5 Laws of Success

Mike Hambright (01:14.638)
Hey everybody, welcome back to the show. Today I’m here with Justin Colby. He’s been a real estate investor for more than 18 years on over 3,000 deals.

You can’t be in this business for over 18 years without pivoting and doing all sorts of things and learning a few things. So today we’re going to talk about his five laws of success. Pretty insightful stuff. If you’ve been around for a while, this is going to resonate with you a lot. If you’re new or newer, there’s going to be some great lessons here. So Justin, welcome to the show. Yeah, it’s great to have. Great to be here. Thank you for having me. Good to have you. You think you’re a podcast host today, right? Yeah, yeah, yeah, that’s it. Also a podcast host. So yeah, it’s kind of hard to be on somebody else’s show sometimes. Not hard, but you like forget that. I have to change how.

We’re gonna talk somebody to ask you a question. I’m like, wait a minute. He’s gonna ask me a question So yeah, it’s fun. But you know, you and I have been around a long time. We’ve had I mean, it’s we’ve run parallel for a long time, right? We both started podcast in 2012. got started in real estate earlier than I am There’s not many people that I know that have done it earlier, right? got started in 2007. Yeah, and so we’ve seen it we’ve gotten through it, you know, we’ve won big we’ve lost we win bigger, you know, that’s what happened We laughed we cried. That’s it. Yeah, it’s

funny because I remember for a long time I was always the new guy and people always thought I was the young guy and now I’ve got gray hair and I’m like people refer to me as the old head or whatever. I get that partly because I have no hair left so at least you have great salt and pepper hair. I don’t have any of that left and it’s all because of contractors just to be clear. It’s 100 percent because of contractors. So hey I’m excited to talk about this today we’ve been talking for a while and I appreciate you flying in for today. Tell us a little bit about your background for those that don’t know you yet. Yeah so I’ve been doing this for about 18 years and I love it and

So when I got started, so many people fell in the financial crash and I did. I was a realtor at the time, so I lost it all because I didn’t have any real good skill sets in my early 20s. So I didn’t know how to really cultivate business as a realtor. But truth be told, I didn’t want to. I didn’t like working as a realtor. So, you know, everything happens for us, right? Not to us. So I ended up sleeping on a couch. The bank took the home back. We call that a foreclosure for all the people who don’t know. a foreclosure. And the bank also took the car back, which means

Mike Hambright (03:20.472)
The repo man came and got my car. So I mean I was really financially out So I had to make a decision back then there was really only one coaching program out there I borrowed 25 grand to pay for it. I knew I wanted to be in real estate I knew this was a much more sexy more driven way to be within it, right? I read all Donald Trump’s books and anything I could get my hands on regarding this topic and you know, Kiyosaki’s book rich dad poured out all that so yeah I borrowed money to pay for coaching and so for anyone who’s thinking about being

in Mike’s world, it’s always a lack of resourcefulness, never a lack of resources. I would encourage you to get in part of Mike’s world one way or another, whether it’s Investor Fuel or any other way, make it happen. so I would say that to say that was my start of my journey. And in classic fashion took me about nine months to get my first deal. Got my second deal almost immediately after because that’s how momentum works. You start to get that confidence. And so in my first year, I did two deals. And then basically every year thereafter,

I did six deals and the year after 20 deals and the year after that 96 deals and whatever and so on now I’ve I’ve done a development I own apartments I own storage facilities. I’ve done well over 3,000 deals and counting and so it’s been a very fun journey, but as I kind of mentioned right like Just because I give you my highlight reel doesn’t mean I didn’t take losses along. Oh, there’s no challenges along the way, right? I just made a joke with you right before we started recording about you sound like you’re an overnight success. That’s right

lot of people today you know I’m guilty of I say every day it’s like Amazon Christmas in my house like I go online push a button and I get instant gratification from something so much so that I often don’t even remember that I ordered that but I must have yes but but people expect that in business and life do they want to do something today and make money tomorrow that’s just not how really any business works let alone real estate right yeah I mean listen wholesaling is the quickest way essentially to make money in real estate right just flipping the paper

But the the fun part that I believe is is no one really

Mike Hambright (05:26.254)
Let me re-say it. Everyone wants to be in real estate for the long haul because it creates wealth. It creates tax write-offs. Like everyone should want to be in real estate, right? And so if people can have these five laws of success that we’re going to talk about and really commit to being in real estate, even part-time, no one has to be Mike Canberra. No one has to be Justin Colby and do this full-time as their venture. But you should be investing in real estate, whether it’s a long-term rental or short-term rental. Maybe you wholesale a couple of deals a year for extra income. Maybe you flip a deal or two a year. But everyone should be in real estate.

