
The Timeless Investor Show
The Timeless Investor Show explores how serious thinkers build wealth, resilience, and lasting success across generations.
Hosted by Arie van Gemeren, CFA - The Timeless Investor Show connects history, philosophy, and real-world investing lessons into practical frameworks for today's investors, with a core focus on real estate investing.
We study empires, cycles, currencies, and capital stewardship - and translate timeless principles into real-world action.
Think well. Act wisely. Build something timeless.
The Timeless Investor Show
Marcus Crassus: From Bankruptcy to Billions Through Ancient Real Estate
The year is 53 BC. In a Parthian tent, molten gold burns down the throat of Rome's richest man. Marcus Crassus - worth $2+ billion in today's money - dies choking on the very metal that made him famous.
But how did a man who lost everything in Rome's civil wars become the ancient world's greatest real estate mogul? And what can his strategies teach modern investors about building generational wealth?
In this episode, I dive deep into Crassus's playbook:
- How he turned political chaos into real estate gold during Sulla's proscriptions
- The legendary fire brigade business model that built his empire
- Why he focused on cash flow over appreciation (sound familiar?)
- The fatal mistake that destroyed everything he'd built
You'll learn timeless principles that still work today: buying from motivated sellers, vertical integration, patient capital, and why staying in your lane matters more than chasing headlines.
This isn't just ancient history - it's a masterclass in real estate investing from the man who owned 1/3 of Rome.
Perfect for real estate investors, entrepreneurs, and anyone who believes that understanding the past is the key to building the future.
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Think Well. Act Wisely. Build Something Timeless.
Picture this. The year is 53 BC. Deep in the deserts of Mesopotamia, Roman legions lie scattered and broken across the sand. 20,000 of Rome's finest soldiers are dead. Their golden eagles, the sacred standards of the legions, are gone, captured as trophies by Parthian horsemen. And in a Parthian tent, the richest man in the Roman Empire is about to die in the most fitting way imaginable. Marcus Licinius Crassus, worth over$2 billion in today's money, sits bound before his captors. The man who spent his life accumulating gold, who built Rome's greatest real estate fortune through calculated greed, is about to discover what gold really feels like. The Parthian king orders molten gold to be poured down Crassus' throat. As the liquid metal burns through his body, legend says the king mocked him. Here, satisfy your thirst for gold. It was the perfect ending to an imperfect life. The man who turned every crisis into profit, who built an empire by exploiting others' disasters, finally met a disaster he couldn't buy his way out of. But here's what's fascinating. Crassus died because of greed, yes, but not the kind you'd think. He didn't die because he loved money. He died because he wanted something money could not buy him, military glory. The one thing that could match Caesar's conquests and Pompey's fame. The irony is perfect. Rome's greatest real estate investor, a man who understood better than anyone that wealth comes from patient capital, strategic positioning, and steady cash flow, threw it all away chasing headlines in a desert. Today, we're going to examine how Marcus Crassus built the ancient world's greatest property portfolio, what his methods teach us about modern real estate investing, and more importantly, we're going to learn from his fatal mistake, why the principles that made him rich are more relevant today than ever. Because the truth is, every real estate investor today is playing Crassus' game of one form or another. The question is, are we learning from his brilliance or are we repeating his mistakes? This is the Timeless Investor Show. I'm Ari Van Gemeren, your host, student of history, and real estate fund manager. Let's dive into this incredible story. I'm really excited to share it, and I think you guys are going to find it fascinating. So let's start with Rome. In 115 BC, when Crassus was born, you've got to understand what you're looking at here. And that's the history. Always have to understand why we are where we are today based on the past. The same is with looking at old history, like where do they come from? Rome at the time was a city of 1 million people, the New York City of the ancient world. And most of these people are living in literal death traps. They're called insulae. apartment buildings, six, seven stories high, built as cheaply as humanly possible, no building codes, no fire departments, no insurance. These things burned down constantly. And when they burned, people died, lots of people. It's the perfect storm for what I call disaster capitalism. Now, Marcus Crassus is born into this world, but he's not living in the insulae. Now, he's born into privilege. His father, Publius Licinius Crassus was consul. Consul is like, think governor, senator, and Supreme Court justice all rolled into the one. The family was wealthy, respected, connected. Crassus grew up expecting to inherit power and money. And then in 87 BC, everything changed. Here's what happened. Rome is in the middle of an absolutely brutal civil war. It's Gaius Marius versus Lucius Cornelius Sulla. These two generals are fighting for control of the entire Roman world. And every family, every