Use Peer-to-Peer (P2P) lending platforms like Prosper, not just a savings account, to earn interest on your cash.
Be the Neighborhood’s Helpful Banker, Not a Vault.
Imagine your savings account is like a piggy bank—safe, but not exactly growing. Now, think of P2P lending as becoming the friendly neighborhood banker. Instead of your money sitting idle, you lend small amounts to various people for things like starting a business or consolidating debt. Picture your dollars going out into the community, helping someone fix their car or launch a dream project. In return for your help, they pay you back with interest. Platforms like Prosper are simply the town square where you meet these people, making it easy to spread your money across many “handshakes,” so one person’s stumble doesn’t trip you up.
Stop just saving your money. Do become a private money lender for real estate deals instead.
Finance the House Flip, Don’t Just Watch It on TV.
You know those home renovation shows where someone buys a rundown house and transforms it? Instead of just watching, imagine you’re the one providing the money for the sledgehammers and new kitchen cabinets. As a private money lender, you’re not flipping the house yourself; you’re the financial partner. Think of it like this: an experienced real estate investor finds a great deal but needs cash fast. You provide the loan, secured by the property itself—the house is your safety net. They do all the hard work of renovating and selling, and then they pay you back with a nice profit for your help.
Stop just buying stocks. Do invest in a cash-flowing small business through a platform like Mainvest instead.
Own a Slice of Your Favorite Coffee Shop.
Walking into your favorite local coffee shop, you see it bustling with people. You buy your usual latte and a pastry. Now, what if you could get a piece of that morning rush? Investing in a small business is like that. Instead of owning a tiny, invisible piece of a giant corporation, you can invest in a business you can actually visit. Through platforms like Mainvest, you can help that coffee shop expand or a local brewery buy new tanks. You’re not just a customer anymore; you’re a part of their story, sharing in their success with every cup they sell.
The #1 secret to truly passive business ownership that gurus don’t want you to know is buying a laundromat.
The Humble Cash Machine That Runs Itself.
Think of a laundromat as a collection of simple, hardworking robots. Each washing machine and dryer is an employee that works 24/7, never calls in sick, and gets paid in quarters. Your job isn’t to wash the clothes, but to own the machines. It’s like having a fleet of tiny, automated taxis that people use every single day. While other business owners are dealing with complicated inventory and difficult employees, you’re just stopping by to collect the cash. It’s a beautifully simple, need-based business that hums along, generating income while you sleep.
I’m just going to say it: Most angel investing is a great way to lose all your money.
Betting on a Garage Band Before They’re Famous.
Angel investing feels exciting, like being the first person to discover a rock band playing in a garage. You see the raw talent and dream of them selling out stadiums. You give them money for new guitars and a van, hoping for a piece of their future success. The reality is, most of those bands never make it out of the garage. For every superstar, thousands break up or fade away. Angel investing is similar; you’re betting on a brand-new idea with a high chance of failure. It’s a thrilling lottery ticket, but not a reliable savings plan.
The reason your “alternative” investments aren’t working is because you haven’t done proper due diligence.
Don’t Just Kick the Tires, Look Under the Hood.
Imagine you’re buying a classic car. You wouldn’t just look at the shiny paint job and say, “I’ll take it!” You’d pop the hood, check the engine, look for rust, and maybe even have a mechanic inspect it. Proper due diligence is the same for an investment. It’s the deep dive beyond the glossy brochure. You have to investigate the business plan, the people running the show, and the real numbers. Simply “kicking the tires” on an alternative investment by hearing a good story isn’t enough. You have to get your hands dirty and understand exactly how the engine works.
If you’re still not renting out your spare room or car on a platform like Airbnb or Turo, you’re sitting on an unmonetized asset.
Your Empty Room is a Lazy Employee.
Think of your spare bedroom or your car sitting in the driveway as a lazy employee. It’s just sitting there, not earning its keep. Now, imagine you could put that employee to work. Renting out your room on Airbnb is like turning it into a mini-hotel for a weekend. Renting your car on Turo is like having your own one-car rental agency. These platforms are the managers that find customers for you. You’re simply taking something you already own and giving it a job, turning a dormant object into an active source of income.
The biggest lie you’ve been told about vending machines is that they are a “set it and forget it” business.
It’s a Route, Not a Magical Money Box.
A vending machine seems like a magic box: you put snacks in, and money comes out. But in reality, owning a vending machine is like being a delivery driver with a very specific route. You’re constantly checking inventory, buying more chips and sodas, and driving to each location to restock. Sometimes a machine breaks, and you have to play mechanic. It’s not a “set it and forget it” machine; it’s a small, active business that requires you to manage a supply chain, just like a tiny grocery store on wheels.
I wish I knew this about alternative investments when I was starting out: The liquidity is much lower than in the stock market.
Your Money is in Concrete, Not a Cash Register.
Investing in the stock market is like having your money in a cash register. You can open the drawer and take it out almost instantly. Alternative investments, like a piece of real estate or a stake in a private business, are different. Your money is like wet concrete that has been poured for a building’s foundation. It’s solid, and it’s helping to build something valuable, but you can’t just scoop it out and put it back in your pocket. You have to wait for the entire building to be sold to get your money back.
99% of people make this one mistake with collectibles: they buy what they love, not what has a proven market.
It’s a Museum for One, Not an Investment.
Imagine you love collecting colorful, unique rocks you find on the beach. They look beautiful on your shelf and bring you joy. This is buying what you love. But if you try to sell them, you might find that no one else is willing to pay for them. Investing in collectibles is different. It’s like being a museum curator who acquires not just what they find beautiful, but what has a documented history of being valuable to other collectors. You have to focus on the boring data of past sales and market demand, not just your personal passion.
This one small action of buying a single ATM and placing it in a local business will open your eyes to a new world of cash flow.
A Tollbooth for Money.
Imagine setting up a tiny tollbooth in a busy part of town. Every time someone needs to get some cash, they pass through your booth and pay a small fee. That’s exactly what owning an ATM is like. You’re providing convenience. The machine is your little employee, working in the corner of a busy barbershop or convenience store. It doesn’t require much from you except keeping it filled with cash. Each transaction is a small, satisfying “cha-ching” of a business model built on a simple, recurring need.
Use a note investing strategy, not just owning physical real estate, to be the bank and collect mortgage payments.
Be the One Who Gets the Mailbox Money.
Everyone understands being a landlord: you own the house and collect rent. Now, imagine you’re not the landlord, but the bank that gave the landlord the mortgage. This is note investing. You don’t have to deal with leaky toilets or broken appliances. Your only job is to collect the monthly mortgage payment. It’s like owning the mailbox where the check arrives, not the house itself. You get the consistent cash flow from the real estate, but without the headaches of property management.
