“The man who comes up with a way to do something better has the future at his fingertips.”
The world of business, especially commercial real estate investing can be pretty unpredictable, but, there are times when certain things happen a certain way that will have predictable outcomes.
One of which is discipline. Always remember that winners make themselves do the things necessary to win. You look at great athletes like Michael Jordan and Cael Sanderson (he went undefeated in four years of college wrestling at 159 -0) and find it incredible at what they do.
What is even more incredible is the abilities of these people when they are off of the court, every day, to stay in peak performance and condition. This is the part you do not see but yet is the key to the goldmine.
It is incredible how many commercial real state investors I talk to that don't do things that they know will make them money and choose not to do it. I hear comments like “I know a tenant newsletter program would work great but I know I would not have the discipline to get them out on time. OR -“I know I should implement a quarterly contact system, but, I know I would not stick with it.” This is unbelievable.
One of the things that will help you more than anything is to develop a strict regimen of actions that will continue to pay off. For example, a monthly newsletter, getting up in the morning and reading for 30 minutes every day, consistently looking for areas of cost reduction, etc. This kind of discipline, beyond anything else separates the men from the boys, if you will.
Urgency:
Too many of us tend to postpone and excuse the things that we need to have done, now, that will make big differences in our commercial real estate investment businesses. Too many of us tend to say “it can't be done” vs. “it can't get done the way I'm doing it now so I will find another way you get it done”.
It is far to easy to accept others excuse making, others lack of urgency and stonewalling. You have to have an attitude of not letting others delays and problems keep you from your appointed pace. If you do, the success that you are looking for will take that much linger to accomplish.
Resiliency
“More gold has been mined from the thoughts of men than from the earth.”
The only thing I will say about this is this; it's not really about how many times you fail that is the problem, it's about how many times you get back up that is the key.
The flexibility to get up after you have failed has led to more success and fortune than probably anything else. You almost need to think of yourself as a rubber band, always bending but never breaking. There will be many times that you will have challenges to all parts of your business. This happens even more so when you become “successful” vs. when you are struggling.
Don't get me wrong, you will have it tough as you are on the track of the “up and comer” but as you have more success you will also have more responsibilities, which means more chances of making the wrong decision or going the wrong way -which could cost you time or money or both.
Like I said, it really is not so much the why or how the challenge came up, what matters is how you react and respond to it. Bottom line. You will have deals fall through, bad days, lose a valued tenant, lose a staff member, get screwed out of a deal by an owner or banker, etc. Get over it and move on, don't live with it, get rid of the problem as quickly as possible and move on with your investment business.
Remember, your business is really like a book. You will have chapters that will be fantastic, you will have chapters that will be tough and sometimes sad, but, remember, more often than not books will have a happy ending.
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