Jack Thursday – 5 Rich People Personality Traits (LA 1537)
Jack Thursday – 5 Rich People Personality Traits (LA 1537)
Transcript:
Steven Butala:
Steve and Jill here.
Jill DeWit:
Hello.
Steven Butala:
Welcome to the Land Academy Show, entertaining land investment talk. I’m Steven Jack Butala.
Jill DeWit:
And I’m Jill DeWit, broadcasting from sunny Southern California.
Steven Butala:
Today is Jack Thursday. And I talk about five rich people personality traits. Thursday…
Jill DeWit:
Sounds kind of funny.
Steven Butala:
I get to pick the topic.
Jill DeWit:
Oh. How about Monday through Friday you get to pick the topic? Because that’s really what goes on.
Steven Butala:
I honestly have somewhat of veto power, which I don’t exercise almost ever. But on Thursday, I like to talk about the stuff that I really think matters. Most of the time, it doesn’t have to do with real estate.
Jill DeWit:
Okay.
Steven Butala:
Before we get into it, let’s take a question posted by one of our members on the landinvestors.com online community. It’s free. If you’re already a member of Land Academy, please join us on Discord.
Jill DeWit:
Dallas wrote, “Hi everyone. I’ve a property in escrow. I got a title commitment, but closing is a couple of weeks out. I found a builder looking for lots in this subdivision. Is there any reason I shouldn’t let them take a look at it now? Is it too early to put on my website and market as coming soon or something? It’s my first run-through with all this. So not sure what could go wrong. Just eager to sell and recycle the capital.”
Steven Butala:
I respect that, Jill, this is all you. I know what I would do.
Jill DeWit:
Technically, not supposed to. Unless you want to have some kind of conversation real quick with the seller about it.
Steven Butala:
I think this is a massive opportunity. Everyone loves off-market property. I think you should say, “Look, you didn’t hear this from me. I’ve got a piece of property in escrow.” I thought you were going to fall off the stool.
Jill DeWit:
No, no, no.
Steven Butala:
“I’ve got a piece of property in escrow. It’s due to close any time. It is in the subdivision that you’re interested in and I’m not going to get into it in too much detail because I want to-”
Jill DeWit:
We are saying the same things. We’re not going to give them all the details yet.
Steven Butala:
“Maintain some ethics, but here’s a price range and it’ll be available in two weeks and you have my word you have first crack at it.”
Jill DeWit:
That would be okay with me. I agree with that. See, so as you can see Dallas, he’s not fully disclosing and giving it all out there, but you can start the dialogue like, “I’m buying in this area, please sit tight. And I know you’re looking for what size? Good. I got something coming. I’ll let you know on this day.” So, that’s really the right thing to do. Cause you don’t want to get into a pickle because things could go wrong. That’s the thing. And you don’t want to be collecting money before you own it. Things could go wrong.
Steven Butala:
My experience with builders is that they’re not dealmakers. That’s not why they do stuff.
Jill DeWit:
It’s true.
Steven Butala:
They’re builders.
Jill DeWit:
That’s true.
Steven Butala:
They know about cabinets and framing and probably a little bit about finance.
Jill DeWit:
Contracting.
Steven Butala:
And I also don’t think that they’re left in the world in this business by being dishonest in general. So I don’t think they’re going to go around you or try to figure it out just to save whatever it ends up being 20, $30,000. Hopefully you’re making that much money on it. But I’ll tell you if you manage this relationship right and talk to this person every couple of days and say, “Hey, the escrow is just about to close. I can’t wait to present it,” and just build this trust, you’ll have a customer for life. We have a couple of people in one market where we buy infill lots and dead houses and they can’t wait to talk to Jill.
Jill DeWit:
I do think that, Dallas, what you did was a hundred percent correct. You just had a question about the last piece. “While I’m in escrow and I’m buying this property should I be out kind of seeing who might be my buyer?” Heck yeah. And starting to have that relationship with them and say, “Hey, I got stuff coming.” Heck yes. It’s kind of like I do with agents too, with brokers, like I’ll say, “Hey, you know, here’s an area. What do you think?” Even have them look at properties and then hand it over to them when it’s time and I own it.
Steven Butala:
The rules are very different for licensed real estate agents doing this. There’s recent legislation on it. And the rest of us are just owners. And so owner to owner, I think you can get away with a lot along these lines. But if you’re a licensed agent, you got to be really careful with this kind of stuff.
