Many of you might be familiar with the concept of Getting to Yes as it relates to negotiation strategy in business. However for many of us, often the more difficult challenge on a day to day basis is “getting to a no”. In other words, the process of deciding what not to do.
As we each have a finite amount of resources (in particular time and money), we must constantly make decisions on how and where to allocate our precious resources. In the context of our work, or even personal lives, we can regularly fall into the trap of saying yes to every request, assignment or event which would initially please the person who made the request. However, taking this approach usually leaves people over-stressed and inundated with things to do or places to be — a lot of which ends up half-finished or forgotten. So in the long run, no one is happy.
Applying this to the context of property investing, the principle is exactly the same, but with much bigger financial stakes. This week Chris and I had a deadline of a few days to analyse and make a decision on what initially seemed like an exciting off market new build opportunity. I think we cycled through the full rollercoaster of emotions on this one from big excitement at the prospect, then caution and conservatism, through hope and optimism it would stack up, then disappointment it may not, back to measured optimism and a maybe, then deflation again and ultimately being objective and unemotionally attached.
In short, we arrived at a No. Although several hours of work and conversation with various advisors across a few days were put into this, it proved to be a super beneficial exercise. Not just in fine tuning our development analysis and opening up new lending contacts, but more importantly in protecting our future time and money.
I’m sure many in the investment community can relate to similar experiences in some shape or form. Either way, we felt that sharing this story may serve as a helpful reminder that sometimes “Getting to a NO” can be as much of a win for the week as “Getting to a YES”.