“Great is the guilt of an unnecessary war!” – John Adams Our daily dose of lame stream media drenches us with constant updates of unnecessary wars that rage throughout the modern world. “If it bleeds, it leads” is an unspoken motto for corporate controlled media. At the time of this writing, Americans continue to be bogged-down in Middle East conflicts in Libya, Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan. And those are just the conflicts we know about. The last 60+ years of American foreign policy have resulted in foreign governments being secretly overthrown with the help of our intelligence agencies…often resulting in “blow-back” which means more enemies than we had prior. The Russians continue to be prodded by NATO and Ukraine. On the home front, daily battles between our Federal Government and the Mexican drug cartels are so often, that it’s virtually ignored by the American controlled press. Visit your favorite sports website or watch ESPN and you’re eyes will eventually absorb pictures of St. Louis Ram’s draftee, Michael Sam, lip locked with his boyfriend rather than articles about his impending NFL season. The NBA headlines were recently flooded not with conference finals articles, but whether a private conversation of owner Donald Sterling and his girlfriend should destroy his 30+ year career as an owner. Performance enhancing drugs continue to reflect negatively not only in MLB, but across the board for all professional sports, including the Olympics. It makes me want to scream, “where is the focus!?!?” Some days I wonder if anyone is actually focused on the actual sport or merely the drama that comes along with it? But it’s even worse when the lack of focus causes strife and unnecessary wars. Unnecessary war is a most deadly sin…for business, for a sports team, and for our nation. And many of these unnecessary skirmishes are a result of someone making himself/herself the issue or of being swallowed up in stubborn pride. It is in the nature of man to fight. Perhaps it’s the DNA from ancient ancestors who had to fight for survival or fight off beasts in order to eat and live. And even though we are “tame and domesticated,” that DNA still reveals itself in close relationships, in our business pursuits – in every area of life. We still stake our turf, whether as a gang-banger in Los Angeles or a CEO of a Fortune 1,000 company. We mark our turf like a dog visiting the fire hydrant. Additionally, we want competitors to know we have staked our claim and they best leave us alone. But the man who will succeed doesn’t allow himself to be drawn into every skirmish. We’re not gunslingers who must accept the challenger of a gunfight for honors’ sake. Dueling and gunfights make for good historical drama, but they are just plain ridiculous. A successful leader chooses carefully...
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We Made it to the Top 5 Leaderboard on Bigger Pockets! Some of you may not be aware of Bigger Pockets, an online outlet for the real estate investing community. Our company joined Bigger Pockets about two months ago. I only wish we would’ve discover it sooner! Not only has it been advantageous to our networking goals, but it has also helped redirect interested investors to our website, blogs as well as other social media outlets. We are meeting scores of real estate investors from all parts of the country. We’re helping them with their real estate knowledge and education. As they say, “networking is the lifeblood of business.” There is no better internet outlet for investors to rub elbows with other investors from all different experience levels. Bigger Pockets also includes a large discussion forum with a focus on subjects such as “rehabbing and flipping, lending, buying and selling, rentals, DIY, etc.“. Over the course of the last several weeks, I have gotten involved in numerous forum discussions. I also post our blogs and our Rehabs Revealed series to help other investors with their on-going and future flips. I provide the costs, materials, process and SKUs to the rest of the BP community, for free. Bigger Pockets has over 200,000 active members! Over time, as you post forum discussions and blog articles, you begin to accrue points on your “post score”. I am very excited and proud to report that we’ve finally made it onto the leaderboard! The Leaderboard reflects the Top 5 Bigger Pockets members who are involved in articles and forum discussions. Your leaderboard score takes into account several factors. Most importantly the number of votes your posts have received and the number of posts you’ve left. The more high quality posts where you provide great value, the higher your post score will become. Your post score is updated daily based on your previous seven days of activity. To make it onto the Leaderboard – Top 5 of an online community with almost a quarter of a million members is definitely an accomplishment that I am very proud of! Therefore, take a moment and create a free Bigger Pockets account via www.biggerpockets.com/signup. Be sure to send me a colleague request! We’d also love to connect with you on our other social media accounts: LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/andrewcordle/ Facebook: www.facebook.com/AndrewCordle12 Twitter: Username – @andrew_cordle Instagram: www.instagram.com/andrewcordle Bigger Pockets: www.biggerpockets.com/users/andrewcordle ...
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In this week’s DIY video, Andrew expounds on the “X-factor” and why it’s so important. ...
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“There is no man living who isn’t capable of doing more than he thinks he can do.” – Henry Ford I once heard an allegorical story of a traveling rabbi who came across a fruit tree, abundant with foliage. The rabbi, famished because of his long journey, searched the tree for fruit. Upon discovering none, promptly cursed the fruit tree. Shortly thereafter, the tree withered and died. The moral of the story resonates throughout history. If you reflect the appearance of health and productivity, be sure that you have the “fruit” to back it up! It’s not necessarily wrong to judge a tree by it’s fruit. Neither is it wrong to judge a leader by his fruit. Leadership means production! Having knowledge of what you’re supposed to produce and actually producing it are the paramount duties of leadership. I was visiting a large corporate headquarters in the Midwest several years ago. I was greeted at the executive entrance by a very jovial, young security guard. He had an infectious smile and a down-right side-splitting laugh – just a delight some personality. While meeting with the executive team, I commented about the young security guard. Without missing a beat, the CEO replied that the young man had been hired for 2 reasons: first, to be a security driver for the CEO and secondly, to keep the outer office area in an upbeat and positive mood. That was a first for me! I had never heard of a “mood” employee, but I was certainly intrigued. Well, as fate would have it, I became the CEO of that corporation several years later. I inherited the “mood cop.” I thoroughly got to know the man and his family and recall the long protracted illness and eventual death of his father. I called the mood-cop into my office and told him I didn’t expect him to be upbeat through this difficult time. His eyes filled rapidly with tears as I placed my hand on his shoulder and expressed my deepest sympathy for him and his family. I told him to take some time off to decompress. He looked at me, smiled, thanked me, and said, “You employ me, among other things, to produce joy in the outer office. You’ve allowed me to weep in private. Please allow me to go back to my job and produce what you expect.” He knew what he was supposed to produce, and he produced it, even when his heart was broken. Allow me to address three specific areas of concern with respect to leadership production: 1. Know what you are expected to produce. 2. Know how to produce. 3. Just do it. Studies have concluded that billions of dollars are lost or squandered due to the leaders lack of production. By the time a person gets to the leadership position, his/her work...
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