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Black holes and Life Goals

by Oct 31, 2018

People say, ‘Time is (=) Money.’ I tend to agree. Some would say, Money = Freedom’ … or Time = Freedom.’

This is also true when our time or money is concentrated on specific aspects of life. However these statements are not always true. This is dependent on our ability to manage time.

Time manages itself

Historically, I, by no means would consider myself someone who follows a schedule. Which seems counter-intuitive when you think about how following schedules are crucial for successful real estate ventures. Through most of my personal life, I have opted to allow time to manage itself. Meaning that I allow a comfortable level of freedom in my daily calendar. My motive being that I wished to keep my life stress-free and (at least to me) If every hour of my day was attached to a label, I felt that I was potentially trying to control aspects of my life that were uncontrollable, and that it would therefore create stress. So I avoided the process. Resulting in time that was “self-maintained.” So this was me… focused on one potential outcome.

On the other end, without an idea of the path that lays before you, one can find oneself chasing ones tail, putting out ‘fires’ that needn’t have existed if you were well informed and programmatic. The result?? An exaggerated loss of precious time, money, and overall freedom! 

Black holes of Life

Why do I mention this? I’ve noticed in my life… a black hole. One which I believe in order to be successful, needs to be recognized and surpassed.

One of the reasons I chose, in the past, to avoid time-management, was the fear of repetition. To feel as if I am doing the same thing repeatedly, that inevitably leads to disinterest.

It is the reason I have followed the path of entrepreneurship. It is full of new daily challenges that keep the mind in motion. More about this black hole later.

A Mathematical Analysis

Regarding Entrepreneurship. From an external perspective, Entrepreneurship = Freedom. It truly is freedom. But that comparison is not quite accurate. In the following paragraphs, I will be using GREEN to symbolize an increase or gain, and RED for an output or loss.

Freedom ≠ Free. There is always a price attached to it. This price differs for each entrepreneur, but in most cases, it is related to time. Let’s also assume we are aiming for Successful Entrepreneurship (SE) since we are forward thinkers. Also we have to separate our process into two stages. 

Output

So I would argue that SE = ΣSacrifice where ΣSacrifice = Σ(Time and Money), so again in essence just as we saw before… SE = ΣSacrifice or Freedom *the sum of our loss of freedom.

Reward

Depending upon the quantity of our output of time and money, we gain success. Which grows over time(t), (SE) x (t) x luck = Time and Money or Freedom. With time, our Sacrifice of ‘hard-earned’ time and money can turn into more of the same. I think most people agree, luck can have a big impact on our results. Which in essence is the only real free thing in the entire equation.

Growing up

There was a period in my life, where my time was my own. Now, with a growing family, my time is not my own anymore. It’s effect on the price of entrepreneurship becomes even deeper. For the sake of simplicity let’s say SE = ΣSacrifice^n where n = number of your loved ones. I chose to portray this as an exponential equation due to the fact that each loved one makes sacrifices in order for entrepreneurship to flourish, and this sacrifice is felt with exponential force. In essence, the longer we wait to start our entrepreneurial journey, the greater potential impact our sacrifice can create. 

The Gravy

Well that was a fun exercise, but what does it all mean?

Many of us face difficulties finding time to accomplish our goals. This is my current condition. I have lofty goals and little time and money to dedicate toward achieving them. I am in constant war with myself trying to discover minutes of time that I can focus towards these goals that I believe will launch our family into having more Freedom. 

Minutes can make the difference

What we expend is directly related to what we can gain. If we compare each choice we make to an expense, it can shift our paradigm. For example, let’s think about what we spend on a morning coffee. Our reward is more energy.  Over time this type of sacrifice adds up. If we choose instead to take that extra 15 minutes and perhaps those few dollars and focus it on achieving goals, we would be able to progress, ultimately reaching that Freedom even sooner.

Practical Cases

Thanks for bearing through that little analogy. I’d like to use it as I refer back to the black hole I described previously. In order to find success as an entrepreneur it is well known that we need to be persistent to set obtainable goals and take steps to reach them. These goals can be annually, monthly, weekly, or even daily.

