Here is my report of a free weekend Seminar with Wealth Guru Stuart Zadel of TGR (Think and Grow Rich). It is a mind boggling experience. He is a clever seminar promoter / stage host and so he just warms up his guests and captures their minds. His presenters do the hard sales talk while Stuart entertains his guests with stories and self discovery and works his magic literally. After we sober up a little from our dreams and face the price tag its time to go on line.
Stuart appears to be a man with a mission and I did noticed a Landmark style mission glow on his staff and that army of volunteers. What he really sells is the dream of self development with success in anybody's reach. Develop a burning desire, dream big and then go all out and make it from the bottom to the top of the pyramide.

Land mark runs self development courses and they have a bit of a cultish feel about them. Its maybe the fact that there are so many happy volunteers on board that makes me suspect some indoctrination. He does a stage performance with an arrow - its magical. When later asked about his belief system there are no straight answers. It remains a mystery - go figure. And it runs from 9 to 7. So the vibes have plenty of time to catch up with you.

Now what's the takeaway for me. I did end up spending money in partnering with 3 others, but that was a flop. It seems that the courses are attracting lazy people and loosers that like a free lunch. We still run a modestly successful ebay family business, that is hard work and the ebay magic course in my opinion is overpriced and sub standard. I found better training courses online for $80.

They had Dominique Grubisa on stage, a Lawyer. Very interesting, eye opening and worthwhile to listen, but quite depressing when you realize how vulnerable your little possessions are and that you don't have the will and money  to protect them. She seems to be fair dinkum. She actually posted on this site with an honest response to some strong criticism. Bonus points for her !

We watched the business renovators businessrenovators. See also  http://bizrenovators.com/fix-my-business/ They use Alexa.com to analyze their competitors and recommend marketing to a red hot niche. Any business must start with due diligence and competitor analysis online and offline.

My personal take away in self discovery was that in practical terms I am in a majority group of people that would prefer to earn $70k while having $60k friends over earning $80k and having $90k friends. Stuart Zadel actually did not sell anything himself. He gave things away, paying it forward in the firm belief that the universe will pay him back. I love this philosophy especially in others. Maybe its time to buy into that a little myself. He then bothered to hand out little bows of appreciation, 3 of them. I did nothing with mine so far. Funny thing for me as a Christian the pay it forward should come natural. Christ did it to us so that we would extend it (pass it on to others).

On Tuesday I went to Epharaems Property Investment Group (PIG) where I had the pleasure to meet new and old contacts over a few drinks. Ephraem runs the largest independent Investors network in Melbourne, probably the even largest one overall. Feel free to join the Investors Meetup in Melbourne right here. There I had the pleasure to meet Uwe and he has a fair dincum property investment sourcing strategy and charges a only a moderate flat fee. He has started out to grow his own property investment portfolio (18) and has then begun doing deals for family and friends and from there it involved into a business. Uwe works for a flat fee of $10k and his WOM clients enjoy wholesale pricing (its a bit like a developers discount or group buying discount). He runs his company as a husband and wife team and keeps it deliberately at that level And he enjoys the lifestyle of combining travelling and working as he sources his projects nation wide.

Check it out here http://propertyfriends.com.au

Last weekend I went to a 2 day property seminar. The highlight is actually in speaking to real people on the ground. Some impressive stories and some good knowledge was shared and then there is the doubt and fear factor. We came away with a book which I think is pretty good and may be more useful and practical as Rick Ottons book. Have not read enough yet to be conclusive. From what I can tell the mentorship of Dr House and Jay McLean are very hands on and valuable.

Looking in from the outside I am skeptical about the figures and about whether I have got what it takes to break into the finance industry as a greenhorn and whether I could make a living off bargain deals with distressed vendors. I am kind of an average guy and for me $100k would be huge and $50k quite nice. To make that I need 5 to 10 deals with a  $10k deposit in 1 year, service the loans and maybe take a small markup and then wait for 2 to 5 years for my back end profit.

I have a house to sell (costs me too much), so it would be nice to get some extra money, but I think that only works if the deal maker leaves a lot of money in the deal or if I succeed in doing it alone and inflate the price enough. A am certainly not the sales type. I did notice that the math is a bit sugar couted. There is stamp duty / capital gains tax / legal costs that may or may not apply to the deal maker. The seller may get his asking price but only 2 to 5 years later and he has a mortgage against his name that may stop him from making the next move.

So millionaires in 12m sounds very inflated (my guess only top 3%) and you may need to be a bit tough on distressed people and very ambitious / greedy to make it big starting with old houses in a flat market. And there are legal complexities. You will need licenses as well or otherwise do profit sharing. That's why the majority will not sign up or opt out or fail to get very far. I recon with vendor finance and old houses alone it takes a lot to acquire a millionaires mindset and translate into $$$ - remember its 80% psychology !

Staying clear of old houses leaves us with development or a combination of DEV with VF - this may work very well for the entrepreneur and should be more ethical. But you still need to break into a tough market and make deals to build yourself a good network and a good reputation. But I understand that mentoring and industry access via the Ku/McLean Partnership will help big time.

I think Kari hit the jack pot (a top performer), but we don't know the details of what it took. He has joined only recently as I understand. I have actually managed to track him down online (never in person) and he seems to have managed to get into development as well.

http://renttoownhome.com.au/index.php?option=com_hotproperty&task=viewagent&id=3007&Itemid=528 http://renttoownhome.com.au/index.php?option=com_hotproperty&task=view&id=1720&Itemid=528 http://ewealth.net.au/

Meanwhile down to earth E could help with more info. He said he would do a  deal for a flat fee of 10k and he has managed one deal so far. That's a bit more realistic. Now imagine how many deals you will need to find at $10k to make $300k.