OfflineHello! And thanks for taking the time to find out a little about me.
First, I'm fresh from my Buying Summit and I'm really a happy camper. Not only was I able to purchase 10 tax liens (twice what I thought I would be able to do), but I also got good terms that allowed me to start my asset protection efforts?
Why is the asset protection important to me?
It helps to know where I've been.
Short story follows, and it also includes my 7th level Why...
First, I'm retired military, service-disabled vet, former defense contractor employee, former business owner, and current government employee. I served my full 20 years and retired as a Lieutenant Colonel in 1995; I picked up a few souvenirs while serving our country and so I'm a disabled veteran, as well. As a defense contractor and business owner, I provided analysis, systems engineering, test support, and software development support to my brothers and sisters in uniform, and so I was still serving our country.
About 5 years ago at the age of 55 I got an offer to become a government employee, and I took it for the job security government employment offered. I figured the job was relatively secure, and I KNEW that given the state of the economy, many defense contractor jobs would disappear.
Turns out I was right on the second count, but DEAD WRONG on the first (the part about job security). The company that I was working for 5 years ago suddenly released everyone that was on the contract at that time (8 people). In almost 4 years of defense and government-related work, I had never seen a company treat its employees so callously. So it was a good thing I moved to the government from that perspective.
Unfortunately, as a government employee I've been furloughed (for 7 weeks); I've found myself and my team constantly threatened by the management team that oversees us out of the Aberdeen Proving Ground area; and I've seen people forced to work overtime, but then be punished for asking for overtime pay.
So for me, the writing is on the wall. I need an exit strategy from the government - one that will allow me to continue to provide for my three step children (I'm a single parent, too! My kids three tremendous step children, ages 11, 14, and 18, all take care of me, and I take care of them too.
That's why I'm here. I'm a great student and a shaker a mover when I find the niche that suits me.
I think real estate IS that niche.
So...as to my 7th level of "why-dim"
I retired in 1995 after honorable serving my country for 20 years. It was a successful career. Not only did I make it to Lieutenant Colonel, I had a Master's Degree in Physics from MIT, I had successfully completed and received credit for the Department of Defense's Program Management school (I high-intensity, graduate-level management course) and I had successfully managed many programs during my career.
So, as a contractor, I was flying home following a visit to the Pentagon in 1996. I was sitting next to a woman about my age and we were talking. During the course of our conversation, we both talked about what we were doing and where we had been. After I finished my little tale, she asked a series of questions that seemed to burn themselves into my soul:
"So, with all the things you've done and with all your degrees, the only thing you REALLY know how to do is work for the Army?
Is that the very best you can do?
What about your family?
Do you expect them to continue to make the same sacrifices they did when you were a soldier?"
Given where I am now (with the furloughs and the job turbulence, I've been thinking back on that exchange.
I'm a little late getting started, but I need to prove that I can do more than just work for the Army. I've given that institution 38 years of my life, I've sacrificed a lot, and I've asked my loved ones to sacrifice too.
It's time to stop that.
It's time to get out of that rut and move in a new direction where I and my family will not be at the mercy of nameless (and useless) bureaucrats; where we won't have to worry if our so-called "leaders" in Washington will ever stop thinking about themselves and start thinking about the people they are supposed to represent.
I've done enough for others and for faceless institutions that don't really give a damn about me.
So...It's my time now.
That's my big WHY Dean.