Episode 687: How a $5,000 Loan Became a Multi-million Dollar Business /第687集：5000美元貸款如何變成百萬元生意？
第687集：5000美元貸款如何變成百萬元生意？
第687集完整版
Priscilla: 大家好，歡迎回到BNI官方播客。我是Priscilla Rice，我現在從加州伯克利的Live Oak錄音室為您播報。我今天在電話中加入的是BNI的創始人和首席願景官，Dr. Ivan Misner.。你好，Ivan 你好嗎？
Ivan: 我很好，Priscilla ，非常感謝你。所以你在開播時提到的貸款，其實是我收到的一筆學生貸款。所以我想先說一下，在我說別的之前，我想說的是，我要告訴你的關於學生貸款的故事，這是一個--我用學生貸款來支付學費的故事。 所以我沒有用這筆貸款來創業。但我會解釋那筆助學貸款是如何促成一筆數百萬美元的生意的。我之所以這麼做，是因為在播客第456期中，我不經意間說了一句話，我有一個比BNI經營時間更長的生意，是一家房地產投資公司。 而我談過的幾個會員，也有幾個發了帖子--比如說Ben和Carolyn，發了評論說，他們很想听聽我是怎麼開始那個房產或房地產投資公司的。所以這就是今天這個故事。
Priscilla: 好的，太好了。 告訴我們。
Ivan: 所以大多數人都知道我是BNI的創始人。但實際上，在我創辦BNI之前三年，我就創辦了一家物業管理/房地產投資公司。那是1982年 我最近在翻閱我的舊文件 這是在那一集之後，也就是幾週前 我發現了我在研究生院期間借出的學生貸款的書面材料。那是1982年的事。 我曾向南加州大學南卡羅萊納州立大學申請博士學位，我真的很想在那裡攻讀博士學位。 但是我必須弄清楚如果我被接受，該如何付款。 幾年前，我被西方大學錄取為我的學士學位，並為我提供了50％的獎學金去那兒。 但是我負擔不起另外50％的費用，我的家人也負擔不起。 所以我上了社區大學，然後上了州立大學，因為那是我所能承受的。 他們是一所很棒的學校，我很高興我去了，但是我負擔不起私立學校。 儘管我不知道如何為南加州大學的博士課程付費，但我不在乎。 那就是我的目標，即所謂的終極學位或最後學位。 所以我申請了，我被錄取了。 然後，我不得不為他付費。
Priscilla: 了解
Ivan: 現在，我已經收到了幾個小的獎學金， 但我的學費的絕大部分仍然必須由我支付。當時，我在洛杉磯有一份全職工作，但我賺的錢真的不夠支付我的生活費和博士課程。所以我在開始攻讀學位之前，其實還做了另一份工作。我做了另一份工作，我盡可能多的工作時間，所以我可以攢夠錢來支付那個學期的學費。
Priscilla: Wow.
Ivan: 而且，我想說的是，在南加州大學一個學期的花費比我整個學士學位的花費還要多。所以，一個學期是超過四年的大學 在社區大學和州立大學。但這是我的願景，這是我想要的。 因此，同時，我申請了5000元的助學貸款，以幫助我支付我夢想中的大學，我的目標的一個學期的學費。事情是，我不知道我是否會得到貸款，因為我以前從來沒有做過。 但是我申請了，並且我同時努力賺錢，以防萬一我沒有得到貸款，並且我想出了下個學期該怎麼辦，如果我沒有，我會付清這筆錢。 不能得到貸款。 幾個月後，就在我準備開始南加州大學之前，我被批准了學生貸款。 事情是，我還從我的額外工作中節省了5000美元，以支付大部分的學費，以防我沒有被批准。於是，我就在那裡，我的銀行有5000美元的現金，還有5000美元可以用來申請學生貸款。我應該怎麼做？我應該用這5000元現金來支付學費嗎？還是我應該接受那筆低息助學貸款，然後將現金進行投資？ 那一直是我的願景，我會投資。 我不會出去買輛新車，也不會做任何事來騙掉這5,000美元。 因此，對我而言，這就像是一份禮物。 我有5,000美元，而且有這筆貸款。 所以我知道我不能在接下來的幾年裡，繼續瘋狂的長時間工作，繼續支付大學的學費，打兩份工，再加上全職上學，全職讀博士。所以我決定接受低息貸款。而我用我賺到的5000元現金，把它用於支付一套公寓的首付，這就是我的房地產投資公司的開始。
Priscilla: 了解
Ivan: 說吧 你剛才想說什麼？
Priscilla: 好吧，您是否將這筆定金放在公寓上，然後租了下來？ 你是這樣做的嗎？
Ivan: 我一開始做不到。我在裡面住了兩年左右。差不多三年，那是82年底，到84年底。是的，是兩年。到84年年底，我買了一套房子。那是我開始做BNI時的房子。
Priscilla: 了解
Ivan: 而我保留了這棟公寓。所以到了1984年，從技術上講，84年是我開始做物業管理生意的時候，或者說是房地產投資生意的時候，但是我的第一筆房地產投資就是這個公寓。到了84年，我把公寓租出去了，我住在另一個家裡。這套房子就是我開始BNI的那套房子。這有意義嗎？
Ivan: 好吧，所以那套公寓是我的第一套；我曾計劃持有這套公寓，然後把它租出去。那是我的第一筆房地產投資，我在82年買的，84年開始出租。這就是我的投資房產業務之旅的開始。 現在，您看到了，幾年後，我翻轉了該公寓，以便在山上建造更大的房子。 在美國，在美國境外這可能沒有意義，但是在美國，有一種稱為1031交易所的交易，您可以出於稅收目的出售房屋，購買另一所房屋而不支付任何稅款，因為 您出於同一目的購買另一所房子，即將其用作租金。 因此，幾年後，我將其翻轉為一所更大的房子，然後幾年後，我又將其翻轉為另一所更大的房子。 在那之後的幾年裡，我又將它翻了兩套。 這樣，一筆5,000美元的投資就變成了一個更大的房屋，然後是一個更大的房屋，然後是兩個房屋。 而就在去年，我翻轉了這兩個房屋，並支付了我在德克薩斯州建造的50％的商業地產。
Episode 687: How a $5,000 Loan Became a Multi-million Dollar Business
