Sometimes I get the darndest questions!

Someone wrote the me other day and asked my where
I got the complimentary closing I use on many of
my emails.

Just in case you don’t recall, it says

“Be Happy, Take Chances, Live Life Fully!”

Well, Jim, I didn’t get it anywhere, I just
kinda “thunk it up” one day while I was daydreaming.

Jim went on to ask me about the “Be Happy” part.

He said that was easy for me to be happy because I
had the “stuff” that makes people happy…a great
marriage, good friends, a successful business, a nice
house, a new car and on and on.

When I wrote back to Jim, here’s what I had to say.

“I am happy because I choose to be happy!”

Yep, I believe happiness is a choice that each
of us makes daily.

I believe when you get up each morning you can
elect to dwell on your life challenges or you
can focus on the good stuff.

Either way, you get to choose.

You also get to choose your attitude for that
day……some choose happy, some choose not happy.

You see, I believe it’s not your circumstances that
make you happy or unhappy but merely how you elect
to react to those circumstances.

I’ll bet there’s not one of you reading this mail
that has not encountered a person with some sort
challenge, physical or mental, that appears very,
very happy….and you have silently wondered…..

“How can they be so happy?”

Let me give you an example of why I feel happiness
is a choice.

The other night, The Darling Bride, Sharon and I were
watching a TV show called “The Biggest Loser”.

Since I am pretty sure most of you know the premise,
I’ll not go into it.

At the end where they weigh to chart their progress,
one of the women lost 4 pounds for the week and she
decided to show her unhappiness at her…..

FABULOUS PROGRESS!

Now any of you who battles the bulge like I do,
knows that losing 4 pounds in one week is

FABULOUS PROGRESS!!!

But this lady elected to show anger instead of
gratitude.

Heck, I’d have been doing back flips over two pounds.

So why did this woman elect to be unhappy?

Because she was measuring her progress against a
preconceived notion or against someone else’s results.

She didn’t measure up to someone else’s standards.

Someone else thought she should have lost 10 pounds
so her measly 4 wasn’t good enough.

INCREDIBLE!

But you and I do the same thing all the time.

One of my friends, Kevin has a huge, huge online
business.

He makes more in one month that most families
make in two years.

Every once in a while, I’ll catch my self talk thinking
enviously about his business.

Then I slap my own face and remind myself I’m pretty
well off.

Stop whining Ronbo!

So what does this have to do with Real Estate
investing?

I think it has EVERYTHING to do with your long
term success or failure.

Here’s my thinking.

Each and everyone of you who have purchased some of
my materials has got the very same thing.

Most of you have read what you have received. (notice
I said “most”).

Some of you have gone back and read the material again.

Some of you have actually gone to the court house and
discovered what I told you is 100% correct.

Then some of those have actually started mailing letters
and following up with phone calls……and visiting PR’s
…..and making offers…. and buying houses…..and
finally

MAKING MONEY.

But some of you fell by the wayside somewhere along
the way. You gave up….maybe at step 1….maybe
at step 6. As a matter of fact, let’s change the word
“some” to “many”.

So for those of you who have abandoned this proven
strategy, I want you to ask yourself one question.

“Have I done this before?”

“Am I repeating a pattern?”

Have you started something before that you quickly gave
up on?

Does this look familiar?….Are you unhappy because
you didn’t achieve in the manner you (or someone else)
thought you should?

Are you electing to be unhappy because you have mailed
200 letters and you still don’t have a deal?

Who said 200 letters was the magic number?

That may be someone else’s idea not yours.

So let’s close this lengthy email before I have to
start labeling chapters. Ask you self one easy
question…..

How much would I be wiling to work in 2010 to make an
extra say,$10,000….how about $20,000 or even
$100,000 as one of my students did his first year.

But don’t measure yourself against anyone else.

If you made $40,000 last year, an extra $10K would be
a pretty big bonus, don’t you think?

Do you realize, if you only worked part time of 10 hours
per week and made $10K for the year, that would be a
heckofa part time job!

So I say again

“Be Happy, Take Chances, Live Life Fully!”

Now if I remember correctly, there’ a fancy
treadmill in the garage.