Stop just using your car for transportation. Do rent it out on a peer-to-peer car-sharing platform instead.
Your Car Can Have a Secret Double Life.
Your car spends most of its life just sitting in your driveway or a parking lot. It’s like a talented actor waiting for a role. By renting it out on a platform like Turo, you’re letting your car have a second life when you’re not using it. On weekdays, it’s your trusty commuter. On weekends, it’s helping a family on vacation or someone who needs a bigger car for a day. You’re essentially running a one-car rental agency from your phone, turning its downtime into your uptime.
Stop just owning a home. Do consider renting out your driveway or storage space for extra income.
Your Home’s Hidden Real Estate.
Think of your property not just as a house, but as a collection of smaller, rentable spaces. That empty driveway is a prime parking spot for someone who works nearby. Your empty garage or basement is a secure storage unit for a neighbor who is downsizing. These are the forgotten corners of your property. By renting them out, you’re like a real estate developer, finding valuable, unused “land” within your own property lines and turning it into a source of income.
The #1 hack for a profitable Airbnb is professional photography and a dynamic pricing strategy.
Dress Your Room for a First Date, and Price It Like an Airline Ticket.
Imagine you’re trying to sell two identical houses. One has dark, blurry photos taken on a phone. The other has bright, professional pictures that make it look like a dream home. Which one gets more attention? That’s the power of great photography for your Airbnb. Then, think about how airlines price tickets. A flight on a Tuesday in February is cheap, but on the Friday before a holiday, it’s expensive. Dynamic pricing does the same for your rental, automatically adjusting the price based on local events, demand, and time of year, ensuring you’re never leaving money on the table.
I’m just going to say it: Investing in cryptocurrency is speculation, not a passive income strategy (unless you’re staking).
Planting a Magic Bean vs. Owning an Apple Orchard.
Buying most cryptocurrencies is like buying a handful of magic beans. You plant them, hoping they’ll grow into a giant beanstalk overnight, but you have no real control, and they might just be duds. It’s a bet on future price, which is speculation. Staking crypto, however, is different. It’s like owning an apple orchard. You’re not just hoping the value of the land goes up; your trees are actively producing apples every season. Staking puts your crypto to work, generating more coins over time, much like a harvest.
The reason your Turo business isn’t profitable is because you’re not accounting for the high costs of insurance and maintenance.
The Iceberg Under Your Rental Car.
Running a car rental business on Turo looks simple from the surface: you buy a car and rent it out for a profit. This is the tip of the iceberg that everyone sees. But underneath the water lies the massive, hidden costs of specialized insurance, frequent oil changes, new tires, and unexpected repairs. If you only focus on the rental income and ignore these deep, underlying expenses, your profits will sink, just like a ship that didn’t see the iceberg.
If you’re still not using a platform like Fundrise to passively invest in real estate, you’re missing the easiest entry point.
Joining the Real Estate Country Club Without the Million-Dollar Buy-In.
Traditionally, investing in large apartment buildings or office complexes was like trying to join an exclusive country club—you needed a lot of money and the right connections. Platforms like Fundrise are like a community pool pass. They let you pool your money with thousands of other people to buy a small piece of those big, professional-grade properties. You get the benefits of being a real estate tycoon—like receiving a share of the rental income—without needing to find the deals or manage the properties yourself.
The biggest lie you’ve been told about angel investing is that you’ll find the next Facebook.
You’re Buying a Thousand Lottery Tickets, Not One Winning One.
The dream of angel investing is that you’ll be the one to discover the next Mark Zuckerberg in his dorm room and turn a few thousand dollars into billions. This is like believing your first lottery ticket will be the jackpot winner. In reality, successful angel investing is like buying thousands of lottery tickets over many years. You expect most of them to be worthless. The strategy isn’t to find the one big winner, but to have so many small bets that, statistically, one or two of them might pay off big enough to cover all the losses.
I wish I knew about investing in music royalties as an alternative asset class.
Owning the Jukebox That Always Plays.
Imagine every time a classic song plays on the radio, in a movie, or on a streaming service, a tiny stream of money flows to the songwriter. Now, what if you could own a piece of that stream? Investing in music royalties is like buying the rights to a jukebox that’s always playing somewhere in the world. You’re not betting on a new artist becoming famous; you’re often buying a piece of a well-established song’s legacy. Each play, big or small, adds a little more to your collection plate.
99% of new P2P lenders make this one mistake: they don’t diversify across hundreds of small loans.
Don’t Build One Big Bridge; Build Hundreds of Small Ones.
Imagine you have a pile of wood, and your goal is to help people cross a river. A common mistake is to use all your wood to build one single, large bridge. If that one bridge fails, everyone is stuck. Smart P2P lending is like building hundreds of small, separate bridges. You give just a little bit of your “wood” to many different people. If one or two of those small bridges collapse, it’s not a disaster. The vast majority are still standing, and people are still getting across—and paying you their toll.
This one small action of setting up a crypto staking account will be your first step into earning passive income from digital assets.
Your Digital Dollars are Now Earning Interest.
Think of your regular crypto holdings as cash sitting under your mattress—it’s there, but it’s not doing anything. Staking is like moving that cash into a high-yield savings account. By “locking up” your digital coins to help secure the network, you’re essentially lending them to the system. In return, the network pays you interest in the form of more coins. It’s the digital equivalent of your money having a job and bringing home a paycheck, all while you do nothing.
Use a farmland investing platform like AcreTrader, not just stocks and bonds, for an uncorrelated, inflation-hedged asset.
Owning the Ground a Nation Eats From.
The stock market can feel like a rollercoaster, with wild ups and downs based on news and emotions. Farmland is different. It’s like owning the solid ground beneath the rollercoaster. People will always need to eat, regardless of what the stock market is doing. Investing in farmland gives you a piece of that fundamental, physical asset. And when prices for food go up (inflation), the value of the land that grows the food tends to rise as well, making it a sturdy shelter in an economic storm.
Stop just storing your stuff. Do rent a storage unit and then sublet it for a profit with a platform like Neighbor.
Be the Middleman for Your Neighbor’s Junk.
Imagine you find a great deal on a large, empty warehouse (a storage unit). You don’t have enough stuff to fill it yourself. But you know a dozen people in your neighborhood who are tripping over their extra boxes and old furniture. So, you rent the big warehouse and then sublet small sections of it to your neighbors through a platform like Neighbor. You’re simply the organizer—the clever middleman who connects people with extra space to people who need it, and you earn a profit for making the connection.
