Author Archives: bwillett555

Why average sucks

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When was the last time you looked up the definition of a word?
If you are like most people, probably not very often.
You either don’t read much, which means you don’t get exposed to a new words very often or you just ignore the word you don’t know.
I have made it a habit to not only look up words I don’t know the definitions of, but I also look up words I assume I know for sure.

It may sound silly to do, but I will tell you there have been many occasions where I looked up a word that I thought I knew for sure, but found that I was a little off exactly.

The word average isn’t one of those words I thought I knew and learned that I didn’t know.

Instead though, what I learned was there isn’t really anything good about being average.

Read some of the words in the definitions below.  Is that what you want?

  • having qualities that are seen as typical of a particular person or thing.
  • mediocre; not very good.
  • a typical amount, rate, degree, etc.; norm.
  • number expressing the central or typical value in a set of data, in particular the mode, median, or (most commonly) the mean, which is calculated by dividing the sum of the values in the set by their number.
  • an amount, standard, level, or rate regarded as usual or ordinary.
  • constituting the result obtained by adding together several quantities and then dividing this total by the number of quantities.
  • of the usual or ordinary standard, level, or quantity.
Three ways to stop being average:
1. To get out of the class of average you first have to stop comparing yourself to everyone else.  That’s the hard reality.  There is a lot of average out there.

2. Realize that it is going to take so much more effort and most likely time to accomplish a goal that you have. Sometimes you can increase the frequency you do things which can decrease the amount of time.  But regardless it is going to take a lot more of everything to accomplish your goals. Unless they are too easy.
3.  Nobody is going to do it for you. It’s up to you.  The calvary is not showing up.  You have to do the work.  It’s on you.Be great today!

To your success and your future.

Three things that I learned that was a total lie

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As a kid growing up I am sure I was told by much smarter people, grown ups, of things that I should do or shouldn’t do.  And I didn’t listen.  Because I was young and dumb.  But the older I get the more I realize that those grown-ups knew more because of their experiences.  And nothing can replace experience to teach us lessons.

With all of those lessons that I may have missed along the way, I did pick up a few lessons that I did listen to that were completely wrong.  And these people didn’t intentionally lie to me.  It wasn’t their fault.  But I learned them, and as I have gotten older I now realize they didn’t know what the heck they were talking about.

Money isn’t as important as you think. 

If I had a dollar for every time someone said this to me, I wouldn’t have to worry about money.  I am sure it was told to me as a child at times as well.  But more importantly, and more critical, was the fact that money wasn’t discussed.  Look, I know my parents did all they can.  I didn’t go without food, water, shelter, and clothing.  And I know for a fact that my parents did whatever they could to provide us with everything they could.  I had a great childhood.

I also know that there were people around me that were better off.  Their parents had better paying jobs.  Which meant that they got the newer and nicer things. Kids are smart enough to look around and see the reality of situations, but instead of them only seeing the realities of the situation, I think parents can use that as a motivator to encourage their kids to understand the realities of the situation better by explaining to them the realities of the situation.

My parents didn’t talk about money which meant we didn’t think about money.  At an early age, I knew that money was important, because when I had it, I felt better, and I could go and buy all the damn candy I wanted.  And for me to be able to do that I had to have money.

I can remember poor person after poor person telling me that money wasn’t everything.  There are more important things in life. But just as I learned as a kid and I know it to be more true as an adult, money is necessary for everything.  I need money just to leave my house.  Gas is expensive, food is expensive, dry cleaning is expensive.  Everything requires money.  Not only do you need it to live, but if you have any desire to help other people, you will need money as well.  Never tell anybody that money isn’t that important, because it is.

Formal education is the most important education:

Do good in school, pick a great high school, and be sure to go to college.  I don’t want to discount any of these things.  We all need to understand the basics of which education teaches and provides.  I think most people get this.  Where it goes wrong though, is to only focus on this.

I never had a teacher, parent, counselor, etc. tell me that skills are more important than education.  Skills that I can use in the marketplace that can help me get what I want from the marketplace.

Here are just a few skills, that should be taught, instead of hoping students get them through the process of pursuing a formal education.

