Casey Serin and Robert Kiyosaki

This is a truly amazing blog and story. Casey Serin is younger than me--he's 24 and I'm almost 28!!! He has bought several houses. It appears two deals were good, and the others were bad. These houses are available on his website. Casey's blog has his extensive story about how he got in over his head. Here is a recap of his actions covered by an amazing USA Today article. Wow!!

Casey Serin has also had the opportunity to meet Robert Kiyosaki at his Arizona offices! I found these photos from his flickr photostream with a creative commons search.

Even after all that's gone wrong, Serin still has a gutsy 2007 goal--that is, $5000 is positive cashflow by the end of the year! Wow!

Procrastination to Progress Barking Up the Wrong Alley

After playing Robert Kiyosaki's Cashflow 101 Boardgame on Thursday, I finally got it in me to call the owner of the small parcel I was interested in for developing a small house. I had been procrastinating on this task for several months. The conversation was smooth and I realized I had nothing to fear but myself. The seller's response was mostly negative, but at least I found out what he was thinking. Playing on Thursday also motivated me to finally find the specific zoning rules for the zone applicable to the lot. I had the entire zoning ordinance on my computer, but had not yet found the specific rules of this zone. Well, it looks like this lot would be too small to get zoning approval! Even if the zoning was changed to less restrictive zone, developing the house would not be allowed in that zone either!

Well, it took five months of procrastination, and then one hour to make the phone call, get the answer, then find the specific zoning information. I got negative responses for both, but it felt great, because now I know the answer and can move onto something else! It is a task completed, and no longer hanging over me. Contunually playing Cashflow 101 is helping me gently tackle these various steps.

YT, my fellow Cashflow 101 player, noted I obtained information that I was "barking up the wrong alley," which I thought was a great way to look at it, although not completely true. I actually realised I was lying on the sidewalk in front of the alley, sniffing around, but mostly hoping something would pop out of the alley and take charge, or that the pound, humane society, or friendly dog-lover would come and rescue me from the misery of peering into the alley. Finally on Thursday, I went into the alley, and barked. This was a shift from waiting/hoping/yearning for something external to come along and "take care of it" to internally initiated action toward gaining a result. I went from looking at the alley, to finally barking up the alley. The negative response from the seller and the zoning is irrelevant; I needed that information so I can move onto finding other alleys and opportunities. Hopefully, it won't take me five months after finding the alley to bark up it.