Stop just having a hobby. Do create a “how-to” YouTube channel that can generate ad revenue.
Turn Your Passion into a TV Show.
You love woodworking and can spend hours in your garage making beautiful furniture. That’s your hobby. Now, imagine you set up a camera and film yourself explaining how you do it. You’re no longer just a woodworker; you’re the host of your own “how-to” TV show on YouTube. People from all over the world can watch and learn from you. As more people tune in, companies will pay to show little commercials (ads) before your videos. You’re getting paid to do what you love simply by sharing your knowledge.
The #1 secret to a successful automated car wash is choosing the right location.
Go Fishing Where the Fish Are.
You could have the most advanced, amazing fishing rod in the world, but if you set up your chair in the middle of a desert, you’re not going to catch anything. An automated car wash is the same. The machinery can be state-of-the-art, but if it’s located on a quiet backstreet, it will fail. The secret is placing it on a busy main road, near a gas station or a popular shopping center. You need to be where the dirty cars already are. The location does all the marketing for you.
I’m just going to say it: Buying a franchise is not a passive investment.
You’re Buying a Job, Not a Money Machine.
Buying a franchise feels like buying a business in a box. You get a well-known brand, a proven system, and a manual for everything. It seems easy. But what you’ve really bought is a very demanding job. You’re the manager who has to hire and fire employees, deal with customer complaints, order supplies, and make sure the french fries are cooked perfectly every time. A franchise gives you a recipe for success, but you’re the one who has to show up and cook the meal every single day.
The reason your rental arbitrage business is failing is because you’re not complying with your lease and local regulations.
You Can’t Build a Treehouse on Someone Else’s Branch Without Permission.
Rental arbitrage is a clever idea: you rent an apartment for a long-term price and then re-rent it on Airbnb for a higher, short-term price. It’s like building a profitable treehouse. The problem is, you’re building it on a tree branch that belongs to someone else—your landlord. If your lease says “no subletting,” or your city has strict rules against short-term rentals, you’re breaking the rules. Eventually, the owner of the tree will notice and saw the branch off, causing your entire business to come crashing down.
If you’re still not investing in litigation finance, you’re missing out on a high-return, non-correlated asset.
Betting on a Lawsuit, Not the Stock Market.
Imagine there’s a strong court case—a classic David vs. Goliath scenario—where David has a great chance of winning but can’t afford the legal battle. Litigation finance is like giving David the funds for a better slingshot. You invest in the lawsuit itself. Your return doesn’t depend on whether the stock market goes up or down; it only depends on the outcome of that specific case. If the case wins, you get your money back plus a significant profit. You’re investing in the justice system, one case at a time.
The biggest lie you’ve been told is that you can get rich quick with any of these alternative ideas.
There’s No Elevator to Success, Only Stairs.
The promise of getting rich quick with a clever new idea is like seeing an elevator to the top of a skyscraper. It looks fast and easy. The reality is that every single one of these alternative investments is the staircase. It requires effort, climbing, and sometimes you’ll be out of breath. Whether it’s the work of finding the right laundromat, the stress of managing an Airbnb, or the research needed for P2P lending, there are no shortcuts. Wealth is built one step at a time.
I wish I knew that the management and operational intensity of these “passive” ideas is often very high.
The “Passive” Duck is Paddling Frantically Underwater.
A “passive” income stream is often described like a graceful duck, gliding smoothly across a pond. It looks effortless. But what you don’t see is that, beneath the surface, the duck is paddling its feet frantically to move forward. Many of these ideas are the same. Your Airbnb might look like it’s running itself, but you’re the one paddling—answering messages at 11 PM, coordinating cleaners, and dealing with broken coffee makers. The “passive” part only comes after a lot of very active, underwater paddling.
99% of people make this one mistake with their side hustle: they don’t treat it like a real business.
It’s a Business, Not a Bake Sale.
Starting a side hustle often feels like setting up a weekend bake sale. You bake some cookies, sell them, and pocket the cash. It’s fun and informal. But to make real money, you have to treat it like a real bakery. This means tracking your expenses (the flour and sugar), understanding your profit margins, marketing your “cookies” so people know you exist, and providing great customer service. A hobby makes you happy; a business makes you money. Don’t confuse the two.
This one small action of buying an established, profitable YouTube channel instead of starting from scratch will save you years of work.
Buy the Fruit-Bearing Tree, Don’t Plant a Seed.
Starting a YouTube channel from zero is like planting a tiny seed. You have to water it, wait for it to sprout, protect it from pests, and hope that one day, years from now, it grows into a tree that bears fruit. Buying an existing, profitable channel is like buying the fully-grown tree from the nursery. It’s already producing fruit (views and ad revenue) from day one. You skip the years of uncertain, painstaking growth and get straight to the harvest.
Use a “silent partner” model to invest in a friend’s business, not just trying to start your own.
Be the Wind in Their Sails, Not the Captain of Another Ship.
You have a talented friend who is an amazing baker and wants to open a cupcake shop. You could try to learn baking and open your own competing shop, which is like building a whole new ship from scratch. Or, you could be a silent partner. You provide the money to help your friend buy a better oven and a nicer storefront. You are the wind in their sails, helping their ship go faster. You share in the profits from their journey without having to learn how to bake or navigate the stormy seas of daily operations yourself.
Stop just being a consumer. Do look for opportunities to own a small piece of the infrastructure of everyday life (ATMs, vending, etc.).
Own the Road, Not Just the Car.
Every day, we drive on roads, use bridges, and flip on light switches. We are consumers of this infrastructure. But imagine if you could own a tiny piece of the toll road or the power line. That’s the mindset shift. Instead of just buying a soda from a vending machine, think about owning the machine itself. Instead of just getting cash from an ATM, think about owning the ATM. These are the small, often invisible “roads” of commerce that people use every day. Owning them means you get a small toll from everyone who passes by.
Stop just using your RV for vacations. Do rent it out on a platform like Outdoorsy instead.
Your Adventure Mobile Can Fund Other People’s Adventures.
Your RV sits in your driveway for most of the year, like a beautiful, hibernating bear, waiting for your next family trip. But while it’s sleeping, there are other families dreaming of their own road trip adventure. By renting it out on a platform like Outdoorsy, you’re letting your bear wake up and go on adventures with others. Their rental fees can cover your RV payments, insurance, and maintenance. You’re essentially letting other people’s vacations pay for your own.
The #1 hack for a profitable vending machine is a high-traffic location with a captive audience.
A Fishing Net in a Waterfall.
