about marketing, right?

It never ends... you're always learning and you're always insecure about something for some reason. The trick is to learn how to stay positive and continue to move forward, giving credence to your worries and using education and community to keep your head up and your path straight. Nobody walks this road alone... to try is to invite failure.

Which is why I'm bothering to write all this down. See, my goal is to do what Dean, Matt, Carol, Gena and company do, mentor and promote people in the pursuit of their dreams and freedom. But in order to do that, I need make a fortune as a successful real estate investor and wholesaler and build the kind of life that other people want. I need that experience to be able to mentor those coming up behind me... so my initial goal is to make that fortune. My overall goal is to use that experience to build up others who want to do it too.

So here I am, world, just me, Jared. My wife Jenna, daughter Lizzie, our two dogs Shane and Daisy and our cat Pif. We are the J-Team, we will succeed because we have eachother, and we have you all.

NOW IS OUR TIME AND WE WILL BE CONTENT WITH NOTHING LESS!

Thanks for reading.