Why Obsession Beats Commitment in Real Estate Investing | Alfonso Cuadra Wealth Building Strategy

Alfonso Cuadra (00:00)
The real gift, Cody, is not the goal itself. It’s the person that you become on the way to achieving that goal. That’s more valuable than the actual goal. And so, you know, for me, it’s like,

I’m continuing to improve myself, I’m continuing to grow. The person I am today, if you were to tap me on the shoulder at 15 years old when I was sleeping on the streets, you’d say, you know what, one day you’re gonna be speaking in front of thousands of people,

Cody Crabb (01:56)
Welcome back to the Real Estate Pros podcast. I’m Cody Crabb with Investor Fuel and joining me today is Alfonso Cuadra, founder of Wealth Genius and a real estate entrepreneur focused on helping investors think bigger about wealth creation. We’re gonna talk about his journey, we’re gonna talk about lessons from the field and what serious investors need to understand if they’re really wanting to grow. Thanks so much for joining us today, Alfonso. I’m really digging that blazer that you’re wearing. That is awesome. If you’re just listening, check out his, yeah, that is stylish.

Alfonso Cuadra (02:20)
Good to be here. It’s got

my name in it, so…

Cody Crabb (02:26)
⁓ even better. Wow. Yeah, that is like top shelf. ⁓

But enough about the blazer. I would love to hear about kind of your story as we were chatting earlier. You were mentioning that your story was a little maybe unconventional. I’d love to hear a little bit about how you got into real estate in the first place.

Alfonso Cuadra (02:45)
Yeah, so I came as a refugee from El Salvador. I think you spent some time in Mexico. So it’s a few doors down. ⁓ It’s a little country. We went through a civil war in the 70s and I immigrated to North America.

Cody Crabb (02:48)
⁓ wow.

Yeah, yeah.

Alfonso Cuadra (03:04)
My mom was involved in some political things and we had to get out of there. And so, you know, when we arrived, was, you know, we spent a lot of time, you know, during that Civil War, you know, not having access to many things. And I didn’t, I missed a lot of educational opportunities. I couldn’t go to school like normal kids. And so when integrating into the education system,

I felt like I was behind. And anyways, nothing really resonated with me in the education system. I ended up dropping out of high school at 15 years old and leaving home and having some really dark times. Slept on the streets, panhandled for change. And I went through some really, really dark times, just like anybody has had some level of a dark time in their lives where they’re just so…

Cody Crabb (03:53)
I mean that’s pretty,

Alfonso Cuadra (03:54)
respect. Yeah. I mean, well, I

Cody Crabb (03:54)
you’re making it sound like yeah just like everyone has, that is a pretty, you know what I mean?

Alfonso Cuadra (03:59)
think someone has gone through something in their life where they felt like…

Cody Crabb (04:02)
Sure. Yeah.

Alfonso Cuadra (04:04)
powerless or you feel like the whole world is caving in on you. That feeling, whether you’re on the street, mean, some people are in developing countries, I mean, it still feels the same. I think people have gone through something along those lines of feeling that way. Everything changed for me, Cody, when I became a teenage parent.

At 17 years old, I became a parent and it just really changed the trajectory of my life. I started to think about what I could do with my life versus having excuses on why my life was in that situation. I had to take full control over my life. I started a business in 1995. So my daughter was born in 1995. Her name is Talia. And I started a business as a result.

of that. And that business grew to locations all across North America. By the time I was 20, I find myself with millions in the bank and doing really well. the issue, one of the biggest issues was I was very young. I had no financial literacy. I pretty much spent all the money. If you can imagine, a 21-year-old that comes into all that money.

Cody Crabb (06:07)
I can definitely imagine, especially with your background,

you’re like, this is the best, like you feel like you made it, yeah.

Alfonso Cuadra (06:12)
Yeah.

Yeah, yeah. And so I was not financially literate. And so I would spend the money. you know, now, fast forward, 24 years old, I find myself negative a million dollars. And so I knew that I had to do something. And I knew that I had some, I’ve done some things, right. But, you know, I felt like maybe you got to learn about business specifically because

my business was failing and that’s all I really understood at the time. And so I started to educate myself, read, think and grow rich, rich dad, poor dad. Those are some of the gateway books that kind of got me onto this trajectory of learning and personal development and reading about wealthy people.

