FCP 026: The 4 Stages of Learning Everyone Has to Go Through

Intro:    Are you ready to transform your financial future? Here’s your chance to see inside the mindset of self-made millionaires, Jack and Michelle Bosch as they go back the curtain on secrets that can make you rich. Discover how everyday people are breaking the norms and building empires from the ground up using a little low yet proven and time-tested wealth building real estate strategies. It’s my pleasure to welcome you to the ForeverCash.com podcast and introduce you to our hosts, serial entrepreneurs, investors, educators and best-selling authors, Jack and Michelle Bosch. Strap yourself in for the ride of your life.

Michelle:    Hello everyone. This is Michelle Bosch and…

Jack:    …And Jack Bosch. Welcome to this week’s edition of the Forever Cash Real Estate Investing Podcast. It’s a real estate wealth creating podcast really. Because today, we’re going to talk about something that is not necessarily real estate related yet it is.

Michelle:    Yes, it is especially if you’re learning real estate or if you want to lead in real estate.

Jack:    And it’s actually a methodology or not a methodology, it’s something that every person goes through no matter what you learn on your way from beginner to a peak performer.

Michelle:    Absolutely. And so from the point of view of leadership, how I see today’s podcast is that one biggest asset of a leader is their ability to anticipate. And so if you can anticipate as a leader the four stages that you’re going to go through during your real estate investing business, you know that you are prepared. You know they’re coming because you’ve anticipated. You’ve planned for them. And so you can write through them much easier, much smoother than not knowing that this is what’s coming.

Jack:    All right. But before we get started with that, let me quickly tell you where to find out more information about us. And also, not just more information about us, but more information about the ways that we do deals, the way that we do real estate. So first of all, we have… The podcast notes to this podcast are available for you at www.ForeverCash.com/Podcast.

So on this place, you find an archive of all the podcasts that we’ve done so far. You can download them there. If there’s something you particularly like in what we said, you can go to the podcast notes. Download the transcript and highlight it and have it handy for you for the future. If you like Twitter, you can use certain kind of phrases and things that we use there and you can actually tweet them out there.

And there’s also a link that you can give us feedback on… Actually, no… You can review our podcast there on iTunes. That would be obviously awesome if you could do that for us and give us hopefully a good review. And then also since the typical is our kind of real estate, this episode is not necessarily about real estate. It’s about the capability of a leader to look forward and we’re going to share with you one way that you can look forward into your own learning stages.

But if you want to learn more about real estate, we specialize in a way of real estate that’s called tax delinquent real estate investing. And within that, we do land flipping and house flipping in ways that you don’t have to ever take on a bank loan, in ways that you don’t even have to take ownership of the property, in ways that you can literally buy pieces of land or houses for $100, $200, or $3,000 and flip them and make $5,000, $10,000, $20,000, $30,000 in profit.

And we are going to share those where there are five different techniques in our methods. You can find out more about that. We actually have a free course for you just as a thank you for being part of our podcast that you can download at ForeverCash.com/Freedom. Again, ForeverCash.com/Freedom. So with that, let’s get started in this exciting podcast.

Michelle:    Okay, so what we would like to discuss with you today like I mentioned earlier is something that leaders have which is… It’s a skillset. It’s the power to anticipate and it’s the power to anticipate right now through stages of learning. So we want to talk about, in our experience, the stages of learning that a typical investor, a typical student of anything that wants to master something has to go through.

So the four stages that we would like to talk about are number one: the enthusiastic beginner, number two: the disillusioned learner and number three: capable and cautious learner and number four: the peak performer. So we all want to get to the peak performer as fast as possible. But to be frank, we usually go and we have to go through the three prior stages. They’re normal. And we would like to describe how each of those stages feel like, look like, taste and what are some of the things that you’re going to be encountering both in your external circumstances and your internal circumstances.

Jack:    Right. So actually, let me express that even stronger than Michelle like said. Michelle said that most of us have to go to the four stages. Now, I want to say everyone has to go to those four stages. Or in another way nobody can get from step one to step four without going to the other two. It is a mandatory process that everyone goes through every time when you go on the way to peak performance. If you think about it, it’s always like… If you ever played tennis or if you ever did any kind of sport or if you worked out or something, they talk about performance plateaus. Well, performance plateaus are part of the process that we’re going to talk about.

Michelle:    Yeah, absolutely.

Jack:    So it works exactly like that in sport. It works exactly like that in learning a new skill. It works exactly like that in becoming the best at… blank. You put in whatever you want to put in there.

Michelle:    Yeah. And so, these four stages include the so called breakthroughs that you hear people talk about as well. And when those breakthroughs happen, which are usually like two-millimeter shifts, you really jump to that fourth stage which is of a peak performer. So without further ado, let’s start talking about the first stage which is the enthusiastic beginner.

