90 mph in the fast lane…

I was in my rental car, filled with passengers, trying to maintain the speed limit on the highway.

And then, out of nowhere, some idiot on a motorcycle roared past me.

Normally, not a big deal.

Except…

I was in the left lane and a semi truck was in the right lane.

This guy flew past me at 90 miles an hour!

My first thought…what an a*****e!!!

My second thought…that guy has a death wish.

My third thought…where are the cops? Is this guy running from the law or something?

Where’s the state trooper when you need him?

I couldn’t believe that somebody would have the audacity to be so flagrant in violating traffic laws.

Only thing is, turns out I was totally wrong.

Ok, maybe not 100%…I didn’t have any road rage or anything…

However…when I shared what happened with my friends who live in California, they told me it’s totally legal.

But where I’m from, it’s not okay. It’s not allowed. Never happens.

Okay. Happens sometimes, probably…but definitely not legit in SC.

But in California, it’s 100 percent allowed.

It happens all the time. And as I think about it, it actually makes kind of good sense.

Because the traffic in California is NEXT LEVEL.

I mean, I thought we had traffic in the Charleston area where I’m from.

Nope…not even close.

You know there’s next level traffic when they have stoplights that tell you when you can get on the freeway.

So, allowing motorcycles to go in between cars when traffic is at a standstill, that actually makes a lot of sense.

Now, this guy… Probably needs to slow down, because going 90 miles an hour between a semi and an SUV when traffic is moving…high risk, low return.

I had just assumed that the traffic rules were the same in California as South Carolina.

It took someone who was more familiar with California traffic rules to tell me it’s allowed for me to understand it.

And it occurred to me that oftentimes we think something is not allowed when it is.

Or we don’t understand the rules of the game we’re playing.

It happened to me early on with commercial real estate.

I still remember when a CPA was explaining some rules I wasn’t aware of about how you could depreciate a building and save lots of money in taxes.

Commonly known as Cost Segregation.

Wait…hold up. I can depreciate HOW MUCH on this property right away?

I was shocked. But it was totally legal.

Totally legit. The Cost Segregation rule is used all the time.

Once I learned that rule, I was able to apply it to every commercial deal we did.

Knowing the rules saved us huge amounts in taxes.

Just like knowing the rules if you ride the motorcycle in California can save you huge amounts of time.

(ok, I know the analogy breaks down, it can be super high risk to ride a motorcycle like that, and doing a Cost Segregation study on a property doesn’t risk your life and limbs!)

I’m not saying I now want to ride a motorcycle in California, but I understand the rule and I appreciate why it’s there.

What I am going to do is depreciate my buildings with the tax rules and take advantage of that!

It took someone who knew the rules of the road in California to tell me ‘lane-splitting’ is a thing and totally fine.

It took someone who knew the rules of commercial real estate better than I did for me to learn that Cost Segregation is a thing and totally fine.

The network you build matters.

Who is in your life that has more experience in what you’re trying to accomplish?

Who can show you what’s allowed?

Who can you learn from so you can go faster and farther?

(both on a motorcycle and in commercial real estate…)

Let me know what resources you use to grow.

And if you’re looking to grow your own network and get that experienced voice in your corner, let me know!

(not necessarily about motorcycles, but maybe commercial real estate investing…)