This isn’t what you want to hear

Throughout my teenage years, I lifted weights religiously and competed in a number of bodybuilding competitions. The goal of competitive bodybuilding was to grow your muscles as large as you could while simultaneously carrying as little body fat as possible. The sport required extreme levels of commitment and dedication over long periods of time. Countless hours spent lifting weights, doing cardio and eating bland foods were required to make any sort of significant progress. In preparation for competition, I would spend months dieting to the point of being completely exhausted all of the time while doing several hours of cardio/weightlifting a day. As I became more and more lean/muscular, people began to ask me how they could look the way I did. They expected that I’d respond with a complicated workout regime with exercises they’d never heard of, a list of cutting edge supplements or perhaps a diet filled with super foods that magically burned fat. However, that was not the case at all. I explained to them it’s a combination of progression with weights in the gym, consistent cardio to control body fat levels and adherence to a strict (but very simple) diet. They were expecting to hear something they didn’t know, they wanted an exciting new approach that was an easy way to get results. Unfortunately for them, eating chicken and rice everyday, paired with hours in the gym, wasn’t especially exciting.

The reality is, losing body fat/gaining muscle is extremely simple, but not easy. The vast majority of people that asked me how to get results refused to believe reality because they did not want to put the work in. They’d ignore my advice and ask other people until they found someone who would tell them it is easy if they just follow their fad diet or take their newest supplement (which the individual just happened to be selling). Months later, these sort of people would still be exactly where they started (except with less money) or worse, they’d be even further from their goal at which point they’d start blaming genetics/lack of time/lack of money for supplements/etc, anything to avoid doing the uncomfortable work. 

Deja vu

Fast forward to just a couple of years ago when I first moved to Colorado. I remember meeting a guy (we’ll call him John) at one of the local real estate clubs who was near my age and wanted to build a real estate business. John had read a number of books and listened to dozens of podcast episodes from successful real estate entrepreneurs who flaunted the lifestyle they’d built. He was excited and motivated, ready to start buying properties and building houses. Even more, John connected with an extremely wealthy investor who was happy to share all that he knew about the business. John was shown first hand what to do to get his business off the ground and surprisingly, it was really quite simple. After a few months, I received a call from John telling me that he was going to wait to start his business. “I’ve realized you just can’t do this without an enormous amount of starting capital” John said. He continued “….and even if I had the money, I just don’t have the time”. John initially confused “simple” and “easy” and once he realized this, he was no longer excited and gave up before even beginning.

I meet new investors like John all of the time who want to begin buying real estate. They come to the real estate clubs or message me on online platforms asking how to get started. They read/hear about other investors who were able to create substantial wealth and freedom through real estate investing and want to do the same in their own lives. They want to achieve extreme levels of success in a short period of time starting with little capital to invest. This is possible and, relative to other business ventures, it’s actually quite simple. But it’s not easy.

So, just like in my teenage years when people asked me about weight loss/muscle gain, I explain some of the steps/strategies to get started. I talk about house hacking or how to market direct-to-seller to find undervalued deals and usually the response is eerily familiar. Their excitement quickly wanes and their body language changes immediately. Quitting their job and having enough passive income to cover all of their expenses sounds quite appealing, but putting in long nights renovating houses, living with roommates for several years or being told to “die in a fire” on a regular basis by homeowners who don’t like your letters (this was said to me last week and this sort of response happens all of the time) does not interest them as much. I typically do not hear from these people again or they go and give their money to someone who tells them there is a secret to investing and it is easy (but only if they pay thousands of dollars for the recipe). Real estate investing is extremely simple, but never easy 

The magic pill

It’s natural to look for the easiest way to do everything, why wouldn’t you? However, it’s important to be aware of this tendency when you’re taking on any new challenge as it can be troublesome. We’re all susceptible to some of the mistakes I’ve described thus far. We meet somebody who has achieved something that we’d like to do (regardless of what that may be), they tell us how to do it and we disregard their advice entirely because it’s uncomfortable. We then proceed to ask other people the same questions, hoping someone will give us the magical strategy to lose weight/start a business/make more money/invest/etc without any real work. We ask the question already having decided what we’ll accept as an answer because we don’t want to do what we know we need to. Then of course there are those who will tell you that the magic pill does exist and they conveniently have a patent on it. You can have it and all of your dreams will come true……. for a small fortune.

Expectations

If you go into work on a Monday morning with the expectation of working a 10 hour day and end up getting off at the 8 hour mark, you’re likely to be pretty happy about it. However, if you start your Monday expecting to work a 4 hour day and have to work 6, you’ll likely be frustrated. Even though you worked less in the second example, you end up in a bad mood simply because there was an incongruence between expectations and reality.

This extremely basic example exemplifies the entire purpose of this article. All too often, people confuse simple with easy and end up with unrealistic expectations. Just because the processes/concepts are simple to understand, does not mean that they’re easy to execute and it’s essential to understand this going into it. Otherwise, it’s far too easy to give up immediately once you realize that your expectations are unrealistic. The mechanics behind achieving most goals that people set are incredibly simple, but as anyone who has been especially successful at one or another will tell you, the process is likely to make you extremely uncomfortable. The simple reality is that anything worth doing takes work and there are rarely any major shortcuts in life. So whether you’re looking to start a new business, lose a bit of body fat, train for a marathon, invest in real estate or any sort of major pursuit, remember that the path to your goal is likely to be very simple, but not easy.