The advantage of playing on a team is that the whole team wins when one player makes a goal. Compare real estate investing to a team sport, such as soccer. In soccer, teamwork means that you pass off the ball if you are not in position to score the goal. When your teammate scores, you also win.

The opposite image of teamwork is the idea of the self-made man, who climbs up the mountain of success and boasts: "I am now the king of the world." (Few women are described by this model.) This is a competitive model, in which the "top dog wins." As a model of success, this model assumes that success is the result of single-handed effort, not a team effort.

Napoleon Hill's MasterMind concept claims that success is not a matter of doing it alone, but of surrounding yourself with like-minded people. Following the principle that the "whole is greater than the sum of its parts," teamwork will lead to greater success than trying to do it alone.

Let's be specific about how this idea of teamwork applies to real estate. What if you want to buy a particular property, but you don't have enough money or credit to buy it yourself? If you are limited to using your own resources, then the deal is not possible. You simply can't buy the property.

When you think with an investor mindset, you don't give up on the deal. Instead, you realize that you are part of a team with people who do have the money to buy the property.

You can be a "bird dog." A bird dog is somebody who finds a property and passes the information to someone who can buy it. The bird dog makes money by finding properties, not by buying them.

Another real estate role is to be the deal maker. You can make money by arranging the deal. When you introduce the seller to an investor who can afford to buy, you can make money by being in the middle of the deal.

What if you do have money and credit to be able to buy property? In this case, you can benefit from bird dogs and deal makers who bring deals to you. You become the investor who buys the property.

The point is that there are many different roles you can play, just as you can play different positions on a soccer team. You can play in the offensive line. You can play defense. You can play the goal. You pass the ball around until someone can make the shot and score the goal.

The idea of being part of team means that you are not trying to claw your way to the top, all by yourself. It's not all about you if you are part of a team. If someone else has the money, and can make it work, you are will also benefit.

The real estate investor world is filled with people who have money, credit, and specialized knowledge. The more you treat real estate investing as a team sport, the more successful you will become.