Fix and Flip or Fix and Rent?
The new Windows 10 is about to hit the shelves. Wow. What a sometimes frustrating but exciting ride from DOS. The imminent Windows 10 Version made me think about my own personal and professional resets and upgrades and how everyone should enjoy and contemplate their own life upgrade process.
I’m on Sandy Version 4.0. IBM (1.0); CBRE (2.0); Banking, Payments and Mortgage Software Business Development (3.0); and now Hard Money Lending and Trust Deed Investments (4.0). When I started my career at IBM in 1982, IBM had never laid off an employee for economic reasons. That no-layoff policy is long gone now but it is a reminder of how times and careers have changed. The days of getting a job after college and having a long career with the same company are over. Sometimes a job loss or life event forces us to iterate and create a new Version and other times upgrades happen seamlessly with a quick press of a button. How do you iterate in your career and advance to the next Version of You?
All 4 of these Sandy Versions mentioned above built upon the previous Version and have leveraged the “Area of Destiny” concept discussed by Jack and Suzy Welch in their recent book “The Real Life MBA…” The “Area of Destiny” is where what you love doing intersects with what you are good at. I realized that my own Resets and Version progression might help others figure out their own Area of Destiny and help them upgrade. When I look at my own Area of Destiny, here is what I found:
What I Like Doing: Working with people; creating a systems environment with loosely coupled entities but tightly integrated results; creating a wow customer service experience; helping other real estate investors achieve their dreams; being part of the real estate investors dream team; competing and closing a deal and leveraging the Internet and mobile world.
What I Am Good At: Finance, new Technologies to make processes more efficient, finding and uncovering viable loan opportunities, rooting out inefficiency and bureaucracy, meeting and exceeding customer requirements, secured yield creation and providing a fast and professional user experience.
What Welch’s “Area of Destiny” does not mention is to also understand what you are not good at or what you don’t like to do. For me, the answer is simple. I don’t like big company politics and bureaucracy and I am not great at managing people. These revelations about what I don’t like and am not good at have helped me immensely as I navigate the straits and narrows of my life and career.
Understanding what you like doing, what you are good at, and what you don’t like doing or not good at is easier said than done. To deduce these items in your life you may want to think about: What business activities align with your values? What fulfills you? What other feedback from others have you received? What do you feel matters and resonates in your own life? What makes you jump out of bed in the morning? If you pray, what are you hearing? What I do know is that this is the era of Hyper Specialization and the more you dive into your chosen niche, the better off you will be and that it is ok to press reset and create a new Version of you. Happy upgrading!