Can you substitute action with knowledge?

With the wealth of knowledge that’s available at anytime, to anyone, for free or close to it, it’s no wonder that we spend hours, days, weeks, months or even years researching something before we’re willing to take action.

Unfortunately gaining knowledge is causing stagnation for a lot of people. Whether we’re using knowledge as an intentional way to procrastinate or a way to reduce the amount of work needed to achieve our goals, the results are the same. We aren’t taking action.

Don’t get me wrong, knowledge is great to maximize returns and reduce risk, but action can’t be substituted with knowledge!

We can research the perfect workout regiment to maximize muscle build or fat burn, but we already know we need to do some sit-ups and cardio. We can learn the most effective ways to learn, but we are still going to need to open the textbook. We can analyze every possible outcome of every investment property in North America, but we won’t see returns until we buy one, and buying any one of those properties is likely a far better option than buying none of them.

It doesn’t matter how much research we do, there is no “20 minutes a week” workout that will get us to our fitness goals. There is no secret way of studying that allows us to retain 100% of everything we read. Knowing everything there is to know about real estate investing will never reduce the risk of investing to zero.

I’ve met a lot of very successful people and they all have something in common, action. Not knowledge. Some of them are very educated in their fields, others are bumbling through their endeavours with no clue what they’re doing, but they're still doing!

I’ve worked for people with far less business skills than me. How did someone with less business knowledge end up running a profitable company while I worked to get them rich? Simple. They started a business and I didn’t. It’s rarely knowledge that holds us back.

Sometimes successful people are very knowledgeable in their fields, but it’s likely knowledge they gained by taking action. Do you think Brandon Turner knew everything he knows now when he bought his first investment?

Most investors get it wrong at the beginning and maybe people’s workouts aren’t perfectly matched for their fitness goals and maybe there was a more efficient way to study for the lawyer to pass the bar exam, but it doesn’t matter. Taking action gets us closer to our goals. Learning how doesn’t.

The best real estate investment I’ve bought to date is my first. Why? Because I’ve owned it the longest. There are others that have generated a better ROI in comparison to how long I’ve owned them, but time in the market has been far more beneficial than knowing everything there is to know and getting the perfect deal. Making a 10% return for 3 years is better than waiting 2 years and then earning 20% for the last year.

I’m a huge fan of the quote Brandon Turner always uses: “If knowledge was the key we would all be rockstars with six pack abs”.

We all know the work that needs to be done but we keep thinking it will be easier if we just had a bit more knowledge. There is no easy button. Want six pack abs, do sit-ups. Want better health, eat better food. Want a business, start a business. Want to invest in real estate, buy a profitable piece of real estate. None of it needs to be perfect for success but all of our goals will require a commitment to action before they are achieved. Better done than perfect.

The flip side is, what is inaction costing us? How good of a deal do we need to buy in three years to make up for the average deal today? If we want to lose 20 pounds in a year, how much harder will it be if we do nothing for the first 6 months? How much time do we spend learning the most efficient ways to learn when we could be studying?

We can gain all the knowledge in the world, but until we do a sit-up, open a textbook, or buy an investment property, our goals will never get any closer.