In 2006, my net worth went up $17 million while I slept.

And you might say, wow.

And I said, wow.

When I got a head so big, I could barely fit it through a door. I thought I was a real estate god. 2008 and 9. I lost $50 million conservatively. You know, if you're going to do a side hustle, you know, if you're going to go out there and do something else, don't make it your identity. It's the first thing I did when I lost everything is I re-associated with my goals.

And I'm going to tell you fear regret.

Don't make it your identity. It's the first thing I did when I lost everything is I re-associated with my goals. And I'm going to tell you fear regret. Don't fear failure. Happiness comes from progress and growth. It never comes from the goal. So, Rod, welcome to the personal finance podcast. Oh, that's great to be here, my friend. Let's have some fun. We are in your great studio here. We just did an episode on your show. So anybody listening right now would love for them to check out the episode on your show as well. But I want to dive into your story because you have this incredible story of investing in real estate where you had thousands of units now. And I want you to kind of dive into this. But you had a big, big deal that happened in 2008 and 2009 as well. So can you kind of dive into your story and kind of talk about what's happened to you? I wouldn't call it a deal. I would call it a train wreck. But yeah. So I'm, let me go back because it'll lend some short work to our conversation. So I'm a Dutch immigrant. You know, I immigrated from Holland, you know, think wooden shoes and windmills. And when I was six years old, my brother Albert, my mother's vanscha. And we ended up in Denver, Colorado. We really didn't have much growing up. I remember we shopped at an expired food store, believe it or not. They had that back then. And we bought food there. And we drank powdered milk with our shill in the morning because it was cheaper than real milk, and trust me, it sounds better than it is. And I wore clothes, hand me down close in the Goodwill and the Salvation Army all the way through junior high school until I lied about my age when I was 14 to get a job at Burger Kings. You could get the job there at 15, and I was tall. So I was flipping burger, I started to buy my own freaking clothes eventually. And, you know, I'm sure you've got listeners that had it harder than I did or maybe even have it harder now with AI removing jobs and stuff. But I knew I wanted more. And luckily, my mom had an incredible work ethic. So she babysat kids so we'd have enough money to eat and always had a house full of kids. And with her babysitting money, she was a bit of an entrepreneur. She actually invested in IPOs in the stock market without any formal education. She also invested in real estate. Well, her first real estate acquisition was the house right across the street from us that she bought from a family named the Jules when I was about 14 for 30 grand. Okay. when I was 17, she told me it was now worth 50 that he'd gone up in value 20,000. And I said, what? You made 20 grand? You didn't do anything? Screw college. I'm getting into real estate. This was when 20 grand was a lot of money, mind you. This is 1977, okay? And so I got into real estate. I got my real estate broker's license right when I turned 18, which you could do back then with education.

Now you got smart. You need some experience before you can have your own office and be a broker. But I was a broker. I was smart enough to go work for another broker. But, and that's part of the story, actually. My first year in real estate, I made about $8,000. My second year maybe $10,000, but my third

year made over $100,000. Back in 1980, was a pretty decent money. So what happened between

year two and your three that caused me to $10x my income? What happened was the guy was working for,

the broker taught me about the importance of mindset and psychology, how really 80 to 90% of your

success in anything is your mindset and psychology. And so 80 to 90% of your success in anything is your

mindset and psychology. And so, you know, fast forward to today, I've went over 2,000 houses

that I've rented long term. I had, you know, I own thousands of apartment units now. And in 2008,

I had 800 houses from north of you in Spring Hill all the way down to Benita Springs all along the

coast here. And in 2006, my net worth went up $17 million while I slept. And you might say,

wow. And I said, wow. When I got a head so big, I could barely fit it through a door. I thought

I was a real estate god. And you know what that happens? God would give you a nice little smackdown. Well, that was 2008 and nine. I lost $50 million conservatively in

2008 and nine. And so what I'm known for talking about on my podcast and at my boot camps and events

and to my students is really the mindset it took to have 50 million to lose in the first place. And probably

more importantly, the mindset it took to recover from that to the success that I'm blessed to have

today. So happy to talk about some of those strategies would be like. That is an absolutely

incredible story. And this is why I wanted to dive in even deeper because you have, you know,

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