Cody Crabb (06:57)
Yeah.

Alfonso Cuadra (06:58)
And what ended up happening was I realized, when I was reading all these books, I realized, hey, I don’t know anything, right? And what I needed to do is follow what these wealthy people were doing. So I never had any type of wealth in my family. And so one of the things that I noticed is that the wealthiest people in the world, number one, they’re not consumers, they’re investors. And so I was very much a consumer. Number two, I noticed that they have multiple streams of income.

I just had that one business and when the market changed and things changed and my business was impacted. And then the last thing is the common thread amongst all the wealthiest people in the world is real estate. And there’s many reasons for that. Number one.

cash yield, equity buildup, it’s leverageable, it’s a hard asset, and you have all the tax advantages. And so I said, this is what I gotta do, right? And so this is where I decided to transition into an investor and having the investor mindset, I rebuild my business, and then…

this second time around, I was gonna pour all my profits, everything that I was doing into real estate. And when I was 30 years old, so now we’re going on 18 plus years ago, I was able to exit out of that company, exit out of a lot of the businesses that I’d built at that time. I was 30 years old, I had my real estate portfolio, and now I realize I don’t have to work another day in my life.

That was about 18 years ago. And so what I decided to do is I wanted to teach people how to do this the right way. Financial literacy, real estate. And so that’s kind of where I am today. Teaching people. Being of service to people.

Cody Crabb (08:39)
Yeah, I

love that. I think I love that your first impulse is like, okay, now as soon as I got there, now let’s turn around and again, give a hand up. That’s it’s funny that investor fuel is very much like because we’re all about education and things. One of the things we always talk about is like education is never going to be a bad thing sharing information. ⁓ It’s a rising tide, know, rising tide lifts all ships as they say. like it’s something we can, you know,

Alfonso Cuadra (08:47)
Yeah.

Yeah.

Cody Crabb (09:07)
Sharing your knowledge is always good is what I’m trying to say. ⁓

Alfonso Cuadra (09:10)
Well, the thing

about organizations like Investor Fuel is that it gives people a community of like-minded people where, you know, otherwise you don’t have anybody. And like for me, it was lonely because I had these ideas of being an entrepreneur, building wealth. But when I talked to people around me, no one had those ideas, right? And so,

Cody Crabb (09:17)
Yeah.

Alfonso Cuadra (09:33)
You know, I grew up around poverty, I grew up in social housing, and you know, the kind of conversations that are happening are not the same conversations that are happening in rocket fuel. They’re not the same conversations that you’re gonna be having with your buddy from your coworkers versus other investors. And so I always tell people, the first thing that you have to do is surround yourself around good quality people.

Cody Crabb (09:52)
Yeah.

Alfonso Cuadra (09:59)
and then your life will start changing. So I wanted to be that person for everybody. That’s how I started 30 plus years ago. And just getting as many people involved in real estate as possible.

Cody Crabb (10:47)
Wow, okay, ⁓ now you’re, so tell me a little bit about your education platform. ⁓ It sounds like your main goal is like to help people kind of escape that same poverty that you did. So tell us a little bit about Wealthgenius and what exactly, how it works.

Alfonso Cuadra (11:02)
Yeah. Yeah. So

Cody, I’m a freedom fighter. I fight for people’s financial freedom. That’s what I do. ⁓ I believe in systems. I believe in scaling.

Cody Crabb (11:11)
Love that.

