There are some people walking around who you'd have no idea are ultra-successful entrepreneurs.
Just a few days ago I was at a gym talking to somebody and later found out he is a billionaire who owns 100% of multiple manhattan skyscrapers.
Just looked like a normal guy, working out at the same gym as me.
He's not who this post is about, but it's pretty cool.
This is about an entrepreneur who is very generous to satiate my curiosity on how he came to realize his success, for a second time.
If you haven't read part 1, click here.
-
I came into this next conversation to ask him about the applications of web3 to the clunky world of real estate
At some point in the conversation, I started realizing that asking other entrepreneurs who have nothing to do with your industry, for suggestions about your industry, is not really helpful. You really do just need to figure it out yourself through trial and error.
Here's the secret about asking for advice from someone else about your particular business:
They really have no idea what's going to work for you, man. Gotta suck it up and try stuff.
He knew this and was trying to steer away from it, so it turned into something much deeper, more helpful and interesting..
-
Without further ado, here's 6 incredibly helpful takeaways I had that we can all use and apply in our lives:
1. Your Vision Doesn't Need To Be Big, It Just Needs To Be Clear
Are you a big thinker? Me too.
Does it cause you an insane amount of anxiety to think about your huge vision? Me too.
But stop trying to make your vision so large, and just make it clear.
You might propose some theoretical grand vision as a young entrepreneur, but how can you even attempt to make a grand vision (e.g changing some aspect of an industry) when you don't even know how the industry really works?
How about you make a vision for now, based on what you know right now?
It might feel like this is "thinking small" to some of us big thinkers.
But it's not. Who's to say that when we are more of an expert at what we're trying to accomplish, and we've achieved our other goal, we can't set a higher vision that gets us to a goal of the size we originally had in mind?
Why are we so rushed to create this grand vision? And expect that everything will align with it? Chances are, it won't. You're going to find out that the grand vision you had for that industry is actually not even something that the industry needs, because of a specific way that it works which you had no idea about..!
2. It's 75% Luck. It Happened By Accident
I asked him..
Why do some people like you build massive $180M companies and other people build $2 million companies?
He said..
"It's 75% luck. It happened by accident. That doesn't mean I didn't work hard, or I'm not smart. I am, but opportunities showing up are outside of your control. Sometimes those serendipitous opportunities can have extremely asymmetric payoffs. You just need to be able to see them. But don't beat yourself up wondering why someone's company is bigger than another. Chances are, they just had access to an opportunity (or 10) and took advantage when it showed."
3. Don't Strive To Be Different. Strive To Be The Expert.
I told him that being different trips me up and makes me feel like I'm competing with hundreds of thousands of people.
He said...
"Listen, first of all, there are so many fish in the pond. If you take 1/100's, you're big. Second of all, I used to run a small company selling insurance. One day I saw an opportunity that no one was doing - insurance for uber! That differentiating factor worked so well at the beginning and I was selling a lot. But then, another guy came and and said "Hey what's Henry doing?", and copied my exact idea and marketing, and started making money off of it. You're not going to find some kind of secret thing that fends off competitors forever."
Read what he said next VERY closely, as it's very important:
"But ultimately, I destroyed him and others in that market, because I was the expert. I knew more about it than all of them, therefore I prospered both in marketing and in service. You don't need to be different, you just need to be BETTER. And again that doesn't mean that someone can't be just as good as you. They can be, and they can have the same amount of success as you do. Or maybe you will serendipitously come upon an opportunity that shoots you to the moon even though that person is just as good as you are."
4. You Need To Rest, And You Don't Need To Work As Hard As You Think.
"It's actually not about how hard you work. It's more about aligning yourself every day and doing the RIGHT things, which is ironically about just survival. Not doing the wrong things. Not being stupid. Stop looking for the right things to do actually, and just stop doing the wrong things."
"Our brains have a front burner and a back-burner. If you're constantly keeping everything in your front burner (conscious mind), you're going to burn out. Leisure time actually allows your back-burner (sub-conscious mind) to (sub-consciously) take in the information from your conscious mind and solidify it in your brain. So take rest seriously. Go to the gym, go on a hike, hang with friends.."
5. Stop Reading Self-Help. Read Real, Technical Books.
I told him that in between real estate deals, I have a lot of free time and sometimes I don't know what to do.
He said:
"Read, dude!"
I said
"And I would assume you're not talking about self-help"
He responded
"Self help is garbage. How many times can people say the same thing in different ways? I'm talking about technical stuff. Stuff that's industry-deep. Textbooks. For example you're in real estate. Are you an expert on GP/LP? Loans? Selling properties? Acquiring properties? Due diligence on commercial properties?"
"No.. Not nearly an expert."
"Well spend your free time learning all you can about those things. If you do it that way, it's kind of like doing something painful right now (like the gym) for a benefit in the future. In this case, the knowledge you acquire about an industry now will serve you huge in 5 years."
"This is HOW you get to do what I did in my insurance company. I knew more than most, therefore could serve better than most"
6. You're Not Always Going To Know What's Right To Do, So Guess.
I asked him "So what do you mean by doing the right thing? Did you just guess what to do every day?"
"Yes, kind of..."
It's probably better for us to ACCEPT and APPRECIATE the fact that whatever we choose to work on, we are saying no to something else. We CAN'T say yes to everything, it's fundamentally impossible. So it's probably best to just choose the best thing you can think of, and make a deliberate choice to say NO to everything else that could also be a good thing to spend time on.
