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- Why Everything is Hard
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Let’s dive in…
Anything worth doing in life is going to be hard. I was reminded of this the other day when dealing with two investments of mine that have gone as the British say, “tits up.”
I have 30 reasons why it happened and I learned from it but it did get me thinking about that universal truth: everything worthwhile is hard. Being successful doesn’t change that simple truth.
You can build a $30m business like I did and lose millions on bad investments.
You can spend tons of time doing due diligence on a deal and come out of it with a big zero.
Entrepreneurs Are Hopeful People
The good and bad part of being an entrepreneur is that you basically ignore the odds. Most businesses fail but you decide to start one anyway.
You see things and say, “Why can’t I have that too. That guy isn’t that smart. Surely I can figure it out.”
The good part is that you are mostly right. That guy isn’t that smart.
The bad part is you underestimate the work and cost of, “figuring it out,” and how important having just, “time in the game,” is.
You’ve Got to Get the Reps
Time in the game means doing multiple repetitions of deals or circumstances; taking wins and losses; learning. Those reps give you experience and start developing a muscle memory.
In almost every activity in life there comes a point where it just doesn’t seem worth it anymore. If you hopped to another option, it would be easier. But it is at exactly that moment when you earn your stripes by sticking with it through the tough part.
Most Experience Doesn’t Translate
The bad part is that reps in one kind of business or activity don’t really translate to others. For example, if you build a successful accounting business or marketing agency, you don’t know anything about real estate.
This is really frustrating. You don’t really know business when you build a marketing agency, you know marketing agencies. There’s a core of 20-30% of knowledge that might translate (financials, people management, etc.) to other fields but it isn’t the most important 20-30%.
We are far too confident that skills developed in one field will translate into another. That reality is made worse by the fact that successful people tend to be overconfident in their abilities and have hazy memories of the countless hours spent losing before they were winning. It can also be much more expensive as successful people buy their way into things rather than hustle like they had to when they were getting started.
Make a Choice
You have two choices really.
Stick to what you know. As far as return on time and investment go, this is almost always the best decision. If you are good at buying and running mobile home parks stick with that. Don’t branch out into multi-family or decide to try your hand at angel investing in tech businesses. The value of each incremental hour you spend on mobile homes far outweighs the hour spent learning angel investing.
Pay the tuition. The ROI is going to be better with option one but it isn’t always fun. Part of the lure of entrepreneurship is learning new things. But realize it will be costly. I’d recommend starting small and understand that that moment where it doesn’t seem worth it will come. If you can stick in the game and learn its new rules, you’ll get there eventually. Just make sure where you get to is worth it to you.
Keep growing,
Alan
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