Show Summary
This is episode #368, and today’s guest is my friend Pat Precourt. Pat is legendary in the real estate investing industry. Not necessarily for doing tons of deals himself…but for his ability to inspire others to achieve success.
If you’ve heard Pat speak before, you’ll know that he defines the word “wisdom”, and you will leave today’s show feeling inspired to take action in your life if something has been holding you back.
Today we discuss Pat’s 9 Steps to Achieve Success, as a way for you to troubleshoot what step towards success is in your way, and how to overcome it. It’s a powerful discussion that I know you’ll enjoy.
Please help me welcome Pat Precourt to the show.
Highlights of this show
- Meet Patrick Precourt, successful investor, mentor and sought after inspirational speaker.
- Learn to 9 Steps to Achieve Success, and how to troubleshoot issues you may be having.
- Join the discussion on what your ‘greater responsibility’ is in life!
Resources and Links from this show:
Listen to the Audio Version of this Episode
FlipNerd Show Transcript:
Mike: This is the flipnerd.com Expert Real Estate Investing Show, the show for real estate investors, whether you’re a veteran or brand new. I’m your host, Mike Hambright, and each week, I bring you a new expert guest that will share their knowledge and lessons with you. If you’re excited about real estate investing, believe in personal responsibility and taking control of your life and financial destiny, you’re in the right place.
This is episode 368 and today’s guest is my friend, Pat Precourt. Pat is legendary in the real estate investing industry, not necessarily for doing tons of deals himself but really for his ability to inspire others to achieve success. Now, if you’ve heard Pat speak before, you’ll know that he defines the word “wisdom.” And you’ll leave today’s show feeling inspired to take action in your life if something has been holding you back.
Today, we discuss Pat’s nine steps to achieve success and really as a way for you to troubleshoot what step toward success is in your way and how you can overcome it. It’s a powerful discussion today that I know you’re going to enjoy. Please help me welcome Pat Precourt to the show. Hey, Pat, welcome to the show.
Pat: Welcome, man. I’m happy to be here. Excited to be here. I’ve got a lot to share in a short window of time, man.
Mike: Yeah, yeah. We’re going to get it in there. In fact, I think every time I’ve talked to you, you’ve been on the show before and you’ve helped with some of my Investor Machine coaching stuff and some office hours we’ve done for elite members and other things, but I think we always have a tendency to run a bit longer than usual because we get into some pretty deep stuff when you’re on, man.
Pat: That’s awesome. And you know, Mike, I’m going to flip this one around today because everybody listening here is doing something in life and trying to achieve something. But not everything goes as planned. And I totally get that because that’s the story of my life. I learn by getting it wrong first and that’s what gives me the instructions on how to do it right.
So what we’re going to do today is more of a troubleshooting guide. I guarantee the nine steps. Everybody is getting half of them right. Some people are getting three-quarters of them right. And if you’re hitting a home run, you’re nailing all nine of them. But, most likely, there’s a missing link somewhere. And this allows you to figure out exactly what it is that’s stopping you from achieving the outcomes that you want. It’s really black and white and super easy to do. So this is going to be kind of exciting.
Mike: Yeah, awesome. Awesome. Well, Pat, before we start, I know that you’re a legend . . . I say you’re legendary. I like to say that because I think you’re awesome. But for those that don’t know you, they’re like, “Who’s this dude over here that Mike said is wise, but hasn’t shared that wisdom with me yet.” Tell us a little bit more about you. Tell us your background.
Pat: First and foremost, Mike, and you know this, I’m a family guy. I’ve been married 24 years, almost 25 years. I’ve got three awesome kids, a 20-year-old, my boy Patrick, and Samantha, who’s awesome, 17, and my youngest daughter, Danielle, is my baby. She’s awesome too. So that comes first and foremost. And different from a lot of people you interview, I value time over money. So all that I do, one becomes a solution to the other.
Money is never a goal in what I do. Money just buys back more time in our lives. And that’s kind of how I look at life. Very much stoic in the way I approach things. I like to deal with the truth or the basics or the facts. You hear me talk about EQ at a high level, emotional quotient. Emotions are powerful [inaudible 00:03:40] so what guides us to success in life. There’s a fine line in between being emotional and being controlled by our emotions. And it’s one of the weaknesses I see in our society today, an emotional immaturity.
I’m a martial arts fan. I wouldn’t say I’m a martial artist because that would almost disrespect those who are true martial artists out there. But I love banging it up at the gym a little. We do have a fitness center that’s also a martial arts center, MMA stuff. Just love doing. I work a lot with entrepreneurs in achieving the outcomes and results that they really want. It means I’ve got to stick a mirror up in front of them and figure what’s going on with them, why they’re not getting done what they want in order to achieve what they want to do.
It always starts with the idea that in order to have more, you have to do more. In order to do more, you have to become more. And often times, we try to go right to the having more. And if I had, then I could do more and I could become. And it doesn’t work that way. Many of us will spend two-thirds of our lives fighting the formula before we ever figure that out. So that’s a big part of what I do.
Mike: Yeah. And I think that stuff, it seems like it’s kind of magnified in the real estate investing space. I don’t really know why. I feel like a lot of people are lone wolves and you start to develop this attitude of, “I’ve got something to prove here.” And I feel like there’s a little more so-called machismo in the real estate investor space. I think it probably has a lot to do with people showing checks and there’s just a lot of chest thumping, if you will, more so than a lot of other industries, certainly a lot of other entrepreneurial industries. Would you agree with that?
Pat: Very much. We’re brought up, Mike, to compete. And we’re taught that competition is a good thing when, in fact, it’s one of the things that will crush us over time, particularly in business. Think about this for a second. If I want to compete with you, I have to adapt to what you do. I’ve got to try to do better what you do, when in fact, if you’re doing what’s authentic and genuine to you, the best I would ever do is to hope to be almost as good as you at what you do. When, in fact, I shouldn’t try to compete. To compete with you, I have to conform to you, compromise to become you, try to do what you do, which is, quite honestly, bullshit.
The way we should do it, the way our goals should be set, is to work within our own authenticity, genuine and unique to us because that’s where our magic comes up. And that’s what allows us to not compete, not to even be the best at what we do, to be the only one that does what we do. And that’s where you start separating yourself from the herd.
The world doesn’t need more of what’s already out there. The world needs new, fresh, different. And in the real estate world, we take this competition. Everyone’s comparing to everybody else. That’s the death of your own authenticity because it rips that away from you and now you’re trying to conform to what everybody else is doing. That’s one of the reasons why there’s so much struggle there.
Mike: Yeah. Awesome. Awesome. Well, let’s dive in. We’ve got limited time. I know we’re going to talk about nine steps to achieve success today. So let’s jump into number one.
Pat: I mean, I want to spin the titles around and look at this as a troubleshooting guide. So we’re all doing something. We’re all getting some of these steps right. But let’s figure out the one or two we’re really missing and come out saying, “I’m going to solve these two so I can start achieving what I want.” So let’s start with the definitions. This is step number one. Let’s remove the word “goal” from our vocabulary.
