I entered the software industry back in 1998, seems like a lifetime ago, and after a few years of being on the “technical” side of the business I decided to join the sales team.
I figured that since I was helping close the sale anyway with my technical “know how” why not just become the sales guy myself and reap the glorious rewards of large-fat-juicy commission cheques.
And I hit it out of the park in a big way.
Hit my sales quota in 4 months – with 8 months to spare – I went from zero to hero with lightening speed!
But I wasn’t happy.
Seriously, even though I was literally raking it in I was miserable.
And with each passing month the frustration piled up for me.
Although my move was a huge success, I couldn’t help thinking that it was the software company that generated all the new customer leads – I was just “closing deals” as they popped up.
I felt like a cog in a big fat money machine.
Just playing my role.
The moment I left there would be another “cog” eager to fill my seat.
And I think the bigger source of frustration was that I didn’t feel like I was “growing” any more.
You see, I couldn’t get out of my big fat head some of the teachings from Dan Kennedy.
He taught me the importance of generating your own business. Being the master of your own life.
Your own rain maker.
And he opened my eyes to the personal freedom that came along with that.
I realized that although I was making a killing in software sales, until I learned how to generate my own sales leads, I would be tied to this 800-pound software gorilla for the rest of my life.
And although the pay was excellent and the 5-star sales convention getaways were mind blowing, I would still have to attend their meetings, hit their sales quotas, live by their rules.
I wanted something different.
I wanted my life back.
So although I was living on easy street in software sales I couldn’t help feeling totally trapped.
I wanted to control my own life.
I wanted to create my own business.
I wanted to live life on my terms.
I wanted to generate my own sales leads… For my own business!
That lead to two things:
(Quick aside: I was taught to despise sales people so deciding to become a lifelong student of “sales” must definitely have been a low point for my parents – especially my Mom. I think she’s now “on board” with all of this though 🙂 )
Shortly after this decision to take my life back, I joined forces with my brother, Nick, to launch our very own business.
One that required all of our talents.
We literally started with zero clients.
Zero contacts.
Zero leverage.
Zero everything.
And we decided on a business model that *everyone* told us would be next to impossible to pull off.
We even had one “experienced” business owner tell us our business and marketing ideas were “stupid.”
Pretty classy eh?
She even went behind our backs and told one of our new team members that they were crazy to work with us.
That we would never pull off what we were starting.
Nice, huh?
Sheesh.
So what business did Nick and I go on to start?
Our real estate investing business and a real estate brokerage dedicated to investors.
We started our investor program, “Income for Life,” in 2006 and then launched our own brokerage last fall, “Rock Star Real Estate.” We wanted to start a brokerage “by investors, for investors” – so we did!
Our banker ran into me the other morning at a local coffee house in Oakville and commented how we’re the only clients of his not complaining about how bad things are right now.
Funny stuff.
What he doesn’t know is we take 100% responsibility for our own reality.
So…that’s a tiny little bit of my story.
If some of what we’re up to resonates with you feel free to stick around:
And above all, remember this…
Nick Karadza started out investing after attending some real estate “boot camps” that showed him the leverage real estate offered.
At the age of 21, he quickly went out and found himself a home needing some “TLC” that he could repair and “flip” for a profit.
While holding down his full time Information Technology job, he spent months driving to the dump, staining floors, painting, installing cabinets, laying carpet, landscaping and dealing with a leaky basement and sold the house for a profit …
BUT… Quickly realized the time he was trading for the revenue generated wasn’t going to create the cash flow he wanted.
Undeterred, he quickly changed game plans to start creating “cash flow” by picking up a Power of Sale property that he could turn into a rental.
Along with a partner, he purchased that house and created hundreds of dollars in monthly cash flow and was able to extract all of the money invested into the home.
He now owned a money machine with none of his own money left in the property.
It was a lightbulb moment!
That started chain reaction of other property purchases and a decision to master the game of real estate investing.
Many lessons were learned over the next ten years and after finding no specialized investment brokerage he decided to found one that would help real estate investors. Together with his brother, Tom, he formed Rock Star Real Estate Inc. and is the Broker of Record.
Today, Nick publishes a monthly real estate investing newsletter, shares his experiences via online real estate investing articles, teaches investing classes, holds Quarterly “member” events for his clients and continues to be an active real estate investor.
He is an avid international traveler and explorer and believes in this simple but unconventional philosophy,