to some component. But yeah, the results of wanting something big, that just doesn’t happen overnight. It’s just to your point overnight success. The bigger problem, I think, is people just give up. And unfortunately, they usually check the box and say, well, I tried it and it doesn’t work. That’s right. Definitively, they tried and it didn’t work. It’s like, well, the way you did it, why would it have worked? So what I always ask people, so I tend to educate newer people. You know that, right? So I work with people who are trying to get started. And that is the biggest component of the people that give up. Right. And so what I try to do when people say,

doesn’t work my market that your coaching Justin doesn’t work and all this other stuff right to be able to point at everything and anything except for their own work ethic right and what they’re doing but I ask them the same time how many offers did you make this week almost a hundred percent zero

Almost 100 % of the people answer me zero. And I say, how could it work if you never gave yourself a chance for it to work? The only way to get a deal is by making an offer. But your own lack of confidence stops you from making the offer. So this is why you need to be able to have a coach like a Mike or myself to continue to build your confidence. I say it like this. I’m in a place of real estate educators. My job, your job, I believe, is to create certainty in them and then create

confidence and if you could do that they will rock it right yeah but if they won’t allow their mentality or thought process to change then allow to say okay Mike I trust in what you’re saying I entrusted what the masterminds about

Mike Hambright (07:27.958)
and start to build confidence through these little wins, then they’re never gonna be able to build anything special. Yeah, and I think, you know, a lot of people in their mind, they’re gonna try it. There’s always naysayers. Usually it’s sometimes it’s the people closest to you in your life that are ready to pounce and say, I told you so. And people are easy to give up because they’re just like, well, everybody already expects me to fail. So I might as well just fail now. They’re not saying that, but they’re taking the actions to basically accept defeat immediately. And they move on to the next thing, crypto trading.

I was whatever whatever it be. Everyone wants this Amazon society. I call it the microwave society right like now in Real estate is anything but that but it creates so much money so much income such a great lifestyle like you and I have a very good life We do our business not in the office every day. We can be on an island. We can do anything I can buy a home. I can buy an apartment Anywhere in the world right and so to be able to create the life by the way you wanted to create it That’s what most people want

But then what are you willing to sacrifice to do that? Right? You made the ultimate sacrifice for your family when you quit your job and went all in years ago. I’ve done the very same thing. Yeah. There’s a level of sacrifice you need to be able to. And you got to be willing to play the long game. Yeah. Because nothing happens quickly. mean, I would say even like using my rentals as an example. Now we have a rental portfolio here, most of which we bought from nine to 2012. So who wouldn’t want to go back and do that? That’s right. At the time, there were sacrifices like we could have fixed and flipped those, but we chose to hold them back. So we kind of for you know, the

was foregone at that time and they’re a pain in the ass but now when I look back there’s been a lot of appreciation there hasn’t been nearly as much cash flow as what anybody tells you of what in hindsight it’s like wow I’m we’ve generated a lot of wealth at least on you have a retirement plan yeah that’s what most people don’t understand it took 15 years to see that that’s right and so you know someone just asked me I was literally in a meeting the guy said so what’s your retirement plan

I was like, I’m in real estate. I don’t need to go around hoarding money for my, you know, now I do, I still have all that kind of stuff. But the reality is my assets, when I am ready to genuinely just be done, I don’t want to do anything, I liquidate. And I’ll have tens of millions of dollars in my bank account. That’s my retirement plan. So I’m just gonna keep going. Right? the gentleman who was asking me was like 62. you know, it’s obviously top of mind, but I’m 44. And I don’t see myself ever not doing real estate. I don’t know how you feel about

Mike Hambright (09:52.07)
that it may change shape it may not be as transactional might be only doing something else like bigger deals but yeah how would I ever stop doing real estate I think it just changes like for us I just talked about my rental portfolio for example we just made the decision to start selling them off but we’re gonna own a finance them so we have a decent portfolio and I’m like the goal isn’t my wife and I are both well I’m 51 she keeps saying 50 but she turns 51 in a month so she’s still rounding down she’s 49

Yeah, but.

You know we decided to sell them off because we’re like the goal isn’t to die with a rental portfolio like I want to be the beneficiary of that while I’m alive. That’s right. And and so you know we’re going to start owner financing them off because quite frankly they’ll cash flow a lot better now than they do as rentals. And you get checked. And then we started buying notes. So we’ve just shifted from doing we’re basically generally trying to shift and I think everybody gets to this point from less active to more passive income. That’s right. And I think it’s brilliant. And that’s what I would encourage everyone like if you’re listening to this and you are just getting in.