Skills such as influencing other people, selling their ideas, being a leader, communicating with tact and candor, taking initiative, problem solving, critical thinking, how to get attention for the things you want, marketing, etc.

Yes, you get some of these skills through the process of a regular classroom, but there wasn’t any course on how to get attention (marketing) in the marketplace.  And if there was, the people teaching the course, my teachers, didn’t know how to exactly do it themselves.  They were reading it to you out of a textbook, which meant their examples were weak and not very compelling.

Yes, a level of formal education is important, but skill development is what is even more important.  Children should learn how to make money, manage money, talk to people, take initiative, take risks, problem solve, etc. These are the skills that are more important.

Seek security:  

Everything I learned by watching everyone in my life was all about security. Find a good paying job with benefits. Go to college and get a good education so you can have opportunities.  Save your money. Don’t get noticed, stay under the radar. Do what you have to do.

Not once did I learn that everything in life that is worthwhile will be just out of reach of my comfort zone and my willingness to expand that zone is what will allow me to get whatever it is that I wanted.

Nobody taught me to seek discomfort.  To seek challenges.  To challenge myself to learn new skills and to be entrepreneurial.

Again, it wasn’t anybody’s fault that I learned these things.  This is what the people I was around the most were taught, and this is what was taught by everyone they knew.  We really are a product of our environment.

As the great Charlie “Tremendous” Jones says: “You will be the same person you are today, five years from now, except for the books your read and the people you meet.”

As a child growing up, I didn’t read very many books outside the ones I had to read.  And I only met people who were in my circle of friends and family.

My suggestion to parents is to look for unique ways to challenge your children and get them experiences with what they will eventually be exposed to in the marketplace.  Teach them the skills that will help them get ahead and stay ahead.

To your success and your future.

The first law of motion

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If you watch TV at all you have inevitably watched the commercial for Celebrex which is an arthritis drug. The commercial states that “a body in motion stays in motion and a body at rest stays at rest”.

This commercial is based on the first law of motion that Issac Newton published in 1687.  Which states that an object either remains at rest or continues to move at a constant velocity, unless it is acted upon by an external force.

This week I was having a conversation with a good friend of mine about this very concept. Not Issac Newton, we aren’t that smart.

We were talking about running. I was explaining to him that as a runner, it is very easy for me to go out and fall into a pace that my body is very comfortable with.  It could be an eight minute mile or a seven minute mile.  It just depends on your conditioning.  Whatever that pace is, it is easy to stay at it because your body can do it without efforting.

I am sure there are more scientific ways to explain it, but I am not scientific.

To increase your speed and accomplish running goals you have set for yourself, you must break the inertia, the temptation to stay at the comfortable pace.

It is hard to do, that inertia is so cozy, easy, and feels great that your mind wants to stay right there.  You may call it your comfort zone. But as long as you do this you will never increase your speed or times towards any distance goals you might want to accomplish.

I was a runner for close to six years before I learned how to really train.  For those first six years I definitely became a better runner, with better speeds and times, but it wasn’t until I started training my body to become very uncomfortable that I made significant gains.  By gains, I mean faster miles, longer distances, and winning races I competed in.

In running that training starts with forcing yourself out of that comfort zone for small periods of time over and over and over, until it stops being that uncomfortable to you. As you continue to do this repeatedly you eventually become better conditioned and you start moving the needle towards whatever goals you might have.

At almost 42 years of age, I am probably twice as fast I was when I was 32.  Its isn’t that that I am getting better with age.  That theory doesn’t hold up in athletics and age. Instead it is I am a more educated and I am better at training.

If I would have known how to train at age 32, who knows what I could have accomplished as a runner.

Whether it is running, biking, writing, speaking, investing, you name it.  For you to break any slump or cycle, you must break the inertia.  You must apply force someway and somehow to move yourself out of the comfort zone.

I am a real estate investor. I have purchased many single family homes. When I first started doing it, I was always a little scared.  I would just think things like this.  “Is this a really good deal”, “Will I be able to fund a tenant”, “What if something goes wrong”, “What if someone destroys my property”.  All of these question ran through my head.

Many years later, I never even think about those things. Purchasing single family homes is easy for me.  I never over think it.  However, it is too easy and too comfortable for me, that I can easily fall into the trap of continuing to only purchase single family homes.

