Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed in this blog post are provided for informational purposes only, and should not be construed as an offer to buy or sell any securities or to make or consider any investment or course of action.
On June 24th, 2017, I married the love of my life. The next day, we both update our Facebook pages to reflect our newly wed status. Tons of people liked it, and we received many congratulatory comments. It was amazing.
Later that evening, I was scrolling through my Facebook feed, and I see a post from one of my friends announcing his wife and his 8-year wedding anniversary. I noticed it only received 39 likes. I thought, “I wonder how many people liked their Facebook update announcing their marriage compared to the announcement of 8 years of a successful marriage?” Lo and behold, they received three to four times as many likes and comments for the marriage announcement.
Then I came across another anniversary post, with these friends celebrating two years of marriage. Sure enough, when I went back through their timeline, I discovered their wedding announcement received over 100 interactions compared to the 32 on the recent anniversary post.
I began thinking, “Wait a minute. Why do we celebrate the initial coming together more than two years, eight years, etc. of being together successfully and loving each other?”
At this point, you may be thinking, “what does this have to do with real estate investing?” Well, I think there is a clear parallel. For those of you that have completed a least one real estate transaction, what did you celebrate more: closing the deal or successfully operating the deal? If you are like me, and I am sure like most other investors, the largest celebration occurred at closing.
So similar to marriage and anniversaries, why do we celebrate the initial closing of a deal more than we celebrate a successful refinance a few years later, or when we deliver on our annual projections?
Now I am not trivialize getting married or closing on a deal, because those are great accomplishments. But I do think we are approaching it backwards. I believe we should be celebrating the milestones, anniversaries, delivering on our projections much more.
You may be thinking, “It seems strange to celebrate something like two years of cash flow from a deal,” but that is really what we should be celebrating. The investors who I interview on my podcast who are playing at a level that is three, four, or more times higher than me say, “You know Joe, as I progress further and further, I realize that it’s less about actually getting a deal or closing a deal and more about what you do after you have a deal.”
It is similar to a concept a previous guest on my show explained – being goal-oriented vs. growth-oriented. When we are goal-oriented, there are many more highs and lows. If we don’t get awarded a certain deal, we are low. If we get award a deal, we are high. When we are growth-oriented, there is less emphasis on whether or not we are awarded with a single opportunity. As long as we continue to successfully implement our business plan on the assets we own, meet our daily/weekly objectives, and growth as a business and a person, we have a reason to celebrate.
In other words, being goal-oriented has peaks and valleys, peaks and valleys, whereas being growth-oriented is you continuing to climb up the mountain. When we have a growth mentality, we can still celebrate getting married and closing on a deal. But we should put more weight on a wedding anniversaries and on an annual basis in our real estate businesses.
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Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed in this blog post are provided for informational purposes only, and should not be construed as an offer to buy or sell any securities or to make or consider any investment or course of action.