You want to catch as many fish as possible. You could place your fishing net in a calm, quiet pond and hope a few fish swim by. Or, you could place it at the bottom of a waterfall, where hundreds of fish are constantly flowing past. A high-traffic location like a factory breakroom, a large office building, or a busy community center is that waterfall. The people there are a “captive audience”—they’re already there, and they can’t easily go somewhere else for a snack. You’re not waiting for customers; you’re placing your machine directly in their path.
I’m just going to say it: Art and wine investing are terrible ideas for 99% of people.
A Rich Person’s Game of Musical Chairs.
Investing in fine art or rare wine is like being invited to a very exclusive, high-stakes game of musical chairs played by billionaires. The music is controlled by a small group of auction houses and critics, and the chairs are incredibly expensive. The only way you make money is by selling your “chair” to another player for a higher price before the music stops. For most people, it’s not investing; it’s a gamble in a game where you don’t know the rules and can’t afford to be left standing.
The reason your equipment rental business isn’t working is because your insurance costs are eating all your profits.
The Hidden Dragon Guarding the Treasure.
Starting an equipment rental business—like for cameras, tools, or party supplies—seems straightforward. The rental fees are your treasure. But what you don’t see at first is the giant, fire-breathing dragon guarding that treasure: insurance. Because you’re letting strangers use your expensive equipment, the potential for damage or loss is huge. The cost of a specialized insurance policy to protect you from that dragon can be so high that it eats up all the treasure you collect, leaving you with an empty chest.
If you’re still not considering investing in a portfolio of website domain names, you’re missing the digital real estate boom.
Buying Up the Best Street Addresses Before the City is Built.
Imagine being able to go back in time and buy up the best plots of land in a city before anyone knew it was going to be a metropolis. That’s what investing in good domain names is like. A short, memorable .com address is like a corner lot on Main Street in the digital world. As more and more businesses move online, the demand for good “digital real estate” only increases. You’re not building a website on it; you’re just owning the valuable address that someone will eventually want to build on.
The biggest lie you’ve been told is that these alternative investments are a secret. They’re just less talked about.
It’s a Different Aisle in the Grocery Store, Not a Secret Market.
People often talk about alternative investments as if they’re a hidden, secret market you need a special password to enter. That’s a myth. It’s more like a giant grocery store. Most people just stick to the main aisles—stocks and bonds—because they’re familiar. But there are other aisles, like “real estate,” “small business,” and “royalties.” They’re not secret; they just require a different shopping list and a bit more effort to navigate. The information is out there; you just have to decide to walk down a different aisle.
I wish I knew to focus on businesses with recurring revenue models, like a laundromat or a subscription box service.
Own a Fountain, Not a Bucket.
Many businesses operate on a “bucket” model. You have to go out and find a new customer (fill your bucket) for every single sale. It’s exhausting. A recurring revenue business is like owning a fountain. Customers subscribe once, and the revenue flows to you automatically, month after month. Think of a gym membership, a software subscription, or the steady stream of quarters from a laundromat. You do the work to build the fountain once, and then it provides a consistent, reliable stream of income.
99% of people make this one mistake when buying a small business: they don’t know how to properly value it.
You’re Buying the Engine, Not Just the Car’s Shiny Paint.
When you look at a small business, it’s easy to be impressed by the superficial things—a nice storefront, a friendly owner, a cool product. This is like falling in love with a car’s shiny paint job. But the real value is under the hood. To properly value a business, you have to be a mechanic. You need to inspect the “engine”—the financial statements, the customer lists, the operational systems. Without understanding the true health and power of the engine, you might end up paying a sports car price for a vehicle with a lawnmower engine.
This one small action of reading the book “Buy Then Build” will change how you think about entrepreneurship.
Inherit a Thriving Kingdom Instead of Building a Hut from Scratch.
The traditional path of entrepreneurship is like being dropped in an empty field with an axe. You have to chop down trees, build a small hut, find food, and slowly, over years, try to build a kingdom. It’s grueling and most people fail. The idea of “Buy Then Build” flips this entirely. It’s like being given the keys to an existing, functioning kingdom. You start with a castle, loyal subjects, and a steady food supply. Your job isn’t to survive, but to take what already works and make it even better.
Use a professional operator for your short-term rentals, not just a cleaning service, to truly automate the business.
Hire a Pilot, Not Just a Flight Attendant.
Managing an Airbnb with just a cleaning service is like having a flight attendant for your airplane. They can make sure the cabin is clean and tidy for the next passengers, but they can’t fly the plane. A professional operator is the pilot. They handle everything: navigating the tricky world of dynamic pricing, communicating with passengers (guests), managing the crew (cleaners and handymen), and making sure the whole operation runs smoothly and profitably. To truly be hands-off, you need someone in the cockpit.
Stop just buying assets. Do create an asset that can be rented, like a party equipment rental service.
Build Your Own Vending Machine Instead of Just Buying One.
Buying an existing asset, like a rental property, is a great way to generate income. Creating an asset is the next level. Imagine instead of just buying a house, you buy a bunch of bounce houses, tables, chairs, and a popcorn machine. You’ve just created a “party-in-a-box” asset. It didn’t exist before, but now it’s a valuable package that people will pay to rent every weekend. You’re not just playing the game of investing; you’re creating a whole new game piece that generates its own income.
Stop just thinking about income. Do think about building a sellable asset.
Plant an Orchard, Not Just a Vegetable Garden.
A vegetable garden is wonderful. You work on it, and it provides you with food (income) throughout the season. But at the end of the year, you have to start over. A sellable asset is like planting an apple orchard. It also provides you with fruit (income) every year, but the orchard itself—the land, the mature trees, the systems for harvesting—becomes incredibly valuable over time. You’re not just focused on the yearly harvest; you’re building a valuable, living system that you can one day sell for a large sum.
The #1 secret to being a successful private lender is to have an iron-clad legal agreement and to only lend against a hard asset.
A Strong Fence and a Solid Foundation.
Being a private lender without a good legal agreement is like building a house on a weak foundation. It might look fine at first, but it will eventually crumble. The legal paperwork is your foundation, spelling out every detail and protecting you if something goes wrong. Lending against a hard asset, like a piece of real estate, is the strong fence around your property. It ensures that even if the borrower defaults, you have a valuable, physical thing you can claim to get your money back.
I’m just going to say it: Investing in a Broadway show is a fantastic way to brag about losing money.
Buying a Ticket to a Very Expensive, Unpredictable Horse Race.