For me to scale my real estate portfolio the way I want to, it is going to require me to buy bigger deals.  Multi-Unit/apartment buildings is now the direction I want to go and I must go.

Many of the same concerns and questions I had early in my investing career are popping up in my head. “Will I be able to find tenants for all of the units”, “What if all of my tenants move out at the same time”, “What if all of my hvac systems go out”.

As these questions pop up in my head it is easy for me to want to stick with the single family homes that I am comfortable with. But I am pushing through because I know I must get to the next level and the only way to do this is to go in the new direction.

I share these stories with the intent to inspire you to force yourself out of the comfort zone you find yourself in. Inertia is a bitch.  Without additional force and pressure from yourself or others you will never get out of the rut or zone you are in.

To your success and your future.

Grow your problems grow your life

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This week I was reminded of a simple rule, law, idea? I am not sure exactly what to call it.

For the sake of this writing we will call it a rule, because rules should be followed.

“If your problems aren’t growing it means you aren’t growing.”

Pretty simple rule. Keep in mind problems are not a negative thing. Problems are good. They help us grow and develop and they illustrate progress.

One of the best examples of this rule in action.

I can remember in my twenties having a car payment. I made good money and thought I had my ducks in a row. But it seemed like no matter what I would do, I always struggled to make my car payment. By struggle I mean, I would have to adjust different bills each month to make sure I had the money to make my car payment.

It is okay to be in this situation for a little while. But if this problems persists year after year, it means you aren’t growing. You are not progressing forward. You are not solving this problem. 

Eventually I figured that piece of my life out and now I had a bigger bill and a bigger problem. I bought a house. Which means it was more money. And just like the car payment, the house payment became a similar situation.

Each month I would have to move around certain bills to make sure I had enough money to pay my house payment. After a few years of this I was able to get some money saved and create some slack for myself.  In both situtations I solved my problems.  I figured it out. That should be the goal.  As you start to solve your problems you create even bigger and better probelms you will have to learn to solve. 

I am not here to give financial advice, but if you continue to struggle with the same things year after year after year it means you are not changing and you are not growing.

Another good example is in business.

If you are running a business and you are the only employee, you obviously have a lot on your plate and a lot of problems that you are managing all by yourself.  As your solve those problems and your business grows, it only makes sense to hire an employee to help you. 

With the addition of that one employee, you may have eliminated some of the problems you were having as a solo band, but with that new employee you will start to get new problems. For each employee you add new problems will arise, but the old problems will go away.  

Many people who decide to have children do so because they want a family and that family will bring them happiness.  But ask any parent how many more problems they had when they had their first child, then their second, third, and you get the point. These are welcomed problems though, because the happiness and joy outweighs the problems and challenges children bring.  

A final example I have from my own life is this. Every since I was a little kid I have always wanted to own rental real estate.

When I bought my first piece of rental real estate it was a duplex. A very expensive one, which is another story for another day.

I didn’t realize how much money it was going to cost me for a down payment to purchase the place. And at the time, I had some money saved but not enough.

For me to purchase the duplex I ended up selling a gun that I owned to someone for like four-hundred dollars. Yes. Four-hundred dollars. At that time in my life four-hundred dollars was like four-thousand dollars.

I bought the duplex. A few years later I bought four more rental properties and I was able to pay cash for two of them and the other ones I easily had the down payments.

As I am typing this today, I am about to make the largest real estate purchase I have ever made.

There is a quote I like to use and have used many times in my life.

“There is no neutral in life, you are either going forward or going backwards.”

This week we elected a new president into office. Many people unfortunately think that what happens in Washington DC, no matter who is in charge, has a great impact on their life. This is without a shadow of a doubt, untrue.

The only person that can impact your life is you. You have to do the work. You have to make the sacrifices.

To your success and your future.

Three things I did to pay off my third rental property

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As of this writing I have written well over a thousand articles on a wide range of topics.  A topic that I haven’t written about is real estate.  And it is probably one of my favorite topics on the planet.

I bought my first rental property in 2006 at the age of 26.  It was a duplex that I owned up until I moved to Florida in 2015.

My attraction to real estate started when I was young and it is something I have loved ever since.

