Mike Browning

Tag: Focus

  • The 4-Hour Workweek

    The 4-Hour Workweek

    (Spread Across 40 hours)

    It’s been a few years now, but Tim Ferriss wrote a book called The 4-Hour Workweek.

    The basic idea was that a lot of work can be automated, delegated, or redesigned so the owner doesn’t have to be involved all the time. If you do it right, the business can keep running even when you’re not there.

    That idea isn’t crazy.

    If your business requires 100 percent of your time just to stay alive, you don’t really have a business. You have a job.

    Dan Kennedy makes a similar point in a different way. He says you should design your business, especially the marketing side, so it can operate independently of you.

    At the same time, Kennedy is also famous for saying something else.

    Successful people work. A lot.

    Those two ideas sound like they contradict each other, but they really don’t.

    The real issue is focus.

    Most people who work “40 hours a week” are not actually working 40 hours. Between office chatter, long lunches, checking their phones, scrolling social media, and a hundred other little distractions, the amount of actual productive effort is a fraction of that.

    Kennedy once joked that most people already have the 4-hour workweek.

    They’ve just spread it across forty hours.

    When you actually concentrate on the task in front of you, something interesting happens. Work compresses. Problems get solved faster. Decisions happen sooner.

    Two focused hours can produce more than an entire distracted day.

    You see this in brokerage all the time.

    A deal often happens because someone noticed something and acted on it. A buyer quietly assembling land. A property that fits a need. A phone call made at the right time.

    That doesn’t usually require eighty hours a week.

    It requires someone who is actually paying attention.

    A distracted broker working twelve hours might miss the opportunity entirely.

    A focused broker working two hours might catch it.

    A lot of people think the secret is escaping work.

    Usually the real secret is doing the work you’re supposed to be doing while you’re (supposedly) doing it.

    PS – You’re probably not considering selling your land today.

    But having the most current information already on hand allows you to focus and move quickly if the time ever comes.

    The MBR Land Reality Check gets you up to speed on the latest market activity without you having to spend a week digging through listings and sales trying to figure it out yourself.

    It’s still free (for now). No obligation and never any pressure to list.

    Is it a bad idea to know how things stand?

    Get Yours Here.

    PPS – If you’re not ready for a Reality Check but like reading this sort of thing, sign up below and get these in your inbox (almost daily).

    Register to Receive Posts Via Email!

    By submitting, I understand I will receive marketing emails and blog posts from Mike Browning Realty and/or associated companies. Unsubscribe at any time.

  • It Looks Different From The Inside

    It Looks Different From The Inside

    Flexibility and focus go hand in hand.

    Jim Rohn once said something simple that explains a lot.

    Follow a very successful person around for a week and there will be no mystery about why they are successful.

    You’ll see all the things they do that others don’t.

    And all the things they don’t do that everyone else does.

    Most people imagine that someone who works for themselves must have a lot of free time.

    That’s the dream people picture when they talk about owning a business.

    I remember taking my licensing classes, back when you actually had to sit in a classroom. I was struck by how many people said their main motivation was being able to work from home.

    Ironically, that’s exactly what a lot of young people are looking for today, and now it’s more available than ever.

    Flexible schedule.
    Lots of freedom.
    Working when you feel like it.

    Sometimes that happens eventually.

    But even then I knew the people who were mostly trying to avoid having a boss were headed for a rude awakening.

    Working for yourself can look like you’re not doing much. But the reality is different for people who are actually successful.

    They make calls when other people are waiting for calls.

    They follow up when other people move on.

    They notice things in the market that most people never see.

    And they spend a lot of time doing work that nobody is watching.

    From the outside it can sometimes look like they aren’t working much.

    But the truth is they’re just doing the things that matter while everyone else is busy doing things that don’t.

    Most people are active, especially if someone is watching.

    Very few people are focused, especially if nobody is watching.

    That’s why success often looks mysterious from a distance.

    Up close, it usually looks like discipline.

    PS – If you own land, the disciplined move is to stay on top of the market even if you’re not planning to sell today.

    Things can change quickly. It’s better to have information you don’t need than need information you don’t have.

    That’s what the MBR Land Reality Check is for.

    You get the most current activity affecting your property, including nearby sales, listings, and development pressure. Plus analysis done by hand by someone with decades of experience working this market.

    It’s free this month. No obligation, and never any pressure to list.

    Can it hurt anything to just take a look?

    Get Yours Here.

    PPS – If you’re not ready for the Reality Check, you can still sign up below and get these articles in your inbox.

    Register to Receive Posts Via Email!

    By submitting, I understand I will receive marketing emails and blog posts from Mike Browning Realty and/or associated companies. Unsubscribe at any time.