Title: Reicher als die Geissens

Author: Alex Duesseldorf Fischer

Dear all,

I know I have written a book review on this book previously, but since I saw on YouTube that they were offering the book for free (excl. shipping costs) I decided to take the opportunity to acquire a copy for myself.

• FYI, the offer of a free book was real and not a scam 🙂

Another reason I wanted to read the book again (other than reading a book twice/more let’s you discover something you may have overlooked before, and allows you to truly grasp a concept) is because I was looking for alternative asset classes that one should consider for one’s portfolio.

Robert Kiyosaki is famous for saying that a property is not an asset, but a liability because your home does nothing except result in money flowing out of your pocket. That is true, and while you are still new to a city and not sure whether you will settle there one day or not, renting is a good alternative (because you don’t carry the costs when something is damaged in/with the property – unless of course it was cause by you), but eventually you will want to find something that beats paying rising rent prices.

I have read the book once more and have outlined all the valuable lessons for you below, because the book is sadly only printed in German. Nevertheless, that’s where I come in, where I hope you can learn some German wisdom from this property owner.

The book is split into three sections. The main lessons you will learn are 43 and they are contained wholly within part 1 & 2 of this book.

• Part 1 deals with everything to get you into the mindset of a property millionaire/manager
  • It is broken down into 23 components
• Part 2 deals with every tool that you will need to be an effective property manager
  • It is broken down into 20 components
• Part 3 deals with bonus tools that help you to build your first ‘money-machine’ using lessons from part 1 & 2

Part 1, the top mindset must-have’s are detailed to be the following:

