Although I run a real estate adjacent business, most of what I’ve actually learned comes from lessons that can be universally shared far beyond real estate.

The problem is sometimes the lessons I learn really don’t apply on a broad scale to you guys in the way I thought they might.

In all honesty, I’ve been trying to figure out what to talk about here for the past few weeks, and I figure there’s no better way than just asking.

So, here’s my question to you.

If you read these posts every week, what do you want to read more about?

I know sometimes it’s hard to come up with an answer to questions like that, but I appreciate the feedback more than you know!

You can just click the comments right below this with your thoughts.

See you guys next week,

Ryan

I took certain classes in high school so I’d have more options on which college to attend.

In college I participated in different competitions and events to stand out on my resume, so I’d have more options for a job.

After college I decided not to get said job, so I’d have more options on how to spend my time.

The motivation behind some of the biggest decisions in my life all boils down to that one word.

So my question today is, what if those options are actually making your life miserable?

As you probably know, I work with thousands of people looking to build real estate businesses from scratch, so I think I have a unique perspective on this problem both from my own experiences and from others.

Let’s talk about the actual problem.

On the surface, options feel like possibility.

“I can do what I want, when I want.”

That’s the dream, right?

The reality, however, is that options are worth nothing until you actually pick one.

Last weekend I woke up to a rare occurrence, a full day with absolutely no plans.

I had a friend reach out about surfing, another wanting to camp and another asking about jumping on a call to chat about business stuff.

So I spent the day waiting around for something to happen.

It never did.

I was so worried about committing to something and missing a better opportunity that I ended up letting the whole day slip by.

Apparently I can’t learn from others’ mistakes, because I see this same thing in real estate all the time.

There are endless opportunities to make money like buying properties, selling them, lending money out etc.

But whenever I sit down and show people how to build a business like mine, they always respond with the same thing.

“This seems amazing, but I want to explore other options before choosing my path.”

And although on the surface that may sound like a good idea, here’s the reality.

Those same people circle back with me months or even years later just to say “I’m still trying to figure out what’s best.”

The options that once seemed like a dream end up becoming their worst-case scenario.

Nothing happens.

If they had chosen anything at all they’d be fine, but they didn’t.

And the deeper you dig the worse the problem gets.

When I got into real estate, I had no idea what the heck I should be doing.

But instead of watching YouTube videos for the rest of my life, I just picked a strategy and got to work.

First I tried wholesaling and made no money, but built confidence on the phone.

Then I worked on buying apartments and made no money, but it taught me how to think bigger.

Then I tried a different style of wholesaling and actually made money, only to realize that I valued making money way less than finding something I actually enjoyed doing.

This is the hidden cost of sitting on endless options, you lose your feedback loops.

I didn’t learn from the videos or secondhand stories I was told, I learned through doing.

That’s something waiting can never do.

It’s an endless loop that will only end if you make it.

In other words, it’s just a choice.

The last thing I wanted to touch on here, from my own experience, is that a perceived lack of options doesn’t often match reality.

Moving to a new city is a big decision, but there’s no rule you can’t move again.

Haley and I packed our entire life up in 2024 to move to Phoenix, and six weeks later changed our minds and went further west.

We even bought a house out there, but when we left we just rented it out.

What would look like a massive commitment on paper ended up being shorter than some vacations for us.

Same idea with getting a new job or role, it doesn’t mean you’ll be there forever.

There are seasons, and those seasons often come with the exact feedback loops you need to determine what’s next.

But if you keep waiting around for the perfect time, you might just find that the time you’ve been waiting for has already passed you by.

Options are cool, they’re more or less synonymous with freedom in a lot of different contexts.

But earning the right to have options only works if it’s the first stage of the process, like when I was taking more classes to open up my college choices.

The second is actually using them.

Just like how saving money is great, but pointless if you die with it all.

If you never get to the “using them” stage in the process, what’s the point?

You’ve spent the time building everything up, now it’s time to cash in on the freedom and options you’ve created.

What’s that look like for you?

The decision you’ve been putting off, or the change you’ve been waiting to make.

It’s time to take the leap, or recognize that if you don’t do it now there’s a chance you never will.

“By this time next year I’ll have a business of my own and leave my job.”

It came from a friend who, up to that point, was working at an agency doing what he loved to remind me he could 100% do on his own.

The problem?

The “by this time next year” talk still hadn’t turned into anything more than words.

The reason?

Absolutely zero downside.

It’s the unwelcome curse that comes with the freedom of going outside the traditional route in life.

No matter how badly you think you might want something, you don’t have any outside pressure to make it happen.

In school, if you didn’t study, you would fail.

If you don’t show up to work, you won’t get paid.

But in a world of participation trophies, actually having a sense of urgency behind the dreams you’re chasing has become somewhat of a lost art.

I’ve felt this a lot over the past few years in different forms.

Complacency, discouragement, or just distraction.

I spent a year listening to podcasts before I ever even considered getting into real estate, then went a whole ‘nother year before actually acting on that desire.

When I got my first “real” job I gained a bunch of weight and chalked it up to just not having enough time to do anything about it.

But my situation changed when I discovered what was missing.

The thing that makes chasing good grades in school or getting paid at work such a good incentive isn’t just that it’s “motivating”.

The real unlock is that it externalizes accountability so you don’t have to manufacture it yourself.

If you don’t show up, everyone knows. Same if you fail.

On the other hand if you just tell yourself “I have to get this done by Friday” and you don’t, what happens?

Nothing.

Maybe you beat yourself up, or maybe you think “I tried my best” knowing full well you did not in fact do that.

The world of building your own business is unlike anything else.

First you consume a bunch of information, then you get discouraged by other people who were in your shoes and have already succeeded.

Maybe they made money, landed a client, or blew up on social media and left you behind.

So you do what everyone else does:

1. You start buying more courses thinking you need information

2. You work on your “mindset” because something must be wrong

See anything missing from that list?

How about… doing the work.

Now here’s where reality starts to hit.

Your reasons for not succeeding? They’re probably rational ones.

When you try to lose weight but have family in town you make that your excuse.

If you’re trying to build a business after work you make long hours and other responsibilities your problem.

Whatever you can come up with, it’s probably valid.

It also doesn’t matter…

Because if those excuses are your reality you’re still left with a choice.

Either keep going, or quit.

And if you actually want to see your desired result, your circumstances have to come out of the equation.

The way to do that?

Add a cost.

If you’ve ever watched the show New Girl you’ll understand this better than the rest, but it fits in too well right about now.

Nick (the goofy main character) is trying to write the first 20 pages of a book.

He knows he has extreme procrastination issues, so instead of just “doing his best” he hires someone off of Craigslist to punch him in the face if he doesn’t finish the pages in time.

Sounds funny, but he’s added actual external accountability to the equation.

In his case he failed, got punched, and then was motivated to finish the rest right then and there.

There are actually so many tactical examples of outward accountability in the world of business and self-help, which both lack it on their own.

A friend of mine set a goal to hit 500k followers on Instagram by the end of last year.

His public proclamation was that if he didn’t hit it, he had to delete the account entirely.

Everyone knew about the deadline, and the urgency it created got him there.

Then there’s the concept called “Building in public” which uses the idea of someone posting daily/weekly/monthly on social media with clear measurements of their progress on a certain goal.

People follow along, leave comments, and hold them accountable.

I’ve seen people do that same thing with weight loss, posting online (as uncomfortable as it may be) to add that external pressure.

Those are more public examples, but I’ve found keeping it simple does the job just as well.

An accountability partner, if they’re actually good, is the easy route.

Share your goals at the beginning of the week, check in by the end, and give the tough love that’s needed when a milestone isn’t met.

Anything to get the goals out of your head and into the minds of other people who can motivate you towards them.

In 2023 I decided I would give myself a few months before I quit my job.

The deadline I set was June 21st, my exact 1 year anniversary at the company.

At the time I told the people I was working with in real estate of that goal, which forced me down a path of “this is actually happening” instead of “this sounds like a nice dream.”

When times are easy the excuses pile up.

In desperation, anything is possible.

Sometimes that situation just has to be manufactured.

It’s funny, the reason people get into businesses of their own is for the freedom.

Yet somehow that’s the exact thing that ends up holding you back.

But that doesn’t mean freedom is the problem - more like you just haven’t learned how to handle it yet (and that’s okay).

My challenge to you if you’re reading this:

• Write down your north star goals right now for business, relationships, health, etc.

• For each one, brainstorm a target, a deadline, and a penalty for not reaching them.

• Share that information with someone you’re close to or even publicly online if you so choose.

Then comes the fun part - the messy middle.

The work that 99% of people aren’t willing to do.

It’s always fun to dream about an outcome, not so much actually getting there.

My friend with the agency still hasn’t done anything more than talk about leaving.

It’s normal to find 1,000 reasons why you can’t do something, but it only takes one good reason to take action that can make all the difference in the world.

“How do you handle the valleys in your business?”

The times where nothing seems to be going right.

Or even worse, your momentum shifts in an instant from being on the right track to feeling like your whole world is crumbling around you.

As I thought about my answer, I took a minute to think back through my past few years.

In college everyone else had job offers their senior year while I was left guessing.

I spent over a year trying to make a single dollar in real estate with no luck.

And right now I’m dealing with some of my top clients no longer working with me, leaving me with a ton of overhead and not much to show for it.

All of those things are true, but as much as I’ve looked I’ve never found a black and white answer as to how to respond to them.

So while I can’t pull the answer out of a hat for you, I thought I’d spend this week talking through how I’ve approached handling these situations.

There are two different sides to it, my process and my perspective.

One without the other would be incomplete, so let’s look at them both.

To start, let’s talk about the feeling of “being behind” or being stuck in a valley.

Being upset about your current situation is natural, but simply “feeling” that does absolutely nothing for you.

I would argue the majority of people in the world just stop there and play the victim.

But here’s where I start to try and break it down one step further.

Because feelings don’t have a solution, facts do.

Personally, I was feeling pretty defeated when our business revenue started to tank last month.

As I was sitting looking at the numbers I just kept asking myself, what needs to be true to fix this?

That became my process.

I make money by partnering with real estate investors to fund their deals.

In order to find those clients, I need to talk about what I do and get on lots of phone calls.

But as my life got increasingly busy handling my current partnerships, I stopped doing exactly that.

Solution: go back to what I was already doing that worked.

I already have the skills, I’m just not using them.

And the best part by far is that I already know it works.

That’s the most underrated part of righting your own ship.

If you’ve done it before, you can do it again. Less guesswork, more action.

It’s easy to lose sight of what got you to your current situation in the chaos of growth and constant change.

It’s true in business, relationships, and life.

I stopped directly marketing to new leads for my business because I got too busy managing the current ones.

If I want to turn things around, I need to get back to it.

Simple, not easy.

Here’s a litmus test you can use in your own situations.

If you can’t define your problem in one sentence it isn’t a problem, it’s a mood.

Once you’ve identified the real reason behind your valley, the question is what to do with that information.

Pro tip: Idle time is the worst possible approach when things aren’t going well.

Clear action does two things:

• Move you closer to your desired result

• Fills your time with business instead of letting you dwell on the bad

I spoke with an investor this week who’s having a hard time keeping their business afloat.

When I finally got in touch with them, I discovered they had spent the entire week wallowing in their situation doing almost nothing about it.

