Al Hafed was a happily married, wealthy family man living on a Persian orchard farm along the river Indus in the early 1900s.

One day a traveller visited him telling stories of finding great riches in diamonds. These stories planted seeds of doubt in Al Hafed’s mind that he was missing out on amassing a vast fortune as there were diamonds all around waiting to be discovered.

He sold his farm and travelled across Persia, Palestine and Europe in search of diamonds. His money quickly diminished leaving him in rags, without food or shelter to the point he was so distressed he walked into the sea.

The man who bought Al Hafed’s farm put animals onto the land to generate income. One day, while watching the animals drink, he noticed a black stone that caught the sun and sparkled in a way he had never seen before. He took the stone from the stream and put it on the hearth in his house to admire its beauty.

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A merchant came to visit. The sun hit the stone and the merchant saw the colours of the rainbow. “Where did you find that diamond?” the merchant asked. “It’s not
a diamond,” said the farmer, “it’s a stone I took from my stream.”

“That’s definitely a diamond,” said the merchant, “show me where you found it.”

That farm turned out to be one of the richest diamond mines in history.

This story, by Russell Conwell, says if you open your mind your fortune is in your own back yard. There is no need to fall into the trap of thinking you can only be successful if you were somewhere else, in another time, with another set of circumstances.

Here we are today, having endured interest rates hikes, inflation, floods, a cyclone, a new prime minister, non-deductibility, landlord challenges and the media spouting decline.

If you’re feeling the pinch, the answer is focus right in front of you. Use property to make money. I, too, have felt the pinch so have focused on finding one property deal in March to make money for the year.

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What are you focusing on? Will your focus lead you down the path of searching elsewhere for something you likely won’t find, or will your focus lead you towards the solution that’s right in front of you?

The farmer had the merchant to guide him. Without that expertise he would not have been able to find his acres of diamonds. Al Hafed took bad advice from a traveller who only heard rumours, leading himself to ruin.

My challenge to you is to focus on finding a deal to grow your wealth; property is your back yard. What can you do to make the money you need for the year? I’m here to help, bouncing ideas around, coming up with strategies and looking for solutions is what I do best.

Would an extra $100,000 help you this year? It’s right in front of you if you focus on how you can put a win-win deal together to make it happen.