How a 21-year-old quit his job to start one of the top real estate businesses in his province

Entrepreneurship may sound easy, but starting your own business is quite tricky--difficult most of the time, but gratifying once you get used to everything.

This is a guest post by Sir Bobit Ebarle, founder of Business Startup Blueprint.
Business Startup Blueprint is the proven, step-by-step Blueprint for starting your own low-risk, high-reward business. It also provides FREE business resources, training, and videos for aspiring entrepreneurs.

We all know that starting a business can give us Financial Freedom, or the state of possessing enough wealth to not have to work anymore. Starting a business can also give us Time Freedom, or the ability to spend your time as you please, and Personal Freedom, to do whatever you want, whenever you want.
 
However, we all know as well that only a few people get to start a business. Why?
 
Because we’re afraid. Afraid of failing. Taking risks. Losing money. Wasting time and effort. Letting people down.

These fears can be so terrifying that it results in people giving up on their lifelong dreams of starting a business and achieving financial, time, and personal freedom.
 
How can we overcome our fears and have the courage to start our own businesses? Better yet, how did successful entrepreneurs overcome their fears to start their own businesses?
 
If you’ve always wanted to learn from someone who has been through the entrepreneurial journey towards financial, time, and personal freedom, then you’re in luck! Because in this article, we’ll share with you our interview with RJ Armas, a young entrepreneur who overcame his fears and put up one of the most successful real estate brokerage firms in Baguio.

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He’s definitely someone we should learn from because, as a very young entrepreneur, he quit his day job in Makati at the age of 21, went home to his province in Baguio, and after just 1 year, earned his first million in his passion industry, real estate! Amazing, right?!

But behind all the success and achievements lie his humble beginnings. Because when he was just starting his business, he, too, had fears, like all of us. In fact, as you’ll see below, he had A LOT of fears – probably tons more than what you have right now!
 
The good news is, now, all those fears don’t matter anymore because he was able to overcome them. He was able to start a business and achieve financial, time, and personal freedom. He’s now able to take month-long vacations, buy land all over Luzon, and do whatever he wants, whenever he wants. All this because he was able to overcome his fears

RJ in Myanmar during one of his month-long vacations all over Asia.

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How did he overcome his fears? Let’s learn via our interview with him below:

RJ Armas
Founder of PhilProp Central Realty & Dev't, Inc., Rising Dragon Asia Realty, Inc., and TheOnlineRealEstateAgent.com

I co-founded two real estate marketing companies: PhilProp Central Realty & Dev't, Inc. and Rising Dragon Asia Realty, Inc. We partner with real estate developers to sell their projects. We also do real estate brokerage, construction, and renovation.
 
Recently, I've been doing a blog called TheOnlineRealEstateAgent.com to help real estate professionals in the country by sharing some of my insights on how to be successful as a real estate agent.
 
1. When you were just starting your business, what was the WORST thing that you feared could lead to the failure of your business?
 
I feared a lot of things like the tough competition, market acceptance of my product, and rejection by the clients just because they don't like me.
 
I feared failure itself when I experienced it. I failed some businesses before I discovered my current business model. I feared how my failure will change how I am perceived by my ex-officemates, friends, and family.
 
2. How did you overcome this fear?
 
I think the turning point of my career in business was when I accepted these fears as part of the journey. I accepted that sometimes clients will say no, sometimes you will get beaten by the competition, and sometimes you will ultimately fail.
 
But all of that makes you better through learning. You conquer fear by just doing and practicing until you succeed little by little.
 
I think fear is good, it keeps you sharp. Most of the times that I made major mistakes were instances when I wasn't fearful and I didn't do my homework.
 
3. What is your #1 advice for people who are just about to start their first business?
 
I strongly advise that you read and learn while trying your first business. I think that itself will increase your survivability by tenfold. Remember that anything you want to do right now, no matter how unique it is, has probably been attempted by somebody already. He/she has probably made mistakes, succeeded, and wrote a book about it.
 
So read and learn!

What we can learn from RJ
 
From RJ’s story, we can derive a few nuggets of wisdom. For starters, fear is normal. Even successful entrepreneurs like him felt lots of fears when starting a business! So if you’re afraid of starting a business for whatever reason, don’t worry, that’s normal.

