Why the Small Actions You Perform Daily Are Vital to Success

“Success is nothing more than a few simple disciplines practiced every day.” –Jim Rohn

Many new investors believe that success in real estate is all about making a few good decisions. If they could just get lucky, learn a few tricks, and find those good deals, they wouldn’t need to do anything else. These people fail.

The road to success is paved in small, seemingly insignificant decisions you make on a daily basis. Finding good deals has nothing to do with luck or how hard you look but rather how much knowledge you have when something comes up. That knowledge takes a lot of time to acquire.

Just this week I met with with someone who has a few pieces of land and a 3,000 square foot house stripped down to the studs. Everyone, including a few other real estate agents, told him to tear it down and sell all of the land. When I walked in, I noticed the house could easily be divided into three 1,000 square foot sections. We looked up the zoning and within a few minutes came up with a plan to sell some of land and use the proceeds to turn the big house into a triplex and build a duplex next door. He’s going to retire now.

The Power of Consistency

Knowledge works like compound interest. It starts slow and can take a long time to build up to something you can use. When I started investing in real estate, I averaged one investing book a week for about four years before I was able to see possibilities others didn’t know were there. But the only way to get to that point is to spend time every day learning how to be better. There is no other way.

The biggest problem I encounter with new investors is them giving up when they don’t get results right away. When you start dedicating time every day towards your dreams, almost everything you do will seem insignificant. It’s the same as deciding to be healthier by eating a salad for lunch one day. The first one doesn’t make a difference. The 100th salad probably won’t make a difference, either. But a year of eating salads will make a difference. The same goes for real estate. When you start learning to be better, almost everything you do will be insignificant, but it’s that decision you make every day to keep learning, even without results, that will determine how far you get.

The 10,000-Hour Rule

Malcolm Gladwell in his book Outliers wrote about the 10,000-hour rule. He says “ten thousand hours is the magic number of greatness … an extraordinarily consistent answer in an incredible number of fields … you need to have practiced, to have apprenticed, for 10,000 hours before you get good.” At 40 hours a week, that’s almost five years of focusing on one thing to be great at it. Not seeing results right away is why so few people make it to greatness. They quit before compounding has a chance.

Your future and what you’re able to accomplish will be determined by compounding interest on your knowledge. How fast it compounds and how quickly you see results is determined by how much you add to it every day. I believe that if you can spend less money than you earn and add to your knowledge every day, you can have the future you want. You can do the things you dream of. I work with people every day who have achieved this. It’s an amazing thing.

What you can do today to start compounding your knowledge and achieve greatness:

Read for 30 minutes every day
Join a real estate investment club
Read one article a day from BiggerPockets before work
Listen to audiobooks/podcasts on your commute rather than music or news
Read the top real estate books
Find a mentor

“Many people take no care of their money until they come to the end of it; other people do the same with their time.” –Jim Rohn

What actions do YOU perform every day that contribute towards your investing success? Do you believe in the 10,000-hour rule?

Let me know your thoughts with a comment.

Note By BiggerPockets: These are opinions written by the author and do not necessarily represent the opinions of BiggerPockets.