Fortunately for Sutton, the timing and the topic were right for his first book, “Start Your Own Corporation,” which launched him into writing several more books for business owners and real estate investors. His latest, “Veil Not Fail: Protecting Your Personal Assets from Business Attacks,” is due for release this year. The book explains the reasons the corporate veil, meant to separate business assets from the owner’s personal wealth, can be pierced, resulting in potentially catastrophic losses for the owner. ‘HARD LESSONS’ IN REAL ESTATE INVESTING The lessons in many of Sutton’s books apply to those in the real estate industry, which stems from firsthand knowledge. He says he became an “accidental landlord” when he and his wife, Jenny, had their first child. When they decided their house was too small for their growing family, the Suttons bought a new home in Reno. Sutton said he would have lost money selling the first house, so he decided to rent it. “I was not expecting to get into real estate at all,” he said. “I did learn some hard lessons from owning that first single-family rental.”
OPPORTUNITY OF A LIFETIME Part of Sutton’s impetus for narrowing his firm’s focus was his association with Robert Kiyosaki, author of “Rich Dad Poor Dad” and leader of the business empire that has grown from that book. Kiyosaki was looking for an attorney to be a Rich Dad adviser on the topic of entities and asset protection. Sutton and Kiyosaki connected over their shared interest of rugby—they are both fans and former players of the sport—and, in 2001, Sutton was asked to write a book for the Rich Dad brand on a tight timeline. He knocked it out in three weeks, and it was the first of many business books he’s penned. Sutton admits he’s taken longer than a few weeks to write his subsequent books but says he enjoys the process because he’s always been interested in writing. He wrote stories from elementary school through college, and he tried to write a book in his 20s that “didn’t go anywhere.” His interest even spurred him to start a monthly arts and entertainment publication in Sonoma County, California, one of his ventures that didn’t go as planned. “We had some partners, and some people dropped out, and all of a sudden I had to run it,” he said. “I kept it going for a while. Publishing is difficult, especially local publishing like that. I learned some good lessons from that.”
24 | think realty magazine :: july – august 2022
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