Meanwhile, mortgage payments for the next month are getting closer by the day.

When you’re in a true valley I’m sure all of you can think back to a time when you did exactly that.

I recognize it because I know I’ve done the exact same thing.

And it doesn’t end with the black and white “either do something or nothing at all.”

I wish it were that simple.

What actually happens more often than not is arguably even worse - busywork.

Action for the sake of action.

It’s the worst of all, because it makes you feel like you’re trying when in reality nothing is changing.

This is why identifying the actual problem and solution is so crucial, because you don’t really have time to guess if you can help it.

If your relationship is starting to go off the rails, buying flowers is probably a copout.

Realizing you stopped doing XYZ that you used to do and getting back to that instead, that’s the actual solution.

The question I always ask is “Does this actually get me out of the valley, or just make me feel more comfortable while I’m in it?”

In my lending business I have to be methodical if I want to get back on track.

1. 1 conversation every day with a premium investor (3+ monthly deals)

2. Crafting my offer to solve their specific problem every time

3. Increasing early communication to establish a relationship worth their time

Results are always a lagging indicator of the actions you take today, especially in real estate.

That of course is also why most people give up before they gain traction to begin with.

And it’s also why speed to execution is so important.

If it takes a few months for you to admit you’re in a valley, then you spend a few months guessing on what the problem actually is, you may not last long enough to make it to the other side.

But if you can identify the right actions, commit to them, and fill your time with those precise actions without the filler work you’ll be back on the right page of the playbook yet again.

Here’s the final (and probably most important) piece of the puzzle.

It’s the mental side, the hardest part to nail for just about anyone.

And my approach to it has definitely been a learned skill over the years.

It’s just perspective.

This past week I spent time on the east coast in NYC and Philly.

Every day I saw people rushing to work in their suit and tie while I was drinking coffee working from my phone in a sweatshirt.

A few years ago I would’ve traded anything to be in the position I am now.

In fact, I would’ve called my current valley a major upgrade!

Yet here I am, upset about how my business isn’t going well while quite literally living my dream life.

I work when I want where I want, have next to nothing to worry about, yet I’m still stressed out.

I could take the free pass and say that’s just human nature, but I’ve come to realize it’s just a choice.

And as weird as it sounds out of all the struggles I see around me on a daily basis, I should be waking up grateful every single day for the privilege to think my own problems are a big deal.

But there’s something worth noting here that we all have to be careful of, and it’s complacency.

I’ve found that true perspective is somewhat earned through action as fuel to keep going.

On its own, it acts as more of a sedative. It’s just something to make you feel better.

Recognizing that has become a powerful formula for growth in my life.

And if you and I have been given the privilege to live above average lives, that’s an opportunity that can never go to waste.

So after four years in entrepreneurship here’s what I’ve learned.

The valleys will never stop coming, they’re a part of life.

Growth doesn’t mean they’ll ever stop happening, it just means you get better at getting out of them quicker.

That was my answer to the question I got this week.

1. What is the actual problem causing your valley

2. What worked before to reach your most “successful” point

3. What actions can you take right now to get back to that point

Those are the three questions I’m focused on right now to get back on track.

I’ve done it before, and I’ll do it again.

My real estate chase had been going on for over a year, jumping from strategy to strategy without finding anything that stuck.

Just when I finally thought I’d found my place funding deals, it fell apart.

I hit twenty-five deals funded in a month, a goal I had set for myself months earlier.

Then, all of those deals started to fall apart at once.

And as I got notice of yet another failed transaction (and my money lost with it) I started thinking “There must be a better way to make money than this.”

At that point, I had reached the 3rd stage of the Emotional Cycle of Change, a concept established by Don Kelley and Daryl Conner in the late 70s.

But in order to fully understand that stage, and how every single one of you reading this has suffered through it at some point, we have to start from the top.

Here’s the entire cycle, starting with stage 1.

If you stop and think about it, you can probably come up with a time you’ve spent in every one of these stages throughout your life with any venture; not just business but in relationships as well.

Stage 1: Uninformed Optimism

This is by far the most fun part of the curve.

It comes right after you see a bunch of other people crushing it at something and think to yourself “Wow, that seems pretty easy!”.

So you jump in, with no clue what it takes to actually succeed, confident you’ll reach the top faster than anyone else.

Stage 2: Informed Pessimism

This usually comes a few weeks after you start something new.

In the world of relationships it’s referred to as right after the honeymoon phase.

It’s the part where you learn relationships take work, business is hard, and nothing is as easy as the internet makes it out to be. Bummer.

Stage 3: The Valley Of Despair

Spend enough time in the land of informed pessimism and you’ll become convinced the world is ending.

You’ll never succeed, because you’re a victim to [fill in your excuse here].

It’s the stage where you question your decision to have gotten started with the new venture in the first place, and start looking for alternatives.

Stage 4: Informed Optimism

This is the Narnia of the curve, a rare land most people never make it to.

It occurs when you suffer through the valley of despair for long enough and realize the following:

• This is harder than I thought

• That doesn’t mean it won’t work

• I just need to reset my expectations and keep going

And if you make it to stage 4 and wait long enough, you’ll end up back at stage 1 again. The difference, of course, is that this time you actually have momentum.

Okay, now here’s the trap.

Your natural inclination will always be to quit while you’re in the valley of despair, but it comes with a twist.

Rarely will you tell yourself “I’m just a quitter.”

Instead, you’ll convince yourself you’ve made the most strategic move.

“I realized I wasn’t cut out for ________ but don’t worry, I now know that _____________ is my real calling.”

So you pivot, sure of your inevitable success with a much more calculated move in play.

And, you guessed it, the curve restarts from stage 1.

But the game you’re playing will never be a fair one.

You’re comparing your current business at its worst stage with your new idea at its best stage. Those two things can never be equal.

I first fell into the trap when I was applying to engineering jobs, jumping from one to the next.

Then came real estate strategies.

Now I find myself in the same cycles with business funnels and lead generation.

Different mediums, the same results.

It’s always easier to jump to the next “easier” idea, but of course, since when has the easy route been the one that actually paid off?

Here’s what happens when you follow the “normal” route of the curve.

In business:

• You try the strategy you think will make you the most $$ with the least effort

• You realize that strategy is harder than it looked

• You search for the new easiest strategy, and repeat

In relationships:

• You find the person you enjoy being with the most

• You realize they aren’t always as enjoyable to be around as you thought (news flash you probably aren’t either…)

• You look for someone more enjoyable to be around, and repeat.

Whatever it is you’re focusing on, the results always end the same.

And when drawn out on a long enough time horizon, they become your life.

A decade of constant pivots and no momentum will have you stuck in place, if not moving backwards, which ends up feeling worse than if you’d done nothing at all.

I lived it, and unfortunately as I’m writing this I have many friends who still are.

But there’s another side to the story, one well worth exploring.

The question is, what happens when you actually stick with something?

You make the rare choice to bulldoze through the valley of despair instead of hitting the eject button and getting the heck out of there.

You probably already know the answer here, but here’s the end of my story to really drive it home.

Three years ago, after losing all of that money and having a disaster of a month, I stuck it out.

Now I have a 7-figure business as my prize on the other side, which of course has presented me with a whole new set of problems.

So I guess I’m back at stage 1 now, just on a bigger mountain.

And hey, bigger problems means more growth. That’s something I’ll always be grateful for.

The successful outcome you’re actually looking for usually ends up somewhere over here, on the “other side” of the chaos.

You’ll know when you’ve made it, because it’ll come right after a long road in the valley of despair.

It’s far from perfect, and it certainly doesn’t mean everything magically becomes easy.

But it’s a badge worth having.

If you’re reading this there’s a good chance you’re stuck in the valley of despair in some form or fashion.

Making money isn’t happening like you hoped, getting a job isn’t panning out as expected, you name it.

Whatever it is for you, ask yourself one simple question.

“If I stick with this long enough to make it work, would the result still be what I want?”

If the answer is yes, keep going.

We’ve all done it. And we’ve all been let down by it.

There’s nothing like another depressing story of some public figure who spent their whole life chasing it only for it to never be found.

And a conversation I had this week reminded me of just how relevant this is not just for me but every single one of you reading this.

If I were to ask you “Do you want to be happy” you’d likely respond with some version of “Yes”.

But if I went a step further and asked you what that actually means to you… crickets.

That’s the pattern I see everywhere in life and business. People want something that they can’t actually define.

So of course, they never get whatever it is they’re chasing.

Personally, I know the root of happiness in my life comes from my relationship with Jesus. But the day to day pursuit of joy and excitement lives on as long as we do.

I chased it for many years to no avail before I found the unlock that finally broke through for me.

I like to think through this process tactically.

If you can’t define happiness, what can you define?

My answer: misery.

As soon as you read that word, thoughts started popping into your head.

Waiting in traffic. Long pointless meetings at work. Never getting to spend time on your hobbies. Living paycheck to paycheck. The list for you can probably go on forever.

Here’s the cool part…

That misery actually becomes the most valuable data imaginable in your pursuit of happiness.

What happiness lacks in clarity, misery has in spades.

So once you know what makes you miserable, happiness often just becomes the opposite.

Not waiting in traffic would make you happy. No meetings would be a dream.

And just like that, we’ve reverse engineered something many people can never quite articulate.

Here’s how I’ve actually used this over the past few years.

Ryan’s miserable situation #1: Sitting in traffic

This one hits deep for me, and ya I should probably chill out a little.

But people are so dang bad at driving it blows my mind.

And of course as a result most of the time when I drive I end up mad about either the traffic, the parking, or the idiot who cut me off.

Now check out my solution to this, because it was extremely intentional.

I realized a while back how much I hated driving in traffic, and determined that my peak happiness would come from doing as little of it as possible.

So Haley and I made it one of the top items on our list of where to live that we could walk or bike everywhere, and it worked!

Now I drive maybe once a week at most, and it’s the dream.

Ryan’s miserable situation #2: Real estate contracts

Everyone has their strengths, mine is not being detail oriented.

If you don’t know, I run a real estate lending business completely built around contracts for protection.

So the fact that contracts make me miserable isn’t the best start.

But knowing this, a few years ago I started working towards a solution.

I needed to hire someone to coordinate my deals, which meant I needed to make more money.

A few months of focused effort made that possible, and now I haven’t read a real estate contract in years.

And yes, that makes me quite happy.

Ryan’s miserable situation #3: Working at a desk

When I was in college I worked three different internships, and hated them all.

It was so bad that while everyone else got a job after college, I didn’t even consider it.

But after living in a van traveling the US for a while I tried the real job thing again, this time at a small company very different than where I had worked previously.

Turns out I hated that too.

And it was only at that point that I finally discovered what I wanted - to work for myself.

If you had asked me that in college I wouldn’t have even thought of it, but after four separate work environments I realized they all made me miserable…

So I had to find a solution completely outside of the box I had been thinking in.

Now, I can work from anywhere and have the flexibility to do things like traveling and surfing whenever I want.

This makes me happy.

The reason this system works so well, I believe, is because it systemizes something that otherwise would’ve just been based on a feeling.

Chasing happiness is an abstract concept, subtracting real events is a concrete action that produces tangible results every time.

The more you do, the more you’ll learn about yourself. And those tests will eventually uncover the things you actually do enjoy.