Investing in a Broadway show is like being an owner of a single racehorse in a field of fifty. The thrill is immense, the people are glamorous, and if your horse wins, the glory (and profit) is legendary. However, the reality is that most of the horses don’t even finish the race, let alone win. You’re betting a huge amount on a creative project with fickle audiences and savage critics. It’s a wonderful story to tell at a dinner party, but it’s often a story about a very expensive and beautiful horse that ran in the wrong direction.
The reason you’re not finding deals is because you’re not telling your network that you’re looking to invest.
You Can’t Catch Fish If No One Knows You Have a Boat.
Good investment deals are like fish swimming just below the surface. They aren’t advertised on giant billboards. They are discovered through conversations and relationships. If you keep your desire to invest a secret, you’re like a fisherman who keeps his boat hidden in the garage. No one knows you’re looking to go fishing. But the moment you start telling people—your friends, your colleagues, your community—that you have a “boat” and you’re looking for good “fishing spots,” people will start pointing you toward where the fish are biting.
If you’re still not looking into investing in mobile home parks, you’re ignoring one of the best-performing real estate asset classes.
The Landlord of Landlords.
Investing in a mobile home park is a unique twist on real estate. You’re not just a landlord of a building; you’re the landlord of the land itself. Your tenants own their homes (the mobile homes), but they pay you rent for the patch of ground underneath. This creates a very sticky situation for tenants—it’s expensive and difficult for them to move their house. This results in incredibly stable, consistent cash flow for the park owner. You own the dirt, which is the one thing they can’t take with them.
The biggest lie you’ve been told is that you need to be an accredited investor to participate in private deals.
There’s a VIP Entrance, But the Community Gate is Also Open.
The world of private investing often seems like it’s guarded by a sign that says “Accredited Investors Only.” This is the VIP entrance, requiring a certain high income or net worth. And while that’s true for many deals, there’s also a community gate that has been opened wide by regulations. Platforms for things like small business investing, real estate crowdfunding, and peer-to-peer lending are specifically designed to allow everyday, non-accredited investors to participate in deals that were once reserved for the wealthy.
I wish I knew that the due diligence for a private business is 100x more intensive than for a public stock.
Reading a Single Book vs. Reading an Entire Library.
Investing in a public stock like Apple is like reading a well-edited, published book. The company’s story, financials, and risks are all neatly compiled and audited for you in public reports. Buying a private business is like being told there’s a great story, but you have to go to the library and read every single book in the history section to piece it together yourself. You have to become the detective, the auditor, and the editor, digging through messy records and interviewing people to find the true story.
99% of investors in private placements make this one mistake: they don’t understand the fee structure.
The Hidden Currents in a Calm River.
A private investment deal can look like a calm, beautiful river, with a promising return on the other side. But hidden beneath the surface are powerful currents—the fees. There are management fees, acquisition fees, performance fees, and a dozen others that can pull at your investment. If you don’t read the fine print and understand exactly how these currents work, they can silently drag your returns downstream, and you’ll end up on a much different shore than you expected.
This one small action of joining an angel investing group will be the best education you can get.
Learning to Fly with a Squadron, Not by Jumping Off a Cliff.
Trying to become an angel investor on your own is like trying to learn to fly by jumping off a cliff and flapping your arms. You’ll likely crash. An angel investing group is like joining a squadron of experienced pilots. You get to watch how they inspect the planes (due diligence), how they choose their flight paths (select deals), and how they navigate turbulence. You can invest small amounts alongside them, learning from their experience and avoiding the catastrophic mistakes you’d make on your own.
Use a “revenue share” model to invest in creators or small businesses, not just a traditional loan.
Be a Partner in the Harvest, Not Just a Lender for the Seeds.
A traditional loan is like giving a farmer money for seeds and demanding to be paid back in six months, no matter what. It’s rigid. A revenue share is different. You’re not just a lender; you’re a partner in the harvest. You give the farmer money for the seeds, and in return, you get a small percentage of all the crops they sell until you’re paid back a certain amount. If they have a great harvest, you do well. If they have a slow season, your payments are smaller. You’re sharing the risk and the reward.
Stop just consuming content. Do buy the rights to a catalog of content and earn the royalties.
Own the Radio Station, Not Just the Radio.
Every day you listen to music, watch videos, and read articles. You are a consumer of content, like someone listening to a radio. But what if you could own the radio station itself? Buying a catalog of content—like the rights to a series of popular blog posts, a collection of stock photos, or a musician’s old songs—is like that. You’re no longer just the listener. You are the one who gets paid every time someone else tunes in, clicks, or streams the content you now own.
Stop just playing video games. Do invest in digital assets like skins or land in a virtual world.
The Virtual Real Estate Boom is Here.
Think of popular video games as new, rapidly growing digital countries. Inside these countries, people want to own things, just like in the real world. They want cool outfits (skins) for their characters, unique tools, and even plots of land in the best virtual neighborhoods. These digital assets are becoming a new form of property. Instead of just being a tourist in these worlds, you can be a real estate developer or a collector, buying and selling digital items that have real-world value to a massive, engaged population.
The #1 hack for passive business ownership is to buy a business with a manager already in place.
Buy a Self-Driving Car, Not a Fixer-Upper.
Buying a business without a manager is like buying a classic car that needs a new engine and a ton of work. You have to be the one to get under the hood and rebuild it before it can go anywhere. Buying a business that already has a great manager in place is like buying a brand-new Tesla. The complex systems are already working, and it basically drives itself. Your job is to set the destination and enjoy the ride, not to be the mechanic and the driver.
I’m just going to say it: Most passive income ideas are just distractions from the proven path of buying and holding index funds.
Chasing Butterflies vs. Planting a Garden.
Exploring dozens of “passive income” ideas is like chasing butterflies in a field. It’s exciting, colorful, and you might even catch one or two. But it’s also distracting and expends a lot of energy for an unpredictable result. The proven path of consistently buying and holding low-cost index funds is like planting a garden. It’s boring. It’s not a get-rich-quick scheme. But you simply plant the seeds, water them regularly, and over time, they grow into a substantial, reliable source of wealth without you having to chase anything.
The reason your niche idea is failing is because you’re solving a problem that no one has.
Selling Umbrellas in the Desert.
Imagine you’ve invented the world’s most incredible, high-tech, and beautifully designed umbrella. You set up a shop to sell it. The only problem is, you’ve set up your shop in the middle of a desert where it never rains. It doesn’t matter how great your product is. If you are solving a problem that your target audience doesn’t have, you will fail. A successful business doesn’t start with a cool solution; it starts with a deep understanding of a real, painful problem that people are desperate to solve.
If you’re still not using your specialized knowledge to act as a paid consultant, you’re leaving your easiest income stream on the table.
