They could have of- fered me ten pigs and I would have been happy. Not at the offer, but just because someone was interested. I would have countered, maybe for a pig farm in exchange. But that's how the game works. The game of buying and sell- ing is fun. Keep that in mind. It's fun and only a game. Make offers. Someone might say "yes." And I always make offers with escape clauses. In real estate, I make an offer with the words "subject to approval of business partner." I never specify who the business part- ner is. Most people do not know my partner is my cat. If they accept the offer, and I don't want the deal, I call my home and speak to my cat. I make this absurd statement to illustrate how absurdly easy and simple the game is. So many people make things too difficult and take them too seriously. Finding a good deal, the right business, the right peo- ple, the right investors, or whatever is just like dating. You must go to the market and talk to a lot of people, make a lot of offers couriteroffejneg I know single people who sit at home and wait for the phone to ring, but unless you're Cindy Crawford or Tom Cruise, I think you'd best go to the market, even if it's only the supermarket. Search, offer, reject, negotiate and accept are all parts of the process of almost everything in life. • Jog, walk or drive a certain area once a month for ten minutes. I have found some of my best real estate in- vestments while jogging. I will jog a certain neigh- borhood for a year. What I look for is change. For there to be profit in a deal, there must be two ele- ments: a bargain and change. There are lots of bar- gains, but it's change that turns a bargain into a profitable opportunity. So when I jog, I jog a neigh- borhood I might like to invest in. It is the repetition that causes me to notice slight differences. I notice real estate signs that are up for a long time. That means the seller might be more agreeable to deal. I watch for moving trucks, going in or out. I stop and talk to the drivers. I talk to the postal carriers. It's amazing how much information they acquire about an area. I find a bad area, especially an area that the news has scared everyone away from. I drive it for sometimes a year waiting for signs of something changing for the better. I talk to retailers, especially new ones, and find out why they're moving in. It takes only a few minutes a month, and I do it while doing something else, like exercising, or going to and from the store. • As for stocks, I likejjeter Lvnchbook Beating, the Street for his formula forselecfing stocks that grow~in value. 1 have found that the principles of finding value are the same regardless whether it's real estate, stocks, mutual funds, new companies, a new pet, a new home, a new spouse, or a bargain on laundry detergent. The process is always the same. You need to know what you're looking for and then go look for it! • Why consumers will always be poor.