No Money? No Problem.
Three $10 million deals with no plan
“The only thing worse than being blind is having sight but no vision.”
— Helen Keller (1880-1968)
Just clear vision with faith and purpose.
I had spent the last 15 years with the singular goal of becoming a doctor. I achieved it but now felt disillusioned. I was newly married and had a beautiful newborn daughter on the way. Needless to say, I was at a big crossroads.
I pondered whether this was what I wanted to do for the next 40 years of my life. I still wanted to help people but this was clearly not the way to do it.
“Even without money, a vision with faith and purpose are powerful enough to make the seemingly impossible possible.”
— Kevin
With the business back on track, there were a few dreams I saw in my heart.
Build my dream home
Buy a church property
Buy a commercial office building for work
Each of these would require at least a $10 million investment, over $36 million total. The problem? I only had $200,000 in the bank.
My dream home
“A house is made of walls and beams; a home is built with love and dreams.”
— Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882)
I thought about what I wanted in a dream home. I imagined in my mind’s eye:
a view of the mountains
the Pacific Ocean
close to the city, yet a secluded, tranquil neighbourhood
clean air next to parks and beaches, and
a large lot
So I looked on Google Earth and looked for areas that would match this. I found a few locations. I looked at houses for sale in these neighbourhoods. One house, when I stepped into it, I just had a vision and an intuition that this would be my home. It was already ‘done’.
The realtor said the basement was a mess and flooded, and likely had mold. I didn’t even go look at the rest of the house. I told my realtor, my brother-in-law, Gord, to put in a firm offer for $3.6 million just for the lot, I knew it was a bargain compared to the other neighborhoods. I would then spend the next five years building my dream house on this big lot. I would struggle to pay for the building of my dream home, as it took much longer to build (5 years) at double my budget.
Our church
“The Church is a place where broken hearts are healed, broken relationships are mended, and broken people find wholeness.”
Our church congregation is only about 150 people. Small. So we rented churches and we often had to move from one location to another. One day, the youth group gathered together and had a dream of buying a church property. Something we would own. Our elders told us we needed to think big, buy a place that was by the ocean, surrounded by trees with a creek flowing through the property into the ocean.
That sounded very expensive, much larger than our $300,000 budget back in early 2000. Over the next few years, we went to view many potential lots. They were very expensive. We had our eye on this one 78 acre property, owned by the YMCA. We had had a spring Bible conference there and we loved it. The problem was that it wasn't for sale.
A couple of years later in 2004, I was reading the neighbourhood newspaper and it mentioned that the YMCA might be selling this particular property in order to build a larger facility downtown. I quickly told an elder and he told me bluntly, “We can’t afford it.” I asked one of my mentors, Bryant, if we could pursue this.
We went on to raise $10 million and negotiated with the YMCA to pay it over the next three years. An impossible dream made possible by faith. We had very little money, but we raised the money with a dream that this property would help people with their health physically, mentally, and spiritually.
My dream office
“Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work.”
— Steve Jobs (1955-2011)
I noticed that downtown Vancouver felt a lot like Manhattan downtown. It needed to be accessed by bridges. The secret in real estate: location, location, location!
I knew that downtown could only go up in density as I was looking around different neighbourhoods. I really liked this heritage area called Yaletown. I saw a building on sale and asked my realtor to view the property. As soon as I stepped into the building, I once again had a vision of exactly what would happen: a bank in one corner, a restaurant taking half the building, and my company occupying a quarter of the building.
I asked my realtor, Gord, to make an offer. I didn’t tell him I didn’t have the money. I asked him if we could have a small down payment of $100,000 and close in 12 months. I know that these were crazy requests, but we got the purchase price down from $12.2 million to $11.2 million, closing in 10 months.
I thought that I could get a mortgage for 95% of the building, but did not know that commercial mortgages typically required 50% down payment.
Where was I gonna come up with $5.4 million in 10 months?
A Hail Mary
“Faith sees the invisible, believes the unbelievable, and receives the impossible.”
— Corrie ten Boom (1892-1983)
With each of these three dream projects, I didn’t have the funds for any one of them, never mind all three of them.
With no obvious means to close them, I prayed for wisdom. I prayed for a means to acquire each of these properties. I thought about the stories in the Bible, the faith the great characters in the Bible had in order to accomplish something great. I had this kind of faith. All three of these dreams would be realized in a short period of time. We tend to call these events miracles.
I realized very quickly that once I had a goal, I quickly divided up that financial goal into mortgages, fundraising or making that money by a certain time. Wisdom and insight were provided to me for a few years of the respective plans to get loans, fundraising and accelerating my business. My business grew exponentially. It was on pace to make over $100 million a year with great profit margins, with only 16 people.
With just a vision with faith and purpose, these were accomplished. Thank you God.
Life Questions
“Pray as though everything depended on God.
Work as though everything depended on you.”— Saint Augustine (354-430)
1. What are the dreams in your heart?
Write your top 1 to 3 dreams down now. Yes, write them down. Something magical happens when you write them down. Now tell your dreams to your most trusted friend or to God.
Review these dreams each day, each week, each month, each year.
They are in the cocoon of your heart.
2. Imagine your dreams in your mind’s eye. Visualize them.
Make a 5 step (dominoes) plan with a timeline
Start on step number one.
Just start it and stumble your way to step two, etc.
3. Have you ever prayed? Do you only pray when things are impossible?
Pray for wisdom. Pray with faith. Trust the path. Enjoy the journey. Both the ups and the downs.
My Life Lessons Then: (from my 35 year old self)
“Hardships often prepare ordinary people for an extraordinary destiny.”
— C.S. Lewis (1898-1963)
1. Faith that is invisible is greater than money which is tangible.
Often the most valuable things are unseen, not tangible.
2. Praying for wisdom and insight.
Solomon’s request for wisdom may be one of the greatest prayers.
Wisdom is the mother of all things. It’s seven children are love, faith, hope, serenity, joy, understanding, patience.
3. Sometimes ignorance is the reason for many innovations.
Not knowing how the world works allows the impossible to be possible, for fear to be hidden behind the veils of ignorance.
Life Advice Now: (from my present 53 year old self)
“Curiosity is the wick in the candle of learning.”
— William Arthur Ward (1921-1994)
1. I am reminded to walk by Faith and not by sight.
Thank you for reminding me, my younger self.
2. I am very grateful for the blessings as well as the hardships
There arises in my heart a prayer for the blessings but more so, a prayer for the hardships that sharpened my faith, my strength as hardship shaped me.
3. May you always be bold as a lion and curious like a child
Strength and honour to all who strive and ride into the face of the dreams in their heart. Scary but thrilling.
Next week: Unknown. Rejected. Despite a Lot of Money
You are not someone unless there is verifiable media proof.
See you next Thursday!
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