senator, every wealthy Roman has to pick a side. The Crassus family picks Sulla, which is a huge mistake for them at the time. Marius wins. He takes control of Rome, and then the purges begin. Picture this. Crassus' father and younger brother are hunted down in the streets by Marius' supporters. They either commit suicide to avoid capture, or they're murdered outright. Either way, their heads end up on spikes in the Roman Forum as a warning to anyone else thinking about opposing the new regime. All of their family wealth is confiscated. Every property, every investment, every Cistercius. Gone. Crassus goes from riches to rags overnight, and he's now a marked man with a price on his head. So what does one do in this situation? Well, he does what most of us would do. He runs. He flees to Spain, where his father had connections as the former governor, and he spends the next three years in hiding. Here's the thing, and this is where you start to see the future billionaire prodigal emerge. Cassius Crassus, isn't just sitting around feeling sorry for himself. He's studying, he's learning, he's figuring out how political chaos creates real estate opportunities. And in Spain, he recruits 2,500 men from his father's old clients. He uses this small army to extort money from Spanish cities. He forces them to pay for his protection. And what's he learning? He learns that when governments are unstable, when there's violence in the streets, when people are scared, That's when property goes for cheap. That's when you can find motivated sellers. Now, it sounds weird to put it in terms, but it's the truth, right? And the Roman Republic at this time was going through an incredibly tumultuous period. This was an opportunity in disguise. Political instability equals opportunity, something to keep in mind. So then in 84 BC, Marius dies suddenly. And Crassus sees his chance. Sulla, who survived, is making a comeback. He's building an army to retake Rome. And Crassus decides, again, to bet everything on Sulla this time. He sails from Spain to join Sulla's forces. He helps him win the civil war and retake Rome. And now comes the time for revenge. Sulla doesn't want to defeat his enemies. He wants to destroy them. So he creates something called prescription lists. Think of it like, Legalized murder with a real estate twist. Sola posts the name of 1,600 enemies who can be killed on sight. Anyone who kills them gets a reward. But here's the kicker. They also get to buy their property at public auction. And these properties are selling for$0.85 below market value. So imagine buying Manhattan real estate for$0.15 on the dollar. That is what we are talking about. Rome was the Manhattan of its age. is the only one, and it would be for hundreds of years. So Crassus becomes, as a reward for his support of Sulla, the biggest buyer at these blood auctions. And he's not just buying random properties either. He's strategic about it. He focuses on prime Roman real estate in the best neighborhoods. Because remember, again, a lot of the people being killed are the elite who opposed So their properties are now for sale at 15 cents on the dollar in the finest possible neighborhoods. So he starts with those. He buys insula that he can rebuild and rent back out. Agricultural land outside the city. Commercial properties along major trade routes. It's like... buying foreclosed properties after 2008, but with murder involved. And within a few years, Crassus has completely rebuilt his family fortune 10 times over. And he's learned that the most important lesson of life is this. Crises create opportunities. And we've seen that time and again in history. And it's fitting that our first great example of this would come from my favorite era of history, the Roman Republic. So now that Crassus has money again, he needs to figure out how he wants to grow it. And this is where he shows some evil genius tendencies. Remember, Rome burns constantly. These insular tinderboxes, fires spread through wooden tenements like wildfire. Everybody is cooking inside these no-code, no-restriction buildings that are made of wood. And think of a rickety structure with oil cook fires. It is a... It is a certainty that the buildings are going to light on fire at some point. And there is no fire department. So if your building catches on fire, you are literally on your own. So Crassus, and this is a crazy anecdote, totally morally corrupt and wrong. And I'm telling this story before some people have expressed, oh, you know, it's really bad. You're glamorizing. I'm not glamorizing anything, just to be clear. But this is an era of Roman history in which Slaves were routinely crucified. Gladiators killed each other in the arena every day. People were fed to wild animals in the arena. And the Roman Republic was mercilessly stamping out its opponents, conquering countries, and sending new slaves back. So we can't judge the actions of elites in this time. It was an amoral period of time. So Crassus creates... the first private fire department. He gets 500 trained slaves. He gets sophisticated equipment, rapid response. They can get to any fire in Rome within minutes. And here's the thing, the twist, the story really interesting is they don't put out the fires immediately. Here's how it works. You are a hardworking Roman merchant and you have acquired a nice property for yourself. And now your building is on fire. You're horrified. What are you going to do? Your life savings is going up in smoke. Suddenly, the fire department arrives. It's Crassus' fire