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When somebody tells me they want to start a business, I say, “Let me see your business plan.” For several years, I worked with large companies that would sometimes invest in other companies. Whenever we were examining a company, one of the things we always looked for was who the principals in the company were. We wanted to know about their education, background and experience.

This post is an excerpt from my upcoming book, “Money Mastery.” If you would like to preorder (Today is the last day for preorder price!), click here!

In an investable company, we wanted to see how the people in leadership exemplified knowledge, understanding and wisdom in running their business. Bill Ackman, one of the largest hedge fund managers in America today, always bets on the horse. He invests in the people that are running companies and their ability to do that.

One of the secrets to Warren Buffet’s success is that when he invests in companies, he moves to own the whole company outright.

If Buffet thinks it’s a good company, and the CEO or COO are not doing a proper job, then he buys the company for under value. When he acquires the company, he then puts in his own CEO or COO to run things in order to bring the value up.

The Amplified Bible says in Luke 19:44, “And they will dash you down to the ground, you (Jerusalem) and your children within you; and they will not leave in you one stone upon another, (all) because you did not come progressively to recognize and know and understand (from observation and experience) the time of your visitation (that is, when God was visiting you…)”

Sometimes we have God opportune moments in our lives and we don’t even recognize them. We don’t come progressively to recognize and know and understand from observation and experience that God is doing good things for us.

When I’m on the track of building the Second X and I understand the Law of Wisdom is a vital part of that process, then I start with knowledge and move to understanding. Then I can graduate to walking in wisdom. That observation stage is the knowledge and the experience is the understanding.

  You’ve got to apply yourself and experience things. It’s like how my grandsons play sports. I can play in the backyard with them all day long and help them develop some fundamental skills for baseball or soccer. But the challenge is that they’re not going to learn unless they get in the game.

You have to get your feet wet, you have to step into the water so the waters can part. If you don’t progressively come to know and understand, you won’t recognize the time of your visitation.

That’s why when we look Genesis 1 and talk about being fruitful, we need to know how to be fruitful. To be fruitful you’ve got to get in the game. You’re never going to develop understanding unless you observe and experience. And you can’t observe and experience unless you jump in the game.

Find places where you can get your feet wet. Find areas where you can serve or volunteer. Or when it comes to building the Second X in business or real estate, find a mentor. Or take a class. Begin to take the steps you know to take in order to move in the direction you need to go.

However you do it, make sure you keep a careful catalog or journal of exactly what you learn along the way. This prevents you from making the fundamental mistakes in your future.

The Law of Wisdom is critical to being able to build the Second X. It’s essential that you become a resilient learner. You’ve got to learn how to move forward. When things happen, instead of giving up and saying life doesn’t work, be resilient. Pick yourself back up and try again. But take wisdom from your experience and the next time, try again a bit differently.

One of my mentors once told me that he had filed bankruptcy three times. Now don’t go filing bankruptcy three times if you can help it, but learn from his resilience! He picked himself back up from those low points and learned from his experiences. Eventually, he became a huge blessing to the Kingdom of God. All because he was willing to keep trying!

So, learn from your mistakes. Profit is made by solving problems that others could not solve. Profit is also made by solving your own problems.

One of the things everyone learns in real estate investing, especially when buying multi-family units, is that there are units where all utilities are not separately metered.

When I was young, I purchased a simple property. It was a duplex and I was convinced that all the utilities were separately metered. Well, I learned quickly that the three key words in real estate investing are verify, verify, verify not location, location, location.

Turns out the water meters were not separately metered and one month I had to pay the water costs of that entire building. I had a water bill for $630 for one month. I didn’t know you could even use that much water. It was a painful experience!

Within two months, I figured out the issue: there was a leak in a toilet. I immediately spent $1,500 to have the water metered for each unit. I spent $1,500, got the problem fixed and picked myself back up. Now any time I look at multi-family properties, I get on my hands and knees! I want to see working, individual water meters in the ground—and I want to see that before I purchase.

That is what resilient learning looks like. It’s painful sometimes, but leads to great reward and wisdom. You pick yourself up, pay your $630 water bill, and say Praise the Lord, let’s move forward!

Learn more about my upcoming book, “Money Mastery,” here!