The “flip” mentality is everywhere. If you watch television, you’ll see homes being bought, repaired and “flipped” as a business model. If you’re on Instagram, you’ll see software entrepreneurs talking about their “exits”—the sale of their company to a larger one. Even in the fitness industry, I often see posts from gym owners who are trying to sell their business so they can “work on other projects.” But here’s the truth: If the gym is successful, it doesn’t need the owner’s attention or oversight. Profitable gyms don’t require an “exit” to create wealth for the owner. What If Holding Generated Profit? I learned the “buy and hold” strategy from Robert Kiyosaki in his book “Rich Dad Poor Dad.” The idea is so powerful—and so counter-culture—that I keep 20 copies of the book in my office at all times and hand them out to visitors. Here’s the idea, in a nutshell: Buy a building. Rent it out. Profit forever. Simple, right? But look at the math: If you buy a house for $200,000, spend $40,000 on renovations to clean it up and sell it at the top of the market for $275,000, you can earn $35,000. Once. For a ton of effort and risk. What if you don’t sell? What if the renovation costs are higher than expected? What if you actually lose on the deal? It would take at least three successful flips to cover the downside of one bad flip. Conversely, Kiyosaki’s method goes like this: Buy a house for $200,000. Break the mortgage down into the smallest monthly payments possible. Rent it out. Keep collecting rent forever, even when the mortgage is long gone. After reading Kiyosaki’s book, I immediately began planning to buy my first commercial building. Now my buildings pay me over $100,000 per year in rental income—and they’ll continue to do it forever. I don’t have to keep buying and flipping buildings. That’s ...
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