1. Know why you want to get a property – Don’t just buy one because everyone is doing it, but consider your goals and personal situation so that you can make a clear and informed decision (i.e. buy for self, buy to hold for resale, buy for letting out, etc.)
2. Reaching your goal does not make you happy – What gets people most excited is the journey that they undertake to achieve a goal. Therefore, when the goal is achieved there’s nothing else to be done. Therefore, be prepared to update your goal as you carry on so that you always work on something that excites you.
3. Strength vs. Creativity – Sometimes using creativity to complete something in a different manner than the most direct way (or traditional way) may deliver greater results. Therefore, do not underestimate the value that creativity may offer.
4. Courage to take action – When faced with uncertainty we choose between two alternatives, a) go back to what we know and don’t take the risk, or b) try something new, even when the consequences are unknown. By taking action outside of our comfort zone we engage the opportunity to explore and learn new things, maybe even find something new that is more fulfilling that the status quo.
5. Benchmarking – For everything we perceive and encounter our brain analyses what we see (reality) to what we hope/expect to find (expectation). This expectation was built around our past experiences and therefore we measure every new encounter against our know past experience, and then we make a judgement call of what is likely to happen next. However, we should not limit ourselves to what we experienced in the past, but be open and willing to try something new and not judge something too early.
6. Happiness is found outside your comfort zone – Within your comfort zone lies everything you have achieved and have control over. You can be comfortable here and not much different happens. This is not where opportunity is to be found, but the status quo. If you step out of your comfort zone you expose yourself to new opportunities and threats.
   • This is usually remember the short part of the one interview in which Elon Musk explains that as a young individual you don’t have the same risk and should explore many different events and activities so that you find those that attract you the most
   • Additionally, what also happens when you go out of your comfort zone is that when you accept and learn from the opportunities outside of your previous circle, you expand it so that your comfort zone becomes enlarged
7. Learning the same language – In order to save a lot of time and trouble in any discussion (be it professional or personal) you should make sure that during the discussion each party understands the same definitions of the words being used. Why? Because if one person understands something in one way, and another person understands it differently, then you may not be able to resolve the problem since you are not comparing apples with apples.
8. Pareto principle – Understand the principle that 80% of the results come from 20% of your time. Therefore, identify which 20% bring those 80% results and reduce the time spent on the other activities, either by automating them or delegating them so that you may focus your time on the most effective activities. Also, by automating or delegating those 80% tasks, you now have time to take on new tasks and identify once again the 20% result brings with the 80% results.
9. Knowing your true purpose/drive/motivation – Some studies find that people who work/live their purpose (and earn a living doing it) have a greater potential of achieving monetary success than those who acquire a skill and then find a job who will pay them to utilize that skill within their firm for a fixed amount. Bringing forth new ideas and then being able to sell them provides an additional means to gain a return than earning a fixed pay.
10. A question of money – Through a job you learn how much you are worth (for your set of skills) within your current environment. The wrong question to ask would be “How can I earn more money?”. The correct question should be “What do I need to deliver to my environment for which they value me much higher?”.
    • You are therefore only paid so much as your environment currently perceives your worth
    • If you change what you deliver to your environment (i.e. not being a consultant, but becoming an influencer with a strong sales personality) then your value to your environment grows and the respective employer/environment will pay you accordingly
11. How to find your purpose – Draw up a list with all the things you don’t like/enjoy (doing/happening). Then, on the opposite side rewrite that list into its positive opposite so that you can identify whether you dislike the task completely or only a minor task of the full activity so that you can reduce/eliminate what you dislike (via automation or delegation) and focus on what you do like
12. Plan you life – If you make time to plan many aspects of your life, you make time for those things that are of benefit to you in the future and reduce the time spent on tasks/thinking that is counterproductive.
    • Thus, knowing well enough what is important to you, and including small steps into your schedule to achieve those steps, you are setting yourself a foundation to achieve your goals
13. Hell yeah or No way – If you have identified multiple properties, classify them (after you have given careful consideration to each) into those that you are excited about and those that feel moderate about. Those for which you are moderate about will require some additional time and consideration, and if you never end up choosing them you have spent a lot of time on coming to these conclusions.
14. Being the businessman of your life – In order to be able to run your business effectively it is suggested that you know what is happening within all the different departments so that you may find synergies that result in the business running smoothly.
    • The same is true for your personal life. You have many different departments in your life, and if you knew and managed these efficiently then your whole personal life could also be run smoothly
    • These departments are:
      • the Board – set down the goals of where you want to go personally
      • the HR department – to reach your goals, remain in contact and acquire contact with those people that are valuable to you
      • the Finance department – to reach your goal, ensure your finances will allow you make the necessary investments (i.e. education, credit worthiness, etc.) when you need to take new steps
      • the Marketing department – being able to approach (i.e. being able to sell) other people and show them your skills that you have to offer in relation to other candidates
      • the Production department – having the necessary skills (i.e. know-how) needed to render certain services
      • the Quality check department – keeping track that the skills held remain relevant, or need to be upskilled in order to improve the quality of the output
      • the Social responsibility department – recognizing the importance of giving back to the community
15. Being a good investor – A crucial skill is to learn to identify what constitutes an investment and what constitutes an expense; together with considering all decisions from this perspective. The objective should be to reduce spending time and money on events and items that are consumed once off and increase those that will bring returns at a future date.
16. Analyze your beliefs – When you grew up you were taught certain beliefs about everything. Those beliefs are the benchmark against which you make future judgements. You need to analyze whether the belief is still appropriate so that you don’t make bad decisions based on faulty/flawed/outdated beliefs
17. Everything is cause and reaction – Know that nothing happens by chance, but there are causes and effects that happen based on our past actions
18. Charisma – Recognize that you can achieve more with the help of others. Therefore, you need to work on being able to communicate and be accepted by others so that one day they might help you where you otherwise lacked the required skills
19. Swimming up the river – For everything we do we allocate some of our energy reserves. When you are doing a task and it is difficult (i.e. you struggle) then you need to allocate more energy. This is where you need to understand whether you are doing the task wrong and what you need to do to use your energy more efficiently/productively.
20. Building instructions for the money magnet – Set up a separate bank account and on a monthly basis you make a deposit of 5% – 10% into that account. You pay yourself first and and only from the remaining amount do you pay everyone else. Do not touch the money in this account and let it grow.
21. A law of money – Have you heard of the Parkinsson law? It refers to the event where when you earn more money you also accumulate more expenses. Therefore, it is best to be aware of your expenses so that when you start earning more money you can allocate some of the additional funds to investments instead of conspicuous consumption.
22. Water spouts and ice bergs – You see water coming from the water spout, however, there is more framework in that background that works in bringing that water to that water spout, which is often overlooked. The lesson is that you should understand the structure that is in place in a business that makes it possible for each person to make money, and that not just a single individual is responsible for all the money coming in. Just as with an ice berg, one trader on Wall Street may be making a large commission, it wouldn’t be possible hadn’t he worked for a company that other investors trust, or working for a company who is allowed to trade in a certain industry due to being in compliance with all relevant laws and regulations that need to be met. Every person in a company does something that allows the person to deliver the work that he is place in.
23. How to become a real pro – There are three rules you need to follow to become a true pro at anything:
    1. Knowing the rules (i.e. laws and regulations) of the game
    2. Applying that knowledge in different aspects of your life, and knowing where to apply it appropriately
    3. Practice it as much as possible so that it becomes part of your subconscious