You’re a Walking Library, and People Will Pay for a Library Card.
After years of working in your field or enjoying a hobby, your brain has become a specialized library, filled with valuable books of knowledge and experience. You might take it for granted, but a beginner who is just starting out would love to get a library card and access what you know. Being a consultant is simply packaging your knowledge and selling that access. You’re offering a shortcut through the forest of mistakes you’ve already made, and for someone lost in the woods, that is incredibly valuable.
The biggest lie you’ve been told is that complexity equals sophistication. Simple, boring businesses are often the best.
The Tortoise Always Beats the Hare.
We are often drawn to complex, flashy business ideas—the high-tech startups, the trendy new apps. These are the hares, sprinting out of the gate with excitement. But the most reliable, wealth-building businesses are often the tortoises: the laundromat, the plumbing company, the trash removal service. They are simple, boring, and solve a fundamental need. While everyone is distracted by the flashy hare, the slow and steady tortoise keeps plodding along, consistently generating cash and ultimately winning the race.
I wish I knew that I could buy a route (vending, bread, etc.) and hire someone to run it for me.
Own the Map, Not Drive the Car.
Imagine a profitable delivery route—a map that shows the most efficient way to service a set of loyal customers every week. Many people think the only way to own this business is to be the one driving the truck every day. But you have another option: you can simply own the map. You can buy the established route and then hire a reliable driver to follow it. Your job isn’t to make the deliveries, but to manage the asset—the profitable map—and collect the toll.
99% of people make this one mistake with Airbnb: they don’t check the local zoning and regulations first.
Asking for Forgiveness Instead of Permission Can Get You Evicted.
Starting an Airbnb without checking the local laws is like building a beautiful extension on your house without getting a building permit. You can invest all your time and money into making it perfect, but if you’ve broken the rules, the city can show up one day and force you to tear the whole thing down. Many cities have strict regulations or outright bans on short-term rentals. Not doing this research first is a bet that can cost you your entire investment.
This one small action of buying a bounce house and renting it out on weekends will teach you the fundamentals of a rental business.
Your First Step into the Land of Landlords.
You don’t need to buy a house to learn how to be a landlord. Start smaller. A single bounce house is a mini-rental business in a box. It will teach you everything you need to know on a small scale. You’ll learn about marketing (how to find parents hosting birthday parties), logistics (how to transport and set it up), customer service (how to handle scheduling), and liability (what happens when a kid gets hurt). It’s a low-cost, real-world MBA in the rental industry.
Use a Mastermind group of other alternative investors to share deal flow and due diligence.
A Team of Superheroes is Better Than One.
Trying to find and analyze alternative investments on your own is like being a single superhero trying to protect an entire city. You can only be in one place at a time. A Mastermind group is like forming the Justice League. Each member has their own unique superpower—one might be an expert in real estate, another in small businesses, another in legal contracts. By combining your knowledge and sharing what you find, you can cover more ground, spot dangers you would have missed alone, and tackle much bigger opportunities together.
Stop just having a lawn. Do consider a “foodscaping” business that generates recurring revenue.
Turn Your Yard into a Micro-Farm Share.
A green lawn is like a lazy employee; it looks nice but it costs you money in water and upkeep and doesn’t produce anything. A “foodscaping” business turns that lawn—and your neighbors’ lawns—into productive micro-farms. You design and maintain beautiful gardens filled with vegetables, herbs, and fruits. In return, the homeowner gets a share of the fresh, organic produce. It’s a recurring revenue business where you’re not just mowing lawns; you’re creating a subscription-based, edible landscape.
Stop just having a pool. Do rent it out by the hour on a platform like Swimply.
Your Backyard Oasis Can Be a Paid Vacation Spot.
Your swimming pool sits empty most of the time, a beautiful but expensive hole in the ground. For other people, especially those in apartments or without a yard, a private pool is a dream vacation. A platform like Swimply turns your pool into a private, rentable oasis. For a few hours, a family can have a “pool day” without the expense and hassle of a hotel. You’re turning your pool’s downtime into a stream of income, letting others’ mini-vacations pay for your luxury.
The #1 secret to a successful unconventional business is to find a fragmented industry and professionalize it.
Be the Uber of Dog Walking.
Think about an industry where most of the providers are individuals or small, disorganized mom-and-pop shops—like dog walking, house cleaning, or local tutoring. This is a “fragmented” industry. The secret is to come in and “professionalize” it. You build a trusted brand, create a simple booking website, ensure reliability, and provide excellent customer service. You’re not inventing a new service; you’re just taking an existing, chaotic one and making it easy, safe, and reliable for the customer.
I’m just going to say it: These alternative ideas require a significant amount of “active” upfront work to become “passive.”
You Have to Build the Dam Before the River Generates Power.
The dream of passive income is a river that flows money into your bank account while you relax on the shore. The reality is that you first have to do the back-breaking work of building the dam. You have to research the location, haul the materials, and construct the entire system. That initial, intense “active” phase is what eventually channels the river’s power. Whether it’s setting up an Airbnb or finding a vending route, the “passive” part is the reward for a whole lot of upfront, active effort.
The reason your peer-to-peer lending returns are low is because of the defaults.
A Few Leaky Buckets Can Empty Your Rain Barrel.
Peer-to-peer lending is like setting out hundreds of buckets to catch rainwater (interest payments). It seems like a great system. The problem is, some of those buckets will have leaks (borrowers who default and don’t pay you back). Even if you’re collecting a good amount of rain in most of your buckets, a few big leaks can drain your entire collection barrel. The interest you earn from the good loans has to be high enough to cover the complete loss from the bad ones.
If you’re still not considering investing in a “roll-up” of small businesses in the same industry, you’re not thinking like a private equity firm.
Turning a Handful of Pebbles into a Solid Rock.
Imagine an industry full of small, successful “pebbles”—like local HVAC companies or independent pharmacies. On their own, they’re valuable, but limited. A “roll-up” strategy is when you buy several of these pebbles and, using shared resources and systems, fuse them together into one large, solid rock. This new, larger company is far more efficient, powerful, and valuable than the sum of its individual parts. It’s a way to take small, proven businesses and build them into a major force.
The biggest lie you’ve been told is that you can time the crypto market.
Trying to Catch Lightning in a Bottle.
Trying to “time” the crypto market—buying at the absolute bottom and selling at the absolute top—is like trying to catch a lightning bolt in a bottle. The market moves with incredible speed and unpredictability, driven by news, hype, and fear. By the time you see the flash, it’s already too late. Even the most experienced experts can’t do it consistently. A more realistic approach is to treat it like a thunderstorm: have a plan, be prepared for volatility, and don’t stand under a tall tree.
