Hi Chud

Five years of network marketing. Then property. Then 2008.

I'm going to start in the middle of the story, because that's where it hurts.

2008. The Spanish developer we'd invested with went bust overnight. Gone. The money we'd released from our home — tens of thousands — just gone.

The UK property we'd bought survived but to make matters worse the new fire regulations post Grenfell towers have not yet been implemented on our block where our flat is and we cannot therefore sell it and it continues to fall in value - total nightmare. It's now in negative equity so we've been paying the price ever since. I'm still repaying that mortgage today.

Here's what makes it worse. It wasn't reckless.

Property was doubling every seven years. Everyone knew it. It was a no-brainer. We re-mortgaged. We invested. We did what sensible people with ambition did.

And before that, five years in network marketing. I genuinely believed in it. The concept made sense. The stages, the pitching to family and friends, the live seminars, the conferences, the weekends away. I did all of it. Watched other people walk across the stage and talk about their results. We did build a group, even crossed the stage ourselves, but never made enough income to justify the enormous effort. It was massive hard work for little return.

Two different strategies. Both logical at the time. Both done in the wrong order — invest first, prove later. Hope it works.

What I didn't know then, and what I know now, is that the order matters more than the idea.

I'll show you what I mean in the next email.

Adrian.