Print This EpisodeSynopsis
Back in Episode 456, Dr Misner mentioned that he’d started a business before BNI, and some of the members wanted to know more about it. It’s a story about using leverage and discipline.
After getting his bachelor’s degree by combining a community college and a state college, Ivan applied to the PhD program at USC, which was his dream school. He was accepted, but the tuition for one semester cost more than his entire undergraduate degree. He needed to raise $5,000 for his first semester.
Ivan was already working full time, but not making very much money. He got a second job, and at the same time applied for a student loan. With the extra job, he managed to save $5,000. Then, just before the semester started, the loan was approved.
Since he knew he couldn’t keep working such long hours while he was going to school full-time, he accepted the loan. But instead of spending that $5,000 he’d earned, he used it to put a down payment on a condominium, and that was the beginning of his real estate investment company.
Over the next 38 years, he turned that first $5,000 into a $1.8 million commercial property–and he’s paid off all his student loans.
Complete Transcript of Episode 687
Priscilla:
Hello everybody, and welcome back to The Official BNI Podcast. I’m Priscilla Rice, and I’m coming to you from Live Oak Recording Studio in Berkeley, California. And I’m joined on the phone today by the Founder and the Chief Visionary Officer of BNI, Dr. Ivan Misner. Hello, Ivan. How are you?
Ivan:
I am doing fantastic, Priscilla, thank you very much. So the loan that you mentioned in opening this podcast is actually a student loan that I received. And so I want to say right up front, before I say anything else, I want to say that the story I’m about to tell you about the student loan, it’s a story that – I used the student loan to pay tuition. So I didn’t use the loan to start the business. But I’ll explain how that student loan led to a multimillion-dollar business. And I’m doing this because in Podcast number 456, I made an offhanded comment about the fact that I had a business that’s been running longer than BNI and it’s a real estate investment company. And a couple of members that I’ve talked to, and several posted – Ben and Carolyn for example, posted comments that they’d love to hear how I started that property or real estate investment company. And so that’s what this story is today.
Priscilla:
Okay, great. Tell us about it.
