Lawrence Guerguis became a landlord at 21 years old. Now he owns more than 30 properties.
Courtesy of Lawrence Guerguis
This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Lawrence Guerguis, a 24-year-old based in Orange County, California, who started investing in real estate in the Midwest while still in college. The following has been edited for length and clarity.I always thought I'd go into investment banking and work on Wall Street. During my sophomore year of college at the University of San Diego, I homed in on finance as my major.One weekend during my junior year, I went out to the bars. We went out to this pizza spot that my friends and I usually go to, and I ran into this guy who was sitting there acting a little odd.I was like, "Hey, is everything all right?" He turned to me and said, "Dude, I only have two weeks of the year to have a good time. Just leave me alone."I asked what he did, and he said he worked in investment banking, so I sat and talked with him for like an hour. He asked me if I loved money, and I said no. Money's great and all, but I don't love it. He was like, "Well, I love money, and this is why I do investment banking. I don't even have the time to spend the kind of money that I make. I make great money and all that, but my lifestyle is pretty rough."The next day, I went to my academic advisor and added a real estate major. I was like, "We're not doing investment banking." That's not what I want to live for. I don't want to live for money. I want to live for freedom and have a purpose.
