Sometimes I wonder if my readers think I’ve always lived this life. Maybe some of you don’t know about my humble beginnings. I like to share my story because it is a reminder that anyone can transform their life! My story begins back in 2001. My wife and I were living paycheck-to-paycheck – just barely making ends meet. On top of that we had a 6-month old baby. Anyone who has children knows the incredible stress that this bundle of joy brings to a household – no more downtime for yourself; month-after-month of sleepless nights and the stress of trying to figure out how to care for a new being 24 hours a day, 7 days a week!
My life was defined by my high-pressure job as a business broker. I only made money through commissions and I had a very low salary to high commissions basis. I did not know how much I could expect to bring in month-to-month so even if I closed a big deal one month I had to make that money last the entire year. On top of that I had a 45 minute commute to and from work. I was so stressed out 24/7 that I felt like a ticking time bomb.
I hated every aspect of my job and it was affecting my entire life. Every day I had to walk into the offices of people who did not know me. The worst part was that these people did not want to know me. In order to make money I had to try to convince them to let me do one of two things: 1) sell their business or 2) represent them in buying a business. I had to do all of this despite the fact that I was given no knowledge of their company. I was totally miserable. I still remember that feeling of dread when my alarm would buzz everyday when I had to get up to go to work. After so long the situation finally affected me to the point where I became depressed. I remember at night when I would come home from work I did not even have the energy to engage my wife in conversation. On some days I did not even have it in me to eat dinner. The combination of the stress level and our limited income was really affecting our marriage.
I just did not see a way out. I was so tired and fed-up with a work environment based on lies, politics and brown-nosing. Just being close to that world made me feel dirty. However, I felt like I was stuck in a no-win situation. I could not make good money within that job while being true to myself. At the same time my family was paying the price. One of the main arguments at home was about organic baby food – my wife felt it was very important for the health of our son. Yet I knew we just did not have the money. Although I had a new baby I hardly ever got to spend time with him.
To succeed in my current job at that time I would have had to sacrifice my integrity. I did not want to do have to make that decision. I did not want to have to sell things just to make a commission check so I decided I would not sacrifice my integrity. So I started looking into other opportunities and shortly after I ran into an old high school buddy of mine who told me he was making money hand over fist buying land at county tax foreclosure auctions and flipping them on eBay. He was making 300% profits! He wrote down some of his secrets on the back of a napkin and invited me to attend a tax-sale auction with him. I remember saying to myself: “This could be it!”
Check out my next blog post to learn the rest of the story and how I got started making a comfortable living just by buying and selling land on-line!
