Mike Browning

Tag: Earl Nightingale

  • It Ain’t Gonna Act On Itself

    It Ain’t Gonna Act On Itself

    An idea is worthless until you take action.

    When I first started in the land business, I worked with my dad. On my wall right now there’s an old black-and-white aerial of the Celina/Prosper area that he kept back then—right next to a shiny new one.

    I spent hours researching ownerships and mailing letters to the owners. Finding phone numbers for those old entities was tough, but I’ve always found writing works better for me anyway.

    One of the responses I got was from a guy who said he wasn’t ready to sell yet but might be soon.

    My dad kept telling me to follow up.

    I kept saying the time wasn’t right—I didn’t want to pester the guy.

    (If stubbornness counts as a super-power, that’s mine.)

    Then one day after lunch I just had the idea it was time to call. So I did.

    Turned out the thing the owner had been waiting on was finished that very morning.

    He gave me pricing on all three of his tracts. I called a buyer and sold them.

    Dad said I got lucky.

    Maybe I did. But here’s the thing: I had the idea—and I acted. Right then.

    Yesterday I wrote about Earl Nightingale’s challenge to come up with 20 ideas a day.

    You don’t need all good ones. Most will be duds. But the practice keeps your mind working and gets you closer to the one that matters.

    Here’s the catch: the best idea in the world is worthless until you act on it.

    Every building you see started as an idea in a developer’s head. But it didn’t stop there. He went out, bought the land, got plans drawn, found financing, built it.

    And it wasn’t smooth. Nothing worth doing ever is. It just looks that way to the observer.

    The difference between most people and that developer is simple: he acted—before he had all the details figured out. You can’t know every step in advance, especially the first time you try something new.

    What you can do is put together the best plan you can today—and take the first step. Do something every day that moves it forward.

    As you go, you’ll find things that need adjusting. You’ll hit snags you didn’t foresee. You adjust, you keep going.

    That’s how the idea turns into a result. And often, the final result is better than what you first imagined—because you kept improving it along the way.

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    ***You probably aren’t ready to sell your land today. But one day you might decide the time is right, and it will be time to act.

    It will be much easier if you’ve been staying abreast of things ahead of time.

    Is there ever a bad time to get an expert in your corner so you’re ready when it’s time?

    You can do that below.

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  • Why Didn’t I Think Of That

    Why Didn’t I Think Of That

    You might have — or come up with something even better — if your approach was right.

    Everything you see or hear started as an idea.

    Every building, every business, every TV show, every song.

    Before it existed, it was just in someone’s head.

    We tend to assume the people who create these things are smarter, or their ideas come out more fully formed. The truth is, they understand the process — and they act on it.

    Earl Nightingale had a simple challenge: write down twenty ideas every single day.

    Not three or five — twenty.

    Not that they will all be great. Most won’t even be good. Especially at first.

    A few will be half-baked.

    That’s fine. The point is to keep the ideas coming.

    You only need one good idea to change your life. The law of averages says the more ideas you come up with, the better your odds. Plus with practice, you get better at it.

    Here’s what most people miss: the “bad” ideas aren’t wasted.

    They drop into your subconscious, which keeps working even when you’re not aware of it.

    That’s often where the spark comes from — a scrap of a thought you dismissed last week ends up being the missing piece to a bigger puzzle.

    All you know is you’re thinking about something, have a flash, and now you’ve got the answer.

    But it wouldn’t have happened nearly as fast — if at all — without all those “bad” ideas you tossed aside.

    I challenge you to try it for a month. If you can’t hit twenty at first, do what you can.

    If it doesn’t help, you can always go back to the old way.

    But I’d bet it does.

    This doesn’t have much to do with real estate directly.

    But it’s improved my marketing and how I run my business, which makes a difference everywhere.

    When you’re ready for help with real estate, I’m here.

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    If you’d like to read more from Nightingale, I recommend his book Lead the Field.

    You can buy it on Amazon here:

    https://amzn.to/46LtFnZ

    Disclosure: As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases. That means if you buy something — anything — after clicking that link, I may receive a small commission. It doesn’t change your price.