Chasing Opportunities vs Becoming a Magnet – Episode 438

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[00:02] Prosperity thinkers. We’re going to be talking about chasing deals and opportunities versus becoming a magnet. How about that for a hook for the episode? I love it. So a magnet is an interesting piece of equipment. I think I’m going to call it that draws to it, right? Is attracting. Why did you choose to use that word? Well, I think that a magnet, when we think of it in these terms, is a tool that can, it pulls in what it is that we’re trying to attract. Now, that’s where it becomes really dangerous or powerful because those magnets, I’m sure we all played with them as kids. You can take a magnet and flip it and then all of a sudden it’s like no matter how hard you push, you can’t get those two together. Well, that’s what happens when we are matching

[01:09] our wrong mental state or our wrong habits with someone that is where we want to be. We’re going to push them away. And once we have it aligned, it’s like you can’t pull them apart. So I get calls from lots of clients and prospects that are chasing deals and opportunities and they’re looking for them. And I actually encourage that. I think looking and being clear on what you want is some of what enables you to become a magnet for deals and opportunities and financing and ideas that people generate. We had a fun time a couple podcasts ago with the OPM term and calling it not only other people’s money, but also other people’s minds and other people’s mistakes. And so I think when you get really clear on what you’re looking

[02:12] for, which sometimes takes looking, you can then become a magnet for those opportunities. And I also think that when we are seeking opportunity and looking sometimes too hard, like you’re the choice of words, chasing it is a time for us to step back and say, what’s really going on here? What is it that I might be doing or how might I be acting or what words am I choosing to use that is causing me to chase? Because I think the term chase implies that whatever it is that we’re chasing is maybe almost uncatchable. And so it’s interesting when you brought that term up, I just have such an appreciation for people that are looking and proactively looking. I think that’s a super helpful thing and I think

[03:19] it helps you define even further what you’re looking for. And so maybe that distinction is helping to clarify. And I just want to add one more thing before you share your thoughts back. And that is the value of getting ready and being prepared with extra liquidity. Like right now, when we’re recording this, we’re in a very odd time economically and for people with their personal finances. And yet I know people are hungry and looking and chasing for opportunity, but I almost think it’s one of those times to stop chasing, to stop looking and just build cash in preparation for an opportunity. And to be okay with that position rather than feeling like money’s burning a hole in your pocket and you must invest today. So the language of chasing, I actually don’t

[04:17] like that word in this subject. And the reason why is because that’s a reactive word, if we think of it. And I’m going to use a quick story of what helped me change the way that I think of all of this. And this came from a mentor of mine and he was sharing about how Native Americans hunt. And what they do is, you know, a Native American will be out with their bows and, you know, in a deer hunt, they’ll be in the right position and they’ll spot the deer. And they have the Native American gaze with their eyes. And they believe that if they sit there and they stare at that deer when they’re getting ready to hunt it, that even from a distance being hidden, the deer is going to sense it. And so they spot

[05:18] the deer with a gaze, meaning they’re looking at it, but they’re not staring at it and completely focused. And that’s how they’re able to hunt. And the same happens when a person says, oh, I’m 100% focused in my eye and all of my energy is on this. Well, if 100% and their eye is on that, then they’re giving up all of the other pieces that may be helping them. I love that story. And you know, it’s interesting because I heard one that just supplements it beautifully recently, where somebody had gone, and this is more recent times to hunt wolves somewhere in Canada, and they were not getting good results and they were working and checking their traps and going back and striving, striving. And they ran across

[06:14] an elderly man that was clearly a wolf trapper. And they asked him, this is what we’re doing. What do you think? And he said, you’re not giving it enough time. You are going to want to pick one, sit down and wait. And that enabled them to get what they wanted for their hunt. So I think that goes great with the gaze versus stare story in that it sometimes, these deals that we want, the opportunities that we need for our business or our personal finances, sometimes they take time. Sometimes they take a direct focus. Sometimes it’s more of, I think Dan Sullivan uses a term, a strategic byproduct, whereby we may be looking at something, but something else ends up coming from that, that is even better than what we had

[07:15] hoped. And so I think just being really open to this and really listening to your own values, your own sense of appropriateness, because sometimes one method is going to work. Sometimes the other method is going to work is what can help us inch forward in this space of life as it relates to deals and opportunities. Yeah, absolutely. I’m going to try and pull in a life insurance correlation with this, with what I’m going to say next. We’ll see. I’ve got it in my head, so we’ll see if I can get here with this. But right now, the term dry powder or having capital is really important in being prepared for that opportunity. And if we look at that Native American gaze or that time for us to be patient is correct.

[08:10] And it is just like when we set up these policies, we’re looking at it for the long term. And we’re not seeing the reward right away. We’re patiently waiting. But just like taking a new opportunity, once you have that capital or those skills and they’re sitting there and you bank them and you see the opportunity, then that’s when you pounce. And it is just like with the policies that you set up, you’ve done the hard work and then all of a sudden you wake up and it’s like, hey, it’s available to use. You pounce. You have the opportunity. Well, you’ve made a great connection there. And I so appreciate you bringing it up because it’s funny. I’ll occasionally get on the phone with somebody and they’ll say, well, where do I go to start my life insurance policy? And I think,

[09:09] oh my gosh, what messaging are we not doing that causes them to ask that question? Because I love helping people buy life insurance policies with extra emphasis on the plural because it does just pull together everything that we’ve been talking about, which is the time, the gaze approach as opposed to the stare, because it is a complete set it and forget it environment. And then the peace of mind and the wherewithal to take a step back and be okay. Keeping lots of powder dry to use your earlier quote or cash, because we know that this cash is stored at a mutual life insurance company that has its reserves backed 100%. And this is so much safer, so much more efficient and effective than the various

[10:09] places that people tend to try to store liquidity, which is money market accounts and short-term bond funds and that kind of thing. It always cracks me up. I read these articles. Oh my gosh, a CD is paying this or the Muni bonds or even the regular bonds are paying that. And it’s like half or less than what the life insurance companies are paying in terms of dividends and the guaranteed increase in cash value that’s there. So if this is something that you want to learn more about, we have a book called live your life insurance. We have what Spencer like 450 some podcasts, I think. Oh yeah, quite the library. We really have it. And it’s a joy to do. It is. And so I think with this episode, instead of chasing deals and opportunities, you need to be prospering deals and opportunities.

[11:05] And by prospering, just like a gardener, sometimes you don’t see what’s growing in the ground. And then you’re pleasantly surprised, but you keep doing the work. You keep taking care of the things that matter and then it’s time to harvest. So this was a fun episode, Ken. Well, thank you always for the work that you do to help our listeners gain some good knowledge and some baby steps that they can take. And we welcome questions at our hello at prosperity thinkers.com email that is specifically dedicated to our podcast guests. Thank you for listening to the prosperity podcast to take control of your money and have it work for you. Visit us at partners for prosperity.com. If you liked this episode,

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