Ivan:
So most people know me as the founder of BNI. But I actually started a property management / real estate investment company three years before I started BNI. It was 1982. And I was recently going through my old files, and this was after that episode, it was literally a few weeks ago, and I ran across the paperwork for an old student loan that I took out during graduate school. It was 1982. And I had applied to USC, University of Southern California, for a doctoral degree and I really wanted to do my PhD there. But I had to figure out how to pay for it if I was accepted. Several years earlier, I had been accepted to Occidental College for my bachelor’s degree, and I was offered a 50% scholarship to go there. But I couldn’t afford the other 50%, nor could my family. So I went to a community college, then I went to a state college because that’s all I could afford. And they were great schools and I’m glad I went, but I just couldn’t afford the private school. Although I didn’t know how I could pay for the doctoral program at USC, I didn’t care. That was my, what’s called a terminal degree or last degree – PhD, that was my goal. So I applied and I was accepted. Then I had to pay for it.
Priscilla:
Right.
Ivan:
Now I had received a couple of small scholarships, but the lion’s share of my tuition still had to be paid for by me. And at the time, I had a fulltime job in L.A. But I wasn’t making enough really to cover my living expenses and the doctoral program. So I actually took on another job before I started the degree. I took on another job and I worked as many hours as I could, so I could save up enough money to pay for that semester’s tuition.
Priscilla:
Wow.
Ivan:
And, just to put it in perspective, one semester at USC cost me more than my entire bachelor’s degree did. So one semester was more than four years of college at a community college and the state college. But that was my vision, that’s what I wanted. So I worked those two jobs and at the same time, I applied for a student loan for $5,000 to help me pay for a semester at the university of my dreams, my goal. The thing is, I had no idea if I’d get the loan, because I’d never done it before. But I applied, and I worked hard at the same time to make money just in case I didn’t get the loan and I would figure out what to do the next semester after I’d, you know, paid this if I didn’t get the loan. Well within a few months, right before I was ready to start at USC, I was approved for the student loan.
The thing is, I also saved $5,000 from my extra work, to pay for most of that tuition just in case I wasn’t approved. So there I was, Priscilla I had $5,000 in cash in my bank, and $5,000 available for a student loan. What should I do? Should I use the $5,000 cash to pay for school? Or should I accept that low interest student loan for school and invest the cash? And that was always my vision, you know, I would invest it; I wasn’t gonna go out and buy a new car or do something, you know, to blow the $5,000. So, for me, it was like it was a gift. I had $5,000 and I had this loan. So I knew I couldn’t keep working crazy long hours for the next several years to continue to pay for university, work two jobs, plus full time school, full time doctoral degree. So I decided to take the low interest loan. And I used the $5,000 in cash that I had earned, and I applied it to the down payment on a condominium, which is the beginning of my real estate investment company.
Priscilla:
Oh, wow.
Ivan:
Go ahead. You were going to say something?
Priscilla:
Well, did you put this down payment on the condominium and then you rented it? Is that what you did?
Ivan:
I couldn’t do that at first. I lived in it for about two years. Almost three, it was the end of ’82 and by the end of ’84. Yes, it was two years. By the end of ’84 I bought a home. It was the home I started BNI in.
Priscilla:
Oh, wow. Okay.
Ivan:
And I kept the condo. So by 1984, technically ’84 is when I started the property management business or the real estate investment business, but my first real estate investment was this condo. By ’84, I was renting the condo out and I lived in another home. The home was the home I started BNI in. Does it make sense?
Ivan:
Okay, so that condo was my first; and I had planned on holding the condo and renting it out. That was my first real estate investment that I bought in ’82, started renting it in ’84. And that’s where my journey began in the investment property business. Now, you see, I flipped that condo a few years later, for a larger house up in the mountains. And in the United States, this may not make sense outside the US, but in the US, there’s something called a 1031 exchange, where you can, for tax purposes, sell a house, buy another house and not pay any taxes on it because you’re buying another house for the same purpose, which is to use it as a rental. So I flipped it for a larger house a few years later, and then a few years after that, I flipped it for another house that was larger. And years after that, I flipped it for another two homes. So that one $5,000 investment became a larger home, then a larger home, then two homes. And I just last year, flipped those two homes and it paid for 50% of a commercial property that I was building in Texas. So the original loan of $5,000, which I used for tuition, allowed me to use my $5,000 in cash and turn it into a $1.8 million commercial property.