Alfonso Cuadra (11:19)
That’s where you’re gonna find your freedom. And so the reason I’m here today is because there’s something sparked in me when I was reading all those books when I was 24 years old. And I realized that the wealthiest people own real estate, but no one’s ever built significant wealth out of the smaller assets. And so…

where I transitioned is I started to invest into larger apartment buildings, multi-family. And so that transition from the very beginning is actually the reason why I’m here and I created all that freedom because I feel that there’s a lot of different strategies that you can apply in real estate, but there’s only one real true strategy and it’s like larger.

commercial assets like apartment buildings, plazas, hotels. When you read about the wealthiest people in the world, these are the type of asset classes that they own. Now for the other ones like hotels, office space, industrial storage, just for me, it just felt like there was a level of exposure and that’s just a personal opinion. I just chose apartment buildings because I know at the very core,

people will always have to live somewhere. And so that reduces the exposure to risk and that we can build a portfolio that’s really scalable. And so that’s kind of what, that’s what I knew in my heart. then I transitioned into teaching people that. And so I’ve taught thousands of people to create that time freedom. That’s what I’m about. I’m about creating time freedom in your life.

Cody Crabb (12:59)
Yeah.

Alfonso Cuadra (12:59)
I don’t want to help you buy another Ferrari, another super yacht, even though those things are fine, but I feel that I can serve more if I could just create time in your life for you to do whatever it is that you want to do in your life. That’s more valuable.

Cody Crabb (13:14)
Yeah, wow, I mean,

that sounds, it sounds pretty good to me, to be honest. Yeah, that sounds great. So, just out of curiosity, I’m sure you see a lot of people going through this, kind of starting out, and I mean, as a person in your position, I’m sure you see kind of the start a lot, like a lot of people that are trying to get into it. What separates the ones who actually succeed from the ones who stay kind of stuck or end up quitting part way through?

Alfonso Cuadra (13:38)
Yeah,

you know, there’s different levels, right? So at the surface level, there may be a level of interest in real estate. Someone mentions it. I think the majority of the population knows there’s some level of wealth building through real estate.

Some people may even go to the next level, getting information, right? So they’ll listen to podcasts like Real Estate Pros. They’ll maybe become a, read a book, maybe go on a YouTube video here and there, chat GBT, get information on Google. And…

And that’s good, that’s the information stage, right? Then the next step is like people will get some level of education and maybe they’ll join courses and online courses and you know, some people stay at that education phase for a very long time. The next step is commitment.

Okay, you had the interest information in education, but can you commit yourself? And I think 96 % of the people after getting all the information in education can commit at some level.

Maybe they join the investor fuel community. Maybe they join other communities. Maybe they join the Wealth Genius community. I mean, there’s so much out there. And I would say 96 % of the people can make a commitment. Anybody can commit to a job. They go there nine to five and they’ll be there on time and you present your work. But that commitment is actually tricky because people feel that that’s enough.

Cody Crabb (15:55)
Hmm.

Alfonso Cuadra (15:55)
That’s

not enough. There has to be another level, and that’s determination and obsession. And that is what differentiates the 4 % of the people out there that are actually executing high-level achievers versus 96 % of the people out there. If we take things like in terms of the NBA, 96 % of the players…

Cody Crabb (16:11)
Mm-hmm.

Alfonso Cuadra (16:17)
They’re committed. mean, you get a big contract, multi-million dollar contract. You will do what you have to do, make sure you get paid. Kobe Bryant would show up before the practice to practice before the practice, right? That’s a level of obsession that…

Cody Crabb (16:30)
you

Alfonso Cuadra (16:32)
not many people, that goes above commitment, right? That’s a determination and obsession that you have a dedication to, you know, making yourself better and getting the results. And so…

Cody Crabb (16:44)
Well, the word obsession specifically implies

that it’s like you can’t imagine doing it any other way. Like that is just in your bones. That’s what you have to do.

Alfonso Cuadra (16:51)
Exactly. Yeah.

I’ve yet to meet anybody that has been determined and obsessed in achieving something that hasn’t gotten there. And so the question, Cody, was why don’t many people, you know…

Cody Crabb (16:59)
That’s a good point.

