126: How You Enter the Pool – Friday Fundamentals

There are two ways one can enter a pool. You can take the stairs into the shallow end… or, you can cannonball the deep end. I find that these are the same two approaches to achieving your goals, whatever those may be.

Let’s look at a couple scenarios.

Let’s say your goal is to purchase a 100 unit apartment complex. There are a few approaches you can take to get there. Taking the stairs, might look something like first buying a single family home, then a duplex, then a fourplex. Then you might partner on a 12 unit deal, then 1031 exchange into a 36 unit. Finally you might syndicate a 100 unit deal. Rather, you might start a house flipping business. You might flip 1 house your first year, 4 the next, then 12 the next. You could hire a team, build process and procedures, and outsource some tasks. Eventually you can unplug from the business, and it generates capital without much involvement on your part. Only then, do you save up this capital to invest in that 100 unit.

The cannonball approach would look more like this. You go out and get a mentor who buys apartments. You work for that person for free, and spend as much time as possible learning the business and focusing solely on investing in large apartments. You raise money and invest in that 100 unit alongside a trusted partner.

Let’s take a different scenario, one not related to real estate investing. Let’s say your goal is to quit your job so you can build and sell handmade furniture, which is your passion.

The stairs approach might look something like picking up a side job to earn money so you can save up 6 months of living expenses when you quit your job. You start bargain shopping for tools, saws, workbenches, and eveything you need to build furniture. Then after 3 years of doing this, you sell your very first piece of furniture you’ve made over a few weekends as an experiment.

The cannonball approach might look something more like this. You quit your job, take out a $10,000 small business loan, build a website, and start selling furniture right away.

Now, I’m not here to tell you how to enter the pool. But I want you to think about your approach to achieving your goals. Are you more inclined to ease in using the stairs? Or are you the type to jump in right away, once you’ve made you mind up?

This might seem a bit silly, but it has some importance. You don’t want to jump in the deep end only to realize you don’t know how to swim. You don’t want to start slow, only to find out you’ve missed out on the opportunity or wasted valuable time.

The take away here is to make a conscious decision on how you plan to reach your goals.

“If you fail to plan, you are planning to fail!” – Benjamin Franklin

Make a plan. Change your plan when necessary. Don’t haphazardly stumble in a random direction, hoping to one day achieve your goal.