But what’s more important is that we should NOT let our fears stop us from starting a business. After all, business is the path to our dreams – to financial, time, and personal freedom!
 
Moreover, there are concrete ways to overcome fear. RJ’s #1 advice is to read and learn from someone who was done it before. Because there is ALWAYS someone who has done it before and has written a book about it.
 
Reading and learning – it’s such simple advice that you might not take it seriously. But you will, once you see how seriously and dutifully RJ follows his own advice. Because for his part, RJ reads an average of 2 to 3 books… per month! That’s more than 30 books a year! He reads books written by successful real estate businessmen like Donald Trump, Gary Keller, and Tom Hopkins.

Because he read, learned, and soaked up soooo much knowledge from people who have done it before, he was able to know the fundamentals, techniques, and best practices to succeed in his chosen field of business. All these, he had mastered, despite being just in his early 20s. He had acquired decades’ worth of business knowledge – without having to work for decades! This is a powerful key not just to overcoming your fear, but also to achieving business success!
 
Reaping the rewards of business

Given the vast knowledge he learned from successful entrepreneurs, RJ already knew how to sell real estate, even when he was just starting out. He knew how to spot opportunities, negotiate (even with people thrice his age), close deals, and train employees.
 
Because he was guided by the teachings of successful entrepreneurs, he was able to overcome all of his fears and start his own business. More importantly, RJ was blessed by success and achievements that only entrepreneurs get to experience!
 
For instance, he achieved his first million at the age of 22. He earned a million pesos just one year after starting his real estate brokerage firm!
 
But that’s only the beginning of his success. All of that reading and learning paved the way for his firm to be the Number 1 seller of Goshen Land for their Subdivision Project. His firm was also the Rookie of the Year for selling BPI Foreclosures. Aside from that, it was Number 1 in Provincial Performance for DMCI. The company was the Number 1 Broker Office in sales for Goshen Land Capital and Moldex Realty Inc. (Baguio Projects).

On behalf of his company, RJ (center) receives the Rookie of the Year award from BPI.

​After just 2 years of operation, his company was already averaging PHP 40 million per month in sales. Yes, you read that right – the company was just 2 years old when it achieved all these!
 
These are results that only a business can achieve for you. He could not do this by himself, as a lone real estate broker.
 
Now, imagine if he had let fear prevent him from starting a business, or if he had not read so many books about successful entrepreneurs that enabled him to overcome his fear. He wouldn’t have all these achievements. He wouldn’t be able to take month-long vacations. He wouldn’t have financial freedom, time freedom, and personal freedom!

Read and learn – just like RJ!
 
So, if there’s only ONE thing you learn from this article, it is that you should NEVER let fear stop you from starting your own business. Especially since there are concrete ways that successful entrepreneurs once employed to overcome fear when they were just starting out themselves!
 
And just like RJ, make sure to read and learn from others who have done it before. If you’re serious about starting a business in the future, then start reading and learning NOW.
 
This is why, aside from RJ, we interviewed 9 other successful entrepreneurs for you to read and learn from! 

Together with RJ’s interview, we compiled all these and created a FREE Business Startup Blueprint PDF report entitled, “How 10 Successful Entrepreneurs Overcame their Biggest Fears when Starting a Business.”

Whether it be fear of taking risks, fear of failing, fear of losing money, fear of wasting time and effort, or fear of letting people down, these entrepreneurs overcame those fears and put up successful businesses in various industries like food, fashion, retail, consulting, services, finance, and many more!

So, read and learn from 10 successful entrepreneurs. Gain a decade’s worth of business experience – NOT by working for a decade, not even by paying for books – but just by reading this free PDF report!
 
Read about how to overcome your biggest fears and learn successful entrepreneurs’ #1 advice for starting a business – so that you, too, can achieve financial freedom, time freedom, and personal freedom for yourself and for your family.

​Want to get this FREE Business Startup Blueprint report? Download it here: “How 10 Successful Entrepreneurs Overcame their Biggest Fears when Starting a Business.”
 
Happy business starting!
 
P.S. Did you enjoy this article? Did you learn something or were you inspired by it? If yes, please feel free to share this article with friends and family who are interested in business!