A $20,000 Lesson & How One Question Changed My Life...

A $20,000 Lesson & How One Question Changed My Life… 😵

Hey Million Dollar Secrets fam, 

Today, I want to do something a little different.. I want to get super vulnerable with you and share some of the lessons I’ve learned while being in business.

These lessons are not specific to digital marketing or online entrepreneurship, but instead, are general lessons for any entrepreneur.

I haven’t been in business as long as some people, but I have learned a few things over the past 5-6 years operating my own companies (and I want to share some of the biggest wins and losses with you).

If you keep reading on, I want to share how I lost $20,000 at 21 years old and the lessons that came with the humbling defeat.

Oh! And if you find value in this story and the lessons I share, I would love to continue to share these occasionally… So feel free to reply back if you find this valuable.

THE BEGINNING OF THE END 😵

I was 21 years old and I was searching for ANYTHING to make a dollar - no joke.

Stocks, drop shipping, e-commerce, digital marketing… Sheesh! I even tried starting a kettle corn business (more about that in a different newsletter).

The point: I was looking for something and nothing seemed to work.

Oh! And I forgot to mention that I had just gotten married… I was working as a part-time as a restaurant server… And I was BROKE with a capital B.

Eventually, as I kept searching for opportunities, one popped up that caught my eye. 👀

“Ring Ring!” The sound of my phone rang one day and on the other end of the line was a friend:

“Hey, Michael! Are you interested in learning how to get into real estate? I’m starting to mentor a small group of people and I would love for you to be in the beta group of the first people we take on!”

In my head, I was thinking, “How in the world is a 21-year old with no money supposed to purchase real estate?” I assumed you had to have amazing credit, massive cash flow, and a lot of experience before you could even think about stepping into that arena!

After hearing my concerns, the voice on the other end of the phone assured me that I would learn how to jump in without needing credit or massive cash flow. So, what did I do? I JUMPED IN!

Over the course of 6 months, I ended up learning how to jump into real estate flipping using other people’s money - it was awesome! I learned so much just because I decided to jump out of my comfort zone.

I started buying houses left and right and everything was going well… Until it wasn’t. 😅

Long-story short, early on in my investing journey, I ended up leveraging myself too much and getting myself into a pickle! 😭

Now, just to be clear… I’m not here to hate on real estate (I actually still invest in real estate to this day)! I’m here to share the lessons I learned through this wealth vehicle.

Continuing on… I over leveraged myself and ended up in a bind… But had I took heed of the advice of my mentor early on, I would not had been in the predicament I found myself in.

Not only did I not take heed to my mentors advice, but I also let my excitement and my emotions trump the principles of business… Thus, causing even more damage.

A mix between not listening to the advice of those who’s results I desired AND letting my emotions trump the laws of building wealth, I ended up in a really bad situation.

So bad that I ended up losing $20,000 that I didn’t have! Remember?

This put me in a REALLY bad place in my life. I was depressed and felt like a complete failure.

But there was one decision that I made during that time that changed my life forever.

I decided I was going to commit to succeed… No matter what happened!

It was a hard decision, but I KNEW if I stuck to it long enough, I would eventually succeed. It was only a matter of taking the “L” and making the necessary adjustments moving forward.

Fast-forward to today and because I kept-moving forward, we have done fairly well in real estate…

And that success is what even got me into digital marketing and online entrepreneurship.

As I wrap this up, one of the last point’s I want to make is that business can be REALLY hard.

There are many highs and sometimes it feels like there are even more lows, BUT if you learn from your mistakes, business can also be rewarding.

If I were you, I would be asking, “Out of the above lessons, which one do I need to take heed to the most?”

One of the best growth hacks ever is learning from other people’s failures… from other people’s losses, so that you minimize the risk of you experiencing them yourself.

Again, I hope my story could provide some value and motivation this morning… Feel free to reply back to let me know what resonated with you.

Until next time! 🫡

Blessings,
Michael Tucker