The reason we’re going to do that is because so many of us have failed at achieving our goals. So there’s a pattern, a track record, an expectation of an outcome. Let’s replace it with results and outcomes. When you hear those words, “goals” are just results and outcomes that trigger something a little different in the brain. We’re already in a different space. I’m not writing down “goals,” I’m writing down the results and outcomes I’m going to achieve. So start speaking your outcomes. Let’s start with that. Number two, it’s simple.
Mike: Can I ask you about outcomes? Can I ask you about outcomes real fast? A lot of times, how do you balance? Because I think where some people fail or where some people fall short is they either set a goal or an outcome too small or too big. A lot of us, we kind of want to dream big. We want to have some big, hairy, audacious goal or outcome, but then our odds of hitting that outcome are smaller if we set it too big. But if we set it too small, then we don’t stretch that far. I mean, what’s the balance there to have an outcome that’s achievable?
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Pat: Yeah, you brought up a good point and we could spend a whole day on this. But let me just say this. This big, hairy, audacious goal stuff is, quite honestly, bullshit and here’s why. We get so excited about setting these outrageous [inaudible 00:09:48] and don’t believe in them. And if we don’t believe in them, we can’t achieve them. That’s just a psychological piece that takes place in our brain. If we don’t think in our head that there’s any chance of us achieving that outcome, it’s never going to happen. So we’re wasting our time.
So really, the objective here is to set a goal that you either believe in or that you at least have faith in. Faith is a step that precedes belief. Belief is usually a result or an outcome. It’s something that’s happened and that’s how beliefs are established. Faith precedes that. And we don’t have the tangible evidence, but we do have faith, based on who we are, where we’ve been, things like that, that we can achieve that outcome.
And then go one step beyond it. Make it a little scary, a little challenging. Believable and a little edge to it. We’re outside our comfort zone. So the other part that you don’t want to fall prey to, and this is the other end of that, is setting goals based on our means and not on our ends. Meaning that we start calculating how smart we are, how much money we have, how tall we are, how fit we are, all these other things. We let that determine how far we can go. Which means [inaudible 00:10:56]. We can only go as far as we’ve come. That’s all our means allow. That would never allow for advancement.
So we have to focus on the ends and create the means to achieve the ends. So our minds don’t allow for that to happen. We’ve got to find a balance between . . . pick something that you can have really a belief in or at least have faith in and make it a little scarier, something that will tweak you a little and achieve it. If it’s not scary, it’s not tall enough. That’s probably what I’m rooting for.
Mike: Awesome. Awesome. All right, man. Let’s jump into number two.
Pat: Number two, with absolute clarity, define your outcome. We often times will define goals with vague terms. “I want to go on vacation. In 2018, I want to go on vacation.” That’s not a goal. That’s not actionable. It’s too vague in definition. “I want to be financially free.” There’s no such thing as that. There’s no definition that you attach to that. There are no action steps because they’re not clear enough on the outcome. On vacation, when do you want to go on vacation? Where do you want to go on vacation? And what do you want to travel in? Who’s going to go with you? What are you going to pack? How long are you going to go for? Add that clarity.
And here’s the thing about adding clarity to the outcome. Each time you add information to the clarity, and you can never stop defining with more clarity, but each time you add another layer of clarity, it tells the universe exactly what it needs to do for you to open the door to achieving it. Does that make sense? It’s outrageously abundant in what it has to offer to us and willing, ready and able to help if we just give it clear instructions.
And one of the ways of doing that is getting crystal clear on what we want. We bounce around here, here, here, here. We confuse the crap out of the universe. That’s like, “I’ve thrown in the towel on you because I have no idea what you want.” Or it’ll give us something in our lives that we don’t want. “Where did that come from?” Well, the universe is like, “You asked for that.”
In live events, Mike, I do this little . . . I say, “Listen, I want you guys to look around the room right now and pick out everything you see that’s red. Red, red, red.” We can do this really quickly. “Look around the room for anything that’s red.” So all of you listeners, do this with me and you’ll enjoy this. Now cover your eyes. Don’t cheat on this. I’m going to ask you. A little memory test. Cover your eyes like this. Now scream out every [inaudible 00:13:30].
And the room goes deaf because we told it specifically to find red. You were anticipating red. So although you saw the green, you didn’t record it. It’s not there. Clarifying the outcomes you want puts all the resources you want that are already there right in front of you and makes you aware of them. That’s how powerful it is. Does that make sense to you?
Mike: Yeah. And when you start to be on the path of trying to achieve your goals . . . you’re getting a bunch of feedback. Pat, I don’t know if you can hear that or not. But when you start trying down the path of working on your goals, I found if you have to spend a bunch of time thinking . . . if you didn’t have a plan, if you didn’t define what it is that you want and how you’re going to get there, and if you are forced to think about that at the time when it comes time to do it, it seems like it’s a lot harder of a job because you didn’t plan in advance, if that makes sense.
And like you said, define with clarity what the steps are to that, where you’re going to go on vacation and things like that. Because then when it comes time, “Hey, I’m supposed to go on vacation in a month,” you’re much less likely to do it because you’re like, “Well, I’ve got to figure out where to go. The flights are too expensive now because I waited until the last minute.” If you don’t define that stuff up front, then you’re much less likely to hit your goals or your outcomes. So let’s start on step three.
Pat: Step three, accept unconditionally where you are now. Get crystal clear on your truth. And what I mean by this is, very often, we do one of two things. Instead of getting just to our truth, our reality of what our situation is, this goes back to the John Stockdale paradox. We either make things better than they are and pretend it’s a fantasy positivity world of BS that does not serve us or we pretend things are worse than they are. But it’s only at the truth that we can create change. Everything else is a fantasy world.
It’s almost like this, Mike. If you said, “Hey, Pat, how do you go from Connecticut to Canal Point? I need driving instructions.” Well, until we get clear on where we’re starting from, the truth, 2 Elm Road in Cromwell, Connecticut, all the other instructions are not going to serve you. They’re going to be coming from some other spot, either up here or down here. Does that make sense?
Mike: Yep, absolutely.
Pat: And we have a hard time with the truth. I understand that. But if you truly want change, get to your truth. You know, if you’re being a real ass about something in your life, accept the truth of it so that you can get over it. But if you keep pretending that it’s not that . . . I use alcoholism as a prime example. There are ways to solve for drinking. But if you don’t admit that you have a problem, the ways aren’t going to serve you. They won’t work at all.
Next, so once we’re clear on our outcome, crystal clear, with absolute definition . . . the greater the definition, the more the universe will step up to show you the way. Once we’re crystal clear on our truth, exactly where we are right now, our truth is our Point A, our clarity or outcome that we desire is our Point B. Draw a straight line between them. And this is step number four. Write down actionable steps that move you forward on that line directly between Point A and Point B.
What this allows you to do is to ask yourself a genuine question. “Is this next step deviating off the line or moving me straight toward the outcome I want?” And that’s a yes/no question. But what it does is it helps to eliminate a lot of the crap we put on our to-do lists and that we put in front of us, the distractions we bring into our lives. By the way, distractions don’t happen to us. Distractions are then something we choose to get away from what we’re doing. We do that very intentionally. That’s another discussion, but know that. But distractions don’t happen to you. You go out and find them intentionally. And typically, to avoid something. But we’ll save that for another day.