department. And they come, but they're not there to help you. He doesn't send them away. He says, first, let me make you an offer. Sell me this property right now while it's burning for a fraction of what it's worth. Then, only then, will I step in. So you have two choices. You can take this lowball offer, or you can watch everything you own burn to the ground. So what are you going to do? Most people sell because... Otherwise, they're looking at an expensive rebuild and having to put this thing back up. And only after Crassus owns the property does he order his fire brigade to put out the flames. It's brilliant, it's ruthless, and it's incredibly profitable. Let me give you what I think is a modern equivalent of this. Imagine you own a home that's facing foreclosure. The bank is about to seize it. You're desperate. Then someone shows up and says, I'll buy your house right now cash for 50 cents on the dollar, or you can lose it to the bank for nothing. What are you going to do? You're probably going to take the 50 cents. And that's exactly what Crassus was doing, except with literal fire instead of financial fire. And here's the thing that makes it even more evil genius-esque. After he buys these burnt out properties, he does rebuild them. but not as single-family homes, as Insuli, multifamily apartment buildings that generate steady cash flow. So he was optimizing. He was creating this vertically integrated operation where he owns the fire department. He owns the construction crews. Remember, he's got 500 trained slaves who can do everything from fighting fires to laying bricks. He owns the building. He owns the rental income. It's the ultimate real estate business model, and the numbers are staggering. By the time Crassus is at his peak, he owns over 7,000 1,000 properties across Rome. 7,000. That's more properties than most modern REITs. Big boy REITs. We're not talking the little ones, the big REITs. It's more properties than even they own. And these insulae are generating steady rent from tens of thousands of tenants. Poor Romans, middle-class Romans, even wealthy Romans who can't afford their own villas. Everyone needs a place to live, and Crassus owns a huge chunk of Rome. the rental market. But here's what's really smart about what Crassus is doing. He's not just speculating on property values. He's not flipping homes and hoping someone will pay more. He's building cashflow. Cashflow is the story. Equity is just a story. Cashflow is the thing that protects you. And these in Sly are producing rent every month, year after year. Steady, predictable income that doesn't depend on market sentiment, or interest rates, or whether Caesar conquers Gaul or not. And I guarantee you, given everything we've talked about thus far, they didn't have any of the owner-resident protections that exist today. I bet you when someone doesn't pay rent in this era, they are out on the street the same day. It's a little easier to manage. Again, perhaps morally ambiguous or wrong, but it is the truth. And it's the same principle that every smart real estate investor uses today. You do want to buy distressed assets for motivated sellers. You want to add value to renovation or better management. You want to hold for cash flow. You want to scale through systems. You want to do the strategy he's gone, which is imagine you can buy a single family home in the middle of Manhattan, knock it down and put a huge apartment building in its place. That is a form of zoning arbitrage, if you will, right? And so in the opportunity to do this as Rome keeps burning, the motivated sellers keep coming. Rome keeps having political crises. Rome keeps producing people who need to sell their property quickly. Every crisis is another opportunity for Crassus to expand his portfolio. Think about this in today's terms. When COVID hit us or when interest rates spiked, when the economy gets uncertain, what happens? Distressed sellers, do come out of the woodwork. People who had to sell, didn't want to sell, but circumstances forced their hand. Now, during COVID, obviously, multifamily assets performed actually fairly well. But I bet you, and I wasn't in this space at the time, I bet you that that opportunity was to buy restaurant space, for example. Many restaurants went out of business. We knew people in our hometown back in the day when COVID hit that owned restaurant space. And I mean, they were like struggling for what to do. There are opportunities in crises, and that's when the smart money moves in. That's when you find the deals that can and will create generational wealth. So Crassus built the ancient world's greatest real estate fortune by understanding this simple truth. Someone else's crisis is your opportunity. Now, he didn't stop with real estate. Once he got this cash flow machine running, he started diversifying into other income streams. He owns silver mines in Spain. Remember, he still has conditions there from his exile. These mines are generating steady income from precious metals, the ultimate hedge against currency debasement. He's in the slave trading business. And again, before any of you get uncomfortable, understand that this is literally how the Roman economy worked. There is an argument in economic theory for the Roman Empire and Republic that the entire purpose of the Roman Empire was to expand in order to add more slaves to its economy. It was a slave, slavery-driven economy. It was the premise, the purpose, the prime function of the Roman people, in my opinion, and in the opinion of