5 Actions To Avoid If You Want To Be Successful
By JD Esajian on November 10, 2017
Sustained success in any business is hard. Just when you think you have things figured out an unexpected curveball will come your way. If you are not willing to outwork your competition and adapt to your market any success you have will be short lived. The goal for most investors is to have long-term, sustained success. Regardless if you close five deals a month or a deal a year you want to be in the business for as long as you want on your terms. The minute you think you have everything figured out and take your foot off the gas you will almost immediately run into trouble. Anyone can invest in real estate but not everyone has the ability to make a career out of it. Here are five actions that you need to avoid if you want sustained success.
- Overconfidence. The real estate business is constantly changing and evolving. The success you have today can be a distant memory if you aren’t willing to evolve with it. Having a pipeline full of potential deals and closings is a great feeling. But as anyone in real estate, or sales in general, can tell you all it takes is a few lost deals to change everything. Five deals can quickly turn to three and the next thing you know you are down to just one deal on the horizon. The great feeling you had just a few days ago is now disappointment. This underscores the importance of taking advantage of every opportunity that comes your way. Even if you are busy you should never discard a solid new lead. You need to make time to work a new deal because you never know what will happen with your pipeline. Overconfidence often leads to laziness which can leave you searching for business.
- Settling in. Just because you have success with something today doesn’t mean it will continue for the future. Where many investors get in trouble is thinking that a current marketing campaign or lead generation strategy will stay this way. They settle in with a campaign and assume it will last forever. In business it is always best to get off a trend a little too early rather than too late. If you do not evolve with the business, you will be swallowed up by your competition. Every few weeks you should evaluate what you are doing, if it is working and if it will continue for the future. Many investors got started during the foreclosure and short sale boom. They dumped all their capital into finding deals in this niche even when data indicated it wouldn’t last forever. Without the foresight to consider the future they we left disappointed with the volume and type of deals that came their way. Eventually, they became disenchanted with the business and stopped looking all together. The best investors are always looking out for the new trend or the next market rather than being stubborn and stuck in their ways.
- Giving up too early. Success takes time. This isn’t exactly breaking news, but many investors assume they will be an overnight success. The reality is that almost everything you do takes months or even years to start realizing a return. It is essential that you are willing to give every aspect in your business enough time. Your networking may be slow producing leads or making a connection, but you need to stick with it. Your marketing campaign may not generate more than a handful of calls from your first batch, but it doesn’t mean you should scrap it and start over. A partnership may be bumpy on the first deal, but it may take a deal or two to iron things out. Whatever you do in your business you need to commit to for a designated period. If you put everything you have into whatever you are doing eventually you will see the impact.
- Shortsightedness. The actions you take on a deal today can have a lasting impact on your business for years to come. All it takes is one negative comment or one mindless action to cause permanent damage to your business and your reputation. Once your reputation is scared it is difficult to get people to change the way they think of you. If all things are equal, they may look for other people to work with. You may want to squeeze every nickel out of a deal but never do this at the expense of your business partners. A couple extra bucks on one deal is not worth ruining your business over. Before you respond in the heat of the moment think of the impact it may have.
- Laziness. It is no secret that the best investors are the ones that act. It sounds simple enough, but you need to be willing to do what the people around you aren’t. The minute you start to become lazy your business will make a dramatic turn for the worse. This doesn’t mean you can’t have fun and enjoy yourself, but you need to always remember what made you successful. In business you get out what you put in. Those investors who work the hardest will just happen to find themselves with more deals and more potential partnerships.
Any investor can have short term success. It takes plenty of hard work and foresight to have long term, sustained success. When your business finally pops, and deals start rolling in be sure to avoid these five actions that can derail your success.