When I was but a young kid considering what my future might be like I met a school career adviser who asked me if I had thought of what I would like to do for the future. I explained that while I was prepared for hard work and attention to detail I had still not made up my mind and I was not even sure if I really could. I had found, at the time, no profession that really attracted me.

He said: "In that case I would advise you to concentrate on something everybody needs." Now, it took me some time to understand exactly what those words meant but they have probably been the best piece of advice I could ever have been given.

I love the real estate business. I went into it because I wanted to become financially independent and, after having made my first million dollars, I stayed in it because I love it, I love the thrill of closing deals and the sense of excitement which goes with finding new multi-family dwellings and establishing another parallel income stream. I love dealing with people and setting up the processes which allow me to make money, contribute to the local economy and help people with their housing. In addition to all this I know that I also have the confidence which comes with working in a recession-proof business.

People always need housing. Despite the press-driven reports of recession, slowdown and even a complete stop in the housing market people always need somewhere to stay, there are always sellers and buyers, new deals always come in the market and domestic emergent markets always occur and these defy just about every macroeconomic trend that exists.

It is this fact which makes the real estate investment business so recession proof. Provided you are willing to put in some leg work and put in place just the kind of information lines that will alert you when a domestic emergent real estate market first breaks, there is no reason you cannot enjoy one real estate boom after another despite what the national real estate market may be going through.

As a real estate investor who has seen the real estate market in the US go through good times and bad I know that there has never been a time in my career when I personally experienced negative growth or even anything approaching a slowdown.

Of course in order for you to actually have a truly recession-proof career you need to be in total control of it rather than the other way around and this is exactly where some professional, expert help, the kind of which I would have loved to have had when I was starting out can come in handy.

Provided you are smart enough to get that you are then smart enough to make sure that the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow never runs dry.