Then get in yeah, and don’t worry about how long and we’ll get to my number five law But don’t worry about how long it takes to get to Mike’s level Just go start doing it do a couple deals a year do a wholesale deal do a fix and flip buy one rental You don’t need to go. I’m pot committed. I’m sacrificing it all you can by the way you totally can but you don’t need to because you’ve been doing this for 20 16 17 years yeah, I’ve been doing it since 2007 right so 18 you’re like I’m not

sitting here today, the same version I was even five years ago, like five years, my business has changed a lot. And I bet you would say the same thing for you. And so I hope everyone gets in the space. I hope everyone follows you and joins your mastermind or gets coached by me because we already have the scars to get people to be successful faster. Yeah, right. Sure. Yeah. So let’s talk about these five laws of success. So let’s let’s start off with the first one. Yeah. So the first one is you need to decide who you want to be or decide what you want and who you need to be to get it.

Mike Hambright (11:53.953)
And I think the hardest part is I can do a good version of Tony Robbins, but people have a very hard time deciding what they want.

Everyone wants to be rich, but that is as vague as it gets like there’s no nothing finite for you to go try to achieve That be rich great to your point trade crypto. I don’t know You might get very very rich But you know then you got to also the next layer of that is who do you need to be? What sacrifices do you need to do to become the version of the person that you want right? So what do you want?

I can’t answer that for everybody. I know one thing. Everyone needs money to pay their bills and everybody, including me and you, wants more of it. Right. Yeah. So decide what you want and then decide who you need to be in the sacrifices. So in Mike’s world, we were discussing how you quit your job and went all in. In my world, I didn’t want to be broke, busted and disgusted anymore. Like I needed to go win. I had a chip on my shoulder because, you know, I had a troubled childhood and all that. And it’s not a woe is me. And I just was like, I need to prove to everyone

and when my friends and my family, I’m gonna go do something different than the rest of my family ever did. I’m gonna be in Ed Milett’s words, the one, right? That’s Ed Milett’s thing. In my family, that’s who I’ve become, right? Which is great. And Ed gave me a platform to talk like that, because I didn’t even realize that. But if you can decide who you need to be, then it becomes a lot easier to make the sacrifices, right? And so I use, a lot of times I use nutrition or fitness as the example, because it’s so easy.

Everyone wants a six pack. How many people?

Mike Hambright (13:31.305)
Genuinely eat the right way work out the right way and commit To getting a six pack with shocker the number two law of success is committing Right. And so you need to decide who you’re gonna be to be able to achieve the thing Yeah, no, that’s great. And I think I mean, what do you say or what are your thoughts on this? I I think because of social media the way it is a lot of people want to be like somebody else right and sometimes like it seems unreachable or they try and they can’t get there and I think especially the path

few years been a trying time for a lot of entrepreneurs and I think there’s been a little bit of an awakening of people like I might want to emulate some aspects of somebody but I really need to be true to myself I think people are kind of waking up that like I don’t have to be like somebody I can aspire to have some components of that or whatever it gives you something to shoot towards yeah but I think at the end of the day people need to be themselves otherwise it’s gonna come back calling it like you’re never gonna you’re never gonna achieve your perception of that person

It’s just a perception. That’s right. Because you’re just seeing the highlight reels as you said on social media anyway. Totally. Well, you know what I see is someone who’s built a somewhat decent platform on social media and whatnot. The people who try to be fake and not themselves, it doesn’t last. Right. And they can only wear that mask for so long before the mask can’t be worn anymore. They won’t be able to keep it up. And that is so true that I feel like the awakening, if you want to call it, like people are really realizing like

I don’t need to be Grant Cardone as an example, right? I need to be my best version of a real estate investor. And so the more and more people that lean into being authentic and true to themselves is gonna help them understand who they need to be. And that is definitely, I think there is some level of an awakening that is happening. And don’t try to be Justin or Mike or Grant Cardone or any of us. Do what you need to do the way you want to do it. And then I would just…

The key about deciding what you want is, I just believe people waste their life, right? And as a younger father, right, I have a four year old and a one and a half year old. So I’m 44, so I’m not young, but they’re young. It changed the shape of how I think about life.