So when you’re the enthusiastic beginner, you just sat down or you just listened to a podcast or you just went to an event or you just finished reading something and you are absolutely fired up. The way that the material was presented and articulated really resonated with you and made sense. So you’re super motivated. You can’t wait for the day to start. You wake up at 5:00 A.M. and you want to get going.

And you know that this new stuff that you’re learning or that you just learned, it’s blowing your mind. It’s really expanding your horizon. And there’s a real paradigm shift that has happened for you. And that’s beautiful. That is amazing; because that means that you’re in a trajectory or on a path for growth. With growth comes excitement and really joy for living. Progress in my opinion is what we’re all striving for.

And progress can only come with growth and that really excites you. And that really gives you happiness. At least, most of the top performers, peak performers that we know, this is usually how they feel. Their inner world is really happening when they’re in this first beginning stage. So then, the second stage is and I’ll let you talk about the second stage.

Jack:    Sure, absolutely. The second stage is like once you wake up after a few days…

Michelle:    Or perhaps a…

Jack:    Or perhaps a week.

Michelle:    Yeah.

Jack:    So you get excited about something. Something new pops in your mind. You watched a webinar. You get exposed to this new investing technique. You get exposed to this. You come up with this idea and you’re excited and you’re the enthusiastic beginner. You jumped in. You woke up at 5:00 in the morning. And then, you do that for about ten days or perhaps three days or perhaps 30 days depending on how deep the desire it is to do it and how fast you come up to the first road block.

Michelle:    Yeah.

Jack:    Really, once you come to those first road blocks that really… where you realize things are not as easy as you actually thought they would be and there are things that actually need some work, that’s when you hit stage number two. And if you think about that, has it ever happened to you? Think about just back into anything that you ever wanted to learn and perhaps that you abandoned. It’s particularly something you tried to do but you never followed through all the way.

Michelle:    Or that you procrastinated on.

Jack:    Or that you procrastinated on. Very good point, yes. Usually, what happens is, this is the point where you gave up. You gave up in that point of the disillusioned learner. Now, you didn’t know that this is where you gave up because you didn’t know what was there to be expected. That’s what Michelle talked about that a good leader has tools to actually look into the future and know what’s going to come.

So if you know that the disillusioned learner’s stage is second, it’s going to be easier to overcome it. Now let’s look at it. What does it include again? Did you hit the disillusioned learner stage when you realize that things are a little harder than you thought? That things will need some work, that you haven’t learned everything yet, that getting up in the morning… At that point, you realized that getting up in the morning isn’t that easy anymore. And especially, let’s say if you do a workout, you go workout for three times or five times or ten times or so, and then you realize, “Man, it’s hurting. I can’t.” You start making excuses and so on. Now if at this point, you start skipping some sessions. You start slacking. You start falling back into your old habits, you are doomed.

But if you know that this is actually where most people fail, but if you know that this is the second stage and you know that once you get started and there’s going to be some hurdles that come, and once you see those hurdles, and once you see those things, and once you know that you are in a, as Michelle calls it, the itty bitty shitty committee, basically you’re in a voice that’s like a negative and so on…

Michelle:    Or your inner pig-dog like Jack calls his.

Jack:    Yes, your inner pig dog comes from the German word the “Den inneren Schweinehund” which is the inner pig-dog. It basically tells you to, “Oh no, come on. You’re not made out to that. Who do you think you are?” and things like that. But if you know that this is going to happen, you have already built in the disarmament. You already have built in the arms to actually break through to that.

Michelle:    And you can do that in the form of setting structures or process for when you hit this stage, you know that you’re going to get either the help of a coach, either of a group that holds you accountable, an accountability partner. For me, it presents in the way that I know I can overcome this by having such accountability.

Jack:    And it depends on you. If you’re good at those things, if you’re good at breaking through those barriers, great. You might not need help. But a lot of us need help. That’s why for example, when we wanted to get fit, we went into a fitness studio and we actually got one of the coaches there to train us for just about 30, 45 days or perhaps two to three months so that we could get into that habit and we could get through the stage where we got in there as enthusiastic beginners. But we knew we needed that person to hold us accountable through the stage of disillusioned learner.

And then once we got through that point, we now were very kind of like capable in the gym. We knew what to use, what all these machines are for, what different kind of exercises are called and we knew what they would do. We could see some results in our body. And all of a sudden, we’re not yet Arnold Schwarzenegger nor do we want to be. But in this case, we were looking at like, “Hey, this is actually… I think I can do this and I’m comfortable around that area.” And that’s where you hit the stage of capable but cautious.