-
Hope this was helpful
Just a few days ago I was at a gym talking to somebody and later found out he is a billionaire who owns 100% of multiple manhattan skyscrapers.
Just looked like a normal guy, working out at the same gym as me.
He's not who this post is about, but it's pretty cool.
This is about an entrepreneur who is very generous to satiate my curiosity on how he came to realize his success, for a second time.
If you haven't read part 1, click here.
-
I came into this next conversation to ask him about the applications of web3 to the clunky world of real estate
At some point in the conversation, I started realizing that asking other entrepreneurs who have nothing to do with your industry, for suggestions about your industry, is not really helpful. You really do just need to figure it out yourself through trial and error.
Here's the secret about asking for advice from someone else about your particular business:
They really have no idea what's going to work for you, man. Gotta suck it up and try stuff.
He knew this and was trying to steer away from it, so it turned into something much deeper, more helpful and interesting..
-
Without further ado, here's 6 incredibly helpful takeaways I had that we can all use and apply in our lives:
1. Your Vision Doesn't Need To Be Big, It Just Needs To Be Clear
Are you a big thinker? Me too.
Does it cause you an insane amount of anxiety to think about your huge vision? Me too.
But stop trying to make your vision so large, and just make it clear.
You might propose some theoretical grand vision as a young entrepreneur, but how can you even attempt to make a grand vision (e.g changing some aspect of an industry) when you don't even know how the industry really works?
How about you make a vision for now, based on what you know right now?
It might feel like this is "thinking small" to some of us big thinkers.
But it's not. Who's to say that when we are more of an expert at what we're trying to accomplish, and we've achieved our other goal, we can't set a higher vision that gets us to a goal of the size we originally had in mind?
Why are we so rushed to create this grand vision? And expect that everything will align with it? Chances are, it won't. You're going to find out that the grand vision you had for that industry is actually not even something that the industry needs, because of a specific way that it works which you had no idea about..!
2. It's 75% Luck. It Happened By Accident
I asked him..
Why do some people like you build massive $180M companies and other people build $2 million companies?
He said..
"It's 75% luck. It happened by accident. That doesn't mean I didn't work hard, or I'm not smart. I am, but opportunities showing up are outside of your control. Sometimes those serendipitous opportunities can have extremely asymmetric payoffs. You just need to be able to see them. But don't beat yourself up wondering why someone's company is bigger than another. Chances are, they just had access to an opportunity (or 10) and took advantage when it showed."
3. Don't Strive To Be Different. Strive To Be The Expert.
I told him that being different trips me up and makes me feel like I'm competing with hundreds of thousands of people.
He said...
"Listen, first of all, there are so many fish in the pond. If you take 1/100's, you're big. Second of all, I used to run a small company selling insurance. One day I saw an opportunity that no one was doing - insurance for uber! That differentiating factor worked so well at the beginning and I was selling a lot. But then, another guy came and and said "Hey what's Henry doing?", and copied my exact idea and marketing, and started making money off of it. You're not going to find some kind of secret thing that fends off competitors forever."
Read what he said next VERY closely, as it's very important:
"But ultimately, I destroyed him and others in that market, because I was the expert. I knew more about it than all of them, therefore I prospered both in marketing and in service. You don't need to be different, you just need to be BETTER. And again that doesn't mean that someone can't be just as good as you. They can be, and they can have the same amount of success as you do. Or maybe you will serendipitously come upon an opportunity that shoots you to the moon even though that person is just as good as you are."
4. You Need To Rest, And You Don't Need To Work As Hard As You Think.
"It's actually not about how hard you work. It's more about aligning yourself every day and doing the RIGHT things, which is ironically about just survival. Not doing the wrong things. Not being stupid. Stop looking for the right things to do actually, and just stop doing the wrong things."
"Our brains have a front burner and a back-burner. If you're constantly keeping everything in your front burner (conscious mind), you're going to burn out. Leisure time actually allows your back-burner (sub-conscious mind) to (sub-consciously) take in the information from your conscious mind and solidify it in your brain. So take rest seriously. Go to the gym, go on a hike, hang with friends.."
5. Stop Reading Self-Help. Read Real, Technical Books.
I told him that in between real estate deals, I have a lot of free time and sometimes I don't know what to do.
He said:
"Read, dude!"
I said
"And I would assume you're not talking about self-help"
He responded
"Self help is garbage. How many times can people say the same thing in different ways? I'm talking about technical stuff. Stuff that's industry-deep. Textbooks. For example you're in real estate. Are you an expert on GP/LP? Loans? Selling properties? Acquiring properties? Due diligence on commercial properties?"
"No.. Not nearly an expert."
"Well spend your free time learning all you can about those things. If you do it that way, it's kind of like doing something painful right now (like the gym) for a benefit in the future. In this case, the knowledge you acquire about an industry now will serve you huge in 5 years."
"This is HOW you get to do what I did in my insurance company. I knew more than most, therefore could serve better than most"
6. You're Not Always Going To Know What's Right To Do, So Guess.
I asked him "So what do you mean by doing the right thing? Did you just guess what to do every day?"
"Yes, kind of..."
It's probably better for us to ACCEPT and APPRECIATE the fact that whatever we choose to work on, we are saying no to something else. We CAN'T say yes to everything, it's fundamentally impossible. So it's probably best to just choose the best thing you can think of, and make a deliberate choice to say NO to everything else that could also be a good thing to spend time on.
-
Hope this was helpful
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