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Part 1--Due Diligence and Critical Thinking

11 years ago
Pardon this long post but I hope to share some info that you will find helpful.

Over the last few years I have learned so much about how and why people have relocated here to Costa Rica.

Not only that but I have partnered with a gentleman who was here at an International Living show last year. My partner is Steve Siebold and you can check out some of his TV interviews here-- www.steveontv.com

With his interest in Costa Rica and my interest in sales training we make a great team. We teach mental toughness with a program aimed at Fortune 500 sales teams and it is called Mental Toughness University. Costa Rica has so many Fortune 500 companies coming here and they are very interested in making sure that they have the skills to survive in today's new economy.
And trust me--being mentally tough and practicing critical thinking will help you, as an individual, sift through the information that is out there and help you decide if Costa Rica is the right place for you.

In the last few days I have had some interesting scenarios--had a guy tell me that because I had several typos in an email I sent out that he does not think he can trust me!! Wow!! Then here on this forum I had a guy ask me why I was being deceptive because my profile said I was from Afghanistan---well I did not even know I had a profile and when you look at it it is quite obvious that Afghanistan is the first country and goes into place automatically if you do not select one. Point??? There are two--first is that I am thankful to find out the nature of some people before I spend any time showing them what we have here---this is a small community and we will be neighbors so I am not interested in having neighbors who are so afraid of their shadow and are so distrustful of the most minuscule things. Those are the sort of folks who might be better off to just stay where they are as moving to a different country takes some strength and trust. Second point---it is obvious a dialog about HOW to do due diligence may be helpful. So let me get to Part 1.

Internet Due Diligence

Very very simple thing to start off your process with. For example--if you google Gill Phelan, you will see page after page of info--a link to my videos which show the project and homes we build. You will also find our there that I am a PADI Scuba instructor. You will also see a link to my book on Amazon--also a link to a Picassa album with all kinds of photos of our project. Also links to International Living and the shows I speak at.

So---that is your FIRST STEP for any person or project you are interested in. If you don't find anything that is certainly something to wonder about. Any established project here in Costa Rica will have photos and videos and info.

That is Part 1---don't write anyone off until you have at least done this---if you are serious about this remember it is YOUR job to check out the projects and people---don't ask them to provide this basic info--if you can't find a history that is your first red flag!

Gill Phelan
www.gvecr.com
[email protected]
Author of "The Caribbean of Costa Rica" Live and Invest on the Last Frontier

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