The Bush Brothers

My brother Michael’s words in his previous posts are kind and complimentary.

First, allow me to say that I provided this post to him to read, prior to posting it.  He responded to various things I wrote and to be fair, I decided to leave his responses in (they’re in blue), rather than modify what I wrote.  This was because some of the time, he’s right and for me to paraphrase his words might not do them justice.  The rest of the time, we might just agree to disagree.  Rather than posting only what’s agreeable - and, given that I requested his review - I elected to post it all.  One might think of it as a point counterpoint, even if only between brothers.

Also, I think we’ll agree that we want to welcome new readers that may have just been informed about, or discovered this web log.  I hope you enjoy it as much as we do

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Michael’s fears and mine are both significant and not insurmountable.  It’s important to gather enough information, education, and experience (if you can figure out how prior to actually doing something).  These are things that every business would be better off having.  I value Michael as a partner in business and in life for his careful thoughts and empirical philosophy.  Michael’s right about my #1 fear, though.  It is inaction.  See, I’ve set a goal for myself without knowing how to get there.  Sure, I could sit down and think about it.  I have, in fact.  But, when I’m “thinking,” there’s always the little voice in my head that’s telling me to stop thinking and start doing something – anything.

I told my brother that he’s the reasonable one and I’m the touchy feely one.  I believe in karma, as strange as it may sound, but during the days when I sent out 10 resumes every day right after college, I’d have a great job interview and be so sure I had the job that I’d stop sending out resumes.  Next thing I knew, “David, you were the third place candidate for two jobs.  Good luck, though!”  This didn’t happen once.  It happened at least three times!  Now, 13 years later, it’s still with me.  I can feel that if I’m only thinking and not doing something, karma’s only going to give me great ideas and let me languish in knowing that “I could have done that,” “I thought of that first,” etc.  
This sounds like you are making my point more than your own.  It’s “doing” without the “thinking” that left you with few job prospects after college (of course, the recession had something to do with it too, but a sound plan may have led to more successful action).  Simply sending out resumes is laughable.  Though I have done that myself, I don’t think that I’ve ever landed a job because someone received my resume.  As I mentioned below, “action” for the sake of motion may be the only way for you to make change in your life.  You’ll also have to learn and experience after you’ve put things into motion.
 My reasonable brother knows that with great ideas, I have to think about them and make educated decisions, preferably with wisdom and empirical knowledge to support my hypotheses.  I believe that’s one way and probably the surest way to succeed.  Somehow, I get discouraged each time I approach something that way.
  My most pronounced attempt of doing something in my brother’s way was with real estate.  Michael and I looked at least 100 houses and wrote offers on more than 20.  We met a realtor (that was meant to be for many reasons that I might explain in some other random post) that stuck with us through every low-ball offer.  He dedicated hours and hours to our need for the perfect house(s) with the perfect seller(s). We never found it.  We found some win-wins but they weren’t slam dunks for either party (at least not apparently).  Rather than accept some risk, we passed on them.  There were many of these houses where if Michael went on “a feeling,” as I did, we’d have become the owners of property and seen them come close to doubling in value during a 2 year span.  But, Michael wasn’t comfortable with making decisions based on unknown phenomena and I could not deny the voice of reason.  (This isn’t correct.  It wasn’t the “unknown”, it was most often my bar was to high regarding return on investment and I used inexperienced attributes to calculate the value of the investments.  Put this statement in here if you’d like to make your point on myth).  He’s told me that he feels bad that he didn’t listen but I feel bad that I didn’t give him anything to listen to.  I believe that in most cases, I could have said, “I’m buying the house, and if you’re not coming along, I’ll find some other partner to help me,” he’d have come along for the ride.  But, he’d have done so with a disclaimer that he didn’t think it was smart.  Again, I couldn’t argue with what’s smart from an empirical standpoint.  Both of us wanted real estate so badly that we could have talked each other into the risk required but instead we talked each other into the surest thing (that never was).  I’m not sorry about this experience – it was just that.  It was a great experience to add into our lives.  (I totally disagree with the story you use to make this point.  Our data was wrong.  It wasn’t the fear of the “unknown” or from a lack of motion.  We wouldn’t have written 20 offers if we were “afraid” or missing the “art of start”.  Again, I really feel like you are making my point for knowledge and experience.  I truly believe that good judgement often comes from experience and experience often comes from bad judgement; however, I also believe that motion does not mean progress and can be costly when motion is made for the sake of motion.  Again, motion may be the most important element for you.  Regarding real estate, I’m offering an opportunity for motion.  I’ve done the rationalization that makes for good business.  I’ve done this with the somewhat costly education we received during our multiple offer spree and my subsequent investment of time and money in the Long & Foster real estate course)
 The fact that we were so close so many times is encouraging to me.  I’m disappointed that we didn’t close one deal but we could have.  The market’s different now but that’s also encouraging to me.  Real Estate could be my thing again soon   The market’s definitely cooling off in our area but it’s not cold.
 

This entry was posted on Wednesday, February 15th, 2006 at 8:34 pm and is filed under The Challenge, David's Random Writings. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.