Jill DeWit:
That’s true.
Steven Butala:
Today’s topic, it’s Jack Thursday, five rich people personality traits. This is why you’re listening. I pulled up this article, or more accurately, Google.
Jill DeWit:
More accurately, I put it in front of me.
Steven Butala:
Google decided I needed to read it. Regardless of my opinion, Google thinks that I’m a retired airline pilot and a licensed real estate agent.
Jill DeWit:
That’s interesting.
Steven Butala:
And so they feed me all this stuff. Who’s thinking about buying an RV.
Jill DeWit:
That’s funny.
Steven Butala:
Just thinks really rich stuff.
Jill DeWit:
Does it think you like puppies too, or Mexican food? What else is there?
Steven Butala:
No. There’s no puppies. There’s no Mexican food. I’ll read you the articles in my Google stream.
Jill DeWit:
What does it think you drink? What does it think your drink of choice is?
Steven Butala:
You could make bajillions of dollars in the lucid stock. This is a 25 year old who earns $4,700 a month in passive income. This is all about it.
Jill DeWit:
My Google doesn’t do that.
Steven Butala:
This is all a Google thing. Things I should read.
Jill DeWit:
Interesting.
Steven Butala:
Key indicators show the housing market’s cooling off. Nine words states to buy an electrical car. Three friends in a truck in Hermosa Beach.
Jill DeWit:
That’s hilarious.
Steven Butala:
Here’s the article we’re going to talk about. Wanting to get rich? Science says people most likely to build wealth possess these personality traits. 2021 Jayco RV review. This is one for Jill.
Jill DeWit:
The moon, we were looking at last night.
Steven Butala:
Don’t miss a strawberry moon.
Jill DeWit:
Yeah.
Steven Butala:
And all kinds of stuff on Excel and electric bikes.
Jill DeWit:
Awesome. It’s got you pretty good.
Steven Butala:
And some things about ammunition and tiny houses. Yeah, they know me.
Jill DeWit:
I like the Ivanka Trump article. Where did that come… Warren Buffett.
Steven Butala:
Warren Buffett resigns from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. Going to read that later.
Jill DeWit:
Yeah.
Steven Butala:
Idaho’s got a drought because too many people are moving in.
Jill DeWit:
Okay. So tell me about this article, this rich people article. Cause I think this is really interesting. I thought it was going to be along… In career path. One of the things that we do with everybody, I’m having to take this kind of a personality test. And it’s interesting to see how many people are like, I know we talked about that before.
Steven Butala:
Cut right to the five. And I would love for you to jump in at any time and make snotty comments if you need to.
Jill DeWit:
Okay, I will.
Steven Butala:
Because some of them are a little [inaudible 00:06:26].
Jill DeWit:
Naughty?
Steven Butala:
Rich people tend to be extroverted.
Jill DeWit:
Isn’t that interesting?
Steven Butala:
Really?
Jill DeWit:
Well, hold on one moment.
Steven Butala:
Name a rich person who’s an introvert.
Jill DeWit:
Well, wasn’t Steve Jobs kind of like not a friendly person? I guess an extrovert’s not necessarily friendly.
Steven Butala:
Extrovert means walk around the room and shake everybody’s hand and laugh and build relationships.
Jill DeWit:
Right. Okay.
Steven Butala:
I think Steve Jobs was a terrible operations person and hated to be there, but he loved the marketing piece and all the other stuff. I’m not a good operations person, honestly. Neither are you. We have people now that do that.
Jill DeWit:
That’s true.
Steven Butala:
We are both extroverted as hell.
Jill DeWit:
That’s true. That is true.
Steven Butala:
Rich people tend to be more conscientious, not a surprise here at all.
Jill DeWit:
I agree.
Steven Butala:
They make smart decisions, delayed gratification, long-term goals.
Jill DeWit:
That’s good.
Steven Butala:
They want everybody to win versus just themselves and on and on. Research. All that. Rich people tend to be more emotionally stable. That’s debatable.
Jill DeWit:
Not with us. Thanks a lot. Back to Steve Jobs.