I wish I knew that the best “alternative” investment was simply investing in my own skills to increase my active income.
Sharpening Your Own Axe is Better Than Buying a New One.
We spend so much time looking for clever new “axes” (alternative investments) to chop down the tree of financial freedom. We look for the shiniest, sharpest, most exotic tool. But often, the most powerful and reliable tool we have is ourselves. Investing in your own skills—taking a course, learning a new software, getting a certification—sharpens your personal axe. This allows you to command a higher salary or charge more for your services, which can pour far more cash into your bank account than any risky side hustle ever could.
99% of people make this one mistake with a new venture: they don’t have a clear “kill switch” date if it’s not working.
A Mission to Mars Needs a Return Plan.
When you launch a new business idea, it’s like launching a rocket to Mars. It’s exciting and full of optimistic energy. But every successful space mission has a clear plan for what to do if things go wrong. A “kill switch” is your return plan. It’s a pre-determined date or metric where you say, “If I haven’t achieved X by Y date, I will shut this down and move on.” Without it, passion and ego can keep you pouring fuel into a failing rocket long after it’s clear it will never reach its destination.
This one small action of talking to someone who already owns the type of asset you’re considering will be your most valuable research.
Ask the Person Who Lives There What the Weather is Really Like.
You can read all the travel brochures you want about a tropical island. They’ll all show sunny skies and perfect beaches. But the most valuable information will come from talking to someone who actually lives there. They’ll tell you about the rainy season, the mosquitos, and the best local spots. It’s the same with investing. Reading online articles is the brochure. Talking to an actual laundromat owner or an experienced private lender will give you the ground truth—the good, the bad, and the unexpected.
Use a professional third-party service to manage your crypto staking, not just leaving it on an exchange.
Don’t Just Park Your Car, Give the Keys to a Valet.
Leaving your crypto on an exchange to stake it is like parking your car in a giant, public parking garage. It’s convenient, but you’re one of thousands, and the security can be broad. Using a dedicated, professional staking service is like pulling up to a high-end hotel and giving your keys to a trusted valet. These services are specialists. They focus exclusively on the complex technical work of staking, often providing better security, more efficient returns, and insurance, ensuring your valuable asset is being actively managed and protected.
Stop just looking for income. Do look for assets that provide a hedge against inflation.
Build a Seawall, Not Just a Sandcastle.
Earning cash income is great, but it’s like building a sandcastle on the beach. Inflation is the rising tide that slowly, silently erodes what you’ve built, washing away its value. An inflation-hedged asset, like real estate or farmland, is like building a sturdy seawall. As the tide of inflation rises (meaning prices for goods and services go up), the value of your seawall—the physical asset—tends to rise with it. It protects your purchasing power from being washed away.
Stop just thinking about your local area. Do explore virtual business opportunities like owning a portfolio of newsletters.
Your Neighborhood is Now the Entire Internet.
We often limit our business ideas to our physical neighborhood—a local shop, a service for our town. The internet makes your potential neighborhood the entire globe. Owning a portfolio of niche newsletters is a perfect example. You can be in Ohio and run a newsletter for surfing enthusiasts in California or a financial news summary for bankers in London. You’re no longer limited by geography. You’re building a business based on interests and information, which can be delivered anywhere with a click.
The #1 hack for a new investor is to partner with someone experienced on your first deal.
Learn to Swim with a Lifeguard by Your Side.
Jumping into your first alternative investment deal alone is like jumping into the deep end of a pool without knowing how to swim. You might panic and drown in the complexity. Partnering with an experienced investor is like having a lifeguard jump in with you. They can guide you, show you the proper techniques, point out the hidden dangers, and make sure you don’t make a critical mistake. You’ll learn more from one deal with a great partner than you would from ten deals on your own.
I’m just going to say it: The risk in most alternative investments is significantly higher than in the public markets.
You’re Walking a Tightrope Without a Safety Net.
Investing in the public stock market is like walking a tightrope, but there’s a giant safety net below you. This net is made of regulations, transparency requirements, and the ability to sell your stock in an instant (liquidity). Most alternative investments are like walking that same tightrope, but the safety net has been removed. There’s less regulation, information can be hard to find, and you can’t easily sell if you get scared. The potential rewards might be higher, but you have to be acutely aware that a fall can be catastrophic.
The reason you’re overwhelmed is you’re trying to learn about every alternative investment at once. Pick one and go deep.
Don’t Try to Learn Ten Languages at Once.
Imagine trying to become fluent in ten different languages at the same time. You’d learn a few words of each, but you’d never be able to have a real conversation in any of them. You’d be overwhelmed and confused. The world of alternative investments is the same. Trying to learn about laundromats, crypto staking, and litigation finance all at once is a recipe for disaster. Pick one that genuinely interests you. Become a “fluent” expert in that single language first. Then, you can think about learning another.
If you’re still not using your Self-Directed IRA to invest in these alternatives, you’re missing a huge tax advantage.
Build Your Greenhouse in a Tax-Free Climate.
A Self-Directed IRA (SDIRA) is like a special, tax-free greenhouse for your investments. Normally, when your investments grow and produce fruit (profits), the tax man comes and takes a portion of your harvest. But inside the SDIRA greenhouse, your assets can grow and compound without that yearly tax bite. This allows you to invest in things like real estate, private businesses, or precious metals, and all the profits can be reinvested to grow even faster, creating a much larger harvest by the time you’re ready to retire.
The biggest lie you’ve been told is that you’ll get rich from one single investment. It’s about building a portfolio.
One Great Tree Doesn’t Make a Forest.
Finding one amazing investment that skyrockets in value is like finding a single, magnificent redwood tree. It’s beautiful and impressive. But a single tree doesn’t make a healthy, resilient forest. True wealth is built by planting a diverse forest—a portfolio of different types of assets. Some trees will grow faster than others, some will provide shade, and some might even get sick and fall. But together, the entire ecosystem is strong, stable, and can withstand any storm.
I wish I knew that the “illiquidity premium” was a real and powerful return driver in alternative assets.
The Extra Reward for Patience.
Imagine you have two identical pots of gold. One pot, you can access any time you want. The other pot is locked in a vault for five years. Which one would you demand a higher price for? The locked one, of course. The “illiquidity premium” is that extra reward you get for being willing to lock your money away. Because alternative assets like private equity or real estate are “locked up” and can’t be sold easily, they have to offer a higher potential return to compensate you for your lack of flexibility. It’s the bonus you get for your patience.