So this speaks to what you spoke of earlier. Next, once we have the actionable steps from your Point A to your Point B, write down the known obstacles that you believe will be in the way of you achieving. Really, all this is, this requires you to turn around, look backward and write down all of the things that have stopped you from making progress in the past.
“I didn’t have the money. I got divorced. This one, between these two years, a little voice started getting really loud. Doubting myself. I lost confidence. I started thinking I wasn’t good enough, I didn’t know enough, didn’t have enough.” These are all the things that get in our way. We get all excited at the front end and then that excitement drops off and that little voice steps up.
Write it down. Write down what those little voices tell you, the lies that they tell you. And then let’s start providing remediation for them. What can we do to solve for them before we get to them? Understand they’re lies. So how do we defend against them before we get to them?
Mike: Yes. So when it happens, you’ve already got a solution. So when it happens, “Not a problem. I already know what I’m going to do here.”
Pat: There’s this little play on words I remind myself of all the time. “You either wait for what you want or you create what you want.” And this is a form of creation. This whole process is a form of creation. You wait around, guess what? Life’s going to pass you by. It requires you to step up, make a big demand of the world or the universe and start taking what you deserve. That’s how we achieve in this world.
And preparing yourself with an arsenal of tools to overcome the obstacles that you know get in your way are part of that process. Just thinking, “Hey, I don’t have to prepare. Nothing’s going to go wrong,” or, “I’ll be fine when I get there,” is, quite honestly, almost like a very arrogant approach. It just doesn’t work that way. That’s like sending infantry into battle without guns. “Oh, we’ll be fine. We don’t need guns or helmets or shields or any of that crap. We’re good.” Nobody would do that. No, they’re the most highly trained individuals and they still go as prepared as possible.
Next one. This is the big one that plays right into it. Getting back to our “why.” And when I say our why, Mike, I don’t mean, “I want to make a million dollars,” that’s not a why. Money is only a result. Money is not a why. Money is not a purpose. And the reason you’ve got to get clear on a why is we will run into obstacles. Look at your why as providing x-ray vision that allows you to see through the obstacles and never lose sight of the outcomes that you wrote down in the first place.
That’s what a why does for you. When you remove that and all you see is the obstacle and you lose sight of the outcome, guess what? You’re stuck. You’ve lost direction. Now, your focus is on the obstacle and not the outcome or the result. That’s what the x-ray vision does for you. That’s what your why does for you. That’s the juice you need when the going gets tough. And the going always gets tough. Don’t kid yourself on this one.
That goes into the next one. This is the big one. Accept feedback. Feedback is one of the most valuable parts of this process. Feedback, typically . . . if you’re like, “Pat, what is feedback?” It typically shows up in the form of pain. Let’s just accept that. Pain got a bad rap when we were young. When we were kids, we probably hurt our knee. “Ow. It hurts.” And you were crying, all that kind of crap. Pain is one of the greatest gifts the universe has ever [inaudible 00:20:56].
There are two types of general pain I like to categorize. One is the, “Hey, Mike, you’re screwing up right now. You’ve got to change.” So this could be you jogging down the road and you roll your ankle. You’ve got a lot of pain shooting up your leg. Mike, if you continue to run on this, you’re going to make it worse. And so take that analogy and turn it over into life, whether it be in a relationship, relationships going south, “I’ve got to start changing something,” or a business deal went bad because I didn’t do my homework. I didn’t go in prepared and lost a ton of money because I let my emotions dictate my decisions instead of vice versa. There’s that type of pain.
But then there’s another type of pain. There’s a type of pain that grows us. There’s a type of pain that challenges us. And this is the kind of pain that when we’re encountering fear and we’re pushed beyond our normal boundaries. And it’s the pushing through that pain that grows us and makes us [inaudible 00:21:53]. It never goes away. That’s the cool thing about it. Each time we punch through this, it makes us stronger and better and can never be taken back from us. [Inaudible 00:22:06] from life that we can fall back on.
So the key here is that. A couple of things here. Number one, track it. Track it and write down what’s going on. Track the feedback. Number two, record it so you have some record of what’s going on so that you can go to step three, which is to evaluate it. Just sit back, objectively interpret the feedback you’re coming to. And then the fourth one is to evolve from it. Evolve is not change. Evolve is growth forward. The evolution is in place to perpetuate our longevity. You can change for the worst. I can take a rock and blow the thing up into a billion little pieces. It’s not better. It’s worse.
You can change by, I don’t know, growing old and dying. Change and better yourself, so to speak. What I’m talking about is change in the form of evolution. That’s the feedback, where you’re taking the feedback to evolve to a better place and become better, smarter, bigger, faster, stronger, whatever you want to be from the feedback at that point.
And the last two go hand-in-hand. Number one . . . well, it’s really not number one. It’s number eight. Begin now. Everybody’s like, “I got this. This is awesome. I’m going to do this shit tomorrow.” Guess what? Tomorrow is nothing more than a reflection of today magnified. So whatever you do today, it’ll be no different tomorrow, just magnified. And that’s why each day you put something off, it becomes less likely that you’ll ever, ever do it.
The question is, and this is a good question I ask myself, Mike, all the time whenever I’m ever a little hesitant or resistant about doing something and I know I should be doing it. I just ask and I look at myself square in the mirror and say, “Pat, how much longer are you going to continue to choose to accept your current results and outcomes?” And that’s a really ballsy question to ask yourself. “How much longer are you going to choose to accept the result that you don’t like?” That’s high-level responsibility and accountability. Those two go hard right there.
And then the final step, Mike, and this is from a buddy of mine quite a while ago, every single day, take a step toward that result, that outcome that you want, that you desire, that you deserve. What happens is you create a habit out of it. And you create a lifestyle around it. And then you tell the universe with absolute intention exactly what it is you want.
And every day, you’ll manifest more in your life, needs, wants, services that provide what you need for to get you to where you want to go, if that makes any sense. Can we turn around? Or do we stop? Take a break? Things get confusing. Those are the nine steps. And these are steps to achieve pretty much anything you want or you can use them as a troubleshooting guide on something you’re already doing, trying to figure out why you’re not getting exactly what you want. Does that all make sense?
Mike: Yeah, it’s awesome, Pat. So a lot of this stuff we talked about here is probably kind of self-management. These are things you’re doing for yourself. What are your thoughts or can you share some thoughts on having somebody in your life to help hold you accountable as well? Because sometimes that’s a lot more powerful, the fear that I’m going to let somebody else down. Usually, people are more afraid to let somebody else down than to let themselves down, right? I don’t know why that is. But any thoughts on kind of how to have somebody else hold you accountable, whether that’s a spouse or a business partner or whatever?
Pat: Thousands. A business partner, mentor, coach, whatever you want to call it. I personally don’t know anyone who’s achieved absolute greatness without somebody on the outside pulling them beyond where they think they could be, whether on the athletic field, on the court. Steve Jobs creating what he has done for this world, anybody and everybody I know that are high achievers have a coach, or multiple coaches or multiple accountability partners to allow that.
Because we can only see so much from the inside out. They’re from the outside in. they have a different perspective. And I know there are a lot of people, I guarantee, listening right now saying, “I don’t need a coach.” It’s really our lack of willingness to be vulnerable, needing or wanting a coach makes us less of who we are.
