The Difference Between Knowing the Path & Walking the Path

Do you know the difference?

I was watching TV the other day and I ran across “The Matrix.”

I love that movie. I think it’s just brilliant. It’s an amazing movie and there are a lot of truths in that movie, as well.

If you know the back story of The Matrix, a lot of that movie is actually based on biblical truth - they just kind of changed it around to make it appeal in more of a pop culture way, but there’s a lot of truth in that movie. (Sure, there's a lot that is not biblical about it, but it’s a great movie, nonetheless.

But as I watched the movie, I heard a quote that was spoken by Morpheus. Morpheus, the wise older guy in the movie, right?

The quote was, “There’s a difference between knowing the path and walking the path.”

Now this is a huge principle, because there are a lot of people out there trying to teach or trying to help or trying to basically be "Internet marketing gurus", but they haven’t actually walked the path.

Some of these people are out for your money, some of these people are scamsters and then, some of these people are honest people who just want to build a following over time.

Be aware of that - on the consumer’s side - that there’s a difference between "knowing the path" and "walking the path". In other words, I could know a lot about a particular topic, but If I haven’t actually experienced it and actually done it, in other words, if I haven’t actually been successful at business, I have no right to say I can teach you how to be successful in business.

If I haven’t made millions of dollars, then I can’t teach you how to make millions of dollars.

If I haven’t made hundreds of thousands of dollars, (in another business) then I can’t teach you how to make hundreds of thousands of dollars.

By the way, that’s a standard that I've always held myself to and that’s one of the reasons I don’t teach Amazon FBA strategies (for example) because I’m not doing Amazon FBA as a business.

I am doing Amazon as a Merchant Fulfilled seller and I can teach you how to find great products to sell that way.

Now that’s one of the things I have done successfully is find products, source products, that kind of thing, so I do teach that. But, I don’t teach Amazon FBA as a business model myself. (although I do recommend it as a business model)

What I’m saying is, I go by these rules and you should too, and the rule is, “Don’t ever teach anybody something you haven’t personally done and succeeded at.”

Now let’s look at it from another angle with the saying, “There’s a difference between knowing the path and walking the path.”

Sometimes you’ve got to work on "knowing the path" really well before you decide to walk the path.

Here’s what I mean... When I was 19 and just out of school, I was working for the City of Angeles. I was a draftsman in the civil engineering department. We used to draw maps of the sewer lines underneath the streets; great white collar job and all that.

But I got involved in real estate investing. I use to attend a lot of real estate investment seminars.

In the early 80’s, there was this big wave of people teaching how to invest in real estate, how to invest in real estate with no money down, how to invest in real estate with creative financing and there were a lot of hucksters in that world, but there were also some very knowledgeable investors who had 30, 40, 50 houses and who could speak from massive amounts of experience. (Those were the people that I followed.)

Because it was one of my first business ventures and I didn’t know that much about it and I was lacking in confidence, I spent three years studying the top real estate investment teachers.

After about three years, I was suddenly very confident that I could actually do what I had learned and invest in property.

But, it took me three years, though. (Of course, everyone is different. Everyone learns at a different phase, everyone is at the different place in life.)

I’m sure that if I were to go to these seminars today, I’d pick it up very quickly.

Today, I get into action quickly, because I’ve developed a lot of life skills over the years. I developed a lot of entrepreneurial skills over the years and I developed a lot of confidence over the years.

But back then, it took me three years to feel fully confident that I could do real estate investing.

From that moment to about age 23, I developed a small portfolio of 12 units of real estate.

I had two single family homes, a six-unit apartment building and a four-unit apartment building.

How did that happen so quickly?

It’s because I developed confidence by getting myself trained and getting myself educated about the world I was going to go into, real estate investing.

That’s what I recommend for you, as you’re getting started in your work-at-home journey (or if you’ve already been in the work-at-home journey but haven’t achieved the success that you want to achieve) is that you get yourself trained, because training leads to confidence.

The more you can get trained in the right ways, the more successful you’ll be, quickly.

That’s how I was able to invest in real estate at a very young age, built a portfolio of about 12 units, was because I developed the confidence and the confidence came from training.

Today, I use the same approach to any new business or opportunity that I get involved in. I get into "immersion learning" - I learn everything I can about the business (as quickly as I can) and then jump right into action.

Action is the key. Don't just be a learner - be an action taker.