Tag: take action

Two valuable money-making skills you need to develop now.

Sunday afternoon I told my 14-year-old son Magnus we were going for a drive. He looked both confused and curious as he followed me towards the garage, pulled on his shoes and hurried out the door behind me.

As we tore out of the driveway like Bo and Luke Duke in my White Ford Bronco Expedition I explained that I had just seen a brand new listing on Facebook Marketplace for 3 large boxes full of 1980s-era baseball cards. The woman selling them posted that she didn’t know what was in the boxes. She simply wanted them out of her house. $25 took all 3 boxes. And I was hyperventilating. (Well, I was actually just hyper while I was ventilating.)

I collected these baseball cards when I was a kid. And I knew this created an opportunity to teach Magnus a valuable lesson. As we sped down the rural Wisconsin highway I told Magnus that one of the most valuable skills you can develop is a sense for undervalued assets. Those assets could be baseball cards. But they could also be stocks, real estate, businesses, antiques, coins, stamps, equipment and countless other things. Including undervalued people. (Especially undervalued people.)

The other valuable skill I encouraged Magnus to develop is the ability to move quickly. You have to act on your detection of undervalued assets before other people do. Hence the quick reply on Facebook and the Smokey and The Bandit-style driving.

You can’t do what Warren Buffet calls thumbsucking, and lose time re-contemplating when you already know what the right action is. Because as you wait, other people are discovering the undervalued asset. And only one person will be able to grab that asset at that price. So you gotta act like Sir Mixalot when they toss it. And leave it. And pull up quick to retrieve it.

When we arrived at the seller’s home the couple selling the cards were already in the garage, ready to tote the large boxes of cards to my vehicle. After some quick pleasantries, the woman shared that right after I responded to her listing she was flooded with others who also wanted to buy the cards. This confirmed my suspicion of undervaluedness. And it underscored the importance of acting quickly. From the time I first spotted the baseball card listing to the time they were in the back of my vehicle was less than an hour. Boom.

When we returned home, we estimated that there were 9000 baseball cards in the collection we just bought. We began picking out a few random cards from one of the boxes and immediately discovered 3 Randy ‘The Big Unit’ Johnson rookie cards from 1989 that were rare and desirable because they were printed with his wrong birth year. (But his correct height of 6′ 10″!) One of those cards alone was worth more than we paid for the entire collection.

Key Takeaway

Develop a sense for undervalued assets. This comes from understanding markets just well enough to have an undervalued item ping on your radar. All you need is that ping. Because once you sense it, you can perform quick research online or by phoning a friend to get a better sense of the specific value and opportunity. As soon as you have a high degree of confidence that you have discovered a good deal that you can capitalize on, you have to act. Commit and complete the sale swiftly. Because gold doesn’t lie on the sidewalk for long.

*If you know someone who could benefit from this message, please share it with them.

+For more of the best life lessons I have learned check out my book, What Does Your Fortune Cookie Say? from Ripples Media.

When experiencing a problem the worst thing you can do is nothing.

I was in Orlando last month for a keynote speaking engagement. My talk was at 8 am at the hotel I was staying at near Disney Springs. My flight back to Milwaukee didn’t leave until mid-afternoon. So after my hour-long talk was finished, I had a few hours to pick up some souvenir Vitamin D before I left for the airport.

Once my talk was over, I giddily made my way to the beautiful palm tree-ringed hotel pool. A hotel pool in Orlando should be a nice quiet place to enjoy some outdoor work in December. And it was. Until it wasn’t.

Shortly after I arrived at the pool, I settled into a chair at a poolside table. I opened my laptop. And immediately an alarm began blaring directly behind me. I owled my neck to see where the obnoxious noise was coming from. I spotted an anxious-looking 40-something couple standing next to the hot tub. They clearly looked panicked by the noise. But they took no action.

I looked at the couple as if to say, WOW, THAT’S A REALLY LOUD ALARM. My all-caps look had no effect. They just stood there and did nothing as the entire pool deck was suddenly bathed in more alarm blare than Florida sunshine. While I had packed my sunscreen, I had forgotten my earplugs. And now deafness felt like more of a threat to my well-being than skin damage.

A little detective work told me that the couple tried to turn on the jets of the hot tub time machine. But not being intimately familiar with all the words in the English language, (the dude’s Speedo exposed their Europeanness) they hit the hot tub emergency shut-off alarm instead.

So I got up from my poolside chair, turned, and marched to the hot tub. Right next to the panicky, but non-acting couple, I spotted the white wooden post that held the timer switch and the emergency shut-off alarm plunger button. I reached down and disengaged the recently plunged alarm switch. The noise immediately stopped. As if someone had mentioned E.F. Hutton.

I turned the dial that activated the hot tub jets. I smiled at Mr. Speedo and his wife and had a brief my-work-here-is-done moment. I returned to my chair, my laptop, and the enjoyable sounds of Florida. I sat and worked by the sunny and quiet pool for the next 2 hours until it was time to Uber to the airport for my flight home to MKE.

Key takeaway

When you are experiencing a problem, do something about it. Take action. Make a call. Move something. Ask for help. You have to take charge of the problem, or the problem will not go away. The worst thing you can do is do nothing. Even a wrong move or a seemingly ineffective action is valuable because, through the process of elimination, it gets you closer to an effective solution.

*If you know someone who could benefit from this message, please share it with them.

+For more of the best life lessons I have learned check out my book, What Does Your Fortune Cookie Say? from Ripples Media.

Do more of the things you know you should.

Ever wonder what the difference is between successful people and unsuccessful people? It is not physical. Both people look very similar on the surface. If you cut them open you would find all the same things inside both. You would also discover that both groups highly dislike being cut open.

The difference between successful, accomplished people and those who never progress is not in knowledge. Everyone knows what to do:

  • Eat right
  • Exercise
  • Work hard
  • Network
  • Study
  • Show Up
  • Volunteer
  • Collaborate
  • Save
  • Invest
  • Rise early (to get the worms)
  • Take risks
  • Read
  • Follow up
  • Wear deodorant

The Difference

Successful people do what they know they should do. They act. They make. They move. They try. They try again.

The unaccomplished know what to do, but don’t.

Don’t be a don’ter.

The Cycle

The more you do the more you will accomplish. And the more you do the more you will be inspired to do. It is a virtuous cycle. Get yourself into the positive feedback loop of action and you are sure to get more action. (And who doesn’t want more action?)

Getting Started

Make a list of the things you know you should do today. The whole list can be written in 30 seconds. 5 minutes if you have a slow pen. Then simply spend your day doing the things on your list.

Key Takeaway

Take action. Do what you already know you should. It’s the not-so-secret secret to success.

*If you know someone who could benefit from this message, please share it with them.