Recognise Your Strengths

It sounds odd, but the simple concept of self-awareness has tremendous power in determining your future. The mantra of self awareness for property investment success is not just for the super rich and successful, self-awareness is about acknowledging your strengths and weaknesses and is one of the most important traits to master when it comes to building your own success. Essentially, the more you pay attention to what you are good at, and what you are not so good at, the better you’ll understand why you do the things you do. The more you start to learn about yourself, the easier it becomes to improve your performance. Knowing yourself with clarity will help lead you into the right property deals and business environments.

When we develop the ability to recognise what we are not particularly good at, we can quickly start to excel in the areas where our strengths lie. Delegation is paramount once weaknesses have been noted, as relationships can be formed to help start any type of business. For example, my area of expertise in the development department of our company is building and maintaining relationships with our partners and clients to help grow the business. They call me the “business guy”, as where I fall down is when it comes to the technical product. My business partner particularly excels in this space, therefore we make an excellent team. I’m the business person and he is the product person. Together we have recognised each other’s strengths and weaknesses and have partnered up to achieve something we would never have been able to achieve on our own. If we are both weak at something in particular, such as legal work or tax accounting, we know when to reach out for assistance, rather than waste time and energy trying to tackle a problem on our own.

Not everyone has the resources around them to make these acknowledgements that easy. Sometimes we are surrounded by people that tell us that we are doing great and don’t ever give us the necessary feedback that we require to improve. For example, there has been plenty of talk of late, regarding Millennials having a false sense of inflated self worth, as they are constantly told how special they are and that they have everything handed over to them without them having to work for it. What happens when these individuals face the real world, they ultimately suffer as they have not acquired the necessary skills to excel and survive. We live in a time where anyone can look like a super star athlete, or a rock star baller especially through social media. This can actually devalue the work of somebody who has actually achieved this level of success through real work and dedication. In summary, the majority of this generation may grow up with a lack of self confidence and an inability to reach out for help when they need it.

Without being honest with ourselves, we are just lying about who we really are. All we do is delay how much we could be doing for ourselves and others. You need to ask yourself the honest, hard questions that will give you a strong assessment of yourself, even if you might not like the answers. When I first started out in property investing and renovating, I realised I was not handy with tools in any way shape or form compared to my abilities of being able to find a good property deal through my network of connections. I was not shy to physical labour, as I had spent a number of my younger years as a painter and concreter. However I didn’t particularly have a passion for it, while many of my peers all went on to be tradesmen and enjoyed their lines of work. I quickly recognised this was a weakness of mine and therefore reached out to the relevant professionals to help out with all the renovations I made on my properties. If I had tried to force myself to learn these skills, I would still be on my first investment property!

The internet is cluttered of pictures with quotes, encouraging people to do things themselves if they want things done right. The problem with this approach is that people fail to build the necessary team to achieve success, especially in property investing. Knowing where your knowledge level is at, is critical to help guide you to who exactly to engage to help excel your portfolio. If you haven’t achieved what you are striving for, then it makes sense to make contact with people who have succeeded in that area you are working on.

Many of us underestimate our strengths and overestimate our weaknesses. Letting your ego get the better of you can delay you from achieving your goals you are dreaming of. It is important to focus your efforts on where you can make the biggest impact and achieve maximum return on your time and energy. Surround yourself with others who continue to challenge you and help you understand how you can be better for an improved life and future. Build a team that forces you to LEVEL UP!