As of this writing I own five single family residences.  Four of the five are paid off. Two of the five are condos that I paid cash for when I bought them, so I never had mortgages on them.

Over the years I have listened to many so called experts.  I say so called experts, because I am sure they are all successful in whatever they have done and accumulated.  However, they all had different processes they used to get there.

Some of them used a lot of debt to have success, some used minimal debt, and some used no debt to accumulate the wealth and experiences they have in the area of real estate.

I have always been a fence rider on the topic of debt when it comes to real estate.  I innately hate debt. When I became debt free other than the mortgages I had on rental properties and the house I lived in.  I said I would never have debt again.  And I haven’t.

The topic of debt in real estate is something I go back and forth on though.  I am not sure I have a clear opinion one way or the other on it as of today. However, I did make a commitment to myself that I would pay off the other three houses that I did have mortgages on though.

This morning I looked in my journal to see when I made the goal to get the third rental property paid off. The first date I wrote in this journal is 10/19/2018.  Today is 7/1/20.  I assume it may have been in there before.  However, lets just assume that was the first date I wrote that goal down.

On 1/31/2020 we paid off the third mortgage. Since then we have paid off a fourth and could pay off the fifth, but I am having that whole internal discussion on whether to pay it off or use the money we have saved to buy more.  This is another topic for another day.

How did we pay off that third mortgage?  What did we do?

  1. I wrote the goal down everyday:  As I mentioned, I can look in my journal and tell you when I started writing that goal down.  I wrote it down for close to two years almost everyday, until I accomplished the goal. This one thing is first for a reason.  To achieve what it is you want to achieve you have to remind yourself daily that this is what you want to achieve.
  2. Everything extra went towards it. As I mentioned I struggle in the area of whether to have debt or leverage debt when it comes to real estate.  There is one person who is clear on this topic though.  That is Dave Ramsey.    He is a firm believer in no debt on anything.  He has a proven method for people to get out of debt and has helped millions of people do it. One of the things he talks about is the snowball effect.

    The snowball effect is if you take a ball of snow and you roll it down ahill.  As it makes it way down the hill it gets bigger and bigger as it accumulates more snow around it.

    Also, the momentum of the snowball picks up as it makes it way down the hill.  He uses this method when it comes to paying off debt.  Which is to take all extra money and apply it to your smallest debt and pay it off first. He believes, and he is right, that the momentum that a person creates when they are able to pay off something quickly provides them the momentum they need to keep them going to pay off other debts.

    I used this method for paying off this mortgage.  I took all extra money we made and applied it to this mortgage.  It allowed us to pay it off in seven years from the time we took the loan out.

  3. Stay committed no matter what: From the time I made this commitment until we accomplished it, a lot had changed.  I started two different companies, we moved twice, and my income was wildly unpredictable.  During these kind of times most people throw their goals out the door and say they will come back to them when things are more secure. I did not.  I stayed committed.  I kept committing to that goal everyday.

I am a novice when it comes to real estate investing  However, it is something I am committed to and will continue to get better at.  My hope is you find this information to be helpful in your journey.

To your success and your future.

 

5 reasons critical thinking is dead

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One of my all time favorite books is “Think and Grow Rich” by Napoleon Hill.  It is an all time classic and to this day.  80 + years later, it is still one of the top selling books every year.

The word “think” is subtly layered into the title because Rich is the obvious eye-catcher that makes you want to learn more.  The author chose the word “think” for a reason. He makes the case in the book that you can’t grow, and you definitely can’t get rich, without learning how to think.

In today’s go go go society and emotionally driven society. Many people don’t invest the time to think before they respond, act, do, you name it.  I did say “invest’ for a reason, because you are making an investment when you slow down, think, make a plan, and then take action.

Critical thinking is by far one of the most unused skillsets in today’s culture.  The culture instead is constantly being told what to think, and then people decide whether they agree or disagree with whatever it is based on their biases. In most cases, depending on who said it is more important to them on whether they believe it or not. The test is who said it, not is it true or not.

There are many definitions of critical thinking.  The one I like that I believe is one of the better and clear ones is this:

Disciplined thinking that is clear, rational, open-minded, and informed by evidence. Now I would add a few additional adjectives to the definition, such as without emotion, and evidence based means: objectively clear facts that are substantiated.