Alfonso Cuadra (17:06)
Why aren’t many people successful in real estate, even though they start or whether they give up? The reason is they never get to that determination and obsession. What does determination mean? Willing to do what you have to do, when you have to do it, no questions asked. That is a level of determination that not a lot of other people have. And so how do you get there? You have to understand why. It has to be a priority, it has to be important, and you have to have a powerful why. And so that was, you know,

going back to my story, my daughter being born gave me a level of determination and obsession that you cannot deny me. Like, I was gonna be successful no matter what for that little girl, right? And so that why, even though it sounds like cliche in many ways because a lot of successful people talk about it, but there’s a reason why they talk about it, Cody. It’s because that is what…

Cody Crabb (17:57)
Yeah.

Alfonso Cuadra (18:00)
what changes everything. You go from commitment to obsessed, you’re gonna be the best in whatever it is that you’re trying to accomplish.

Cody Crabb (18:07)
Yeah, I love that. I think that’s such a good point. And I think you’re right. It is a little cliche, but like cliches are usually cliche because they have a lot of truth in them. ⁓ yeah, think so one thing that, you know, I think you create a lot of value for people in a lot of ways. And I think how much is

Alfonso Cuadra (18:17)
Yeah.

Cody Crabb (18:27)
How much of someone’s success is strategy and knowledge? And how much of it is like who you surround yourself with? Because you mentioned these masterminds are so important and not masterminds specifically, but just being in a network of people that really know what they’re doing. So which one is it? Is it knowing your stuff and having a strategy or is it surrounding yourself with those type of people?

Alfonso Cuadra (18:41)
Yeah. Yeah.

Well, knowledge alone is kind of useless if it’s not put to use. I if it was just about knowledge, we have it. mean, Google, Chad GBT, YouTube University, you know, if it’s just about knowledge, we’d all have six packs and we’d all be billionaires, you know? It’s applied knowledge that makes all the difference. And, you know, the context of how to use the knowledge.

Cody Crabb (18:53)
It’s true. Yeah.

Yeah, good point.

Alfonso Cuadra (19:17)
Chacha B.T. can tell you how to do, you know, A, But context means when you’re talking to someone that has done it, ⁓ yes, technically it should be A, C, but if you plan C first, then A and B become a lot easier. You see, this is context. This is now, you’re tapping into experience. And so…

Cody Crabb (19:38)
Yeah.

Alfonso Cuadra (19:39)
You can’t get that from AI or chat GBT because they don’t have the nuances that they need, that people need in order to be successful. And so that’s a key component of a community or being around people that are like-minded. What happens is you start getting more of the context and, for example, you’re in a community of people transacting and doing deals and someone says, well, you know what, why don’t you come along?

Come along. Just come along. I’m looking at a property next Friday, right? That’s what happens when you join a community. know, okay, I’m doing this next Friday. Come along. And then you join that person. If you’re a newbie, all of a sudden you get access to look at something from a perspective of someone that’s been doing it for five years, right? That’s context. Content alone is useless, right? And we can listen to as much podcasts and read books.

Cody Crabb (20:10)
Yeah.

Yeah.

Alfonso Cuadra (20:31)
content. But if you have no context and that’s what happens with the community. you surround yourself around people that are actively doing something, you’re going to build context and that context and content together build confidence in doing. And that’s the biggest reward. When you start doing stuff, you’re going to get results. That’s how it works.

Cody Crabb (20:56)
Yeah, think that that’s, yeah, I mean, you just said it all there. I love that. Okay, so ⁓ at your level now, I mean, you’re at a level now where people dream about and they put pictures on their vision board of it and this is like all they want in their whole life. And like you said, it takes this obsession, like you said. As you’ve grown, ⁓ what has been harder

than most people expect in somewhere. So I guess my real question is, what have you found more difficult than you expected along your journey?

Alfonso Cuadra (21:31)
Good question, Cody. This is a really great question. You know, the obsession is not, it doesn’t work if it’s just short term, right?

Obsession for me has to keep going and so you need to find new ways of getting excited about the same subject. It’s like a new, for example, I went from value add deals to construction, building, building apartment buildings. So I went from existing apartment buildings to building my own apartment buildings. And so that sparked a whole new…

excitement and obsession, right, of learning something new. So as you’re climbing the ladder, you’re going to find out that when you get to the top, you still have more to go. And so how do you continue to better your best? Because if you lose that obsession and determination, then you fall back to being average.