Mike Hambright (15:41.589)
I want to go take advantage of every aspect of life, all of it. And that means I’m gonna have to work hard and that means I’m gonna have to go create and build because I want to be able to go on really cool vacations with my kids. I want to go experience these things. You have a cabin, you know, an hour and a half from here. You get to go do all that. You know, so I want to be intentional with building because that’s who I am. Yeah. And that’s what I want. And my vertical of choice is real estate. And some of you guys, I might be talking to you out of real estate right now. I don’t know. Maybe you’re like, I want to do something else. Awesome.

But make that decision, because otherwise you’re just going to sit around. Yeah, yeah. That’s cool. So what’s number two? You said it’s committing, kind of going all in. Yeah. And that’s why number one is not easy. I don’t want someone to listen to this podcast and be like, OK, I want a million dollars. It’s not a quick. You got to sit here and think. What do you genuinely want? Future pace it little bit. What does your life look like in 10 years? What does it look like in 20 years? What do you really want?

And then you gotta go commit to the thing. So again, I use the easy way for the image for people will be the fitness world. If you really want to be really fit, then you have to commit to eating boiled chicken and broccoli. There’s no wavering. And by the way, I don’t do that. I like being fit, but I don’t need to be that fit, right? And so…

That level of commitment is usually what I see is the difference maker in the people who are ultra successful and the people who aren’t. Doesn’t mean the people who don’t commit fully can’t make some money and do pretty well. But if you really take a look at the people that are ultra successful, ultra right, like they are all in, right? Whether you hear the stories of Elon Musk, Steve Jobs, Bill Gates, and these are the top of the echelon, right? The Warren Buffets of the world. They are all in, they are not detracted, they’re not,

distracted, they just go. But the reason why they’re able to do that is they committed and they understand what they wanted first and who they need to be to do it. Right. And when you find that is really empowering. Yeah. And you’re willing to make the mistakes. And I found it’s OK for people to know that they’ll pivot at some point. Right. Like it’s almost it’s not like.

Mike Hambright (17:49.569)
It seems overwhelming for some people to say, I don’t know what I want 30 years from now. And it’s like, well, just chart a path and you’re going to come to a fork in the road at some point. Maybe it’s a market cycle change. Maybe it’s something like COVID. Maybe who knows? Like life happens. Maybe somebody else has a health issue. Right. And then you have this wake up call of like, OK, this is what’s important to me now. And you just chart a new path. But that’s OK. That is. And that’s really important for people to hear. It is totally OK to chart a new path and make a pivot. There’s, you know, being in this business for 18 years,

I’ve had the reason why I’ve been able to be in the business for 18 years is because I’ve made so many pivots. When things change, like I’ll give you a good example. I was primarily in the Phoenix market. That’s where I did the vast majority of my first probably 1500 deals. When the hedge funds came to town, the hedge funds weren’t in our world until what 2014, something like that. Well, where they attacked essentially was Phoenix and Vegas. Well, I was in Phoenix and I was buying all my deals from the auction.

Well, when I need to be buying things at 70 cents on the dollar and they’re willing to pay $1.10 on the dollar, I literally rent six straight months and couldn’t buy one. just…

Not even close, not even sniffing it. Funny, I was having conversation with a mutual friend and, you know, I was a part of his mastermind at the time. And he’s just like, dude, you got to be like something’s got to change. I’m like, I know. So that’s actually what. So I guess this is probably 2012, actually. That’s what brought me to direct mail. I had to go find my own deals. I couldn’t keep buying at the auction. Right. So these pivots are going to happen organically most often. Yes, you can have some financial or economic thing. The covid to the world.

financial crashes, of course, then you’re gonna have to pivot. But a lot of times, you being stuck on, I’m committed to this one thing, those are the people that ultimately kind of almost die like dinosaurs, because they’re unwilling to pivot. You have to evolve. Right, and there’s very few amount of people that don’t evolve. I have a good friend, Chris Iman, who surprisingly hasn’t evolved, and he still crushes it. And he’s one of the few that I can genuinely say,

Mike Hambright (20:00.167)
way or another he is continuing to survive on his model with no pivots, no updates. So you you got to evolve, be okay with pivots and we’ll get to that. Yeah and you could you could pivot too much too. There’s also people that like the first sign of anything getting hard they’re gonna jump into something else right. Something that seems easy but will also get hard. It’s the biggest downfall I see right especially in this space where you and I play at this time. When things get hard like there’s a let me start flipping land.

Or getting into some other, I’m gonna get into coaching, I’ve only done five deals, I’m gonna get into coaching. my God, well don’t get me started on that. Now you’re gonna get me on a soapbox. Yeah, but I mean there’s a lot of people that like, when things get hard, they jump into something else. But that too will get hard. And so on some level, like if the cheese is moved, you’re gonna have to pivot. But if it’s just gotten hard, like you gotta plow through sometimes. You gotta plow through. And so I related to being married. not, I’ve only been married for five years. Speaking of plowing through, is that what you’re saying? Yeah.