Now, let me just separate for a second, without getting into some quicksand here. There’s a difference between a coach, whether you call it a life coach, whether you call it a performance coach, a peak performance coach and a therapist. Typically, people who see a therapist have mental challenges that they need worked out. And I’m not saying it’s right or wrong. I’m just stating the difference. They typically go backward before they can come forward. They deal in the past so they can come back to the present.
The coach, mentor, they’re not there to fix you. You’re not broken. It’s to get the best performance out of you. They go in the future to recreate the present to create better future results. They don’t go in the back and try to figure out why you’re broken because the assumption is you’re perfectly cool. You’re just capable of a higher performance. That’s the big difference there. And sometimes, when we talk about our coach or mentor, like, “That’s like a mental therapist.” No, no, no, big difference. There’s a place for both of them. Does that make any sense what I just said?
Mike: Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. Awesome, Pat.
Pat: Well, let me share with you one other quick thing here because there are still some people are probably trying to [inaudible 00:28:07] this discussion. I like bringing down to the simplest terms. When you want to achieve something, say in this case, there are a lot of entrepreneurs on this call right here, there are only three things you have to answer for. If you get all three things answered properly, [inaudible 00:28:26] will help fill it in, you will achieve whatever it is you want to achieve and be successful and however you define it.
Number one, you have to know what it is you have to do. In order to achieve it, remember that clarity thing we defined in step two? In order to achieve it, you have to know what to do. And in our world of real estate here, Mike, one thing I have to do is generate a whole bunch of leads. Next, I’ve got to convert leads and so forth and so on. Identify what it is you have to do.
Second, you have to identify how to do it. You know what to do, now you have to know how to do it. And that’s where you find the training experts, the knowledge to execute what it is you want to do. And then, third, the same as we mentioned here already, why you’re doing it in the first place. That’s almost like your compass, your direction. That answers questions along the way and gives you direction as to where the next step is.
And this troubleshooting guide helps you fill in all three of those, but that brings it down to an even simpler level. If you’re ever struggling with a business model, go back and see. And if you have those three questions answered and you’re executing, you’ll do fine. But if you’re not, you’re either not executing or you’re missing one of those questions. Does that make sense?
Mike: That’s awesome. Yeah. Maybe, Pat, just one last comment here, question for you. Let’s talk about the why a little bit. A lot of times, people get up and they say, “Well, I’m doing this for my family. I want to provide.” A lot of real estate investors . . . I will say probably a lot of people early on really are doing it for their family. They’re trying to survive. They’re trying to quit their job. When you start as a real estate investor, a lot of people are scrappy and they’re trying to just . . . it’s more about survival for a lot of people early on.
But then you get to a point where if you have some level of success, you’re not worried about eating anymore. If you start to get to a point where you’re doing a few deals a month, you’re probably beyond the point of survival mode. And then your why changes, right? Your why has to change, right? So I think a lot of people, probably me included, have struggled with defining what their why is after you achieve some level of success, whether it’s giving back or whatever. But maybe talk about that a little bit.
Pat: Yeah. And I would argue your why doesn’t change. Your focus on what part of your why changes. So to your point, if I asked 100 entrepreneurs to stand up and I said, “Tell me your why,” “My wife, my husband, my kids, financial stability” all that stuff to what you just said. I’d say there are two parts to a why. There’s your priority side and then there’s your greater responsibility. Because here’s the truth, there is no one on this earth that was created for the sole purpose of just raising a family. We’re bigger than that. The uniqueness of us, the God-given skills and talents innate to us or the magic that we possess, Mike, are so much bigger than that.
I’m not playing that down at all, but that is definitely part of our why and part of our priority. But we have a greater responsibility and interpretation of it. Take all of those unique skills, our magic, and impact this world in a positive way. That’s our greater why. How you do that now starts getting into your purpose and your passion. But we have our priority, our financial well-being and our security of our family and our greater responsibility. Take these skills that were given to us, innate, unique, special, one-off, us and impact the world in a better way.
So I was driving up to Colorado two years ago when my son decided he didn’t want to go to school. He wanted to go live in Breckenridge, Colorado all by himself and on his own dime. On the way out there, one of the questions he asked me is . . . we had a bunch of kind of crazy conversations. One of the questions was, “Dad, when is enough enough? When is enough enough?” I said, “Patrick, it’s never enough. But let me explain why.”
There are a couple of parts to this. Number one, before you judge that, because some would say, “Sure, there’s a point when enough is enough,” I’d say no. Because in order for enough to be enough, it would mean we would have to stop creating. You’d have to stop attracting and generating. Which means we’d stop using these God-given skills and talents that are innate and special to us and disrespecting them. So the key here, to understand this in kind of a ball, would be to always appreciate what you have and where you are, no matter what, good, bad or indifferent. And always want more.
But let me now show you where that takes us. Remember that formula we talked about at the beginning of this call? In order to do more, you have to be more. We’ve heard this all our lives. Many of us just never paid attention. Be, do, have. Be, do, have. Be, do, have. Well, now is the other part to it. We become more so that we can do more so that we can give more. And that’s the impact side. That’s our greater responsibility. So there’s never enough.
Our job is to forever create. What we do with that, though, shifts over time. At first, it’s our own security. And then it’s those around us. Now, once we have that, it’s making an impact on the world. That starts bringing in our passions and our purpose if you do it. Maybe you want to make the planet a cleaner planet. So what you do, Mike, is you go around this country, planting plants. Fantastic. You’re making an impact. Challenged, fatherless inner-city kids. Awesome. Then that’s how you do it.
But that has to do, now, with you personally and your passions. But the formula and our why are no different. Priority, our immediate family and those we love around us that are near and dear and take care of. But our greater responsibility is the impact we leave on this earth. Because at the end of the day, once we die, nobody’s remembering Pat or Mike. That’s the truth of it. [Inaudible 00:34:58] the impact that we made on this world. That’s the part that’s going to count. Does that answer your question?
Mike: Yep. That’s good, man. That’s good. Awesome.
Pat: Big question. Yeah, it’s a big question.
Mike: Yeah. So, Pat, thanks for spending time with us today. I definitely appreciate it.
Pat: I loved being here. I could do this all day long, man.
Mike: I know. I know, man. Awesome. Well, hey, if folks wanted to learn more about you, I know you’ve got a lot of good stuff going on, where do they go to learn more?
Pat: Just my website, patrickprecourt.com, or find me on Facebook. When you put Patrick Precourt, you’ll find me or my son. And hopefully, you’ll be able to figure out the difference between the two. I don’t know.
Mike: Yeah. Awesome. Awesome. Well, thanks again for spending time with us. I definitely appreciate it.
Pat: It’s been an absolute pleasure, man. Anytime you want to have me back, I’ve got more to share.
Mike: I know you do and I appreciate it. Everybody, hey, this was episode number 368 with Pat Precourt. We appreciate you. We’re pumping out content for you so, hopefully, you’re enjoying it. If you could, please, I don’t ask for this enough. Honestly, guys, after 386 episodes, I haven’t asked you for much. I always forget to ask this, but I would love it if you would go to iTunes and give us a review or Google Play or wherever you watch it at. I know iTunes, truthfully, makes it a pain in the ass to leave a rating for somebody.