Unfortunately we now live in a society and culture that has very little to no ability to think clearly for themselves. They haven’t learned how to critically think.  And I believe that these five reasons are driving the lack of critical thinking.

  1. Math:  I don’t know if it is because many people learn to hate math at an early age.  Is it because teachers are not very good at teaching it?  Or is it just hard and most people never try hard enough to be good at it? I am not going to solve this problem today. However, if you are unwilling to look at the numbers, the evidence that supports something or doesn’t support something, then critical thinking is out the window.
  2. Emotions: We now live in a world that is driven by feelings.  I am not sure when this started, but it is rampid and it is scary.  I have talked about this many times.  Any time we make very difficult decisions on emotions and not facts or reasoning, we typically are going to get ourselves in trouble.  A simple example of this is when people buy cars that they can’t afford.  Which is any car that you cant pay cash for, but I digress. They love the feeling that a new car provides to them and even if the math doesn’t make sense, they will try to rationalize a way to get the car becasue of how it makes them feel.
  3. Opinions:  Whoever is the loudest usually gets the most attention.  It has nothing to do with the credibility of the person.  It really comes down to who has the largest platform and can reach the most people.  The problem with opinions these days is too many times they are packaged as “real news”, when in reality they are not news based on facts or evidence.  It is usually based on subjective views of a given situation.
  4. Media: I was listening to two very mainstream personalities over the weekend who both have very successful podcasts and very large audiences. They were both talking about the fact that even though most would call them both center-left from a political standpoint.  That neither one of them can go on CNN or MSNBC, because they both had been on Fox News and most likely will disagree with the anchors they would speak with on CNN or MSNBC.  I am sure people may say the same thing about other news stations as well.  However, if you spend too much of your time watching one station only.  You are only getting one side of a situation.
  5. Fear: We are living in a moment of time right now that when someone holds a different viewpoint on something that is against the masses, and expresses that viewpoint, they could lose their job, their career or any other personal interests.  It’s the sad and harsh reality.  When active debate can’t occur, then ideas don’t get enhanced.  When there is fear of retribution to disagree, things don’t’ get better.  To solve complex problems everyone needs to be in the discussion.

In most companies the problems that exist are very complex and the leaders within the organization don’t have all the answers.  They need employees that have the ability to think critically and solve problems within the business.

Unfortunately, when we start school in kindergarten or first grade all the way through college in many cases.  You learn the answers to the test, take the test, pass and move on to the next. If you don’t know the answers, you can pull them up on google and most likely find them in a matter of seconds.

This is not the real world.  The real world requires a process of thinking about the problem.  Putting some of the best ideas on the table and working through them to see which ones can be pursued with limited financial resources and human capital.  This is the process and it must be followed. When it isn’t we will get what we have always gotten.

To your success and your future.

 

 

 

 

 

You have to make the decision now

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You are what you are until you decide to become different than you are.  It is a hard thing to change but it can be done.  It just requires you to make a commitment and then do the work necessary to change your circumstances and your life.

I was recently speaking with a friend of mine about the current pandemic that we find ourselves in.  We were talking about how things were going with business, work, and life in general.

One of the things they said they were doing was watching a lot more television.  They  rattled off all of the shows they had watched. It was quite impressive.

I shared with them that I had been working out a lot more.  Instead of working out 60-80 minutes a day, it was more like 90-120 minutes a day of focused workouts.  In addition to more walks around the city where we live.

The conclusion that I have come to and you already know this as well.  We default and become more of who we are even during times of uncertainty, success, failure, and life as a whole.

My mentor explained it to me this way.  He said you have to decide if you are going to be a charitable person or not.  He said the amount of money you have or don’t have doesn’t matter.  You can be charitable when you are making fifty thousand dollars a year or a million dollars a year.

You are either charitable or not.  If you don’t create the habits and mindset to be a charitable person now while the stakes are lower, you definitely won’t do it when the stakes are much higher.

Many people are setting around saying to themselves “When I _______.”  Fill in the blank.

  • make more money, I will invest more
  • make more money I will give more
  • have more time I will volunteer more
  • am not raising kids I will go back to school

I am not sure where you are in journey but you have to decide now, the person you want to be and then do whatever it takes to start implementing the habits and decisions that will make you that person.

