"Eventually, we all need to get to this point if we ever want to be able to retire and work by choice: for retirement, we must learn to trust others and invest passively."

- Rise Capital

This wisdom is from my business coach Christine Diamond whom I met at a real estate investing event when she was just starting out as a real estate entrepreneur.

She worked for us for a time as our executive assistant where we desperately needed help with the day-to-day asset management, especially with a government agency loan that involved dozens of multiple-page forms all needing researched to fill out properly. She saved us with her tremendous drive and organizational skills.

While the answer to "Are you a real estate entrepreneur, or a professional who invests?" doesn't have to be all or nothing, figuring out where to spend most of your efforts can build wealth much faster.

DISCOVERING YOUR SUPERPOWER

As always when hiring all A players, we knew it couldn't last, but when Christine finally left us, we were surprised where she ended up.

She learned after getting more involved in the industry that she doesn't actually like running real estate, she prefers helping others run their businesses, so she started a business consultancy to optimize operations.

She continued to dabble around in acquiring properties and even raising capital in a fund, but kept coming back to her core competency of business ops consulting with her firm Harvest Consulting.

HIGHEST AND BEST

What's your highest and best use of your time to earn active income?

Your actual value and ability to earn a great income might be higher in the job or business you are already an expert at doing. It might not be.

REAL ESTATE ENTREPRENEUR

• For me, my highest and best use of time was to become a real estate entrepreneur because as a photographer and graphic designer I didn't have extremely high-value skills for earning potential in the marketplace. To earn well in those fields, I would have had to start and scale a large business, and instead I decided to scale a real estate business. If this is you, starting a real estate business might be the best choice, and if so we encourage you to join our free weekly commercial real estate investing club to network and learn.

REAL ESTATE INVESTOR

• Most of our investors have the opposite outcome, like Christine did: they don't want to start a new career as a real estate entrepreneur. If this you, you're great at your high-paid W-2 or are a successful business owner in another field, it makes more sense to maximize that earning potential and invest passively.

• If this is you, consider diversifying your investing portfolio with us into commercial real estate and private lending projects at risecapitalinvestments.co

RETIREMENT AND DIVERSIFICATION REQUIRE PASSIVELY INVESTING

Eventually, many of our club members who successfully launch their real estate businesses do invest with us as well once for a variety of reasons.

• They create gains to shield from taxes

• They invest through their retirement accounts that regulations prohibit putting in their own projects

• They are maxed out on growth or time and need to invest passively rather than acquire a new deal.

Eventually, we all need to get to this point if we ever want to be able to retire and work by choice: for retirement, we must learn trust others and invest passively.

The same is true for early retirement before age 65: for early retirement, we must learn to trust others and invest passively.