So, but I’ve only been married essentially since COVID and so I’m a relatively new married man.

But I can tell you who my wife and I were when we were dating versus who we are five years in. And I know in 15 years and 25, like there’s no puppy dogs and rainbows all the time. It can’t be plowing through all the time. Right. And so I just say that to say, guys, like guys and girls out there, like there’s no just puppy dogs and rainbows and you just keep going, you’re going to win. And it’s just easy. Yeah. Pivot change. By the way, this is leans into, you know, investor, like get around people who are further down the road than you are. Right.

Get into investor fuel get a part of masterminds because they can just help you pivot faster because they’re gonna say hey I did what you’re doing. Here’s what the result that’s gonna happen Instead of that what go left because then you can miss that pothole and you can actually go this way, right? So that’s the the point of pivoting by by knowing the right pivot versus guessing That’s the key and you and I agree. It’s always about the people you know one of the lessons that I’ve learned haven’t been doing the business for so long is

Mike Hambright (22:06.966)
As an entrepreneur, if you build up a base, then you start, I hate to use this analogy of like the casino, but like you’re playing with the house’s money. So I found that a lot of people start pivoting, they don’t have a base. Having done a lot of deals, a rental portfolio, having other cash flowing things, and now I can experiment more because I am living below my means, essentially. I’m not worried about paying the bills anymore. Now I’m just worried about having impact or shooting

for the stars and being OK striking out because I can still pay the bills. So I think that’s one of the things about entrepreneurship that I think is great. If you can build up a base, and then from that point, all you’re doing is

Trying to find more of who you are or trying to have a bigger impact or what things that are important to you, right? You just so it’s not like it’s all or nothing like your whole business shifts What you what happens over time as you have multiple businesses or multiple streams of income and not everyone’s meant to be an entrepreneur right for sure Yeah, that’s the other thing I’ve realized is is having my podcast entrepreneur DNA. We are built different Yeah, right. This is not for every bunch of psychos. Yeah, seriously I mean literally I think something’s genuinely wrong with us and or I guess we could flip it and say everyone else is not

something wrong with them. listen, it’s not always popular. Like how many times have you done deals, lost money, or did a bunch of marketing and it didn’t pan out, or went to the wrong address? Like just things that you’re just like, and you’ve to power through those moments. Yep. Yep. So let’s talk about the next one, taking action.

That’s what I was kind of like, you gotta go. And most people have a fear level, right? And that’s where, okay, I’ve decided what I want, Justin. I decided I can commit to being the person I need to be to get there. could have done the first two, right? I committing to them. And then taking action strikes fear. And a lot of times that because, and especially now that is social media is the judgment factor. Everyone’s worried about people judging them. So let me give you all a piece of advice. They’re already judging you, all of them. They’re already snickering behind you.

Mike Hambright (24:05.936)
I know it because it happened to me and it happens to my friends and I’m in circles and someone’s talking shit about Mike and it sucks So like guys don’t worry about judgment and usually the people that judge us the fastest is our family I remember the first time that I I graduated UCLA Which was pointless I spent all that time and money and brainpower to have a diploma. I’ve never used in my life The first job I got was a door-to-door sales job

and I was fired up for it. The first thing that happened is my dad sat me like, you don’t wanna do this, this isn’t, and they immediately started judging my decision to go to do door to door. And it’s always the people closest to you that are gonna judge you first. Now, your family should always be loving and whatever and supportive, but it’s gonna happen. So. In their mind that was, they were trying to show you that they are trying to help you. Yeah, yeah. In their mind. Go get your masters and go to.

Let me go learn myself, right? So I say that just because your friends are going to snicker, your family’s going to snicker, they’re going to judge you. Who cares about that?

The other thing is you don’t have to put everything on social media. So don’t worry about social media judging you because they are also doing that for sure. I have just as much hate comments and this and that as I do enjoyment and hey, this has been great. People are out there bored, they’re unhappy themselves. Don’t worry about their own unhappiness. Go do what you know. You’ve made the first two. Decide what you want who you need to be and you’ve committed to it. So go do it. You are going to make mistakes. There’s no way to do anything without making mistakes. Nothing.

whether you’re being married, being an entrepreneur, you’re making mistakes. So just go make those mistakes, which is going to lead me to number four, because that’s where the uncomfortable part comes from. So by doing it, by taking action and doing what I call the thing, go do the thing, repetitiously to the point of nausea until you get the result you want. And don’t quit until you do. There’s a great video I’m sure you’ve seen. It’s the football practice, the younger teenagers, and someone’s complaining about whatever.

