104. The day I changed how I think about my business
I’ve owned a company since 2006. My co-owner Anders and I are a pair of cowboys. We take risks. We play the long game. We sometimes think so far outside the box that other people think we’re crazy.
This costs us money.
It also makes us money.
We’d never be where we are if we weren’t who we were. I don’t regret doing things like this. I love my job, and I love the organisation we have.
But today, something happened.
Today, I started thinking differently.
Three days at a mind blowing workshop will do that to you. And that’s exactly what I’ve spent my weekend on. Getting my mind blown.
What have I been doing, you may wonder?
I have – surreal as it sounds – been at a real estate investment seminar with 100 participants.
It wasn’t really about real estate, though.
It was about problems and about people.
It was about opportunity and mindset.
And I can’t remember the last time my thinking has shifted so much in such a short time.
Part of it was getting out of my normal element.
Part of it was forcing myself to keep an open mind.
Part of it was sharing the experience with a friend.
And of course the fact, that the event was absurdly powerful.
I’m not going to go into detail about what we learned, but I’ll share a few key takeaways.
- Win/win/win is much better than just win/win.
- Investors are everywhere.
- Research and decisionmaking are vital.
- Risk mitigation is the name of the game.
- It’s all about trust and courage.
There’s a long and bumpy road ahead, but I feel like I have just gained some new boots. This is going to make walking easier, and will make it possible for me to go places I couldn’t reach before.
It’s weird, but I’m going say something I never thought I’d say. Something that I a few days ago would have considered utterly ridiculous. Something I’m sure is going to cost me friends.
But after moving my calculator and LinkedIn out from a sub-screen on my iPhone and onto the front screen, I can say something with absolute confidence.
The words will mean very little to 99% of the people I know, but to me they signal a new commitment to thinking differently.
“Hi. My name is Claus, and I beat the banks.”
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