Utterly Thriving or Barely Surviving: Which are YOU in Troubling Times?

Lockdown hit, and you had two choices: educate yourself, to enable you to make calculated decisions and thrive OR take the easy way out; sit on your hands, do nothing and barely survive. Which did you take?

Challenging, changing and uncertain times like these always highlights who’s going to stand the test of time. Simply put, there are two types of people in these scenarios, and your knee jerk reaction will define which you are. I knew exactly which team I wanted to be on…

At the start of lockdown, I had a bit of money in the pot, as well as a portfolio-building service and a lettings company that, due to the pandemic, may not have survived. So, I was faced with the decision: go down the route of furloughing my staff? Reduce my overheads? Save the pot of money I did have, sit on my hands and do nothing? Or, do I educate myself to take calculated decisions and tackle the issue head-on? 

Well, I did the latter. I chose to step up my game on social media; doing live videos daily, stepping up my marketing – even hiring a team to help me do so. Currently, I’ve taken on three extra hands, but we’re in negotiations for the fourth and fifth additions. 

On top of that, I decided to drive my education company forward, which is a business to train people how to remote property invest. This is a project I’ve been leisurely working away at, knowing that I’d always have my property income (or so I thought), but essentially procrastinating on, as it was out of my comfort zone. Whereas I could have seen this as a risky time to launch a new venture; I didn’t. Instead, I stepped right out of my comfort zone and produced E-Books, online courses and took on my first load of clients, as I could operate this with no pandemic-related restriction.

Finally, I invested in myself. I spent about £4k in online courses during lockdown – which was a huge risk considering the potential loss of income I was facing. However, a bigger risk is to fail to keep educating yourself. You are your number one asset. Remember that the more you pay for something, the more value you get from it. There is free information out there, and information you pay for. The biggest difference between the two is that you’ll value what you pay for more, and you’ll more likely be held accountable. Your mind does a magical thing – when you pay for something, you pay attention. In your mind, subconsciously, you will find a way to make value of it, to justify why you paid such a high price for it.

Even if you don’t want to buy property right now, use this time to educate yourself on the right strategies, and how best to manage these new strategies to keep yourself evolving so that you’re ready for when the time is right. Make calculated decisions and investments. The best way to do so is by educating yourself, getting support, being active in the right networks.

The lesson to be learnt: the biggest opportunities come in the biggest times of disruption and change. COVID has been a big disruption that has sparked a lot of change at an accelerated rate. How you react to it will determine whether you barely survive, or utterly thrive. 

My advice? Be an innovative company. Like Apple – when Spotify came along, they changed their model really quickly and evolved, whereas the music industry are struggling to compete with streaming services – as they didn’t adapt. Look at Blockbusters; when Netflix appeared on the scene, Blockbusters could have easily bought them for about £9M, but didn’t, and are now in solvency today. If you don’t challenge your ways, you could also be left behind. If you have the right mindset, you’ll see this as an opportunity. 

Constantly evolve your ideas.
Constantly evolve your thinking.
Constantly educate yourself to move forward.  

So the question is: Which are you? Thriving 💰 or Surviving 😓?  

Let me know in the comments below…