So I appreciate you taking a couple of extra minutes for that, but it adds a lot of value to us. It helps us. It’s really the one thing, other than meeting with guests like Pat that energize me, but it energizes me when I know that people are listening and people enjoy the show. So if you could, find us on iTunes and give us a rating or review. Or Google Play or anywhere else you watch this. So, everybody, I appreciate it. Pat, thanks again, my friend.
Pat: Peace, Mike. I appreciate it.
Mike: Awesome. Everybody, have a great day. We’ll see you next time.
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This is episode 368 and today’s guest is my friend, Pat Precourt. Pat is legendary in the real estate investing industry, not necessarily for doing tons of deals himself but really for his ability to inspire others to achieve success. Now, if you’ve heard Pat speak before, you’ll know that he defines the word “wisdom.” And you’ll leave today’s show feeling inspired to take action in your life if something has been holding you back.
Today, we discuss Pat’s nine steps to achieve success and really as a way for you to troubleshoot what step toward success is in your way and how you can overcome it. It’s a powerful discussion today that I know you’re going to enjoy. Please help me welcome Pat Precourt to the show. Hey, Pat, welcome to the show.
Pat: Welcome, man. I’m happy to be here. Excited to be here. I’ve got a lot to share in a short window of time, man.
Mike: Yeah, yeah. We’re going to get it in there. In fact, I think every time I’ve talked to you, you’ve been on the show before and you’ve helped with some of my Investor Machine coaching stuff and some office hours we’ve done for elite members and other things, but I think we always have a tendency to run a bit longer than usual because we get into some pretty deep stuff when you’re on, man.
Pat: That’s awesome. And you know, Mike, I’m going to flip this one around today because everybody listening here is doing something in life and trying to achieve something. But not everything goes as planned. And I totally get that because that’s the story of my life. I learn by getting it wrong first and that’s what gives me the instructions on how to do it right.
So what we’re going to do today is more of a troubleshooting guide. I guarantee the nine steps. Everybody is getting half of them right. Some people are getting three-quarters of them right. And if you’re hitting a home run, you’re nailing all nine of them. But, most likely, there’s a missing link somewhere. And this allows you to figure out exactly what it is that’s stopping you from achieving the outcomes that you want. It’s really black and white and super easy to do. So this is going to be kind of exciting.
Mike: Yeah, awesome. Awesome. Well, Pat, before we start, I know that you’re a legend . . . I say you’re legendary. I like to say that because I think you’re awesome. But for those that don’t know you, they’re like, “Who’s this dude over here that Mike said is wise, but hasn’t shared that wisdom with me yet.” Tell us a little bit more about you. Tell us your background.
Pat: First and foremost, Mike, and you know this, I’m a family guy. I’ve been married 24 years, almost 25 years. I’ve got three awesome kids, a 20-year-old, my boy Patrick, and Samantha, who’s awesome, 17, and my youngest daughter, Danielle, is my baby. She’s awesome too. So that comes first and foremost. And different from a lot of people you interview, I value time over money. So all that I do, one becomes a solution to the other.
Money is never a goal in what I do. Money just buys back more time in our lives. And that’s kind of how I look at life. Very much stoic in the way I approach things. I like to deal with the truth or the basics or the facts. You hear me talk about EQ at a high level, emotional quotient. Emotions are powerful [inaudible 00:03:40] so what guides us to success in life. There’s a fine line in between being emotional and being controlled by our emotions. And it’s one of the weaknesses I see in our society today, an emotional immaturity.
I’m a martial arts fan. I wouldn’t say I’m a martial artist because that would almost disrespect those who are true martial artists out there. But I love banging it up at the gym a little. We do have a fitness center that’s also a martial arts center, MMA stuff. Just love doing. I work a lot with entrepreneurs in achieving the outcomes and results that they really want. It means I’ve got to stick a mirror up in front of them and figure what’s going on with them, why they’re not getting done what they want in order to achieve what they want to do.
It always starts with the idea that in order to have more, you have to do more. In order to do more, you have to become more. And often times, we try to go right to the having more. And if I had, then I could do more and I could become. And it doesn’t work that way. Many of us will spend two-thirds of our lives fighting the formula before we ever figure that out. So that’s a big part of what I do.
Mike: Yeah. And I think that stuff, it seems like it’s kind of magnified in the real estate investing space. I don’t really know why. I feel like a lot of people are lone wolves and you start to develop this attitude of, “I’ve got something to prove here.” And I feel like there’s a little more so-called machismo in the real estate investor space. I think it probably has a lot to do with people showing checks and there’s just a lot of chest thumping, if you will, more so than a lot of other industries, certainly a lot of other entrepreneurial industries. Would you agree with that?
Pat: Very much. We’re brought up, Mike, to compete. And we’re taught that competition is a good thing when, in fact, it’s one of the things that will crush us over time, particularly in business. Think about this for a second. If I want to compete with you, I have to adapt to what you do. I’ve got to try to do better what you do, when in fact, if you’re doing what’s authentic and genuine to you, the best I would ever do is to hope to be almost as good as you at what you do. When, in fact, I shouldn’t try to compete. To compete with you, I have to conform to you, compromise to become you, try to do what you do, which is, quite honestly, bullshit.
The way we should do it, the way our goals should be set, is to work within our own authenticity, genuine and unique to us because that’s where our magic comes up. And that’s what allows us to not compete, not to even be the best at what we do, to be the only one that does what we do. And that’s where you start separating yourself from the herd.
The world doesn’t need more of what’s already out there. The world needs new, fresh, different. And in the real estate world, we take this competition. Everyone’s comparing to everybody else. That’s the death of your own authenticity because it rips that away from you and now you’re trying to conform to what everybody else is doing. That’s one of the reasons why there’s so much struggle there.
Mike: Yeah. Awesome. Awesome. Well, let’s dive in. We’ve got limited time. I know we’re going to talk about nine steps to achieve success today. So let’s jump into number one.
Pat: I mean, I want to spin the titles around and look at this as a troubleshooting guide. So we’re all doing something. We’re all getting some of these steps right. But let’s figure out the one or two we’re really missing and come out saying, “I’m going to solve these two so I can start achieving what I want.” So let’s start with the definitions. This is step number one. Let’s remove the word “goal” from our vocabulary.
The reason we’re going to do that is because so many of us have failed at achieving our goals. So there’s a pattern, a track record, an expectation of an outcome. Let’s replace it with results and outcomes. When you hear those words, “goals” are just results and outcomes that trigger something a little different in the brain. We’re already in a different space. I’m not writing down “goals,” I’m writing down the results and outcomes I’m going to achieve. So start speaking your outcomes. Let’s start with that. Number two, it’s simple.
Mike: Can I ask you about outcomes? Can I ask you about outcomes real fast? A lot of times, how do you balance? Because I think where some people fail or where some people fall short is they either set a goal or an outcome too small or too big. A lot of us, we kind of want to dream big. We want to have some big, hairy, audacious goal or outcome, but then our odds of hitting that outcome are smaller if we set it too big. But if we set it too small, then we don’t stretch that far. I mean, what’s the balance there to have an outcome that’s achievable?