Steven Butala:
This is an article, by the way, that Psychology Today came out with that Inked Magazine just regurgitated it and made it in a more of an eighth grade level so people like me could read it. Emotionally stable. There’s no place for emotions in business, except when it comes to… when Jill’s out and buying and selling and sellers and stuff, and buyers. But it all comes down to analysis for me. Rich people tend to be less neurotic, less fearful. There’s not much I worry about anymore at all. Do you go to bed worrying about anything?
Jill DeWit:
No.
Steven Butala:
Excellent.
Jill DeWit:
No, you know what?
Steven Butala:
That makes me feel like I’m doing my job right.
Jill DeWit:
You know what’s interesting about that? It’s like, once you get there, you know how to get there and you know you could do it again if you had to. That’s why I don’t worry about it. If it all came crashing down, not that it would, we thought… We talked about this a lot. We thought, oh, when COVID hit, here we go. Here goes our business. Not just selling property, but everything about it, Land Academy and all this stuff, none of that happened. You learn a lot about running businesses and building up things and building teams and all the stuff that goes around that. We could do this again if we had to. Thank you.
Steven Butala:
Number five, rich tend to be more self-centered. None of these are surprising to me. And self-centered, while I think in the title, it’s like, well, yeah, of course that guy is… Like your Steve Jobs thing. Here’s my take on that. I expect a lot on myself. And so how can you do that without being self-centered or slightly self-centered. There’s a point where it goes off an edge where you’re out to get other people.
Jill DeWit:
Now you’re a jerk. You don’t do that.
Steven Butala:
Yes. Yeah. But you got to be a little bit self-centered and how you work is all personal. It is for me anyway. And you’re constantly trying to get to the next level. And so you can’t leave yourself out of that. Does that mean that you need to buy a new sports car every month? No. That’s bad. Self-centered. In my opinion.
Jill DeWit:
That’s funny. Of all the people… I hold myself accountable for more than anybody.
Steven Butala:
Me too, Jill.
Jill DeWit:
Anyone.
Steven Butala:
Including you. I take everything…
Jill DeWit:
You, my staff, if something doesn’t go wrong, I hold myself accountable.
Steven Butala:
Me too. If something goes wrong anywhere, I’m like, all right, how can I get involved? Whether it’s for us or the kids or whatever, or our employees, and change it.
Jill DeWit:
And I make sure it gets done.
Steven Butala:
And I took responsibility for everything.
Jill DeWit:
It’s hard. It’s a lot. It’s a lot. I will make sure it gets done.
Steven Butala:
So I wouldn’t have said self centered. I would have chosen some other adjective, but it’s not my article.
Jill DeWit:
Like what? Like accountable.
Steven Butala:
Accountable. It’s good.
Jill DeWit:
Self-centered, it would probably sell more magazine articles, but I shouldn’t say magazine anymore.
Now I’m going to come up with the five other… wait, magazine. I know you’re so cute. Let’s come up with the radio show guy. This is called the podcast. Okay. Let’s come up with five other rich people personality traits. Number one, they confuse podcasts with the radio. Hello?
Steven Butala:
Well, you give me your five.
Jill DeWit:
They’re not up with the times. Okay. Like, well, hold on. Warren Buffett probably gets his hand on a newspaper. So maybe that is another rich people personality trait. Let’s come up with five more.
Steven Butala:
I can tell you my number one. They didn’t even touch on it.
Jill DeWit:
Number two is, let me think here. These are good. Number two is they love spreading the wealth and treating their friends. That’s true. Like buying drinks for everybody. That happens a lot. It’s a good thing. It’s a positive.
Steven Butala:
Most of our friends, all of our friends are like that.
Jill DeWit:
Yeah. We all take turns.
Steven Butala:
Somebody asked Ross Perot this when he was running for President. What’s the number one trait of a successful person. He didn’t flinch. He said they don’t know when they’re beat.
Jill DeWit:
That’s a good one.
Steven Butala:
We both have that.
Jill DeWit:
Oh, well that’s a good reason.
Steven Butala:
I will not stop until it… I might buy a company, let’s say it’s a pizza company. And then sell it after lost a bunch of money really quickly, due to me, by the way, not anyone else’s error.
Jill DeWit:
Overspending.
Steven Butala:
So that doesn’t mean I quit. It’s not the last company that we’re going to buy or sell. It’s just like, I’m done with that one. Just cut my losses.
