As I reflect on 2024, I wish you a peaceful and joyous Holiday Season filled with health, love, and gratitude. I hope 2025 brings you growth, fulfillment, and abundance in every aspect of your life.
This past year has been one of growth, resilience, and reflection. It was my first full year as a full-time entrepreneur—a journey that’s been equal parts challenging and rewarding. While not every day has been rainbows and butterflies, I’ve embraced the lessons, relished the process, and leaned into the growth that comes with stepping outside of my comfort zone.
A few of the lessons learned include:
- Get comfortable with being imperfect – learn through iteration and action. Getting stuck in analysis paralysis not only stifles progress but also deprives your current and future clients of the value that you bring.
- Pay attention to your financials and daily cash flow. This is key, especially in the beginning when your income is lumpier and less predictable.
- Embrace the daily rollercoaster ride and when you are falling down or feeling down remember your why, your true purpose, and that the only way to fail is to quit.
- Perseverance, consistency and grit – you have to show up 100% every day no matter what!
No one said this would be an easy journey. But you owe it to yourself, your loved ones, and your clients to be present, to show up and serve.
We are rewarded in public for what we practice in private. It is the discipline and consistency that compounds over time. Repetition is how you build that muscle. So keep going!
- Find your tribe and community to level up, to grow together, and to lean into for support.
During challenging times or when facing an obstacle:
- Ask yourself – Why is this happening FOR me and not TO me.
- Ignore the inner voice Gremlins and listen to the inner voice Sage.
- Lean into pain and extract the meaning of it and instead turn it into fuel to propel you forward.
- What’s wrong is always available…but so it what’s right…you choose!
- I choose to focus on gratitude, faith, love, abundance, kindness.
- Every NO leads to a New Opportunity. Focus on the meaning and learning this “NO” carries and use it as a fuel for your next step and leap of growth.
Siri Lindey said that: ”In times of great uncertainty, you must create your own certainty. Pick three things that give you energy and confidence and do them every day.” For me example of such things were: doing a 10K run, or getting at least one thing on my list done, making one more phone call. These are seemingly small wins on the surface but they gave me confidence and a sense of accomplishment, so I can keep moving forward to the next step, the next goal, and the next project.
Often I had thoughts of giving up and falling back into the “comfort” of a W2 job. But then I remembered what Tony Robbins once asked: How hard would you play, if these are the last 11 days of your life?
I realized I will feel deep regret of giving up on myself, giving up on the people that I have led to water and that I serve, giving up on the people I am yet to serve and help.
I realized I will feel deep regret of not realizing my true potential and the purpose of creating empowered and educated investors, providing transparent and honest service, and being an enabler of / helping others create more optionality in their lives.
A life of regret is NOT the life I want to live or meant to live.
Instead I focused on the concept of ONE MORE (pioneered by Ed Mylett). Doing one more rep. Pushing for one more day, one more week, one more month. The ONE MORE kept me going…as well as my WHY.
I share this with you not to earn accolades or pats on the back. I share this with you because you may be going through your own version of winter season currently. And if you are not, at some point you will. I hope you can take away at least one thought that will help propel you forward.
Because my friend, everything is temporary. Winter does not last forever. It is always followed by spring. Rainbows usually come with rain. And the sun shines stronger and brighter after the storm, which storm too shall pass.
Accomplishments and things I am grateful for in 2024:
- Rickster can walk again thanks to God and the expertise of Dr. Balara. It has been an incredible testament to faith and persistence. I’m endlessly grateful for this blessing and for the unwavering support of my family and friends.
- Grew the underwriting course and launched the self-paced version of it
- Closed on two more investments growing my portfolio and serving my investors with diligence and care. While I fell short of my goal to close four deals, I prioritized quality over quantity—an intentional choice to uphold my investing standards.
- I invest passively too as this is how I diversify my own portfolio. One of my passive investments suffered a loss (thankfully my active investments are continuing to perform well despite the market turbulence, which I am immensely grateful for). Thankfully these types of losses are only financial, i.e. recoverable. I published some of the lessons learned (in order to turn my pain into others’ gain, this is one form of leaning into pain and using it as fuel to grow and help others) and moved forward by focusing on what I can control.
- Helped 21 more investors get started on their real estate investment journey and remain on track to help 1000 by 2035
A Final Thought
While winter seasons test our resilience, they also prepare us for the growth of spring (62% of Fortune 1000 companies started during winter season!).
As Adam Grant said, “Progress is not always about moving forward. Sometimes it is about bouncing back. Resilience is a form of growth.” I’ll take that wisdom into 2025, remembering that “success is not measured by the height of the peaks but by the valleys crossed along the way.”
So as you approach 2025, ask yourself:
- What would an extraordinary life in the next 6-12 months look like?
- What is preventing you from making it happen?
- What needs to shift and what actions can you take to change it?
May 2025 be your year to thrive, grow, and achieve your dreams!
To your success!
Dream. Believe. Achieve.
Should you have any questions or want to learn more about real estate investing or for an overview of our target markets, please reach out to info@dbacapitalgroup.com.
Disclaimer: The information presented does not constitute legal, accounting, tax, or individually tailored investment advice. Past results do not represent or guarantee future performance.