Mike Hambright (26:11.056)
Coach gets them up and says, you’re gonna do the bear crawl and get on your back and they throw a kid on his back. They blindfold him. That’s fantastic. Right. And it gives me shivers because it’s so great to just like, you just keep going.

And just keep going. That’s the whole point of the video. And the guy goes 100 yards and did it even though he thought he couldn’t. Just go take action into the point of almost failure because you’re going to achieve the thing. And then that’s going to be very uncomfortable because guess what? You’ve never done these things before. Right. So when I make certain comments about what I’m going to be able to do as an entrepreneur and as a business owner and as a real estate investor, it’s uncomfortable to say.

But it puts me to a place where I’m okay being uncomfortable, which is the law of number four is be okay being uncomfortable because it is the only way to go do something now. So I bring up being a kid a lot.

When you learn how ride a bike, it’s uncomfortable. When you learn how to walk, it’s uncomfortable. When you learn how to swim, it’s uncomfortable. But as kids, we don’t care. We go do it. We genuinely don’t care, because we want the thing bad enough. We want to learn how to walk bad enough that we keep getting up, even though we fall down every two steps. We want to swim bad enough that we keep going, even though we’re choking and drowning half the time when we’re learning. But as kids, we have this ability to keep going. So what’s changing as adults?

And a lot of it is in here. Almost 99 % of it, I would argue, is in here. Sometimes the skill set and your ability to do the thing. it’s all about your own mindset of what you’re willing to get through and be uncomfortable to achieve the thing you want. I think when you’re a kid, you’re not afraid to fail. You don’t know who’s watching you. You’re not even thinking of who’s watching you. As an adult, lot of people, and what I’ve found is, as an entrepreneur, or a wannabe entrepreneur, they’re afraid to fail. Oh, yeah. And the reality is, I say this all the time, failure is only

Mike Hambright (27:59.329)
final if you quit. so you just get into it now expecting to fail. Anything I start, I know it’s going to fail. We’re going to have this struggle. We’re going to have these challenges. A bunch of stuff we don’t even know that’s going to hit us in the face. We don’t know what it is, but it’s going to happen. But you learn from that. And then all of sudden, you make it look easy. You’re like, overnight success. It’s like, no, I wasn’t an overnight success. You didn’t see all the arrow wounds in my back. And you didn’t see all these trips to the hospital or whatever it is. And I think a lot of adults are.

They want certainty so bad. They want to go do something big, but it’s uncertain and they’re afraid to even start. And that’s where your level of willingness to sacrifice. And so I would tell everyone, I personally am at a place in my life, I don’t trust people who don’t openly talk about the scars that they have. I just can’t, I can’t with those people. You’ve done nothing, you’ve either done nothing in your life, so you’re gonna bore me, I can’t deal with you, you’ve done nothing, you’ve achieved nothing.

You’re so afraid of me judging you that you’re not willing to open up about it. And I don’t want that either because I have so many scars. Listen, I’ll say it here right now live in 2024 was the hardest real estate year I’ve had in 18 years by far.

And that’s including when I did a real estate development of 79 townhomes that I had to let go and failed on. 2024 was harder. And in large part because of a contractor doing some fraudulent nonsense with my entire portfolio. But I say that to just say like, I’m OK openly talking about it to your entire audience because I’m a human.

and I go for it and I want to win big. And so sometimes I make mistakes. That’s OK. And I’m going to have to go rectify 2024 probably over the next another 12 months, 18 months and I’ll be rectified. But that’s that’s part of the journey. It’s not perfect. I’m not perfect. Real estate is not perfect. The economy is not perfect. Right. And so, you know, the lessons learned aren’t losses.

Mike Hambright (30:03.158)
Right? They’re lessons. And it’s not going to stop me from continuing to build properties and buy apartments and work with contractors. It’s just going to be the lesson of to do things better. And so I don’t.

If you aren’t going for it, if you’re not taking action, if you are uncomfortable, you’re not really a part of my tribe. Like I can’t do that. Yeah. And you have to. mean, there’s a reason why like elders are sought after because they have a lot of wisdom. And the only way you get wisdom is by getting punched in the face every once in a while. You can’t be wise and have never failed. They don’t go together. Yeah. That’s why I go to my 95 year old grandpa. He’s like everything I ever like. Oh, yeah. I remember. Right. I mean, he just has all this recollection of the things he’s gone through for 95 years.

