Hi, Reader!

My 4 year old has recently discovered Charlie Brown books. Outside of the classic Thanksgiving and Christmas TV shows, I was never big into Charlie Brown as a kid. So, I'm experiencing his world as a bit of a newbie.

In one book, Charlie Brown decides to enter the school spelling bee. He has some reluctance, but the more he thinks about it, the more he kind-of, sort-of starts to believe in himself. His friends - the people that know him the best - discourage him. "You're crazy. You'll just make a fool of yourself", Lucy tells him.

Charlie Brown responds with wisdom for the ages.

"I can try, can't I? What's the good of living if you don't try a few things?"

The End is Unknown

In my experience of talking to aspiring real estate investors, prospective business owners, and people with a dream, there are lots of things that hold them back. But one stands out: they don't know how the story ends. There's too much that's unknown. They want to be assured of success before even getting started. But that's not how it works. So most people don't even start.

The truth is, we don't have to know how the story ends. That would be boring, anyway. We only have to be able to figure out the next step. Would you want to know the ending of a movie before pressing play?

As a spoiler, Charlie Brown gets knocked out of the spelling bee in the first round. And he's humiliated, just as Lucy predicted. Do you think he would have entered the spelling bee if he knew he would fail? Probably not. But Charlie Brown, like all of us, know there's a decent chance of failure when we start any endeavor. Yet, in the next book, Charlie Brown will be back at it, trying something new in spite of the odds against him.

I'm currently going through the process of starting a new business endeavor. I'm having all of these same feelings that Charlie Brown went through. To be honest, the most likely outcome is that I will fail. The odds are against me. In fact, I recently told someone about my business idea and he said, "I don't know why you'd do that. There's no opportunity there".

And yet, I'm doing it anyway.

Because, after all, what's the good of living if you don't try a few things?

THIS WEEK ON THE PODCAST

I talk with Adam Craig. In some ways, Adam is a lot like me. He's a guy with a family building wealth through owning and operating real estate. In this discussion, we discuss buying distressed properties, finding tenants, adding value, and raising capital through social media.​
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Listen here on Apple Podcasts.

Listen here on Spotify.

Watch on Youtube.

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Curious about commercial real estate? Read The Top 6 Reasons to Invest in Non-Residential Commercial Real Estate. ​