brown haired man wearing a black and white striped sweater, facing away from the camera, looks at a wall where pages of text and images are hung while he considers what he should just do James Altucher told a wonderful story about his daughter in a recent podcast. She had just graduated from high school and desperately wanted to be an actor, but was sitting on the couch. She wasn’t auditioning b/c she didn’t have an expensive head shot, a resume, acting lessons, and sample reel among other things.

Altucher refused to take any of her excuses. He took a quick head shot for her, and helped her create a resume and reel with her high school performances. He then told her she needed auditioning lessons, not acting lessons, and encouraged her to sign up for numerous auditions. A week later she had a small role in an HBO production.

Altucher was illustrating a problem that is far too common in the business world, and especially in the real estate and mortgage worlds: finding excuses for not taking action.

His point was that the most successful people just “do things” while all too many of us think we need more training, experience, coaching or motivational seminars.

We are constantly asked for help to hire assistants, build training programs, perform lunch & learns, set up marketing plans, do business planning overall, and even help systematize various aspects of businesses. A competing loan officer reached out today, for example, to get help transferring referrals effectively from various team members.

We are always happy to help, but we remind everyone that we learned everything simply by doing. We learned very little from training, seminars, coaches, etc. Our best advice is usually to just “do.”

We also never had time to analyze and over-think things, and to become afraid of all the “what-ifs.” That lack of time saved us, and having that time is what kills many.

Not that we’re the ultimate success guide, but this is the advice we often give (and it’s what works for us):

1. Don’t overthink and over-analyze.
2. Write down what you want (just doing this provides enormous clarity).
3. Don’t worry how things look in the short run; just do, learn and adjust.
4. Don’t over-encumber yourself with fixed contracts in your zeal to “do” (like we mistakenly did in the past).

and

5. Just Do.

Jay Voorhees
Founder/Broker | JVM Lending
(855) 855-4491 | DRE# 1197176, NMLS# 310167

    Get your instant rate quote.
    • No commitment
    • No impact on your credit score
    • No documents required
    You are less than 60 seconds away from your quote.

    Resume from where you left off. No obligations.