What do you do to keep up your motivation in your business?

Question

I like everyone have excellent days and then just plain-ole great days. I choose to have more of the first than the last, however some days are a bit more draining for a thousand reasons.

My question what do you do to keep yourself motivated – LONG Term? Yes I know Money is a motivator but it doesn’t sustain, there has to be something that drives you from the core.

For me it’s BP for sure, I listen and read a ton about people in the business, I take Continuing Education (CE) classes, I hang out with people that are much more successful (insert your own definition of successful here) than I am. I’ve been on this path for over 30 years so it has become my pattern to overcome the negative.

I’m positively charged most all of the time – but there are days where something will creep up that I didn’t prepare for or didn’t anticipate for properly and gut punch me.

So what do you do?

Dave Van Horn · Answer

^these are all great motivators but I'll try to add to the list.

- Teaching/Helping Others with their investment strategies - I do this not only through my writing on BiggerPockets but also personal interactions with investors both in person and online - offering advice and sharing the knowledge I've accumulated in the Real Estate/Note business throughout my career. In fact, just yesterday I hosted a full day event for a group I co-founded called Strategic Investor Alliance (SIA). The purpose of the group is to share information to build and preserve wealth with accredited investors. I think that although it can be a lot of work, starting/maintaining a group like this has been one of the most gratifying experiences ever. Yesterday's event was a small group of just under 75 people, where we all just hunkered down at a secluded winery (in the freezing cold!) just outside Philadelphia, to learn from and teach each other. What I saw was not only real, actionable strategies being absorbed by the audience, but also relationships being built among like-minded people from across the country.  Sometimes I feel like I personally do too much in my business and working in general, but it's moments like these where I get to share my experience, create friendships, and help others that I value the most.

- In the same vein, my employees motivate me. There's something to be said for starting a company. It spurs growth and can affect so much change, many times among countless people via employees and their families, clients, shareholders, etc. As the President of my company, I'm not just accountable for my work but employees work as well. But it's not the quality of employees work that truly motivates me (although it keeps me on my toes), what really does it is getting to see employees achieve success. We've helped employees attend school and continuing education, we've sent them on trips to attend networking conferences, workshops, seminars, etc. After all, as a company, their success is our success. Why not help each other and share in it? Watching employees lives positively grow over the years has been incredibly rewarding and some days, just the thought of fostering someone's success really helps me get up in the morning!

So outside of the ones mentioned by others above these were the first two motivators to spring to mind.

Great idea for a forum thread @Scott F.!

Michael Boyer · Answer

Good topic....

Big picture, you are, in most strategies, housing others (buy and hold) or improving the housing stock (flips done right).

It is a large, important role in society that not everyone can do. So that is inspiring--helping others and playing a key role. Not that you are a charity, but if you do it right--even with a profit motive-- others will benefit.

You generally get some control over your success, something getting more uncommon if your efforts are lost in a bureaucracy someplace, public or private sector.

Being your own boss is big one in a world that tells you what to do at every turn.

Hands on landlords actually get some dual purpose fitness and money savings on projects. Do a few reps of replace the fence or paint the wall, and it is not unlike real estate cross fit. My four-plex drop 10 lbs off me every summer for no membership fee! And you save money, too.

Real money. All the zeros in the retirement accounts go up and down (paper gains/losses), and dividends and interest are still pretty paltry on most investments. But you get real, green folding money in your pocket each month (in buy and hold for example) from providing a real service to society.

Pretty simple business model. If you do a basic buy and hold or flip, it is pretty intuitive. Make the rental pencil out; or add value to the property. So you don't need to learn to code, get an advanced degree, or try to out-compete Amazon or some distant foreign low priced labor pool. In a complex world, a relatively simple, do-able business can be rewarding.

Lots more...These just come to mind right now.

Best of luck.

Patrick M. · Answer

@Michael Boyer, Love it. All of the above.

I am a W2 worker and I have longed to enter the fray-

I dump my max $ into a 401k every year and hope for a 8% return. Punch my card, get my check, I could only get ahead by cutting back.

Now I get to get creative with each apt. remodel, get in and work and have something tangible to show for my work, hear the ooh's and ah's when I show it and likely get a 20-25% return on the cash I put in! Plus I get to learn about a completely new field in my middle age.

I'm living the dream.

Chinmay J. · Answer

I glance at my bank balance (or lack thereof) from time to time. Hugeeeeeee motivator :)

What do you do to keep up your motivation in your business?

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