If you think it might be helpful, you can do this exercise right now:

• Write out a list of everything you hate in a normal week

• Choose 1 thing from the list and think about how to design it out

• Repeat this process for the foreseeable future

And here’s the real kicker.

Some items on your list may be way easier than you think. You’ll find all it took to remove them was the recognition that you didn’t want them in your life.

Others could take years to accomplish.

And some misery? It’s just the price you have to pay in the short term for big dreams worth chasing after. That’s okay too. Just know which is which.

Success rarely happens overnight, but it never happens if you don’t know what your end goal is.

I’ve never found happiness from chasing what I thought I wanted. I’ve found it in the space left over from the things I didn’t.

Everyone pays it somewhere. The question is whether you chase it in your work or your everyday life.

All of life isn’t supposed to be exciting.

And the constant pursuit of dopamine ends up draining the very joy you’re after.

My real estate business is about as boring as it gets.

People ask us for money, we review the deal, and if everything fits we wire the funds.

That’s it.

I’ve been doing that now for almost 4 years without changing a thing.

And that’s why it works so well.

The truth is we all often confuse excitement with enjoyment.

They say if you love what you do, you’ll never work a day in your life.

But Warren Buffett has always loved what he does, and it’s about as boring as it gets. Reading 100+ page quarterly reports? I’ll pass, but Buffett has been all over it for decades.

The work isn’t exciting, but the love has always been there.

Most people never learn the difference, and costs just keep stacking up.

Here’s the thing, we’re all wired to chase excitement.

You can’t really “opt out” of that, and thus the journey begins.

So here’s the part that really gets me.

Nobody ever thinks to themselves “I’m bored, let me go sabotage my business.”

They think “Wow this new idea is genuinely better than my current one.” and the race is on.

The grass is always greener, and the objects are always shinier.

And for most of us, that’s how the bill ends up getting paid. It comes disguised as strategy, but exposed as distraction later on.

That bill ends up being the most expensive of them all.

Take stock picking for example.

The SPIVA Scorecard is done by the Dow Jones indices every year comparing active funds managing stocks to the indexes.

They found that over the last 20 years 93% of those funds underperformed the indexes.

Keep in mind, these are the pros. Their entire job is to beat the indexes, and yet here we are. And don’t even get me started on the amateur hour investors out there.

That chase for excitement, finding the next breakout stock, has cost more money than you can imagine.

And don’t forget the fact that those people work full time to pick those stocks instead of the classic “set it and forget it” with indexes.

Next up: business.

Earlier this year I spent almost 3 months working on a new idea I had in the private lending space for real estate.

I built out courses, held tons of meetings, and hosted big live webinars.

All of it happened because I was convinced it would be a better, more profitable business model.

The result? 3 months down the drain and a realization that if I just stuck with what I already did I could make 10x more without changing a thing.

In the moment I felt like an idiot, now I realize that was my excitement bill trying to be paid off in all the wrong places.

Alex Hormozi talks about how he has a “big idea board” where he writes down all of his latest and greatest ideas so he can get them out of his head and get back to focusing on the task at hand.

I’ve adopted the same practice, and my board has gotten quite large…

The lesson in all of this?

Boring still wins.

It feels too easy, but it continues to work.

So if boring really does win, but the need for excitement never goes away, where does that leave us?

In my experience, this is where most people get it wrong.

It’s not discipline and just “grinding it out” or living a boring life. What the heck would be the point of that?

And even if you can pull it off, the desire for more never goes away.

The answer, I’ve learned, is a lot like most other bills in your life.

You can either play defense…

“I hope I have enough to cover the credit card this month.”

“I’m not sure where I’ll get money for rent.”

Or you can play offense and pay it on purpose.

That means when the bills are due, you’re already ready.

And the best possible way I’ve learned to do this is to fill your life with true excitement outside of just how you make money.

Before getting into real estate Haley (my wife) and I lived in a van, I worked as a white water raft guide and one winter we snowboarded over 100 days in a row.

I’ve always kept up with surfing, the gym, and other hobbies.

And best of all, I’m always setting big targets.

Whether in fitness or business, I’m always working towards something.

Because of that, doing the “boring” aka repetitive work needed to win in business almost feels more like relief than anything else.

The calm amidst the storm if you will.

But the pattern I’ve noticed with the majority of people chasing shiny objects and struggling to gain traction?

They’re chasing that need for excitement in their work, because they haven’t found it anywhere else.

So here’s the test.

If you find yourself constantly feeling like your work isn’t interesting enough to keep you happy, stop and take a look at your life.

What’s missing that used to be there?

When I worked a desk job I stopped surfing, working out and traveling because I was so tied to a desk.

Once I realized, I re-prioritized those things and got it all straightened back out.

And if you’re in a similar boat, work on adding back in what’s missing so you can get back to playing more offense.

That’s where the wins really start to stack up.

As I write this, I think I’ve finally uncovered what Buffett figured out.

He didn’t spend his life chasing the most exciting work possible.

Instead, he found joy in his life outside of his work. He didn’t want more.

In fact, he still lives in the same house he bought in 1958 for $31k.

His fulfillment in life allowed him to amplify it through daily challenges in the business world, as mundane as they often were.

And although it’s a never ending battle, I hope you can find that same peace outside of your work so you can get more out of it in the long run.

Sick of their job, willing to work for a better life, but unsure where to start.

It’s a great question, with frankly a pretty terrible answer.

What they wanted was for me to give them a niche or a checklist or a video to consume. Something they could carve out time for on Monday and get to work with.

Trust me, I wish it was that easy.

But in the spirit of actually being helpful and not just giving out aimless motivation, here’s what I actually said.

“For the next few years you’re not going to build a business, you’re going to skill stack.”

Talk about some vague direction, right?

But after reflecting on the past few years of my own life and also the lives of dozens of founders I’ve become friends with I’ve realized that skills, not your niche, are the key.

It’s the fundamental reason I was able to build and sell a software business for multiple six-figures, and now have the privilege of running two 7-figure real estate businesses in a space I knew nothing about just a few years ago.

Most of what you do in the moment tends to feel monotonous or wasteful. Then one day the skills you’ve developed solve a problem you didn’t know existed.

Something breaks in front of you and you’re the one who can fix it.

And that’s when the real fun begins.

So how are you supposed to measure “skill stacking” exactly?

Doesn’t the saying go - “What can’t be measured can’t be improved”?

The precise answer is, you can’t measure it. And that’s exactly why it gets skipped early on even though it affects everything else downstream.

It’s easy to measure revenue. You either do or do not make money.

So when someone comes to me on month 6 of their new business and says “I haven’t made any money, I’m going to quit and chase the next thing.” I get it.

When I was in elementary school I started competing in math competitions (I am a self-identified nerd so you won’t hurt my feelings by thinking it.)

From then until the end of college I spent the majority of my time learning different skills in the engineering space.

Early on it was math, then it moved to electrical circuits and finally more complex coding and design.

After choosing to become a raft guide after college instead of getting a job, and then leaving my only real engineer job after 12 months of work, I got called out pretty often for wasting my time.

Why spend all of those years and all that money to never use the skills I gained?

Those people weren’t trying to be cruel (at least I hope not?). They were just measuring in the only way they knew how.

But it was that close-minded approach that caused them to miss the mark.

Here’s what actually happened with those skills.

First, I learned how to think like an engineer.

Technical, very process driven. I saw every problem as an opportunity to create a solution.

Second, I learned how to create software that solved said problems.

After leaving my engineering job in 2023 I was faced with one of those very problems.

So, I created a basic personal solution for myself and the real estate team I worked with at the time, and gave it away for free to other people who wanted it.

I then partnered up with someone, developed it a little more, and last year sold it for multiple six-figures.

The skills I stacked for many years didn’t have a clean measurement, but their results certainly have. And the effects of what engineering taught me and what I learned will continue to show up in my life as long as I’m around to implement them.

And although my software story has a resolution, most of mine don’t.

So let me give you one that you’re experiencing with me right here in real time…

In January of this year I decided to commit to writing a Substack article every single week.

My rules:

• No AI used to write

• Share my own experiences, don’t preach at people

• Edit posts to make them actually useful

So far this year I’ve written 34 posts total (including this one) which comes out to just over 40,000 words written.

I started writing these posts with one (somewhat) clear goal in mind: Learn to write better.

Why? I’m not 100% sure.

But I’ve noticed over the past few years how much the skill of writing has fallen off as AI has grown, and I know how valuable the skill itself is.

Not just in storytelling - but in sales, teaching, and problem solving.

Hopefully one day I’ll be able to write books to share with people to pass on whatever helpful information I’ve acquired along the way, but I won’t be able to do that very well if I suck at writing.

So here’s the tie in.

If I was measuring by any common metrics my Substack posts would be an epic failure.

Trying to grow a huge following? Failed.

Trying to make lots of money? Failed.

I spend 3+ hours every week writing these posts and almost no one reads them.

If I were measuring normally, I’d have quit by now.

The difference is I’m looking at inputs, not outputs.

Those 40,000 words aren’t a result, they represent the work I put in to get to my desired goal. It’s controllable, and if I fail it’s no one’s fault but my own.

Most of you who feel burnt out in business feel that way because you’re measuring for outcomes on an unrealistic timeline.

“I’ve made $0” becomes “I’m a failure” instead of “I can’t believe I’ve become an expert at XYZ so quickly.”

It’s all just perspective and time jumbled together.

So, let’s revisit my friends question with all of that new information in mind.

If you want to make a change, create freedom etc. what niche should you choose?

People often ask me why I ended up in real estate, thinking that will help them on their own path.

Here’s the reality, I really don’t even love real estate that much.

It’s easy to get into, which means the quality of people is quite low.

Right now the market is brutal for owning property and scaling.

The reason I got into real estate is I heard a bunch of people on podcasts telling me to do it. Not very exciting, I know.

But the even bigger reality is that real estate isn’t my golden ticket anymore.

I could start a new business tomorrow in a completely different industry and succeed based purely on the skills I’ve gained over the past few years, not some real estate magic pill.

But if I had to give you an answer here’s what I’d say…

Go where you can find an unfair advantage.

I have a mentor who ran and sold a multi-million dollar glass printing business.

How the heck do you get into that? By having the rest of your family also be in glass printing of course.

If you have a close friend or mentor that can teach you the ropes for a lawn care business, go for it.

Connections to a service based business? Try it out.

Use the unfair advantages you already have to start skill stacking, keeping in mind that even if they aren’t a fit for you the skills will always carry over.

And at the end of the day, that’s the only result that matters.

That’s what I told my friend, and it’s the same thing I wanted to tell you.

Living the American dream, right? They made millions of dollars, then sold it to travel the world.

But they were sitting with me talking about starting another one.

Just last week, I heard three different stories just like that.

And sitting there it occurred to me that everyone I know building a business is searching for the answer to the same unspoken question.

What is all the work for?

The snap answer is typically “So I can have freedom and retire at 35” or something like that.

But everyone I’ve met who’ve actually executed on that plan? They hated it.

So, that puts us back at square one. What is it all for?

When I was in high school I started reading articles about the FIRE community.

If you don’t know, it’s Financially Independent Retire Early.

And whether it’s specifically stated or not, that’s essentially the goal of every person I’ve ever met. “I can’t wait until retirement”.

Not enjoying the days now, but counting down the days until you hopefully will.