other historians who are even more alerted than I am on this topic. So he doesn't just... buy and sell slaves. Crassus trains them. He got nearly a thousand skilled slaves who could do carpentry, masonry, engineering, accounting, and he rents them out to other wealthy Romans for construction projects. It's kind of like owning a specialized labor contracting business. He's also Rome's most prolific private banker. Wealthy Romans Need loans. And Crassus has the capital to provide them. But he's not just lending money randomly. He's making strategic investments in people he thinks are going places. The biggest and most interesting example, Julius Caesar. In the 60s BC, Caesar is broke, massively in debt, but he's politically talented and very ambitious. Crassus sees the potential and starts funding Caesar's career. Loans for political campaigns, bribes for votes, whatever Caesar needs, Crassus is there for him. Why? Because when Caesar gets powerful, those favors come back as business opportunities, government contracts, favorable legislation. It's like angel investing, but for politicians. And if you think about... Crassus' background, family falling out of political favor, being executed, committing, being suicided, right? All these things. It makes a lot of sense that he would want to plant positive seeds in the political system to protect himself, to protect his family, to make sure they can never have that happen again. He recognizes the talent in Caesar and he goes for it. And it works. Caesar becomes consul, then the governor of Gaul, and then ultimately dictator. And throughout his rise, he's taken care of the man who bankrolled him. By the 60 BC, Crassus' net worth is 7,100 talents. That's about$2 to$3 billion in today's money. He could fund entire armies from his cash flow. He had more liquid wealth than the Roman treasury. He owned roughly one-third of all real estate in Rome. Think about that. One man owned a third of the property in the capital of the ancient world. But here's the thing that's really important. Crassus didn't get there by taking huge risks or speculative bets. He got there through patient capital, steady cash flow, and buying distressed assets from motivated sellers. I want to recant what I just said. He did take one massive bet, which was to bet on Solo the second time. But Solo the second time was probably a pretty good bet at that point. And he probably knew it was going to happen. There wasn't a lot of strong opposition to Sola taking over the capital at that point since Marius had passed. So something to keep in mind. But I think the key thing always is the same principles do work today. You don't need, and I say this all the time, you don't need to invent some revolutionary new strategy. You need to execute the basics better than everyone else. To buy from motivated sellers, you have to add value. You have to hold for cash flow. You have to scale through systems. You have to stay in your lane. Crassus, was the master of this playbook. So what was his fatal flaw? How did we end up in the deserts of Parthia with molten gold down our throat? The short answer is this. Crassus wanted to get more than what he had. He had greed, but he had something else that I think is a very important lesson for modern investors to take away. By 60 BC, Crassus has joined forces with Caesar and Pompey to form what historians call the First Triumvirate. It's an informal alliance to control Roman politics. Caesar gets Gaul, Pompey gets Spain, and Crassus gets Syria. Now, if you're thinking about this like a real estate investor, Syria should be perfect for Crassus. It's a wealthy province, lots of cities, lots of trade, Lots of opportunities to apply his proven methods. But Syria doesn't have gold mines. It doesn't have distressed real estate to buy. It doesn't have the kind of opportunities that made Crassus rich. What it has is war. And Crassus wants military power. You see, here's the problem. Crassus is the richest man in Rome, but he's not the most famous. Caesar conquered Gaul and became a legend. Pompey has military triumphs and parades. They get the headlines. They get the respect. And Crassus is jealous. He wants what money can't buy, military fame. He wants to be remembered like Alexander the Great or Scipio Africanus. And let me double click on Alexander the Great really quickly. There's a great story about Julius Caesar at the age of 25 going to the temple and seeing the statue of Alexander the Great. and collapsing on his knees and crying because he feels so bad about himself. Because by the age of 25, Alexander the Great had already conquered the known world. And every good Roman worth their salt wants to be like Alexander the Great. Hell, maybe even today, people want to be like Alexander the Great. It is an incredible, incredible story. But the thing about Rome that you have to understand, it is a militaristic, conquest-driven society where being rich is not enough. You always have to reach for more. Political glory is primarily driven by military talent and conquest. It's part of the fatal flaw of the Roman Empire in the long run. But the generals would come back, they'd be offered a triumph where they'd get to march into the city in great glory and everybody would see how magnificent they were, what a great conqueror they had become like Alexander the Great. And so, The man who has everything looks east and he sees the Parthian Empire. Rich, powerful, never conquered by Rome. If Crassus could defeat Parthia, he'd be the greatest general in Roman