Finding That Passion for Living
October 22, 2023 by MarkHaroldsen
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Last week I started telling you the story of my life. I wanted you to see how setting big goals started me off on the path that I am on even today. So here is the rest of my story with a little bit more about what I’ve done and how having big goals that keep me excited and challenged led to much of my success.
For one, I worked on bigger and bigger real estate investment deals. My work in the development side of real estate has been among my most profitable endeavors. I successfully developed large condominium complexes in Pennsylvania and Mississippi. I completed a 13-acre commercial development in the south part of the Salt Lake valley and a very successful condominium project on the beautiful North Shore of Kauai. Although I am less involved in real estate development today, I still have a few projects going with much of the work handed off to my children.
After finding success in real estate, I knew I wanted to something else big and something that could help others find the kind of success I did. So, I eventually developed and successfully ran a real estate investing seminar company that would set the standard for real estate investing seminars, conventions, and educational retreats throughout the world.
I not only became extremely successful in my seminar business and as a real estate investor, but I also got into writing books. I am now the author of four books on real estate investing including the book titled, How to Wake Up the Financial Genius Inside You, which has sold over two million copies. I also published the Financial Freedom Report, a real estate investing magazine, for over 20 years. Then after my so-called retirement, I published another book called, How to IGNITE Your Passion for Living. It wasn’t about real estate but instead I wrote about what keeps us chasing those dreams and those big goals.
You see, after I tried to retire, I felt very lost and depressed. It was then that I realized we human beings need to do more than just have one or two big goals to go after and to succeed at to be happy. We need to have something to work towards, something to keep us challenged and purposeful. So, I wrote that book and started this blog and I keep creating big goals like keeping myself super healthy and active.
I have also learned to balance my life with my many passions. I love to travel, having visited well over 100 countries. I still love to write which is why I keep this blog going. I also love tennis and getting out to see my friends. All these passions are surpassed only by my devotion to my wonderful wife, Kimberly, and to my children and grandchildren.
So, as you see, I have kept my life full of things that I can work on and challenge myself with as well as enjoy. We need to always have a goal and a purpose and, especially, a passion for living.
Living Large Despite Failing
April 17, 2022 by MarkHaroldsen
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Back in 2015, Mitt Romney, the 2012 GOP candidate for President, made some powerful comments to graduating students at Utah Valley University. He advised the students he spoke in front of “to experience a fulfilling, purposeful life.†He called that living “a large lifeâ€. What great advice. We all need to go out and live large, not just when we’re young, but throughout our entire lives.
However, people often hesitate to live large. Why? Because most of the time, they fear their potential failure.
“Failures don’t have to define who you are,†Romney said in that same speech. “Through all my occupations, I have experienced successes and failures. I am asked what it felt like to lose to President Obama. Well, not as good as winning. Failures aren’t fun, but they are inevitable.â€
The thing about failures is that they come hand in hand with success. It seems to me, from my experience, that the number of failures I’ve had is in direct proportion to how large I’ve tried to live. So, yes, I’ve had a ton of failures, but some of those have led to some huge successes. And the reason for those successes was that I learned so much from my failures.
I remember one huge loss that I learned a valuable lesson from that then led me to some very, very large successes. I had decided to lend a large amount of money using a restaurant as collateral. Big mistake on my part! Why? Because I don’t know much about that kind of business, so if it failed, I certainly wouldn’t know how to run it. And guess what? It did fail, and I lost almost all of what I had loaned.
What did I learn? Well, first I found out that restaurants have a very high rate of failure and, second, I learned that I shouldn’t stray from what I know best. Not that I shouldn’t ever loan money, but if I do, I should loan it on assets that I understand as well as being on improved real estate which, ideally, would also be income producing.
With those guidelines in mind, I forged ahead and made many millions of dollars’ worth of loans that were backed up by more familiar types of real estate. Those ventures were largely very successful. Later, I discovered that I could do even better by owning the right kind of income-producing properties. I also, very successfully, ventured into the development of condos and warehouses, where the profits were even bigger. Those did come with increased risks, but they were risks I was willing to take because I knew enough to be comfortable with those types of properties. Much, if not most, of the success I had in those ventures came from lessons learned from my failures and my efforts to live large.
Now, living large for you may not be about investing in real estate. It will mean different things to different people, but keep in mind that the term refers to more than making money. As Romney says, it’s about “expanding your world and engaging in your world, constantly learning, nourishing friendships, overcoming reversals and servicing others.†In other words, there are plenty of opportunities for you to live large in a way that is meaningful to you and boosts your life and the life of those around you.
So, what are you doing, or will do, to live large and take your life to the next level?
Money Can Buy You Novelty
August 17, 2018 by MarkHaroldsen
Filed under blog
If you Google “Ignite My Life Now”, you will see “Investing in Real Estate” as part of the headline, so some people might wonder if this blog is about investing in real estate or igniting your life. I certainly believe that investing in real estate and making lots of money does not necessarily ignite a person’s life, even if real estate investing yields millions and millions of dollars for that person. I clearly remember thinking, when I was young and didn’t have much money, that once I made a million dollars, my world would be perfect and I would be totally satisfied, content, and happy. I imagined that my life would be totally ignited.
However, when I arrived at my first million-dollar net worth goal, I was surprised and disappointed that I didn’t feel much better, so I figured I had to make another million or two, then I would be totally set in the departments of contentment, happiness and fulfillment. I was certain that my world would be pretty much ignited and perfect then. But surprise, surprise … when I arrived at my new goal my life still didn’t seem to be ignited.
I looked deeper and deeper to try to discover what the real key to fulfillment, contentment, and happiness in a person’s life was and whether money could play a part. As it turns out, there is a lot that goes into having a content, fulfilled, and happy life and, yes, money can be a part of that.
We all know that love and loving relationships with other people – a spouse, friends, children and others – lifts the happiness factor as does setting goals and reaching them. It also has been proven that unique and novel experiences can revitalize a person’s mind by boosting a brain chemical called dopamine, which makes you feel so very happy. But, what about money? What part can it play in lifting our contentment and happiness factors?
What I have found is that money by itself does not make a person much happier than when they did not have it. It can, however, buy more possibilities in a person’s world. You see, our brains want novelty and money can give you more time and resources to carefully and creatively design and go after these novel experiences. This is one of the best uses of your money.
I’ll never forget all the totally unique and novel experiences I had when my wife and I went around the world in 28 days, visiting dozens of new and different countries with so many totally different life styles, houses, huge castles, small villages and fascinating people of different cultures, religions and habits. On a smaller scale but also quite stimulating for the mind, is being in places like I am now.
As I write this blog I am sitting in a marvelous,  multi-story “cabin” in beautiful Big Sky, Montana, totally enjoying this very unique and novel place with most of my kids and grandkids. Ok, yes, I’m working, writing this blog as the some of the kids are running about, visiting Yellowstone, looking to go tubing, or taking the chairlift to the top of the mountain. But none of this would be happening if I hadn’t invested in the good ole real estate stuff and make some good money at it.
The big bonus to making money on my investments was that I really did enjoy the work and I got a ton of contentment along the way as I worked through each deal. I even broke a sweat back in the days when I did much of the hard labor to repair and fix houses and apartment buildings in order to increase their value. I’m not saying that I’ve always been perfectly happy and content, but I am saying that money has opened a much wider world for novel and unique experiences that have greatly enhanced and lifted my world.