There is no “there” out there.  You don’t magically arrive one day. Life is an evolution. You have to continue to evolve, but the first step to evolution is to decide who you want to be.

Repetition and Frequency and why you need both for success

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A good question to ask yourself is “How often should I get a check up on my health?”

At my age, health, and background, my doctor believes once a year is sufficient.  As I age, it will become more frequent than that.

Someone very close to me goes to the doctor more often.  It seems like at least once a month, if not more.  They have several chronic illnesses and they have several medications that they are taking.  Which requires more tests and check ins.

Repetition and frequency for them is more important because of their situation.

Success in your health, life, career, etc. all comes down to the repetition and frequency.  And you have to do both of these to have any success in life.  I believe the more you do them both the quicker and more success you will have in the thing you want success in.

Repetition is the act of doing something over and over again. The more we repeat something, the better we should get at it.  I say should, because the level of complexity of the thing is also part of the equation.

If you take a job that now requires you to give more presentations than your previous position.  When you first start that job and start giving presentations.  You most likely won’t be very good at it.  But over time you will become better at it, or at least you should become better at it.

This is where frequency comes in to play.  The definition of frequency is the number of occurrences of a repeating event in some time period.

This is the game changer and why you need both repetition and frequency to have success.

What if you had a job where you delivered a presentation once a month.  By the  third month you would become better at it.  However, if you had to get up every single day and do it, your number of occurrences would be 2900% more, than doing it once a month for three months.  You would have 87 more occurrences. In each of the occurrences you would have refined your presentation and delivery and gotten better at it.  Which in turn you would get better results from it.

Most people can do some level of repetition in their life.  That is the easy part.  But where they typically fail is in the frequency part. They allow too much time in between occurrences of the the activity they are repeating.

I like to use fitness as an example. If you are over weight and unfit and decide to change.  You can’t say I will start working out once a week. Its not enough frequency (occurrences).   You could repeat the exercises once a week for the next seven months and you would most likely not change much.  Because of this you would end up quitting. Plus your body would not change much.

If you instead decide to workout every other day, your would dramatically increase your chances of having success.  You would start to see results sooner, which would motivate you to keep going.

The more often you do something the more success you will get from the act or the results from that act.

If you want to have success in anything in life, I believe you have to increase the repetitions and the frequency. And yes you can accelerate your results depending on the frequency you do the repetitive act.

So the question becomes how quickly do you want to change something?  How quickly do you want to change your financial situation?  You have to either increase the frequency you are paying towards your debt. Or you have to increase your output (work) to be able to earn more to put towards your debt.

Take a look at any area in your life today where you are not getting the results you want.  Now look at the frequency at which you do the activity that should deliver the results for you in that area.  What if you increased the frequency? I guarantee if you do you will get better results.

To your success and your future.

 

 

Show up

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Success in life really comes down to these two words:  Show up.  

There is nothing magical or hard about it.  When you show up good things will eventually happen.

When you show up you are keeping the commitment that you made to yourself.  This one thing alone is just as important as the showing up part.  Once you quit lying to yourself, you can take control over everything in your life.

Humans suck at commitments.  We don’t like to make them to ourselves and we definitely don’t like to make them to there people and be held accountable to them.  When we commit we are putting ourselves out there. We are taking the chance that we could fail.  Humans don’t like failure and we will avoid it all cost. Because of this we don’t go “all in” on commitments.

Work is a commitment that you keep because there is an incentive tied to it.   I am not talking about these commitments.  These are the easy ones.  I am talking about the commitments that you don’t have to make.  And you definitely don’t have to keep them. These are the hard ones and these are the ones that will impact your life the most positively.

When people aren’t getting the results they want.  When they are not accomplishing their goals.

It comes down to their lack of commitment to them.  If you haven’t fully committed, you won’t show up.

Take inventory of your life today and ask yourself the simple question.

Are you showing up to the things you said were important to you? If the answer is no.  Then I would challenge you to ask yourself how committed you really are to the thing.

My mentor said it best.  “action follows commitment.”  You won’t take action until you are committed.

To your success and your future.