history. Nobody has been able to defeat them. And this is where he makes his fatal mistake. He abandons everything at this point that made him successful. And remember, Alexander the Great did conquer Parthia, not known as Parthia at the time. Parthia is modern-day Iran or Persia. And Alexander the Great had conquered it, but the Romans had been in a long, multi-hundred-year conflict with the Parthian Empire and had never succeeded in conquering them. Remember, at this point, Crassus got rich through patience and local knowledge, calculated risks, and staying in his lane. He understood Roman real estate better than anyone because he'd been studying it his whole life. But Parthia, he doesn't understand Parthia. He doesn't know the terrain, the climate, the military tactics, the politics. He's entering a completely unfamiliar market. And he's rushing. Instead of taking time to study Parthia, to build local relationships, to understand what he's getting into, he just assumes... his money in Roman legions will be enough. Sound familiar? It should. Because many real estate investors have made fortunes in their home markets, then lost everything trying to invest somewhere they don't understand. How many people have left their area of expertise to chase something flashier? It's a critical flaw that blows a lot of people up. And in 54 BC, Crassus invades Parthia with 50,000 men and dreams of conquest. And he's betting everything on this one deal. And it is a disaster. The Parthians use tactics the Romans have never seen. Horse archers who can shoot while retreating, hit and run attacks, desert warfare. The Romans are completely outmatched. At the Battle of Karhai, Crassus' army is annihilated. 20,000 Roman soldiers die, 10,000 are captured. The golden eagles, the sacred standards of the Roman legions are lost. And Crassus himself is captured and ultimately killed in the method we described. The man who built the greatest real estate fortune in ancient history dies choking on molten gold in a Parthian tent. The irony is delicious. He died pursuing the one thing his money couldn't buy him, military glory. And he failed bitterly. So what can we as timeless investors, as modern day investors, learn from the story of Marcus Crassus? What does his story teach us about building lasting, timeless wealth? First, let's talk about what he got right. Because most of his playbook still works today. Crisis equals opportunity. Every economic downturn, every market crash, every period of uncertainty creates distressed sellers. People who have to sell Don't want to sell, but circumstances force their hand. That's when you build generational wealth. We saw it in 2008. We saw it during COVID. We'll see it again in the next recession. The smart money doesn't panic during these periods. The smart money gets ready to buy. The critical point always, always in this is having the capital, right? Crisis had the capital. You and I may not have the capital come the next crisis. So you know, sourcing other people's money, being strategic about who are your backers, being ready to go when the crisis hits is a really important tactic. Second, and I've been hammering on this a lot lately, cashflow over appreciation. Crasses didn't speculate on property values. He just bought buildings that produce steady rent. Month after month, year after year. That rent paid his expenses, funded his lifestyle, and gave him the capital to buy more and more properties. He wasn't dependent on market sentiment or exit strategies. His buildings produced income. Whether the market was up, the market was down. Cashflow does not care what the market thinks. It just shows up. Thirdly, This is maybe a little, you know, I want to say this, but I think it's a little more controversial is he had vertical integration. He didn't just own the buildings. He owned the fire department, which as we discussed was critical to his success. He owned the construction crews, the property management. He controlled the entire value chain. Today, that might mean owning your own construction company, having your own GC license, running your own property management firm, your own lending operation. The more you control, the more profit you can capture. Those are critical points. And also, the more you control, the more loyalty you might have to yourself and to what you're trying to do. We see it all the time with management companies that we don't control and own. There's turnover. We don't have control of personnel decision. We don't have control of retention decisions. And all of these things can cause significant damage. Fourth, and I think a critical point to think about when you think about investing of any sort, geographic concentration. Crafts has dominated one market. He understood that market. He knew every neighborhood, every opportunity, every motivated seller. Local expertise, in my experience, creates a huge competitive advantage. You're better off being the expert in one market than the amateur in another. 