Part 2, the tools you need to be aware of that are available to you and which you will need to become a more efficient property millionaire/manager:

1. Your tool box – Being aware of:
   1. The tools that you have (i.e. your skills)
   2. How to use those tools (i.e. applying your skills in the appropriate field)
   3. When lacking the required skills, knowing where/who to get to deliver those skills in conjunction to the work that you deliver (i.e. being resourceful and knowing different people who can do things that you cannot do yourself)
2. Knowing the basics of marketing and running a business – In business you constantly need to try and sell your product/service. Therefore, it is vital that you know how to talk to people and sell to them.
   1. People have two motivations: 1) attain happiness, or 2) avoid pain.
   2. When you can find out how you can help them address one of their needs then you need to be able to connect with them so they understand your product/service and why it would be good for them
      1. However, the idea is not to sell something for the commission only and let them be on their own afterwards.
      2. The goal should be to develop a good relationship with them where they value your product/service that will promise future returns for both
   3. The goal of this is not to make assumptions for the customer that you know best for them, but rather to truly understand their situation and you are trying to resolve their problem possibly with something that you have
3. A problem only exists so long until you ask the right question – When you are faced with a problem we try to find a solution to fix the problem. However, sometimes this doesn’t boil down to going deep down to understand what the problem was, but only to plug the holes. Therefore, if you can understand what the root cause is you may avoid other problems sprouting from there in the future.
4. Being honest and authentic – Other people enjoy working with people that are honest with them and not an impersonation that acts differently for a situation.
   1. People attract people – People that only pretend will attract other people that also only pretend.
   2. Therefore, to work with truly honest and authentic people you need to start by reflecting that behaviour first.
5. Choose you team members cautiously – The author takes the illustration from another company, which classifies employees as A (action takers – they take responsibility), B (followers – those who justify the problem) and C (critics or questioners – those who deny the problem was caused by them, but rather someone else). The author will try to only employ A-employees and not C because the A employees will work well with other A employees who are open and honest when they committed a fault and will work to remedy it. Whereas C employees will try and blame others. This in turn will irritate the A employees, who will then leave the firm, leaving the company with B and C employees, possibly even only C employees.
   1. Work with people who visibly want to work
6. Rules and Manners – Having set rules and manners in the workplace will allow others to understand what they can expect when they arrive at work, and whether they can work effectively in such an environment.
7. Goals? – In order to get somewhere we need to clearly define what it is we want to achieve so that we can measure our progress and ultimate result at the end of the timeline.
   1. Goal = the main objective of the company, which in the end can be classified as a Win or Game Over
   2. Purpose = the underlying objectives which give meaning why you wish to achieve the goal
   3. Targets = short term goals that add up to the ultimate goal (i.e. break-down of the goal into smaller parts that are clearly defined and have time frames attached to them)
8. Focus of energy – when you have a goal in mind you should focus all your efforts and energy to do something that will add on to everything else you did/will do to achieve your goal. You will have moments when events divert your attention away from that goal (i.e. school, university, family, friends, parties, medical, etc). However, those events shouldn’t not draw your attention away from your goal for too long. Thus, you need to be aware of your goal, what you need to do for it, and always draw your focus back to it from everything else that you encounter.
   1. This is not to say you should ignore family, friends or others, but that you should keep your priorities in check and re-allocate time for other events so you may accommodate other events, but not give up so much that achieving your goal becomes less probable as a result
9. Pareto applied – Learn to identify those 20%ers that make you 80% of the returns, and reduce those 20%ers (from those 80%) that require require more of your energy than is required.
10. Seven contact rule – You need to be in contact with someone 7 separate times before the business relationship properly can develop.
11. The blind swimmer – When you put in a lot of effort into an activity/event/other and don’t see results you may be prone to give up. However, sometimes when we give up, it is just before we are about to make a break-through. Therefore, you need to redefine the measurement tools you apply to determine whether you are succeeding or failing.
