“You’ve inspired me” is what I told my treasured friend last night after parting from our regular ‘mastermind’ dinner.
We talk, laugh & cry just about everything and call each other out if needed – it’s awesome. Then she asked me “are you a perfectionist?” I sat back and said “yea, actually I am”.
She asked me after telling her I was behind in doing some work I promised someone over a month ago. And even though I could blame everything and anyone else, “it’s just too busy” that’s BS…it REALLY IS because I’m a perfectionist.
But being a perfectionist holds me back – in some areas. It sometimes delays the simple things because I feel people need to see the best, if I am the best I say I am! (whew, that was hard to write, I can imagine how you feel reading it!) Anyway, I’m sure you get what I mean.
Are you the same, do you need to wait until everything is absolutely perfect before you move on it?
It Affects Business
I thought about this on the way home and realized this is also part of the challenge with Real Estate investors who have not done anything yet.
I can totally relate to someone who has a perfectionist personality ‘over-analyzing’ things and waiting for everything to be just right before they step in and buy an investment. Sure, if you want to analyze the underlying emotion, you can relate ‘fear’ even if it’s the simplicity of not pleasing THEMSELVES with the results of their work.
I’m Working On It
Although I’m not 100% ‘cured’, I’ve certainly come a long way. As I told my friend, I would have never agreed to putting myself on video for instance before ‘perfecting’ my on-camera delivery, but I committed to helping my friend Shae Bynes as best I could and I was not about to cop-out using my perfectionist excuse.
Another example is this blog you are reading. The perfectionist in my says “wait until your page looks perfect, all your settings work, the colors match, the sponsors are on board etc…”. Yes, a lot has to be said for ‘professional’ appearance, but I believe in the content I deliver and spend more time on sending my message than worrying about how it compares to other sites. As time goes by, it evolves and I keep things real.
What about our first investment property? Clearly, I made HUGE mistakes with this property as you can read here (by the way, you can also see the article published in this month’s Canadian Real Estate magazine here) but the desire to move forward outweighed the perfectionist in me. What I learned from that experience could NEVER be taught and I may have also still be looking for my FIRST property today.
As you can see, there are a lot of small affected pieces in your business and personal life if you are a perfectionist.
To sum this up, I’m not suggesting you stop being a perfectionist and do something without putting thought, professionalism and due diligence into it. I’m saying scale back a little and when when things are ‘good-enough’, DO IT. Yes, you WILL probably have to update, upgrade and change things moving forward but in my opinion, the more you ‘grow’ in front of people, the more ‘authentic’ you are…and you know how I feel about authenticity!
I think I am one of those "over-analyzing" type. I have been procrastinating with getting my 1st investment property since I joined REIN last April. I have been educating myself with the ACRE systems and all the materials that I can get my hands on the REIN site and other REIN members blog site (including yours 🙂
It is time for me to take the plunge (I think).
One of my top goal is to figure out which area to focus on. Hamilton? Barrie? KWC? I went to the Ontario field trip last October and that didn't help me make my decision.
And I also need to get recommendations on lawyers and accountants. Should my team be close to where I live (Markham) or they should be from the local area where the property is?
Do you have any recommendations on which one to pick? Should I just go get an agent to take me around in each of the area and check things out?
I understand that there is a Mastermind Group in Hamilton and KWC (I think). Where do I find out the meeting times and location for those? I found the location and time on mrhamilton.ca site as the investor meeting this Sunday. Is that the Mastermind Group that I have heard before? Would that be a good meeting to go to to get a hands-on look at what's going on in that area for a newbie?
That's ok as long as you now realize it's holding you back from your Belize. Even here in your post you are second guessing yourself – don't do that – have your mindset that you WILL buy your property but that you just want some feedback on the other areas such as location etc. Let's look at your area choices; because you are in Markham Barrie would be on the top of my list considering those three – not that it's any better or worse but because it's closer to you for reasons I'll get into. Every person on your team relating to the operation of the property (management, realtor, handy-people, etc) should be in the area – they will know it better than anyone else. Now when it comes to property management, I recommend doing this yourself for this one while you figure out what it takes to actually do this. You will be able to build up a checklist of operations you want someone else to do when you hand this job off. You will also UNDERSTAND WHY you are paying someone else to do this. In both Barrie and KWC I have teams I can help you with – in Hamilton, I have many colleagues (Mr. Hamilton being one) who I trust that will also recommend team members so don't worry about that at all.
Now I'm only suggesting Barrie if you are into self-management and that doesn't mean you can't do the same with the other choices. You just have to be prepared to drive a bit longer OR find a management team you trust through the people in REIN – this may take you a few trys, but it's worth the effort.
As for an agent, YES most definitely get someone to take you around, someone recommended and PLEASE, be honest with them that you have NOT chosen Barrie for example, and that you want them to give you their most experienced view on why you should invest there. This way they know from the get go you may not be back and have chosen somewhere else – this approach will ALSO filter out many realtors that are just wanting a client from the get go without putting in any effort to win your business.
Both Hamilton and KWC have mastermind groups and all you do is go on myREINSpace, type in mastermind and they will show up. They are usually posted in the general public area also. Ben Sanderson delivers the KWC content and if you want his contact information email me from the contact info above and I'll send it along to you.
Finally, anytime you can get together with other like-minded people to talk about your real estate investing it will be of true value to you that I cannot explain. Even as a veteran investor the mastermind groups I attend every month bring me to new levels every time!
Great Speed forward and if there is anything else I can help with , please post below!!!
One of my favourite sayings is 'sloppy success is better than perfect mediocrity'. That keeps me moving forward and keeps me from beating myself up when things aren't perfect. Great post!!!
That is SO COOL – I never thought of it that way which is a perfect way to describe what I'm saying! Today I'm actually living this post as I prepare to update my JV binder to give to people tomorrow…there will always be things I want to add and change, but if I wait for perfection, they will never get the information and I could lose a partner because the information is not there to back up what I'm saying 🙂
Its a great activities of mastermind group by coordinating of two or more minds, in a spirit of perfect harmony, for the purpose of accomplishing any given task. I think their activities would be effective for all community.
You are absolutely correct – it took me a while to understand how powerful this was but once I began collaborating with other people on this level my world and business has changed tremendously.