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According to Dallas-based pastor and businessman T.D. Jakes, entrepreneurs and small business owners don’t need to separate finding their purpose from earning profits.
“The stats really show that the most successful entrepreneurs are purpose driven, not just profit driven,” he explained to host Elizabeth Gore on Yahoo Finance’s The Big Idea podcast (see video above or listen below). “When you get in it because you have a compassion and a desire to meet a need, when your business finds its problem, it’s found its purpose, and it finds its profit. People who just do it for the money generally have a far less success rate than those who do it because they have an inner conviction that gives meaning to their lives — and the money just follows the meaning.”
Jakes, who is also the founder of T.D. Jakes Real Estate Ventures, uses a mixed-income model to address housing needs in the communities where he owns real estate. This increases the diversity in these communities while also addressing housing needs. “The stats say sociologically we do better when we have diverse communities,” Jakes said.
“It solves a problem, and the best businesses solve problems,” he explained. “We have homelessness. We have people who have less-than-adequate housing. We have people who are moving up the economic ladder — and as their family dynamics change, they’re scaling up, they’re scaling down.”
Using properties to help create affordable housing isn’t the only benefit of investing in real estate, Jakes said.
“It’s a passive stream of income that, for the most part, once you get it up and done, it’s making money while you’re asleep,” he continued. “And it’s solving problems for people, it accrues in value. … There are a thousand reasons to be able to do it.”
Others looking to invest in real estate shouldn’t limit themselves to their current neighborhood when purchasing property, Jakes advised.
The world is “more interconnected than we’ve ever been in life,” he said, noting that money “doesn’t care about zip codes.”
“Most of us think, ‘I’m going to invest in my neighborhood,’ and that’s good,” he said. “But sometimes there are great opportunities in other cities and even other countries. And don’t be afraid to branch out, because money doesn’t watch street signs. As you invest into these different areas, you get a return, and you build relationships, and you become more global.”
Every Thursday, Elizabeth Gore discusses real-life stories and smart strategies for launching a small business on The Big Idea podcast. You can find more episodes on our video hub or watch on your preferred streaming service.
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