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Pat: Yeah, you brought up a good point and we could spend a whole day on this. But let me just say this. This big, hairy, audacious goal stuff is, quite honestly, bullshit and here’s why. We get so excited about setting these outrageous [inaudible 00:09:48] and don’t believe in them. And if we don’t believe in them, we can’t achieve them. That’s just a psychological piece that takes place in our brain. If we don’t think in our head that there’s any chance of us achieving that outcome, it’s never going to happen. So we’re wasting our time.
So really, the objective here is to set a goal that you either believe in or that you at least have faith in. Faith is a step that precedes belief. Belief is usually a result or an outcome. It’s something that’s happened and that’s how beliefs are established. Faith precedes that. And we don’t have the tangible evidence, but we do have faith, based on who we are, where we’ve been, things like that, that we can achieve that outcome.
And then go one step beyond it. Make it a little scary, a little challenging. Believable and a little edge to it. We’re outside our comfort zone. So the other part that you don’t want to fall prey to, and this is the other end of that, is setting goals based on our means and not on our ends. Meaning that we start calculating how smart we are, how much money we have, how tall we are, how fit we are, all these other things. We let that determine how far we can go. Which means [inaudible 00:10:56]. We can only go as far as we’ve come. That’s all our means allow. That would never allow for advancement.
So we have to focus on the ends and create the means to achieve the ends. So our minds don’t allow for that to happen. We’ve got to find a balance between . . . pick something that you can have really a belief in or at least have faith in and make it a little scarier, something that will tweak you a little and achieve it. If it’s not scary, it’s not tall enough. That’s probably what I’m rooting for.
Mike: Awesome. Awesome. All right, man. Let’s jump into number two.
Pat: Number two, with absolute clarity, define your outcome. We often times will define goals with vague terms. “I want to go on vacation. In 2018, I want to go on vacation.” That’s not a goal. That’s not actionable. It’s too vague in definition. “I want to be financially free.” There’s no such thing as that. There’s no definition that you attach to that. There are no action steps because they’re not clear enough on the outcome. On vacation, when do you want to go on vacation? Where do you want to go on vacation? And what do you want to travel in? Who’s going to go with you? What are you going to pack? How long are you going to go for? Add that clarity.
And here’s the thing about adding clarity to the outcome. Each time you add information to the clarity, and you can never stop defining with more clarity, but each time you add another layer of clarity, it tells the universe exactly what it needs to do for you to open the door to achieving it. Does that make sense? It’s outrageously abundant in what it has to offer to us and willing, ready and able to help if we just give it clear instructions.
And one of the ways of doing that is getting crystal clear on what we want. We bounce around here, here, here, here. We confuse the crap out of the universe. That’s like, “I’ve thrown in the towel on you because I have no idea what you want.” Or it’ll give us something in our lives that we don’t want. “Where did that come from?” Well, the universe is like, “You asked for that.”
In live events, Mike, I do this little . . . I say, “Listen, I want you guys to look around the room right now and pick out everything you see that’s red. Red, red, red.” We can do this really quickly. “Look around the room for anything that’s red.” So all of you listeners, do this with me and you’ll enjoy this. Now cover your eyes. Don’t cheat on this. I’m going to ask you. A little memory test. Cover your eyes like this. Now scream out every [inaudible 00:13:30].
And the room goes deaf because we told it specifically to find red. You were anticipating red. So although you saw the green, you didn’t record it. It’s not there. Clarifying the outcomes you want puts all the resources you want that are already there right in front of you and makes you aware of them. That’s how powerful it is. Does that make sense to you?
Mike: Yeah. And when you start to be on the path of trying to achieve your goals . . . you’re getting a bunch of feedback. Pat, I don’t know if you can hear that or not. But when you start trying down the path of working on your goals, I found if you have to spend a bunch of time thinking . . . if you didn’t have a plan, if you didn’t define what it is that you want and how you’re going to get there, and if you are forced to think about that at the time when it comes time to do it, it seems like it’s a lot harder of a job because you didn’t plan in advance, if that makes sense.
And like you said, define with clarity what the steps are to that, where you’re going to go on vacation and things like that. Because then when it comes time, “Hey, I’m supposed to go on vacation in a month,” you’re much less likely to do it because you’re like, “Well, I’ve got to figure out where to go. The flights are too expensive now because I waited until the last minute.” If you don’t define that stuff up front, then you’re much less likely to hit your goals or your outcomes. So let’s start on step three.
Pat: Step three, accept unconditionally where you are now. Get crystal clear on your truth. And what I mean by this is, very often, we do one of two things. Instead of getting just to our truth, our reality of what our situation is, this goes back to the John Stockdale paradox. We either make things better than they are and pretend it’s a fantasy positivity world of BS that does not serve us or we pretend things are worse than they are. But it’s only at the truth that we can create change. Everything else is a fantasy world.
It’s almost like this, Mike. If you said, “Hey, Pat, how do you go from Connecticut to Canal Point? I need driving instructions.” Well, until we get clear on where we’re starting from, the truth, 2 Elm Road in Cromwell, Connecticut, all the other instructions are not going to serve you. They’re going to be coming from some other spot, either up here or down here. Does that make sense?
Mike: Yep, absolutely.
Pat: And we have a hard time with the truth. I understand that. But if you truly want change, get to your truth. You know, if you’re being a real ass about something in your life, accept the truth of it so that you can get over it. But if you keep pretending that it’s not that . . . I use alcoholism as a prime example. There are ways to solve for drinking. But if you don’t admit that you have a problem, the ways aren’t going to serve you. They won’t work at all.
Next, so once we’re clear on our outcome, crystal clear, with absolute definition . . . the greater the definition, the more the universe will step up to show you the way. Once we’re crystal clear on our truth, exactly where we are right now, our truth is our Point A, our clarity or outcome that we desire is our Point B. Draw a straight line between them. And this is step number four. Write down actionable steps that move you forward on that line directly between Point A and Point B.
What this allows you to do is to ask yourself a genuine question. “Is this next step deviating off the line or moving me straight toward the outcome I want?” And that’s a yes/no question. But what it does is it helps to eliminate a lot of the crap we put on our to-do lists and that we put in front of us, the distractions we bring into our lives. By the way, distractions don’t happen to us. Distractions are then something we choose to get away from what we’re doing. We do that very intentionally. That’s another discussion, but know that. But distractions don’t happen to you. You go out and find them intentionally. And typically, to avoid something. But we’ll save that for another day.
So this speaks to what you spoke of earlier. Next, once we have the actionable steps from your Point A to your Point B, write down the known obstacles that you believe will be in the way of you achieving. Really, all this is, this requires you to turn around, look backward and write down all of the things that have stopped you from making progress in the past.
“I didn’t have the money. I got divorced. This one, between these two years, a little voice started getting really loud. Doubting myself. I lost confidence. I started thinking I wasn’t good enough, I didn’t know enough, didn’t have enough.” These are all the things that get in our way. We get all excited at the front end and then that excitement drops off and that little voice steps up.
