Are seminars worthless?

A couple of weeks ago I went to my hometown (Chicago area) to attend a three-day conference on the exciting subject of how to be filthy rich buying and selling Real Estate. I couldn't refuse the invitation from my son, after all, it wouldn't cost me anything, other than the ticket to fly to Midway Airport in Chicago.

There were successful mentors and practitioners of Real Estate giving presentations on how to make money with Real Estate. There were subjects like: How to make money with pre-foreclosures, how to flip properties, how to rehab properties, how to assign contracts and a myriad of proven strategies. Every presentation invariably was followed with an invitation to attend a future seminar costing from $ 495 to $ 12,000.

Don't get me wrong, these folks are selling what they know best. Strategies that have provided them with very handsome profits. But here is what I have observed time and time again. The apprentice's failure to make a profit with the new acquired knowledge. Why is that? I am sounding like a famous person from 60 minutes.

I think the problem is that we humans attempt to achieve different results with the same thinking process. That's insanity. Before attempting to learn new strategies we should take a seminar to teach us how to think and create a new thought process. We need a mental shift. To "see" new possibilities and believe that they are possible. Jonathan Livingston Seagull said: "To be there, you have to believe that you have arrived." This sounds like a lot of psycho-babble, but that's how successful people have achieved their visions.

Better yet, finding a mentor who can help and guide us to modify the negative and harmful messages in our mind. Only then, we should undertake any new strategy with the firm conviction that it will be a tremendous success.