5 Questions You Should Ask Yourself Every Day
By JD Esajian on November 11, 2016
As a real estate investor you are the maker of your destiny. There are no corporate rules or red tape holding you back from where you want to go. Your success is often determined by how efficiently and intelligently you work. With this comes great responsibility. You do not have a paycheck waiting for you every two weeks. There is nobody standing over your shoulder telling you how and when to work. If you do not get something accomplished there is nobody to blame but yourself. At the end of every day you should take some time to reflect on all the things you have done over the past eight plus hours. Ask yourself a handful of difficult questions only you can answer. If you are not happy with your answers you have the power to change them. Here are five important questions you should ask yourself every day.
- Did I Work As Hard As Possible Today? There is a different mentality working for yourself as opposed to working for someone else. When you work for someone else it is easy to find busy work just to pass the time. As an investor you need to maximize every hour of your day. Like any other job there will be times when you are bored and your mind begins to wonder. It is during these times that you need to refocus and think about the big picture. The real estate business is one of the few professions where your income is often directly correlated with how hard you work. Making that extra follow up phone call or driving to a new listing when you really don’t want to can make all the difference. As you lay in bed at night you should feel that you did everything you could and worked as hard as possible to be successful.
- Did I Make A New Business Connection? The success of your business can often be determined by the number of local contacts you have. The more connections you have the stronger your business will be. Many investors make the mistake in thinking that networking is simply showing up to meetings and waiting for them to end. Networking is not like college where you graded on attendance. You need to be proactive and constantly develop your connections. Little things like stopping by the office with a cup of coffee or leaving a voicemail on the way to work have a tremendous impact. In addition to cementing your existing contacts you should do something every day to generate a new contact. Go to a networking meeting you have never been to. Call the attorney who worked on a previous closing you had together. Grab a business card from the car wash or restaurant you had lunch at and give them a call. By developing one firm contact every week you will grow your network every month.
- Am I Proud Of How I Treated People? Whether you know it or not you are judged on everything you do. The reputation you develop can help you gain or lose a few deals a year. As difficult as it may be in the heat of a deal you need to always remember to treat people the right way. By yelling at an attorney or embarrassing your contractor in front of their employees you can bet they won’t work as hard for you moving forward. All it takes is one post on social media and your reputation can be damaged. On the flip side if you treat people the right way you the people around you will recognize it. They will be more motivated to work with you on future deals and will put in a good word for you with everyone they know. If you did treat someone poorly you should make steps to amend this as quickly as possible. Nobody likes to admit they are wrong but a heartfelt apology can go a long way.
- What Areas Do I Need To Improve? Even the most successful investors have areas in their business where they can improve. Admitting and recognizing these areas is the first step in changing them. As you think about your day think about where you may be weak and more importantly what you plan to do about it. These areas can include anything from organization to punctuality to speaking in public. You don’t need to tackle everything at once but even if you make small strides you will see some improvement. Before you can take any action you need to acknowledge where you need to improve.
- Why Am I Not Having The Success I Desire? The real estate business is filled with frustration. You will not get every property you want or every offer you make accepted. With every step back there is an opportunity for improvement. If your business is not having the success you desire take a minute to ask yourself why. Instead of making excuses or blaming everyone else take a hard look at yourself. Are you working hard enough? What steps have you done to generate new business? Are you diligent with your networking? Is your education where it needs to be? Do you take advice and listen to people well? Do you need to ask for help? Your shortcomings can be in some, all or none of these areas. As long as you find out why you are having trouble you can make strides to fix it.
How you answer these five questions goes a long way in determining what your business should do moving forward. Instead of going through the motions every day take a minute and ask yourself these five questions.