Defining and Refining Years Part 2-My 5 Cars Got Repossessed!

Posted on 04. Dec, 2009 by Setema Gali in Adversity

Defining and Refining Years Part 1-Foreclosure

Defining and Refining Years Part 3-LIQUIDATION

Just over a year ago I gave up my final car. I went from 6 cars on my credit to zero cars in the garage. The REPO game beat me. Let me explain…

It was 2006 and I had made the real estate  millions. I’ve always been a goal setter and a goal getter. I had set goals and I had reached them.

What a year! Money was no issue at all.

My wife and I would travel and never worry about money. We would stay in the Venetian or Bellagio in Vegas. We flew first class (on our credit card points) and I had a nice car collection going as well as a nice real estate portfolio.

I attended a seminar and was pretty convinced that I should buy a nice car.

Yes, every single human being buys into a set of beliefs and philosophies. Some are useful and some are helpful. Some must be in the right context or you’ll be in trouble.

My question to you is WHAT BELIEFS AND PHILOSOPHIES HAVE YOU BOUGHT INTO?

What beliefs and philosophies have you bought into and that you are holding onto right now?

It was September of 2006. I set a goal to create enough passive income to pay for my dream car. I had always wanted  this car.

It was the Mercedes Benz S65 AMG. Price tag…$200k. Yep, enough to buy a home. 30 days later I bought it. I put a large chunk of cash down and drove off in this unreal vehicle.

I bought my wife a 2008 Range Rover Super Charged HSE before I bought my car though. I would set the goal, figure it out and then get it.

Price tag for the Range…$90k. Yep, very expensive and to this date the smoothest ride I have ever driven.

I also had six homes on my credit because I was buying and selling real estate frequently at this time. I also had a lot of hard money deals that I had brokered.

I had my own little banking system going. I lent out over $350k of my own money and made it all back with interest.

As many financial gurus say “You’re either earning interest or you’re paying it.” At this time I was making a lot of it.

Then in the spring of 2007 I received a phone call from one of my investment guys and the whole thing collapsed. Half of my income was gone.

A month later I received another call and the news almost gave me a heart attack.

Between the two investments I lost over $750k of mine and other people’s money. Yes, $750k.

I thought to myself “I can still do mortgages and real estate.” So I went back to my bread and butter of real estate and mortgages. I had investors and I was ready to become the real estate tycoon I once was before I got lazy from investments. I couldn’t have been more wrong.

It was at this time that the mortgage industry began to implode. All my systems and models of money were built on the ability to buy and sell quickly.

My model of business was built on the ability of everyone else to be able to buy or sell quickly. I wasn’t ready for what was going to happen.

I was aggressive. I bought into different philosophies about leveraging everything you have. I bought into philosophies that weren’t quite congruent with my inner beliefs but I needed to learn some things that hard way for that is probably the only way I would have learned it. A great question to ask yourself often is “Is what I am doing working?”

My credit was clean and immaculate. I had used my credit for many things.

By the time 2007 ended, I had lost, been defrauded, been ripped off and had stolen from me over a million dollars of my own and other people’s money (close family and friends who chose to invest with me in my businesses.)

This was one of the most challenging times in my life.

I was forced to be humble. I was praying, studying, fasting and doing everything I knew that I could to have God’s help to prevent everything from happening but things continued to spiral downwards.

I ended up giving all the cars back even though I spent so much money on down payments and payments.

It’s called REPOSESSION!

Every home I owned was so upside down I was unable to sell and the foreclosure process began on each one. I tried short-sales but I was so discouraged, depressed and humiliated at the time I was as unproductive as anyone ever was.

By the time 2008 rolled around I had no cars and no homes. I was embarrassed. I was humiliated. I was angry. I was upset. Not at anyone but me.

I chose to take responsibility and not blame others even though they straight lied to my face. Partners walked away from me (even though they were 50/50 from the start with me.)

Through all of this God’s hand was clearly in my life even though it was challenging. I was fasting weekly, attending the temple weekly, praying and pleading with the Lord.

It was bad enough that I made bad choices that affected me, but the family and friends and partners who trusted me with their money for business…

I was unable to sleep at night. I was so depressed and discouraged. The craziest thoughts come to your mind when everything around you is crumbling.

How do I support my wife and my son?

How do I pay the bills?

Which bills do we completely ignore and which do we pay?

How are we going to put gas in the car?

How are we going to eat?

Earlier I had an average six-figure balance in my bank accounts for nearly 18 months.

It’s funny how things can change so fast.

“Be still and know that I am God” was a scripture that stayed in my mind and in my heart.

It was very humiliating to go from driving the cars I had and always being the one to pick up the tab or the one to donate funds or the one to taking care of the sub for santas to being the person on the other side of the table.

What would other people think about me? Would they make fun of me? Would they call me a failure?

Having all the homes foreclose and the cars repossessed was another valuable and important step in my becoming the man God would have me become.

I was humbled and it is only when we are humble that we can be led and taught.

I was given the opportunity to know what it was like to have a family and to not have income. I was given the opportunity to feel what poor or broke people feel.

I was very foolish at times when I had an abundance of resources.

When you have lots of money in the bank and you’re driving expensive cars and making lots of money, you have a tendency to tell people things like “Come on, live in abundance, read this book, change your life…it’s that easy”

In these type of statements were pride, arrogance and a lack of love and empathy.

Having been on this side now (broke, no income and humiliated) I understand completely and much better that there is something called depression and discouragement. It’s so hard to get out of bed in the morning when you have no hope or no sight of things to come.

I thought I was humble and understanding when I was driving my $200k car but there was definitely some self-deception there and thankfully God knows when to give me tough love and divine tutoring.

Have you bought into philosophies that are not useful?

Are you deceiving yourself into thinking you’re humble and you’re really not?:(

Can you recognize God’s hand in your life and do you allow Him to mold and shape you?:)

Like clay in a the master’s hand, the only way he can mold it is if the clay is SOFT. If the clay turns hard there is a brutal process that the clay must go through in order to be fashioned.

Soft humble hearts is what one must have to overcome and learn from the challenges of life.

By November 2008 I lost all my cars and my six homes around the country.

This was the relocation and repossession part of my refining years.

Not only did we relocate, my heart was relocated to a more humble state of being. No only were my physical belongings repossessed, my materialistic natural man inside of me was taken which allowed a greater awakening inside of me to become the Life-Changer that I have always wanted to become.

To be continued….

Defining and Refining Years Part 1-Foreclosure

Defining and Refining Years Part 3-LIQUIDATION

Setema Gali

Will you leave me a comment and also facebook share and retweet this with those you love….they will love you for it !

P.S. It’s not what happens to us in life, it’s what happens INSIDE OF US that matters and we choose to be led by God or we can choose to wander in darkness by ourselves. I am grateful my wife kept me close and focused.

This was one of the most depressing times in my life.

We went from Riches to Rags and it was very painful.

I am happy and if I had to do it all over again…I would go through it again.

P.S.S. I used to say “I would never wish this upon anyone.” Well, I changed my mind. The past couple years have given me incredible perspective and have helped me to develop a trust in God that might not have come in another fashion.

P.S.S.S. I even changed my phone number because I was getting like 50 phone calls a day from creditors. Yes, I have felt and seen much of a side I had never experienced. It’s hard to have empathy for people who go through this if you have never gone through this.

Thank you Lord for teaching me and giving me an opportunity to know how to better help my brothers and sisters around the world.

Tags: repossession, Setema Gali