Who Am I Competing With?

It was Christmas Day in Indianapolis. I was 7 years old…I think.

I was AMPED! (I mean, c’mon…I was 7…of course I was excited!)

This Christmas I was especially looking forward to it because I had been super up front about what I wanted…the Lego Blacktron Message Intercept Base.

The largest, coolest, Lego set I had ever seen.

My best friend, Adam, had one at his house. And every time I got to go over and play for the afternoon, we would travel through space on missions saving the galaxy.

I mean…it was the ultimate set for a small kid as far as I was concerned.

And I had been pretty specific with my parents that I wanted one for Christmas.

It had several mini figures, a rover vehicle, another flying vehicle, it’s own rectangle base, for real it was AWESOME.

Christmas morning, I remember opening my gifts with crazy anticipation for the box that would be the Blacktron set.

When I got to a box that sounded like a Lego set (not difficult to determine when you shake everything before you open it…7 yr old, remember…) I ripped off the wrapping paper.

And tried to keep the disappointment out of my voice and off of my face.

It wasn’t the Message Intercept base…

It was a much smaller Blacktron model, the Invader.

Very cool in it’s own right, but not the largest, most badass set that Lego had.

Putting the set together, all I could think about was how it wasn’t what I had really wanted. It wasn’t what my friend Adam had at his house.

Looking back, over 30 years later, I’m totally ashamed of myself.

In 1987, when Blacktron was created…gasoline was less than a dollar a gallon.

I’ve searched online to find the original price of the Message Intercept base but can’t find it. I’m betting it was probably $75ish…

The small set I got for Christmas was about $14.

In today’s dollars, that’s a $42 small set, and a $225 large set…

Today I realize how much my parents must have budgeted and saved to get me the $14 dollar set.

$75 for the largest Lego I knew of was waaaay out of reach for my parents who were working as best they could to keep us afloat as a family.

I wish I hadn’t compared myself to my best friend. After all, it really wasn’t a competition. But as a 7 year old who loved Lego…I couldn’t help it, so I’m not too hard on myself.

But this same thing happens to me as an adult. In real estate, when I was an agent, it was who did the most sales volume. In property management, how many doors do you manage.

In multifamily now, it’s how many doors do you own? How many millions in assets under management?

“I have 3,000 doors”

“We have 40 million under management”

“Cash flow of forty-eleven-teen gazillion per year!!!”

Everywhere I look, it seems there is someone who is doing better than I am, with more than I have, farther along than I am.

Imma be honest witcha…my tendency sometimes is to compare what I’m doing to others.

To those like Rod Klief, Kaylee McMahon, Michael Blank, Tim Bratz, Jorge Abreu, Javier Hinojo, Mike Hochstetler, Kaleb Marti, you get the drift.

Thousands of students…thousands of doors…private jets…mountain houses…beach houses…exotic cars…the works!

And then I remember Christmas Day when I was 7.

When I compared what I had, to what my friend Adam had.

And I remember that I’m on a journey in this industry.

A journey to the goal that I set for myself.

NOT a goal set by anyone else.

A door count that I’m happy with.

A cash flow that works for me.

Do my goals change as I grow? Of course they do.

But my competition never changes.

My competition wasn’t my friend Adam when I was 7. And today, it’s not the operators that have been doing this longer than I have and have bigger portfolios.

My competition is only myself.

When I remember that, I take a deep breath and write the next email…call the next investor…analyze the next deal…

I keep working to be better tomorrow than I am today.

Focus on your actions, and be better tomorrow.