It’s the entire premise behind business content now, so it makes sense that we’d all be chasing it.

You probably think of work as the price you have to pay to get to your final destination. Just a part of the process.

But if that’s the case, then why is it that almost every person I’ve met who made it to that finish line is more miserable than they ever were when they were working to get there?

Let’s go back to that table I was at last week, with the guy I’ll call John.

John sold his financial planning company 4.5 years ago, and signed a 5 year non-compete (meaning he can’t build another one for at least 5 years).

He said after just 4 months he and his wife had traveled where they wanted to go, bought what they wanted to buy, and now were miserable.

In fact, he was literally at the event to count down the days until he could restart his business.

“144 days” he told me, “until I can start the business back up and get my life back.”

That was just one of three stories I heard like that just on that one day.

Another man told the story of how he had been talked out of selling his company when he had been asked repeatedly what he would do with his life and he realized he had no answer.

And I can even draw some parallels on this thread from my own life.

Haley and I spent years traveling around, seeing some of the most beautiful places around America and quite literally doing whatever we wanted when we wanted.

The outside comments were always the same, “You’re living the dream!”

And they were right, it was the dream.

But dreams don’t always end up matching up with reality.

It was shocking to most of our friends when we told them we were trading that life to go back to normal jobs and a house.

That’s because they were still chasing the dream, not tasting it.

And what Haley and I found matches the same lesson I’ve heard over and over from the people who’ve had a similar taste of freedom.

The time they truly felt alive? The most excitement and motivation?

It wasn’t when they got to the end, it was the climb along the way.

The constant challenges, the setbacks, and the problem solving.

Which brings us back to the original question…

What really is the point of all the work? Building a business, time freedom, what’s the end goal?

Here’s my experience driven answer.

The purpose of your work isn’t for it to end, it’s to build something worth living for.

Something you enjoy doing on a random Tuesday, maybe even something you’d choose over cold drinks by the pool.

That idea is extremely hard to grasp for people who aren’t building towards it.

They ask me why I work so much, when the reality is I’m doing exactly what gets me excited.

It’s a choice, not a requirement.

When Haley and I got off the road most recently to go back to living in our house we’re in now, we did it with a plan.

That plan has turned into a very successful business not in terms of monetary success, but in terms of the fulfillment we get from running it.

And the secret to that of course isn’t just the building, but the constant evaluation.

I realized a few years ago that I both hated and wasn’t actually good at reading and reviewing real estate contracts.

If that was my job, it would’ve turned into the classic misery countdown to 65 scenario.

But in my new outlook, the game is played completely different.

I’m playing to keep playing, and not have the desire to stop.

So instead, I just found other incredible people to bring onto the team to take that part of the business over.

And then the business became more enjoyable again. Until the next group of tasks I hated, and the process repeated.

Wanting to escape your work is a symptom of the work you do, not a concrete answer that work is bad and you’ll only ever be happy when it’s over.

So if you find yourself looking for a way out, look at what’s getting you there. Then put all of your energy into changing that thing.

John had to spend 5 years aimlessly wandering because he made a concrete decision as his solution instead of just testing it out.

Free trials exist for a reason!

And I can tell you from my experience and many others in my circle, a month or so of chasing the dream is almost always all it takes to realize it’s not what it’s cut out to be.

But the fulfillment that comes from chasing discomfort? Solving bigger and bigger problems? Seeing the ripple effects of your actions in the lives of others?

That’s work worth doing.

The goal was never a far out date on the calendar with no plan other than “get me out of what I’m doing.”

It was to live a life where the countdown became the enemy because of how much you enjoy every step of the process.

I spent around $15,000 to be a part of a 4-part mastermind in LA, and this Monday while at the event I spent the entire time completely bored.

Mind you I drove 6 hours on top of all the money to be in it, so doodling all day wasn’t exactly on my list.

But here’s the turn you probably weren’t expecting (and to be fair neither was I).

I left the event absolutely FULL of ideas. My entire 3 hour drive home was spent outlining them all with a full game plan of all the changes I was going to make.

And as I’m sitting here writing this right now I’m antsy to get back to it because there’s so much to do.

So how the heck does that happen? How am I somehow getting what will one day prove to be millions of dollars worth of value for something that has seemingly been so dull?

It all comes down to what I can control.

At these mastermind events the flow is very choppy.

We go over a topic, write down our thoughts on it, then sit down with someone else and take turns sharing them with each other for insights.

And although I feel like we could cover the entire day’s information in about 20 minutes, the empty space created an opportunity for me without me realizing.

With no computer or distractions, I was basically forced to sit there and spend hours thinking about my business, my goals and my direction.

At the same time, I got to hear from people literally decades ahead of me specifically on what they wish they would’ve done sooner.

Things like focusing on time over money, giving back, and never losing site of your true priorities.

And somehow that combination, when it all came together, gave me the result I didn’t even know I was looking for.

Not while I was at the event, but right after.

You can use this to your advantage right now in the exact same way.

Every day I hear from people who have been “burned” or feel behind.

They spent money on a program that “didn’t work” or put all of their time and energy into a business that didn’t pan out.

And as a result? They’re angry, upset and don’t know what to do.

They feel like they’ve been wronged, like they’re the victim.

But after this weeks event, I finally realized that that’s completely self-inflicted.

I kid you not, I left that event Monday feeling like the victim.

But as I was sitting there driving home, ideas flowing, I realized that I was in complete control of my outcome.

And it wasn’t the first time that’s happened to me.

The same thing happened years earlier when I spent every single day for a year on a business I ended up shutting down completely.

At the time it felt like a massive waste of a year of my life, but looking back it was the foundation of everything I do (and don’t do) today.

Alex Hormozi loves to talk about the fact that he paid for dozens of mentorships, many of which everyone else called a scam, yet he never left a single one without getting some sort of information that made it “worth it” to him.

Why is that?

Because it was his choice. And if he can choose to be grumpy and play the victim, he can also choose to find the silver lining and prove that it was well worth it.

So if you’re reading this feeling like you lack direction, have wasted time or aren’t getting the results you “deserve” out of your efforts here’s a list of things I took away in retrospect after the event.

1. You get to choose your ROI, not someone else

ROI stands for return on investment. But return isn’t just a term to represent monetary success. It can be your time, your joy, your peace etc.

Regardless of whether you spent money on something or not, your return is a choice. And even if it’s not obvious in the moment, I’ve found that choosing to find the return in everything is a skill worth having.

2. Boredom is a feature, not a bug

I’m speaking to you, the person who pulls out their phone to scroll on social media for the 17 seconds your food is in the microwave. Or who has the TV on at all times in the background. Or has to have music blaring on every single drive.

Some of the most impactful people in the world, especially on the innovation side, protect their time like a commodity worth 10x more than money. If you’re always moving, you’re rarely thinking.

One of my biggest takeaways after this event is that I need to schedule more time to just be bored and think.

3. You’re never the victim unless you want to be

And I mean that. Some people just want to live their lives for people to feel sorry for them, and it is what it is.

But sympathy doesn’t bring fulfillment or progress so maybe we should search for some better alternatives?

Every situation has a positive outcome. I’ve lost thousands of dollars, had major setbacks and had months of my own work thrown away multiple times. But I can always go back to reminding myself that it’s a part of the game. And as long as I stay in the game, I can’t lose.

Here’s what I’d actually do with this.

Pick an experience or moment you’re in right now that feels like it’s been a total waste and hasn’t worked out.

Then write down all of the lessons you’ve learned, people you’ve met, and actions you’ve taken as a result.

If the answer isn’t obvious, good. Sit there until it is.

Empty space, I’ve learned, goes a long way.

We were sitting down for dinner when Sam Ovens (Skool CEO + co-founder) pulled out his phone to show me a new Skool feature.

His home screen? Only one app - Skool.

No social media, news apps, or literally anything. Just empty space.

When I mentioned it he told me a while back he changed his phone number too. Now, he said he gets about 2 texts a week.

That, my friends, is what I call focus.

And notice what it’s not. He’s not trying to “brute force” his way to success through sheer discipline. He’s removing the temptation completely.

Focus is a word everyone loves to talk about and maybe even glorify, but what does it look like when executed to perfection?

After spending the day with both Sam and Hormozi this weekend and hearing dozens of questions all get answered in the same way, I think I have that answer.

And of course, it wasn’t what I expected…

In the room there were over 50 people all running communities on Skool. Lots of them were making $5-10k/month, others were doing millions annually.

And the theme that started showing up was the exact opposite of what we’d like to think if we’re honest with ourselves.

The people that were just starting to make money? They had all of these fancy CRMs and automations and AI across the board.

But the guys at the top? No AI, one simple system, and no notable changes.

Their businesses were boring.

Here’s what’s actually going on if we take a minute to break that down.

Complexity is what you build when you don’t know what else to do. It looks something like “I don’t know why I’m not making more money, so let me try something new”. And over time, it adds up.

But simplicity? That’s the result when you stop guessing. It’s when numbers, data, and proof take over an otherwise “free-for-all” approach.

So if you feel like you’re “at the bottom” aka still getting started, it’s rarely because of lack of effort. Instead, it’s just too much guessing.

Or to put it in terms almost any new entrepreneur will understand, shiny object syndrome.

I often think of it as the “what if” moments.

“What if I tried to wholesale and fund deals at the same time?”

“What if I try multiple side hustles at once to increase my chances of success?”

“What if I tried a new strategy for bringing leads into my business?”

Those questions feel like progress in the moment. They feel like you’re actually being strategic instead of just going rogue and hoping for the best.

And yes, doing something new feels like progress, because it’s new. You are going from 0 to 1, and there’s power in actually doing something.

But progress isn’t the same thing as momentum.

Momentum can only come into play when you are doing the same thing over and over again to the point where it would be unreasonable not to see the desired result.

Now here’s the part that really kills that momentum for the majority of you.

Most of those new paths you see? In real estate, business, AI etc? They work. If they didn’t, nobody would be talking about them.

But you see the problem was never whether or not something works.

The problem is that nobody shares the middle part. The part where there were thousands of reps taken with no one cheering them on. The part where they lost money, sleep, or friendships on the road up.

And that’s the reality check. Everything works, but it will also take 10x longer and be 10x harder than you were told.

I bought a stock trading software “guaranteed” to make me a 100x return over the summer, only to lose all of my money along the way.

I got into wholesaling real estate for the big paychecks as advertised, only to wake up with threats of lawsuits and a miserable cycle of chasing a prize that had no end in sight.

As recently as a few months ago I dropped everything to build out an entire new lending program that I thought would be revolutionary in the real estate space only to shut that business down and fall behind on my current business that’s actually impacting the lives of the people around me in real time.

I traded my proven systems that work for a rogue gamble that didn’t. Why? My best answer is that I just thought it would add something more exciting into my repetitive schedule.

I’ve had flashes where I am as bad as they come with good ol’ fashioned focus, but I’m writing this because I’ve turned the corner.

I no longer wake up trying to drum up 100 new big ideas to change the world. I just get to work on doing more of what I’m already doing that’s working.

Literally as I’m writing this I’m reminded that the reason I’ve fallen into the shiny object traps so many times in the past is because chasing something new is 10x more exciting than the boring work I’m trying to avoid.

But if you can take a step back, I think you’ll start to realize the power of focus in the lives of 99.9% of all entrepreneurs.