Yeah, and so I just think anyone out there this goes back to investor for like if you’re actively doing deals You got to get with Mike right because you need whether it’s Mike or just the other members to be able to work with or whatnot Or find a true coach like a one-on-one coach who’s gonna coach you one-on-one and hold your hand Because they can just speed that whole learning curve up and the reason why 2024 was so tough is Genuinely because I trusted too much. I trusted the people were gonna do what they say

they’re gonna do. So that was the biggest learning. Like if there’s one thing, Justin, you gave too much leash, you let them run too far. And that’s what burnt me for 2024. So now I know if ever to give advice, you don’t do that, right? I don’t care what they’ve done and what the history is, you don’t leave the leash go long because here’s the example if you do. Yeah, trust but verify, right? So let’s talk about the fifth law.

Most important in my opinion, they’re all great. I believe this is why I created the five laws of success. And I’ve run this by some really successful like billionaires and you know, very, they love them, right? They sometimes use different words, but they’re all essentially the same. And so this law is remove your time expectation on your result.

Mike Hambright (32:03.968)
And so I’ll just use a name most people know because of real estate, Grant Cardone. So I ran this by Grant and he laughed. He loved this one. He was like, that’s it. That’s the thing I haven’t been able to put together in my own like speeches or communicating to everyone else. He was like, I didn’t hit where I’m at until mid sixties.

I was a sales guy that was doing side real estate investing and whatever and all of a sudden I got serious and you know, I’m retirement agent and now he works harder than he’s ever worked. Like he’s doing these webinars. So I say that to say most people in my spectrum who are just getting started think they’re gonna go get a deal done in 30 days. And while that is very possible.

I try to help them remove the 30 day time frame. Stop that nonsense. Because what will happen in 30 days if you don’t get a deal done, which there’s a higher chance of you not getting a deal than getting a deal, then you’re going to blame me. You’re going to blame the economy. You’re going to blame interest rates. You’re going to blame your city, your marketing plan. You’re going blame everything but you. Because the reality is,

No one likes to take their own blame, but you can go get a deal done as fast as humanly possible, as fast as you’re able to go do it, as long as you’re taking the right action. Right? So now you jump back to taking action.

And so in my world when I’m helping newbies, my first question is how many offers did you make in these 30 days? And if it doesn’t come close to like 30 as an example, I just say baller, I gotta tell you, you’re probably not gonna make it in this business. Because you’re not just doing the one thing, the only one thing that it takes to get a deal. And that’s simply make the offer. I don’t care if they all get rejected. If you made them, you tried. Now we can pivot with you and we can help structure how you underwrite remodels and comps and all the-

Mike Hambright (33:51.137)
those type of things. So remove it because Tony Robbins said it best. People overestimate what they can do in a year and they underestimate what they can do in 10. So true. And it’s so true. And my way of saying the same thing is remove your time expectation on the result you’re trying to achieve. Because if you were to ask me where I would be 18 years in this business, I would not be able to say at a place where I’m at today. And I almost guarantee you would say the same thing. You were just trying to make a buck. You’re just trying to get going, trying to, you know, maybe make 100 grand or whatever it is.

So remove it. And here’s why this is so imperative, You will quit if you continue to put a time stamp on when you’re gonna achieve the thing. I’m not telling you guys to not have goals or to have a what are you gonna do in a year or five years and shoot for a goal. I’m not saying that. I’m saying don’t have the expectation of the result be so powerful that if you don’t achieve it, it’s gonna spin you out psychologically.

And that’s why. I’ve had people before. used to. I’ve coached a lot of people and people would be, you know, they might be making, let’s just hypothetically say like $80,000 a year in their job. And I’m like, well, what does success mean for you? I don’t make a million dollars in my first year and I’m a failure.

And I was like, maybe your first goal should just be to earn $80,000 outside of your job. That’s what I tell people. Especially for coaching students, you’re technically financially free when you found another way to make money that doesn’t tie you back to your job. mean, ultimately, right? And so you could dream bigger. But people have a goal that’s like,

Generally unattainable and if I don’t hit it, I’m gonna quit. It’s like that’s terrible right there Yeah, yeah, and a lot of people stick to like round figures like I need to make a million dollars or you know I need to do a hundred deals or whatever right and they go to these round figures and then I’ll go to them and say great What does that mean? What does that do for you? Why a hundred deals? They don’t have an answer So why are you making shit up? That’s gonna ultimately make you probably quit this and you don’t even actually understand why you’re doing it right and so why not do things and say things because I believe your thoughts become your

Mike Hambright (35:59.059)
words, words become your actions, action becomes your habits and all these other things, right? And so if you’re thinking yourself, I need to do a hundred deals this year. If not, I’m a failure and then maybe I need to go change to your point. You change verticals, then you get into coaching or you get, you go whatever. But why not just say I’m to do a hundred deals as fast as I can? Because what if you do it in seven months? When you use the words as fast as you can, changes what you’re saying to yourself.

