Q & A with Mr. Morris
What motivated you to become an entrepreneur? My family exposed me to property ownership and entrepreneurship at an early age. My uncle purchased his first multi-family building in 1974 and my family lived in the 3rd floor apartment. When he moved out of the building in 1985 he made it my responsibility to maintain the building in his absence.
My responsibilities consisted of cutting the grass, emptying the quarters from the Coin-O-Matic laundry machines, cleaning the hallways, changing the furnace filters, changing light bulbs, and collecting his rent. I was 9 years old. He rarely visited the property and that was my introduction to passive income.
The income from the rental property funded the following businesses: a car wash, restaurant, hair salon, and a clothing store. At the age of 12 I began working at the car wash. I began vacuuming the cars, graduated to washing cars, and eventually began collecting the money and managing the car washers.
What did you find the most difficult about getting started? There are 3 main stumbling blocks for entrepreneurs: funding, partnerships, and motivation.
Looking back, how much do you believe your success is owed to luck and how much is due to hard work, percentage-wise? Looking back on my success, none of it was the result of luck. I owe my success to my level of exposure and my willingness to sacrifice current gratifications for a better future. My favorite quote growing up was “Sometimes you have to do what you don’t like to get to where you want to be” by Tori Amos.
When I began high school I would work 13 hour days on the weekends at my uncle’s car wash and I started a lawn care business where I would cut grass during the week to earn money.
My high school hobby was making and saving money.
Was there anything in your childhood that motivated you to do what you are doing now? My sister knew how passionate I was about saving money, but knew a savings account was not the best vehicle for growing my savings. So, my sister convinced me to withdraw my money from the bank and she invested my savings into two mutual funds. I was fascinated with reading stock ticker codes and studying the markets. I majored in Economics at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and eventually became an economist for the federal government.
Who did you idolize growing up? My idol growing up were my uncles. I had direct access to entrepreneurs who in my eyes were bigger than life. They spoke with so much confidence and commanded respect whenever they entered any room.
Some of my favorite slogans from my uncle were, “Whenever you walk into a room you look for the 2nd most important person in the room”; “I may not be the smartest person in the room, but I can more done than anyone else in the room”; “If you are still talking about what you did yesterday, then you haven’t done much today”; and You can pay a company once to perform a task, but you better stand over their shoulder, ask them questions and learn, and make sure you never have to call them again for their service.”
How long do you think you have in this business? The beauty about real estate is that it is an appreciating asset. The goal is create passive income and create generational wealth for the family. Generational wealth represents assets that are passed down from one generation to the next. So, I am building a business to be passed down to my children and their children.
Real estate is a business that doesn’t require your daily engagement. The goal is have a system in place and outsource everything that would typically require your attention. That is the definition of TRUE passive income and mailbox money.
So, to answer the question: real estate will take care of my family needs and wants for the remainder of my life.
Would you rather be bigger or faster in your profession? Everyone feels like giving up at some point to find a “regular job”. What kept you going when you hit that wall and what did the wall look like?:
Some analysts say what you do as a business has a short lifespan. Do you agree? I disagree. God isn’t making any more land. Real estate will always be in demand and people will always have a need for housing.
What app do you use the most? Realtor.com. You never know when a property will become available for sale. So, I probably check this app a few times each day.
What are you constantly checking on your phone? I am constantly checking real estate sites for new listings, Amazon to see the number of my sold books, and my brokerage accounts to see how my stocks and mutual funds performed for the day.