    1. The example he gives is that one property seller constantly falters to make the deal, therefore he believes he is a failure.
    2. Yet, when you look at it differently, he sees that with the first customer he declined to make a property visit. The second one made the property visit but then declined. The third made the property visit, expressed interest in obtaining more information, but then declined. The fourth requested to make an offer, then retracted. The fifth made the offer and then withdrew when they reconsidered the offer. The sixth made the offer and then bought the property.
    3. On the outset, he failed with five customers. But looking at it differently, he failed at a different stage, every stage being closer to making the deal.
12. Building a property team – The goal with your company shouldn’t be to attract the best people only in it for the money. Their sole motivation would be to earn as much as they possibly can. You should define your goal for the company and then attract those people that share in that same goal. People that share in the same goal have a different drive other than money to get things done and have the company succeed.
13. Chairs and machines – One worker can learn to build a chair, and then make a certain amount in 8 hours. He may improve on that as his skills improve, however, there comes a point that he cannot derive more output within those 8 hours. Thus, to make money he needs to focus all his attention to building chairs. To be able to expand he can hire additional staff to take over his labour so he may focus his time elsewhere. Alternatively, he may build a machine that will be able to deliver the output p/hr much faster and more accurately than he would for all output.
    1. Thus, the goal should be to automate those activities that can be automated so you can focus your energy on other tasks that can help you expand and grow
14. Most ideas remain dreams – Dreams are those ideas that are not acted upon. One method that can be applied to bring more action into dreams we have is to create the following for ourselves:
    1. We need someone we are inspired by –> If we see someone that achieved something that we’d like to achieve as well then we are more prone to try and follow in their footsteps
    2. We need very concrete checklists and plans that can be achieved and attained –> We need clear plans that we can follow to achieve activities that build on to our goals
    3. We need a supporting community –> A community that supports us to stay on the path
    4. We require personal mentoring and coaching –> We require a confidant who can criticize and reflect with us on what we are doing
15. Accepting mistakes – Accept that nothing comes from without making mistakes. Therefore, it is best to accept that they will come and then learn from them.
16. Setting priorities
    1. Get comfortable with the fact that there are so many different things we would like to do and get done in life, but that we will never have enough time to get to everything
    2. Therefore, it is important to evaluate all things that are important to you to achieve a desired outcome and focus your energy on those activities that will get you there
17. Discipline – the idea behind discipline is to get the absolute maximum from yourself.
    1. Therefore, the first step is to set a clear goal that you absolutely wish to attain, and always keeping that in mind so you never lose focus
18. With great power comes great responsibility – Keep your focus on the goal and maintain your values to get there. This means you shouldn’t let emotions get the better of you, or do questionable things in the spur of the moment. You should keep a clear course and evaluate everything from your values.
19. Going viral – You go viral when you suggest something to someone else, who then might also suggest it to others. You would like to be associated in a good way, and therefore only suggest that which is of quality. Then, when people get to know you to only suggest quality, they will hold you in higher regard than others that simply suggest products/services for money.
20. Strategy vs. tactic

Part 3, the top bonus tips that are provided to get started are broken down into 23 additional chapters, which I won’t go into further detail here, but can only be used once the 43 lessons above were internalized.

Summary:

Overall, after having read the book for the second time since an extended period since the first read, I had a good opportunity to reflect and realize the true value that some of the techniques in the book provide. The techniques are not limited to use in property ownership, but in different aspects that consider becoming more effective and efficient in your business life.

The book is a must read for those looking into diversifying their asset portfolio by an additional asset class since it may cover some topics that were known to you but not known as valuable before, or even themes that you were unfamiliar with before. For this reason the book will receive one of my rarer 5/5 ratings 🙂 🙂

Best wishes!