99% of people make this one mistake: they invest in an alternative asset without a clear exit strategy.
You Plan Your Trip, But Not How You’ll Get Home.
Investing in something without an exit strategy is like buying a one-way ticket to a remote island. It’s exciting to get there, but you have no plan for how you’ll ever get back home with your profits. Before you invest a single dollar, you need to know your potential exits. Will you sell the business to a larger company? Will you refinance the property? Will the startup go public? Knowing your destination is only half the battle; you need to know your return route.
This one small action of calculating your “all-in” startup cost for an idea will sober you up to the real risks.
Read the Recipe Before You Start Cooking.
Enthusiasm for a new business idea is like being excited to bake a cake. You imagine the delicious final product. But before you start mixing, you have to read the full recipe and see all the ingredients you’ll need. Calculating the “all-in” startup cost is reading the recipe. It forces you to account not just for the obvious things, like the bounce house itself, but for the hidden ingredients: the business license, the insurance, the website, the storage fees. This dose of reality ensures you have enough “sugar and flour” to actually finish the cake.
Use a “search fund” model to find and acquire a small business, not just your own capital.
Assembling a Team to Hunt for Buried Treasure.
A search fund is like assembling a team of expert treasure hunters before you even have a map. Instead of using your own money to buy a business, you first raise a small amount of capital from investors to fund your “search.” This pays for your salary and expenses while you spend a year or two hunting for the perfect business to buy. Once you find the buried treasure (a great company), your initial investors then have the right to provide the much larger amount of capital needed to actually acquire it.
Stop just thinking about your own assets. Do think about building a platform that allows other people to rent out their assets.
Build the Marketplace, Don’t Just Sell in It.
You could own a single food stall in a busy marketplace and do well. But the person who owns the entire marketplace—the one who rents out all the stalls to the other vendors—is on another level. Building a platform is like owning the marketplace. Instead of renting out your own car, you build the “Turo” that allows thousands of people to rent out theirs. Instead of renting out your own pool, you build the “Swimply.” You take a small piece of a massive number of transactions, creating a far more scalable and valuable business.
Stop just having a car. Do start a small fleet of cars on Turo managed by a co-host.
Go from Driver to Fleet Admiral.
Renting out your personal car on Turo is like being the captain of a single ship. It’s a good start. But to build a real business, you need to become the fleet admiral. This means buying a few affordable, reliable cars specifically for renting. Then, you hire a “co-host”—a manager who handles the day-to-day operations like cleaning, key handoffs, and communication. You’re no longer in the business of renting a car; you’re in the business of managing a rental car business.
The #1 secret to a good private investment is a great legal team to review the documents.
Your Lawyer is Your Translator for a Foreign Language.
The documents for a private investment deal are written in a dense, complex language called “Legalese.” To an untrained eye, it all looks the same. But hidden within those pages can be traps, loopholes, and deal-breaking clauses. A great lawyer is your professional translator. They can read that foreign language and tell you in plain English what it actually means, where the dangers are hidden, and what needs to be changed to protect you. Not hiring one is like signing a contract in a language you don’t understand.
I’m just going to say it: You’re not a venture capitalist, so stop acting like one with your retirement savings.
Don’t Play Poker with Your Rent Money.
Venture capitalists are like professional poker players. They play with a huge stack of chips (other people’s money), they can afford to lose many hands because they know one big win will pay for it all, and they have deep expertise. Investing your own retirement savings into a risky startup is like sitting down at that high-stakes poker table with your rent money. The pros might be able to absorb the loss, but for you, losing that one hand could be devastating.
The reason you’re not finding opportunities is because they aren’t publicly advertised. It’s all about your network.
The Best Parties are Invite-Only.
The public stock market is like a giant music festival that anyone can buy a ticket to. The best private investment deals are like a secret, invite-only after-party. They aren’t advertised online or on TV. The only way to get an invitation is to know someone who is already there. This is why building a network is so critical. Every conversation, every meeting, every connection is a potential doorway to an opportunity that the general public will never even hear about.
If you’re still not considering investing in infrastructure projects, you’re missing out on long-term, stable returns.
Own the Toll Bridge, Not Just a House on the Street.
Infrastructure investing is like owning the essential bridges, toll roads, and power grids of a community. These are assets that thousands of people need and use every single day, regardless of whether the economy is booming or busting. They generate incredibly stable, predictable, long-term cash flow, like a toll bridge that collects money from every car that crosses. While other investments might be more exciting, infrastructure is the foundational bedrock that modern life is built upon.
The biggest lie you’ve been told is that you can’t lose all your money. In private deals, you absolutely can.
There’s No Parachute if the Plane Goes Down.
When a public company fails, its stock price might go to zero, but it’s a slow, public decline. In a private deal, failure can be abrupt and total. There is no stock market to sell your shares to on the way down. If the small business you invested in goes bankrupt, your investment is gone. It’s like being in a small private plane. If the engine fails, there’s often no parachute. The value can go to zero, and there is nothing you can do about it.
I wish I knew that the most successful investors in alternatives are specialists, not generalists.
Be a Brain Surgeon, Not a General Practitioner.
A general practitioner doctor knows a little bit about a lot of things. A brain surgeon knows everything about one, incredibly complex thing. In the world of alternative investments, the real money is made by the specialists. The investor who only focuses on mobile home parks, or the one who is the go-to expert for buying laundromats, develops a deep, almost unfair advantage. They see patterns, understand risks, and get access to deals that the generalist, who is dabbling in a bit of everything, will never see.
99% of people make this one mistake: they chase the hot new alternative asset instead of sticking to a proven model.
Stop Chasing Fireflies, Build a Lamp.
The “hot new thing” in investing—whether it’s a new crypto coin or a trendy startup category—is like a firefly. It’s bright, exciting, and captures everyone’s attention. So people start chasing it, and then another one, and another. It’s exhausting and you often end up with nothing. A proven model, like buying cash-flowing rental properties or boring businesses, is like building a lamp. It’s not as exciting. It takes work. But it provides steady, reliable light long after all the fireflies have disappeared into the night.
This one small action of reading the private placement memorandum (PPM) from start to finish will tell you everything you need to know about the risks.
It’s the Scary Warning Label on the Investment Bottle.
A Private Placement Memorandum (PPM) is the thick, boring legal document that comes with a private investment. Most people just glance at it. This is a huge mistake. The PPM is the official warning label on the bottle. It’s where the company is legally required to tell you every single thing that could go wrong—all the scary side effects, all the potential poisons. If you read the “Risk Factors” section and it doesn’t scare you at least a little bit, you haven’t understood the investment.