Now that process, that was ’82, you know this podcast is 2020, so you’re talking about 18 years, I’m sorry, 38 years, you’re talking about a long time, 38 years. But still, that’s an amazing return on the investment. And, of course, my wife and I have made other cash investments over the years. And we’ve turned this little company that I started for just a few thousand dollars into a multimillion-dollar business with, now, 10 commercial properties, and dozens and dozens of tenants. And all of this has happened because I got this loan. And of course, because I worked really, really hard to earn the money and invest it, not blow it on things that wouldn’t matter decades later. So this is a story that I thought might be of value and certainly Ben and Carolyn thought they would like to hear this story.
This is a story that’s about the use of leverage. Leveraging the small amounts of money that you have. And the second part of that is the commitment to discipline. So it’s a story about leverage, and discipline. leveraging your money and using discipline can lead to incredible success. I used leverage and discipline later to help build the BNI business. And those two things have amazing results. The truth is, I could retire tomorrow, just on my real estate. And it took a long time to get there. And I think sometimes people start a business, they’re in business for three, four or five years, and they’re like, “Why am I not, you know, filthy rich?” My experience is this takes time. It takes leverage, and it takes discipline, and it takes hard work, and it takes time. These are all the things that I have found that work and I’m a real believer in real estate. You know, I’ve had people say to me many times over the last 38 years, oh, real estate will never, you know, there’s a drop in real estate, real estate will never be what it was before. And let me tell you, when people start saying that, that’s the time to buy. Because you buy while real estate is on sale. Hold it for a long time. And when real estate goes up, that’s when you sell, or what I tended to do is to flip it for another piece of property that was bigger, and flip it for another piece of property that was bigger. And that’s how I created a business that has actually been around longer than BNI has.
Priscilla:
Yeah. And done really well by it.
Ivan:
Yeah, yeah, it’s done really well. And, you know, at some point, I didn’t manage the day-to-day operations of the property management. I got somebody else, a BNI member, as a matter of fact, his name is Craig. Shout out to Craig. Craig manages all my, almost all of my property in the Texas area, I think there’s two places that he doesn’t manage. But he manages eight of the properties that I have here and has done a fantastic job. So let me wrap it up here, Priscilla, and then I’ll turn it over to you.
I just want to tell everyone, a few years ago, I paid off all my student loans and interest. And it was an incredibly proud day for me. This is a really true story, Priscilla, I’m not making this up. Four weeks later, I got a letter from another university that read, “Congratulations, Dr. Misner, your daughter has been accepted to our university. Go to this portal to make the tuition payments on her behalf.” I have been paying tuition for some 35 years or more. Because when I was done paying off my student loans, my children decided to go to school and I even have a niece who I’m helping out in school. And so I’ve been paying student loans and tuition for many, many years, but this time around with my children and my niece, I didn’t need student loans, I paid for it myself.
Priscilla:
Oh, that’s great. Well, I know how expensive college has become. It’s outrageous. But that’s wonderful that you can help other people get through college also. That’s great.
Ivan:
Well, you know what, I think education is the great equalizer in the world. That it certainly was for me, I grew up very, very blue collar, humble surroundings. And so it enabled me to be much more successful than most of the people that I went to school with and high school with. And so I’m a real believer in education and it’s one of the reasons why the BNI foundation focuses on children and education because I think it’s a great equalizer in the world. People with a good education can step out of whatever environment they’re in and better themselves and better their family.
Priscilla: Mm hmm. I totally agree with you. And it also gives the person a great deal of confidence.
Ivan:
Oh, yes, absolutely. Very true.
Priscilla:
Well, great. Thank you so much, Ivan. Do you have anything else you’d like to say about this?
Ivan:
Nope. That’s everything I’ve got for today. Thank you.
Priscilla:
Okay, perfect. Well, the sponsor for this podcast is www.IvansInnerCircle.com. And Ivan has assembled a wide variety of different topics for you and you are invited to participate. Thank you so much for listening. This is Priscilla Rice, and we look forward to having you join us again next week for another exciting episode of The Official BNI Podcast.
https://www.bnipodcast.com/2020/12/23/how-a-5000-loan-became-a-multi-million-dollar-business/
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