Guess I need one of them “Jillian’s” to yell
and berate me like she does on TV.

Maybe not, I don’t do so good with yellin’!

One of the best things about working in Probate
Real Estate is it’s simplicity. Probate is really,
really simple compared to other investing strategies
I know about.

http://BuyProbateProperty.com

Have you ever tried to put together a short sale?

What is that screaming sound I hear coming out of
Nancy in Florida?

She KNOWS what I’m talking about.

It may be called a “short sale” but trust me it’s
a “long, long list” of things you have to do to get
one done.

Probate doesn’t have loss mitigators.

It doesn’t require bpo’s.

We don’t have to have a stacking order.

All these are just parts of a short sale…..

and this is just the “short” list.

However, Probate does have one unique aspect.

You do have to keep track of the files and all
the letters you mail out.

When you get a call back from a PR saying, “You
still wanna buy my house?” and you don’t have a
clue as to who he is much less the estate he
represents, you could be in trouble.

Now some of you probably have a photographic
memory that remembers every PR you have ever mailed
to but for those of you who are like me and need
to consult your drivers license for the correct
spelling of your last name, you need to have some
way to find his file quickly.

” Hey Bubba, can I call you back tomorrow after I
search through the 147 files I’ve got here on my
desk?”

is not a professional response.

Trust me on this one, I speak from personal
experience.

So when I committed to provide you with
one tool per month to help you prosper with
your Probate RE investing career, creating a
data base for tracking cases was one of my ideas.

Unfortunately, I had one big hurdle to jump.

I can barely spell “data base” much less write one
…….thank you Mr. Gates or whoever, for spell
check!

And as some of you have astutely pointed out in
emails to me, sometimes I ain’t even the World’s
greatest speller!!!

So for me, creating a tracking system is right up
there with creating good tasting fat free pizza…..
way beyond my skill set.

But as I always do, I wrote down my goal of creating
a tracking system and as so often happens in Ron’s
world, the universe answered.

We’re almost done…..

or rather I should say, Chad’s almost done.

He and I have been sending emails back and forth now
for about a month, he creates and I comment from
the cheap seats….what a team!

Hopefully, we will have a working edition ready for
beta testing later this week or early next.

And guess who are going to be my testers?

Remember those seven who attended here in Portland
my first Probate Mastery Course two weeks ago?

Here’s an unadvertised bonus they’re going to
receive.

They’re all going to get a free copy of this new
product to test and keep.

And once we get all the bugs worked out, they’ll
get the “debugged” version also.

So just an extra little benefit that I plan on
giving to all of the attendees who’ve shown their
total commitment to their Probate investing.

Once it’s all said and done, I’ll let everyone
else know how you can get your very own copy.

Speaking of the Mastery Conference, this past
Saturday, I announced the details for our second
one.

If you missed the call, here’s how you can listen
to the replay.

Click on the link below. When the page opens,
you will see a box on the lower right hand side,
“Listen to Recordings”.

Click on that box and fill out the four lines.
When you are asked the conference code, fill in
171942.

The recording you want to listen to is Mastery
Conference #2.

http://Freeconferencecalling.com

And yes, you still can get the airfare credit,
just call The Darling Bride, Sharon and she’ll
fix you up.

503.746.5837

Got to go!

I’m lookin for my drivers license so I can sign
this mail…can’t seem to remember whether Mead
has an e on the end or not!

Oh well, just Ron will do!

The other night, I found myself glued to the TV.

Like many of you, I was watching the Olympics.

Specifically, I was watching the Super Pipe
competition.

WOW! These young kids do some amazing tricks,
don’t they?

Have you seen this 23 year old youngster with the
shocking mane of red hair?

His name is Shaun White and NBC did a short special
on him and the training facility he’s built way
up in the mountains just for his own personal training.

I quickly learned the guy is being paid huge, huge sums
of money by sponsors like Red Bull because he is
REALLY, REALLY GOOD at snow boarding.

HIS JOB IS SNOWBOARDING BOYS AND GIRLS!!!

What most of us pay to do, he gets paid to do!

Why? Because he’s REALLY, REALLY GOOD!

