If you mess up in an investment, it doesn't mean give up. It means you look at the mistake and figure out why it happened to make sure you don't get yourself in that situation again - when you do this, you become WISER. The poor and middle class try something, and when they fail, they either blame a person or circumstances AND THEY NEVER HAVE ANYTHING TO DO WITH THAT AGAIN. That's not good! Just because I mess up one real estate investment DOES NOT mean real estate is a bad investment!
In our own investing program.... Before we accept someone for a lease-option deal we have them interviewed by our friendly loan broker. He gives us thumbs up or thumbs down on whether our prospective buyers has a chance to qualify for a mortgage loan during the next 12 to 24 months.
Then there are the 'Spend No Money of Your Own!' real estate courses. Courses happen in college. If you want to learn about the real estate game, go to the bookstore or the library. In listening to some of these tapes I was overwhelmed by the sheer lack of information they contained. Yes, the guy spoke for hours on the CDs, but he never 'said' anything.