We Each Have 24/Seven
By Dick Pexton
When I was in high school, I often rode the city bus to and from school before I was old enough to drive. I frequently observed a man riding the same bus. The moment he sat down, he opened a book and began to read. This man, Richard L. Evans, was the announcer of a nationally syndicated radio program. He wrote and delivered a brief, two-minute thought each week. While two minutes may seem to be an insignificant amount of time, he delivered over 2,000 of these messages before his unexpected death in 1971.
Richard L. Evans also edited a monthly magazine, served a year as president of Rotary International, and wrote 19 books, with much of the material coming from his two minute talks. I am not suggesting he accomplished all of this while riding around town, though I do think that many of the things that appeared in his books or talks began forming in his mind during the time he spent reading on the bus. While other passengers were just content to be riding instead of walking, Mr. Evans used the time to accomplish great things in his chosen field.
Plato said, "Nothing is more unworthy of a wise man or ought to trouble him more, than to have allowed more time for trifling and useless things than they deserved." What a strong message this is to those of us who have a tendency to major in minor things! Sometimes the world just pushes in, and our good intentions to work on our investing business get pushed out. While there are certainly times that our passion for real estate investing should defer to our employment needs, emergencies, family time, staying fit, and other activities that improve our quality of life, it should never be placed on the back burner for lack of time. Some people accomplish so much and some so little, yet we all have the same amount of time. I have learned through study, observation, and experience that those who accomplish more are goal-oriented, task-driven, and are aware of the value of time. So what do you value enough to do with your time?
There are wonderful tools available to help us organize our lives. Before personal computers became a common household item, I carried a daily planner in a slim leather case that fit in my suit pocket. With a glance, I could see my tasks for the day and the week, and I made all my notes in it. I carried my driver's license in the planner to ensure I always carried the planner with me. Now I use Microsoft Outlook, which synchronizes with every hand-held device. Pricey hand-held devices are a lot of fun, but inexpensive planners work just as well. Microsoft Word has many calendar templates you can print out and use. You do not have to spend very much money; just do something now to get started.
Every evening or morning, review your daily tasks from the previous day. Transfer any important, unfinished tasks to today's tasks; ignore the less important ones that did not get done. Now you will assign each task a value. You will have A, B, C, and D tasks. Furthermore, you will assign each A task a value, i.e. A1, A2, A3. Do the same with your B, C, and D tasks. B, C, and D tasks are probably more pleasant to perform, which is why we tend to gravitate toward these tasks and accomplish very little of substance if we do not become organized. Work on your A1 until you can't do any more for the day. Then go to A2 and do the same. Then go to A3, and so on. If you never get to the Cs and Ds, it's alright. They are probably not going to help you build wealth.
Now, I would like to discuss numbers. If, on average, it takes making ten written offers to get a deal, and if I write one offer a month, it will take me ten months to get a deal. At this rate, I will do only 1.2 deals a year. If I write one offer a week, it will take me ten weeks to get a deal, meaning I will do 5.2 deals a year. If I write five offers a week, I will get a deal every two weeks, which totals to twenty-six deals for the year. It's obvious that larger numbers produce better results. Because we all have so many demands on our time, how we choose to use our time is very important. Success in real estate investing is largely a matter of making offers. It is the only way to determine if a seller is really motivated and needs to sell at a price the investor is willing to pay.
I urge you to take time to set realistic long term, intermediate term, and short term goals. Understand the numbers it will take to accomplish your goals. Speed up the process by using good daily organization to collapse time frames. Act now! Success will not wait. This is the time, this is the place, and you are the one!
Dick Pexton is a real estate coach for Wealth Intelligence Academy™.