The very next day I was working away at my computer
and my cell phone rang….it was my friend Jeff calling
from Scottsdale.

He wanted to tell me about a change in his schedule and
was wondering if I could still pick him up at the airport.

Before he left, we had a greed to have lunch together when
he got back and this way we could do both.

You see, Jeff gets paid to look at pretty horses,
and by the way the pretty ladies that show them.

Tough duty!

Jeff judges horse shows around the world…South
America, Europe, the Middle East and all around
the US he travels just to look at horses.

Now don’t think I’m selling Jeff short, I’m not…

He’s REALLY, REALLY GOOD at judging horses.

If he wasn’t he wouldn’t get paid like he does.

He earns his money!

Then there’s another friend of mine, Al.

Al became a life insurance salesman when he was very
young…..22 as I recall.

Now as many of you know, selling life insurance is
not every body’s cup of tea. It’s a tough job
especially if you are 22.

But Al got good at it. He got real good at it. He also
started taking courses to become a financial planner.
So about the time he was 35, he had become a Certified
Financial Planner.

That’s a big deal!

Now he’s got clients all over the United States.

Heck, he even has some Hollywood celebrity clients
you would recognize if I could tell you their names.

He’s REALLY, REALLY GOOD at advising folks like you
and me about their finances!

He’s a REALLY, REALLY GOOD financial planner.

Then there’s my buddy, Scott.

Scott thought he had a great job with a big time
corporation that was paying him lot’s and lot’s of money.

Then after three years and two promotions with this company,
his boss called him in one day and gave him the old
“you’re a great employee but we’re downsizing” speech.

Here’s your vacation pay, your Cobra forms and hit the door.

For a year and a half Scott looked for another job.

But times had changed.

Nobody was hiring.

Finally, with $991 left to his name, in desperation
he rolled the dice….literally, it was all in or homeless
next month.

He turned to online poker!

Are you kidding me? Only one in a bazillion can
really make a living at this.

Had he asked me, which he didn’t, I would have told
him he was nuts.

Don’t put at risk the only money you have.

And yes, before you write me,, I have seen the TV
shows with the 23 year old’s making $50,000 in one
hand….but I also know the background info that most
of these guys don’t sustain that and end up broke
or worse.

But my friend Scott, studied and worked at it night
and day…..day and night…he was relentless….18
hours a day, seven days a week…..he was determined
to get good at this.

And now he is.

He’s a REALLY, REALLY GOOD on-line Poker player.

Rumor has it he’s made several million dollars in the
last couple of years.

So what’s your point Ron? Why all the stories?
What do all these guys have in common?

Well, they all got REALLY, REALLY GOOD at something.

One advises folks on money issues, another gets to
snow board all day, another looks at pretty horses.

They took one thing and learned it inside and out.

They worked and worked and worked and over the
years became really, really good.

So what does this have to do with you, you ask?

Each and every one of you are reading this because
you asked me to send you some info on RE investing.

Specifically, Probate Real Estate investing.

Why? I can only assume it’s because you want to
improve your financial well being and you want to
learn from someone who is…..

REALLY, REALLY GOOD at it!

That would be me!

So if YOU too want to be REALLY, REALLY GOOD , I suggest
you set aside 45 minutes this Saturday, Feb 27th at
9AM Pacific, Noon Eastern.

I am going to hold a brief tele-seminar to announce my
next Probate Mastery Conference.

Now if you have been following me, you know we did
our first one just two weeks ago. I think I told you
I had the attendees fill out an anonymous evaluation
form. The last question I asked was to evaluate
the over all VALUE of the whole weekend.

Out of a possible perfect 10, I got a 9.6!

I rest my case!

If you also want to get REALLY, REALLY GOOD,
you need to listen in.

Date: Sat, Feb 27, 2010
Time: Noon Eastern, 9AM Pacific
Ph #: 218.862.1300
Code: 171942

As I have told you, all the seats for the last
Mastery Conference were taken in the first 24
hours and I expect the same for this one so a replay
may not do any good…..we’ll see!

We’ve only got 10 spots.

See you on Sat.

Got to find a tailor who can make me one of those
sharp snow boarding outfits!