You’ve probably heard of Willie Sutton. He’s a very famous bank robber who was considered a genius.
His two main activities were robbing banks and breaking out of prisons. The cool part about Sutton is that he reportedly robbed almost 100 banks without injuring anyone. He also escaped from three of America’s most escape-proof penitentiaries.
His operating philosophy was that it was better to allow yourself to be captured than to hurt anyone. Jail was an acceptable risk of the profession, he felt. Sooner or later you’d get out. However if you killed someone, you’d be in for life.
Sutton is considered one of the best bank robbers because he was very strategic with everything he did.
Consider the following from “Where the Money Was: The Memoirs of a Bank Robber” by Willie Sutton and Edward Linn:
“The Willie Sutton trademark has always been to get inside the bank by wearing the kind of uniform that would lead the guard to open the door for me without question. I like to work in crowds, that’s another of my trademarks. The more that is going on outside the bank, the less chance there is that anybody is going to bother to look in. And if despite all my planning something should go wrong, only a psychopathic cop would shoot in a crowd. All that activity also makes it easier to case the place. For three weeks now I have been charting the arrival of employees, changing my vantage point daily so as to attract no attention.”
In fact, Sutton always studied the habits of the people working in the banks he was planning to rob. “People are, above all things, victims of habit, especially when it comes to time. They set their alarm for the same time, catch the same train or bus, and arrive at their job within the same minute. There is also a pecking order in a bank which is unfailing. The employees will always arrive in reverse order to their importance.”
He learned to use these habits to his advantage with each and every robbery. (There’s a lesson here for you – I hope you’re able to see it.).
His biggest liability (which he was well aware of) is that his strategy required two other people. He actually went to prison twice because of the betrayal of his partners. Partners ain’t no fun, if you ask me. He actually studied his partners and tried to avoid those he considered to be too risky.
“Tommy’s weaknesses are the usual weaknesses of thieves: booze and broads. He spent money the way he fought. All out. He did everything all out. I used to tell him, ‘It wouldn’t hurt you to put a dollar aside yourself instead of throwing it away on on those broads of yours.'”
Sutton strongly preferred frugal partners. The cheaper a partner was the better. “Nobody is going to get into trouble or create suspicion by working hard and spending nothing.” This is pretty good advice for all of us! LOL.
One of the sayings Sutton is supposedly famous for is his answer to the question why he robbed banks… “Because that’s were the money is!”
There’s more to the story regarding this answer. You’ll have to read Sutton’s book see why. However, this answer is something we might consider ourselves. If we’re going to start a business or invest our dineros, we should always go where the money is.
And there’s a lot of dineros available for investors who offer their properties as short-term rentals through AirBnB, HomeAway, VRBO.com. I’m including a 12-page bonus report on how real estate investors can profit from short-term rental properties with my August Cashflownaire Newsletter. In this special bonus report, I detail three different strategies you can use to take advantage of this profitable investment strategy.
The reality is that ANYONE can profit from short-term rentals and it may actually be one of the best strategies for those who live in very high priced real estate markets. If you someone think you can’t use this strategy to your advantage, you’ve got a big limiting belief to work on.
Become a Cashflownaire now and I’ll immediately send you the July Newsletter (and bonuses). Plus, you’ll get the August Newsletter next week when it’s released!
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https://dividendrealestate.com/membershipspecial/
P.S. If you’re interested in short-term rental properties, you should study the lifestyle business detailed on Pages 10 and 11 of the August Cashflownaire Newsletter. You’ll see a cool strategy you can use to dramatically increase the income from every short-term tenant in your short-term rental property.
P.P.S. In the August Newsletter, we also roll up our sleeves and go to work on those pesky weaknesses that poor Tommy had around booze and broads (lack of self-control). You’ll have to dig into what I share on Pages 4 through Page 8! This will be an eye-opener for you.
P.P.P.S. I was thinking of titling this post: “How to Rob a Bank!” Then it dawned on me that this title might not attract the best person!
P.P.P.P.S. Would a better title be “How to Escape Prison!“????