Write it down. Write down what those little voices tell you, the lies that they tell you. And then let’s start providing remediation for them. What can we do to solve for them before we get to them? Understand they’re lies. So how do we defend against them before we get to them?
Mike: Yes. So when it happens, you’ve already got a solution. So when it happens, “Not a problem. I already know what I’m going to do here.”
Pat: There’s this little play on words I remind myself of all the time. “You either wait for what you want or you create what you want.” And this is a form of creation. This whole process is a form of creation. You wait around, guess what? Life’s going to pass you by. It requires you to step up, make a big demand of the world or the universe and start taking what you deserve. That’s how we achieve in this world.
And preparing yourself with an arsenal of tools to overcome the obstacles that you know get in your way are part of that process. Just thinking, “Hey, I don’t have to prepare. Nothing’s going to go wrong,” or, “I’ll be fine when I get there,” is, quite honestly, almost like a very arrogant approach. It just doesn’t work that way. That’s like sending infantry into battle without guns. “Oh, we’ll be fine. We don’t need guns or helmets or shields or any of that crap. We’re good.” Nobody would do that. No, they’re the most highly trained individuals and they still go as prepared as possible.
Next one. This is the big one that plays right into it. Getting back to our “why.” And when I say our why, Mike, I don’t mean, “I want to make a million dollars,” that’s not a why. Money is only a result. Money is not a why. Money is not a purpose. And the reason you’ve got to get clear on a why is we will run into obstacles. Look at your why as providing x-ray vision that allows you to see through the obstacles and never lose sight of the outcomes that you wrote down in the first place.
That’s what a why does for you. When you remove that and all you see is the obstacle and you lose sight of the outcome, guess what? You’re stuck. You’ve lost direction. Now, your focus is on the obstacle and not the outcome or the result. That’s what the x-ray vision does for you. That’s what your why does for you. That’s the juice you need when the going gets tough. And the going always gets tough. Don’t kid yourself on this one.
That goes into the next one. This is the big one. Accept feedback. Feedback is one of the most valuable parts of this process. Feedback, typically . . . if you’re like, “Pat, what is feedback?” It typically shows up in the form of pain. Let’s just accept that. Pain got a bad rap when we were young. When we were kids, we probably hurt our knee. “Ow. It hurts.” And you were crying, all that kind of crap. Pain is one of the greatest gifts the universe has ever [inaudible 00:20:56].
There are two types of general pain I like to categorize. One is the, “Hey, Mike, you’re screwing up right now. You’ve got to change.” So this could be you jogging down the road and you roll your ankle. You’ve got a lot of pain shooting up your leg. Mike, if you continue to run on this, you’re going to make it worse. And so take that analogy and turn it over into life, whether it be in a relationship, relationships going south, “I’ve got to start changing something,” or a business deal went bad because I didn’t do my homework. I didn’t go in prepared and lost a ton of money because I let my emotions dictate my decisions instead of vice versa. There’s that type of pain.
But then there’s another type of pain. There’s a type of pain that grows us. There’s a type of pain that challenges us. And this is the kind of pain that when we’re encountering fear and we’re pushed beyond our normal boundaries. And it’s the pushing through that pain that grows us and makes us [inaudible 00:21:53]. It never goes away. That’s the cool thing about it. Each time we punch through this, it makes us stronger and better and can never be taken back from us. [Inaudible 00:22:06] from life that we can fall back on.
So the key here is that. A couple of things here. Number one, track it. Track it and write down what’s going on. Track the feedback. Number two, record it so you have some record of what’s going on so that you can go to step three, which is to evaluate it. Just sit back, objectively interpret the feedback you’re coming to. And then the fourth one is to evolve from it. Evolve is not change. Evolve is growth forward. The evolution is in place to perpetuate our longevity. You can change for the worst. I can take a rock and blow the thing up into a billion little pieces. It’s not better. It’s worse.
You can change by, I don’t know, growing old and dying. Change and better yourself, so to speak. What I’m talking about is change in the form of evolution. That’s the feedback, where you’re taking the feedback to evolve to a better place and become better, smarter, bigger, faster, stronger, whatever you want to be from the feedback at that point.
And the last two go hand-in-hand. Number one . . . well, it’s really not number one. It’s number eight. Begin now. Everybody’s like, “I got this. This is awesome. I’m going to do this shit tomorrow.” Guess what? Tomorrow is nothing more than a reflection of today magnified. So whatever you do today, it’ll be no different tomorrow, just magnified. And that’s why each day you put something off, it becomes less likely that you’ll ever, ever do it.
The question is, and this is a good question I ask myself, Mike, all the time whenever I’m ever a little hesitant or resistant about doing something and I know I should be doing it. I just ask and I look at myself square in the mirror and say, “Pat, how much longer are you going to continue to choose to accept your current results and outcomes?” And that’s a really ballsy question to ask yourself. “How much longer are you going to choose to accept the result that you don’t like?” That’s high-level responsibility and accountability. Those two go hard right there.
And then the final step, Mike, and this is from a buddy of mine quite a while ago, every single day, take a step toward that result, that outcome that you want, that you desire, that you deserve. What happens is you create a habit out of it. And you create a lifestyle around it. And then you tell the universe with absolute intention exactly what it is you want.
And every day, you’ll manifest more in your life, needs, wants, services that provide what you need for to get you to where you want to go, if that makes any sense. Can we turn around? Or do we stop? Take a break? Things get confusing. Those are the nine steps. And these are steps to achieve pretty much anything you want or you can use them as a troubleshooting guide on something you’re already doing, trying to figure out why you’re not getting exactly what you want. Does that all make sense?
Mike: Yeah, it’s awesome, Pat. So a lot of this stuff we talked about here is probably kind of self-management. These are things you’re doing for yourself. What are your thoughts or can you share some thoughts on having somebody in your life to help hold you accountable as well? Because sometimes that’s a lot more powerful, the fear that I’m going to let somebody else down. Usually, people are more afraid to let somebody else down than to let themselves down, right? I don’t know why that is. But any thoughts on kind of how to have somebody else hold you accountable, whether that’s a spouse or a business partner or whatever?
Pat: Thousands. A business partner, mentor, coach, whatever you want to call it. I personally don’t know anyone who’s achieved absolute greatness without somebody on the outside pulling them beyond where they think they could be, whether on the athletic field, on the court. Steve Jobs creating what he has done for this world, anybody and everybody I know that are high achievers have a coach, or multiple coaches or multiple accountability partners to allow that.
Because we can only see so much from the inside out. They’re from the outside in. they have a different perspective. And I know there are a lot of people, I guarantee, listening right now saying, “I don’t need a coach.” It’s really our lack of willingness to be vulnerable, needing or wanting a coach makes us less of who we are.
Now, let me just separate for a second, without getting into some quicksand here. There’s a difference between a coach, whether you call it a life coach, whether you call it a performance coach, a peak performance coach and a therapist. Typically, people who see a therapist have mental challenges that they need worked out. And I’m not saying it’s right or wrong. I’m just stating the difference. They typically go backward before they can come forward. They deal in the past so they can come back to the present.
