If you think Kendra Todd is just a pretty winner’s face you saw on Donald Trump’s “The Apprentice” television show, her new book “Risk and Grow Rich” will change your thinking. This 27-year-old tycoon is a very savvy real estate investor who shares her strategies for building wealth by accepting risk.
The book’s emphasis is on accepting risk, planning for it, and using risk to your advantage. Todd is obviously wise beyond her years. No wonder “The Donald” selected her as his apprentice to supervise development of his Palm Beach, Fla., property. However, the book is remarkably silent about the apprenticeship and the TV show, although Trump says on the book jacket, “Kendra Todd has done a great job as an Apprentice, so I’m not surprised that she has also written a terrific book.”
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Todd understands the challenge and importance of taking risks to create wealth. Her specialty, along with co-author Charles Andrews, is helping investors acquire properties that are likely to appreciate in market value. The book includes several examples. Her concentration is on pre-construction condominiums, a high-risk investment.
Although Todd is a real estate investor, the book is mostly about how realty investors should tolerate risk. She explains there are smart risks that can produce positive results. “Think like a poker player,” she advises for evaluating risks and rewards.
“If you want to grow, you must risk” is a great summary of this book’s message. However, Todd shares how to carefully investigate real estate risk before proceeding. She suggests having plans and contingencies in place to anticipate unexpected problems.
Calculate, initiate and mitigate summarize Todd’s advice. By that, she means calculate the specific opportunity, take action, but be prepared to look for ways to benefit even if the realty investment doesn’t pay off as expected. Although Todd is a very positive person, she never forgets to create a “fall back” position to cut losses if all does not go well.
Throughout the book are “Kendra’s Rules of Risk,” such as, “risk is the father of reward” and, “if you wait until you feel 100 percent ready to move, you will never take the first steps.” Her other rules are equally profound, especially for a highly focused 27-year-old.
Particularly enjoyable are Todd’s bits of wisdom, such as, “The self-employed shall inherit the earth,” and “the more control you have over your financial destiny and the growth of your income, the better your odds of becoming wealthy.”
Although Todd is just at the start of her real estate investment career, her book focuses her thinking and shows readers how they can also benefit from her sage advice for what she calls “risk diving.”
Chapter topics include: “How Risk Became a Four-Letter Word”; “The 10 Biggest Myths About Risk”; “Risk and Reward”; “Mars, Venus, and Risk”; “‘Entrepreneur’ is Just Risk Misspelled”; “How to Become a Risk Diver”; “10 Steps for Turning Risk into Opportunity”; “Setting Yourself Up for Success”; and “Formula for Making Your First Million.”
Whether you are a beginner or an experienced real estate investor, this book offers sound advice from which every reader can benefit. The author can’t point to dozens of years of real estate success, but she organizes her techniques into a format from which every reader can improve their lives by taking reasonable risks. On my scale of one to 10, this excellent book rates a solid 10.
“Risk and Grow Rich,” by Kendra Todd with Charles Andrews (Harper Collins-Regan Books, New York), 2006, $24.95, 244 pages; available in stock or by special order at local bookstores, public libraries, and www.Amazon.com.
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Real Estate Center).
