How many times have we heard that if we just believe in ourselves, we can do anything we put our minds to? Too many. It’s the bread and butter of many an inspirational song and self help guru. Right?
What they don’t say is that before you jump into anything, you need to do your homework and understand what it is you’re jumping into.
Just going all whacked out, pedal to the metal is great but if you’re not prepared, it just means you’ll have a serious head of steam when you go flying off that short pier we always hear about.
Trust me on this one. I fell for a relative’s constant set of assurances that everything will be fine. What I didn’t know when I took the bait to jump into the real estate market in 2004 (Yea, yea… I know. Don’t say it.) was that everything will be fine for her. All the while we “share” commissions while she tutored me.
I look back on that experience with a lot of emotion that I won’t write to here, I’m trying to keep this family friendly. But rather than blame her (which I do in my bad days) I didn’t do my THOROUGH RESEARCH. It was my own fault.
I asked 2 people about the industry of real estate. I needed more. Lots more. I needed to know what to ask.
For instance, when I asked my relative how many sides she’s had in the last few years, she told me that’s not important. So I moved on to another subject. But she had something up her sleeve because looking back, a side is a transaction.. a closed deal! See what I mean?
I also asked one other person here in CA about the industry. I don’t think I got enough out of that, but not knowing enough, I thought I had.
My take is that when you’re jumping into something new, do your research. Interview 5 successful people in the industry or niche you’re looking at. Make sure you have the financial situation in hand, completely. Can you survive the worst case scenario financially?
The only other option you need to have set up, is a set time frame of “if you don’t succeed, when are you pulling out?”
I stayed in the industry so much longer than I should have because I kept “digging in” because I “believed in myself.” Awesome outlook that had no real plan behind it and it was a very costly, stupid ass set of decisions.
Well, I could say that from the get-go, but the last 6 – 8 months of my endeavore hurt me more than the first year and a half of my endeavor. Lesson learned.
So when you pursue some awesome business idea, make sure you have contingencies in place for every step of the way!
Now you know!
