I Made a Terrible Mistake…
My math was wrong.
When I sat down and did the math, the result was 20% more than I thought it would be.
On a deal with a renovation budget of $1,000,000 that would be a really big deal.
Really, on any kind of budget at all…being off by 20% would be a serious problem.
In this case, it was distance.
30 kilometers isn’t “about 14–15 miles”
It. Is. 18.64.
One more time, for the people in the back…
Over. Eighteen. And. A. Half. Miles.
That was my half of what our team had committed to run for this endurance event.
60k as a team (total combined distance) to support a good friend of ours who was celebrating one year post kidney donation.
My half of 60 was 30.
Right!? So far, amazing math skills.
And in my head I converted 30 kilometers to about 14–15 miles. Not a small amount, but just a bit more than the half marathon I ran last month.
Doable, but work.
Adding another 3+ miles to that would make the day way more difficult.
So I talked with my teammate, Matt.
We realized that for just the two of us, we could force our way through that many miles, but we would be paying for it at the end of the day and for the next week.
The bottom line was that our team was too small.
We needed more people to help us cross the finish.
So, I turned to my database.
No, I don’t have a real database of runners.
But I do have strong relationships with people I trust who I thought might be willing to join us for one of the 4k loops we were running.
“Phineas, you interested in running a loop with Matt and me on Saturday morning? And maybe walking a loop with us too?”
Side note…when you have lots of miles to cover, you don’t have to be running 100% of the time. Walking is totally legit!
Phineas was in.
And then so was Oliver.
And Patrick.
And April.
And on Saturday morning, on our final lap we had a team of 12 people doing 4km each.
48k in one loop.
That single loop covered the remaining distance our team needed to cross the finish line.
And we celebrated together, as a team.
The mistake I made in calculating what it would take for us to finish the 60k could have been a serious problem.
It was our team that saved us.
No different than when Jennings and I bought our very first apartment in 2019. It was 18 units.
But we knew there was no way we could close a deal like that on our own.
We had to have a team.
A team that had done it before.
A team that knew all the steps to take.
And NOT take.
Now, three years later, when I calculate a deal, I know 1) to double check my math! 2) make sure I have the right team in place.
A team that I’ve been building since I got started.
A team I know and trust.
What steps are you taking to build your team?
Are you digging the well before you need it?
Don’t wait until you need the team to start building it!
You don’t want to be running all 18.64 miles by yourself…
