Action – The Foundation of Success
“When you come to a fork in the road, take it.” – Yogi Berra
My brother and I just finished our first remodel project. Together, he and I restored a house that Theresa and I bought as an investment property.
When I say our first remodel project, I mean a project that required our attention and physical presence everyday for 10 weeks to transform an outdated and heavily damaged property back to its former glory.
Built in 1931, this two bedroom 1 bath home was built on a solid poured wall foundation and featured brick and block construction for the exterior walls. The structure was sound. The house had a good roof, HVAC, and frame, but almost everything else needed replaced or repaired.
Normally, I wouldn’t do this project myself. However, the circumstances of the last few years gave me no other option.
Over the last 8 years, my wife and I have tackled three such projects. We bought and rehabbed two houses and rehabbed a house for a family member. In each case, we managed the projects and hired the contractors needed to finish each stage of construction. All three projects turned out fantastic with my wife and I choosing paint colors, cabinets, faucets, and finishes. All the while finding and managing the best contractors for the job.
However, this most recent project was impossible to manage the same way.
You see, contractors are almost impossible to find. Electricians we called told us they’d love to help but couldn’t get to us until the Spring. Plumbers were no better. Painters and trim carpenters the same. Contractors are almost impossible to find.
Luckily for me, my youngest brother Jamie just started his own business. Mainly a painting and powerwashing business, but with his skills in plumbing, electric and general construction he was willing to tackle the job.
Only he couldn’t do it alone. There were too many projects on this particular job and not enough manpower to finish in a reasonable amount of time.
So I donned my newly purchased painters pants and stepped in to do work I would normally hire someone else to do. I became the designer, project manager , and general laborer for my brother—(you know, picking up materials, taking out the trash, you know, glamorous stuff.) All the while, running my real estate practice that was maybe as busy as ever.
The project turned out better than I could have imagined and I’ll share the photos and video in future blog posts, but today I want to share with you an important idea I discovered during the process. An idea so powerful it has the potential to positively change your life permanently.
You see, my brother and I had a problem (a house to transform) and no one to help. I realized midway through the project that we followed, consciously or subconsciously a roadmap to success. We followed a really big idea.
The big idea? move.build.invest
move.build.invest is a mindset. A mindset that will help someone who wants to make changes in their life. A growth mindset. move.build.invest is not only a mindset, but a lifestyle.
I created move.build.invest in 2011 when deciding a tagline for my newly formed real estate brokerage. At the time I had been a RE/MAX agent for 9 years and decided to start my own company on the back of the financial crisis which had devastated both my real estate practice and the kitchen cabinet business I owned at the time.
Bastion Realty was born and I wanted to create a tag line to help quickly identify our brand and our principles. Something that described how Bastion was different than the rest. Given my background of working with builders and investors, the words build and invest became obvious for the tagline. The word move came later as I contemplated what our real estate company helped our clients accomplish. Of course no one likes to move from their home, but move is what we do!
So move, build, and invest became the tagline.
It wasn’t until much later did I realize how good this tagline is. (not trying to be arrogant here, but it’s SOOOOO good!)
I tell people all the time that real estate is not a real estate business, but it’s a people business.
People move. People build. People invest.
It’s inside our hearts to want to create. To express ourselves. To change. To hope. To grow.
move.build.invest is the answer to every single human problem.
Jesus put it this way in Matthew 7:7…. Ask. Seek. Knock. All verbs. All action. All faith.
In my book Salesperson to Superhero I describe it as Go. Do. Try.
You wanna lose weight? Move. Go!
You want a meaningful career? Build. Do!
You want a better relationship with your daughter? You want prosperity? Invest. Try!
Over the course of the next few weeks I’ll share with you the lessons learned on our recent remodel project as I introduce you to my new YouTube channel and a revamped Blog and Brand.
Our blog and YouTube channel will be focused on real estate, construction, and investing. We will include remodels, house flipping, construction methods, design trends, along with crypto currency and other investment vehicles.
Along the way I’ll share with you what I’m investing in, how I’m navigating the real estate world, and how I’m applying the move.build.invest principles into my life and my company.
I hope you’ll join me and maybe extract a lesson or two from my experiences.
They say action is the foundation to success. I say action, combined with faith, is the way forward in almost every circumstance.
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