The coach, mentor, they’re not there to fix you. You’re not broken. It’s to get the best performance out of you. They go in the future to recreate the present to create better future results. They don’t go in the back and try to figure out why you’re broken because the assumption is you’re perfectly cool. You’re just capable of a higher performance. That’s the big difference there. And sometimes, when we talk about our coach or mentor, like, “That’s like a mental therapist.” No, no, no, big difference. There’s a place for both of them. Does that make any sense what I just said?
Mike: Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. Awesome, Pat.
Pat: Well, let me share with you one other quick thing here because there are still some people are probably trying to [inaudible 00:28:07] this discussion. I like bringing down to the simplest terms. When you want to achieve something, say in this case, there are a lot of entrepreneurs on this call right here, there are only three things you have to answer for. If you get all three things answered properly, [inaudible 00:28:26] will help fill it in, you will achieve whatever it is you want to achieve and be successful and however you define it.
Number one, you have to know what it is you have to do. In order to achieve it, remember that clarity thing we defined in step two? In order to achieve it, you have to know what to do. And in our world of real estate here, Mike, one thing I have to do is generate a whole bunch of leads. Next, I’ve got to convert leads and so forth and so on. Identify what it is you have to do.
Second, you have to identify how to do it. You know what to do, now you have to know how to do it. And that’s where you find the training experts, the knowledge to execute what it is you want to do. And then, third, the same as we mentioned here already, why you’re doing it in the first place. That’s almost like your compass, your direction. That answers questions along the way and gives you direction as to where the next step is.
And this troubleshooting guide helps you fill in all three of those, but that brings it down to an even simpler level. If you’re ever struggling with a business model, go back and see. And if you have those three questions answered and you’re executing, you’ll do fine. But if you’re not, you’re either not executing or you’re missing one of those questions. Does that make sense?
Mike: That’s awesome. Yeah. Maybe, Pat, just one last comment here, question for you. Let’s talk about the why a little bit. A lot of times, people get up and they say, “Well, I’m doing this for my family. I want to provide.” A lot of real estate investors . . . I will say probably a lot of people early on really are doing it for their family. They’re trying to survive. They’re trying to quit their job. When you start as a real estate investor, a lot of people are scrappy and they’re trying to just . . . it’s more about survival for a lot of people early on.
But then you get to a point where if you have some level of success, you’re not worried about eating anymore. If you start to get to a point where you’re doing a few deals a month, you’re probably beyond the point of survival mode. And then your why changes, right? Your why has to change, right? So I think a lot of people, probably me included, have struggled with defining what their why is after you achieve some level of success, whether it’s giving back or whatever. But maybe talk about that a little bit.
Pat: Yeah. And I would argue your why doesn’t change. Your focus on what part of your why changes. So to your point, if I asked 100 entrepreneurs to stand up and I said, “Tell me your why,” “My wife, my husband, my kids, financial stability” all that stuff to what you just said. I’d say there are two parts to a why. There’s your priority side and then there’s your greater responsibility. Because here’s the truth, there is no one on this earth that was created for the sole purpose of just raising a family. We’re bigger than that. The uniqueness of us, the God-given skills and talents innate to us or the magic that we possess, Mike, are so much bigger than that.
I’m not playing that down at all, but that is definitely part of our why and part of our priority. But we have a greater responsibility and interpretation of it. Take all of those unique skills, our magic, and impact this world in a positive way. That’s our greater why. How you do that now starts getting into your purpose and your passion. But we have our priority, our financial well-being and our security of our family and our greater responsibility. Take these skills that were given to us, innate, unique, special, one-off, us and impact the world in a better way.
So I was driving up to Colorado two years ago when my son decided he didn’t want to go to school. He wanted to go live in Breckenridge, Colorado all by himself and on his own dime. On the way out there, one of the questions he asked me is . . . we had a bunch of kind of crazy conversations. One of the questions was, “Dad, when is enough enough? When is enough enough?” I said, “Patrick, it’s never enough. But let me explain why.”
There are a couple of parts to this. Number one, before you judge that, because some would say, “Sure, there’s a point when enough is enough,” I’d say no. Because in order for enough to be enough, it would mean we would have to stop creating. You’d have to stop attracting and generating. Which means we’d stop using these God-given skills and talents that are innate and special to us and disrespecting them. So the key here, to understand this in kind of a ball, would be to always appreciate what you have and where you are, no matter what, good, bad or indifferent. And always want more.
But let me now show you where that takes us. Remember that formula we talked about at the beginning of this call? In order to do more, you have to be more. We’ve heard this all our lives. Many of us just never paid attention. Be, do, have. Be, do, have. Be, do, have. Well, now is the other part to it. We become more so that we can do more so that we can give more. And that’s the impact side. That’s our greater responsibility. So there’s never enough.
Our job is to forever create. What we do with that, though, shifts over time. At first, it’s our own security. And then it’s those around us. Now, once we have that, it’s making an impact on the world. That starts bringing in our passions and our purpose if you do it. Maybe you want to make the planet a cleaner planet. So what you do, Mike, is you go around this country, planting plants. Fantastic. You’re making an impact. Challenged, fatherless inner-city kids. Awesome. Then that’s how you do it.
But that has to do, now, with you personally and your passions. But the formula and our why are no different. Priority, our immediate family and those we love around us that are near and dear and take care of. But our greater responsibility is the impact we leave on this earth. Because at the end of the day, once we die, nobody’s remembering Pat or Mike. That’s the truth of it. [Inaudible 00:34:58] the impact that we made on this world. That’s the part that’s going to count. Does that answer your question?
Mike: Yep. That’s good, man. That’s good. Awesome.
Pat: Big question. Yeah, it’s a big question.
Mike: Yeah. So, Pat, thanks for spending time with us today. I definitely appreciate it.
Pat: I loved being here. I could do this all day long, man.
Mike: I know. I know, man. Awesome. Well, hey, if folks wanted to learn more about you, I know you’ve got a lot of good stuff going on, where do they go to learn more?
Pat: Just my website, patrickprecourt.com, or find me on Facebook. When you put Patrick Precourt, you’ll find me or my son. And hopefully, you’ll be able to figure out the difference between the two. I don’t know.
Mike: Yeah. Awesome. Awesome. Well, thanks again for spending time with us. I definitely appreciate it.
Pat: It’s been an absolute pleasure, man. Anytime you want to have me back, I’ve got more to share.
Mike: I know you do and I appreciate it. Everybody, hey, this was episode number 368 with Pat Precourt. We appreciate you. We’re pumping out content for you so, hopefully, you’re enjoying it. If you could, please, I don’t ask for this enough. Honestly, guys, after 386 episodes, I haven’t asked you for much. I always forget to ask this, but I would love it if you would go to iTunes and give us a review or Google Play or wherever you watch it at. I know iTunes, truthfully, makes it a pain in the ass to leave a rating for somebody.
So I appreciate you taking a couple of extra minutes for that, but it adds a lot of value to us. It helps us. It’s really the one thing, other than meeting with guests like Pat that energize me, but it energizes me when I know that people are listening and people enjoy the show. So if you could, find us on iTunes and give us a rating or review. Or Google Play or anywhere else you watch this. So, everybody, I appreciate it. Pat, thanks again, my friend.
Pat: Peace, Mike. I appreciate it.
Mike: Awesome. Everybody, have a great day. We’ll see you next time.
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