Michelle:    Yeah.

Jack:    And Michelle, you can take over from there.

Michelle:    In this capable but cautious stage, basically it’s when you reach a level of being comfortable with a little bit of the knowledge that you have. In some of the action steps that you’ve taken, you’ve seen some results. And so you feel somewhat capable. There is some confidence there. But at the same time, you don’t yet fully trust the newfound knowledge and the capabilities. So this is where I think…

Jack:    You might have done a deal or two already under your belt.

Michelle:    Yeah.

Jack:    Perhaps even three or four. You’re like, “Hey, this stuff actually works. I can actually do this.” You’re excited again. So because now, it’s the excitement level again, but you’re not yet sure. I mean, “Was that a fluke? Is this really going to go hold on? How do I do ten deals? How do I do 20 deals?” You’re not yet entirely the master of it, but hey you’re no longer a beginner and you’re not disillusioned anymore. You now are confident, capable but cautious.

Michelle:   Yeah, you’re cautious. And in a way, I want to say that you’re still dabbling with it that you’re still not fully convinced of your own capabilities. There is some level of trust like Jack says there, because that one first deal or a couple of deals if you’ve really used them or have started using them looking at them as a vehicle for mastery, they will have sculpted your spirit already in such a way that you know that you can do this and you’ve encountered some roadblocks and you know that you can overcome them.

So then, the fourth stage to really get from capable to cautious and really going from just an occasional deal here and there to really becoming a peak performer, a professional, somebody that can and is willing to really bring this to the next level and really scale it up… This is the point where things have become second nature. And in order to be that perk performer, you will have need the benefit of repetition.

Jack:    Right. You just keep going. The more you do it, the better you get. I mean, look at tennis players. If you’ve ever played tennis… We were just on vacation and we actually got some tennis rackets. We have our 7-year-old with us. We went to Kauai and the hotel had a tennis court. So you could go to the front desk and borrow some tennis rackets and some balls. And so we went out there and guess what? We completely sucked.

Michelle:    Yes, absolutely.

Jack:    Yeah, because how in the world do you throw up the ball, remember where are, put your arm up, hit that ball and it’s all of that at the same time? It’s complicated.

Michelle:    Yeah, but when we go those rackets, we were fired up. We thought we were going to be hitting stuff with Sophia and we had the racket and the balls felt nice and bouncy and the breeze. I mean, there was a beautiful blue sky and we were ready for it. And oh, boy, within minutes…

Jack:    It took five minutes to hit the disillusioned learner stage, right?

Michelle:    Absolutely.

Jack:    It took probably like 30 seconds to get there. So this is the case. Sometimes it takes days, sometimes it takes minutes. But once you’re there and now imagine… Now actually, we’re planning what we are planning to do once the heat goes down in Phoenix Arizona, we’re going to take some tennis lessons. When we take some tennis lessons, I believe within probably… I don’t know, 10 or 20 lessons or something like that, we can get to the stage where we’re capable but cautious.

Michelle:    Uh-huh.

Jack:    That we at least can run and get that ball over to the other side, that we can perhaps get the ball three or four times back and forth. But we still have to kind of think about it and so on. But now, think about Andre Agassi. Think about… I don’t know. I don’t follow tennis these days anymore. I don’t know who the top tennis players in the world are. But when I grew up, it was Boris Becker obviously from Germany. It was Steffi Graf also from Germany and Andre Agassi. And you remember all those guys and you replace those names with the two tennis players right now. Do they have to think about where to put their hands and where to put their body and their feet and so on when they hit a ball? No, it’s second nature. Therefore, they’re peak performers.

Michelle:    They’re really working with the two-millimeter stuff.

Jack:    Right.

Michelle:    You know, when they are having a coach.

Jack:    Absolutely. And you don’t have to even think about them, because I mean, there’s only like 100 of them that in the world that make enough money for that to make a living with that. But even if you think about the tennis coach that we’re going to hire, for him it’s probably going to be second nature. He wouldn’t win any tournaments, but he is good enough to really play such that he’s played his entire or he’s played many years already in such that it’s easy, it’s comfortable and it’s really subconscious mastery.

Michelle:    Yeah. And so this is the level that you need to basically… that you know that you want to get to and we all wish that we can get from point A to D in one step. But no, you know that it is normal. It is okay to go through the other stages. And like Jack said, “Eventually, it will become… It’s a mastery that is subconscious.” But I want to also point out something very important of the peak performer. It’s that usually, the peak performer has started knowing that these are these stages they’re going to go through and these are people that are absolutely committed to an incredible high level of excellence.