Jill DeWit:
So I like your, what was this? What was number three? You just said that we don’t understand when to stop. So I was going to say my parents called that, Jill does not know the meaning of the word no. I was told that at five, I was told that at 15, I was told that at 25. Same sentence and it still applies.
Steven Butala:
You know what? I’ve always known what I wanted and I’ve never wavered from that. And I think so early in my career…
Jill DeWit:
Me too.
Steven Butala:
In my land career, when I was really, I call it that all my friends thought I was a drug dealer cause I had never had a job, never worked, I always had a sports car. That kind of stuff.
Jill DeWit:
But they saw.
Steven Butala:
During that time, I’ve had multiple people walk up to me mostly because I was just behaving like a kid that age with a lot of success, spending a lot of time on a bar stool and just basically having fun, nobody got hurt or anything like that. It’s just a lot of fun. And so they saw me, our friends are like this. They just see me as this derelict idiot who-
Jill DeWit:
That’s number four. Rich people look like derelict idiots on a bar stool.
Steven Butala:
So they walked up to me and they would say some version of this sentence. Why you? Why are you doing well? And I’m not? Like, they’re not asking themselves that. They’re asking me.
Jill DeWit:
To which your reply?
Steven Butala:
How did you do in math in grade school? And they all usually went, [inaudible 00:13:34] I didn’t know math is involved in success.
Jill DeWit:
Give me one more. Let’s have one more before we call this. What’s one more thing that you’ve noticed? I know one. I got one.
Steven Butala:
Yeah I have one too.
Jill DeWit:
They travel in the same circles.
Steven Butala:
Yeah. That’s true. Totally true.
Jill DeWit:
You learn to associate with people who are at your level or above your level and that inspires you and you work harder.
Steven Butala:
Very few people I know who are really successful, own one company. No one’s afraid to fail. When you’re successful and you have that personality type. That’s what this is. It’s personality traits. If I fail at something, I don’t take it personally.
Jill DeWit:
Do it again.
Steven Butala:
I’m not like, oh my God, I’m a failure. No, it’s just like what? I made a terrible decision this month or this year, or this decade, I made a terrible decision, but I’m not stopping. And I’m going to continue to go forward. I also think that if you own a bunch of companies, if somebody owns a couple of companies successfully and they’ve got other people operating them successfully and they join the Land Academy Group and contact me and say, this is my company over here. This is my company over here. I’m tired of the customers. I’m tired of this. I got people to manage it and the cash flows rationally well. And I want to become a Land Academy member and knock it out of the park. There’s like a 95% chance they’re going to kill it.
Jill DeWit:
Yeah. Agreed.
Steven Butala:
But if somebody comes to Land Academy and they say, I’m very, very concerned about whether or not I’m smart enough to do this and I have $25 in my checking account, you can apply the percentages there.
Jill DeWit:
I’m going to say, take a break. Study. So you make sure you do want to do this and save up your money, come at it the right way. We will be here. And I do that all the time and I’m happy you could join us today. Monday through Friday can find us right here on the Land Academy Show.
Steven Butala:
Tomorrow is Jill Friday and she talks about how new members always seem to want to send less mail versus more. You are not alone in your real estate ambition. Really quickly. Why do people want to send less now, versus more? Just tease us a little.
Jill DeWit:
No. I’ll save it for tomorrow. Well, they think that it’s the best way to gauge an area and that’s not correct.
Steven Butala:
We’ll talk about that.
Jill DeWit:
Do you need to send out, speaking of more mail, do you need to send out a few thousand offers to property owners like we do? Check out offers2owners.com. It’s offers, the number two, owners.com. No setup fees, free mail merge, exceptional service, and now providing concierge, data and pricing help. It is awesome. We should know because it’s our company. Give Offers2Owners a call today.
We are Steve and Jill, information and inspiration.
Steven Butala:
We are Steve and Jill information and inspiration to buy undervalued property.
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
If you enjoyed the podcast, please review it in Apple Podcasts . Reviews are incredibly important for rankings on Apple Podcasts. My staff and I read each and every one.
If you have any questions or comments, please feel free to email me directly at steven@BuWit.com.
The BuWit Family of Companies include:
I would like to think it’s entertaining and informative and in the end profitable.
And finally, don’t forget to subscribe to the show on Apple Podcasts.