While following these goals we must learn to balance our time between work, family, friends, and other life priorities. Often our goals are challenged when faced with unexpected outlier scenarios which impact our daily choices. Our success can be achieved only through our ability to face such conflicts and persevere.

What is my black hole? Having an imbalance of priorities caused by a lack of time management in my personal life.

Desires vs. Reality
I want to be successful I want to be comfortable.
Provide for my family Family emergencies dominate my time

Just an example of what I mean. If I don’t manage my personal life the same as I manage my business affairs. My desires are more easily shuffled to the side as an impact of out of control life situations. I’ve learned this many times before, yet I am learning it again in my life right now. There are even other factors that impact our daily decisions.

Emotional Decisions

Think about the last time you purchased something. Why did you buy it? What was the promised reward? For me it was this week’s grocery run. Without analyzing every item on my receipt, If I was to create a needs versus wants list, I think my wants list was about double that of the former.  I bought many things based on how I felt which is often the case when we spend money.

All the ads we see on TV, billboards, and movies are designed to elicit an emotional response. If we run our personal life like an emergency toll number, It is inevitable to fall short and succumb to negative emotion.

It’s important to have a stable personal life in order to keep a clear mind when making important financial decisions. Ya… ok .. .I am aware. Well, sometimes I forget that every decision regarding investments should be dealt with in the same matter. Not just the initial purchase.  

Getting Personal

I can’t speak for everyone, but I assume that most entrepreneurs experience the same conflicts as myself. I didn’t intend to share this today, but I always feel like the road forward is found by analyzing our weaknesses and surpassing them.

 My last post was in April. I was excited for changes. Many long term goals were coming to fruition and the sky was the limit. Enter May, and I was gearing up to receive two sets of keys for what would become three rental properties. At the same time we received some complaints about what would be our new neighbor regarding something that was not our fault. This one phone call set in motion a roller coaster of emotional decisions that escalated, bringing us to today (Happy, yet facing adversity). Truthfully, I regret not rebounding faster, but I feel that with every experience a lesson is learned. This experience just happened to be an experience that impacted and will continue to impact our lives for the foreseeable future.

I don’t claim innocence, in fact, after this experience I have a newfound appreciation for people who have their lives well organized, and have the grit to continue on their path in the face of adversity. I recognize that this ability is derived from being pro-actively informed about their industry, finding solutions to problems that don’t yet exist, thus empowering them to make correct decisions. 

Wrapping it all up

Ok, that was a beautiful display of philosophical rhetoric, but how does it all connect?

Being aware of our daily choices is more than just making conscious non-emotional decisions. A crucial part of our daily choices can be explained with something I learned as a youth. ‘If we stand for nothing, we’ll fall for everything.’  Many of my religious friends will recognize this as a mantra for deciding what kind of person we intend to be. It can also be applied in the case of time management.

What was the black hole I mentioned earlier?

My personal lackluster approach to time management in life began to pull me from focusing on the investment projects I was involved in. Not organizing myself before disaster struck, increased my chances of reacting emotionally, leading to the very thing I wished to avoid, distress and disappointment. Because, in my personal life, I chose to ‘stand for nothing,’ this …black hole…. made its way into my business and allowed emotional decisions to rear its ugly head, producing loss of time, money, and happiness. 

Lesson Learned?

In order to maximize the Freedom of my ΣSacrifice, I need to find that balance between personal and business life. So far I am finding that being organized in my personal life has lit the way. I can see a clear path ahead and intend to maintain this course.

I do intend to share in transparency everything that occurred, but this is not that post. For today, I declare merely this:

“As of today, I refuse to live in a state of emergency.” 

Being Halloween, I hoped to share the horrific story that we faced this summer, but instead I’ll send you to a new friend’s blog to tell you about his instead. Check out @SemiRetiredMD‘s post My Worst Real Estate Investing Mistakes!

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