How High does the Hurdle need to be? - Part II

This blog is one I wrote a while ago.  It is geared towards Real Estate Investors; however, it applies to anyone that wants to take a chance in any type of business.  How High does the Hurdle need to be? - Part II

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The first part of this series discussed the first and greatest obstacle of starting a business (actually of obtaining any goal in life) and that is to start. Yep, the act of starting, the act of moving forward towards your goal, the act of putting yourself out there is the toughest and most difficult obstacle in your path.

I would love to sit here and tell you everything is easier once you start moving forward. In part it is, and in part it is not. Unfortunately, those parts are not equal, and the things that are easier fit into the small part. Decision making becomes easier, because now you realize a wrong decision is not the end of the world.

If you make a wrong decision, you adjust, learn and move on. It is simply adapting to survive to the new situations.

The things that do not become easier (and sometimes harder) are those that are out of your control. Even though these things are out of your control, these things will impact your new journey.

The Journey down the Path
Every day these obstacles present themselves. It takes the proper mindset to get past those obstacles.

Trust me on this one, when you start moving towards your destination/goal/the end of the tunnel, obstacles will creep up. I know it seems I am beating a dead horse, but they will come up. It could be something very simple to the extremely important.

If you do not have the proper mindset, even the smallest obstacle will trip you. I know it is cliché, but an appropriate quote to insert is "Life is 10% what happens to you, and 90% how you react to it." I do not know who said it, but it is very accurate.

There is not a day in my business life that an obstacle does not come up. Some days, I wonder to myself if the obstacles are worth it. And on a few of those days, I imagine how much easier life would be if I gave up, settled in with the herd and stopped moving towards my destination.

And then the little voice in my head slams to the front and says "that is why."

That is why?

Yes, "THAT IS WHY!!!" it screams.

I am not moving with the herd. I am moving towards my destination, and my destination is not the destination of the herd's. My destination is not yours. Your destination is not mine. We all have different destinations yet some of us will never reach where we want to be.

You cannot reach your destination traveling with the herd; create your own path, create your own journey.

The following poem does not fit with the concept of overcoming obstacles; however, it is exactly what happens when you travel with the herd or as Sam Walter Foss calls it "The Calf-Path."

The Calf-Path
by Sam Walter Foss (1858-1911)

One day, through the primeval wood,
A calf walked home, as good calves should;
But made a trail all bent askew,
A crooked trail, as all calves do.

Since then three hundred years have fled,
And, I infer, the calf is dead.
But still he left behind his trail,
And thereby hangs my moral tale.

The trail was taken up next day
By a lone dog that passed that way;
And then a wise bellwether sheep
Pursued the trail o'er vale and steep,
And drew the flock behind him, too,
As good bellwethers always do.

And from that day, o'er hill and glade,
Through those old woods a path was made,
And many men wound in and out,
And dodged and turned and bent about,
And uttered words of righteous wrath
Because 'twas such a crooked path;
But still they followed - do not laugh -
The first migrations of that calf,
And through this winding wood-way stalked
Because he wobbled when he walked.

This forest path became a lane,
That bent, and turned, and turned again.
This crooked lane became a road,
Where many a poor horse with his load
Toiled on beneath the burning sun,
And traveled some three miles in one.
And thus a century and a half
They trod the footsteps of that calf.

The years passed on in swiftness fleet.
The road became a village street,
And this, before men were aware,
A city's crowded thoroughfare,
And soon the central street was this
Of a renowned metropolis;
And men two centuries and a half
Trod in the footsteps of that calf.

Each day a hundred thousand rout
Followed that zigzag calf about,
And o'er his crooked journey went
The traffic of a continent.
A hundred thousand men were led
By one calf near three centuries dead.
They follow still his crooked way,
And lose one hundred years a day,
For thus such reverence is lent
To well-established precedent.

A moral lesson this might teach
Were I ordained and called to preach;
For men are prone to go it blind
Along the calf-paths of the mind,
And work away from sun to sun
To do what other men have done.
They follow in the beaten track,
And out and in, and forth and back,
And still their devious course pursue,
To keep the path that others do.

They keep the path a sacred groove,
Along which all their lives they move;
But how the wise old wood-gods laugh,
Who saw the first primeval calf!
Ah, many things this tale might teach -
But I am not ordained to preach.

Obstacles come and then they go away with or without you help. They go away. They go away. And, I repeat, they go away. The only question is will you let an obstacle trip and stop you from reaching your destination before it disappears?

Once you figure out what your destination is, start the journey to get there. I do not care what it takes to get over/around/past/through the obstacles in your path. Which obstacle will prevent you from reaching your destination? Or will you be one of the few that does not follow the calf's path?