PINs and needles

The other night I attended our local PIN meeting where we listened to an inspiring presentation by Kevin Wright. He was illuminating the benefits and strategies of using bridging finance to develop properties. It was all fascinating and mind-blowing as is quite usual at PIN meetings, where you learn of the amazing and incredible stories of other people and their achievements with property.

Something I can only hope to emulate in time...

I can't believe it is over a month since I wrote the above paragraph! Since then I have attended another PIN meeting when some equally inspiring stories were told. It has made me reflect that much of the success in developing property comes when you have mind over matter - that is to say, if you don't mind, it don't matter.

Of course saying to yourself 'it don't matter' is not easy when you are down to your last tenner, cos all of your hard earned cash is flowing into the latest property project. Nor is it easy to say 'it don't matter' when you have a sudden turnaround in tenants; or when you've been so busy dealing with the day to day that you've lost an eye on the bigger picture. And yes all of the above has happened to me!

I love the quote that Rob Moore (founder of Progressive Property) uses in his book 'Multiple Streams of Property Income' : "You have to work hard to get rich enough not to have to work hard" (Richard Templar)

I sat down last night and re-wrote my goals for 2014 with regard to property development. If I am going to achieve them (some were pretty stretching let me tell you) I know I am going to have to have 'mind over matter'! For me, that is 80% of the work of property investing. Having a mindset that enables you to look above the day to day disasters, problems and issues and know that in the long run, you will be building something of worth, something that brings a residual income and ultimately freedom. Of course, it also means working really hard - but for a short sustained burst of time. Once I have reached my first goal (that is to enable both myself and my DH to be free from the need for external employment) then I will ease up a bit - well for a while anyway.

So the formula seems to include 1) HARD WORK FOR A PERIOD OF TIME, 2) KEEP FOCUSED ON YOUR GOALS 3) PERSIST EVEN WHEN YOU WANT TO GIVE UP 4) NEVER GIVE UP.

And if that IS the magic formula, only one of them relates to what you DO - the other four are all about what you THINK.

But it feels like walking on PINS and NEEDLES sometimes...