"It is just pointless to dwell on failure. There is just no upside to it."
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Paralysis through Self-Flagellation

Paralysis through Self-Flagellation

 

My ex-wife, one of my favorite people in the world, bought a house just before the real estate market began its fall.  Therefore, as with millions of folks around America, she overpaid.  Today, she is considering doing an addition to the house of another bedroom and bath (it currently has two and two).  By any objective measure, a three bedroom house is both worth more and is easier to sell than a two bedroom, but she is paralyzed from taking the next step due to her beating herself up over paying too much in the first place for the house.

 

Now, she and I have spent hours talking about this and the bottom line is this; what is done is done.  There is absolutely no point in rehashing past mistakes as they cannot be undone, only learned from.  So in this case, sure, she paid too much but that is over now.  Time and good decisions going forward will fix it.  Real estate at some point down the road will start to appreciate again and when it does she will regain what she has lost on paper and make a nice profit with the addition.  She just has to let it go and act because in the current market contractors are hurting and there couldn’t be a better time to negotiate a deal with them for the addition.  Two years ago they were swamped with work and many were near arrogant.  Now they are hurting, a classic buying opportunity.

 

In business, I have made so many mistakes that I long ago lost count.  Some of them were pretty dreadful.  But I have developed the ability to make a note not to do that again, learn, and move on.  It is just pointless to dwell on failure.  There is just no upside to it.

 

Meanwhile while we all sit and stew over what we have done wrong, we often let golden opportunities just go right by.  To use one of my favorite quotes by Frederick the Great, “boldness, again boldness, always boldness.” 

 

We are in a difficult business climate but there are lots of opportunities to be had.  Let old mistakes go and boldly attack.  Those that do will profit enormously!

Posted by Herb Kay on Thursday, September 04, 2008

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