You know, like what keeps LeBron James still pursuing greatness at 42 years old, right? In his 22nd season of the NBA. You have to find new objectives. You always have to be challenging yourself. And so that’s what I found that was, I didn’t know. I thought when I got there, that would be it. But it turns out that if you’re not growing, you’re dying.

Cody Crabb (22:38)
Yeah.

You’re done, yeah.

Alfonso Cuadra (22:53)
And so once you get there and you feel like, okay, I’m here and you take a deep breath and like, my God, this is amazing. Smell the roses, like they say. All of a sudden you’re going backwards.

Cody Crabb (23:06)
Yeah,

well and I think that right there should be, if you’re not growing you’re dying, that’s gonna stick with me. If you’re not growing you’re dying. If you’ve truly made it, I think what that means, could be so different for so many people. And some people are just like, I just wanna retire when I’m 20 or something or 30. But to some people it’s just like,

Alfonso Cuadra (23:13)
Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Cody Crabb (23:30)
having a comfortable life and it just depends, know, success depends on everybody else, not on everybody else, it depends on yourself, it doesn’t depend on everybody else. So it sounds interesting because it sounds like growth for you is partly about like scale but also like staying challenged. Like it kind of sounds like, do you find yourself taking on projects like just to see if you can do it at this point?

Alfonso Cuadra (23:51)
Yeah, yeah.

You know, like I have this philosophy of expansion and you’re either expanding or you’re contracting, but you’re not doing both. And if you’re contracting, then you’ve become a spectator, you know, during times of turbulence and any time of where you have economic downturns or recessions, depressions, COVIDs, whatever it is.

know, people become spectators. They freeze, right? And they watch everybody else take action. You know, when you look at a football game, you got 60,000 people in the stands, but only 40 people play in the game. And so…

Do you want to be a spectator or do you want to be the person on the field taking action? And so I’ve always been that person. Like when I feel myself contracting in a way, I need to shake things up and then now set huge massive goals. Think about Elon Musk. He has a goal of putting 200,000 people on Mars, right?

He’s busy for a while, right? Like he’s going to be pursuing something, he’s obsessive over something, he’s going to execute on it. I mean, that is something to keep you going for a very long time, right? The goal is so massive and so like crazy that he just might do it.

Cody Crabb (25:08)
Yeah, the B-Hag. Have you heard the B-Hag? The big hairy, audacious goal. You make a goal that, yeah, it’s scary and it sounds impossible and, you know, that’s, I think that’s…

Alfonso Cuadra (25:11)
Yes.

Those are the things that drive me, right? So, you know, I came to North America, you know, my mom had 30 bucks in her purse. We lived on social housing. I lived on the streets, right? I was lost and destitute, teenage parent, you know? And so I think I deserve, I deserve it to myself to see how far I can take it. And, you know, I think that that’s that level of excitement in my life.

Cody Crabb (25:19)
Yeah.

Alfonso Cuadra (25:43)
are the things that are gonna fuel me to go continue moving forward and challenging myself. It’s not about the money because I mean after, you you can only drive one Ferrari or two Ferraris at a time. you know, at the end of the day, like what is your mind, life mean to you? And what do want people to say about you in that eulogy, you know?

Cody Crabb (25:55)
Yeah.

Wow, yeah, that’s a really good way to frame it. So I gotta ask you this then. So where are you most intentionally shaking things up in your business? What’s a big goal that you’ve got right now that you’re pushing toward?

Alfonso Cuadra (26:20)
Well, currently I’m building, but I’m building those, I build like two or three story walk-ups, maybe four stories stick build. And that’s kind of my entry into construction. I mean, the things that really get me going is like concrete and steel. When you see those, you know, 30 floor apartment buildings, I mean, those are the…

Those are the things that really, like, when I look at that, I’m like, yes, I’m going there, right? And so those are the crazy, crazy goals that I think about.

Cody Crabb (26:55)
Yeah, I think when you have a goal like that, think, I mean, it’s the, you know, the saying, shoot for the moon, because even if you miss, you’ll end up amongst the stars. So like, maybe you won’t get that, maybe you won’t achieve that, but you will get way further than you would have if you just aimed upward, you know?

