Effective massive action
I’m writing this to you at a quarterly business mastermind group. The meeting’s location changes every time, and this quarter, it’s in Nashville Tennessee.
On a recent night after the meeting let out, I needed to go to Kroger to pick up some supplies. My GPS said there were three of these stores equidistant from me. Not being familiar with the area, I just picked one and hopped in the truck.
While I was shopping, I witnessed something pretty scary.
After I got everything I needed, I walked up to the front of the store. As I approached the self checkout stations, I remembered one last thing and maneuvered to get it. Right as I did, I heard a sliding sound and turned just in time to see a figure fall to the ground and hit the floor with a sudden thud.
It was a man I guessed to be in his mid to upper 30s.
My normal response to situations like this is to charge in and try to render aid. But by the time I got to the man, there were already two women at his side. One was at his head, and the other was at his side calling 911.
In that moment, I surveyed the scene noting that there was no trip hazard or water on the floor that could’ve caused the fall. I then moved on to inspect the man. His eyes were open, but his body was convulsing. It looked like he was having a seizure.
I told the woman holding him to cradle his head back to make sure his tongue didn’t obstruct his airway, and the other woman began to talk with 911 dispatch.
I realized at this moment that I was of very little use. I didn’t know where I was in Nashville to relay location information to 911, and there isn’t much you can do while someone is having a seizure other than what the lady was already doing. So, I backed away so as not to crowd the two women and congest the scene.
What I needed was right around the corner, so I grabbed it quickly and returned to the self checkout area.
As the scene came back into the view, I heard the head cashier say, “Get the defibrillator,” and I saw a young man who looked to be college age kneel and start performing one-handed chest compression on the guy. There was now a crowd as people tried to help in different ways and gave each other advise on what to do.
It was chaos.
I heard that same cashier ask, “Does anyone know what to do?”
At that time, a retired EMT stepped up and made sure no one tried to shock the guy until EMS got there and took over.
As I drove back to the hotel, I replayed the scene in my mind, slowly analyzing it.
Now, I haven’t taken a CPR class in many years, but what I remember is that if there is no pulse and no breath, you give two rescue breaths before beginning chest compressions. You then alternate between those two.
In my mental replay I never saw anyone check if the man was breathing or if he had a pulse. What I saw was a bunch of well-meaning people who jumped into action to help but, by their own admission, they really didn’t know what to do. They just began chest compressions and looked for a tool used to shock his heart back to beating. That’s dangerous.
The moral here is that action is good, but the wrong kinds of action can be detrimental.
In the real estate investing world, you see people taking massive amounts of action. One of the reoccurring themes at this mastermind event was that different companies are trying to do too many things at once. They are trying to do wholesale deals, trying to do fix and flips and trying to buy and hold single family homes all while pursuing multifamily or storage buildings.
And in trying to do too much, they lose focus, become ineffective and wind up hurting themselves and losing money in the end.
Focus stands for Follow One Course Until Successful. Use that mindset to find one strategy that you can be great at and follow that one course with massive action. This will make your business very effective and ensure your success.
Joe and Ashley English buy houses and mobile homes in Northwest Georgia. For more information or to ask a question, go to www.cashflowwithjoe.com or call Joe at 678-986-6813.