Why Little People Can Suck It!

We have posted a few pictures from some of our road trips in the past.

However, other than some pied de terre considerations, possible projects for a child that may attend college in one of those locations, or just a general question mark about the nature of the real estate market in those areas, we have not pulled the trigger on an out of town (or Out-of-Triangle area) purchase -save one.  That "one" is a small rental in Fayetteville, and it is actually under a separate LLC name.  

Well, we are now considering joining forces with two other souls of similar constitution and resolution, and actually moving into the realm of renovating (creating value), and flipping (reselling) some properties in another state.  This resolution is hinged upon a few outstanding items here in NC, but we have progressed to the second or third step out of a billion steps towards making a purchase and setting our sails for a distant shore.  Put another way, we have moved from kicking the tires to sliding behind the wheel to see how we fit in this vehicle.

This new entity may or may not be Box Bend related in the sense that it will more-than-likely have a different name and have a different ownership structure.  However, Box Bend will more-than-likely participate as Box Bend for our share of the deal.  

Again, this is lip service and/or a pipe dream until it becomes reality.  The only way in which it differs from pipe dream status is that we are actually taking action.  And, as mentioned before, this is the great separator of adults from children in this world.  A ton of people talk about this business.  Some even try it.  And fewer still actually succeed.  Either way, the opportunity is there.  But the first, chief, main, only, Super, Big Kahuna principle of the matter is, was, and will be...  ACTION.  

If you have a moment, take a look at this post (a Public Service Announcement)  from 8/14.  It is located here.

This is just a quick reminder that the naysayers out there don't add up to squat.  There will be people (even "friends" and "family") that will be quietly, or even loudly, cheering for your destruction or downfall.  These are the people that have nothing better to do with their time than criticize those that try.  These are people who armchair quarterback the previous attempts of others.  They are not coaches.  They are not advisors.  They are not really friends, per se.  They have zero wisdom.  They are people that spend their life looking at things through a rearview mirror instead of facing forward and looking through the windshield.  As far as we are concerned, these bitter and miserable little people can suck it!  The only thing that counts at first is action.  No action = no play.  No play = no pay.  Life is short and this is not a dress rehearsal.  

So, if we can encourage you to do one thing today (just one) that brings your ideas and dreams out of the darkness of desire and into the daylight of reality... well, that would be just plain awesome!  Take some time to learn today.  Take some time to make one small move.  Pick up the phone and call that person that may be able to help you.  Move forward, move sideways, move up and down, but move!  We know that you may be afraid, but that really is okay.  Failure is learning, but moreover it is the same coin of success; it is just the other side of the coin.  It is almost impossible to have coin in your pocket of your own making that doesn't represent both failure and success.  

Unless you are incredibly blessed, skilled, or something else, the chances of some mistakes are more than guaranteed.  These mistakes are not necessarily indelible, though.  You can recover.  Even in the face of bankruptcy or just plain failure.  You are designed as a resilient creature.  If you were not, the skin that you occasionally rip sliding on your side in a ditch in Oregon after laying your Kawasaki Ninja down somewhere between Tualatin and Wilsonville at 70 MPH, and/or the bones that are occasionally broken (say on a Yamaha Enduro in High School resulting in a broken jaw and a mouth full of messed up teeth, or on a Honda motorcycle in the 8th grade that results in a compound fracture of the left arm) would never heal.   Without action, and possibly some failure and disappointment, and maybe even a little pain, you will not succeed.  You will never see the joy of the wind in your hair on your terms.  You will never know the exhilarating sense of being somewhere between controlling those things that you can control, and those things that you absolutely cannot.  So, blow that fear off.  Open up the throttle on your life.  Fear and worry about things that you do not control is pure arrogance.  It is not prudence.  It accomplishes nothing.  

We bring all this up because we will not run from the fact that some of our efforts have been (and will be) in vain.  We have ripped up our skin and have broken our financial bones.  This tendency, let's call this, "The Facebook Fallacy," to paint these pictures of perfect lives, framed in the best light, and showing the best moments, is delusional.  We will fail.  We will try.  We will stumble.  We will move forward.  We will be reversed.  We will have naysayers and morons egging on our destruction.  We will try again.  And again.  And again.  And again.  And we will more-than-likely succeed.

This current course points us towards a potentially different shore than the one we know.  It is just a little bit freaky and unknown and scary from the sense that we might break a few things along the way.  We could get hurt.  But it reminds us of a friend that is currently visiting the Box Bend ranch and sleeping in one of the Box Bend rooms.

In 2008 he lost his job as an architect in a firm that shall remain nameless in Minneapolis.  (KKE -in case you were wondering.)  This was the height, or close to it, of the great recession.  The firm was imploding like a lot of firms back in the day and a lot of architects were suddenly finding themselves without a stool to sit on, or an Autocad program to work on.  This guy was one of them.  We'll call this guy, "Gunderson."  Gunderson is a good man, but he is still just a man.  He could have found himself curled up in a ball, at home, consuming massive amounts of Oreos while watching Opra, or even Opera, in some sort of delusional way of comforting himself.  He could have also taken up knitting, or cat walking, or spent all day collecting lint.   Instead, Gundy took his passion and knowledge for photography (he is formally trained -note that this training was by his own volition, efforts and actions to get trained), and then he did something remarkable.  Gundersonian started his own photography business for architects, interior designers, manufacturers, etc.  The upshot?  It was scary at first.  His safety net was the ability to always go back to working a day gig (like some motorcycle riders we know) while trying to build his business up on the side.  Instead, he threw that fear out the window and got busy.  It is hard to have time for fear if you are moving fast enough.  You will be too busy hanging on to the ride for dear life.  The other upshot?  He has made more money than ever before.  He has traveled the country from sea to shining sea and even visited that mysterious land called, "Canada" on assignment.  He has lived life to a greater extent on his terms.  He creates value.  He takes incredible shots of buildings, products, interiors.  He sells beauty.  In short, he takes action.  

He takes action.  

Stay tuned.