The Story of When We Spent $5,000 on Some Cassette Tapes

I get laughed at all the time for this, but it's the truth, so I'll share it here with you as well.

I haven't listened to the radio in my car since at least 1998. Approximately 19 years of no radio.

I can't stand it. All the commercials, the fairly meaningless news updates and talk radio, just drives me mad.

I believe that listening to the radio pulls me into some sort of depression. I'm not sure why - it must be my personality.

Or I just have some sort of mental problems 🙂

One time in the early 2000's I paid $5,000 for a set of real estate tapes.

Yes, you read that right... tapes.

At the time that was almost all of my savings. Carol and I had just bought out first house and just had our son ... so there wasn't a lot of "extra money" around.

And I hadn't really planned this out well because when the tapes arrived, I realized I didn't have a tape player in my car to listen to them - only a CD player.

So I strolled into Zellers and found a ghetto blaster boom box tape player thing, bought a bunch of "D" batteries and put it in the passenger seat of my car.

I then drove around for months, to and from work, and everywhere else, listening to my $5,000 real estate tapes.

I kept the huge box of tapes in the back seat of my car. This box was about three feet long and a foot and a half tall. It was huge.

My friends thought I was insane.

They couldn't understand why I had this ghetto blaster boom box thing in my front seat.

I didn't dare tell them that the tapes that were inside the thing cost me $5,000 bucks.

Can you imagine the look on their faces?

But I'll tell you something...

I learned A LOT from those tapes. I learned about sales, persuasion, presenting offers and negotiation.

I learned about public speaking and creating your real estate business.

I then went out and made a lot of mistakes with all of it 🙂

BUT...

It was part of my own personal learning process. And for some reason I loved it.

I'll never forget using some of the things I learned from those tapes to give a talk in front of 300 sales people at Oracle Corporation.

I was a "sales engineer" there and I had to give a talk to "motivate the troops" about some new software we were releasing.

I was nervous as heck.

But I knocked it out of the park. The feedback was amazing, and that built my confidence to do many other things.

What's the point in all of this?

Am I recommending you go out and spend $5,000 on some cassette tapes?

No.

But I'll admit that if you are investing in yourself by listening to different audio programs in your car... we'd encourage you to continue.

I've probably learned more from listening to different financial, sales, real estate, marketing, business and investing audio's, than I did during my entire University career.

At any point in time, my car is literally swimming in CDs.

A few months ago I tracked this down.

Here's a list of the best selling audio programs of all time. It's somewhat dated but still insightful.

I found it in one of the countless "paid for" newsletter subscriptions Nick and I have...

Check it out:

1.7 Million Copies: Covey's 7 Habits Of Highly Effective People

1.2 Million Copies: Gray's Men Are From Mars Women From Venus

450,000+: Robbins' Awaken The Giant Within

350,000+: Johnson's Who Moved My Cheese
Covey's First Things First

300,000+: Peal's Power Of Positive Thinking

250,000+: Limbaugh's Way Things Ought To Be
Chopra's Seven Spiritual Laws
Carlson's Don't Sweat The Small Stuff
Covey's Principles of Leadership
Ziglar's How To Get What You Want

200,000+ Phillips' Body For Life
Limbaugh's See, I Told You So
Robbins' Unlimited Power
Kiyosaki's Rich Dad, Poor Dad
Milo Frank's How To Get Your Point Across
Dr. Phil's Self Matters
Dr. Phil's Life Strategies
Chopra's Ageless Body, Timeless Mind
Orman's Nine Steps To Financial Freedom
(Source: PW 6-6-05)

Most of the stuff we listen to isn't on this list but it's somewhat instructive to see what sells.

I can still remember the impact that listening to Tony Robbins' Personal Power II had on me. Priceless stuff.

And I have a confession...

Over the last couple of years, I have started listening to the radio... against my will!

Now that my kids are getting older they enjoy the "latest hits" on the radio, and together with my wife, we all sing them as they play.

I even know the words to many Justin Bieber songs. Yes, seriously.

But that's only to keep a happy family and NEVER when I'm alone. I swear.

So if you have your own ways of increasing your education and personal growth ... know that you're not alone.

Finding 30 minutes in the morning to read a book, carving out time over your lunch break to catch up on some useful reading, listening to CDs on the way to work, getting up early to learn a new skill... whatever floats your boat. It's an important investment in yourself.  

Nick and I never consider a course, a conference, an event, paid for newsletter subscriptions, etc. as "expenses." We look at those things as investments into ourselves.

And if you aren't investing in yourself, trust us, very few others will.

And if you are a grown man and know the words to latest Bieber song then don't tell anyone and definitely NEVER sing the words out loud to anyone.

I've tried and it doesn't work out too well.  🙂

Until next time ... Your Life! Your Terms!

(originally posted Jan 2012)