A Glimpse of my life Before UK Property & Passive Income
Having bizarrely had an inbuilt self-belief from a young age, I grew up being good at nothing, believed I was hopeless at everything and was certainly not a natural at anything. I was one of 4 girls and knew from a very young age that my father had wanted a boy. To add to his disappointment, I wasn’t a beautiful girl and actually looked more like a boy. So all in all (as soon as I understood what it meant), I felt like a callosal disappointment.
As an identical twin I thought I hadn’t had an identity crisis, but I now know that I most certainly did. Known by my surname ‘Barlow’ or ‘Twin’ for many years up to my late teens, I had loathed school and all it stood for, with teachers that patronized and despised me for being one of two that they couldn’t tell apart.
Through adversities however I had a love for life and felt an excitement as to what was to come, the opportunities out there that were waiting to happen and that even for someone like me could be tapped into with the right mindset and attitude.
In my early adult life I made a decision to fly into the Kalahari desert and live there for a while. The experiences I had out there had a lasting impact on me and grew me significantly, creating new passions whilst opening up opportunity after opportunity. With no mobile phones or telephones my only means of communicating with my family in the UK was via letter, and in moving 5000 miles away from all I knew and loved I seriously stepped
out of my comfort zone.
I acquired my first property very young when I was 22 after a dream I had whilst in that beautiful place. There I drove service vehicle through the desert and was in my element, and although physically arduous I found myself to be freer in every sense of the word than I had ever been. The dream, (that had been about a mountain house and disabled children), I believe was instigated partly by my faith and by the Swiss couple on safari who had talked about their home in the mountains. Two years after I returned from Africa I was in The French Alps, the town of La Clusaz in the Haute Savoie and it was here that I ventured into an estate agent and a new journey began. My friends thought I was mad and had I listened to them I would not have followed through and experienced enormous joy and several years in my life that were pivotal to understanding my purpose.
I describe my journey of acquiring the chalet like stepping-stones between two river banks. How at times the steps were so pointed and almost impossible to stand on (logistically it seemed that part of the process couldn’t happen or perhaps fear snuck in) and that’s when I thought the journey was ending and then there were times when the steps were flat and seemingly easy and arrogance and pride almost drowned me.
I genuinely believed that it was all about the journey and that I may or may not get to the other side of the river. There was obviously a structured process to go through in attempting to buy the property and it started of course with trying to find a bank to agree to loan me 75% of the purchase price. BNP rejected my request but then the 2nd bank I tried, Banque La Henin, said yes. On an £8000 salary (gutting fish in a fish farm), they agreed to the borrowing assuming my medical came in fine and I got a guarantor. I borrowed the deposit from a friend who had always wanted to invest in French property and who actually never got anything back from it as eighteen months later had desperately wanted the money back and felt bad to be asking for it so soon. Thankfully (this was now 1992) I had recently built my own home having initially acquired land with an option. Now bought and mortgaged, I was able to increase the mortgage and pull out the money to pay him back.
I had started in property but hadn’t realized the financial reward and business sense that it truly was. I had wanted a chalet in the mountains and my attitude was, ‘I’m going to get it, the question is how?’ Yes I got to the other side of the river and the whole process took just under a year. The chalet was used for many years to take disabled children on holidays designed to build up their confidence and help them to believe in themselves. Being part of SADA (the charity I set up) and all that it encompassed was a sheer joy, an absolute privilege and absolutely part of my purpose. I still have the chalet today.
A time followed in my life that was wonderful in many ways but massively destructive in others. Amongst many happy memories, the entrepreneur, the visionary and the enthusiastic, tenacious and excitable Gillie was chipped away at and crushed to the point eventually of being broken.
As a determined, positive person I fought mentally to push on and be who I felt I’d been made to be but didn’t realise the damage it was doing. It was one analogy given to me that was the straw that broke the camels back.
With NO money, No ability to get a mortgage and the opposite of support I could have given up on both my goals, my aspirations, my dreams and my purpose but Nothing and no-one was going to become the result of my life and dictator of my future.
I learnt the difference between loneliness, solitude and aloneness. Yes I needed time to heal, but I knew that my life was mine and I was going to make it the best I could and be the best version of myself that I could be.
I read a book at that time that urged the reader to put people around them that did them ‘good and not harm.’
I put myself around people who no longer laughed at my ideas, judged me and based their approval of me on results rather than experiences, learnings, mistakes and the journey I trod. I learnt that self-belief and positive attitude were essential and can determine how your life turns out.
During this time I was introduced to the business of property that created ‘Passive Income’. I had always thought passive just meant quiet. ☺
With my love for people and my passion for property irrespective of my lack of academic qualifications, no money, support or ability to get a mortgage I WAS going to progress, understand what success meant to me and move forward on the journey that would create initially financial stability and independence followed by financial freedom and a Gillie that through every learning and area of growth would become without doubt that much more whole. Today many years on, I am still a work in progress.