That Won’t Work…
“Yeadon, you should go through this course I bought. It’s how to buy apartments without using your own money.”
My cousin Jennings was all fired up about this idea of buying apartments. We were running and growing our property management company, and then he hit me with this idea.
…um…say what?
We just start buying apartments? Like you and me???
After my internal monologue finished laughing, we talked more.
I was such a skeptic. Like, really? You bought a course online and now you can buy apartments? Like one of those old school tv infomercial guys selling a system on how to buy real estate with no money down?
Riiiiiggggghhht.
I was totally stuck in my mind. This wasn’t something “guys like us” did. Buying apartments is for billionaires, hedge fund operators, and people with last names like Bezos, Buffett, Trump, or Musk — not two cousins named Smith from a small town in South Carolina.
I hesitantly agreed to take a look at it.
This morning, more than 6 years later, I was reading and this hit me.
From Seth Godin’s daily email…
“That will never work” Every successful SNL sketch, every bestselling book, every landslide-winning candidate… every single one… had skeptics.
Someone in the writer’s room, or on the editorial board or even an investor looked at what was on offer and said, “no.”
Not just, “I’m sorry, this doesn’t match my taste,” but, “I’m an expert, and this will never work.”
If you’re not hearing this, you’re not doing important work.
And if you’re waiting for unanimous approval, you’re never going to ship that important work.
Oh snap. I’ve been on the receiving end of the “that will never work” a lot on this journey, but I realized that part of me was the “that will never work” guy first!
What changed for me? What was the process to shift from “that will never work” to “I can do this” to “I have done this”…
Simple. It was relationships.
My relationship with my cousin and partner, Jennings, to get started. The relationships we built at conferences with partners to close our first deal. The relationships we have built with others all over the country to build a portfolio that was only in my imagination before.
There are always naysayers. Like Swift said, “haters gonna hate”.
There will always be people who say, “That will never work.” There always are. The question is: are you going to listen to them, or are you going to listen to the people who’ve done it? The people who’ve been where you are, started from scratch, and built a portfolio.
If you’re ready to reignite your passion for real estate and your commitment to building a portfolio, come join us at our conference this spring. Mar 6–8 in Charleston SC.
Get in the room where the energy is. Get in the room where the relationships are. Get in the room where opportunity is created.
