If you have read any of the past few posts, you have had some advanced training in negotiating.
Very advanced.
Those posts were primarily focused on negotiation with a Seller in this over-priced market. There’s another person you have to learn to negotiate with. This person requires you approach with the utmost skill and delicacy.
Yourself.
Believe me, that is the most important player in whatever game you’re creating in life. If you don’t know how to negotiate with yourself, you don’t know how to reach inside yourself and draw on that special something that’s going to keep you moving towards your goal in the hard moments. If you don’t know how to negotiate with yourself, your ability to achieve success will always be limited at best. This is the most important skill set you need to build self storage.
So let’s start that training.
If I was to ask you, “Why are you getting in in the self storage business?” what would you say?
My bet is you would either start with, or move quickly to, the amount of money you are creating or will create.
That’s what attracted me to Self Storage in the first place. I realized that the cash outlay for capital items was much less than any other commercial investment real estate.
But here’s what I have learned….It isn’t about the money!
It’s never the money!
Now I tell that to bankers, investors, even you guys.
Self storage does generate money and wealth and that is definitely attractive. I’ve had money and I’ve not had money, and having money is infinitely better.
But you have to get real with yourself if you’re going to have internal resources when the going gets tough. And if you’re alive and if you’re in business, the going will get tough. That’s just part of the deal and life is designed to be that way.
Having issues and problems is not something that is unnatural or wrong. It’s an inherent part of any game as well as the game of life itself.
I am stressing this is because when things hit the fan and something brand new shows up that you don’t know how to deal with or what your strategy should be – if it’s only about the money then you. will. fail.
Money is not a big enough motivator to push (or pull) you through what you have to go through to be successful.
So if your reason isn’t the money, what is it?
It’s what the money or wealth will give you.
And if that isn’t a strong enough motivator for you, well, you may as well go get a job now.
So why are you really going through, or planning to go through, all the stuff that’s required when you’re playing a big game?
For many people I work with it comes down to the lifestyle they can provide for themselves and their families.
What motivates others is the freedom that comes from creating their own business and being able to run it themselves.
So what’s my “why?”
This is something I haven’t told to a lot of people.
My Father was raised during the depression. He ultimately created some wealth for himself. For him a $3 million net worth seemed like a lot.
He always told me not to worry about my retirement. He had that covered for us. He wanted us to go out and do the kind of work we enjoyed. So I went out and became a commercial real estate agent who stumbled upon self storage and loved it.
As many of you know, I originally got in the business under a business model that included partners. We received an unsolicited offer from a REIT, my partners said sell, and we did. I always thought I would get back in someday.
Well, that “someday: happened when my Father died and I realized there was wasn’t even close to enough money to provide for my family in the way I wanted. I have no idea why I was so asleep all those years.
So at 50-something years old, I woke up to the fact that it was now or never. If I wanted to be able to give my family what I had always envisioned and if I was ever going to create something my grandchildren might want to take over, I had to do it quickly or it wasn’t going to happen.
I designed my self storage business strategy to achieve the goals that would allow me to look my wife, family members, and myself in the eye every day.
That’s my “why.” So whenever it looks easier to pivot to something else or change my goals because they don’t appear to be viable, well….that’s no longer an option. I have to do whatever it takes to get through any problems in front of me.
Believe me, for myself, this is a very strong why.
97.6% of the time it is very fulfilling to get up every day and move towards a goal I’ve created (OK 89.3% really). Most people will never experience that. But again, when the chips are down you better have something much stronger than money pulling you toward your goal.
Create something that really motivates you. Then keep that vision front and center using the skill sets discussed in the last few posts.
If you put into action what we have been talking about the last month, you will be an unstoppable force in the world. You will inspire everyone around you and, most importantly, yourself.