So, if you want to practice the art of relentless focus, here’s the test I’m running this week. Feel free to join me.

Step 1: Write down everything you do this week to try and make money

If your list has more than your primary job and one side hustle on it, you do not have a business yet. You have options.

Options feel safe, but kill results. So kill the options, and pick one thing to focus on.

Step 2: For the next 90 days, craft your environment

Literally look at your list from step 1 and decide what you’re going to say no to.

Have a conference you’re planning to attend that has no impact on your business? Change your plans.

If YouTube distracts you with new ideas, block it. If social media keeps your eyes off the prize, delete it off your phone.

Having one app on your home screen looks like “discipline” to the outside world, but it’s not. That’s your environment, something you can control before discipline ever comes into play.

If you want to win you don't need more discipline. You need a shorter list.

It was the second time I’d done it just since we sat down to dinner. I pulled out my phone, checked the notifications, and ended up scrolling on something. Even with Haley right there at the table with me while we were out to eat.

My iPhone became the habit you hate but just can’t break. And with all of my work coming from it, the nagging feeling of constantly needing to check it was even worse.

So last week I put my money where my mouth is and bought a dumb phone. Ya, like a flip phone with a keypad and caveman-like texting.

Here’s what I’ve learned after a few years in business, as well as working on things like health and fitness. Discipline doesn’t work for 99% of people. It’s a fun idea that falls apart over time.

Environment is different. Change what’s within reach and your actions will of course change as a result. Leave it alone and you’ll be telling the classic story of how you “tried so hard” but just couldn’t pull it off.

So the flip phone is my environment change. Not a full one, I still use my iPhone during work hours (at least for now). But evenings and weekends have become flip phone hours, and I just leave my iPhone in my office.

Here’s everything that’s changed as a result.

The Setup

A lot of people reading this will instantly come up with a reason why a flip phone won’t work for them. To be clear, I’m writing this to share my experience in case there’s something you can take from it and apply in your own life. Not for you to buy a flip phone.

That being said, here’s the main complaints.

• I won’t be able to listen to music

• I need maps for driving around

• I need WhatsApp to communicate

• I don’t want the green bubbles in my texts (lol)

• I need Uber for traveling

I had those same pushbacks, and what sent me over the edge was a flip phone that instantly solved all of that. It’s by dumb.co and has software on it that actually has all of the above listed apps and even sends iMessages. Pretty cool.

At the same time, there are plenty of things that really are missing. I can’t really take photos and videos that are good. I can’t check the surf, which for me is actually a pretty big deal. I also don’t have Apple pay on there which has already come back to bite me once.

In other words, it’s not perfect. And that’s okay, because it reminds me of something I seem to have to learn over and over about environment change, it takes sacrifice.

Leaving an old friend group to get out of drinking all the time and replace it with better habits is going to suck. It’ll be more lonely, especially at first, but it’s also guaranteed to work. It’s a trade you have to decide on.

So in light of that I’ve found myself thinking less about what’s missing as a “negative” and more like a symptom of the change. Then, I get to decide whether or not I can live with it.

What actually changed

So 8 days into having this thing, what actually changed? A week isn’t a long time, so I’ll just preface this by saying it hasn’t been anything that drastic.

But here’s a few things of note.

In the evenings after work I’ve been filling my time with much better activities. Instead of my classic “wind down” that involved scrolling through videos and social media as a well deserved break after a long days work, I’ve been switching it up.

This last week Haley and I biked to the beach almost every day after dinner. I’ve been doing puzzles like Sudoku every evening and reading a lot more.

We’ve also gone out to dinner 2x now where I found myself either in better conversation or just enjoying the moment more instead of taking a quick peek at my phone for the life altering notifications that are never actually there.

My daily screen time has gone down pretty drastically as well. I count “screen time” as time spent on dumb stuff like social media since I also use my phone for emails, recording etc. And as you can see that social time has dropped from about 1hr 20min daily down to as little as 15 minutes or so.

And honestly I think the real win is just learning to fill time with things that actually benefit me instead of the other way around. I’m certainly not missing anything by not getting updates on the world news every few minutes, and I’ve learned that it’s okay to get the score to the Phillies game after it’s over instead of checking every 5 minutes.

But to be clear, I think a lot of this can be done without actually buying another phone. Mine only costs $20/mo so it’s not like it’s that crazy of an investment, but especially on weekends I could also just not bring a phone with me at all and probably survive.

My lessons learned

Habits beat discipline alone, but environment trumps all. There’s just no other way to slice it. I cannot scroll social media if I do not have a device with which to scroll upon, that’s it.

So yes, I know I’m only 8 days in. But the lesson I’ve learned so far is that I have a lot more control over my environment than I might admit to myself. I like to complain that my work, owning a small business etc. etc. just doesn’t allow me to get out of some things.

But even something like lack of quick communication only becomes a problem when left alone. So as I’ve started telling people I won’t respond on the weekends or at night, they’ve come to expect that.

And on the flip side (pun intended), not even having the temptation of pulling out an iPhone to fill dead time is amazing. My options are endless on new things I could do, but the one option I hate falling into is no longer there.

So I’ll close by encouraging you to look at what’s within arms reach. Whether it’s your phone, a friendship, food or some other bad habits - find a way to distance yourself from them without just slapping the “discipline” label on yourself just to end up right back at square one.

Everyone wants to put themselves on a pedestal and tell you how to live your life.

I’ll admit it, although my goal for these articles is to share lessons from my own journey I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t writing with the hopes that you’d actually implement what I’m saying.

Not because I think I’m always right, but because I know what’s worked for me and that’s better than nothing.

But there’s a Hormozi quote I heard recently that I wanted to use to reframe things this week.

When he got married, he talks about how him and Leila (his wife) studied all of the reasons people get divorced. They then used that as their foundation to build around of “what not to do”.

So with that in mind, here’s a list of actions that will ruin your life in 2026.

I was inspired to write a post in this style by @francisco29 on Substack.

If you do a few of them your world won’t end, but the more you do the worse it gets.

1. Scroll on your phone all day

I’m told studies show that the more time you spend scrolling on social media the more valuable information you collect.

Nothing like keeping up to date with your friend’s friend who’s on vacation in Cabo this week to put you in a bad mood.

Or better yet spending hours going down a doomsday rabbit hole of how AI is going to take over the world.

Why face your problems head on when you can just ignore them and catch up on a whole bunch of nothing.

2. Have surface level friends

If there’s one thing I’ve learned, it’s that friends are for the “How are you?” - “Good, you?” exchange and that’s about it.

Don’t worry, when you run into them again tomorrow you’ll have the golden opportunity to ask them that same question again.

But the real stuff? Your struggles, worries, ideas etc? Those best be kept to yourself.

And if you want to isolate yourself even more make sure you only keep friends who can’t relate to where you’re at in life.

Young married entrepreneur? Shoot for only hanging out with single W2 employees to keep yourself as isolated as possible (ask me how I know).

3. Take small consistent action

This of course is to check off your “at least I tried” box for the day so you can go back to whatever you were doing that you don’t enjoy but isn’t quite bad enough to make you miserable yet.

Every great success story begins with “I just tried one small thing in my free time and 86 years later I had some momentum.”

Small action is easy, pick one thing you can complete in the allotted time period to get that sense of achievement.

After 10 years you may have nothing to show for it, but you’ll be pretty sure you’re well on your way to something great.

4. Prioritize comfort at all costs

Hate waking up early? Don’t.

Get miserable having tough conversations? Just skip them.

The simplest route in every situation is to simply ask “would this make me uncomfortable?” and if it would, do NOT do that thing.

After all, if you think back you’ll probably start to realize that the best moments and accomplishments in your life came from being comfortable, right?

5. Spend money to avoid your problems

Tired of a job you hate and a life you don’t enjoy?

Don’t worry, it’s nothing a steak dinner or night out at the bars can’t fix.

Facing problems is very uncomfortable, and we’ve already talked about why you should avoid discomfort at all costs.

So instead, just use money to forget they even exist.

I hear if you spend enough money and wait long enough the problems just seem to go away eventually.

At least I think that’s what I heard.

6. Stay in one place

The recipe for growth is isolation.

If travel, movement and new friends with different worldview creates perspective we’re hot in pursuit of the exact opposite.

When you stay in one place, you control the variables. You know what to expect, everyone else knows you, and you’re only mildly unhappy with your life.

It’s okay, you’ll survive.

Plus, travel is expensive anyway. Why spend $100 on a roadtrip to see somewhere new when you could spend it on a bucket of beer you won’t remember.

7. Find the best “get rich quick” opportunity and take it

This is crucial. There are people every day on social media that are getting rich quick, and if they can do it so can you.

I saw the other day an NBA player signing a $500M contract. Just like that, infinite riches. Not sure what they spent their time on the previous 25 years but who cares.

And what about Elon Musk? Seems like his riches just appeared out of nowhere.

So just remember, if you see someone promising life changing money in as little as 30 days then and only then should you lock in. Statistically speaking it’s gotta be highly likely that you succeed, otherwise they wouldn’t be talking about it.

8. Eat out anywhere other than Panda Express

Seriously, why would you get 100g of protein for $10 when you could just grab a fast food burger and fries for the same price?

And I’m pretty sure at least 100 people have told me Panda Express is bad for you even though they’re 30 pounds overweight and don’t understand macros.

So ya, just keep eating junk food. It tastes good after all.

9. Live life without hobbies

There is nothing more satisfying in life than spending 90% of your time working for someone else and then “taking back control” by watching a few hours of Netflix and falling asleep on the couch.

Forget back in college when you used to play sports, dream up projects and randomly knit a sweater at some point.

If you get rid of hobbies you don’t have to do all of the work that comes with creativity, and you get to avoid failure.

After all, you can’t fail if you don’t try to begin with.

Hobbies are a time and money suck to say the least, and with most of your time already being sucked away at work it’s best to spend the rest of your time comfortably.

10. Wait for other people to solve your problems

Whenever I’m having money issues I always remind myself, this is not my fault.

The government has allowed housing prices to get out of control, health costs are insane, and I’m just a pawn.

So I do what any logical person would do and complain while I wait for someone else to fix it. After all, we’re all just victims in whatever crazy schemes are going on out there.

Can’t control my eating habits or learn to prioritize exercise? I’ll toss it up between blaming the American food industry and waiting for Ozempic to do the work for me.

No jobs popping up on the market? The recruiters are probably just bad at what they do, there isn’t anything you can do it is what it is.

Just like with most things in life, if you wait long enough someone else will solve the problem for you. Don’t stress, and of course make sure you always stay comfortable.

This is not an exhaustive list on how to ruin your life in 2026, but I believe it is a very good start.

If you are doing a few of these things your life is probably still salvageable.

But if you’re doing most of them, you have successfully pulled it off. Your life is likely in a state of disrepair.

And whatever you do, make sure you do not take ownership of your life and forge your own path.

That’s weird and makes the lazy people uncomfortable.

Should we pull off a part 2 sometime? Let me know.

And when I did? I kept hearing the same phrase over and over again…

“Just take action.”

For me, that came in different forms. First it was consuming content about real estate, then it was calling sellers, and eventually putting houses under contract to try (and eventually fail) to sell.

Overall a positive, right?

One thing is for sure, taking action will teach you a heck of a lot more than the alternative route.

