Getting Yelled At Made Me Successful!

The vacation had to end somehow….and what’s more fitting than Uncle Sam with his cheeks full of air as he blows the war bugle to remind me of a commitment I made nine years ago as an ROTC cadet!

I’m currently on a plane, literally flying away from my dream life as a full-time nomad living beach-to-beach in Baja, Mexico. I’m on my way to the Army Reserve center for my monthly training weekend.

As I approach my fifth commissioned year in the Army Reserves, I’ve been thinking a lot about how my time in the service has impacted my life. I rarely enjoyed the time I spent in training, and have often seen the Army as a complete waste of my time. It wasn’t until I started making serious gains in my professional endeavors that I realized how profound the impact of military service was. I’m sure those of you who served understand exactly what I mean.

All the time spent complaining, regretting, hurting, falling asleep to a long operations order and being woken up by an angry Master Sergeant, listening to:

“TAKE NOTE EVERYBODY….AT LEAST BROWN IS CONSISTENTLY F***** UP”

....and everything else I hated about the military was a blessing in disguise…the struggle that got me to the reward.

Why do you think Jesse Futia , Brian Briscoe , Scott J. Lewis , and I have been able to build real estate portfolios so fast? I promise it wasn’t because we’re geniuses (Scott might be a genius).

It was the long sleepless nights pulling security while it rained and then getting yelled at in the morning because someone on a later shift fell asleep.

It was the time Joe left his rifle by a tree when he had to urinate and then the entire platoon had to comb the woods for hours knowing one of the instructors actually stole the rifle and was watching us with a smirk.

Or the time when I skipped a meal because the military ration was nasty, and I ended up in the medic’s tent because I was so dehydrated due to a lack of salt.

Or the time my close friend didn’t get to wake up the next morning.

...and how did these experiences make me a real estate investor?

• When you’re hungry, tired, and wet, you grow a shell
• When things go wrong, you learn to adapt
• When you fail, you get back up and don’t make the same mistake twice
• When you let your team down, you feel ashamed and embarrassed
• When you end up working very late because you didn’t delegate enough, you learn the importance of time and personnel management
• When something unexpected happens, you learn to plan better
• When all you want to do is pull a blanket over your head and disappear, you understand what the bottom feels like

And when you win, you understand what it feels like to be alive and why it’s worth it to go forward.

So as I sit in my office tomorrow at the Reserve Center, I’m going to be bored, angry, and possibly a bit annoyed.

...but in just a few days time, I get to return to the incredible life I’ve designed by using what I learned as a soldier.

About the Writer

Elijah Brown is a real estate investor, entrepreneur, Army officer, and writer. While working as an investment analyst for Bank of America, and later as a manager for Healthpeak Properties (S&P500 REIT), Elijah developed a love for real estate and began raising private capital to acquire over $150 million of apartment units across the United States. Elijah is the managing partner of GoldHawk Capital, a real estate investment firm that partners with passive investors to acquire multifamily properties.

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