What is Your Why?
Simply put your why will get you out of bed on those days you don’t want to face the world. When everything seems to be going wrong. When you ask yourself “What was I thinking buying this property, it’s been nothing but a headache?” You will think of your WHY pull yourself up by the bootstraps and get to solving problems.
I’d like to share a true life story with you.
A few years back a young child was filled with excitement. His mom just caved to his constant taunting- “Mom can we go to the park?” It was a hectic day but mom figured it would tire him out and she could get her work done then. As mom sat and watch him play she smiled, he had made new friends and they were all laughing and giggling while they spun around on the merry go round. The kids would yell to their friends faster, faster and the giggling and laughter became louder and louder.
As the child was spinning around and around he approached the edge, mom just inches away race to stop what she saw was coming. The Jump. The giggles and laughter quickly turned to tears and agony.
The next day as his rambunctious lively 4 year old sat on the couch grimacing every time he moved dad called every doctor in his insurance plan in a 50 mile radius to find one that would see a 4 year old with a greenstick fracture of the radius and ulna. Dad came up short. After each phone call his son would ask him “When were we going to see the doctor?” Dad could only reply “Soon son soon”.
All dad thought of was how he was failing his son. That he had one job, just one. To provide for his family and he couldn’t even find a doctor, even though he belonged to one of the so called “Cadillac” plans. It took a full 8 hours before Dad finally found a doctor that would agree to see his son.
Since then he has search for ways to make sure that will not happen again. He decided real estate was his way.
His WHY, that absolute driving force behind everything he does, is to never have to face his family and say “Sorry I can’t provide for you”.
What’s your Why?When asked most people will give a generic answer to
Why do you buy real estate?
- To build wealth, so I can retire
- To get out of the rat race
- To become rich
They don’t have a WHY. When times get tough, I said WHEN not if, there is a good chance they will just walk away. Leaving millions of unrealized profits on the table.
Imagine yourself at the tip of the arrow of change.
The flipper that views himself as rebuilding the community and removing eyesores from the landscape.
The developer that provides high quality health care to his elderly neighbor by building the necessary infrastructure to attract hospitals to open medical facilities in his community.
The mobile home park investor that is providing a clean safe affordable place free of meth labs for hard working factory workers.
Your WHY should be Something bigger then yourself.
Look inside yourself, what are you passionate about. What gets you all fired up. Money is almost never the answer.
- It’s the thrill of the chase
- It’s the pressure of fitting all the moving parts together before time runs out
- It’s getting to meet new people
- It’s getting to solve people’s problems
For me it’s commercial property in the form of Multifamily and retail space. I envision myself providing clean, safe housing for the backbone of this country the blue collar worker. I also envision attracting solid business through retail storefronts located in prime spots throughout town. I want to build the smaller locations that provide support for the developers that are bringing in big business.
I really like helping people. My newest tenant was a newly hired school teacher that was just starting out on her own. She was leaving the nest and the look of pure joy that I was able to give her really made all the hard work of putting the pieces of that puzzle together worth it.
Tomorrow spend 10 minutes in a quite, electronics free space and really think about what makes you tick. What gets you excited? What motivates you? Write down everything that comes to mind.
Now put that aside and answer the following:
- When am I most happy?
- If money didn’t matter, how would I spend my time each day?
- What’s important to me?
Can you find any correlations in the two lists you made?
This is an ongoing process. Think, write, compare. As you narrow down your list you will gain focus and find that one thing that really makes you smile.
This will allow you to create your WHY statement.
My pieces look like this
I never want to look my family in the eye and say I can’t provide for you. (what gets me out of bed every morning)
I love helping people. I especially like seeing the joy on their face when I can solve a problem they have. (what I truly love doing)
So why do I buy real estate?
So I can provide for my family through helping others find a clean safe and affordable place to provide for theirs.
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