But here’s the part, looking back now, that irks me enough to write an entire article this week about that very topic.

I met hundreds of people when I was getting started.

Of those people, I can’t even count the amount who’s lives went 1 step forward and 10 steps back.

Huge debts, lawsuits, and life-altering mistakes made not out of ill intentions but simply made out of following the classic “take action” advice.

And even further, there’s an even larger group of those same people who aren’t behind but simply never got anywhere at all.

Here’s the reality…

Taking action was never what got you ahead, taking filtered action was.

One filter is risk, the other is strategy.

And without those filters, you’ll end up wishing you just stuck to the boring W2 instead of digging yourself into a hole you may not be able to get out of.

Here’s how each filter looks in the real world.

Filter 1: Action without a downside filter

A few years ago I took the time to really deep dive on this topic because frankly, I felt like I got lucky.

The people I was convinced we’re “crushing it” that I wanted to be like were suddenly anything but that.

A few examples:

• One friend had $70k in credit card debt from furnishing houses with no money to pay it off

• One person was named in multiple lawsuits for raising money

• Another person had all of their properties foreclosed on

You get the picture, things were not going the way anyone would hope.

And as I looked at what all of the bad situations I was encountering had in common I found the theme. It’s the second part of “just take action” that mysteriously gets left off.

Action can only create the desired learning experience if the upside is clear and the downside is minimized.

Buying a rental property with none of your own money has 10x more downside than upside.

IF it goes well you might make $200/month. If it doesn’t? Your life and/or someone else’s will be wrecked.

Starting a wholesale operation to make some active income and learn the game of real estate is a great upside approach. Spending $10k/month for data and operations with nothing to show for it is the opposite.

I could go on, but I think you get the point.

The traps of real estate and business often disguise themselves as opportunity.

If, instead, the actions taken truly only stand to benefit you (either monetarily or with experience) that’s the path I’ve seen time and time again lead to real success.

The problem is that path reveals itself as the “slower” route.

For example, if you join a team of other wholesalers who spend their money for the leads etc. and offer to pay you a small cut for deals you get under contract, that’s the dream.

You won’t make much money, but you can quit at any time and not be buried in a pile of debt and responsibility.

Then as your competence increases risk adjusts.

My simplest example of that in motion is my business now.

This week we funded a $1.5M deal for someone, and I partnered with a community member for it.

That person had the exposure of the deal, plus a profit. I took on the responsibility of paying our staff to run the deal, and the personal liability of all $1.5M were anything to happen.

But I’ve also done hundreds of these deals, so my risk might be quite literally 1000x less than the person who partnered with me because of my experience.

At the end of the day it’s all personal interpretation, but the goal is the same.

Make more money (or just get closer to whatever your goals are) without presenting even the slightest opportunity for it to backfire horribly.

It will be slower, but it will actually work.

Unlike all of the people I know who took action and are now struggling to pay bills and fighting off lawsuits.

That’s what happens when action ignores downside, here’s what happens when it avoids strategy altogether.

Filter 2: Action without a strategy filter

I had a great call with someone this week who had spent the prior 90 days chasing the goal of closing their first transactional funding deal with extreme consistency.

Every day they posted accountability on what they were doing.

But when we sat down to look at their actions vs. results we discovered something.

They were so focused on doing everything that they had never taken the time to actually measure what was creating real results.

And that is the downfall I want to help anyone reading this avoid at all costs, because I’ve been there too.

I personally can think of a handful of people whose names I saw popping up on social media and live calls 4 years ago when I was just getting started.

And today those same people continue to pop up in those same places with absolutely nothing to show for it.

They have no business, no income, no progress. Just years of showing up thinking that “taking action” was all it took when it’s just not.

Strategic action is what changes everything.

Back to the story about my call this week.

When we sat down and looked at all of their “inputs” aka actions taken we found a few interesting things.

For one, they had stopped the lead gen strategy that had historically built the most momentum for them because it took a lot of time.

And they didn’t have that spare time anymore because they were too busy using it on a bunch of new strategies instead.

Essentially they (like most of us at some point or another) got too roped into consistency to take a step back and build a strategy based on their data (not just guesswork).

And that’s the “action only” trap.

Oftentimes now you’ll find me telling people to step back at least once a month to evaluate where their time is being spent and if their actions during that time are producing the results they want.

As you can probably guess, the discovery is often that it in fact is not.

To be fair, most people don’t take action at all so it’s still a good start.

But evaluating it and creating real strategy is what tips the scales.

And by the way, creating a strategy can oftentimes be more of a hypothesis.

You look at the data, come up with a plan you think will work, then re-evaluate again.

Maybe it works, maybe it doesn’t. If not, you repeat the process until it does.

It’s not about being perfect, it’s about knowing where you’re going.

I wish I had a giant following in times like these so I could share this with the people who need to hear it most.

But if you can just work those two filters into your perspective as you go, you’ll be on the right track - not the one that feels easy but the one that actually works.

And in the end, I’m pretty sure that’s where we all want to end up.

If you made it this far, which of the above 2 filters have you fallen victim to either now or in the past and how did you overcome them?

Leave a comment, would love to hear!

1. Ruthless focus on one thing for long enough virtually guarantees success.

I’ve always known that focus was one of the keys to success, but this year I’ve really experienced that for myself.

As you know, the “status quo” so to speak is for people to try something for a bit, realize it’s hard, then get sucked into something else with promises it will be easier.

Stack on top life, work, and a severe lack of time and you’ve pretty much just summed up the classic cycle most people stay trapped in forever.

But what does this rare ability to focus actually do?

For me, I’ve learned it all comes down to my perspective and approach.

Alex Hormozi has a phrase he uses constantly - “More, better, new.”

It means that if you want to make more money, have more time, or whatever your goal is the trick is to do more of what’s working first. Then once you’ve done more learn to improve the thing so you get more out of that time.

Only once both of those have been done should we move onto something new.

I consider it to be the greatest compliment when I get messages from people I haven’t spoken to in years asking if I’m still running the same business and I can say “yes”.

But I’m no saint, and that answer has almost fallen off the rails more times than I can count.

In fact I spent the first few months of 2026 trying to build an entirely new business only to realize at the very end that I was going for “new, more, better” and was killing myself in the process.

New opportunity can be tempting, trust me I know. But taking advantage of the opportunity in front of you? That’s the recipe for success, at least for me.

2. Working more doesn’t mean getting more done.

At the end of 2024 Haley and I entered a 90 day competition to grow our skool community as much as possible in that 90 day stretch.

And for 90 days straight, we worked an average of 14 hour days chasing that goal.

The cool part? It worked. The not so cool? We had no life.

I’ve always prided myself in work ethic, so I’d be lying if I said that habit didn’t carry over into 2025.

But the key point I learned was that we were doing it to ourselves. Every day I would come up with an idea that required us to build new websites, challenges, trainings etc.

I was trying to constantly re-invent in order to “get more done” or achieve my goals faster. That’s when I finally learned my lesson.

Here’s what changed. At the start of 2026 I stopped creating a new challenge every week. I stopped trying to design an entire new workshop every week too.

Instead, I looked at what I had done in the past year that was most helpful to people and just focused on doing that more and even better. Notice there’s no “new” in that.

The result (without including all of the painful details within the process…) has been me working 50% less while we’ve had our best start to the year ever.

I don’t think I’ll ever fully get it through my head, but I can now prove to myself that it isn’t about the amount of time I put into something that determines my results. It’s whether or not I’m spending that time in high-leverage places.

3. There’s always someone better at a task than you, find them.

A few years back I read the book “Who Not How” by Dan Sullivan that talks about hiring. Its whole thesis is finding the person best equipped to do a job, then offloading it to them.

The part I’ve always felt was missing was where to actually find that person.

This year, I’ve finally started to get my foot in the door with it. Not without a solid dose of failure along the way of course.

And one of the keys I’ll share with you that’s hard to measure is a person’s investment in what they do. It’s why we all know that the original owner of something is going to care more than someone who steps in and takes over.

As you start to grow a business you’ll be asked to do a ton of things you have no clue how to do. But you’re the business, so you’ve gotta figure it out.

But as quickly as possible, you have to find people to take on the tasks you suck at.

This year I’ve already found people to run my social media, editing, sales team and marketing. Last year I found people to handle our transaction coordination. They are 10x better than me, so we now are moving forward 10x faster.

You find these people one of two ways. You pay a lot, or you build a pool of people who already know you and want in. The second one is cheaper and the loyalty is better.

Whichever route you go, I’ve learned that as quickly as humanly possible you need to outsource tasks you suck at. It’s virtually guaranteed to make you more money anyway.

4. Higher reward means higher risk.

I saw another Hormozi clip recently with someone trying to take their business from $1M to $100M. He said “To get your business into that arena you have to take exponentially bigger bets.”

That stuck with me, because naturally I’m an extremely conservative person. I saved every dollar I ever got as a kid in an envelope and never spent it.

I will add real quick that although I’m talking about monetary risk here it takes on two forms. Risking substantial cash strategically for payoff is a part of the game and is exactly what I’m referring to. Being an idiot and taking on loads of debt or situations you can’t support isn’t smart risk, it’s being dumb.

Here’s how I learned this. We recently hired a team to help us with sales, and it came at a hefty cost to us. Even though we believed it would work, it was still a lot of cash invested.

The risk turned out to be exactly what we needed to level up our business from both a financial and structural standpoint. Uncomfortable to pull the trigger on, but rewarding later on.

Now the important caveat is that we had to be prepared for it not to work. If it’s guaranteed to work there is no risk. So choosing where to place your bets is a huge key to pulling this off.

5. It’s the best time in history to build something on your own.

AI was relevant before 2026 began, but I learned just how relevant it is for business this year.

Last year I spent north of $30k having a team help me develop a website that honestly wasn’t going to make me any money but was going to be helpful for the investors I lend money to.

But at the beginning of the year I trained myself and then took over that project to finish it on my own. Yes that meant more work for me, but it also meant more control and no more $$ spent.

The project went so well I then started another, and another. Important caveat here - these projects weren’t the “new” in “more, better, new” they were the “better”.

I used each one to improve my business and the experience everyone had with it, and it couldn’t have gone better.

Literally a year ago I was in dozens of meetings interviewing people to try and help me build out ideas. Now I can have them built overnight while I’m asleep, for free.

As someone who has a growing business now I can’t even put into words the opportunity this presents for people still getting started. You can run an entire business on your own that would’ve required 10 people a few years ago.

That’s a lesson that will continue to develop more in the next few years, who knows where it will take us.

6. Innovation is important, but start with copying what works.

I have a bad habit of always thinking I have the most original exciting ideas ever. I then seem to have a track record of realizing I’m just doing a worse version of what’s already been done. At least I’m learning…

Getting into business you hear about the Amazon, Tesla, Airbnb of the world. The companies that brought a brand new idea to life.

But 99.9% of companies just build businesses off of ideas that already work. It turns out with billions of people out there this concept works quite well.

I’ve learned this year that there are millions of people who have come before me and built lending businesses. Those people have already proven what works.

There are also a lot of businesses that parallel lending even if they’re in a different space.

Part of my “do less, get more out of it” approach this year has been learning to stop trying to be a genius from the start and just develop the skills to execute on what works.