10 markets. And I've seen this. We invest in Seattle. I think I've discussed this before. And I have many good mentors in Seattle. And I've looked at deals that I thought were in great neighborhoods, great opportunities. And people that were my close mentors would say, oh, you can't buy on that side of the street. Oh, interesting. It's in Capitol Hill. Capitol Hill is a great neighborhood. Yeah, but that side of the street's got problems or that end of the block has problems. You don't buy there. Local expertise, niching down into your market is a massive advantage. Fifth, Crassus believed and held patient capital. He held his properties for decades. He wasn't trying to flip houses or trying to time the market. He was building an empire that will last for generations. But he also made mistakes, fatal mistakes. And these are the lessons that could save your financial life and which I took away from this story as well. A, don't leave your area of expertise. Crassus made his fortune in Roman real estate. He understood the market, the customers, the risks, but then he left real estate for military conquest in a foreign land, and it killed him. What did he know about running an army? He saw Caesar do it. He saw Pompey do it. He got jealous. He thought, I'm rich. I'm wealthy. I'm powerful. I'm a part of the triumvirate. I also should have this like them. But he didn't know anything about it, and he got into it anyways. That means to me, stay in your lane. If you're good at residential rental properties, don't suddenly decide to develop shopping malls. If you don't understand, sorry, if you do understand your local market, don't start investing in markets 3,000 miles away just because someone told you they're hot. Don't chase headlines. Crassus wanted military glory because of all these other people getting attention and he got distracted by what other people were doing instead of focusing on what made him rich In the first place, our job is not to be famous. Our job is to build wealth. And sometimes those things overlap. Sometimes they don't. Don't make emotional decisions. Crassus invaded Parthia because he was jealous and he was impatient. He abandoned his proven strategy for something flashy and risky. The best real estate investments are boring. They're buying cash flowing properties from motivated sellers and holding them for decades. That's not going to get you on the cover of Forbes. It might. but it's not going to do it right away, but it will make you wealthy over time. We have to keep these things in mind. And here's what I want you to think about as you build your own real estate empire, your own business, as you invest your private capital into syndications, into new opportunities. Are you playing Crassus' smart game or are you playing his stupid game? The smart game in investing is boring. It's buying distressed assets when others won't. It's collecting rent checks month after month, year after year, It's building systems that are boring and not fun to do, right? Deal chasing is fun. Building systems is not fun. And staying in your lane is being patient when everyone else is panicking. The stupid game, by contrast, and I hate to say it like that, but it's true, is chasing headlines. It's diversifying into markets you don't understand. It's getting distracted by shiny objects. It's wanting to be famous instead of wanting to be rich. There are so many examples of this. in modern real estate investing. The number of guys that do what I do and are suddenly pitching industrial properties or self-storage because multifamily has been crushing them are many, are many. But do they know self-storage? Do they know industrial? Are they just chasing the next thing? Crassus built the greatest real estate fortune in ancient history by playing the smart game for 30 years. He lost everything including his life by switching to the stupid game for three years. The principles that made Marcus Crassus rich haven't changed in 2000 years. Buy low, create steady cashflow, scale through systems, stay in your area of expertise. The temptations that killed him haven't really changed either. chasing glory, entering unfamiliar markets, believing your own hype, thinking the rules just don't apply to you because you've been so successful. And look, I get it. The smart game can be boring. It's not sexy to talk about buying multifamily properties and collecting rent for 30 years. It's much more exciting to talk about flipping houses or developing mixed use projects or investing in emerging markets. But Marcus Crassus died with molten gold pour down his throat because he forgot the most important lesson of wealth building. The best investors aren't the ones who make the most spectacular deals. They are the ones who avoid the most spectacular mistakes. In real estate, as in life, it's not about the gold you chase. It's about the steady cash flow you build, the patient capital you deploy, and the discipline to stick with what works. Every crisis is an opportunity. Every opportunity is an opportunity for you to do the wrong thing. So always be mindful of like, am I staying on track? Am I staying with my plan? And the question is, will you be ready to when the opportunity does strike? Will you have the capital, the knowledge, and the discipline to act when others are panicking? Or will you be like most investors, sitting on the sideline during the crisis and then chasing the market when it becomes apparent that it's coming back? Crassus understood something that most investors will never actually figure out. You get rich buying when others are selling, not the other way around. So think like Crassus, the real estate mogul, not Crassus, the failed general, and don't die choking on your own greed. This has been the Timeless Investor Show. I'm Ari Van Gemeren. If you enjoyed this episode, subscribe wherever you get your podcasts and share it with someone serious about building real wealth. Until next time, remember our line, act well, think wisely, and build something timeless. Thank you. Have a great week. Let's conquer together.