So, when you’re committed to this incredible high level of excellence and you know that this is coming, it’s easier to navigate through. Basically, when you hit those lows or those valleys, for you to get out of them and not spend as much time in the valleys and feeling sorry for yourself or the itty bitty shitty committee might just spend time with you for a couple of minutes, for half a day, for a couple of days, but you won’t be stuck there for weeks, for months, for years. Some people don’t realize that they’ve been in a valley for years.

Jack:    Right. Very good. Exactly, so…

Michelle:    But if you know that this is coming and you’re committed to excellence, I think you can ride through these stages so much easier and so much smoother.

Jack:    And this is actually… This is the power of a leader as Michelle says, being able to look forward, because it translates very much one-to-one to the business world too. Now, this is the business world if you use this to do deals. But also, let’s say if you have a company and your company has 50 people that work for you or 5,000 people work for you, it doesn’t really matter. What matters or what the point is even in business as you grow, you will come across situations that can be predicted. Like if you know the growth cycle of a business and we’ll probably do another podcast about that, then you’ll also have certain stages that can be predicted. Certain scenarios will always happen again and again and again. Particularly, one of them.

Michelle:   Regardless of industry.

Jack:    Regardless of industry.

Michelle:    Regardless of a deal, regardless of a transaction.

Jack:    Right. So for example, one of them is that you get to your capacity as an owner, as a manager to deal with what’s in front of you. Now we call that or actually Dan Sullivan calls that “The Ceiling of Complexity.”

Michelle:    Yeah.

Jack:    Now when you hit that ceiling of complexity, there’s some tools and some methods that you can use to break that ceiling and get back to the next level. If you don’t know that, you’re running up against that ceiling and all of a sudden you want throw in the towel. You want to say like, “This business stuff is too complicated. I don’t want to do this anymore. I want to just shrink and I want just to get a job again.” And then you do and you jeopardize your own success only because you didn’t know that this was one of the invariable steps of business success.

Michelle:    Yeah.

Jack:    And it’s the exact same thing with these four stages of learning here. If you don’t know that after the enthusiastic beginner comes the disillusion learner…

Michelle:    The disillusioned learner.

Jack:    And then afterwards, you’re going to be capable and cautious, and then comes the peak performance. If you don’t know that, you’re going to give up as a disillusioned learner because you’re just like, “Yeah, that’s too frustrating. I don’t want to do this.”

Michelle:    Yeah.

Jack:    And so on as a result. But if you know that, I hope we did a little bit of a service for you today to expose you to those four stages, to increase the chances of success in anything you do. Because if you remember this podcast, if you remember what we talked about here right now, then you will know that next time you hit the disillusioned… the next time you start something new and you hit the disillusioned learner stage, you’re going to be like, “Oh, that’s the disillusioned learner stage…

Michelle:    Uh-huh.

Jack:    Cool! That’s actually or what’s exactly like Jack and Michelle said.

Michelle:    Yeah.

Jack:    So let me go break through it and let me go do a deal or two, and then because on the other side, I’m going to be capable and cautious. And so now, it’s no longer a challenge.

Michelle:   Yeah.

Jack:    It’s something that you know happens and you know you just need to go through.

Michelle:    Yeah, absolutely. And at the peak performer stage, if you apply this for real estate investing, you’ll be doing lots of deals. You’ll be making a lot of money. A lot of positive things are going to be happening and coming into your life. Because a breakthrough in one category of your life whether it be financial, it’s really a win in other categories of your life as well. So it’s not something just for real estate investing that we’re teaching. Like Jack said, it’s really for any area of your life.

Jack:    Because by becoming the peak performer in that area of your lives, you really have become a different person in your life.

Michelle:    Yeah.

Jack:    And by becoming a different person in your life, I bet by becoming a peak performer, your confidence in life has gone up. Your self-confidence has gone up. Your ability to walk into a room and people turning heads and say like, “Whoa! Who’s this person who just walked in?” is completely changed and that affects everything else in your life too.

So go for it. Now you know the four steps. And we’ll see each other in the next podcast. Again, if you need to relisten to that, want to download the podcast or download the transcript, you can just go to ForeverCash.com/Podcast. And if you want to apply to one of the techniques, we have a free course for you at ForeverCash.com/Freedom. All right. With that, we’ll talk to each other next week.

Michelle:  Thank you very much.

Jack:    Thank you very much. Buh-bye.

Outro:    Thanks for listening to the Forever Cash Freedom Podcast. Subscribe now for future content-packed episodes on how to push the ejector seat on your financial hamster wheel and discover our radical way to freedom and wealth through cutting-edge real estate investing strategies. To learn more about living the “Forever Cash” lifestyle, investing smartly and becoming financially free, visit www.ForeverCashFreedom.com to claim your free “Forever Cash” Starter Kit today!