I’ve learned it as “replicate before you iterate”. I still love to create new ideas, but building them with a backbone of what already works has been one of my greatest keys to growth this year.

I could go on forever, but I’ll stop there for now. 6 lessons that have reshaped my life so far in 2026.

Whenever people bring up that the year is half-way over they like to drop the “time flies” statements like crazy, so I have to jump in on that real quick.

I disagree. I would say looking back on this year time has actually moved quite slow in comparison to all of the things that have happened.

The reason people say time flies is because they’re spending it procrastinating instead of actually doing.

So if you’re feeling like time has flown by this year, I hope you can implement the lessons I’ve learned so far this year to slow it down a bit and get closer to your goals.

40 hour workweeks to someday “retire” - only to find that if/when you do you’re too old to enjoy all of the things you put off.

Missing family events to work late or on weekends with the promise that it will create more opportunity - only to find out that that opportunity is just more work.

Making the amount of money you dreamed would satisfy you - only to replace that dream with wanting more money and feeling less satisfaction than you did when you started.

It might sound a bit harsh, but that’s the “American dream” most people are living.

The good news? It’s 100% a choice, and it’s yours to make.

And the solution? It’s something I’ve personally been working through over the past few years that anyone can execute on today.

What I’m talking about is working backwards.

Some might hit you with the old “begin with the end in mind” and that’s definitely part of it.

Another part, however, is literally knowing what you want.

At this point one of the most classic pastimes in America is the pursuit of money with no real reason for why. It’s an “everyone else does it” moment just like college, corporate jobs etc.

But I’ve found that the people who describe themselves as the happiest go about it in the complete opposite direction.

For example if the goal is to travel constantly, you don’t have to be rich to build a life around that.

I have a friend who only applied to jobs with weird schedules where they would work full-time for 2-4 weeks and then have the next 2-4 weeks off.

Of course, he spends that time off traveling.

Easier said than done if you have a family, responsibilities etc. so I will add in that a major factor in this is the discipline to not burden yourself with tons of liabilities you don’t need. Or if you have, work to remove them.

So most of what I’m sharing here won’t be instant, but it should have a significant impact on how you live your life moving forward if you can put it into practice.

Here’s the reframe I learned that you can literally do with me right now.

Step 1: Write down your perfect day

What does it look like? What are you doing? Who are you with? Where do you live?

Many people (myself included) find that a lot of their dreams can actually become reality in a very short time frame just by naming them and working backwards.

And if you don’t have the answers to the above, work towards them!

As most of you know Haley and I spent years traveling around trying to find the answer to where we wanted to live. The answer didn’t come easily, but eventually we found it.

Here’s a basic example of my “perfect day” that I have written down:

• Living somewhere with cool “sweatshirt” weather

• Workout every morning

• Work on something challenging that will benefit others

• Some sort of outdoor activity

• Hangout with Haley

That’s it, pretty simple. But 2 years ago it was pretty far from my reality.

I was living in a place that was 100 degrees and humid, spent every hour of daylight at work, and was doing mostly busywork at a desk.

2 years later, I do everything on that list every day.

So once you have that day written down, here’s how to execute…

Step 2: Break that day into two buckets

The first will be the bullet points you listed that are just choices you can make. They may require re-arranging priorities and making some changes, but you can do them right now.

Easy example is working out every day. Anyone can do that, the vast majority choose not to. If you don’t want to then it doesn’t matter, but if you do then it’s just a shift in priority.

When we moved to Jacksonville I hadn’t worked out in years and realized quickly that if I left for work at 6:30am and got back later I was never going to get around to it.

So I started going to bed way earlier, woke up at 5am, and have more or less worked out every morning for the past 5 years since then.

The second bucket is for things that do actually require time and money.

Plenty of you will find tasks on your list that require a substantial amount of time or money that is out of reach at the moment, and that’s the point!

Now that you have it in your bucket, you can yet again work backwards to it.

My favorite example of that (which I will of course get made fun of for) is that I used to think my dream was to eat out every day.

I thought of it as such a great way to explore, meet people and eat really good food without having to cook it.

And when I learned this concept I sat down with Haley and just did the math.

$30 per dinner x 30 nights = ~$1,000/month

Working backwards made it feel way more attainable, and shortly after we added enough income from our business to execute on the plan.

Now of course we ate Panda Express for 90 days in a row to kick that off, but hey that’s what I wanted so don’t be a hater.

Once you have your “perfect days” or even “perfect life” down on paper split into those two buckets you have a pretty clear roadmap laid out.

First, figure out how you can re-arrange your current schedule to make the bucket 1 items a reality as quickly and consistently as possible.

Then set specific goals on how to attain bucket 2 items, and measure those goals consistently to track your progress.

Before long you’ll wake up and realize you’re living your perfect days right now, not waiting for “someday” to never come.

It’s easy to just go through the motions, that’s why most people do it.

But you’ll never be satisfied if you don’t know where you’re going.

If you want to make a change, start there.

And if this helped you re-arrange some priorities in your life this week I would love to hear about it in the comments!

Leave a comment

If someone said that to you about the gym you’d probably laugh and tell them to be patient, right?

But switch it to business and all of a sudden you’re looking straight into the mirror realizing you’re saying the same thing.

So what gives?

How come we can go through 17 years of school without a paycheck feeling like we’re right on track, but committing a few years to build a business is just way too much?

We watch one YouTube video and use ChatGPT to create ourselves a logo and expect to be retired on the beaches of Mexico within the year?

I have a community of over 10,000 aspiring business owners and have personally been on hundreds of phone calls with people starting from $0 trying to reach “financial freedom” so I can say with confidence that what I’m about to tell you isn’t theory.

If you’re reading this and feel a gap between where you are now and where you want to be (financially, health wise, personally etc.) the problem isn’t that what you’re doing doesn’t work.

The problem is the clock you’re measuring against.

In other words you’re not failing, and you’re certainly not a failure. Your time horizon is just wrong.

They say winners measure in decades, not days.

Easy to say, a lot harder to put into practice. So I wanted to share a framework I’ve personally been using for the past few years to reframe my circumstances, in hopes that it can benefit you in some form or fashion as you go about your week this week.

Being that my two favorite things are business and fitness, I’ll break it down from both sides of that equation.

Let’s start with business.

If I told you that you had to work every day for the next 3 years and I would pay you $0, would you do it?

Of course not, that sounds like a fair labor lawsuit waiting to happen.

But…

What if I said that after those 3 years you would be guaranteed to net $25k/month in profit for the rest of your life, then would you do it?

Assuming I have a fairly competent audience of people reading this I’m going to assume your answer to that would be yes.

In that case, here’s the real question I then ask myself:

If I’m guaranteed to make $25k/month after 3 years, what difference does it make if I make money right now?

Sure, bills still have to be paid and I’ll probably have to maintain some other form of income in the mean time to make ends meet.

But in the long run, I know I’m completely set.

That is the exact mindset I followed back in 2022 when I was first getting started in real estate.

That year I made $0. In fact, I didn’t make any money at all for my first 12 months of action. But I kept asking myself “If I keep doing what I’m doing, do I believe I’m guaranteed to succeed?”

And although there were definitely some days I convinced myself otherwise, the overall sentiment was a resounding yes. So I kept going, and here I am.

Now for the gym one, in case this hits home more.

If I told you that you had to workout 5 days a week AND eat in a calorie deficit (aka consume less calories than you burn) for the next 3 months without losing a single pound would you do it?

I certainly wouldn’t, why cut out my chocolate chip cookies without cause??

But…

What if after those 3 months you were guaranteed to lose 10 pounds every month until you hit your goal. Then would you do it?

In this case I actually can 100% guarantee that you would succeed because of our good friend science. It is quite literally impossible not to lose weight if you do those 2 things.

So whichever way you slice it, the reality is the same.

If you can copy something that has been done before that is proven to work and you don’t see results, you simply have not given that thing the time it needs to develop.

There is no such thing as “This just doesn’t work for me.”

But your success can absolutely look different than someone elses.

If I lost everything today and had to rebuild a $1M real estate business I could do it 100x faster than someone starting today from square 1.

Why?

Because I already have the skills, connections and proof behind me.

But that doesn’t mean the person starting from square 1 can’t do it, their journey will just look different.

There is one alternative though to consider.

If you’re not seeing the results you were hoping for, you can just give up.

And if you do that it will be a lot easier for me to confidently guarantee your results, because there will in fact be none.

Otherwise you may need to consider one of my personal favorite lines to drop whenever I’m speaking with someone who’s struggling in their journey.

It will take 10x longer than you think, it will be 10x harder than you expected, but in the end it will be 10x better than you could’ve ever imagined if you just don’t quit.

Personally, that’s pretty dang cool to think about.

So the next time you’re feeling discouraged about your journey or intimidated to start just ask yourself “Am I thinking in days or decades?”

- Ryan

PS. I actually write these every week myself, if you get any value out of them I would love if you left a comment or shared this with your friends!

Between roots in Montana, Florida, California and living in either a truck or a van around the country the rest of the time? It’s been a lot.

And regardless of where we’ve gone there’s been a few hobbies of mine that I can pickup anywhere to try and make the next place feel more like home.

One of them is pickup basketball.

But if you don’t know, pickup basketball isn’t exactly your friendly neighborhood potluck that everyone invites you to with open arms.

It’s fast-paced, packed with people, and quite unfriendly to newcomers.

I’ll start by saying I’m decent at basketball, but obviously I’m not that good or I’d be playing on TV not at the rec center…

But whenever I go to a new city and new gym I feel like I’m back at summer camp just trying to get noticed.

The other guys? They’re already friends. They pass each other the ball and know how the others play so they can complement that on the court.

Me? I end up standing in the corner waiting for a shot they aren’t all too interested in giving me.

And when I finally get the chance to pull an open 3? I’m so worried about showing them I don’t suck that I forget how to shoot, which then confirms to them what they thought about me to begin with (lol).

One time in LA I even showed up and waited to play for over 2 hours and none of the guys would even let me join their team, so I walked back home having never even gotten a game in.

However this week was different, and it inspired me to write this for the rest of you.

Why was it different? Because this week I was asked to play on the “A team”. The group of guys that always show up and play together (and usually win all of the games).

And how I got from the short white dude people avoided to that invite mirrors my story in business with impressive similarity. Let’s break it all down.

So what changed from when I showed up brand new to when I got to play with the A team?

I can tell you one thing, it wasn’t that I magically became a better player.

More than anything, it was literally that I showed up. Over and over, every single week.

The first few weeks people probably didn’t recognize me, then they started to pay attention a bit more, and eventually a few weeks ago they slowly started to learn my name.

It wasn’t necessarily playing better that sparked that, it was just being physically present.

But as they started to accept me more on the court, I also became more comfortable. I wasn’t as worried about missing a few shots, so I slowly started taking more.

The confidence to shoot more meant more shots went in, and the more shots went in the more people wanted to play with me.

Here’s the reality that hit me this week after I went through that process for probably the 5th time in as many years…

I didn’t get better first, I got known. Being known gave me more confidence, and that made me better.

3 years ago I started a real estate business with no experience or connections.

I made a post on social media saying I was getting into real estate and my friends messaged me to ask if I was hacked…

Nobody knew who I was, so no one took me seriously. And frankly at the start I had no confidence in what I was doing because I felt like a poser claiming to be something I wasn’t.