Alfonso Cuadra (27:12)
And there’s something about just having a target for something that you can pursue and then you can adjust on the way. So if you’re achieving all of your goals, you’re aiming too low. The objective of having a big, audacious goal, what was it called again?

Cody Crabb (27:30)
Yeah, BHAG, it’s

the Big Hairy Audacious Goal.

Alfonso Cuadra (27:34)
Big Harry out there. I don’t know about Harry, it’s like a big something that is going to challenge you.

The real gift, Cody, is not the goal itself. It’s the person that you become on the way to achieving that goal. That’s more valuable than the actual goal. And so, you know, for me, it’s like,

I’m continuing to improve myself, I’m continuing to grow. The person I am today, if you were to tap me on the shoulder at 15 years old when I was sleeping on the streets, you’d say, you know what, one day you’re gonna be speaking in front of thousands of people,

helping thousands of people, you’d have this multi-million dollar portfolio. I would say, you’re crazy, how? I would not even be able to tell you. But now being here, what I’m most proud of is the person that I’ve become.

Not the stuff, not the things. And so that’s the value of pursuing something larger than yourself or something that seems unattainable is that on the way there, you are becoming someone and that is more valuable than any goal.

Cody Crabb (28:33)
Wow, I love that. Yeah, I think the journey itself is oftentimes where things are great, where we improve. So just a couple more questions here as we finish off. So you’re pursuing that next level. I what do you feel like has to, I love to kind of put these in concrete terms, no pun intended, to make people think about like what would they maybe have to do at their level. So.

You know, you’re pursuing this next level, starting with these walk-ups, you want to kind of expand eventually, I’m going to do these big, giant skyscrapers and stuff. What do you feel like has to change for you to go from one to the other?

Alfonso Cuadra (29:08)
I gotta surround myself with people that are doing that, number one. Number two, I need to attract a partner that is strong in that field. So, you when I entered construction, I actually partnered with someone that is already doing construction. And…

I was able to tap into that experience because I’m not a construction guy. so there’s certain things I bring to the table, but that expertise, you can’t learn that overnight. then create the vehicles and the investors that are going to bring me to that type of project.

Cody Crabb (29:51)
Yeah, think relying on just yourself can only get you so far sometimes. know, being able to rely on some other experts and bringing people that know what they’re doing can make all the difference sometimes. Well, thanks so much for all that you’ve given us today, Alfonso. Your story is amazing. It’s been really great to talk to you. Just a couple more things here. So first of all, if people want to learn more about

Alfonso Cuadra (30:04)
Yeah.

Cody Crabb (30:12)
your education platform if they want to get in touch with you, if they want to just learn more about you, where should they go online to do that?

Alfonso Cuadra (30:19)
Well, the two easiest ways is number one, find me on Instagram, at Alfonso Quadra, all right? So that’s number one. And just make sure that it’s a real account. I counted yesterday, there’s like 15 fake accounts, okay? yeah, so just make sure it’s a real account.

Cody Crabb (30:38)
Well, that’s how you you made it when someone’s trying to pretend to be you, yeah.

Alfonso Cuadra (30:45)
and you probably see by the activity or what not. Just make sure it’s a real account. Maybe you can send me a message, okay? Just say, I found you an investor, fuel, real estate pros, and if you follow me, I’ll you back. The second one is my YouTube channel. So go on YouTube, Alfonso Cuadra, and you get to kind of follow along.

And you get to see what I’m doing and anything I have to say on there resonates with you guys Send me a DM and let’s connect. The third one is alfonsocuadra.com or wealthgenius.ai

Cody Crabb (31:19)
Awesome, wealthgenius.ai, alfonsocuadra.com Thanks so much, we’ll put those in the show notes, we’ll make sure people have access to that. Thanks so much for coming on today and for giving us your perspective and I think we got some really good stuff today. If you liked what you heard today, listeners, please go ahead and hit subscribe on the channel so you don’t miss an episode. And until then, we’ll see you next time. Take care.