Financial freedom is a game that has a ton of peaks and valleys. There will be many highs, but at the beginning there is likely to be way more lows. This is to be expected and as my productivity coach Josh puts it, “Don’t expect anything until it happens.” This simple but humbling sentence has shaped the majority of my financial freedom journey and the trajectory of it moving forwards. I truly believe that the best results come from when you expect nothing because when something great finally happens it feels amazing and motivates you to keep pushing forwards.
A brief Story about one of my valleys
A few weeks ago as I was beginning to ramp up my wholesale business in the real estate industry, I came across two deals. For those of you who are not familiar with wholesaling, the gist of it is to find distressed or undervalued properties, put them under contract, and then sell them to other investors or flippers for a fee. This process has helped me refine the most important part of the business, finding leads, and is allowing me the profit off of this process because my skills add value to other businesses. One of the deals I found was off-market driving for dollars and the other one was on-market and distressed. I contacted both sellers and asked for the details on the properties and what they were looking to get in terms of price, their motivation etc. I then got contractor bids for the rehabs on both properties so I could finish my number crunching and come up with what is called a maximum allowable offer to be profitable. I immediately put in an offer on the on-market property as they typically don’t last long and it was accepted by the seller. Just a few nights later, I was at a networking meeting with my productivity coach Josh talking about the deal saying that I was going into contract soon on it. My coach Josh warned me, ” Don’t expect anything to happen yet. You haven’t received the contracts. Things could still go wrong.” I shrugged it off and basked in my glory a little bit more figuring I had this deal in the bag. Sure enough, the very next day the seller’s agent emailed me and said they received a higher offer that I could not match. Josh was right, I lost the deal after fully expecting to put it under contract that day!
Distraught but still hopeful, I put in my offer on the off-market property hoping to recover from this blow. Shortly after, the seller emailed me back saying he had an offer that I couldn’t even come close to considering the numbers I ran on the property. Just like that I went from two deals to zero, and it was definitely a humbling experience. This had not been the first time I lost out on some deals but these ones hurt in particular because I had put in some work and I was so damn close. It was hard to pick myself up from that and I moped around most of that following weekend feeling sorry for myself.
It took a day or two to realize that by moping around I wasn’t helping anyone and was only hurting myself. This stuff happens and I have to get through it to reach the success I know I will achieve. The Monday after my mopey weekend, I had a mastermind meeting with Josh where he drew out a jagged line going up representing peaks and valleys. He said to me, “Dom, remember that the journey looks like this. It is not all highs and it is not all lows. Right now, you’re in a little bit of a low. The time is coming for you to reach a high. You have to just stay the course and keep doing what you’re doing.” I needed that boost from him. It made me realize that this experience is just a little blip on my journey and if I stay the course, it will be insignificant in just a few months. I picked myself up and kept going after that!
The moral of the story
I have been kicked down so many times on my financial freedom journey I’ve lost count. Whenever something like this happens from now on, I will remember what Josh told me about peaks and valleys. This advice helped me get through that valley and it surely will help me go through future valleys as well. Remember that if you’re going through a valley right now, it won’t last forever. There will come a time where you reach another peak and it will feel like you’re Superman (or woman). The best thing to do when you pursue something like financial freedom is to expect nothing. Do things not expecting to get a return out of them but also keep in mind the peak and valley trajectory of being consistent. This will help you stay motivated to do what needs to be done every day all while helping you get past the inevitable valleys you will face rather routinely. If being financially free was easy and didn’t require the mental endurance that it does, then everyone would do it! Lucky for us we’re not like everyone else. We’re on a mission for more and with the right mindset we will achieve anything we put our minds to!