And you might actually be able to do that in a shorter time than a year. But if you also say the year works in reverse, now you’re giving yourself a whole year to do the 100 deals. guess what you’ll do? And I learned this in college. Wait till the last day. 100%, you will. And you’ll wait till you’re 60 days out and you’re on 82 deals. And all of a sudden, hair on fire for the next 60 days to get 18 more deals. Where if you just go as fast as you can from the jump, you could have done it in six months, seven months, eight months. Who knows?

But you didn’t, right? Because you gave yourself the year. So it works in this reverse manner also, where people will start to give themselves this lackadaisical, I have a year to accomplish it. Well, then they freak out in the last 60 days or 90 days. So don’t do that. Always use the words as fast as you can. Because another, I would say, is you just need to keep pushing.

And you need to tell yourself that every day. I just told you guys after 18 years, I’ve had the hardest real estate year in 2024. I gotta keep pushing. Cause to your point, what else do I do? Quit? Yeah. Like that’s not an option. Yeah. So I bounce back. I learned what I need to learn. You gotta keep pushing. It’s not always puppy dogs and rainbows. And if I don’t achieve what I wanted to achieve, you know, in year 25, cause I have to kind of rectify what happened. Okay. Keep going.

Because now I learned more and I could probably move faster in year 2026 because of what I learned. That’s right. people don’t.

Mike Hambright (37:50.863)
They don’t give credit to the lessons learned during a hard time. They’re maybe mad they might quit that they failed. But it’s like the knowledge you have that you learned from going through that stuff makes you a better entrepreneur. makes you a better human, honestly. mean, wants to go through. There’s things that have happened in my life that I thought this was like the end. this woe is me. And in hindsight, I’m like, man, there’s a silver lining in all of these things. If that hadn’t happened to me, then this wouldn’t have happened. This would have happened. And that’s just how life works.

I would tell you, I almost guarantee those things that happened to you, there were people that you knew that were around you that were in your circle that you were able to lean on. And that’s the power of understanding the power of people. you and I were talking off camera, I’ve gotten to a place in my life, like I’m only caring about people. I only care about me and Mike figuring out a way to do business together, work together, do something together, because we’re better together than we are apart. And we have resources that one and others can share.

And now is like if you are gonna go for something also make sure you’re connecting to the right people because those people can be a resource when things go south Yeah, and if you don’t have those people then you’re stuck between your four walls and if what’s in here And you don’t know if you know the answer and then guess what happens you quit again So I encourage again I could probably have ten laws But I encourage all you guys to really also focus on creating a network of people that you know You can start to rely on that you can run things by to be intentional. It’s really simple in our world

meetings are everywhere. I’m going to speak at one of the larger ones in LA tomorrow night. But go to these real meetings. It’s very easy to start to network with people. It’s not hard. But again, for some people, that’s really uncomfortable. So go back to pillar number four. Fucking be okay with being uncomfortable. Like it’s only way out. That’s right. Yeah. So Justin, you’ve got podcasts, you have 18 years of experience, a lot of things people can learn from you. How do they connect with you? Where do they go to learn more about you? Keep it simple. Go to my Instagram, thejustinkolby on Instagram.

then I have all of my podcast episodes. Everything’s on YouTube. Go to my YouTube. Just look me up, Justin Colby, youtube.com, forward slash Justin Colby. You can see all the different podcasts from the real estate ones to the entrepreneur ones. And here’s what I’d ask. If you heard this episode, just let me know you heard it. It’s me. I don’t have bots. I don’t have people in my DMs. Say what’s up to me. It’ll let me know that you came and if I can be a help in your real estate career or business in general. Say you saw me on Mike’s podcast. Awesome, man. Thanks for coming in. Thanks for having

Mike Hambright (40:20.385)
Yeah, good stuff a lot of great lessons here guys it goes without saying if you’re not following people like Justin if you’re not learning from the wisdom of people that have learned a lot of things good and bad then your growth is gonna happen slower than it will otherwise so get in the right rooms get around the right people and Make sure you’re you’re not too proud to like learn from others mistakes and their lessons learned So appreciate you guys a bunch. We’ll see you on the next show