So just who am I to tell you about achieving freedom through property investment? Well I am someone who walks my talk. I have been running successful businesses for more than 20 years and I have actually achieved the freedom that I wanted through property investment.
There are many blog owners that write about achieving financial freedom and creating wealth that have not actually achieved this. Their aim is to achieve what they want through their blog.
I am not one of these people. Anyone can find good articles on the Internet and then rewrite them and claim them as their own. You will not find anything like that here.
My Financial Freedom Started with a Decision
When I was young I caught the entrepreneurial bug. After this I was always looking at ways to make money. This goes back to my school days and I started my first business at the tender age of 14 or 15.
I tried many business ideas after leaving school and by my mid twenties I started to achieve a level of success.
I am a risk taker and I have always had a mindset of not giving up. Yes I have experienced a number of failures, but this has never put me off trying to get where I wanted to be.
I was always prepared to make short term sacrifices (such as having very little money) because I knew that the longer term gains were worth it.
Around 12 years ago I decided that I wanted the freedom to live anywhere I chose in the world, and that I could run my business from anywhere. This was a significant lifestyle decision which shaped me into the person that I am today.
I always loved traveling and didn’t like to stay in the same place for too long.
After making this decision, which was the first and most important step for my freedom, I then needed a plan to make it happen. Through the plans I put in place I was able to live in some wonderful places over the last few years such as Barcelona and Marbella in Spain and Bangkok and Phuket in Thailand.
The Ultimate Setback
When you make the decision to go into business for yourself you need to be aware that there will be a number of setbacks that you need to overcome to achieve success.
Some of these setbacks will be pretty challenging while others will be easy to overcome.
I faced the ultimate setback on 23 December 2014. I was diagnosed with cancer. At the time I was living in Bangkok and I had a huge dilemma about what I should do.
I won’t pull any punches here. When I discovered I had cancer it was a massive shock to the system.
I had never really been ill in my life before. Sure I suffered colds and flu like everyone else, but learning that I had the “big C” really scared me to death.
I am sure you can imagine how I felt, but unless you are in the same position you will never completely understand.
There are some world class hospitals in Bangkok and I could have had the operation that I needed there, but I decided to return to the UK instead. I surprised my family when I returned home a couple of months before I should have done.
As it was Christmas I did not tell them about the cancer because I did not want to spoil their festive time.
It was very hard for me to tell my family and they did not react to the news well as I predicted. It was actually harder for them to come to terms with than it was for me.
They worried about it all of the time, but I tried not to think about it too much and I was certainly not going to let it beat me.
I was Too Comfortable
I had a very good life at that point with no money worries and my only debt was the mortgages that I had on my properties. I was spending 7 months of the year travelling the world and I lived very comfortably.
But when I discovered that I had cancer I realised that I didn’t want this comfortable life. There were a lot of things that I wanted to achieve and experience in the future.
So it was time for me to get out of my comfort zone and start making these things happen.
On 25 March 2015 I had an operation to remove a tumour the size of a tennis ball. The surgeons had to remove one of my kidneys as well for the operation to be a total success.
The care that I received from the doctors and nurses in that hospital is something that I will never forget. I will always be grateful to them.
I only actually stayed in hospital for 2 nights. I didn’t use a lot of morphine and a couple of hours after my operation I was sitting up in bed answering emails on my phone and reading “Influence” by Robert Cialdini.
This surprised the nurses who were impressed with my speed of recovery. On the third day the consultant agreed that I could go home.
It was great to get back home and be able to get a good night’s sleep away from the noise of the hospital.
So what is the moral of this story? Well I do not claim to be physically stronger or fitter than most people. What I do claim is to have a fitter and stronger mental attitude than most, and this is something that you need if you want to achieve freedom.
Having the Right Mindset is Vital for Financial Freedom
In 2015 despite my operation and months of recovery time I was able to buy and sell more than £1 million worth of property. I also began expanding my team and I had set out new visions and goals for my property business.
In the same year I increased my turnover and profitability significantly and read over 30 inspiring books. I did all of this while spending 4 months outside the UK.
There was no way that having cancer was going to make me feel sorry for myself and want to give up.
Am I telling you all of this to brag? Certainly not! When I look back I think that I could have actually achieved more given the time that I had.
The reason that I wanted to share this with you was to demonstrate that no matter what life throws at you, with the right mental attitude you can overcome anything and achieve what you truly desire.
I never believed that people are born with this mental attitude and that you have either got it or you haven’t. I don’t want you to think like this either. The bottom line is that you can develop the right mindset for success and freedom at any time in your life.
All you need to do is be prepared to learn and then take action.