Sound familiar?

Here’s what I did that changed that, without even realizing I was doing the same thing on the courts.

First, I showed up. For me that meant posting on Facebook, going to meetups and talking more about my new goals.

Over a few months time people started to recognize my name. Good start.

Then I had to establish myself. Being known benefits you little if people only know you and not what you do. This one took me a while, but eventually I was able to focus on one lane to become “The transactional funding guy”.

Not the wholesale, rentals, multifamily and lending guy. Just one thing.

But it still took a long time just for people to take me seriously.

You know that friend/family member who tells you you’re getting into something and you think “Come back in a year and let me know if you’re still into it”…

That’s how everyone treated me (and probably you right now?) with business.

They nod along with a smile and then forget about it. And it isn’t until you create real proof that they maybe start to listen.

When I started my community on Skool I texted a group of friends telling them about it and asking them to join. No one even responded.

Now? They’re all in the group, and they’re also asking me how I did it.

So if you’re reading this looking to grow your own business or someone else’s, here’s what I’ll leave you with from my own life.

My execution ladder if you will.

1. Pick One Court

If you try to show up everywhere, you’ll be known nowhere. You have to be able to narrow down your “court” to one place to focus your energy.

A lot of people never get past this step because they try to do it all. Take social media for example. Instead of trying to grow a YouTube, Instagram and TikTok all at the same time just pick one and become great at it.

2. Become Known For ONE THING

Even if somebody wanted to work with you, they won’t know how unless you tell them.

If you haven’t noticed by now, the vast majority of business owners shoot themselves in the foot by switching strategies constantly.

The key here isn’t that you need to have it all together or be right. You just need to choose your lane. Sticking with something long enough for people to ask my favorite question “Are you still doing _________” is the real win here.

3. Be Useful, Not Loud

I don’t start getting the ball passed my way by yelling every time we go down the court. That’s a great way to get kicked out…

Instead I always look for ways to be as useful as possible if I’m not going to have the ball in my hands.

Become a better defender, get more rebounds, and set other people up for great shots.

When building my business I focused on solving people’s problems, not making money first. That translated to income in the long run, and more sustainably I might add since it was built on a true foundation.

4. Don’t Quit

I have no clue if there’s a real statistic around this, but I’d bet 95% of people who quit would’ve succeeded at whatever they were doing if they had just done it for longer.

When I spent my entire afternoon at that LA gym without playing a single game it would’ve felt pretty reasonable to never show up again. But I did.

And slowly but surely I worked my way into that group just like I had with every group before.

Winning takes longer than you expect, always. The problem isn’t that it’s impossible, it’s that your expectations might not meet reality.

Executing on the above, in both life and business, have been the key to my growth over the past few years.

If you want to “win” more often I think implementing and learning from the same 4 steps would be a great start.

And if you often find yourself playing the “victim” in your pursuit of success, I think you’d enjoy reading this post next. 👇🏼

[READ] You Deserve Nothing

Consistency, shiny object syndrome and working hard without actually doing real work all make the list.

But at the top of that list? You won’t find an action at all.

The real indicator of failure? The point of no return?

It’s a mindset issue.

Entitlement.

And if you read these posts every week hoping to get a little nugget of insight that will propel you forward in whatever your goals are, this week will go one of two ways.

1. You get butt hurt, decide I’m wrong, and then go on doing exactly what you were already doing that wasn’t working.

2. You can identify the areas in your life and business where entitlement is holding you back, then actually do something about it.

I’ve found a lot of benefit in the latter, and I hope you will too.

Let’s get into it.

Most characteristics bend based on how they’re used - they could be positive in some contexts and negative in others.

Entitlement is not one of those things.

Any way you slice it, it’s just no bueno.

But I want to talk today specifically about its context in the world of entrepreneurship.

To demonstrate my point, let’s start with a message I was sent the other day.

Here it is, slightly paraphrased as to not expose lol.

“I should be making $100k/month by now. I work harder than everyone else and do all the right things but the world is just against me.”

Yes that really was said, and if you think it’s a rare sentiment it’s not.

Think about where that same mentality might come out in your own life (especially when you’re angry…)

“I don’t get why they’re not helping me more, I’ve earned it.”

“There’s no reason they should be making $X and I’m not.”

“This business just doesn’t work for me like it does for them.”

These phrases and approaches are, quite frankly, the reason why I find it so easy to win in today’s age of business.

People feel so deserving that they lose the plot and forget reality.

Winning is hard.

It takes sacrifice, consistency and a lot of humbling. But it’s always worth it in the end.

And the cool thing is that when I was thinking about what to write this week I realized that the opposite of entitlement is actually very easy to lay out and execute on if you’re willing to listen.

So here it is, in all it’s glory.

• No one is coming to save you

• If you want something done, figure it out yourself

• If you’re not getting results, YOU are doing something wrong

That alone changed my life.

I can’t tell you the amount of times I’ve told myself “I’ve done everything they told me and it just isn’t working.”

The reality? Well, I think you already know.

If what I did already works for other people and I did it exactly right, it would’ve worked.

Since it didn’t, it’s a me problem.

For most, it just becomes a blame game.

“I followed your social media strategy perfectly but got no views.”

“I copied your sales script to a T and got nothing from it.”

NO YOU DIDN’T.

That’s how I live now, because it’s just not true.

And if you want to go cry in the corner feel free.

You may very well be at a disadvantage or treated unfairly.

So what?

Is that really going to be the reason you live a life short of your goals? Because someone else was mean to you?

If you want to be an entrepreneur you’ve already chosen the hard route.

So… it’s going to be hard.

And the fact is there is no amount of work or intention or skill that makes you deserve anything.

One of my favorite quotes to reflect on when I’m struggling is this -

In order to succeed you can’t just do your best. You have to do what’s required.

Here’s the reality…

If entitlement is the belief, victimhood is what it turns into when reality doesn't cooperate.

The lowest level you can stoop to is becoming the victim.

Unfortunately that’s the route most people will choose.

Gas is too expensive, let me complain about it.

My life is so busy, let me complain about it.

Politics aren’t going my way, let me complain about it.

Those people feel better in the moment, but don’t get anywhere in life.

If you want to win, stop living like anyone owes you a single thing.

Go take it instead.

So to the person who’s convinced they “deserve” to be making $100k/month by now, and to all of you reading this who’ve felt the same at one point or another here’s what I’ll leave you with.

You deserve nothing, but you’re capable of anything.

There is nothing someone else has done that you can’t do better.

There is no skill you are lacking that you can’t develop and perfect over time.

You’ve got this thing.

Believe that, then start acting like it.

-Ryan

I had gone full-time in real estate after quitting my engineering job, but I hated it.

Not the hours (I love to work!) but how those hours were being spent.

Constant phone calls, angry real estate agents and definitely no stability.

But one day I was on a call with a friend and something new came up called Skool. They mentioned a little bit about what it was and said we should both try it out.

The conversation happened the first week of March, right after I made the life-altering (now confirmed in hind site) decision to stop wholesaling real estate and start funding real estate deals full-time instead.

Given that I was very much searching for new opportunities to fill my time after shutting down my old business, I got to work.

I went to the website, started a free trial and started the process of building a community.

By the end of the day I had it setup, chose a name and planned to make it about financial education, something I’m very passionate about.

Now if you’re reading this you probably know that that is not what my community ended up being about at all.

As I’m writing this that free community is about to cross 10,000 members, which is unreal. And the full business-in-a-box community that came out of that is over 250 members strong.

So why am I telling you all of this? And what does it have to do with you getting ahead?

To answer that, let me back up real quick and share with you from an angle you haven’t seen yet.

That phone conversation, the one where someone told me we should both start a community on Skool was the launching point to my life as I know it now.

But the person on the other end of the line? The one who had the idea and agreed to start a community of their own?

They never even started.

Words were spoken, actions didn’t follow. And our lives look incredibly different a few years later as a result.

So what’s it all boil down to?

Speed to execution.

I believe it is without a doubt the single biggest lever in my success and yours as an entrepreneur.

And so instead of just telling you to do everything faster, I wanted to take a few minutes this week to walk through some tactical steps I’ve followed to actually achieve a level of speed that has separated me more and more over the years.

Side note: You have to learn how to determine what’s actually worth pursuing, otherwise you’re not actually getting ahead. Comment below if we should cover that another week.

1. Shrink the first step

Ever felt overwhelmed with a new task? It’s probably because you feel like it’s so big you don’t even know where to start.

Trying to lose 30 pounds? You don’t even need to start at the gym, you can just start with taking walks and learning how to count the calories you eat.

When you shrink the first step it simplifies the process to be extremely achievable.

I like to do this constantly, and my process is super simple.

I just write down my main goal on paper, then start writing all of the things I’ll need to do to get to a finished product.

They might include research, phone calls, recording videos etc.

For me, a lot of what I do involves recordings hours and hours of videos, so I just break them up into smaller pieces I can do in 1 sitting.

This principle carries over to whatever it is you’re trying to accomplish.

2. Default to 80%, not 100%

A lack of action can often be traced back to a desire for perfection.

I see messages all the time from people saying they did 63 takes of a video because they wanted it to be perfect.

Forget perfect, you’ll never get there from 0.

The goal is simply 80%.

Think back to my Skool story. I ended up naming my community Financial Foundations and immediately pivoted it to be about lending money…

It had thousands of members before I changed the name to even make sense. But it’s a good thing I spent my time making it actually valuable instead of worrying about the name right?

When perfection is no longer the goal action becomes a whole lot more feasible.

3. Treat decisions as 2-way doors, not 1-way

This is a Jeff Bezos philosophy that seems to become more and more relevant for me, so I bet you’ll benefit from it too.

The vast majority of decisions we make aren’t “final”, so why do we treat them like they are?

I picked a weird name for my community? 2-way door, I can change it whenever.

Went into a real estate niche you hated? 2-way door, pivot and do something else.

Only when a decision is truly 1-way should it be treated with a heightened sense of scrutiny and input prior to pulling the trigger.

But if you’re still trying to get a business off the ground, your in 2-way territory.

Start acting like it.

4. Reduce your work in progress

I’ve struggled with this one a lot, but I know the benefits enough to share just how crucial this is.

Like I mentioned earlier, part of your success in execution will come from knowing what to execute on.

And to reduce your work in progress, you’ll need a heavy dose of my favorite word.

FOCUS.

Trying to script your new YouTube video and build a new website and try a new lead generation method and fly to real estate meetups isn’t going to do what you think.

I have a real problem with coming up with big ideas, to the point where I have a “Big idea list” to keep track of them all.

But my key to executing fast has become more and more linked to my ability to focus on one of those big tasks at a time and see it to completion (which is 80% btw…).

This concept gets stretched on massive goals that will extend over a longer timeline, so the real key isn’t to get down to only one task but to reduce your total tasks at any one time.

Easy to talk about, hard to do. But when done correctly, it’ll change your life.

If you can take everything we just talked about and put it into action, you will find yourself on the right side of progress, momentum and whatever “success” looks like to you.

Nothing frustrates me more than the classic “I should really start __________” statement from someone I care about.

Why are you talking about it instead of doing it?

Often times people will put off a task for months if not years that could be completed in just a few hours.

That’s it, that’s how small the gap is between progress and failure.

I hope this article can put you back on the right side of that.

Talk next week,

Ryan